Neha Lalchandani TNN New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday released its first list of 20 Lok Sabha candidates that includes some of its well- known faces — Yogendra Yadav, Kumar Vishwas, Medha Patkar and Ashutosh among others — along with lesser known names, with some of the contes- tants taking on Congress heavy- weights. The candidature of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and se- FULL COVERAGE: P 11 Edit: Great Gambler, P 12 A senior IAS officer detained late on Saturday has claimed that he was manhandled by the Nungambakkam police. He said he was outside a paan shop and helping a friend who had taken ill. However, police claimed he slapped a constable. P 3 ‘Being single keeps me honest’: BJP’s PM pick Narendra Modi on Sunday said his single status allowed him to stay honest. “Who would I ever try to benefit through corruption,” asked Modi. P 10 18 feared dead in Nepal plane crash: A plane carrying 18 people from Pokhara in Nepal crashed on Sunday. All on board are feared dead. P 14 I-T proceedings against launderers: The income tax department has begun prosecution of some of the 600 Indian-origin entities that allegedly have money in tax havens. P 8 Authors protest against Penguin: In protest against Penguin’s decision to pulp a book on Hindus, two authors have asked the publisher to withdraw their books. P 8 India falling off US radar? Observers say Washington is paying scant attention to New Delhi and has left India out of the East Asia dialogue. P 10 Was manhandled by city cops, says senior IAS officer NEWS DIGEST Times Classifieds | P 6 INCLUSIVE OF CHENNAI TIMES | EPAPER. TIMESOFINDIA.COM BENNETT, COLEMAN & CO. LTD. | ESTABLISHED 1838 CHENNAI | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014 | 28 PAGES | METRO | PRICE . ` 3.00 * VOLUME 7, ISSUE 40 nior leader Manish Sisodia has not yet been announced though AAP is yet to declare nominees for five of Delhi’s seats. Former TV journalist Ashutosh will take on law minister Kapil Sib- al in Chandni Chowk and an- other former journalist, Jar- nail Singh, will contest against Delhi veteran Mahabal Mis- hra. This assumes that sitting MPs will contest from the same seats again. 20 In First List, Exciting Fights On The Cards AAP lines up its big guns for LS polls, targets heavyweights ➤ Ashutosh vs Kapil Sibal (Cong) | Chandni Chowk ➤ Jarnail Singh vs Mahabal Mishra (Cong) | West Delhi (Jarnail had flung a shoe at P Chidambaram in 2009) ➤ Yogendra Yadav vs Rao Inderjit Singh (BJP) | Gurgaon ➤ Kumar Vishwas vs Rahul Gandhi (Cong) | Amethi ➤ Baba Hardev vs Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) | Mainpuri ➤ Mukul Tripathi vs Salman Khurshid (Cong) | Farrukhabad ➤ Soumendra Dhaka vs Ajit Singh (RLD) | Baghpat ➤ Dr Jiyalal Ram vs Dr Baliram (Cong) | Lalganj ➤ Yogesh Dahiya vs Jagdish Singh Rana (BSP) | Saharanpur ➤ Khalid Parvaiz vs Mohd Azharuddin (Cong) | Moradabad ➤ Subash Ware vs Suresh Kalmadi (Cong) | Pune ➤ Anjali Damania vs Nitin Gadkari (BJP) | Nagpur ➤ Mayank Gandhi vs Gurudas Kamat (Cong) | Mumbai North West ➤ Medha Patkar vs Sanjay Dina Patil (NCP) | Mumbai North East ➤ Meera Sanyal vs Milind Deora (Cong) | Mumbai (S) ➤ Vijay Pandhare vs Sameer Bhujbal (NCP) | Nashik ➤ Alok Aggarwal vs Arun Subhashchandra Yadav (Cong) | Khandwa ➤ Habung Payeng vs Takam Sanjoy (Cong) | Arunachal West ➤ Lingaraj vs Sanjay Bhoi (Cong) | Bargarh ➤ H S Phoolka vs Manish Tewari (Cong) | Ludhiana Kumar Vishwas Medha Patkar Ashutosh ASHUTOSH VERSUS SIBAL Limited deck of cards, P 11 Sochi: India completed its re- turn to the Olympic family on Sunday when its flag was hoisted at the Sochi Games, five days after the Interna- tional Olympic Committee (IOC) lifted its suspension. India had been banned since December 2012 after elections at its Olympic asso- ciation (IOA) saw a corrup- tion-tainted official voted in as secretary general. The IOC lifted the ban on February 11 following fresh elections last week, allowing India to be represented at the Olympics and bringing the to- tal number of nations com- peting at Russia’s first Winter Games to 88. “Very, very emotional,” new IOA president N Rama- chandran said. “For us after having been out of the IOC and the Olym- pic movement for 15 months to come back to it and to come back to it within two days of our elections, I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. The Indian delegation ar- rived at the ceremony at the mountain athletes’ village amid loud cheers. “When the IOC lifted our ban in the midst of an Olym- pic event, it’s the first time it’s happened and I am truly grateful to the IOC President Thomas Bach ... for having lifted the ban within two days,” Ramachandran said. India’s three athletes – luger Shiva Keshavan, cross- country skier Nadeem Iqbal and Alpine skier Himanshu Thakur — had marched un- der the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony but can now carry their own stan- dard on February 23 when the Games come to an end. “It’s like coming to the Olympics all over again so this is the real one,” said Keshavan. “Unfortunately my event is over but you know it is im- portant that India is back and all of us are very happy about that. I hope something like this doesn’t happen again in the future,” Keshavan said af- ter the small ceremony that also included a few visiting Indian fans. Two of the three athletes, including Keshavan, are cur- rently Olympic scholarship holders. Keshavan and Iqbal fin- ished 37th and 85th position in their respective events. Thakur competes on Febru- ary 19. AGENCIES Tricolour flies in Sochi, India in Oly fold IOA president N Ramachandran (second from left), Indian athletes and supporters celebrate after the tricolour was raised in Sochi Chennai: A visit to the capi- tal, which promised to help him win an ally for the Lok Sab- ha elections, turned out to be a huge disap- pointment for actor and DMDK chief Vijayakanth. Snubbed by BJP presi- dent Rajnath Singh and fail- ing to extract much from his meetings with Congress leaders, the actor returned to Chennai on Sunday after a two-day stay in New Delhi, virtually empty-handed. While Vijayakanth’s emissaries are said to have held talks with senior lead- ers of both the national par- ties, the BJP, apparently miffed by the DMDK leader simultaneously trying to ne- gotiate with the Congress, turned down the actor’s re- quest for an appointment with Rajnath Singh, claim- ing that the party chief was “busy”. Rajnath has no time for Vijayakanth TIMES NEWS NETWORK ‘Visit to meet PM’, P 4 Trichy: DMK chief M Karu- nanidhi on Sunday said his party will head a ‘progressive front’ in Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha election which will comprise allies that shun communal forces and em- brace secular principles. Addressing the party’s convention here, Karunanid- hi gave enough indication that he was not averse to ac- commodating more parties in a DMK-led alliance. “Which- ever party accepts the condi- tions we lay down, they will be a part of this winning alli- ance led by DMK,” he said. Karunanidhi said parties that desire to be a part of the DMK-led alliance should also endorse its ideologies of so- cial justice and reservation in education and jobs. Significant, however, was Karunanidhi’s remark that parties desiring to be a part of the DMK-led front should also support the Sethusamudram shipping canal project, the party’s flagship scheme. By batting for the project and making support for it a pre- condition for potential allies, he might have been sending out a signal for the inclusion of Congress in a DMK-led forma- tion. The UPA government has been a strong proponent of the Sethusamudram pro- ject, which has been strongly opposed by BJP and AIADMK on environmental grounds. Karunanidhi bats for bigger alliance of secular parties DMK chief M Karunanidhi at the Trichy convention of the party on Sunday FULL COVERAGE: P 7 Karthick S & Dennis Selvan TNN Chennai: Calvin, from the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, took the words out of Bill Watterson, his creator’s mouth when he protested, “You can drag my body to school, but my spirit refuses to go.” While smidgens of that sentiment will, most likely, al- ways remain in the student, most of Chennai’s schools, both new and established, have worked out ways and means to turn out accom- plished, well-rounded individ- uals. It’s always a hard decision, though, to choose the best school for your child. Should one focus on academics or sports? Arts or personality de- velopment? Liberal education or life-oriented skills? Can we get a school that provides it all? To assist in this search, The Times of India commis- sioned the country’s foremost market research group IMRB International to survey 170 schools in Chennai, and rank them on the basis of five pa- rameters: academic perform- ance, infrastructure, teaching quality, sports facilities and use of technology. The schools were graded by parents, teach- ers and alumni. The list of 170 was drawn up by education ex- perts and reporters. The par- ents, teachers and alumni did not rank the schools to which they were linked — instead, they gave their perceptions of the facilities in other schools. Reputed names, surprise winners in TOI edu survey Alternative edu system, P 6 City Schools Ranked By Educationists, Parents, Teachers And General Public TIMES NEWS NETWORK 1 Chettinad Vidyashram (CBSE) | R A Puram 2 Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Sec School | Pondy Bazar 3 SBOA Matric Higher Sec School | Anna Nagar West Extension 4 Kendriya Vidyalaya (CBSE) | IIT Campus 5 Maharishi Vidya Mandir (CBSE) | Chetpet 6 Vidyodaya Matriculation Higher Secondary Academy | T Nagar 7 Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School (CBSE) | Nungambakkam 8 Kendriya Vidyalaya (CBSE) | Gill Nagar 9 DAV Matriculation Higher Secondary School | Mogappair East 10 DAV Senior Sec School | Anna Nagar West Extn 1. Chennai Public School (CBSE) | Thirumazhisai 2. Shree Niketan Matriculation School | Tiruvallur 3. Velammal Matriculation School | Panchetti 4. Boaz Public (CBSE) | Gowrivakkam 5. RMK International (CBSE) | Gummidipoondi OVERALL TOP 10 SCHOOLS TOI and research agency IMRB conducted a perception survey among parents, teachers and public to rank the city’s schools REPORT CARD TOP 5 NEW-AGE SCHOOLS COOLEST SCHOOLS: P 2 New Delhi: Uncertainty hangs over the creation of Te- langana with Union minister Jairam Ramesh saying the government should not push through the contentious bill in the midst of a din or with- out discussion. Rural development minis- ter Ramesh told a news chan- nel, “Such a far-reaching bill should be discussed and debat- ed in Parliament and should not be pushed through in a cacophony or protests of a violent na- ture that are taking place in Parliament.” Coming a day ahead of the government’s likely at- tempt to seek a discussion on the Telangana bill on Monday, the comment raises questions about the fate of the bill should the protests resurface in the Lok Sabha. The lower House was rocked by vio- lence when the bill was introduced on Thursday, leading to the suspen- sion of 16 Andhra Pra- desh MPs cutting across party lines. While a majority of the an- ti-T contingent is out of Lok Sabha now, textiles minister K S Rao has indicated that those remaining would continue the protests should the division of Andhra Pradesh be taken up. As many as eight anti-Te- langana MPs, including min- isters, are still in the House af- ter escaping suspension. T-bill likely to be put off, hints Jairam Subodh Ghildiyal TNN Rout in Seemandhra, P 11 Salem: The 10-year-old girl, whose body was found hang- ing from a tree on a temple premises in a hamlet in Salem district, was raped and stran- gled to death, a team of doc- tors who conducted an autop- sy has said. While initial reports indicated that the girl’s murder was part of a temple sacrifice ritual by a gang searching for hidden treasure, Vazhapadi police said the girl was raped before she was murdered and hung from a tree. “Doctors at the Mohan Kumaramangalam Govern- ment Medical College and Hospital informed us after a preliminary postmortem ex- amination that the girl was raped and strangled to death,” Vazhapadi police inspector C Sivakumar told TOI. Howev- er, it could not be confirmed yet if she was gang-raped, he said. “She had injuries to the private parts. The viscera and vital organs have been sent for tests,” he added. 10-yr-old girl found hanging was raped V Senthil Kumaran TNN Injuries on face, neck, P 4 FAIRFR C February 21 - 23 w , 2014 Chennau Trade Centre Timings: 2pm to 8pm (21 t)& lOam to 8pm (22 d & 2 Enjoy HSB taste at your preferred rates - Prices reduced by 20% to 30% fromD1 fl W(I) I Kodukkum A . HOTEL ((1 B SARAVANA BHAVAN \. . 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