By Manoj JoshiTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Beijing: The acronyms, MUMAor MAMU, are barely known out-side a select group of experts inIndia and China. They stand for‘‘Mutual Understanding andMutual Accommodation’’ and‘‘Mutual Adjustment and Mutu-al Understanding’’, and they’vebeen doing the insider roundsfor decades.

Both were put forward by Chi-nese officials to float the idea ofa package deal that would sup-port China’s claim on Ladakh inexchange for its claims onArunachal Pradesh.

This formula was put forwardby Premier Zhou Enlai in 1960,and repeated by Chinesesupreme leader Deng Xiaoping

in the early 1980s. But the Indianside has consistently refused tobite. Indian officials pointed outthat all it means is that the Chi-nese get Indian territory they oc-cupied between 1950 and 1962,while letting India keep what italways had — the state ofArunachal Pradesh.

But now the Chinese havecome up with a new version ofthis formula. Chinese premierWen Jibao told a group of resi-dent Indian journalists in Bei-jing that the Chinese side standsfor a fair, reasonable and mutu-ally acceptable solution.

This can be found through bi-lateral talks in accordance withthe principles of consultationson an equal footing through mu-tual understanding, mutual ac-commodation and mutual ad-

justment. In short, MUMAMA.Elements of this formula

were put to Prime Minister Vaj-payee in his recent meeting withChinese president Hu Jintao inSt Petersburg, and in the

Chinese official spokesman’sstatements.

What does this new Chineseposture mean? No one is takingany bets, but they do point to theuse of the term ‘‘mutually

acceptable’’ in Chinese state-ments of late.

It could mean that the Chinesehave realised that there is nopoint in prolonging the borderissue with endless rounds ofsterile negotiations, and arewilling to jump-start the processof resolving the matter.

To this end, they are willing togo beyond the Zhou and Dengformula, and toundertake sub-stantive negotiations with Indiaon the vexed western sectorwhere, by Indian understanding,China has occupied severalthousand square kilometres ofIndian territory through mili-tary aggression.

China inches closer on border

CMYK

Venkaiah meets RSS chief:BJP president M Venkaiah Naidumet RSS chief K Sudarshan on Sun-day to brief him about the chintanbaitak that took place in Mumbaiand explain the government’s initia-tive on Ayodhya. The meeting is sig-nificant as an RSS representativewas present at the BJP meet. P11

New Pak envoy: Pakistan’s HighCommissioner designate to IndiaAziz Ahmad Khan will arrive in Indiaon June 30 to take over his newposting while his counterpart, Shiv-shankar Menon, is expected totakeover his posting in Islamabad inthe second week of July. P10

Militants inject poison: In thefirst such incident, militants killed awoman by injecting her with poisonin a village in Poonch district of J&K,official sources said in Jammu.

Scandal in Uttaranchal: Oppo-sition leaders said they would not al-low the state assembly to functionnormally till a five-member Housecommittee probing the former rev-enue minister Harak Singh Rawat’saffair with an unmarried woman ta-bles its report in the House.

Paramhans discharged: MahantRam Chandra Paramhans left for Ay-odhya after he was released fromhospital on Sunday.

Amnesty on Pak: Amnesty Inter-national has came down hard on Is-lamabad’s claim of having curbedmilitancy saying the extremists, whowere banned or detained, were re-leased with days or weeks.

Intruder in Windsor Castle: TheUK government has ordered a probeinto how a man, identified asstandup comedian Aaron Barschak,burst onto the stage at PrinceWilliam’s 21st birthday party atWindsor Castle and snatched a microphone from the prince.

Brazil stay afloat: Brazil kepttheir Confederations Cup hopesalive with a 1-0 win over the UnitedStates in Lyon on Saturday. Adri-ano’s first-half goal saved the WorldCup winners’ blushes after theiropening defeat against Group Bleaders Cameroon. P19

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Solution toAyodhya byJuly 7: Seer

By Swati DasTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: After a meetingwith the Union ministersJaswant Singh and GeorgeFernandes at the KanchiMutt, the KanchiShankaracharya JayendraSaraswati Swami on Sundayhoped ‘‘something wouldcome about by July 7’’ as so-lution to the Ayodhya issue.

While refusing to revealdetails of the proposals hehad sent to the All India Mus-lim Personal Law Board(AIMPLB), he said: ‘‘We arein touch with the Muslim re-ligious leaders and the pro-cess is going on amicably.’’

After the scheduled July 6meeting of the AIMPLB committee, he expected a positive response to his peace initiative. When askedif assurances to the Muslimcommunity on Mathura and Kasi formed part of hispeace formula he said: ‘‘Wewant to resolve the issuepeacefully through a negoti-ated settlement.’’

On the VHP leaders attack-ing his peace mission, theAcharya remarked: ‘‘In ademocracy, everyone had aright to express their views.Let the VHP say what they want.’’

India, Pak willtrack each other

By Chidanand RajghattaTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Washington: Both India andPakistan will have an ear tothe ground and an eye on thefish lens this week as leadersof the two countries visit theUnited States and China, re-spectively their friend andally, at the same time.

India, strategically anddiplomatically more securefor its recent entente with theUS, will, nevertheless, keep aclose watch on whether Wash-ington will put more pressureon Pakistan to curb its mili-taristic policies and adventur-ism in Kashmir as promisedby President Bush.

Far more skeptical of Gen. Musharraf than theBush administration, NewDelhi will also weigh US economic aid to Pakistan andthe passage of military sup-plies to a country India be-lieves is congenitally hostileand neurotic and has wastedits economic lifeline in a futileproxy war.

Judging from the utter-ances of Deputy Prime Minis-ter L K Advani and defenceminister George Fernandes,

Washington has already prepared India for some mod-est arms shipment to Pak-istan, including possibly F-16fighter planes.

Fernandes, who flew a sor-tie in one of India’s newSukhoi fighter jets, told journalists that New Delhi didnot have to worry about US F-16s to Pakistan since it has adequate superiority withthe Sukhois.

India will also watch US ap-proach to Pakistan on the is-sue of troop deployment inIraq. Washington has infor-mally sought Pakistanitroops, but it clearly is more interested in an Indiancommitment given the greaterinternational credibility itcan bring.

Although it has not explicitly stated so, a US invi-tation to Pakistan might re-sult in New Delhi declining togo to Iraq.

Pakistan too is keeping a close watch on Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit toChina, which Islamabad re-gards as its all-weather friend and ally.

PTI

No check on overcharging taxisBy Shubhajit Roy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Autos have been at thereceiving end of consumers’ ire forlong. They have been hounded bythe government and consumergroups alike. Taxis, however, haveescaped this fate and the legal has-sles that come with overcharging.

In the past five years, the Delhigovernment has not prosecuted a single yellow-top taxi and the traffic police have booked just 19taxis this year, till June 15, for over-charging customers.

And it’s not that the taxi-driversgo strictly by the meter rates. Consumer groups say overcharginghas just been ignored by the authorities.

‘‘Taxis charge the passengersmany times the actual fare, butthere hasn’t been a single casewhere they have been brought to

book,’’ said Anil Sood from Chetna,a city consumer group. This despiteDelhi government hiking the faresfrom July 1.

Sample this. Taxis charge aroundRs 200 from the IGI Airport to South Ex when the actual fare is Rs 115. This fare includes the 30 per cent tax that taxis at airportcharge for their presence round-the-clock, says assistant commis-

sioner of police (traffic), R K Jha.However, this does not apply to

taxis at railway stations but taxishere charge as much or more thantaxis at the airports.

‘‘The ride between New Delhi station and Lajpat Nagar shouldcost Rs 73 even after the fare hike,but passengers shell out Rs 150-200,’’ said Gautam Chatterjee, anauthor on traffic issues and a regu-lar taxi-user.

No action has been taken as thetransport department insists that ithas not received any complaints.‘‘We will take action whenever weget complaints,’’ transport commis-sioner Sindhushree Khullar said.

The response of transport minis-ter Ajay Maken has been lukewarmas well. ‘‘The focus of enforcementhas always been autos, and nottaxis. The aspect of overchargingamong taxis and their illegal opera-tion should be looked into,’’ he says.

Now, Taj probe under scannerBy Pervez Iqbal SiddiquiTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow: The Taj Heritage Corri-dor project is set to cause yet anoth-er embarrassment to the UttarPradesh government.

Even though chief ministerMayawati has ordered an inquiry to find out how the construction of a shopping mall behind the Taj was cleared, doubts have been raised over the authority of the IAS officer entrusted with the probe.

The claim of the chief ministerand chief secretary D S Bagga thatthey were totally unaware of theproject all together is also beingtaken with of salt.

The controversy arose soon after the chief minister orderedBagga to probe the matter. Bagga,in turn, deputed principal secre-tary (finance) N C Bajpayee to con-duct the inquiry.

Ironically, the probe has to cover the role of chief secretaryBagga, who has been accused ofclearing the project, and the in-volvement of the finance depart-ment, which Bajpayee heads.

As the project is estimated to beworth Rs 175 crore, it is highly un-

likely that it could have beencleared without the a green signalfrom the finance ministry. The chiefminister herself holds the financeportfolio herself.

What adds credence to allega-tions of foul play is the fact that crores of rupees worth of

contracts for removal of sand have been given by the state government despite the fact thatsuch sand mining is a source of revenue instead of expenditure.And all this has gone unnoticed,sources say.

But Rohit Nandan, the state government’s director (informa-tion), told this reporter: ‘‘We are probing an issue and not an individual. It is only after the in-quiry says that such and such offi-cer is responsible, if at all, that thegovernment will decide a futurecourse of action.’’

Going by service rules, it is an accepted norm in the state administration that any officer assigned to inquire into an issuemust be senior to the official(s)against whom the inquiry is beingconducted.

Bajpayee, an IAS officer of 1972batch, is junior to Bagga, who isfrom the 1967 IAS batch.

The former’s ACR has to be writ-ten by none other than Bagga.

At present only three IAS officersare senior to Bagga and eligible toconduct the probe.

Ajit Ninan

BY GEORGE, THIS IS GOING TO BE SOME RIDE: Defence minister George Fernandes in an anti-gravity suit, accompanied by Wing Commander N S Jamwal ready for a sortie at Lohegaon Air Force Station near Pune on Sunday. (Right) Fernandes in the cockpit of a Sukhoi fighter jet with Jamwal by his side.

• Duststorms with squallslikely in Delhi• Monsoon has advancedover, Gujarat, Maharashtra,Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim• The northern limit of monsoon passed throughBarmer, Ajmer, Bhopal,Nagpur, Jagdalpur,Jamshedpur and Purnia

Kolkata

Mumbai Chennai

Delhi

Sunday,June 22

Rain check

For more go to www.timesofindia.com

Taj project a bad idea: Jagmohan: P11Money, power at play behind mall: P11

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City ReportMultiplicity of authorities leavestraffic in a mess

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Work has stopped,says JagmohanNew Delhi: Union cultureminister Jagmohan on Sundayvisited Agra and found thatwork on the controversial Heritage Corridor project near the Taj Mahal had beensuspended.

His visit to Agra came twodays after he chaired a meetingof Uttar Pradesh governmentofficials and then wrote a letterto UP chief minister Mayawatiasking her to stop the illegalconstruction work.

Talking to this reporter over phone from Agra, Jagmo-han said: ‘‘No constructionwork is taking place for thepast two days.’’ TNN

Talks have beentaking place withChina on this (border) issue andwe want to takethem forward. Weare also focusing

on how to move ahead in otherareas of our relationship.

Time to talk business

•First PM tovisit China in a decade•Ceremonialwelcome todayat historic GreatHall of People •Meeting withPremier Wen Jiabao later inthe day

“

“

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D E L H I The Times of India, New Delhi2 Monday, June 23, 2003

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To chat on SMS send 'cchat' <your question> to 8888

Q. If I want to be-came a model thenwhat is the proce-dure?- l-o-ve4uA: Well, the first

things you have to do is to getyourself a good photographer andthen you need to go and distrib-ute photographs at the agencyand the choreographers. Theagencies are Face to Face, Plat-inum. Joining Elite is another wayof becoming a model nowadays.Q. When compared to International models, how areIndian models different?- fashA: I think, we still have a longway to go. Indian models don'thave great body and flawlesscomplexion. I guess the reason isthat, there is no competition.There you have lot many modelsbut I guess, there are some Indi-

an models who are excellent likeUjwala, Nina and Michelle.Q. Why has the models uniongone bust?- RashiA: Well, I think the Bombay people were more involved thanthe Delhi people. As far as I knowit fizzled out because they couldnot work out on the main points.Q. How to get in touch with coordinators and how long doesit last as a career?- sanj21A: Worldwide it lasts for two tothree years but in India, you canstretch till six years. As far asgetting in touch with coordinators, it is best to send inyour photographs.Q. What does it take to be a perfect model?- astha_meA: A great body, great attitude,great walk and a decent face.

“Indian models don't have great body andflawless complexion” — SAPNA KUMAR, Model

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AYURVEDA

29.06.2003: All India written test for MD (Ay)/ MS (Ay)at BHU, Institute of Medical Sciences,Varanasi (www.bhu.ac.in).

CET

29.06.2003: CET 2003 for 3-years BBA/BCA and 4-year B Optom at West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata (www.wbut.net).

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July ‘2003: Entrance Test for B Tech (Dairy Technology) at Sheth M CCollege of Dairy Science, Anand-388110.

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EXAMINATION ALERT

(This is an indicative guide. The dates may change.)

turningpoint

Night patrol lands300 in jail

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Over 300 were ar-rested on Saturday night,when a team of Delhi Policeofficials went on a specialnight patrol. The night patrolwas supervised by joint com-missioners of police in theirrespective areas. Over 9,000policemen took part in thenight-patrol. About 780 spe-cial pickets were set up for in-tensive checking throughoutDelhi. Over 750 vehicles weremobilised for patrolling.

About 3,603 persons weredetained for verification oftheir antecedents and 12,471vehicles were checked by thepolice teams. About 153 per-sons were booked by the po-lice for loitering in suspi-cious circumstances.

In the pro-active exercise, atotal of 51 habitual offenderswere arrested whereas 2,414alleged criminals were takenup for verification of theirantecedents.

New Delhi: An armed robber was arrested in Ghazipur onSunday soon after he shot at and injured two persons whiletrying to snatch a bag from them.

The accused, Ramesh, fired at Sudhir, an employee of afruit trader, at 1.15 pm and snatched the bag containing Rs550 from him. TNN

Robber injures two in Ghazipur

3 arrestedfor murder

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: With the ar-rest of three persons, theDelhi Police claim to havesolved a case of murderthat was registered on Sat-urday. Guddan, 15, was shotdead in Nabi Karim on Sat-urday.

A team was constitutedunder the Pahar Ganj po-lice. During investigation,they found that three per-sons were responsible forthe killing. Later the ac-cused — Rajesh, Budh Ramand Vijay — were arrestedfor killing Guddan follow-ing an altercation, the po-lice said.

A katta has also beenfound from the accused.The three were earlier in-volved in petty crimes andwere smack addicts.

Noida fakecar filterunit busted

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Noida: The Sector 39 policearrested two persons, in-cluding the owner of a unitmanufacturing fake auto-mobile filters of wellknown brands.

Spurious oil filers, dieselfilters and air filters, fakewrappers of Mico, Leptis,Tata, Telco and otherbrands and machineryworth Rs.10.40 lakh wereseized from the spot.

According to the police,the raid was carried out fol-lowing recent reports oflarge scale manufactureand sale of fake filters. Act-ing on a tip-off, one Raju,alias Asghar of Hoogly, wasarrested at the Sector 37Crossing, on Saturdaynight.

Raju, then led the policeto the manufacturing unit,Jyoti Enterprises, at C-104,sector 9. There, the policearrested the owner, BharatMishra.

‘Mishra,’’ said Sector 39police chief R K Paliwal,‘‘was procuring all thepackages and other requi-sites for his business fromDelhi. He was also sellinghis entire production inDelhi.’’

Mishra reportedly toldthe police that he was au-thorised to make filtersonly of Diamond brand andnot of better knownbrands.Pipe burst: A gas pipelineof Indraprastha Gas Limit-ed burst in Sarojini Nagaron Sunday causing a stam-pede in the area.

The blast, which hap-pened around 10.30 am, wasassumed to be a terroriststrike by residents.

Ensure your kids aresafe while swimming

By Pushpa Girimaji

Young lives are beinglost in tragic and

avoidable circumstanm-ces at swimming pools.The fact that it is hap-pening with unfailingregularity every sum-mer shows the poor en-forcement of safetylaws. It also calls for cit-izens’ involvement in ensuring that swim-ming pools are absolutely safe.

Let Delhi government’s successfulBhagidari schemes be extended to super-vision at swimming poolsby empowered citizens’groups. Swimming poolsshould also be made to dis-play, prominently, the licensing conditionsand the licensing authorities to whomconsumers can complain in case of viola-tions. Of course, safety norms go well be-yond the guidelines formulated by the li-censing authorities. A swimming poolmay have the best of facilities, but in theabsence of safety consciousness in thosewho run it, the facilities would notamount to much. Here, I am reminded of

the case of young Kedar Dole, who died intragic circumstances while learning toswim in a Pune pool.

The National consumer Disputes Re-dressal Commission, listed several acts ofnegligence on the part of those who ranthe swimming classes. (a) The coach hadleft Kedar unattended in the pool. The lifeguards were also not attentive enough toensure Kedar’s safety. (b) there was no netor partition in the pool to prevent learnersfrom entering the deep side of the pool. (c)Even after it was discovered that Kedarwas missing, precious time was lost insearching for him in the bathroom and

elsewhere instead of thepool. (d) After Kedar waspicked up from the bottomof the pool, the instructor

wasted precious time taking him to aroom nearby for first aid. He should havetried to revive him on the side of the poolitself. e) no life saving mechanism wasavailable at the pool site to deal with acci-dents (f). The pool had no contingencyplan and Kedar was first taken to a gener-al practitioner who had no facilities totreat Kedar. By the time he was taken to ahospital, he had died.

CHECK OUT

Two held for snatchingTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The anti-snatching cell of westdistrict police arrested two persons fromthe Paschim Vihar area and claimed tohave busted a gang of robbers.

A new motorcycle, a scooter and twoknives were seized from the accused,Praveen (28) and Gurudev (30), who were al-legedly involved in many cases of snatch-ings and robberies.

The accused had allegedly committed arobbery at Karol Bagh in April and lootedtwo kg gold and Rs 90,000 cash. The policesaid that they had also robbed a person ofRs 51,000 in the Moti Nagar area.

Deputy commissioner of police (west)

Satish Golcha said, ‘‘Praveen is an illiteratebooked in six cases of snatchings and rob-beries. Gurudev used to provide this gangwith motorcycles and mobile phones.’’

In another incident, two ‘‘notorioussnatchers’’ were arrested by the south dis-trict police. A stolen motorcycle and Rs35,000 cash was seized from the accused.

The accused confessed to havingsnatched Rs 50,000 from a person at a petrolpump near Pul Prahaladpur and also thatthey were involved in snatchings inSangam Vihar and Chittaranjan Park insouth Delhi. The police said that one of theaccused, Ramender, was involved in 10 cas-es of snatching and theft.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Two robberieswere solved in the city onSunday. One person was shotin the arm when he tried tostop the accused, Rameshfrom robbing a bag contain-ing Rs 520 from PrakashChand at Ghazipur SubziMandi. The incident tookplace around 1 pm. APCR van noticed aman brandishing acountry made pistol.They overpowered theaccused .

A group of boyswere caught looting aDTC bus conductornear Power House inPitampura at knifepoint. They were tak-ento the Pitampurapolice station.

By Rahul ChhabraTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Getting a build-ing plan sanctioned may getmore people-friendly withthe Municipal Corporation ofDelhi (MCD) proposing tocomputerise its engineeringdepartment.

Online bidding has beenproposed to make the awardof tenders for constructionand maintenance worksmore transparent. Tata Con-sultancy Services (TCS) willprepare a blueprint for the

computerisation of the “cor-rupt” department.

‘‘Property owners will beable to track the status oftheir application on the MCDwebsite. Information willalso be available on tele-phone,’’ said MCD standingcommittee chairman RamBabu Sharma.

According to MCD pressand information officer DeepMathur, the report preparedby the consultants has been

approved by the engineeringdepartment. The new systemis likely to take care of loop-holes in the existing system,he added.

Mathur said a presenta-tion on the proposed systemwas made in front of thestanding committee mem-bers last week. ‘‘A final deci-sion on the implementationof the plan will be taken bythe commissioner soon,’’ headded.

CMYK

D E L H IThe Times of India, New Delhi Monday, June 23, 2003 3

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An MBBS fromAFMC, but aquack on paper

By Nistula HebbarTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: For thousands ofstudents studying in the 187colleges affiliated to the Ma-harashtra University ofHealth Sciences (MUHS), itwas a rude shock to be toldthat they were no better thanquacks.

Students of reputed med-ical colleges in Maharashtralike the Armed Forces’ Med-ical College (AFMC), Puneand the Government MedicalCollege, Nagpur find them-selves facing an uncertain fu-ture as, following a namechange in 1998, they are nolonger recognised by theMedical Council of India(MCI).

At least a hundred stu-dents studying in these col-leges are from Delhi.

‘‘I took admission in NasikMedical College, which wasthen affiliated to Pune Uni-versity. That very year, thestate government decided tomerge Mumbai, Pune andMarathwada University intoMaharashtra University ofHealth Sciences (MUHS),’’said a student.

His counterparts in AFMCand GMC Nagpur have beenrepeatedly assured that theregistration with the MCIwas nearly through.

‘‘Its been five years sincethen, this year we applied forinternships in Delhi hospi-tals and many of us wereturned away for this reason,’’said a student of AFMC.

While an affiliation to theMaharashtra Medical Coun-cil has meant that some havebeen granted internships insome Delhi hospitals likeRam Manohar Lohia andESI, a new fear is plaguingthem.

‘‘The all India entrancetest for post graduates stud-ies are just a few monthsaway, while the AIIMS examis in November, we will notbe eligible for either as ourMBBS degrees will not berecognised,’’ he added.

The MCI on its part clearsitself of all blame. ‘‘The Ma-harashtra governmentshould have applied to us be-fore unilaterally deciding tomerge the three universi-ties,’’said MCI deputy secre-tary A S Nayyar. ‘‘We too donot want to make the stu-dents suffer,’’ he added.

‘‘On May 24, this year, weforwarded the application tothe ministry, the matter isprobably pending at the min-istry level,’’ he added.

There has been no re-sponse from the ministry sofar. ‘‘We are living on bor-rowed time, we can’t even re-veal our names to you as weare scared that the hospitalswe are interning with willdiscontinue our internshipwith them,’’ said a student in-terning at an ESI hospital inwest Delhi.

PTI

A huge stone idol of Lord Shiva has been placed temporarily on Baba Kharak Singh Marg before being installed in a temple in the city, on Sunday.

MCD proposes online bids

HC pulls up government,AIIMS for ‘negligence’

By Sachin ParasharTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Delhi HighCourt has issued notices tothe Delhi government and tothe All India Institute ofMedical Sciences(AIIMS) af-ter hearing a petition seekingcompensation for the deathof a doctor who died in thehospital’s swimming pool.

Justice A K Sikri sought areply — on why the compen-sation demanded in the peti-tion should not be paid — be-fore August 5, 2003.

The petition filed by a rela-tive of the victim through hiscounsel Atul Nigam had de-manded Rs 57 lakh as com-pensation. The Delhi govern-ment was represented by itscounsel Meera Bhatia. Thepetition alleged that Dr G KChaubey, who had earlierworked with the Indian navy,died in the studentsgymkhana swimming poolmaintained by AIIMS. Thelifeguard was busy watching

a cricket match in the nearbyTV room. The petition fur-ther alleged that illumina-tion was poor at the swim-ming pool.

The victim, who was thehead of the forensic sciencedepartment at Safdarjunghospital, died on May 26,1999. At the time of the inci-dent, AIIMS did not have a li-cence for a swimming pool.The hospital managed to pro-cure one after some timethough.

The victim’s family hadfiled an FIR stating that

search was initiated forChaubey’s body only afterhis daughter cried for help.The body was found sub-merged at the deep end of thepool.

The petitioner claimedthat the report filed by theAIIMS department of foren-sic medicine stated that thevictim was not sufferingfrom any illness and that hislife could have been saved ifprovided with artificial re-suscitation in time. Appar-ently, there was no life savingapparatus to save peoplefrom drowning when the in-cident took place. Under theswimming pools licensingand controlling regulations,the pool authorities must de-ploy lifeguards and providelife saving gear.

The petition sought prose-cution of Delhi government,AIIMS and the lifeguard,Yashwant Tokas, for negli-gence and failing in their‘‘mandatory and statutoryduties.’’

Man preventstheft, gets shot

Affiliated to MaharashtraUniversity of MedicalSciences:

•Medical colleges 34

•Dental colleges 21

•Ayurvedic colleges 52

•Unani Colleges 6

•Homeopathic colleges 43

•Allied Medical Science(physiotherapy etc) 31

Total 187

Recognised?

• Close to 100 swim-ming pools in city areoperating without licence

• A 15-year-old boydrowned in the PunjabiBagh Club in the pres-ence of lifeguards

• Rules say every poolmust have an instructor

Pool travails

Man throws acid on family TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: A 60-year-oldman threw acid on sevenmembers of his family fol-lowing a quarrel in northeastDelhi area on Sunday. ‘‘RamSingh, the accused, was an al-coholic and had been thrownout of the family about fouryears ago,’’ a police officer

said. He had been living onthe railway tracks after beingevicted from his Gautam-puri, Seelampur, home.

As Singh nursed grudgesagainst the family, he cameon Sunday afternoon andthrew acid on the members,including his wife, a five-year-old boy and his brother-in-law, the police said.

His wife, Tulsa Devi (55),and brother-in-law, Usman-pur-based Nemchand, are un-dergoing treatment at GuruTegh Bahadur Hospital.Nemchand’s son Saurabhand daughter Radha, bothaged 10, and another relative,Shailender, have been dis-charged after treatment fromSt Stephen’s hospital.

O N RoySenior executivewith a private com-pany

The traffic situa-tion is getting worseby the day. Every ve-hicle strives to

speed past the red lights so thatthere is tremendous congestion atthe crossings. This leads to trafficjams in major roads. Police preferto turn a blind eye to the plightof the people.

Roy MathewWorks with a compa-ny in Vasant Kunj

The traffic con-gestion is visiblemost at the junc-tions. The busesnever ply in an or-

derly fashion. They over-take each other and don’tply on the bus lanes.These problems makethe roads chaotic. Thereckless auto srivers add

to the commotion.Pedestrians are themost harassed.Sachin GuptaJanakpuri resident

Increasing num-ber of vehicleshas made things

difficult. It’s time thetraffic police did some-thing about it instead offilling own poc-kets. Wesuffer in silence asthere’s no alternative

Benu KapoorPaschim Vihar

residentThere are traffic

snarls throughoutthe day, everyday.There are no peakhours. People are

seen shouting and cursing, butto no avail. There are so manyincidents of road rage happen-ing all over the city. But nothingseems to jolt authori-ties into action.

Nidhi GoswamiDilshad GardenDigging of roads

by civic agenciescreates chaos for thecity traffic. Mishapsand conflicts arecommon near such

sites. The civic agencies shoulddo advance planning, along withthe traffic police to prevent such ac-cidents and make roads safer.

CMYK

D E L H I The Times of India, New Delhi4 Monday, June 23, 2003

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BANGKOK/TOKYO: ThaiAir 0010 (TG-316), I-A0050 (IC-855) FRANKFURT: Lufthansa0305 (LH-761) AMSTERDAM: KLM0140 (KL-472) LONDON/NEW YORK:British Air 0210 (BA-142), A-I 0715 (AI-111) PARIS: Air France 0040(AF-147) SINGAPORE: Sin’poreAirlines 2315 (SQ-407), I-A 0050 (IC-855) HONG KONG/SEOUL: A-I 2340 (AI-312) ROME/MANCHESTER:A-I 0300 (AI-131)

MUMBAI: 0315 (AI755), 0345 (AI 156),0615 (AI 146), 2330 (AI112) GOA: 1245 (AI 643)

WEATHERRain or thundershowers are likely to occur at manyplaces in Arunachal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Ma-nipur, Mizoram, Tripura, WB, Sikkim, Orissa, Jharkahnd,Bihar, West MP, Gujarat, Konkan and Goa, madhya Ma-

harashtra, Marathwada, Karnataka, Kerala and Laskahdweep; at afew places in Andaman and Nicobar islands, UP, Uttranchal, East MP,Vidarbha, Chattisgarh,AP and TN and at isolated places over the restof the country.

Max Min

INDIA

Guwahati 37 25 Dehradun 33 — H’bad 36 24 Indore 29 22 Jaipur 35 87 Lucknow 39 — Patna 38 — Rajkot 36 27 Shimla 28 17 Srinagar 27 16

FLIGHTS OUTOF DELHI

Mumbai: I-A 0700,0800, 0900, 1200, 1300,1700, 1800, 1900, 2000,2300 Jet Air 0650,0800, 0935, 1400, 1725,1935, 2030, 2200,Sahara 1700, 0935,1520, 1800, 2025KOLKATA: I-A 0700,1600★★ ,1700,1945Jet Air 0600, 1720,Sahara 0620,1915CHENNAI: I-A0640,0955★★★1645,1900 Jet Air0645,1900BANGALORE:I-A 0650, 1645, 1900Jet Air 0635,1715,Sahara 0725, 1745HY’BAD:I-A 0630, 1745GOA: I-A 1200,Sahara 1200 KULU: Jagson 0630,0650, 1215 ★AHMEDABAD:I-A 0600,1700★★ 1845,Jet Air 0610 GUWAHATI—BAGDOGRA:I-A 0555★★ , 1010•★ Jet Air 1010

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

AIR INDIA

Ph: I-A:140,142. ★ Mon, Wed,Fri, ★★ Tue, Thu, Sat, ★★★Mon-Fri, Sun, Jet Air: (City)6853700, (Airport) 25665404Sahara: (City) 2335901-9,(Airport) 25675234/875, (Tele-Checkin) 25662600. • Mon, Fri.

A-I: (City)23736446 /47/48(Air.)25652050, British Air:(Air.) 25652908, Lufthansa:23323310, Singapore Airlines23356286, Thai Air: 3323638

TRAIN RESERVATIONS

No. of passengers dealt on 21.06.2003 (Delhi Area): 49,972 (N. Rly. Area)2,25,131. It does not necessarily mean that reservation is available on allsubsequent dates. For further information regarding reservation: Ph: 131 forcomputerised PNR, for status enquiry contact 1330, 1335, 1345.

(Information supplied by Indian Railways)

Earliest date on which berth / seats were available at 1400 hrs. on22.06.2003 in important trains leaving various Delhi stations.

Train No. Train / Exp / Mail 1 ac 2 ac Ac 3t SlNORTH4033 Jammu Mail 25.06 30.06 07.07 01.074645 Shalimar Exp — 16.07 15.07 01.072403 Jammu Exp 30.06 09.07 13.07 15.07EAST2302 Kolkata Rajdhani 23.06 24 .06 27.06 —2304 Poorva Exp 25.06 25.06 26.06 09.072382 Poorva Exp 23.06 27.06 30.05 14.072312 Kalka Mail N.A. 24.06 11.07 14.072392 Magadh Exp N.A. 30.06 30.06 29.062402 Shramjeevi Exp — 24.06 26.06 24.062418 Prayag Raj Exp 25.06 23.06 28.06 26.064056 Brahmputra Mail — N.A. 21.07 19.075622 North East Exp — 07.07 17.07 21.072554 Vaishali Exp 23.06 03.07 03.07 02.072816 Puri Exp — 26.06 02.07 26.062802 Purshottam Exp — 07.07 07.07 29.068476 Neelanchal Exp — 01.07 04.07 27.064230 Lucknow Mail 26.06 30.06 04.07 02.07WEST2904 Golden Temple Mail 25.06 29.06 02.06 04.072926 Paschim Exp 28.06 01.07 03.07 12.072952 Mumbai Rajdhani 29.06 30.06 30.06 —2954 AG Kranti Rajdhani 23.06 26.06 30.06 —2474 Sarvodaya Exp — 03.07 03.07 26.061078 Jhelum Exp — 09.07 07.07 14.072916 Ashram Exp 26.06 02.07 02.07 27.06SOUTH2616 G T Exp 25.06 30.06 03.07 29.062622 Tamil Nadu Exp 25.06 30.06 07.07 24.062432 Trivandrum Raj 06.07 15.07 08.07 —2626 Kerala Exp — 30.06 26.06 26.062618 Mangala Exp — 08.07 07.07 29.062628 Karnataka Exp — 06.07 07.07 24.062724 A P Exp 28.06 03.07 07.07 01.072430 Banglore Rajdhani 30.06 14.07 14.07 —7022 Dakshin Express — 29.06 — 24.06

Max MinDelhi 36 27 Mumbai 32 28 Chennai 39 29 Kolkata 31 26 Bangalore 28 19 Ahm’bad 35 27 T’puram 30 23 Bhopal 32 29 B’eshwar 34 26 Pune 27 24

WORLDMax Min

Amsterdam 22 07Bahrain 32 16 Bangkok NA NA Beijing NA NA Chicago 22 07Geneva 32 16 Hong Kong 31 27 London 22 29 Los Angeles 20 16 Moscow 17 03

Beware of stomachand eye infections

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Feeling happy overthe wet spell in the city? Delhiitesmay have just exchanged the dan-ger of being felled by heatstrokefor a host of other diseases. Ac-cording to doctors, the wet weatheris perfect for viruses and bacteriasto breed. ‘‘Humid weather is veryconducive for all sorts of viral andbacterial growth,’’ says Dr UmeshKapil, gastroenterology and hu-man nutrition specialist at AIIMS.

At various hospitals and clinics,certain diseases have alreadystarted making an appearence.These include gastroenteritis, vi-ral fever, viral hepatitis A, Ty-phoid, conjunctivitis and fungalinfections of the skin.

According to Dr MahipalSachdeva, of the Centre for Sight,conjunctivitis season has begunfor Delhi. ‘‘The moment it turnedhumid, you can be sure that con-junctivitis will hit the city, a fewcases have already started appear-ing’’ he said.

In summer, the dry spell leads toa condition called spring catarhhwhile the wet weather leads to the

familiar red eye conjunctivitis. Itsa no-win situation for Delhiitesthen. ‘‘In fact in Delhi, the situa-tion reaches epidemic proportionsbecause of clustering,’’ he adds.Eye infections are not the only in-fectious diseases to hit Delhi,much worse are fungal infectionsof the skin.

‘‘Fungal infections of the skinare big in this season, especially ifyou are a regular user of publicswimming pools, or do not dryyourself properly after a bath,’’says Dr Tarun Sahni, consultant,internal medicine, Apollo Hospi-tal. ‘‘This moist yet warm weatheris a fertile breeding ground ofviruses too. One has already seen aleap of about 40 per cent in cases ofviral fever compared to other sea-sons this year,’’ he says.

The most problematic areathough is the stomach. Accordingto Dr Umesh Kapil, much of Del-hi’s water pipes suck in contami-nated rain water into the supplymains due to negative pressure.‘‘Most cholera, typhoid and viralhepatitis A cases occur in thisweather,’’ he adds.

Traffic snarls, police whistle in the darkBy Shubhajit Roy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Roads, like mir-rors reflect society. In Delhi,this is markedly true as an-archy on roads is om-nipresent.

Delhi’s 39 lakh vehicles,racing at 50 km per hour, onthe 26,000 km roads havespelt chaos. Transport ex-perts say the entire conun-drum is due to absolute fail-ure of coordination betweenagencies.

‘‘Traffic management isnobody’s baby. None of theagencies have a clear and de-fined role,’’ says Rohit Balu-ja, chief of Institute of RoadTraffic Education (IRTE).

For smooth functioning oftraffic, Delhi has six differ-ent agencies, the traffic po-lice, the transport depart-ment, DDA, MCD, PWDand NDMC.

All roads, flyovers,bridges, subways are divid-ed between them. There isno unified body where theyall sit and discuss problems.‘‘Massive traffic jamsafter rains are due to com-plete breakdown of coordi-nation,’’ said Gautam Chat-terjee, an author on trafficissues.

‘‘Dug-up roads, chokeddrains, potholes and mini-mal streetlighting are ram-pant. All this calls for imme-diate attention through a

high-level agency,’’ saidBaluja.

Head of transport plan-ning in School of Planningand Architecture (SPA), A KSharma said, ‘‘The propos-als for a unified authority ontraffic management is be-ingmooted for the past twodecades. But they havenot found favour with theauthorities.’’

The chaos is aggravatedby mixed traffic flow, rang-ing from cattle and horses totrucks and cars. ‘‘There al-most 50 modes of trans-portatio, a mix of slow-mov-ing and fast moving vehi-cles. This spells conflicts,from minor scuffles to majoraccidents.’’

There are over 1,800 fatalaccidents every year. ‘‘Thetraffic police, with about3,500 personnel, is unable tomanage traffic all over thecity,’’ said S M Sareen, for-mer head of road safety atCRRI.

Even traffic police offi-cials admit that personnelcannot man all 700 sig-

nalised junctions in the city.‘‘About 700 to 1,000 of themare detailed in the VIP routeduties and administrativework,’’ an official said.

The problem is com-pounded as Delhiites lackthe culture of defensive

driving on the city roads.‘‘The city has been seeing anincrease in the road rage in-cidents,’’ Baluja said.

Across the globe, the firstreports of road rage wereseen in United States in1920s, when the drivers

honked and ‘‘showered a vol-ley of expletives’’ at the fel-low road-users.

Touted as the ‘‘Mad Dri-ver’s Disease’’, incidents ofroad-rage are the outcome of‘‘short periods of irrational-ity due to discomfort’’. ‘‘The

impaired judgment by thesedrivers lead to such inci-dents,’’ says Sareen.

He points out:‘‘Heat is anescalating factor’’, whichleads to incidents of roadsrage.

Explains Chatterjee, anauthor on road safety,‘‘Bothman and machine arestressed. This is evident inthe behaviour of motorists,cyclists and pedestrians, es-pecially in the height ofsummer.’’

Studies, conducted in theScandinavian countries likeFinland and Denmark, evensuggest that,‘‘People whoare failures in their person-al lives and those have lowlevels of occupational satis-faction are the ones who getenraged on the roads.’’

Sareen adds:‘‘For them,the car or the vehicle givesthem a sense of personalspace. And when they feel itbeing challenged or en-croached, either actually ormetaphorically, they reacton the roads.’’

Vajpayee, present head ofroad safety at CRRI, feelsthat the upper middle classand the upper class thinksthat they are the supremeand are the ones to get en-raged on the roads more eas-ily. Sareen agrees,‘‘For theyoung d the neo-rich, the be-hind-the-wheel syndromegives a sense of power.’’

Crime and punishment

Offence 2002 2003

Jumping signals 4,79,167 1,51,461 Overspeeding 1,61,365 56,633 Improper parking 4,50,210 1,31,903 Dangerous driving 49,574 17,696 Stop line crossing 1,37,772 53,045 Defective number plates 2,71,733 1,12,689

Offence 2002 2003

Not wearing seat-belts 2,05,453 1,00,453 Wrong overtaking 14,056 4,752 Using mobile phones 6,722 5,055 Without driving licence 8,219 3,769 Without helmet 2,54,673 1,11,089 Playing loud music 7,125 2,163

(Till June 15, 2003)

PEOPLETALK

Driver crushed under own vehicleTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: In a freak incident, a truck driver was crushedunder his own vehicle while he was carrying out repairs,lying under it.

Subhash Chand, the driver, was killed around 5.30 am afterhis oil tanker truck broke down on the GT Road inShahdara. Delhi Fire Service personnel were called in toextricate his body from under the truck. The police areinvestigating the case.

Bodyfound indrain:New Delhi:The bodyof a 13-year-oldwas foundin a drain inMadanpurKhadar vil-lage nearSarita Viharon Sunday.The boyhad slip-ped intothe drainon Satur-day. Firepersonnel broughtout hisbody at10.30 amonSunday.TNN

‘Chaotic intersections, a perpetual menace in city’

Increased vehicle pressure, reckless driving and erratic digging are just some problems

CMYK

D E L H IThe Times of India, New Delhi Monday, June 23, 2003 5

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Sewer system fails to deliverBy Rahul Chhabra

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The city’sdrainage system is seriouslysick. It fails almost everytime it is put to test duringrains.

A deluge of waterloggingcomplaints from across thecity after Thursday’s rain ex-posed MCD’s claims about itsaction plan for tackling theproblem.

Chairman of MCD’sStanding Committee, RamBabu Sharma said: ‘‘Thedrainage system is capable ofhandling drizzles and shortspells of rain. But if it rainsheavily and suddenly, thetime taken by the water toclear gets longer and waterstagnates in some low-lyingareas.’’

Poor maintenance: Inad-equate desiltation and prepa-ration of drains before mon-soon is the biggest hurdle insmooth discharge of rain wa-ter. ‘‘ Till date only 130 drainshave been desilted complete-ly. Work on 640 drains is stillpending,’’ said leader of op-position and BJP leader, Sub-hash Arya.

Even in those areas wherethe drainage system is ade-quate to handle the pressure,poor maintenance oftenleads to flooding. For exam-ple, water-logging in Azad-pur and Wazirpur industrialareas have continued be-

cause of a blockage in twopipes under the railway line.Sandhu said: ‘‘We are on thejob. One of the pipe will beopened by next week.’’

The MCD is likely to com-

plete desiltation of all itsdrains almost two weeks af-ter monsoon is scheduled tohit the city.

Aging drainage system:Urbanisation has reduced

percolation into the ground.As a result of the construc-

tion of roads and an increasein concrete coverage incolonies the volume of rainwater has gone up.

‘‘The drainage system inthe city was not designed tohandle the modern dayload,’’ said MCD’s sanitationdepartment chief, K S Sand-hu.

‘‘Almost the entire rain wa-ter in the city gets dischargedin the Yamuna,’’said a MCDofficial.

The belt of water-loggingprone areas along the Yamu-na includes Model Town,Timarpur, Rajghat, LaxmiNagar, Shahdara, TilakBridge, Mathura Road, Bha-iron Marg, Nizamuddin,Ashram and Badarpur.

Bad engineering:Clogged sewers’ waste is di-verted to rain drains thuscausing overflow and reduc-ing their capacity to carryrain water.

MCD commissioner,Rakesh Mehta, said: ‘‘In Westand Central zones, there areseveral instances whereagencies maintaining sewershave diverted the waste intorain water drains.’’

The problem is more se-vere in the New Delhi areawhere major roundabouts,like the one near Parliament,get flooded every year duringheavy downpour.

1 held in Pandav NagarNew Delhi: The west district policehas arrested Pandav Nagar resi-dent Dharamvir in connection withan attempt to murder case.

The accused along with hisbrothers Hansraj and Mahesh havebeen charged with forcing entry into the residence of Jaya Banerjeeon June 14 and beating her up bru-tally, according to DCP Nazhat Has-san. TNN

2 held for theftNew Delhi: East dis-trict’s special staff hasarrested two peopleBaljeet Singh, 22 yearsand Hitender Nau-tiyal, 25 years andrecovered a motor cy-cle.

The motor cycle hadbeen stolen from thearea under the juris-diction of DilshadGarden police stationon June 17. TNN

Pvt help sought for cleaning drainsBy Saurabh Sinha

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: For the first timeever, the Delhi Jal Board(DJB) has hired a privateagency to clear sewer lines inthe city.

By doing so, it has virtual-ly admitted that the systemwas not running well earlier,which is why, even a shortspell of rain left the city wa-terlogged.

The problem is compound-ed by the fact that DJB’s sew-er lines are interconnectedwith the storm water drainsmaintained by the civic agen-cies in more than half of Del-

hi. ‘‘The city is practically de-pendent only on a single setof pipelines which makes itnecessary for the existingsewer lines to be cleaned aswell to prevent waterlog-ging,’’ a DJB official said.

‘‘Earlier we used buy ‘jet-ting machines’ for clearingsewers and run them our-selves. But this time we de-cided to give the job out oncontract basis so that it canbe done efficiently,’’ said DJBchief P K Tripathi.

The private agency hasbought 12 jetting machines,that come for about Rs 25lakh a piece, and five of themare already operational. The

rest will be pressed into serv-ice by next week.

‘‘Unlike us, the contractorwill benefit only if he runsthe machines constantly.Since he will be paid on thebasis of the actual workdone, he will keep asking us

where to go all the time. Thiswould mean a complete re-versal of the present systemwhere we have to be after ourstaff to go out and work,’’said a DJB source.

The private machines havealready cleared some chokedsewer lines in New FriendsColony and South Extension.Tripathi said it would takeabout a year to clear the 6,000km sewer lines in the city.

‘‘Unlike previous years,the heavy rains last week didnot flood the street in front ofour house. The water kept go-ing down the manhole,’’ saidRavi Gulati, a resident ofSouth Extension.

TOI

A sewer pipe being cleaned in preparation for the monsoonin New Delhi.

•No of drains: 1,166

•Desilting cost: Rs 16 cr

• Low-lying spots: 115

• Pumping stations: 83

• Emergency pumps:252

Drainage data

CMYK

The Times of India, New Delhi6 Monday, June 23, 2003

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Monday, June 23, 2003 7The Times of India, New Delhi

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CMYK

The Times of India, New Delhi8 Monday, June 23, 2003

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CMYK

I N D I AThe Times of India, New Delhi Monday, June 23, 2003 9

Trishul test-firedsuccessfullyBalasore: India’s most so-phisticated short range mis-sile Trishul was successfullytest-fired from the IntegratedTest Range at Chandipur,about 15 km from here onSunday.

Indigenously developed bythe DRDO, the surface-to-airmissile, Trishul, was testfired from a mobile launcherat about 1400 hours.

The solid fuel-propelledmissile has a triple battle-field role for the Army, AirForce and Navy and has arange of 500 metres to ninekilometres with the capacityof carrying a 15 kg warhead. PTI

Buddhist temple beckons PMNew Delhi: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will com-bine diplomacy with devotion while visiting Luoyang in Chi-na’s Hunan district. In Luoyang, he will visit the White HorseTemple, which has direct links with India.

The first batch of Buddhist preachers to China, Kashyapa,Matanga and Dharmaratna had stayed in the temple, the firstBuddhist temple in China. It was built in 68 BC. TNN

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PTI

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee being greeted by a little girl on his arrival at Beijing international airport on Sunday.

India Inc lusts for China pie

By Manoj JoshiTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Beijing: The government istreading warily on the mine-field of India’s tangled politicalrelations with China but thebusiness community is fallingover each other in seeking busi-ness opportunities in China.

Sample the Ficci vs CII race topromote Sino-Indian trade andinvestment. Ficci first estab-lished official links with theChina Council for the Promo-tion of International Trade(CCPIT) in 1985. It followed it upwith an office in Beijing.

So, when the PM’s pro-gramme was decided, Ficci gotthe pride of place by having himdeliver the keynote address at aChina-India business meetinghere on Tuesday. Ficci will alsorepresent the country in the In-dia-China Joint Business Coun-cil meeting later in the evening,where the keynote address willbe delivered by external affairsminister Yashwant Sinha.

Ficci , along with Nasscomand CCPIT, will be involved inpromoting Indian IT industry ata meeting, where Arun Shouriewill deliver the keynote address.

CII, too, has come up with itsown high-voltage programme ofactivities led by its president,Anand Mahindra, and a 40-member delegation. The 25-member Ficci delegation is ledby its senior vice-president Y KModi. The highlight of the CIIshow will be the inauguration of

its new country office in Chinain Shanghai. CII officials saytheir main focus is the ‘‘Made inIndia’’ exhibition and India-Chi-na Hi-Tech show from October16-19 in Beijing. The aim ofthese shows is to promote Indi-an products and companies.

Several Indian companieshave already established them-selves in China. Companies likeRanbaxy, Aurobindo Pharmaand Dr Reddy’s have beenaround for quite some time.

Essel Packaging has invested$40 million in four factories andSundaram Fasteners is settingup a $12.5-million plant. TheAditya Birla group has a major-ity stake in a carbon black com-pany. But the biggest Indian ex-ports are in steel with Sail, TataSteel and Ispat leading the pack.TCS runs a development centreand NIIT has 112 computertraining centres in the country.

More than investment, Indiancompanies are now seeing Chi-na as a market for its goods.

•Indian companies seeChina as a new market

•Ficci, CII are promotingIndia in a big way

•Ficci established officialslinks in 1985 and has an office in Beijing

•CII, too, has opened anew office in Shanghai

Business trip

Pak envoy toreach Indiaon June 30Islamabad: Pakistan’sHigh Commissioner desig-nate to India Aziz AhmadKhan will leave for Indiaon June 30 to take over hisnew posting.

Aziz Khan is likely to ar-rive in New Delhi on June30, Pakistan’s InformationMinister Sheikh Rashidtold reporters here on Sat-urday night. Aziz Khanhimself was not availableto confirm the date.

His counterpart, Shiv-shankar Menon, is expect-ed to takeover his postinghere in second week ofJuly. Menon will relin-quish his present post asIndia’s Ambassador toChina soon. Earlier, Azizhad hinted that he plannedto go by the first bus to In-dia if the two countriesmanaged to restore theservice by that time. PTI

By Rakesh BhatnagarTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: It’s a shamethat even after 56 years ofindependence, women inthe country are being dis-criminated against.

Article 14 of the Consti-tution provides that no citi-zen shall be discriminatedagainst on the basis ofcaste, creed, sex, religionetc.

However, though dis-crimination in various ar-eas is rampant, it’s not uni-form.

The reason is that its ori-gin lies in interpretation ofvarious laws in completedisregard to the provisionsof the Constitution.

Otherwise, why shouldthere be any discrimina-tion at all, when the Consti-tution provides against thesame?

At a recent seminar on‘‘Women’s Property Rights:A Gender Perspective’’, or-ganised by the Times Foun-dation in collaborationwith the CARE India andIndian Institute of PublicAdministration, law minis-ter Arun Jaitley admittedthat certain laws did vio-late the Fundamental

Rights.Jaitley also said that

though the Constitutionguaranteed equality in allrespects, there were aberra-tions, which must be doneaway with.

Needless to say that laws,which aim at empoweringthe vulnerable sections ofthe society, must be imple-mented along the provi-sions of the Constitutionand the directive principlesof state policy.

While legal recourse canbe taken to enforce the Fun-

damentalR i g h t s ,the im-p l e m e n -tation ofdirective

principles solely dependson the political will.

Despite the SupremeCourt’s recommendation tothe Centre that it evolve auniform civil code in orderto do away with the injus-tices meted out to membersof some religious commu-nities, various govern-ments have been draggingtheir feet on the issue.

The ruling parties havemaintained that such acode requires a consensusamong all political partiesand religious groups.

Admittedly, amendmentto laws relating to a religion

is a tough process. Jaitley,however, feels that the re-moval of aberrations in theHindu law could serve as anexample for the minoritycommunity.

Similarly, the issue ofproviding 33 per cent reser-vation to women in Parlia-ment and legislative assem-blies has led to much badblood. The political partiesseem to have their ownreservations on the issue.

While the question of en-acting a legislation for al-lowing women to becomelaw-makers is debatable,there is no bar on politicalparties for allocating afixed number of seats towomen candidates duringelections.

Women in greater num-bers must be allowed to par-ticipate in the law-makingprocess.

This will help plug theloopholes in various lawsrelating to property, inheri-tance and other areas.

One must not forget thatdemocracy — particularlyparliamentary democracy— flourishes on popular ex-periments.

Mistakes can always becorrected. But there shouldnot be any mistake in un-derstanding the fact thatdiscrimination has noplace in good governance.

CMYK

I N D I A The Times of India, New Delhi10 Monday, June 23, 2003

Discrimination has noplace in democracies

AFP

Former Pakistani president and parliamentarian Farooq Leghari (right) uses his mobilephone to click a picture of Indian MP Kuldip Nayyar (left) and his colleagues during theirvisit to the Pakistani Parliament in Islamabad on Sunday.

LEGALVIEW

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We have Sukhois tomatch F-16s: GeorgePune: India has no reason to worry even ifthe United States goes ahead with its plan tosell ‘offensive’ aircraft like F-16 to Pakistan, asNew Delhi has Sukhois to match Islamabad’sair power, Defence minister George Fernan-des said here on Sunday.

“First, the US has denied the report thatthey are intending to sell F-16 to Pakistan,” hetold reporters. “Secondly, even if we assumethat they are going to sell it, we need not haveany reason to worry about it as we have ourown best aircraft”, he said. PTI

CMYK

I N D I AThe Times of India, New Delhi Monday, June 23, 2003 11

High alert in Jammu region: Security agencies have warnedof major terrorist offensives in Doda, Rajouri and Poonch areas ofJammu region and Shopian area of Kashmir Valley as more than90 per cent of terrorists hiding in the Hill Kaka region have report-edly fled to these regions to escape the Army’s Sarp Vinash oper-ation. Intelligence agencies have submitted a report stating thatmilitants fled to nearby Darhal, Thana Mandi in Rajouri and areasof Doda in Jammu region and to Shopian in the Valley. PTI

After chintan,Venkaiah triesto pacify RSSleadership

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: In an effort toplacate an angry RSS, BJPpresident M Venkaiah Naidumet the outfit’s chief K Su-darshan on Sunday to briefhim about the chintanbaithak in Mumbai and ex-plain the government’s ini-tiative on Ayodhya.

The four-day brainstorm-ing session, which ended onJune 20, was attended by topBJP leaders, including PrimeMinister Vajpayee andDeputy PM Advani. Amongthe issues that were dis-cussed were the timing of thenext Lok Sabha elections andthe party’s ties with the BSPin UP.

Sunday’s meeting, whichlasted for almost two hours,is significant as Naidu madethis special effort to meet Su-darshan for a personal brief-ing even though Madan DasDevi — who is in-charge ofBJP in the RSS — was amongthose who participated in thedeliberations at Mumbai.

The RSS and the otherSangh outfits, like the VHP,have been critical of the BJPleadership for its handling ofthe Ayodhya issue.

Apparently upset overthe Centre’s move to in-volve the KanchiShankaracharya in resolv-ing the Ayodhya tangle, theRSS chief reportedlyasked Naidu to ensure thepassage of a legislationproviding for the construc-tion of a Ram Temple.

Naidu conveyed the gov-ernment’s inability to getsuch a law passed as theNDA does not have the req-uisite numbers in Parlia-ment. Sudarshan also saidKashi and Mathura werenon-negotiable.

Taj project a badidea: Jagmohan

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Agra: Welcomingthe Uttar Pradeshgovernment’s deci-sion to stop work onthe Taj heritage cor-ridor, Uniontourism and cultureminister Jagmohansaid the orders byhis ministry couldnot be construed asa direct interfer-ence of the Centre

in the autonomy of the state govern-ment. He said if allowed the projectwould have ruined one of the world’smost beautiful tourist spots.

Jagmohan, who visited the AgraFort and the Taj Mahal on Sunday, lat-er told reporters that his ministrycame to know about the project onlyafter a story on the issue appeared inthe front page of the Sunday Times ofIndia.

He denied that the Central govern-ment had been a passive spectator forthe past 11 months when the work onthe heritage corridor was going on.

Jagmoham said the constructionwas an act of ‘‘statutory violation’’ ofthe Archaeological Monuments andSites Act. No permission was takenfrom the Central Water Commissionbefore the commencement of thework, he said.

He was ‘‘pleased to note’’ that theUP government had ‘‘kindly agreed tostop the construction work and also

instituted an inquiry”.Asked about who would foot the bill

of about Rs 30 crore for the construc-tion so far, Jagmohan said: ‘‘Remedialaction would be taken on the basis ofthe inquiry instituted by the UP government.’’

This is no water park, but a battlegroundPTI

High waves crash into Valiyathura bridge in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. During the monsoon,fishermen use the bridge to launch their boats. Meanwhile, the flood situation has worsened in certain parts of the country with 35 villages being washed away in Orissa in a day.

CBI findsJogi toughnut to crackNew Delhi: The CBI isfinding it difficult to getto the source of a letteron the basis of whichChhattisgarh CM AjitJogi had charged the IBwith having launchedan operation againsthim, because of an ap-parent contradiction inhis statements.

Jogi told the CBI thatit was while travellingin an aircraft that hehad seen documents ofthe ‘‘special direc-torate’’ of the bureauabout alleged ‘‘blacksea’’ operation againsthim. Earlier this week,Jogi told CBI he had re-ceived by post the docu-ments indicating an al-leged inquiry into hisassets by IB.

However, when Jogiwas asked to handoverthe postal envelope con-taining this document,he said that it was pres-ent in his ‘‘dak file’’ andhe saw it in the aircraftwhile on an officialengagement. PTI

Money, power atplay behind mall

By Akshaya MukulTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Despite Union cul-ture minister Jagmohan’s assur-ance that the construction worknear the Taj Mahal has stopped,sources in the ASI and the cultureministry say that ‘‘the current sus-pension is just a temporary re-prieve since a lot of money and po-litical power is at stake’’.

An official said, ‘‘The corridorproject was sold to prospectivebuyers of shopping malls, restau-rants and entertainment centresas a 50:50 financial partnership between the Centre and the state.’’

He added, ‘‘When the UnitedFront government was in power atthe Centre, a senior politicianfrom UP had played an importantrole in getting the project clearedby the state government.’’

Jagmohan

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The Times of India, New Delhi12 Monday, June 23, 2003

BRICKBATSPlease stop this crucifixion and join ourcrusade to exorcise the evil man —Dubya— Dina DinakarWith more brickbats than bouquets, itis probably time now to at least movethis strip to the magazine section, as inMumbai.— Manish Saxena

For bouquets log on towww.timesofindia.com

e-mail: dubya-man@indiatimes.com

Multicultural UKIN SICKNESS or in health,Britain’s multi-culturalism re-mains determined and fierce. Nomore so perhaps than in the newpolitically correct hospital art inScotland, north of the English bor-der.

A Scottish hospital charity,which provides original artworksby well-known painters to hospi-tals throughout Scotland, unveilsan extraordinary painting thisweek. It depicts a Sikh family, com-plete with newborn baby, leaving aScottish hospital even as a stereo-typically Scot carrot-top nursewaves goodbye. In the foregroundsits Baron Singh of Lesmahagow,whose claim to fame includes thefact that he’s probably the world’sonly Sikh to have his own specialweave of tartan, the Singh tartan.

The painting, titled New Arrivalis meant literally to place a pagrion the head of the Scottish health-care system. That may be fittingconsidering Scotland has a largeSouth Asian community. Theartists are the Singh twins, Amritand Rabindra, who’ve long tried tobring a jewel-bright Mogul minia-ture aspect to their work.

Curry capital A FINE Chardonnay, they now say,goes well with Rogan Josh. Its allpart of increasingly frenzied at-tempts to match wine with Indianfood, a cuisine notorious for sub-suming and masking — all othertastes, smells and flavours. Mean-while, Scottish city Glasgow’s newstatus as “curry capital” of west-ern Europe has gleeful Glaswe-gians singing the so-called curryanthem. Its a poem from the idiot-ically-named book Korma Sutraand it goes thus: “Ye Powrs, whamak mankind your care, And dishthem out their bill o fare, AuldScotland wants nae wimpish ware,That’s done in a hurry, But, if yewish her gratefu prayer, Gie her aCurry!”● Rashmee Z Ahmed in London

DIASPORIUM

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Playwright dies: Play-wright George Axelrod, whoanticipated the sexual revolu-tion with “The Seven YearItch” and “Will Success SpoilRock Hunter” and later wrotescreenplays for such films as“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and“The Manchurian Candi-date,” died Saturday. He was81. Axelrod died in his sleepof heart failure, said hisdaughter, Nina Axelrod. A ra-dio and television writer, Ax-elrod hit the jackpot in 1952with “The Seven Year Itch.” Itwas a laugh-filled play abouta man whose wife and chil-dren had gone to the country,and who pursues the lus-cious young beauty who livesabove his apartment. AP

Lionel a Hollywood Star:Lionel Richie was dancing onthe ceiling Friday after receiv-ing a star on the HollywoodWalk of Fame. An estimated500 people gathered at theHollywood Boulevard cere-mony and sang “HappyBirthday” to Richie, who cel-ebrated turning 54 on theday of the event. Amongthose in attendance were co-median Jay Leno, whoteased the singer about thelocation of the star. “What anhonour to be in front of aparking garage,” Leno said.Richie jokingly responded.“This will not always be aparking structure. It will be afine building with LionelRichie’s name at the frontdoor.” AP

Marathon run for Pope:A Bosnian Catholic marathonrunner has embarked on a35-hour run from the town ofMostar to Banja Luka inBosnia to see Pope JohnPaul, a newspaper says.Aleksandar Gola said hewould run 240 km in honourof the pontiff, who arrived onSunday in Banja Luka. “Iknow this will be a long jour-ney. But my wish to touch

the Holy Father is strongerthan any fatigue,” Gola wasquoted by a Banja Luka-based newspaper on Satur-day as saying before he setout on Friday. “The biggestreward for me is that I am go-ing to be among four peoplewho will be given Commu-nion by the Holy Father,”Gola said. Reuters

Luster movie rewritten:The makers of a TV movieabout fugitive rapist Andrew

Luster, heir to the Max Factorcosmetics fortune, are tear-ing up their script and shoot-ing a new ending to includehis recent arrest in Mexico.The original film “A Date WithDarkness: The Trial of An-drew Luster” was supposedto end with a shot of the realLuster and a message askingviewers to notify authorities ifthey see him. But Walton,senior vice president of origi-nal movies at Lifetime, saidthat epilogue will be replacedby the “more satisfying” con-clusion that ends with Lus-ter’s capture. AP

Hulk is here: He’s big, he’smean. He’s a mean, greenfighting machine and hestomped into theaters on Fri-day. “Hulk” is here! “Hulk,”based on the Marvel comicbook character, looks to bat-ter box offices with a combi-nation of special effects anda human story from directorAng Lee. Lee first made hisname telling sensitive tales,then he crossed into actiongenre with “Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon. AP

Pop star Mariah Carey at a concert in Seoul on Saturday.

AROUND THE WORLDReuters

His first “Terminator” film was re-leased nearly 20 years ago, but 55-year-old Arnold Schwarzeneggersays he’s in the middle of his careeras an action star. His new film, “Ter-minator 3: Rise of the Machines,”opens in theaters on July 2. “I had noproblem with ‘Terminator 3,’” he toldBob Costas, host of HBO’s “On theRecord With Bob Costas”. “I had a

great time doing all the stunts. And I was very well-pre-pared and I was very well-trained,” Schwarzeneggersaid. Costas asked the former body builder: “You couldkeep doing this for a while?” Schwarzenegger replied: “Ithink I’m now in the middle of my career.” AP

Arnold in ‘mid-career’

AFP

Thousands of bulbs light up the Eiffel Tower as a concerttakes place at its base on Saturday in Paris.

Potter Fivemakes newsales recordSeattle: Amazon.comshipped out more than a mil-lion copies of the new HarryPotter book, making the dayof its release the largest dis-tribution day of a single itemin e-commerce history.

Orders for Harry Potterand the Order of thePhoenix, the fifth install-ment in J K rowling’s hit se-ries, nearly tripled those forthe previous record-holder atAmazon.

The old record of 410,000was held by book 4 in the se-ries, Harry Potter and theGoblet of Fire in 2000.

More than 760,000 advancecopies were ordered fromAmazon.com’s US web site,up from 350,000 for Goblet,and orders on its overseasweb sites brought the total tomore than 1.3 million.

Amazon offered a 40 percent discount on the recom-mended retail price of $29.99.

At the company’s five “ful-fillment centres” in Kansas,Kentucky, Delaware andNevada, special teams placedthe books in green-and-whiteboxes with labels warningsternly that no delivery wasallowed before Saturday. AP

Cherie’s sisterdumps Britainfor FranceLondon: In a major embar-rassment to British primeminister Tony Blair, his sis-ter-in-law Lauren Booth hasdecided to quit “crime-rid-den” Britain and live in thesouth of France.

Lauren, sister of CherieBlair, said she has been driv-en from the country by thedrug-pushers and muggerswho plague the streetsaround her London home.

“I’ve been a Londoner allmy life but now I’m movingto France, driven out by thegrime and the crime thathave made so much of thiscity unlivable in.”

The final straw came lastmonth when she witnessed afight between two crazedcrack addicts at her doorstep.

She describes how, lastmonth, her daughter beganscreaming when two drug ad-dicts from a nearby house be-gan a street fight.

“Everyone around here isfamiliar with how crack ad-dicts behave. They have soleuse of the phone boxes on thecorner night and day. If youinterfere in a fight like thisyour car, your home, yourkids can be next.” PTI

General decides to spinBy Chidanand Rajghatta

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Washington: Spin and turn, notspeed, is the Pakistani diplomaticweapon of choice in its approach tothe United States.

On the eve of military ruler Per-vez Musharraf ’s visit to Washingtonon Tuesday, Pakistani spin-mastershave essayed a variety of googliesaimed at impressing US interlocu-tors.

The Pak establishment has just re-vealed that it has frozen Rs 621.41million of 15 terrorist organizationsand individuals in nine banks, in-cluding that of Osama bin Laden, adisclosure that will enable Washing-ton to once again declare him agrand ally in the war of terrorism.

Gen Musharraf has indicated that

Pakistan will consider recognizingIsrael and establishing diplomaticrelations with the Jewish state, asentiment that will please the con-servative and pro-Israel lobbies inthe US ahead of his visit.

Musharraf has also railed againstthe Talibanisation of Pakistan justbefore leaving for the west, despitethe fact that he engineered the mili-tary regime’s alliance with the fun-damentalists which brought theminto power in two provinces. TheBush administration is not fooled byany of this, but for a variety of rea-sons, Washington is ready to wink atthe subterfuge. Fundamental to thisis the fear of the unknown whatcomes after Musharraf.

There is a firm belief in Washing-ton that for all his capers, Musharraf

is still the best bet — at least he doesUS bidding without questions.

Ergo, Musharraf is poised to walkfrom Washington with the biggestbooty since Pakistan’s last dictator,Gen.Zia milked the US till it mooed.

Awaiting Musharraf in Washing-ton is:● A hearty Bush welcome at theCamp David retreat in Marylandoutside Washington, and expres-sions of warm sentiment about itsfrontline ally status.● A possible $ 5 billion economic aidpackage spread over five years, in-cluding a debt write- off of perhaps$ 1.8 billion.● A shipment of non-lethal militarygoods including more C-130 trans-port aircraft and E2C Hawkeyeradar aircraft.

For more log on to www.timesofindia.com

Saddam’s convoyhit, claims USLondon: US troops last week hit a convoy said byUS military sources to have been carrying deposedIraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his eldest sonUday, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

The Observer weekly said US experts were in theprocess of carrying out DNA tests on human re-mains recovered from the convoy, struck by mis-siles last Wednesday as it headed out of Iraq to-wards Syria.

US military sources said the strikes werelaunched after the interception of a satellite tele-phone conversation involving either Saddam or hissons, the paper said.

The convoy was struck near the Iraqi bordertown of Qaim, while the operation involved the USair force and ground troops of the third armouredcavalry regiment, it added.

US forces were buoyed last week by the captureof Saddam’s closest aide, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, the number four on the American mostwanted list of former officials in the Iraqi govern-ment and military establishment.

Tikriti has told his interrogators that Saddam isalive along with his two sons, who fled to Syria af-ter the fall of Baghdad and later returned to Iraq,US officials said. The officials said on Saturday anintense hunt was under way in Iraq for Saddamand the sons, Uday and Qusay, but that intelligenceagencies were not sure if Saddam’s captured for-mer secretary was telling the truth. Agencies

Sabotage blamedfor pipeline blaze Hit, Iraq: An explosion thatsparked a fire at a key Iraqioil pipeline was caused bysabotage, oil ministry offi-cials said on Sunday. US sol-diers reported the fire nearthe town of Hit about 140 kmnorthwest of the capital at 11p.m. on Saturday night, a mil-itary spokesman said. Reuters

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William, 21, talks destinyBy Nicholas Hellen

London: Prince Williammarked his 21st birthday Sat-urday with a declaration thathe has come to terms withhis destiny to be king.

His statement makes itclear that he will accede tothe throne after his father,the Prince of Wales, and thathe has overcome his anxietyabout living his life underpublic scrutiny.

“It’s not a question ofwanting to be, it’s somethingI was born into and it’s myduty,” he said in an interviewreleased on the eve of hiscoming-of-age party at Wind-sor Castle Saturday night.

“Those stories about menot wanting to be king are allwrong. Sometimes I get anx-ious about it but I don’t real-ly worry about it a lot. I thinkabout it a lot but they are myown personal thoughts.”

The prince also spoke ofhis desire to make themonarchy “relevant” to peo-ple’s lives. He also talked ofhis admiration for the Queenand he quashed reports thathe has a serious girlfriend.

The influence of his moth-er, Diana, Princess of Wales,shines through in his defini-

tion of kingship.“It’s all about helping peo-

ple and dedication and loyal-ty which I hope I have — Iknow I have,” he said.

But the clear impression ofthe interview, and new pho-tographs released with it, isthat, as he matures, theWindsor in him is becomingstronger.

The birthday portraits tak-en by Mario Testino, thefashion photographer, ap-pear to show a slight fadingof the fresh-faced looks ofhis teenage years that he in-herited from his mother.

William said it would be“dangerous” to predict future changes in the monar-chy. Sunday Times

Reuters

Guests arrive at Prince William’s birthday party at WindsorCastle near London on Saturday.

Benazir’s freedom songBy Christina Lamb

The exiled for-mer primeminister of

Pakistan, BenazirBhutto, has turnedher hand to poetryto mark her 50thbirthday in an im-passioned plea to beallowed to returnhome.

The first womanto head an Islamicstate, Bhutto’s twospells in office in the late1980s and mid-1990s weremarked by controversy, par-ticularly surrounding herhusband, Asif Zardari, whowas known as ‘‘Mr Ten PerCent’’.

Zardari has now spentseven years in jail, andPresident Pervez Mushar-raf has warned Bhutto thatshe, too, will be arrested ifshe steps onto Pakistanisoil.

On Saturday night, shehosted a party for her 50thbirthday in Dubai, whereshe lives in exile with herthree children betweenspells at her luxury flat inKensington, west London.She read the poem to tear-

ful friends and party lead-ers who had flown fromPakistan and London.

Her first literary endeav-our since a bestsellingghostwritten autobiogra-phy 12 years ago, the 338-line poem is an account of alife that has no shortage ofmaterial.

Her father Zulfikar AliBhutto, Pakistan’s firstdemocratically electedprime minister, was hangedshortly after she graduatedfrom Oxford, where shestudied with Tony Blair;both her brothers werekilled — the younger,Shanawaz, was found poi-soned in the south ofFrance and the elder, Mur-taza, was shot dead in

Karachi.Much of the poem is

about her endless waitingfor news from Pakistan andshe reveals that she has re-ceived offers to free herhusband if she agrees toquit politics, but has turnedthem down.

‘‘They thought it gener-ous to offer freedom forabandonment,’’ she writes,‘‘the abandonment of a peo-ple, of a land, of a struggle,of a dream. I thought itwrong.’’

She lays much of theblame for her downfall atthe feet of Islamic extrem-ists.

The poem fails to men-tion that she did little forwomen. Sunday Times, London

My enemies wish I never wasborn, for them it was a tortureand a shame,The first woman to head a Muslim stateCrumbling centuries of controlTriumphantly proclaimingThe equality of men and women.

Ajit Ninan

CMYK

Monday, June 23, 2003 13The Times of India, New Delhi

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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

China is very exciting from a long-term perspectivefor opportunities.

— Infosys spokesmanBy K Subrahmanyam

There is a healthy debate in the country onthe issue of sending Indian troops to Iraqas part of the stabilisation force. At present,the US has 1,46,000 troops in Iraq, just5,000 less than the number used for theinvasion. There are also 12,000 Britishtroops. More forces have been contributed byPoland, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Denmark andNetherlands. Turkey, which opposed the war,has now offered a contingent of 1,200-1,800for Iraq’s reconstruction.

Germany, another opponent of the war,has offered to send technical personnel forreconstruction. Washington’s purpose insoliciting troops from other countries, par-ticularly from India, appears to be to recallthe troops sent out a year earlier, give aninternational facade to the force and reducecosts. General Musharraf has indicated thatPakistan would send troops if asked to do so.

We must approach the issue from aperspective of national interest. The USambassador in Delhi has said that a negativedecision by India will not affect the Indo-USrelationship and New Delhi’s decisionshould be based on calculations of nationalinterest. Quite obviously,US policy-makers failed toassess the nature and mag-nitude of governing Iraq asan occupying power. TheUS army chief GeneralShinseki told the Congressthat it would need 200,000persons and two years tocomplete the task. But hewas rebuked by his civilianmasters for that statement.While the Kurdish and Shiaareas in Iraq are relativelymanageable, guerilla war seems to havebroken out in Sunni areas around Baghdad,Falluja and Tikrit. There is speculation thatthis could have been pre-planned by SaddamHussein and his associates.

Stabilisation is the process of restoringthe governance which collapses eitherduring a civil conflict or due to an invasion.Stabilisation forces have been operating inBosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. In Iraq,the Ba’ath Party was all pervasive and byoutlawing it along with the earlier militarycampaign there has been a decapitation ofthe administrative structure. The result hasbeen anarchy and chaos. Iraqis, exercisingtheir full freedom, are demonstrating for thesetting up of an interim Iraqi administrationand an early American withdrawal. TheAmericans appear totally unprepared torectify the enormous damage they inflictedon Iraq’s infrastructure — power, watersupply, sanitation etc. Their earlier plan ofinstalling an Iraqi administration basedon anti-Saddam Iraqi exile groups andKurdish parties has proved a non-starter.Saddam Hussein had ensured that noindigenous opposition group survived onwhich Washington can rely. The US is alsowary of the Shia clergy which commands

influence over the majority because ofsuspicions that it may lean towards Iran.

When Security Council resolution 1483was adopted with no opposition (Syriabeing absent), France, Russia and Germanydecided that despite their opposition to thewar, nothing should stand in the way ofhelping the people of Iraq. They agreedto lifting sanctions and sending in thestabilisation force. Though the UN’s rolewas minimal, the resolution legitimised theoccupying authority. That was pragmaticrealpolitik under the prevalent circum-stances aimed at helping the Iraqis.

The stabilisation process will help set upan Iraqi interim administration, draw upan Iraqi constitution, put it to a referendumand then hold an election leading to arepresentative Iraqi government and USwithdrawal. As of now, Washington has notcome out with a road map for these steps.This is a lengthy process. There are twodifferent precedents for this. The first, whichperhaps dominates US thinking, is theexample of Japan after World War II whenthe US handled the process on its own. Thesecond is East Timor where the transition

was carried out by the UN.There is a good case for

India helping the stabili-sation process by sendingtroops to Iraq, not merelyto oblige Washington butto help the Iraqi people.France, Germany andRussia do not think that byagreeing to resolution 1483they have approved theUS aggression. Our attitudeshould be similarly prag-matic, forward-looking and

mindful of our national interest. We shouldbear in mind that Islamabad is ready tosend troops to Iraq and thereby increaseUS dependence on itself.

It is only by agreeing to consider theproposition of sending troops to Iraq thatIndia will be in a position to raise variousissues with the US on the road map foran interim administration, constitution-making, elections and total transfer ofpower to an Iraqi representative govern-ment. It may be necessary to discuss howthe incipient insurgency is going to behandled. Since the Americans are interestedin wiping out the Saddam loyalists, theymay prefer to handle it themselves. But thathas to be ascertained. Then there are issueslike command and control over our troopsand the sector they will be deployed in.When these issues are discussed it may aswell emerge that there may have to begreater involvement of the UN and evena new UN resolution.

Our stand should be to engage the US onthese issues and not just reject outrightour participation in the stabilisation processon the ground that Washington is guilty ofaggression. It undoubtedly was, but harpingon it is not going to help the Iraqis.

Constructive EngagementIndia Must Send Troops to Iraq

Beijing BusinessOn his China trip, Atalji should talk

security but concentrate on tradeIt is the business of official spinmasters to ensure thesuccess of ministerial foreign jaunts. Thus it is that everydetail of an official overseas mission gets vested with acertain significance — from a casual gesture made at thebanquet table to the key speech delivered on the bigday. And when the visit is by a prime minister and thedestination is China, the excitement will be all the more:After all, here are two countries, each with a billionplus population and a combined market size that canchallenge the mightiest economy. In other words,Mr Vajpayee’s Beijing tour will need to be judged not somuch by the number of agreements signed and speechesdelivered as by how well the two countries relate to eachother. Needless to say, the world will watch with interest tosee if a personal chemistry develops between Mr Vajpayeeand the Chinese political leadership. China has a spankingnew political establishment — new president, new primeminister and new chairman of the Peoples’ Congress.What adds further spice to Mr Vajpayee’s visit is thelatest revelations about the cold vibes between the earlierChinese leadership and our own political teams led byJawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

China has a political culture very different fromours. Ever pragmatic, its leadership has little time forplatitudinous sentimentalities in which our politicalleaders revel. It is a fair bet that the Chinese team willnot easily compromise on the border issue. They havesignalled too that China means to continue its clandestinesupport to Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Given this,India has one of two options. It can either harp on the‘core’ issues of border and Pakistan or it can concentrateon more fruitful areas of cooperation for the immediatefuture. India and China have a relationship that is solidlyanchored in economic complimentarities. While India hasdone well in the services sector, including IT, the Chineseexcel in manufacturing. Perhaps New Delhi should practisevis-a-vis China what it has been preaching to Pakistan:Improve trade and economic relations first, leaving thedifficult strategic issues for later. As a first step, what isimportant is generation of mutual respect and confidence.That done, Atalji can gently but firmly bring up thetroublesome issues of border and the China-Pak nuclearaxis. This way India will have strengthened bilateralcooperation while at the same time expressing its concernson key strategic matters.

She’s a rare vocalist who’s successfullystraddled the divide between popular andclassical music. In a ‘Times Talk Radio’interview with Arvind Joshi,Shubha Mudgal talks about herwork, training and contemporaryattitudes to music:

From classical music to popular numbers,you defy categories. How would you defineyourself as a singer?

I’d like to call myself a student of music;someone who is curious to find out not justabout classical music, but also about popularand non-Indian forms. So, it would be best tosay that I am a student of music.You were trained as a khayal singer inAllahabad before you shifted to Delhi andtrained under Pt Vinay Maudgalya andPt Vasant Thakar. Why Delhi? Did the changeaffect your musical journey?

I moved to Delhi because my parentsfelt it was a good idea for me to move outof Allahabad. There everyone knew meand treated me and my music with thesame indulgence with which they wouldtreat a favourite child. In Allahabad, Iwas treated kindly, but no one wanted me tofind out whether I had any merit. LeavingAllahabad was one way out of this.

About how Imoved from oneteacher to another,there’s an unwrittenprotocol in Indianmusic — you cannever move to ano-ther teacher unlessyou have the ijazatof your teacher. Allmy teachers had thisopenness. They werenot reluctant tolearn from severalsources. Their encouragement allowed me to do the same.For example, when I wanted to learn thumri,Pt Maudgalya took me to Smt Naina Devi;it was because of this that I was able to learnfrom her. But this protocol or etiquette exists,and you can’t break it.You also trained under Pt Kumar Gandharva.Is your interest in mystic poetry and musicinfluenced by him?

Without a doubt, Kumarji’s magical sing-ing of devotional poetry drew me to it. Inschool we’re taught Kabir, Mira and Tulsi,and we ended up making faces. But somehow,when you hear it in his voice... it sentme racing back to the books. I rememberhearing him sing hirana samajh bujh bancharna, and I said, my goodness, this is greatmusic but I don’t seem to understand thesymbols, metaphors and images. How can Ifind out more? ...Without doubt, Kumarjiplayed a very important role in turningmany musicians towards devotional poetry,which he sang with such abandon andpassion and understanding. It seemed as ifwe were hearing Kabir singing.Do you think the understanding of themusical idiom has changed so much that

today’s generation cannot appreciate it?I don’t blame the young for drifting

away from classical music. It’s the previousgeneration that’s to blame. When you growup in a home that says — Indian classicalmusic is the greatest; everything else isrubbish — you’d grow up never listening tothis kind of music. If you grow up in a homethat actually says — look I can’t understandclassical music, only film music. How canone expect children from that family toever want to hear classical music?

I think there’s a bit of hypocrisy in themanner in which this nation approachestraditional art. They love to talk about pu-rani parampara, purani sanskriti. But whenit comes to support, they just abandon it.What do you think of remixes?

I think a good song must live on, andtherefore, if there is another interpretationto it, that’s valid. If you look at compositionsin Indian classical music, the same bandishis sung by people across generations. We singthe same ali piya bin hundreds of times invarious ways. Our gurus have sung it, theirgurus have sung it, and in a way, that’s away of keeping it alive.

What I don’t like about remixes is whenpeople try to fool you into believing thatit’s the original or when there is no attempt

to give the originalanother interpre-tation. A song likeBeatles’ Yesterdayhas been sung by somany, and eachbrings a new flavourto it. It’s a greatsong. And it’s notjust great whenperformed by theBeatles. The samecan happen in aremix, but doingit without making

that valid creative effort, that doesn’tinterest me.Classical musicians sometimes effect a certainaloofness, if not disdain, towards popularsingers. Kishori Amonkar once said, “Who isLata Mangeshkar?” Why?

I don’t think it’s possible to generalise.But there’s a tendency amongst lots ofclassical musicians to believe that classicalmusic, and their particular kind of classicalmusic, is supreme. The study of anysubject, particularly classical music, shouldliberate one from various attitudes, inclu-ding a complete dedication to one’s ego.Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen. Ithink nobody but nobody can say “Whois Lata Mangeshkar?” Her contribution toIndian music is tremendous. I wouldn’t wantto say anything against someone as greatas Smt Kishori Amonkar, who I admireimmensely, but, unfortunately, there is thisdistinction between high and low art. Andsometimes it is used to say classical musicalone is great or that classical music isspiritual and other kinds are not — I amafraid I don’t subscribe to such attitudesand my work proves that.

Musical Mean

There is this distinctionbetween high andlow art. And some-times it is used to sayclassical music aloneis great... I don’tsubscribe to suchattitudes and mywork proves that.

Q&A

Economics of NehruWith reference to the article ‘ReassessingNehru’ (Jun 12), the author, who claims tobe a liberal, seems to have no knowledge ofeither the Indian freedom struggle or even aproper appreciation of contemporary eventsthat took place in the latter half of the 20thcentury. It’s Nehru who was responsible fornot allowing India to become a theocraticstate. It was he who pioneered the conceptof non-alignment when the Cold War haddivided the world into two power blocs.

Planned economy was also his concept.As a result, millions of Indians were savedfrom starvation, if the monsoons failed. In1955, at the Avadi session of the Congress,he moved the resolution for a socialisticpattern of society. However, many years be-fore that he had initiated the process of thestate playing an active role in creating phys-ical and social infrastructure, which is criti-cal for the development of a modern nation.It must be remembered that at that time the

private sector neither had the capital, noraccess to the technical know-how to buildhydro-electric projects, steel plants, ports,roads and airports etc which were so vitallyneeded. Indira Gandhi’s abolition of privypurses was an attack on the feudal systemthat was interested in maintaining statusquo and continuing the saga of oppression.The bank nationalisation took the bankingsector to the hinterland of India. It gaveaccess to capital to those who would haveotherwise never seen the inside of a bank intheir lives. Notwithstanding all these achie-vements, there is no denying the fact thatdistortions have crept into the system. Inef-ficiency, corruption and nepotism have sp-read their roots deep into the public sector.

However, the solution to these problems isneither crony capitalism nor the loot andscoot policy which the NDA governmenthas institutionalised. All that is happeningis that public monopoly is being replaced byprivate monopoly, which could become verydangerous for the nation’s security asthere are no laws to prevent these privatemonopolies from becoming a state within astate. Sauvik Chakraverti has perhaps notstudied the economies of Latin America,which are on the verge of collapse becauseof free market policies.— Manish Tewari, via e-mail

CONVERSATIONS WITH READERS

Letters to this column should be addressed to Letters c/o Edit pageEditor, The Times of India, 7, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, NewDelhi-110002. email:edit@timesgroup.com

Kapil’s MercThe issue of former cricketer Kapil Devaccepting a Mercedes from a personwith a questionable background, evokesseveral emerging trends exhibited bycelebrities these days. Mr Dev says thathe has no clue about the antecedents ofthe person who gave him the car. If thereis no such thing as a free lunch, canthere ever be a free Mercedes?

Uttam Amar Mishra, via e-mail

From timesofindia.com

No 148 Vol. 54. Air charge: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai ,Cochin, Chennai & viaRs.3, Indore and via 50 paise. National edition: No aircharge.Price in Nepal: NEP Rs 5, except Sunday: NEP Rs 7. RNI No. 508/57 MADE IN NEW DELHI REGD. NO. DL-25002/92. Published forthe proprietors, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., by Balraj Arora at Times House, 7, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110 002 and printed by him at 13, Site IV Industrial Area,Sahibabad (UP),MNS Printers Pvt. Ltd., Industrial Area, Phase II, Panchkula, Haryana - 134109 and VasundharaPrinters Ltd., Tiwari Ganj, Faizabad Road, Chinhat, Lucknow. Regd. Office: Dr Dadabhai NaorojiRoad, Mumbai - 400 001. Editor (Delhi Market): Bachi Karkaria-responsible for selection of newsunder PRB Act. Executive Editor: Shekhar Bhatia. © All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole orin part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Postal Registration No.: TN/ChiefPMG/399/2002

Chinese Wisdom

The wise man gladlyleaves fame to others. He

does not seek to havecredited to himselfthings that stand

accomplished, but hopesto release active forces;

that is, he works in sucha manner that they maybear fruit for the future.

✥

It is only when we havethe courage to face

things exactly as theyare, without any sortof self-deception orillusion, that a lightwill develop out of

events, by which thepath to success maybe recognised. Thisrecognition must be

followed by resolute andpersevering action.

✥Danger arises when a

man feels secure in hisposition. Destruction

threatens when aman seeks to preserve

his worldly estate.Confusion developswhen a man has puteverything in order.

Therefore the superiorman does not forget

danger in his security,nor ruin when he is

well established,nor confusion when

his affairs are in order.In this way he gainspersonal safety and

is able to protectthe empire.

✥

Modesty createssuccess. The superior

man carries thingsthrough. The destiniesof men are subject toimmutable laws that

must fulfil themselves.But man has it in his

power to shape his fate,according as his

behaviour exposeshim to the influence

of benevolent ordestructive forces.

Modesty is not to be con-fused with weak goodnature that lets thingstake their own course.When a man holds a

responsible position, hemust at times resort to

energetic measures.From the “I Ching”,

Book of Changes

Ud

aysh

anka

r

The Times of India, New Delhi14 Monday, June 23, 2003

Hotel HumourBy Sheela Jaywant

It was the prized NewMillennium Eve. We worenew uniforms, guidedguests, supervised deco-rations, checked who’swhere etc. My colleague,Maharudhra Rajadhyak-shya (name invented) wason duty in the lobby. Thepresident of our hotel’sbiggest client walked in.New to India, his Englishwas heavily accented. MRheld out a gracious hand.The foreigner mumbledsomething. MR figured thegentleman was introducinghimself and reciprocatedby telling him his name.Now Maharudhra Raja-dhyakshya is not easy topronounce so MR had torepeat the name severaltimes. Both smiled andsplit. Then began the fun.The guest thought ‘Maha-rudhra Rajadhyakshya’was the Indian way of say-ing ‘Happy New Year’ andgreeted everybody thus.

In any hotel, the staidfaces, controlled voices,measured gestures, all hide

hectic activity and inci-dents like this Great IndianWelcome. One sari-cladguest relations executivesmartly trotted up to thefancy car bringing in theCEO of an MNC. She timedthe aarti-tikka bit thesecond the liveried guardopened the door... andwelcomed the driver bymistake. A hush followedthe embarrassment. Shecalmly put down theplate, picked up a garlandfrom the bell-boy’s desk andwelcomed the real guestwithout fuss.

Vocabularies and accentscause unintended confu-sion. We changed the roomof one East Asian guestbecause people giggledwhenever he said, “Wanh,wanh, wanh.” It sounded asif he were crying though hewas merely calling out hisroom number one-one-one.

One morning a couplechecked in tired and grimy.They were led to the healthclub for a wash, as theirroom wasn’t ready. Whenthey returned, what theysaid sounded like “We’ve

bruised our tit and wantto it.” We gulped beforeguessing that they had“brushed their teeth” andwanted breakfast.

Tales abound. One walk-in was told that the costper night was for the room,taxes and breakfast. Later,he came to the front desk tobook the taxi he’d beenpromised, he said, by theboy who’d checked him in.We were puzzled, until werealised that he’d mistakentaxes for taxis and thoughtwe were paying for hissight-seeing.

Another instance. Astaffer showing a deluxeroom to a female guestexplained that the extracost was for “the bathtub,the wardrobe, and theview”. The lady rusheddownstairs and told us justwhat she thought of our(unsuspecting) colleague.She had been warnedabout Indian men but, sheranted, this was unexpect-ed. Subsequently we dis-covered that she had heardthe last three words “andthe view” as “ah-love-you”.

“Hey, I’m in Nirvana!” Wetalk like this when we feelgood. But what is it liketo actually attain nirvana,otherwise known as mokshaor self-realisation?

Self-realisation is thegoal of life. Vedic rishisfound that everything inthe world that blooms is alsosubject to ultimate decay.Are we here just to live abrief life and then passaway? They reasoned thatlife cannot be devoid of somehigher purpose.

After much investigationand contemplation and manygenerations later, sagesdeclared that beneath thismortal body is an unseenimmortal spirit — and thatspirit is our real Self.

That eternal spirit inthe non-eternal body; thatimperishable in the perish-able body is actually a partof a vast infinite, eternal,beginning-less, endless, cos-mic spirit. Itexists. But not asan inert piece. Itis consciousness.It knows — Iexist. So it is con-scious existence.Existence is sat.Consciousness ischit. So it issat-chit.

In this stateof pure sat-chitconsciousness, weare subjected tomany imperfect experiences— heat and cold, pleasureand pain. All these disruptivemortal experiences cannotupset that lofty, sublime,transcendental realm of thereal Self, for once the stateof pure consciousness hasbeen achieved, only peaceand bliss abide. There isananda in that sat-chit. Soit is sat-chit-ananda or stateof eternal existence. Torealise and enter this state iscalled self-realisation.

Self-realisation is the goalof life because in that statethere is pure and permanentbliss and joy. Isn’t that thegoal of each one of us? Ofcourse, the mortal, percei-vable world also has joy init. But joy in our worldlylife is neither pure norpermanent. If a thing iscapable of giving pleasure,it is capable of giving pain,too. For instance, when aperson marries, he or she

does so in the hope ofattaining to greater happi-ness and peace throughraising a family and givingand receiving love.

However, life is a mix ofboth pleasure and pain —what gives us happinesscan also give us pain.Pleasure and pain go toge-ther because the world isimperfect and man alsois imperfect. Pleasure is thewomb of pain. Seekingpleasure, you have alreadycreated pain.

For real and permanenthappiness one needs torise above petty desiresand seek ultimate reality.There is supreme bliss andsatisfaction there — anindescribable joy and peace.To seek ultimate realitydoes not mean you cannotfulfil your worldly duties.Even while fulfilling yourduties, be a seeker of truth.

Your mortal body is onlya vehicle given toyou to functionon this earth. Butyou are distinctfrom it. You arean immortal partof divinity. Tryto become onewith that limit-less ocean of sat-chit-ananda. I’ma little wave, butI’m also a part ofthe ocean.

There’s no dif-ference between the waveand the ocean. The wavemay appear separate becauseit has size and form. Butthat is momentary; thewave goes back into theocean. The wave arises fromthe ocean, exists for amoment, and then goes backto the ocean.

Someone asked me recent-ly: How many self-realisedpeople are there? That’simpossible to say, I said.For, how can one make outif a person is realised —they don’t have an outwarddistinguishing marks! Buthe persisted, demanding ananswer to his question — hewanted me to guess thefigure. I told him that what-ever the figure, I had littledoubt that most of them arefrom India.

(Swami Chidananda ispresident of the Divine LifeSociety, Rishikesh)

In Search of theReal ‘Me’

By Swami Chidananda

http://spirituality.indiatimes.com

THESPEAKING

TREE

VHP’s trishul diksha is manifestly not a religiousbut a political activity. But for argument’s sake,

let’s accept the contention that distribution of trishulshas always been an integral part of Hinduism. Doesit then follow that a ban on it would amount to anunacceptable assault on our right to freedom ofreligion? The answer is an unambiguous no. Thehistory of the secular state suggests that religiousfreedom, far from being absolute, has always comewith riders attached. One such has been the premisethat religion will not make ‘irrational’ claims in thepublic domain. In particular, it would not challengethe authority of the state to frame and enforce lawsthat embody core secular and modern values: Fromequality and safety of all citizens to the imperativesof public order, health and hygiene. In the process,religion has had to redefine itself fundamentally.

In Europe, it robbed mediaeval Christianity ofmuch of its public-political role and character.Religion became largely a matter of individual beliefrather than communal practice. The argument againstbanning trishul diksha is therefore a specious one.Except in America, nowhere in the democratic worldis the right to bear arms a fundamental one. Andthat right in America is granted not on religiousbut historical grounds. But what about the liberalconcern that the culture of bans runs counter tothe spirit of democracy? It is wrong to equate thecarrying or distribution of a gun or a trishul withany other human right, particularly the right tofreedom of thought and expression. Because writinga provocative article or making an inflammatoryspeech is not the same as wielding a weapon. Wordscan hurt, but they seldom kill. The VHP’s trishul,on the other hand, is capable of, if not killing, thencausing grievous bodily harm — as the wife of aBajrang Dal activist found out to her own cost inGujarat just the other day.

VIEW

COUNTERVIEW

Carrying a Trishul is Not a Human Right

Ban on Trishul Diksha hots up Rajasthan

Don’t Ban It, CounterIt Politically

Prohibition has become the one-stop solution toevery single problem in this country. A provocative

piece of literature? Ban it. An art work that offendssome members of a community? Nix it. A film ongays? Absolutely outlaw it. The ban on the trishuldiksha programme in Rajasthan is one more attemptto skirt the real issue. Trishul diksha has nothing todo with religion and everything to do with politics. Ofcourse, the law must prevail. When religion is misusedto threaten the social environment and endangercommunal harmony, the law must unreservedly comedown on the miscreants. But to blindly apply the lawwithout appreciating the socio-political context of theproblem is to treat the symptoms overlooking thedisease. The external manifestations will subsideonly to reappear with renewed virulence. Banningtrishul diksha is an easy short-term answer. But itis by no means the final solution to a problem thathas deep historic roots. Far from it, it will invest theVHP’s trishul campaign with greater energy.

It is crucial to understand that Rajasthan haslong been a sangh parivar laboratory: The RSSfirmed up its base in the state in the late ’70s when theJana Sangh was part of the Janata Party. It hassince worked assiduously to penetrate the far cornersof the state and build a network that the VHP has nowseized for spreading its own influence. The communaldisruptions that have become the hallmark of largeparts of Rajasthan are a product of this plannedideological assault. Ashok Gehlot may have gainedadministrative control of the state but he made nograss-roots effort to counter the ideological appealof the parivar. Treating trishul diksha and such aspurely law and order problems is of a piece with thisessentially narrow approach. The most a ban canachieve is to drive the vice underground. The real wayto deal with it is to challenge it politically and, moreimportantly, offer an alternative vision to the people.

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CMYK

Confusing ratesunder TRAI lens

By Subhro NiyogiTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: The Telecom Regulatory Au-thority of India (TRAI) has decided tocrack down on cellular companies forconfusing subscribers with tariffs thatmake it difficult to understand the finan-cial implications. TRAI chairman PradipBaijal said he had received several com-plaints from cellular subscribers on the‘‘deliberate attempts’’ by companies tounderstate tariffs.

‘‘In several tariff packages, monthlyrecurring charges are combined with rel-atively low call charges. The high-decibelcampaigns by the companies advertiseonly call charges, thereby withholding in-formation from subscribers. Naturally,they feel cheated when they find the ef-fective call charge rate in bills to be high-er than the amount indicated as callcharge,’’ Baijal said.

Not only do these tariff packages mis-lead subscribers, some cellular firmscomplained that competitors use it forpredatory pricing. Since tariffs are notpre-approved by the TRAI at present,companies use the 10-day period to weanaway rival subscribers with attractivepackages that can later be scrapped bythe authority. In metros, the 10-day periodcan alter the composition of the market.

Tentatively, the authority is consider-ing specification of a mandatory formatfor all tariff advertisements. It will re-quire companies to declare rental andother fixed monthly recurring charges,interest on advance payment/deposit,free call allowance as well as implicit callcharge, including the rate per minute forairtime and long distance calls.

TRAI has suggested that the basis forconversion of any free call allowance andother calls into a per-minute rate shouldalso be explained. ‘‘This will help cellularsubscribers to be better aware of overallfinancial expenditure incurred underany particular tariff package and alsohelp the consumer to better compare var-ious tariff packages,” Baijal added.

CELLULARTALKS

Selloff lessonsfrom the UKexperience

By Jay Bhattacharjee

The market reaction tothe Maruti IPO hascertainly been very en-

couraging. However, certaincommentators are using thisevent as a general bench-mark for the overall Indianprivatisation strategy.

This is where considerablecaution is needed. To startwith, the privatisation ofMaruti and the route that hasbeen chosen are not con-tentious. There is little doubt(except among die-hard li-cence-Raj advocates) that theIndian state has no businessto be in passenger car manu-facturing considering pres-ent economic scenario. Nev-ertheless, exiting from thiscar producing company isnot of the same order ofmagnitude as privatising theother larger PSUs. The gung-ho Indian analysts frequent-ly toss in references to theUK privatisation campaignof Thatcher as a role modelfor the whole debate.

This is where the catchlies. The Iron Woman’s socialre-structuring of Britainfrom the mid-1980s onwardshas now been extensivelyanalysed. The conclusionsare far from unambiguous.

John Kay, a British privati-sation specialist, has carriedout a study on that country’sexperience. According toKay, the British exercise didnot start with a great ideo-logical vision, except that itwas broadly anchored in theTory party’s market-friendlyvalues. The primary motiva-tion of Thatcher herself wasto cut the trade unions tosize. The British PSUs werein a mess, unlike their Indiancounterparts now. Widerpublic ownership of compa-nies, expansion of the equitycult, increase in efficiency ofpublic consumption servicesand other similar goals werehardly projected when thecampaign started.

Kay concludes that the UKprivatisation programme be-came “an objective in its ownright”. It acquired its propri-etary logic, self-justifying ra-

tionale. Every completedtransaction was touted as asuccess. By this time, themerchant bankers and theCity gurus had got into theact and there were enormousvested interests and nichesthat had to be protected. It isagainst this backdrop thatthe principal consequencesof privatisation had to beanalysed. The main yard-sticks were benefits to thelabour market, improvementin the capital markets andgains to the country’s con-sumers.

The first two public issues,BT and British Gas, attractedmany new entrants to theBritish stock exchange. Inthe long run, however, the re-sults were disappointing.The Thatcher clique system-atically resorted to under-pricing the IPOs of PSUs. Un-derwriting these issues wasone way of rewarding cronymerchant bankers and advis-ers, since these issues werebound to be over-subscribed.By 1999, the percentage ofthe total equity of the Britishcorporate sector that wasowned by individuals actual-ly declined from 33 per centin 1981 to 25 per cent, whileinstitutional investors in-creased their stake from 60per cent to 68 per cent.

In terms of efficiency,every privatised company,save one, under-performedthe general British sharemarket (FTSE index). Thedata casts doubts on the no-tion of private sector effi-ciency. On labour markets,employment in formerly na-tionalised industries felldrastically. The inflows intotreasury coffers were about110 billion pounds but thisamounted to barely 2 per centof total government expendi-ture. Regarding consumerbenefits, there is no evidenceeither way.

All this implies that thiscountry needs to look at pri-vatisation strategies muchmore carefully, in the light ofwhat other countries havegone through.The author is a member of DSE; jbinvestfin@indiatimes.com

AFP

STRONG BOUQUET FOR BUSINESS: A man reads the map of the world’s biggest wine fair, Vinexpo,in Bordeaux. More than 50,000 wine professionals from 140 countries take part in this fair,where the trade expects brisk business despite global economic woes.

The Times of India, New Delhi, Monday, June 23, 2003

Charting roadmapThai PM Thaksin Shinawatra at

Asia Cooperation Dialoguemeeting. Ministers from 18Asian nations discussed thedevelopment of the $1

billion Asian bond fund

Dinar gains The dollar has become thehard currency in Baghdad, atclose to 1,500 dinars afterthe US-led invasion. Prior tothe war the dinar stood at2,500 dinars to the dollar

How to rebuild IraqJordan’s King Abdullah II addresses WEFextraordinary annual meeting. Global leaders have gatheredin Jordon for rebuilding Iraq,securing peace and growthin the West Asia

Long way to catch the dragonSome comparisons are

stark enough to generate anational inferiority com-

plex. In 1980, India had about687 million people, 300 millionfewer than China. Living stan-dards, as measured by purchas-ing power per head, were rough-ly the same. Then, as China em-braced modernity with a some-times ugly but burning passion,it left India behind. In the next21 years, India outperformed itsneighbour in almost nothingbut population growth.

For Indians, the main Chi-nese threat is: The economicnightmare of an India of un-deremployed farm labourersspending their meagre earn-ings on imported Chinesegoods. However, Indo-China bi-lateral trade has grown from apaltry $338m in 1992 to nearly $5billion in 2002. And, India’s PMAtal Bihari Vajpayee’s six-daytrip will be the first by an Indi-an PM since 1993.

It’s true that China’s figuresare dubious. According to theofficial data, China received$52.7 billion of FDI last year; In-dia got just 4 per cent of that

amount, $2.3 billion. But Sad-hana Srivastava’s article inEPW, has recalculated both fig-ures for 2000 to make a fairercomparison. He found that Chi-

na’s FDI fell by half, while In-dia’s more than tripled. Even onthis basis, India was attractingjust 40 per cent of the amount ofFDI that went to China.

Manufacturing in 2002 madeup just 15 per cent of India’sGDP, compared with 35 per centof China’s. Indian manufactur-ers are baffled with China’sability to undercut them, blam-ing it on hidden support in theform of subsidised raw materi-als and soft credit. India’s costdisadvantage comes from salesand excise taxes and cost of cap-ital. India’s much higher importduties, a trade-weighted aver-age of around 24 per cent com-pared to China’s 13 per cent alsopush up the cost of inputs.

Policy changes can help Indiacatch up, like, cutting duties;and indirect taxes; easinglabour laws. And, it has a com-petitive advantage in softwareand IT services, which can be ahuge success. The Economist

Reuters

Chinese women buy a new type of SIM card for just one yuan($0.12) in Beijing. China added 4.3 million new mobile telephone users in May, taking the total to 230 million.

Inflation plunges to5.05%: Led by a sharp oneper cent price dip in diesel,inflation plunged by another0.39 per cent to 5.05 percent for the week endedJune 7, even as items ofmass consumption like fruitsand vegetables becamecostlier. Remaining abovesix per cent mark at the be-ginning of the fiscal, the WPIinflation dipped to just overfive per cent, apparentlybringing some relief to thepublic, but it was much low-er at 2.18 per cent duringthe year-ago period. Oilprices had eased due torise in US crude oil andgasoline inventories. PTI

A-I to review plan forlow-cost airline: Air-Indiahas set up a committee tolook into the feasibility ofrunning a low cost airline byits subsidiary Air-India Char-ters Ltd from Cochin tosome key destinations in theGulf, excluding Saudi Ara-bia. The low-cost, no frillsand low-fare airline hasbeen planned for launch inSeptember to October withthe Airbus A310 aircraft. PTI

E X E C U T I V E D I G E S T

NATIONAL

Asia tourism still hurt bySARS stigma: The threat ofSARS may be waning inAsia-Pacific but the tourismindustry is still smarting fromits impact and must buckledown to repair the damage toits image, experts said. Travelindustry officials have begunwork on ‘‘Project Phoenix’’, acooperative campaign to

convince the public it is nowsafe to return to Asia after theWHO lifted travel advisoriesagainst all areas, but Beijing.At a meeting last week of theWorld Tourism Organizationin the Philippine capital,tourism and travel authoritiesalso acknowledged the hugechallenge ahead. Asiantourism was already hurt bythe terror attacks in the USand the bombings on Indone-sia’s resort island of Bali lastyear, and a economic slow-down and the war in Iraq. AFP

Apple may preview OS Xtoday: Steve Jobs, co-founder and chief executiveof Apple Computers is likely

to preview the next version ofApple’s OS X operating sys-tem on Monady, financial an-alysts said. Analysts who fol-low Apple also expect thecomputer maker to dish outdetails of a faster micro-processor for the Macintosh.Apple officials were not im-mediately available to com-ment. Apple has said, howev-er, that it will preview the nextversion of OS X, code-namedPanther, before releasing it.Analysts expect it to containsignificant refinements ofwhat is already regarded as astable, reliable and sleek op-erating system. As for a re-freshed Macintosh micro-processor, a faster chip madeby IBM could help close what

has been called the ‘‘Giga-hertz gap’’ between Apple’sPowerPC chips and thosefrom Intel. ‘‘Apple could pre-view its next-generation plat-form based on the G5 chip,’’wrote Bear Stearns analystAndrew Neff. Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

I N C

Today’s question: Will the PrimeMinister’s China visit help

in business?To vote, log on to

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

• The poll reflects the opinions of Net users who chose to participate, and not necessarily of

the general public.

Yesterday’s results: Has HarryPotter been hijacked by

business needs?Yes 74% No 21% Can’t say 5%

ET INSTA POLL

Change of guard: TheTaj group has in RaymondBickson its first foreignMD. The Tata group firmhas been performingwell, with its profitssurging at a timewhen the hotelbusiness wasreeling underthe Iraq warand SARS.Can Bicksonstretch thisperformance?

All in a week’s work:Kumar Birla is on a buying spree.Last week, heclinched a dealto acquire L&T’scement unit for Rs2,200 cr, inked hisgroup’s entry intoBPO by pickingup TransWorksfor Rs 63 cr, andpersonally bought25% stake in Star News.

New focus: MSBanga-led HLL bidadieu to the Daldabrand, one of itsmost generic prod-ucts, to the US-based Bunge groupfor about Rs 90crore. While it tries torationalising existingbrands, it will stillcontinue to distribute Dalda,but for a fee.

ITC to delist from 8 exchangesKolkata: Tobacco major ITC Limited has decided to delist itsshares from eight stock exchanges across the country in viewof the highly insignificant trading of its shares at thesebourses. A decision to this effect has been taken by the boardof the Kolkata-based company last month and the approval ofthe shareholders of the company would be sought on this is-sue at the annual general meeting scheduled on July 25 here,according to a company source.

At present, the ITC scrip is listed at eleven stock ex-changes and it has been observed that NSE and BSE accountfor 95 per cent of the traded volumes of the company. PTI

Firms, FIs prepayforeign loansNew Delhi: Leading corporates and FIs in-cluding ONGC, BSES, Tata Power, HDFCand ICICI, prepayed costly foreign loans ofmultilateral agencies worth about Rs 5,200crore last fiscal to take advantage of lowerinterest rate regime in the country and re-duce their interest costs.

ONGC led the list by pre-maturely repay-ing high cost external debt worth about Rs2,546 crore, of which Rs 1,532 crore was pre-payed to the World Bank and the remainingRs 1,014 crore to Asian Development Bank,official sources said. Power utility BSESprepayed Rs 556 crore while Tata Power pre-paid Rs 440 crore to the World Bank. IPCLprepaid IBRD loans worth Rs 482 crore.

Among FIs, HDFC made repaymentsworth Rs 494 crore to the World Bank whileICICI prepaid Rs 353 crore. Hudco settledoutstanding loan worth Rs 46 crore. PTI

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B U S I N E S S T I M E S The Times of India, New Delhi16 Monday, June 23, 2003

A boost to investor confidenceBy J Mulraj

There were two land-mark events in Indianstockmarkets last

week. One was the unbeliev-able response to the MarutiUdyog disinvestment by thegovernment, an issue thatwas oversubscribed 13times, indicating a return ofinterest by individual in-vestors. The other was thedeal struck between Grasim(an Aditya Birla group com-pany) and L&T for the for-mer to acquire, after a publicissue of the cement businessto be spun off from L&T, a 51per cent stake in it, in a ne-gotiated deal. This revivedinterest in cement stocks inthe secondary markets onhopes that consolidation inthe industry would help it

achieve better productprices and boost profitabili-ty. Renewed domestic in-vestor interest (partiallyspurred by anaemic depositinterest rates from bank de-posits and the lure of taxfree dividends) combinedwith increased foreign in-vestor interest spurred theBSE sensex to just under the3500 level, up 145 points overthe week.

Will the negotiated deal toacquire L&T’s cement busi-ness help spur a much need-ed restructuring of Indianbusinesses?

It can, if all players in-volved start to view things inproper perspective. For ex-ample, one stated view of fi-nancial institutions hasbeen not to ‘destabilise’ ex-

isting management. Thisview had its genesis in thewake of the option FIs hadincluded, as part of rupeeloan agreements, to convert(usually at par), a fifth of theloan into equity. In returnfor this ‘pound of flesh’ FIsagreed they would not usethis voting clout to oust in-cumbent management.

This view still persists de-spite the changing environsand a free market. The otherview is that of the dichoto-my of professional and fami-ly managed companies; withsupport generally beinggranted to the former. Thedividing line should changeto good and improper man-agement, since these arepresent both in familyowned or in professionally

managed companies.As a result, a sensible sug-

gestion of demerging the ce-ment business from the corecompetency (engineering,projects and construction) ofL&T was delayed by 3 years.The cost of the acquisitionhas also gone up; the dealvalues the 16.5 m. tonne ca-pacity at Rs 60 b.(includingdebt of Rs 18.6 b.), whichworks out to Rs 3.7 b. per mil-lion tonne capacity, whichwould delay returns on theinvestment.

If restructuring is to takeplace, it should be left to theinterplay of free marketforces. Mindsets mustchange to allow this and toallow the restructuring to re-sult in benefit to sharehold-ers and to the system.

Commercialvehicle salesup 16.5%New Delhi: Growing trucksales of Tata Engineering,Eicher Motors, Swaraj Maz-da and Bajaj Tempo drove do-mestic commercial vehicleup by 16.5 per cent during thefirst two months of this fis-cal. A total of 28,569 busesand trucks were sold duringApril-May 2003, up from24,520 units in the same period last year, SIAM data showed.

While medium and heavy(M&H) vehicle sales surgedby 13 per cent to 16,640 units(14,730 units in April-May2002), light commercial vehi-cles (LCVs) clocked an im-pressive 22 per cent jump to11,929 units (9,790 units).

In the M&H category,truck sales went up by 14 percent to 13,634 units while bussales grew by 8.36 per cent to3,006 units.

M&H truck sales of TataEngineering jumped by 14.4per cent to 9,113 units butthat of Ashok Leyland divedmarginally by 0.47 per cent to3,114 units. respectively.

M&H truck sales ofSwedish major Volvo fell by68.1 per cent to 29 units, butthe local unit of Czech heavytruck maker Tatra posted a225 per cent growth at 26units.

Analysts attributed thespurt in commercial vehiclesales to rise in infrastructur-al activities and goodprogress on the ambitiousgolden quadrilateral project.

M&H bus sales of Tata En-gineering grew by 18.4 percent to 1,815 units while thatof Ashok Leyland declinedby 10.4 per cent to 1,104 unitsduring April-May 2003. PTI

Public sector banks, FIs to fuel PC growthBy Tina Chopra Karkhanis

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Hardware and PCmanufacturers in the coun-try are viewing it as a defi-nite sign of economic recov-ery. PC sales for this quarterare expected to grow byabout 20 per cent comparedto the same period last year.

Apart from the corpo-rates, even households are

plugging-in to the wiredworld. Although PC priceshave not fallen dramaticallyover the last few weeks, con-sumer sales have alsopicked up.

MAIT ED Vinnie Mehtaestimates that sales in thisquarter are ususally slow af-ter a healthy January toMarch quarter. ‘‘However,association members areseeing a strong demand

from industry verticals liketelecom companies andITeS companies.’’

The biggest growth driverhas been the banking and fi-nancial services industry.Mehta explains that ITspending by public sectorbanks has grown susbtan-tially this quarter, followinga recent circular from RBIfor full computerisation andbranch inter-connectivity.

Manufacturers are keep-ing consumer interest aliveby introducing new range ofPC products. ‘‘We are seeinga traction in the market inthis quarter after last year’sdull sales. The demand isfrom BPO segment and edu-cational institutions. Gov-ernmend department andbanks are finally emergingas the largest segment,’’says HP vice-president Ravi

Swaminathan.Although demand is pick-

ing up, industry players areworried about the grey mar-ket. ‘‘Branded players arefighting for a very smallshare of the hardware pie,since assemblers have cap-tured about 70 per cent ofthe market. In the first quar-ter of 2003, 66 per cent of to-tal PC sales were by the as-semblers or grey market

players. Last year’s averagehas also been around 70 percent,’’ says HCL Infosys-tems spokesperson.

Matching the trend in theApac PC market, India sawa 16.3 per cent rise in PCshipments in the January-March, 2003. Branded play-ers like HCL Infosystemscrossed the 50,000-mark inthe first quarter, a first forany vendor in India.

Consolidation: Indian shares are likeley to consolidate after afour-week rally, but the market undertone remains firm. Reuters

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Crispin Porterbags topCannes prize

By Rahul Joshi

Cannes: It was a hard race tothe Grand Prix, but CrispinPorter & Bogusky rompedhome. Its ‘Lamp’ commercialfor home furnishing chainIkea, featuring an old, burntout lamp sitting on a pave-ment in a downpour has wonthe top prize at Cannes 2003.

In all, 20 Gold Lions werehanded out this year, forspots like Honda’s ‘Cog’, Sat-urn’s ‘Sheet Metal’ JohnSmith beer, Johnny WalkerWhisky and Microsoft Xbox.The agency of the year wasTBWA\Paris, followed byAlmap BBDO of Brazil andWieden + Kennedy USA.

This year, for the first timeever, the jury presidentsawarded the Titanium Lion,for innovation in any media.The award went to FallonMinneapolis and OptimediaNew York, for BMW’s ‘TheHire’ series of short films.

Cannes Lions celebratesthe ad festival’s 50th anniver-sary this year, and a string ofluminaries were present at acommemorative screening ofGrand Prix winners over thelast half-century. From Ap-ple, Polo and Volkswagen toWaterman and Nike, the adson show were the best thathave ever been made.(For more details, read The Economic Times)

One factor which has notbeen commented upon in thedebate ‘‘what ails Indiansport’’ is the monumentalmisuse of funds by sportsfederations. This speciallyhappens when internationalor national meets are organ-ised, helped by a sports min-istry norm according towhich the federations are re-quired to render audited ac-counts only in respect ofgrant received from the gov-ernment. In one such case, Iobserved closely as auditorand member of a rubber-stamp Finance Committee,whereas the sum spent by afederation in a month for or-ganising a World Champi-onship in Delhi was over Rs.one crore, not even the fivelakh govt grant was fully au-dited. So, while one crorewas raised from other pub-lic/private sources, therewas no real account of it.

In another case, I remem-ber being offered as much as25% kickback in cash of the

advertisement money I wasrequested to gather for a Na-tional meet by a federationofficial who incidentally wasclosely related to a Vice Pres-ident!

Also, since most of thesefederations are usually runlike personal fiefdoms by the“dons” of the sport, whohave made sports their full-time business, the availablefunds are shamelessly usedfor currying favour withpoliticians, bureaucrats andcronies. And the kind of“sports-money” spent on theelections of these federa-tions must be seen to be be-lieved.

Huge sums are wasted onthe ceremonial opening andclosing ceremonies and as-sorted parties, which havebecome a fashion ever since‘82 Asiad which are used toserve personal agendas.

It’s not true any more that

there is little money avail-able for developing sport. Tothe contrary, sports is nowbig business. Everyone con-cerned, including the media,knows about it but is sur-prisingly reluctant to bringthis ugly aspect to light. Howcan sports flourish unlessthese parasites are stoppedfrom sucking away the re-sources?

—Abhijit Roy, via email

The article on the conditionof Indian hockey, especiallythe effect of Astro-turf onthe game made interestingreading. The Kodava (Coorg)community, which has con-tributed a number of players

to the Indian team, conductsan annual family hockeytournament under the aegisof the Kodagu Hockey Acad-emy. In the 7th edition inApr/May 2003, 281 teams andover 4000 players (from acommunity of around 5lakh) participated. It isplayed on natural surfacewith the age of players rang-ing from 15-55. The event hasrevived interest in hockey inthe district and the commu-nity. The quality of the gameis creditable. One of the los-ing semifinalist had a femalegoalkeeper. It’s a great event,but to help the talent comeup there is a dire need formore synthetic pitches. Evenhalf-size pitches can be ofgreat help. The IHF has totake the lead here.

—Col K A Muthanna,Delhi Cantt

The views of football star I M

Vijayan on the rise and fall ofFC Kochi is in effect the ac-tual story of Indian footballalso. Media and multination-als have played a vital role ingiving over-publicity tocricket, in the processsidelining all other sports. Afew years back, no less thanseven all-India tournamentswere held in a small statelike Kerala and werewatched by packed stadiums.But the National FootballLeague virtually eliminatedthe major football tourna-ments in the country. TheNFL is a poor copy of thepopular European Leagues.Nakal karne ke liye bhi akalchahiye. It is high time tomake an impartial and unbi-ased study of Indian footballin order to revive its past glo-ry.

—E M Adithyan, Kerala

We invite readers to con-tinue sending us theirviews at timessport@indi-atimes.com

CMYK

Stop the parasites from sucking away funds

Eight Indians for blind meet:Eight blind athletes will representIndia in the 12-day world blind ath-letics competition to be held inQuebec in Canada from August 1.Four of the eight Indian competitorsbelonged to the ChaitnyapurVivekananda Mission blind schoolof West Bengal, while three are fromNew Delhi and one from Jodhpur.PTI

Taekwondo show: To mark the30th anniversary of the diplomaticrelations between India and Repub-lic of Korea, the Korean governmentwill be sending a 20-member taek-wondo demonstration team to India.The demonstrations will be held onJune 28 at the IG Indoor Stadium inNew Delhi and on June 30 at BirlaMatushri Sabhagar in Mumbai. PTI

India mauled: Singapore had alesson in rugby for India with a 71-0win in the Asian Quandrangular Se-ries in Singapore. Pramod Khanna,president, Indian Rugby FootballUnion, said according to reports, thenew combination gelled well but fellabout ten feet short of the scoring asmany as six tries. They play Malaysianext on Tuesday and Chinese Taipeiin Kolkata on June 28. PTI

Portugal’s Loureno and PaulMeireless (L) hold the cup afterthey beat Italy 2-1 in the final ofthe Under-21 soccer tournamentin Toulon, France on Saturday.

AP

SPORTS DIGEST

My confidence is highnow. I’m ready and I’m

in good shape.

— Serena Williams

INDIAN SPORT

SLEEPINGGIANT

Trescothick stars for EnglandLondon: Marcus Trescothickscored an unbeaten 108 as Englandscraped home against Pakistan byfour wickets after an absorbingbattle at Lord’s, sealing the one-day series 2-1.

Trescothick, who also engi-neered England’s triumph in thesecond match at The Oval with aspectacular 55-ball 86, clung on be-fore cautiously shepherding histeammates to victory after a torridopening followed by a middle-or-der collapse. Fittingly, he clinchedvictory with a huge six off AzharMahmood on the last ball of thematch.

The home team rode their luckto win with nine balls remaining,Trescothick putting on a run-a-ballunbeaten stand of 77 with wicket-keeper Chris Read (25 not out).

England, having put Pakistan inand restricted them to 229 for sev-en despite an explosive display oflate hitting by Abdul Razzaq,looked well placed after survivingan opening barrage of extremepace from Shoaib Akhtar and Mo-hammad Sami.

But having reached 89 for one,they then caved in to the off spin ofMohammad Hafeez, who tookthree for three in 17 balls as fourwickets tumbled for 25. Earlier, An-drew Flintoff took four wickets,including one with his first ball, asEngland restricted Pakistan to 229for seven.

Pakistan, put in and in deeptrouble at 117 for five, reached re-spectability thanks only to con-trasting half-centuries from You-

Federer, Serena head favourites’ list By Akshay Sawai

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Wimbledon: Tim Henman won’t tell you thisbut he is wishing he could do a Jayson Blair,

the shamed New YorkTimes reporter. WithWimbledon beginning onMonday, Henman wouldlove to filch Ivanisevic’sserve, Agassi’s returnand Hewitt’s heart. Mix itall up, you know, and bedone with the job of

winning the title.But in sports, there is no scope for on-field

forgery. Henman will have to use his ownwherewithal as he begins his tenth attempt tobecome the first Briton since Fred Perry(champion from 1934-36) to capture the men’scrown. It’s not as awesome as Pete Sampras.But as a Lady of the Night said to a shy sailor:it’s not how much you have but how you use it.Henman, 28, has some of the tools needed tocourt Wimbledon: fleet feet, a natural volley,

sharp passing shots. But the four-time semifi-nalist has faltered on the last few steps to thesummit, where the opponents were top-class.Besides, he has been unspectacular so far thisyear and his shoulder has been suspect.

The lenses will be on Roger Federer too. Onform, the gifted Swiss is the bet for the title.Seeded No. 4, the 21-year-old has won 43 of his52 matches this year with titles in Marseille,Munich, Dubai and importantly, on grass inHalle. Ever since he beat Sampras in an oper-atic fourth round two years ago, Federer hasbeen a Grand Slam contender. His game is adance of finesse and power, but he has a wan-dering mind and a less-than-steely heart.

At the top of the seedings pyramid are thebackcourt bhai: Agassi and Hewitt. Both havewon Wimbledon and can win it again. Both arefit, and the new, slower avatar of the courts atthe All-England Club suits them.

Indians will be tuned in to the doubles ac-tion. Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi are topseeds, while Leander Paes and David Rikl are atNo. 5. A big, intimidating pair, Bhupathi-

Mirnyi are not shying away from theirfavourites’ status. ‘‘We’ll go all out,’’ Bhupathisaid, but pointed out there were several ableteams in the pond.

In the women’s fray, the warning sirens arewailing. Serena and Venus Williams, theirpride trampled upon in recent months, are asvengeful as defeated political leaders. Especial-ly Serena, the top seed. The loss against JustineHenin in the French Open semifinal is sure tohave ignited her competitive spirit, making herthe favourite for the women’s crown. Where theNo. 4 seeded Venus is concerned, the informedreport that she has not much interest left intennis, but could wire herself up for one finalburst.

As the Williams sisters get to know vulnera-bility, the Belligerent Belgians —Henin andKim Clijsters — are saying hello to Big Time.The two have been among tennis royalty fortwo years, but now there’s a feeling that theirtime has come. No. 3 seed Henin, who beat Cli-jsters to win the French Open on clay, will be asfeared on Wimbledon grass.

Leeds: It was India vs Indiaat Headingley on Sunday asVirender Sehwag and YuvrajSingh faced-off in the Eng-lish cricket league DivisionOne (45 overs) match. Play-ing for Leicestershire, Se-hwag finally justified thehype surrounding him as hecracked an 80-ball 65 againstYorkshire. He slammed 11boundaries during his enter-taining stay as Leicesterhirescored 251 for 8.

His India team-mate Yu-vraj Singh, though, had amixed day. He conceeded 54runs off his seven overs. He,however, continued his im-pressive form with the bat ashe struck a 46-ball 50, hittingseven fours and a six before

being caught by JeremySnape off experienced PhilipDefreitas. Yorkshire werewere 100 for 2 in 19 overs.

In the Twenty20 cricketmatches played on Saturday,it turned out be a fruitful out-ing for the Indian trio of Yu-vraj, Sehwag and Moham-mad Kaif who ended up onthe winning side.

The most impressiveamong the three was Yuvraj,who shone both with the batand the ball against Durhamat Headingley. Yuvraj racedto a 9-ball 22, just the kind ofquickfire innings required inthis unique 20-overs-a-sideformat, as Yorkshire

amassed 198 for four to set adaunting target.

He then returned to scalpthree wickets while conced-ing 20 runs in three overs, asDurham could manage just143 runs for eight in 20 oversto suffer a 55-run defeat.

At Trent Bridge, Leicester-shire beat Nottingham byone wicket in a thrilling con-test. Sehwag first took twowickets and then capped itup with a 17-ball 26. Hisknock was laced with fourfours and a six.Mohammad Kaif did nothingmuch to write home about inthe twenty 20, but his sideDerbyshire beat Lancashireby a comprehensive seven-wicket margin. PTI

Ajit Ninan

TENNISWimbledon Men’s Singles

A Agassi 3/1A Roddick 9/2L Hewitt 5/1

R Federer 5/1T Henman 10/1

(as per ladbrokes.com)

BETTING METER

Star Sports: 1630 hrs: Wimbledon Lawn TennisChampionships (Day 1)

LIVE ON TELEVISON

The Times of India, New Delhi, Monday, June 23, 2003

Laila, O LailaLaila Ali, daughter of boxinglegend Muhammad Ali, re-

mained undefeated in the ringin Los Angeles on Saturday. She stopped Valerie Mahfood in the sixth round

Saadi for Serie ASaadi Kadhafi, son ofLibyan leader MouammarKadhafi, could be playing inItaly’s Serie A with Perugianext season. He will sign aone-year deal on Sunday

The suspense is overThe latest addition to the Mari-on Jones-Tim Montgomeryhousehold is a boy. Thegender of the “world’sfastest” couple’s baby waslet slip by Montgomery

Lennox Lewis retains the WBC heavyweight title

This is the last series of letters related to the Sleeping Giantcampaign. We thank you for your feedback

Sehwag wins battle of Indians

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff tries to run out Abdul Razzaq of Pakistan in the deciding match of theNatWest Challenge Series at Lord’s on Sunday.

Ehsan Mani,new boss ofthe Interna-tional Crick-et Confer-ence, hasmade all theright noises

in his first 48 hours in thejob, but then the first leg ofa steeplechase is always theeasiest. The real rigour be-gins after the introductorypress briefings are over, andwhen he parks himself inthe most prestigious seatthe game can offer. Mr Manimight find it hot, real hot,as his predecessors MrGray and Mr Dalmiya willreadily testify.

The ICC has always beena hotbed of power politicsand intrigue. This has gotmore pronounced in recenttimes, especially since theIndian sub-continent be-came critical to the finan-cial well-being of the game,and pretty vocal about this.It is no secret that Mr Jag-mohan Dalmiya and MrMalcolm Gray were at dag-gers drawn for the last fewyears, almost precipitatinga split down the middle inthe ICC, and it will take allhis diplomacy and acumenfor Mr Mani to mend themany broken fences.

The prickliest issue con-fronting Mr Mani concernsthe contract money row be-tween the ICC and theBoard of Control for Crick-et in India. The simple solu-tion would be to deny Indiamonies due to them fromthe World Cup for puttingthe ICC in a mess vis-a-visthe Global Cricket Corpora-tion. But that is being sim-plistic. What legality rec-ommends, pragmatism ob-fuscates. Arbitration is themore plausible possibility,but that too does not neces-sarily entail a cessation ofconflict, which is what thenew ICC chief desires.

India is just too impor-tant for the financial up-keep of the sport, and MrMani would be loathe to

lose the golden goose, as itwere. ‘‘They (India) are thebiggest cricket country inthe world with great poten-tial in all aspects,’’ he hassaid, and there is no betterexample of plainspeak. Thelawyer in him has alreadyspoken against legal re-course, unless it is impera-tive, but what may be morecrucial to a rapproachmentbetween the ICC and theBCCI is his friendship withMr Dalmiya.

The BCCI has alreadydropped its plaint againsterstwhile match refereeMike Denness who had‘caught’ Sachin Tendulkarfor ball tampering twoyears ago. Does this indi-cate a thaw in the frosty re-lations between the Indiancricket board and the ICC Iwonder. Nevertheless, aquid pro quo will not beeasy for there are the sensi-tivities of other countriesto consider. Players and ad-ministrators will be watch-ing his next few moves withgreat interest. Mr Mani willhave to only have to be even-handed where the contractsrow is concerned, but alsoseen to be fair.

This apart, there aresundry other issues thatcould also easily break intomajor controversy. For in-stance, players are begin-ning to resent being floggedlike mules, and the ICC’stechnical committee has toremove the ambiguityabout chuckers that areplaguing the game. Onecould lead to unionisationby players, the other couldsplit players among them-selves, both with disastrousconsequences.

Perhaps most important-ly, Mr Mani will have toshow himself a resourcefulmanager where the finan-cial growth of the game isconcerned. Cricket is on thecusp of a boom like neverbefore, but maladministra-tion could ruin the party.

It does not need too muchintelligence to know whowill be defined as the spoil-sport then.

Best of luck, Mr Mani.

Best of luck,Mr ManiTHE SPORTING LIFE

Ayaz Memon

AFP

Pakistan:M. Hafeez c Clarke b Gough 19I. Nazir c Vaughan b Flintoff 8Y. Hameed c and b Flintoff 5Y. Youhana c Read b Clarke 5Y. Khan c McGrath b Anderson 63S. Malik c Read b Flintoff 23A. Razzaq c Trescothick b Flintoff 64A. Mahmood not out 20S. Akhtar not out 0Extras: (15lb, 6w, 1nb) 22Total: (for 7 wickets, 50 overs) 229Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-38, 3-44, 4-61, 5-117, 6-165, 7-225Bowling: James Anderson 10-1-52-1, Darren Gough 10-1-45-1, AndrewFlintoff 10-2-32-4, Rikki Clarke 6-0-29-1, Anthony McGrath 5-0-21-0, Ash-

ley Giles 9-0-35-0England:M Trescothick not out 108V Solanki c Latif b Sami 12M Vaughan c Hafeez b Mahmood 29J Troughton c Akhtar b Malik 20A Flintoff c Sami b Hafeez 4A McGrath st Latif b Hafeez 2R Clarke c Latif b Hafeez 4C Read not out 25Extras: (b8, lb7, w4, nb8) 27Total (for 6 wkts in 48.3 overs) 231Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-89, 3-129, 4-143, 5-147, 6-154Bowling: Akhtar 10-1-40-0, Sami 9-0-50-1, Razzaq 7-1-28-0, Mahmood6.3-0-41-1, Malik 7-0-26-1, Hafeez 9-0-31-3

SCOREBOARD

INDIANS IN COUNTY

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T I M E S S P O R T The Times of India, New Delhi18 Monday, June 23, 2003

CAPITAL SPORTRBI claim title: ReserveBank of India overcame DelhiAdministration 5-2 via tie-breaker to win the DSA A di-vision annual institutionalfootball title at the Ambedkarstadium on Sunday. Both theteams level at 1-1 after theregulation time. Rajesh Kano-jia put RBI in front in the 50thminute while Delhi Adminis-tration attained paritythrough Rajeev Bhalla.In the tie-breaker, BirjenderSingh, Mohan Nath andRakesh Rawat found the tar-get while Ram Singh convert-ed for Delhi Admin. Results of other events: 14th PtTirath Ram badminton tournament:Girls (u-16, pre-quarters):Meenakshibt AArti 11-0, 11-1; Aksana Mehra btAnish 11-2, 11-2; Shubi Prakash btRooma Kalra 11-2, 11-3; Vinitha Meha-ta bt Harsh Bhosla 11-4, 11-3; DivyaSharma bt Rama Sharma 11-0, 11-2;Radhika bt Rashi 11-0, 11-0.

Boys (U-16, pre-quarters): VaibhavGupta bt Sanjay Gosain 15-10, 15-8,Guranshu Chopra bt Ashmeet Arneja15-13, 15-13; Lakshmi Mahajan btVishal Sharma 15-10, 15-12; Parit

Bhargava bt Amit Sharma 15-4, 15-4;Arun Kumar bt Ankit Mittal 15-5, 15-7;Abhinav Praksh bt Piyush Nagpal 15-5,15-5; Gaurav Sharma bt Nitin Mohiwal15-5, 15-6.Turf Youth Cup Cricket (U15): LBShastri 219 for 6 in 30 overs (TarunChowdhary 84, Vipin Malhotra 53) beatSonnet Club 195 for 9 in 30 overs (Yo-gesh Nagar 55, Vishu Tomar 40,Mayank Aggarwal 32, Vipin Malhotra3/48) by 24 runs.ID Paul memorial cricket: Rajput XI233 in 30 overs (Amit Negi 53, RajGautam 44, Ashish Jain 33, Rohan Gu-lati 3/46, Vishal Jain 3/53, SaurabhNegi 3/25) lost to Delhi Eaglet 234 for7 in 23.4 overs (Yashpal Singh 80,Saurabh Negi 80 not out, Raman 33,Vikrant Yadav 4/34).5th BDM Moonways U-19 cricket:Mont Fort Academy 168 for 7 in 30overs (Udit Kumar 56, Pourush KumarSingh 38, Saurabh Saxena 4/31) beatIG Stadium 167 in 29.4 overs (KuldeepLal 43, Abhishek Sharma 33, PourushKumar Singh 3/14, Aman Kangra 3/48)by one run.On-Dot Cricket: On-Dot Club 135 in34.4 overs (Sanjeev Rana 35, TajeshAnand 33, Sanjeev Ansul Lamba 4/30)lost to HCA 137 for 8 in 32.2 overs(Sunil Rawat 57 not out, Vikram Yadav3 for 26, Jaswinder Singh 3/36) by 2wickets to enter the final.

CROSS COUNTRY

Son of Udaipur

The news ofV i k r a mSingh Solan-

ki’s return to theEngland teamwas hailed by thepeople ofUdaipur wherehe was born 27years ago. Therewas further jubi-lation in the lakecity when Solan-ki was involvedin a century partnership with MarcusTrescothick which paved way for theEnglish victory over Pakistan in thesecond one-day international at theOval. The tall, wiry and ramrod-straight Solanki was named in theEnglish team after having done wellfor Worcestershire in the countychampionship. Vikram’s father, VijaySingh, worked with Hindustan ZincLtd at Udaipur. He had a chance meet-ing with an English girl Dinky, whichdeveloped into love across the FatehSagar lake. After Vikram was born inUdaipur, the family migrated to Eng-land and settled in Wolverhampton. Inthe years to come the boy showedenough talent at cricket to be selectedto play for the England Schools team.

He is a now full-time professionalwho divides his time between England,Australia and South Africa. But he stillfinds time to visit his relations inUdaipur and Jaipur. A devotee of Ek-lingji, Solanki’s visits to Udaipur arealso spiritual journeys.

Cycling celebrity

India had yet to attain freedom whenJanki Das hoisted the national flagabroad for the first time. The occa-

sion was the World Cycling Champi-onships at Zurich in 1946. Janki Daswas the leader of the four-member In-dian team. In a cable dated August 29,1946, Mahatma Gandhi congratulatedhim. The organising secretary of themeet, A.Metzler, complimented him

thus: ‘‘I must congratulate India forthe highest talented effort put in byJanki Das. He, in our opinion, is one ofthe most brilliant personalities ever toenter Switzerland. India should beproud of him.’’

Cycling in India was still in its in-fancy when Janki Das made hismark. He took part in the British

Empire and Commonwealth Games inLondon in 1934 and, four years later atSydney, he surprised all by clocking 1min. 7.2 secs in the 1,000 metres timetrial to better the record of worldchampion E.V.Mills of England. Backhome in the All India championshipsin 1942 he won the 10,000 metres atBombay. And it was in Bombay that herose to be a popular cine star. Hepassed away last week.

No grey areas here

There is no gainsaying that the In-ternational Cricket Council is di-vided on racial lines. When politics

get mixed with sport then the whole at-mosphere gets vitiated.

Malcolm Gray, who has just relin-quished as ICC president, chose to usesome harsh words in airing his viewson the growing divide in the cricketingcommunity. The problems may bedeep-rooted beliefs stemming from his-torical conflicts, but to say that “it ishuman nature for people to flock to-gether and grow a colour mentality ‘’and that he didn’t realise that every-body was as racist as they are isstretching the point a bit too far. Thereis a certain ring of frustration in whathe has said, though he himself doesn’tsee the split as big as it is made out tobe. When he was here two years ago,Gray told Wanderer he was more con-cerned about the way the game was be-ing governed. He made no secret as towho he was referring to when he saidthe other day that ‘‘some people resistchange and resist it passionately be-cause it’s taking some of their poweror their ego satisfaction away.’’

Gray’s successor, Ehsan Mani, seesthe East-West divide as a manifesta-tion of the diversity in cultures. It istoo simple an explanation but in his

heart of hearts Maniknows that he can’t be seenas a partisan president.

Hockey trusts desi

Imagine a team return-ing home unscathed af-ter a testing campaign

abroad. Yes, that is the waythe Indian hockey cameback from the recent Aus-tralian series — all in onepiece, with no casualties.

It would be in order togive trainer Sampath Ku-mar credit for the work heput in to keep the playersfighting fit throughout thetwin tournaments at Perthand Sydney. Sampath getsno special pecuniary re-wards when the team wins.But the trainer says, philo-sophically, that the team’svictory itself is his reward. Today, eventhe Indian cricket team, for all the ex-pertise of a foreign trainer, actuallyhas more men on the injured list. Infact, hiring foreign trainers is the fash-ion. Even our football clubs are re-cruiting foreign trainers. But our desisport hockey is happily thriving withthe home-made Sampath.

Cheers and tears

Golf has its unforgettable moments— Nicklaus on the tee at his lastUS Open, alone, gazing into the

distance; the silent tribute from hisgrieving fellow players to Payne Stew-art before the start of the Open follow-ing his death; and on the firstday of the 2003 US Open, 53-year-old Tom Watson, hisarm around his caddy of 30years, Bruce Edwardes, afterWatson’s superb round of 65,Watson’s smile of pure ela-tion, Edwardes fighting histears of joy. For Edwardes,stricken recently with ALS,the terminal Lou Gehrig dis-ease, named after America’sadored baseball player, neverknows if this is going to behis last tournament.

But this was an unbeliev-able day, 16 years after Wat-son had last shot 65 in a USOpen. At its start Edwardeshad advised him to put a put-ter in his bag like the oldPing Pal II which had wonhim glory many times in the70s and 80s. And the magic

worked, with just 23 putts! ‘‘Emotion-ally I’m drained,’’ said Edwardes in avoice already affected by the wastingdisease, talking of the pact he and Wat-son have shared over the years andhow much he loves Watson. ‘‘He tellsme don’t give up and now he’s caddy-ing for me.’’

More props for umpires

C ricket has always been seen as abatsman’s game and most rulechanges have curbed the bowler’s

freedom. Now the International Crick-et Council has come up with an exper-imental aid to help the on-field um-pires in judging leg-before a lot more

accurately. The umpires will have thebenefit of white lines drawn betweenthe stumps to see if the ball pitched inline with the stumps or not. Some for-mer players, now sitting in the cosycommentators’ box, have been lam-basting the poor umpires for judgingbatsmen leg-before when the ball ispitched marginally outside the legs-tump. These experts want doubtful lbwdecisions referred to the third umpirewho can adjudicate on them with thehelp of the technology at his disposal.

The ICC clearly doesn’t want to takeaway the right of the field umpire torule a batsman lbw and so has come upwith the experiment. The lines, to beintroduced in October, will, in fact,make the bowlers feel aggrieved. Theyfeel that the batsmen will have an un-fair advantage as they can now clearlysee where exactly the ball has pitched.Thus they can sweep the balls pitchingmarginally outside the leg-stump,knowing fully well that they can’t begiven out lbw. Or, they can even con theumpires to get a wide. The batsmenwill also know where his off-stumps is.

However, it is not clear whetherthese lines will be dotted or run rightdown the pitch. Do the on-field um-pires really need these props when, byand large, the decisions are fairly ac-curate? At least that great umpireDicky Bird doesn’t think so. He says hewould have liked to get back to umpir-ing because he will have no decisionsto make!

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Close shave“The Buch stops here,”

Darren Lehman wouldsay tapping on the

head of Aussie coach JohnBuchanan. Lehman was refer-ring to the salt ‘n’ pepperBuchanan hair which he wassupposed to shave after Aus-tralia’s World Cup triumph.That was Professor Buch’s —

as he’s known to the Aussieboys — pledge before theWorld Cup in South Africarolled on.

But, but, but Buch didn’t budge. He con-veniently forgot his vow until the boys goton the case in the West Indies. So much so,that the word started to grow that Aussies

weren’t doing well because Buch hadn’tshaved his head. Poor coach had littlechoice than to let the razor unleash. Aclose shave, Buchs.

Udayshankar

Brand equityThe David Beckham transfer

saga has underscored manyfacets of modern soccer. In

fact, modern sport itself. But noth-ing more succinctly than the spec-tacle of a man getting dwarfed byhis own image. The predicamenthas courted many a great champi-on as the market rules sport moreand more. Beckham the footballerhas proved no match for Beckhamthe brand. There is no gainsayingthat Real Madrid has grabbed himfor his sheer marketing potential,especially in the burgeoningAsian market. Will Beckham bepart of the first XI at Real is to beseen. But his new club will notwaste a minute in exploiting theglobal brand that Becks is. This iswhat clever marketing coupledwith proper media managementcan achieve in modern times.

Which brings us to the transfertrail of our own national captainBaichung Bhutia. He joined EastBengal this season after a lot ofspeculation in the footballing fra-ternity. But how many of us fol-lowed his moves? But then Bhutiadoes not have the marketing gurusworking overtime for him.

AP

AFP

Tom Watson (left) with caddie Bruce Edwardes

Manipur tomeet Bengalin finalChennai: Bitter rivals Ma-nipur and Bengal set up a ti-tle clash posting contrastingwins in the semifinals of the11th National Women’s Foot-ball Championship here onSunday. Manipur scored aconfident 3-0 win over Bihar,while Bengal managed tohold on to a Swapna Guriagoal, scored in the first half,to oust a fighting Kerala.

The final is slated to beheld on Tuesday.

Manipur did not have toexert themselves muchthough Bihar did mangae toput up a semblance of fightbriefly in the first half.

In the other semi, Bengalforwards worked hardthough the exchanges werepretty even during the firsthalf. However, Bengal capi-talised on a defensive lapse togo ahead in the 38th minute.

Kerala could have goneahead twice in the first tenminutes. But five minutesinto the match, Sabitha Poo-vatta muffed a good chanceand in the 10th minute PSreelatha’s measured lobfrom just outside the box hitthe cross-piece. PTI

Mohit Kumarnamed bestswimmerNew Delhi: Delhi’s MohitKumar was declared the bestswimmer even as Maharash-tra swept the team champi-onships in the sub-junior Na-tional Aquatic Champi-onships which concludedhere on Sunday.

Mohit also won the indi-vidual champion title in theboys’ group III categorywhile in boys’ group IV Ma-harashtra’s Gaurav Verlianiwon the award.

In the girls’ group III Kar-nataka’s B Neeraja was de-clared the best swimmerwhile in group IV KalyaniBasu took the honour.

SSCB’s M Manish Kumarwon the boys’ diving titlewith T Hari Prasad of Kar-nataka and Krishna M Naikof Maharashtra finshing sec-ond and third respectively.

Ashwini Mohite of Kar-nataka won the gold medal ingirls’ diving defeating Maha-rashtra’s Rasika Shriram.Maharashtra also won thethird place through HrhtikaShriram. In the day’s otheraction, Veerdhaval Khade ofMaharashtra emerged as thefastest swimmer winning(boys’ group III) the 100mfreestyle in a time of oneminute and 3.84 seconds. PTI

Eyes on Prakashas Masters unfold

By Sukhwant BasraTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Mastering theMasters is a bit differentfrom the other legs of theSatellite circuit. This iswhere the lure of ATP pointsdangles to spur extra effortfrom the 24 who have quali-fied from three legs of toil inthe Indian broiler summer.

The most dominant imagethe past few weeks has been awhirlwind called PrakashAmritraj who has ensnaredthe rest through his all-courtdexterity.

He came into this circuitan unknown entity. Those arealways a tad difficult to un-ravel in the first instance. Bynow the other journeymenmust have done their bit ofanalysis based upon whatthey have seen.

The away ball and long ral-lies do not appeal to the 19-year-old. He thrives on paceand does not find trudgingfrom the baseline palatable.But then his tennis palettepaints quite the picture hewants: set up the approachand crowd the passing shot.It’ll be a test of will and char-acter for him to continue his

form to the Masters title. Forthe others it’ll be a test oftheir conjuring skills to en-trap Prakash in a gameplanthat blunts his assets.

Two of the more danger-ous floaters in the draw willduel in the very first round,much to the respite of someof the seeds. Sunil KumarSipaeya’s belligerence willface the temperance of theveteran Vishal Uppal in whatpromises to be exciting fare.Both have been in a bit of aslump off late and have apoint to prove to those whodismiss their doggedness inthe wake of limited success.

The refreshing bit is thepresence of 10 Indians in thefray. It’s a tribute to AITA sec-retary Anil Khanna at whosebehest, continued exposureto ITF tournaments withATP points on stake has nowseen our players raise theirgame to a higher level. Nolonger do foreigners of allshade and hue walk in andtroop away with all the good-ies. While the strategy seemsto be working, now it’s timefor our players to take thenext hop: dominate when itreally matters and masterthe Masters.

Hinds, Lara prop up WindiesGros Islet (St Lucia): Left-handed batsman WavellHinds and skipper BrianLara put on a 174-run thirdwicket stand to take West In-dies closer to Sri Lanka’sfirst innings total of 354 inthe first Test here on Sunday.

The hosts were 272 for 4in 74.2 overs when rain in-terrupted play, eight oversinto post-lunch session.Brian Lara was batting on 93with M Samuels on 15. WestIndies lost Ramnaresh Sar-wan for five on resuming attheir lunch score of 253 for 3.

Hinds was run out a fewminutes before the breatheron a hard-hitting 113.

On Saturday, the secondday of the Test, West Indieshad kept spin magician Mut-

tiah Muralitharan at bay toreach 161-2 in their first in-nings at stumps.

Off-spinner Muralitharanremoved Chris Gayle for 27runs in his second over to re-duce the West Indies to 66-2,but Wavell Hinds and skipperBrian Lara denied Sri Lankafurther success with theirbold and exciting stroke-play.

Hinds was batting on 74and Lara on 36 at stumps asMuralitharan conceded 39 inhis opening six overs beforebeing removed from the at-tack. The left-handed pairput on 95 for the unfinishedthird wicket off just 17.1overs after the West Indieshad nearly squandered theadvantage given by fastbowler Corey Collymore,

who finished with 5-66 inonly his second Test.

Collymore had enhancedthe hosts’ chances of restrict-ing Sri Lanka to below 300-mark, only to see his team-mates struggle to polish offthe tail. Lanka were totteringat 288-8 after resuming at ahealthy 250-4, but tail-enderChaminda Vaas (38) helpedhis team add 66 for the lasttwo wickets with Muralitha-ran and Prabhath Nissanka.

Lara and Hinds, however,ensured that Collymore’s ex-cellent effort did not go towaste as they steadied the in-nings after the dismissals ofGayle and opener Daren Gan-ga (12). Both the batsmen se-verely punished Muralitha-ran as Hinds swung the spin-ner for two of his four sixes,while Lara flicked and sweptfor two boundaries early inhis innings.

Lara, who had earlier set aWest Indies record of 123Test catches by a fielder, hasso far struck three fours.

Hinds was more aggres-sive, hitting four sixes andthree fours in his 87-ballknock for his 11th Test half-century. The morning ses-sion belonged to Collymore,who was returning to theteam after 1999. Agencies

Sri Lanka (1st innings)(overnight 250-4):M. Atapattu c Lara b Hinds 118 S. Jayasuriya c Banks b Collymore 8 K. Sangakkara lbw b Gayle 56 M. Jayawardene c Lara b Banks 45 H. Tillakaratne b Collymore 13 T. Samaraweera c Jacobs b Collymore 11 R. Kaluwitharana lbw b Collymore 2 K. Lokuarachchi c Lara b Collymore 15 C. Vaas c Jacobs b Gayle 38 M. Muralitharan lbw b Hinds 14 P. Nissanka not out 12 Extras: (b4, lb5, nb8, w5) 22 Total: (in 143.2 overs) 354 Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-127, 3-195, 4-228, 5-266, 6-269, 7-285, 8-288, 9-326

Bowling: Dillon 29-7-48-0, Collymore 29-5-66-5,Taylor 27-3-97-0, Hinds 11-4-28-2, Banks 33-8-74-1, Gayle 9.2-1-22-2,Samuels 3-0-9-0, Sarwan 2-1-1-0West Indies (1st innings): C Gayle lbw b Muralitharan 27 D Ganga lbw b Vaas 12W Hinds run out 113B Lara not out 80R Sarwan not out 6Extras (lb 3, nb 12) 15Total (at lunch, for 3 wickets) 253Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-66, 3-240Bowling: Vaas 20-4-53-1, Nissanka 12-0-69-0, Samaraweera 4-0-31-0,Muralitharan 21-2-82-1, Lokuarachchi 9-3-15-0.

SCOREBOARD

AP

West Indies’ captain Brian Lara hits a boundary off MuttiahMuralitharan of Sri Lanka on the second day of the first Testmatch in Gros Islet, St. Lucia on Saturday.

Paes-Johnson loses in finalRosmalen (Netherlands): The Indo-Ameri-can pair of Leander Paes and Donald John-son lost the final of the Ordina Open in Her-togenbosch, Netherlands to Martin Dammand Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic on Sun-day. Paes and Johnson, the top-seeds, lost 5-76-7 (4) to the No.2 seeds.

Meanwhile, hometown favorite SjengSchalken beat France’s Arnaud Clement 6-3,6-4 on Sunday to successfully defend his sin-gles title. Schalken, seeded third in the lastgrass court warmup to Wimbledon, was con-sistently better from the baseline and defeat-

ed the seventh-seeded Frenchman with easein a rematch of last year’s final, earning hisfirst tournament victory of the season.

Schalken won’t have time to cash his win-ners check of $60,300 before flying to Wim-bledon, where he reached the quarterfinalslast year before falling to Lleyton Hewitt.

He is seeded eighth this year, and will playwildcard Arvind Parmar of Britain in thefirst round on Monday. Although he didn’tlose a set at Ordina, he said he was preparedto drop the first two at Wimbledon as he ad-justs to the faster court.Agencies

Reuters

Former South African president Nelson Mandela lands a playful punch on boxing legend Mohammad Ali in Dublin on Saturday. Mandela and Ali are in Dublin on the ocassion of theSpecial Olympics that are being held in Ireland.

Mukesh out, Thakurmakes a comeback

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Deepak Thakurmade a comeback while veter-an Mukesh Kumar was leftout of the 18-member nation-al hockey squad for the four-nation Hamburg Masterstournament, which was an-nounced by the Indian Hock-ey Federation here on Sunday.

Thakur, who had an injurylay-off, and V S Vinay havebeen included in the side.Prabodh Tirkey, TusharKhandekar and Arjun Halap-pa, who figured in the Aus-tralian tournaments, wereleft out.

Mukesh Kumar, citing

family reasons, had earliermade himself unavailablefor this tournament.

The team, led by strikerDhanraj Pillay, will playagainst Germany, Spain andArgentina in the HamburgMasters in Hamburg fromJune 27 to 29. It will also playa one-off ‘test’ against Ger-many at Duisburg on June25.

Team: Devesh Chauhan, KamaldeepSingh, Dilip Tirkey, Kanwalpreet Singh, Ju-graj Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Viren Rasquinha,Vikram Pillay, Bimal Lakra, V S Vinay, BaljitSingh Saini, Gagan Ajit Singh, PrabhjotSingh,Tejbir Singh, Deepak Thakur, SandeepMichael, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Dhanraj Pillay.

Chief Coach: Rajinder Singh. Coach:Baldev Singh. Physical Trainer: Sampath Ku-mar. Umpire: Suresh Bhatia.

Astrologica clinches CupNew Delhi: Astrologica (PShroff atop) claimed theChief Justice’s Cup at theBangalore races on Sunday.Results: Results: Bergamo Plate: Exalted1, Poirot 2, Spark of Life 3. CommanchePlate: Aretino 1, Psychic Flame 2, Khalsa3.Maroof Farah Memorial Plate (Div.I):Crystal Beauty 1,Trillennium 2, Amicable 3.Chief Justice’s Cup: Astrologica 1, RoseGarden 2, Lavenir 3. Rajah SRK Ranga RowMemorial Cup: Star Wind 1, Clear Cut 2, AllFor You 3.Maroof Farah Memorial Plate(div.II): Brora 1, Autobahn 2, Cool Jazz3.Regency Stud Plate:Noble Executive 1,Ankole 2, Allespagne 3.

Following are the handi-caps for the Mysore races

scheduled for Wednesday:Kollegal Plate: 30 & above: 1,800m: Re-fresher 63, Squeeze 56.5, Il Diablo 55, Po-tential Force 54.5, Ascot Leader 50.5, Ardu-ous 47.5. HH Maharaja JayachamarajaWadiyar Golf Club Trophy: 0-15: 1,200m:Emmenbrucke 61, Righteous 61, SunnySharp 60, Aethion 59.5, Noble Task 59, Zo-racia 59, Jaihindh 57, Commissioner 55.5,Adam 53.5, Beautiful Dreams 53, Nuraaz50.5, Dancing academy 48, Filed of Sun 48,Vereva 48, Space Man 45. Bidai Plate: 20-35: 1,200m: Stingaroo 61.5, Feng Shui 61,Clipper 60, Plumage 60, Shara 60, ShatteredShield 59.5, Blushiung Memories 58.5, RockParty 58, Aux Armes 57.5, Finest Flare 57,Triple King 57, Desert Fox 56, Exstream 56,Classic Belle 56, Noble Priest 54.5, SummerSong 54, Three Coins 53.5. TNN

Bangladesh off to AustraliaDhaka: Bangladesh’s cricket captain said on Sunday that heand his players were not afraid of facing the world’s No. 1team as a 15-member Test side left for a tour of Australia.

“Australia will be tough opponents. But we are not scaredor nervous as we have already faced some of the world’s bestteams, like South Africa,” captain and all-rounder KhaledMahmud said before boarding a plane for Australia.

Bangladesh, who have not won a game in four years, willplay two Tests and three One-day international matchesagainst world champions Australia from July 6 to Aug. 7. AP

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T I M E S S P O R TThe Times of India, New Delhi Monday, June 23, 2003 19

Adriano strike keeps Brazil in the huntLyon: Brazil kept their Con-federations Cup hopes aliveand kicking with a justified1-0 win over the United Stateshere on Saturday.

Adriano’s first-half goalsaved the World Cup win-ners’ blushes after theiropening defeat againstGroup B leaders Cameroonwhich had been slammed as“pathetic” by the unforgiv-ing Brazilian press.

With Cameroon, 1-0 win-ners over Turkey in Parisearlier on Saturday, assuredof a place in the last four thesecond Group B spot will betaken by either Brazil orTurkey. But for the States,quarter-finalists at last sum-mer’s World Cup, their sec-ond straight loss spelledelimination.

A relieved Brazil coachCarlos Alberto Parreira said:“We now have to go in searchof our second victory andhope to qualify for the semi-finals. “We know the US teamvery well, this is the sixthtime we’ve played them andour sixth win against them.

“They’re a team that de-fend well and counter-attackwell. We always win by aslim margin, even thoughtonight we tried hard to get asecond goal.”

After a sleep-inducingfirst 20 minutes the gamesuddenly woke up after a

blunder by US defenderGregg Berhalter gifted theball to Adriano in the box.

The Parma striker’s firstattempt ricocheted off TimHoward straight back to the21-year-old who wasted noopportunity in finding thenet second time around.Geremi keeps his cool forCameroon: Cameroon beatTurkey 1-0 with a controver-sial injury-time penalty atthe Stade de France on Sat-urday to maintain their un-beaten record in this year’sConfederations Cup.

In the last seconds of thesecond half, Joseph-DesireJob charged into the penaltyarea and was pulled down byTurkish defender ServetCetin’s arm, although thecontact was unclear.

Paraguayan referee CarlosAmarilla Demarqui pointedto the penalty spot withouthesitation and Geremi slot-ted the kick to the left of Rus-tu Recber’s dive, although thekeeper got a hand to the ball.

The result of an absorbingmatch which started in hu-mid conditions means thatCameroon, who beat Brazil1-0 in their opening match,will qualify for the semi-fi-nals if the United States donot beat Brazil in Saturday’slater match. AFP

Reuters

Adriano of Brazil reacts after scoring against USA during their Group B Confederations Cup soccer match at Gerland stadium in Lyon, France, on Saturday.

This hero just can’t actLondon: His soccer super-star status and drop-deadlooks notwithstanding,David Beckham failed tograb even a walk-on role in aHollywood flick after faringpoorly in the screen test.

The England skipper, nowwith Real Madrid, learnt itthe hard way when he wastold during his promotionaltour of America that his act-ing was so bad he would noteven get a walk-on part.

The glamorous soccerhero, who spent a week in theUS with his wife and two chil-dren earlier this month, wentfor a secret screen test butwas told he had no future asan actor and should stick toplaying football, according toa report in The Mail on Sun-day. “The screen test was acomplete flop and it would befair to say Beckham shouldstick to soccer,” the tabloidsaid quoting a source close tothe star.

Beckham, currently onAsia tour, had hoped to land

himself a small role as partof the couple’s bid to conquerAmerica.

There was speculation thatwife Victoria, a former SpiceGirl, was keen to get her hus-band involved after she wastold that if they becameknown in the States, therewas scope for added promo-

tional work which is alreadyearning the soccer star morethan 50 million pounds ayear. Victoria has tried tolaunch her own film careerin America and a source saidshe was close to signing for apart. A spokesman for Beck-ham denied that the soccerstar had taken a test. Agencies

Ronaldinho mum on transfer: Ronaldinho, tackled for theumpteenth time on the speculation surrounding a big summertransfer, declined diplomatically to get drawn into revealing hishand In Lyon, France, on Saturday. “I’m concentrating 100 percenton this competition, that’s all I’m thinking about at this time,” saidthe smiling Brazilian World Cup winner after his country’s 1-0 winover the United States. The star was reported to have met Man-chester United manager Alex Ferguson in Paris this week.

Reuters

England soccer captain David Beckham (L) and his pop starwife Victoria arrive at the Bangkok airport on Sunday.

CONFED CUP

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Makaay slams Spanish centuryMadrid: European Golden Shoe winner RoyMakaay notched up 100 goals in the Spanishfirst division with Deportivo La Coruna’sopener in their 2-1 win over Espanyol on Saturday. Roger Garcia opened the scoringfor Espanyol after just 12 minutes butMakaay brought Deportivo level 16 minutesbefore the whistle with his landmark goal -and his 29th of the season.

Less than 60 seconds later Albert Luquegot Deportivo’s winner.

The game could also be the last for De-portivo’s 40 year-old midfielder Donato, theoldest man in the Spanish first division.

The Brazilian-born former Spanish inter-national has not had his contract renewed de-spite the veteran’s belief that he can “play atthe highest level for another two seasons.”

Valencia will only be able to call them-

selves Spain’s reigning champions for anoth-er 24 hours but they finished on a high notewith an emphatic 3-0 win at Sevilla.

Argentine Pablo Aimar put Valencia aheadafter 19 minutes and Juan Sanchez con-tributed goals after 29 and 53 minutes.

Rayo Vallecano descended to the second di-vsion after four years in the top flight ofSpanish football, their place at the bottom ofthe Spanish first division being confirmed bya lifeless 0-0 draw with fellow relegated clubRecreativo Huelva. The club from Madrid’sindustrial suburbs ended their season with-out a win in 13 games.

The game was played in front of just 3,000fans, the smallest crowd for a first divisionfixture this season, as the cheapest ticketavailable was 20 euros despite the fact thatboth teams have been relegated. AFP

Lewis has a lucky escape

Los Angeles: Britain’sLennox Lewis has escapedwith his World Boxing Coun-cil heavyweight crown herewhen his fight with Vitali Kl-itschko was stopped after sixrounds because of a severecut over the challenger’s lefteye. Referee Lou Moretstopped the fight on the adviceof ringside doctor Paul Wal-lace with Klitschko leading 58-56 on all three judges’ cards.

Klitschko, bleeding froman ugly cut that had wors-ened since the third round,protested angrily as thecrowd at Staples Center

jeered the decision.“Right now I feel like I am

the people’s champion,” Kl-itschko said. “I did not wantthem to stop the fight underany circumstances. My strat-egy was to take it into the sev-enth or eighth round. It was-n’t easy, but I felt like I waswinning. I know I was hurt-ing him with my punches.”

Indeed, the WBC’s top-ranked challenger, who tookthe fight on 12 days’ noticewhen Canadian Kirk John-son pulled out, drew the oftencautious champion into abrawl.

Klitschko staggered a slug-gish Lewis in the secondround, but the champion re-sponded in the third with acouple of big right hands.

“It definitely woke me up,”Lewis said. “We’re big guys.When we land punches ithurts.” “Lennox Lewis don’thave good condition. He wasvery heavy,” Klitschko said ofLewis, who weighed in forthe bout at 256 pounds, theheaviest of his career. Hisprevious heaviest was 253,when he was stunned byHasim Rahman in the fifth inApril of 2001. AFP

CMYK

T I M E S S P O R T The Times of India, New Delhi20 Monday, June 23, 2003

Hoping Hardenne: JustineHenin-Hardenne said she wasoptimistic of being fit for Wim-bledon despite spraining twofingers in a final she wasforced to concede to fellowBelgian Kim Clijsters on Satur-day. Henin, the recentlycrowned French Open cham-pion, had won the first set ona tiebreak 7-6 (4) against topseed Clijsters but slippedwhen trailing her fellow Bel-gian 3-0 in the second set. “Ihurt my left hand,” Henin said.“Fortunately it wasn’t the rightone. But I don’t think the injurywas too serious. When I wentto start playing again the painpersisted so I thought the bestthing was to stop. I won’t beplaying Wimbledon till Tuesdayso that gives me three days torecover and I hope to be ableto hit a few balls on Monday. Ithink it will be okay.” Henin,seeded third at Wimbledon,meets Ukrainian Julia Vaku-lenko in her first match.

Scare not scary: Wimble-don organisers don’t plan tochange security arrangementsbecause of a scare at a tune-up event on Saturday. Morethan 3,000 people were evac-uated from the Eastbourneand the start of the final wasdelayed about 2 hours aftertourney officials received athreatening phone call. Theywould not discuss the natureof the threat. “I don’t think it’llhave any effect here at thisstage,” Wimbledonspokesman Johnny Perkinssaid. “There’s been a steadyincrease in visible measuresdesigned to try and makethings as safe as possible.”Additional security measuresalready were instituted thisyear at the All England Club,where play begins on Monday.

For the first time, some peopleentering the gates will befrisked by guards, and theclub no longer will providestorage for spectators’ bags.Other ways in which securityhas been tightened over thepast several years: searchesof fans’ bags at entrances,closed-ciruit TV camerasaround the grounds, and mov-ing the parking lots far herfrom the club.

Hewitt’s stressed: Lleyton

Hewitt’s former coach JasonStoltenberg believes stressand pressure may be gettingto the world number two ten-nis player. Stoltenberg saidthe Australian media made toomuch of Hewitt’s health prob-lems but conceded the 22-year old reigning Wimbledonchampion’s decision to suethe ATP tour probably wasn’thelping the defence of his title,which gets under way inSouth London on Monday.

G R A S S H O P P E RAPAP

Sunitha’s tryst with India in doubtBy Sukhwant Basra

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: At 168 on the WTA rank-ings Sunitha Rao is the highest rankedwomen’s player who traces her roots toIndia. Though a US citizen, she’s ex-pressed her desire to represent thecountry of her forefathers. AITA subse-quently sent an application to the ITFbut it was not entertained in last week’scrucial meeting.

“Sunitha does not meet the criteria ofhaving stayed in India for two years atany given time. We have asked the ITFto consider her as a special case. Nowthe board of directors will examine ourapplication and their decision is await-ed,” explained AITA secretary AnilKhanna. All of 17-years-old SunithaRao’s appeal lies in the fact that she’s ig-

noring the junior ranks,where she rates a lowly172, and is instead focus-ing on the big league.The most talked aboutIndian girl nowadays is16-years-old Sania Mirzawho’s ranked on a high

of 15 in the juniors but is 421 amongstthe women. Sunitha was ranked 16 inthe juniors by January 2001. “After thatthere was no point in playing as thecompetition was not strong,” says herfather Manohar Rao. His strategy re-flects a clear vision to expose the fledg-ing player to the deep-end of the seniortour instead of savouring temporarysuccess amongst the girls. She’s playingjunior Wimbledon this year in order toenhance her marketability as she goesin as a serious contender for the crown.

“But only if the hamstring she pulled inthe senior qualifying holds good,” re-veals papa Rao.

Sunitha may yet make it to thewomen’s main draw as she’s placednumber three on the lucky loser’s list.But that’ll only be clear on Tuesday.Manohar though does put another spinto the playing for India issue. “I havespent nearly five crores on Sunitha tillnow. AITA has talked about reimburs-ing this money while it takes care ofSunitha’s future needs for travel andtraining. Playing for India is importantfor Sunitha but AITA must give us com-prehensive support,” adds Manohar. Ifthat’s the case then Sunitha donning In-dian colours is extremely difficult givenour national association’s reluctance topart with its money. And then, fivecrores is no small change.

Mike chargedwith assualt,released New York: Mike Tyson wasreleased from a New York po-lice precinct, hours after hisarrest on assault charges fol-lowing a brawl with two menoutside a hotel.

The former heavyweightchampion, who was chargedwith assault in the third de-gree, a misdemeanour,walked silently past re-porters standing outside aBrooklyn police station in adriving rain last afternoon.

Fans of the boxer shouted“Mike! Mike!” as he was ledout by police.

Tyson, who turns 37 onTuesday, was arrested at 5:30a.m. after a fight with twoPennsylvania men outside ahotel, police said. All threewere guests at the hotel.

According to police,Samuel Velez, 31, and NestorAlvarez, 24, were with awoman outside the hotelwhen the fight began. One ofthe men used a metal polegrabbed from the lobbyagainst Tyson, who wastreated for minor cuts to hishands. He had his right handbandaged when he left the po-lice station.

A source close to the inves-tigation said the two menstarted the fight with Tyson,adding that the boxer fearedthe men would hit him withthe pole. “They did instigateit,” the source said. “Theywere harassing him, sayingthings to him.” AP

AP

Challenger Vitali Klitschko (R) and Lennox Lewis trade blows in the third round of theirWBC/IBO heavyweight championship bout in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Serve and volley at ‘The Championships’By Ashis Ray

Today, the august gates of the All-England Tennis and Croquet

Club, founded in 1868 in the southLondon suburb of Wimbledon, willonce again be flung open to the pub-lic for Day 1 of what its organiserssimply call ‘The Championships’.

In 1877, Wimbledon was conceivedas a competition within a garden par-ty. In a way, this visualisation persists,except that the champagne and straw-berries are enjoyed in cloistered ter-races and corporate marquees ratherthan nakedly under an oak tree.

Half a million people make the pil-grimage each year __ for many a oncein a life time journey. Anyone fromanywhere in the world can apply fortickets between August 1 and Decem-

ber 31. A public ballot allocates tick-ets to successful applicants the fol-lowing February and March. Thetournament ‘‘starts six weeks beforethe first Monday in August’’, in ef-fect, towards the end of June.

This year, there will be no PeteSampras, nor even Goran Ivanisevic.But the show will proceed; and sowill, it seems, undiminished publicexcitement worldwide. Although anIndian has never won Wimbledonand no player from this country fig-ures in this year’s men’s or women’ssingles draws, Indian advertisers areprepared to be associated with Door-darshan’s telecast of the event at de-cent rates.

In a country not exactly conspicu-ous for its tennis craze, Central Chi-na Television spends generously onacquiring rights to Wimbledon. Also,Chinese weakness for the Wimbledonbrand makes its merchandise a roar-ing success in the Mainland.

By tradition, the previous year’smen’s singles champion kicks offproceedings in the tournament. But,in contrast to past convention, thewomen also make an appearance thesame day, instead of debuting on thesecond day, as they used to.

That the female sex have superiornegotiating skills is exemplified bythe fact that its singles winner will,this time, take home nearly as muchas her male counterpart — over Rs 4crores as opposed to Rs 4.37 crores.

This is significant since the men’sstint at office stretches to best of fiveset matches, whereas the fairer beingsare not extended beyond three sets.

But, while the number of womencapable of wearing the Wimbledoncrown is limited — and the aspirantsin men’s section comparatively farmore — battle at the top of women’stennis has become more intense.

The permanence of the Williamssisters in Grand Slam finals was extinguished by Belgians, JustineHenin and Kim Clijsters in theFrench Open. It will be interesting to see if this stoppage spills over onto grass.

Next Monday: Indians at Wimbledon

Rains no respite for WoodsHarrison: Tiger Woods playfully slapped aball at Shigeki Maruyama’s feet and plantedhimself next to leader Briny Baird on the driving range. That was as close as theeight-time major champion got to Baird onSaturday in the rain-suspended third roundof the Buick Classic.

Winless since late March, Woods had a bo-gey and six pars in seven holes before playwas suspended, leaving him six strokes be-hind Baird - 11 under through six holes on thesaturated Westchester Country Club course.

With more rain expected later on Sunday

on the course soaked by 8 inches of rain inthe last three weeks, the event could finish ona Monday for the second time in three years.

Baird, the son of Champions Tour playerButch Baird, is trying to win for the first timein four seasons on the PGA Tour. He birdiedthe par-5 fifth hole to reach 11 under, puttinghim two strokes ahead of his playing partnerSkip Kendall.

Woods, four strokes back entering the dayafter rounds of 67 and 69, parred the firstthree holes, had a three-putt bogey on No. 4and added three more pars. AP

TENNIS TRAIL

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PRACTICE PRANKS: Belgium’s Kim Clijsters works out with arugby ball while American Venus Williams (R) walks towardsthe practice courts at Wimbledon on Sunday.