‘artyantI-p actIvItIes’ sachIn revolted after fear Ing · will resume under bilateral Air Bubble agreements with other countries hav - ... activities in 2016. Ministry of external

International operations will remain suspended in India till month-end but the special flight arrangements or ‘Air Bubble’ with countries like the US, France and Germany got a green signal from the government. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri confirmed The Daily Guardian’s story which we reported on Monday that the travel bubble would be announced by India this week and international flights will resume under bilateral Air Bubble agreements with other countries hav-ing certain conditions in the wake of Covid-19.

“Till international civil aviation re-claim its pre-Covid numbers, I think the answer will lie in the bilateral Air Bub-ble, which will carry a possible number of people under defined conditions as

countries are still imposing entry re-strictions including India,” said Puri.

The Aviation Minister also hinted at the resumption of international flights with at least three more countries amid this bilateral situation including a bub-ble with the UK soon, under which there would be two flights per day be-tween Delhi and London. “We are at a very advanced stage between three countries and it is a work-in-progress.

Air France will be operating 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Paris from 18 July to 1 August while the US will be flying 18 flights between 17 to 31 July, but this is an interim one. We have requested German carriers to permit flights to India and are process-ing it,” he added.

 Earlier, the US, France and Germany had asked India to allow their airlines to operate flights like Air India’s Vande Bharat Mission. Both the US and France have stopped allowing people to fly on VBM flights to Paris and the US with-out permission from later this month. 

 Air Bubble is a travel corridor be-tween two countries that wish to reopen their borders and re-establish connec-tions with each other. This is an exclu-sive partnership considered between the countries that have either largely eliminated the virus or trust the testing numbers.

IndIa gets 2nd consular access to JadhavNew Delhi: The indian govern-ment said on Thursday that its officials in islamabad have met Kulbhushan Jadhav after they were assured “unimpeded and unconditional consular access” to the former naval officer, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court for his alleged involvement in espionage activities in 2016. Ministry of external Affairs Spokesper-son Anurag Srivastava said:

“india has been requesting for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav. On the basis of assurances provided, our officials have proceeded for the meeting today.” however, the government said it will assess the situation after the consular of-ficials return and provide a report from islamabad.

no optIon but to prIvatIse aIr IndIa: hardeep purINew Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that no other option is left with Air india but to go in for privatisation. Replying to a question during a press briefing on civil aviation issues, the minister said that the airline cannot depend on state funding to survive. he cited that due to the Covid-19-induced economic tur-bulance the Centre might not be in a position to support the airline as massive financial resources have been deployed to safeguard the vulnarable sections of society.

army foIls InfIltratIon bId In J&K, one JIhadI KIlledSRiNAgAR: One terrorist was killed after the Army foiled an infiltration attempt at the line of Control (loC) in the Keran sector in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Thursday. The Army said that suspicious movement of unidentified persons was detected on Thursday morning in the Keran sector. They were inter-cepted by the Army and in the gun battle that followed, one terrorist was killed and an AK 47 rifle was recovered. “Terrorists trying to infiltrate were intercepted by our troops. One terrorist was killed and one AK recovered. Operation is in progress,” the Army said.

17 july 2020 | Issue 73 | new delhi

Dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot is understood to have

raised a banner of revolt af-ter receiving a tip off that his opponents were planning to implicate him in a case of sexual misconduct. The former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister apparently

decided to take recourse to the “offence is the best way of defense” formulation by pre-empting any accusations which were likely to be made by a tribal woman at the be-hest of his adversaries, by staking his claim to the top position in the state.

The timing of Sachin’s re-bellion took the party High Command by surprise and was construed by most sen-

ior leaders as an exercise which had been initiated solely at the prodding of the BJP that had been wanting to topple the Ashok Gehlot government. Although the eventuality of a possible tie-up with the saffron brigade is a matter of speculation, the moves by him are not entire-ly motivated by this probable liaison.

Sources said that Sachin

was in a panic mode and figured that if he made his reaction appear to be his dissatisfaction with his sen-ior, Ashok Gehlot, then the allegations of any kind of conduct bordering on moral turpitude may be seen as political retaliation by his rivals. This way, the charges would stand diluted. He was convinced that at this critical stage of his political career, a

serious charge of a criminal nature could jeopardise his future. This was too big a risk to take when he was being viewed as one of the best political prospects of his party. Hence the move to pre-empt such a move by staging a revolt 

According to sources, Sachin was let down by a senior party leader belong-ing to the Dungarpur-Ban-

swada region, who for more than a year had sworn his al-legiance to him, earning his full trust. Sachin considered him as one of his loyalists and it was due to this factor that his name was included as probably number one in the list of MLAs, whom the deputy CM claimed were with him. However, this “trusted lieutenant” had

sachIn revolted after fearIng sexual misconduct framing 

The last refuge

One-horned rhinos take shelter on higher ground at the flood-hit Kaziranga National Park, in Nagaon on Thursday. ANI

behInd the scene

bIg spIKe

purI speaKsfIrst In IndIa

With 32k new cases, Covid numbers cross 10 lakh mark

Sources say Sachin Pilot decided to jump the gun to pre-empt any accusations which were likely to be made by a tribal woman at the behest of his adversaries.

The country recorded a total of 32,695 Covid-19 cases in the last twenty-four hours which is the biggest single-day jump so far, pushing the total tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in India to 10,01,449. The number of deaths stood at 25,582. Ma-harashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal have reported the highest number of cases. India cur-rently stands at the third po-sition, with the US leading the table followed by Brazil.

Maharashtra reported the highest single-day spike of 8,641 new cases of the coro-navirus infections. The state tally now stands at 2,84,281. The state recorded 266 fresh deaths; the death toll now stands at 11,194. Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 1,498 fresh cases of the coronavi-rus infection, with 56 new fatalities. The total number

of cases in the city rose to 97,751 with this, with the death toll at 5,520. There are currently 23,694 active cases, 68,537 patients have been dis-charged so far.

The national capital record-ed 1,652 new Covid-19 cases and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking active cases to 17,407 and death toll to 3,545. There are 658 containment zones in Delhi. AIIMS Di-rector Randeep Guleria said,

“The number of Covid-19 cases is increasing in India because of the huge popula-tion of our country but, we have a good recovery rate and the mortality rate is also very low.”

 Haryana reported its sec-ond highest one-day spike with 696 fresh cases which took the state›s infection tally past the 24,000-mark. Three more deaths were reported due to Covid-19, The total Covid-19 deaths in the state rose to 322 while the number of cases increased to 24,002.

Active cases in the state cur-rently are 5,495 while 18,185 have been discharged after recovery.

 Uttar Pradesh reported its highest single-day spike in coronavirus numbers, with 34 fatalities and 2,061 infections pushing the total figures to 1,046 deaths and 43,444 cases. The state now has 15,723 active cases, while 26,675 patients have been discharged after treatment. In the past 24 hours 2,061 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 34 deaths were reported, pushing the total number of cases to 43,444 and deaths to 1,046.

Karnataka breached the 50,000-mark after the big-gest single-day spike was recorded of 4,169 fresh cases and a record 104 deaths re-ported in the last 24 hours. The day also saw a record 1,263 patients getting dis-charged after recovery. 51,422 positive cases have been con-

thIs Is the InItIal step In the path towards the country's fInest daIly newspaper.

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2tIrumala emerges as covId hotspot, 15 prIests test posItIve

11nothIng sIncere In foreIgn crIcKeters praIsIng IndIa

8suheldev: the hero we chose to forget

P2

The ZyCoV-D, the plasmid DNA vaccine designed and developed by Zydus and funded by the Department of Biotechnology, has initi-ated phase I/II clinical trials in healthy subjects, making it the first indigenously devel-oped vaccine for Covid-19 to be administered in humans in India.

The adaptive Phase I/II dose escalation, multi-centric study will assess the safety, tolerability and immuno-genicity of the vaccine. The human dosing of the vaccine marks a key milestone since the launching of the acceler-ated vaccine development programme for Covid-19 in

February 2020, according to a Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) statement.

In the pre-clinical phase, the vaccine was found to elic-it a strong immune response in multiple animal species like mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. The antibod-ies produced by the vaccine were able to neutralize the wild type virus in virus neu-tralization assay indicating the protective potential of the vaccine candidate.

This is to be noted that the Department of Biotechnolo-gy has partnered with Zydus to address rapid development of an indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 under the Na-tional Biopharma Mission. Renu Swarup,

department Secretary and Chairperson, BIRAC said, “This partnership with Zy-dus is to serve the country’s need for a vaccine to fight the dreaded pandemic which has put a billion people at risk.”

Chairman of Zydus Cadila, Pankaj R. Patel said, “This is a very important step in our fight against this pandemic and one that will help the na-tion combat this healthcare challenge.”

With ZyCoV-D, the com-pany has successfully es-tablished the DNA vaccine platform in the country us-ing non-replicating and non-integrating plasmid carrying the gene of interest making it very safe. Further, no vector response and with absence

India starts global operations via ‘Air Bubble’ with select countries

Zydus begIns human trIals of Its potentIal covId-19 vaccIne

‘antI-party actIvItIes’

Ashish sinhA New Delhi

P2

Rajasthan High Court will on Friday hear a petition filed by former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 Congress rebel MLAs against the notice issued by Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi to disqualify them as MLAs. The High Court will hear the case at 1 pm, while the As-sembly Speaker has assured the court that no action will be taken against the 19 MLAs till 5 pm.

In course of the hearing on Thursday, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioners, sought time to amend the petition, after which the single judge bench referred the case to a two-judge bench for hear-ing. Salve argued that MLAs wanted to challenge the con-stitutional validity of the no-tices and needed some time to file fresh petitions.

The Rajasthan High Court has granted time to Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident

Rajasthan HC to decide fate of Pilot, 18 other MLAs today

Civil Aviation Minister hardeep Puri.

sachin revolted after fearing sexual misconduct framing behInd the scenefIrst In IndIa

come a cropper last-dItch attempt

With 32k new cases, Covid numbers cross 10 lakh mark

Delhi Airport handled 20 million pieces of essential medical supplies

Tirumala emerges as Covid hotspot, 15 priests test positive

Ram temple trust to meet tomorrow to finalise ‘bhoomi pujan’ date

vhp maKes desI raKhIs to counter chInese stuff

2 news t h e da i ly gua r d i a n17 j u ly 2 0 2 0n ew d e l h i

Former Deputy Chief Minis-ter of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot fell into his own trap as Chief

Minister Ashok Gehlot shattered his dream of becoming next Nitish Kumar of Rajasthan. According to sources, the state BJP is also happy that the conspiracy did not succeed. However, Pilot is getting the support of the BJP from behind the scenes.

Sources say that it is with BJP’s help that Pilot has accommodat-ed the MLAs in hotels and from there, the BJP also helped him in making a strategy to go to court on Thursday. Keep in mind the case of former Congress leader Natwar Singh, Sachin Pilot is neither speak-ing against the Congress nor against the Gehlot government. His recent statement of not leaving the Con-gress is also thought of as a part of

the strategy. Pilot is succeeding in garnering

full sympathy through media bod-ies by talking about not leaving the Congress. He is seeking media’s help in releasing statements from sourc-es that he wishes to. Last Wednes-day, a statement from Rahul Gandhi was obtained by sources in which it was known that Rahul Gandhi had approached the chief minister about Pilot, although there is no evidence of the correct source. In the last three days, the media has issued many more such statements about Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in which the same message was given to the three leaders to be polite towards Pilot. Many leaders of the party did not fail to adopt this attitude of Pilot and cultivate sympathy. Apart from this act, continuous attempts were also being made to weaken Gehlot.

While CM Gehlot has been saying

from day one that BJP was conspir-ing to overthrow his government by buying and selling, he has also men-tioned that his own leaders have been involved in this conspiracy. On Wednesday, Gehlot directly ac-cused Pilot of conspiring with BJP to overthrow the government. Even after that, an attempt was made to garner media sympathy for Pilot.

According to sources, there were two formulae in place. The first for-mula was that 30-32 MLAs would be brought on the lines of MP and they should not be told anything. Then after the fall of the govern-ment, BJP will form the govern-ment. Ministries will be given. Later when by-elections will be held, the BJP will win and Pilot would be given one of the top five ministries at the Centre. All this was to be done before the Rajya Sabha elections so that the BJP could also win the sec-ond Rajya Sabha seat. 

CM Gehlot cracked down on the matter and the whole plan was put on hold. The high command was in-formed with the evidence of the case and now the strategy should be to re-main calm till the election. Sources say that Rahul Gandhi called Sachin Pilot, asked him to leave the post of state president. Sonia Gandhi had also given green light to the name for the new state president. But after the Rajya Sabha election was over, when asked to leave the post of state president, Pilot did not agree.

The second formula was to make a regional party after weaning away 30-32 MLAs, and then become CM with the BJP’s support, just like Nit-ish Kumar in Bihar. But CM Gehlot’s alacrity stopped this from happen-ing. Before this operation could be carried out, Gehlot had played his dice. The BJP, seeing the numbers not with Sachin, took its step back, leaving Sachin high and dry.

gehlot punctures pIlot’s dream of beIng raJasthan’s nItIsh KumarAjit mAinDolANew Delhi

shiv PujAn jhAPATNA

loKEsWArA rAohYDeRABAD

Anil BhArDWAj ChANDigARh

Ashish sinhA & ABul BAshAr KhAnNew Delhi/ AYODhYA

yAtEnDrA shArmANew Delhi

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Zydus begIns human trIals of Its potentIal covId-19 vaccIne

In an attempt to save itself from a Rajasthan-like situ-ation, the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment is now seen giving important positions to its legislators. Within three days, 25 MLAs were in-ducted into the government. Out of which 15 MLAs were made parliamentary secre-taries, 6 MLAs were made authority and 4 MLAs were appointed as chairmen of various boards and commis-sions. A total of 49 MLAs are currently present in the Con-gress government out of 69.

The appointments have

been going on for the past three days in Chhattisgarh and are being seen as an at-tempt to salvage the damage that the grand old party has undergone in Rajasthan. Former BJP minister Brij-mohan Agrawal said that what has happened in MP, Rajasthan will also happen in Chhattisgarh, “The entire Congress party is scared from Chhattisgarh to Delhi.”

Meanwhile, Congress Communications Depart-ment president Shailesh Ni-tin Trivedi said that the BJP is “delusional” and there is utmost public confidence in Bhupesh Baghel government.

Thursday early morning,

a list of chairman and vice-chairman of boards and commissions, which include four members of the legisla-tive assembly (MLAs), was released. On Wednesday night, the state government had appointed six MLAs as chairmen and vice-chairmen of two development authori-ties.  On Tuesday, the state government had appointed 15 MLAs, as parliamentary secretaries, who are touted to work in tandem with 12 ministers. It is being said that the government is mak-ing appointments to remove the displeasure of the legisla-tors, so that any kind of dis-content is not created. 

Rajasthan effect: Chhattisgarh Congress gives 25 MLAs positions in govt

‘antI-party actIvItIes’

conundrums

bIg spIKe covId tImes

alarmrIsIng numbers

waItIng for pm

vocal for local

raJasthan hc to decIde fate of pIlot, 18 other mlas today

of any in-fectious agent, t h e p l a t f o r m provides ease of

manufacturing the vaccine with minimal biosafety re-quirements (BSL-1).

The platform is also known to show much improved vac-cine stability and lower cold

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firmed in the state, which includes 1,032 deaths and 19,729 discharges. Meanwhile, neigh-bouring state of Kerala reported

722 new cases of coronavirus, the first time that the daily figure crossed 700 in the state. The total number of cases rose to 10,275.

West Bengal too recorded biggest single-day spike in infections with 1,690 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the virus count to 36,117. At least 23 people have succumbed to the infection raising the death toll to 1,023. The number of active COVID-19 cases currently stands at 13,679. In the past 24 hours 735 people have been dis-charged from hospitals following their recovery. Andhra Pradesh reported 2,593 new Covid-19 positive cases, taking the tally of people infected to 38,044. In the last 24 hours, 22,304 samples were tested while 18,159 are active cases.

The total number of discharged persons now stands at 19,393. Forty people died in the state in the last 24 hours and the death toll now stands at 492. 

Delhi airport, which is one of the big-gest airports in the country handled more than 20 million pieces of essen-tial medical supplies in the last three months of the nation-wide lockdown (April to June). According to the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), these imported medical kits were distributed across the country which contained face masks (10.3 million), gloves (6.2 million), goggles (4.9 million), bodysuits (1.9 million), shoe covers (1.4 million) and ventila-tors (250). 

 Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL, said,” In this challenging time, DIAL has played a very crucial role in the fight against Covid-19 by round the clock handling of international and domestic cargo movement. We ensured that essential medical kits reached not only in the big cities but in far-flung destinations of the country. In collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and all its stakeholders, DIAL is committed to serve this great nation.” Earlier, the Ministry of Civil

Aviation had designated Delhi Airport as a hub for import and distribution of essential medical supplies for the fight against COVID-19.

 The airport was able to handle these medical essentials with the help of its teams working round the clock at its cargo terminals and also set up a 3,800 sq. m. facility within a record time of 7 days. Innovative procedures were adopted to store these medical import cargos in separate export zones while strictly following the norms of social distancing, sanitisation and safety issued by the Indian government. In addition to essential medical supplies, Delhi Airport also acted as a hub in supporting the Central government’s flagship initiative ‹KRISHI UDAN› in the current challenging time by trans-porting agricultural products to inter-national and domestic markets.

 India resumed domestic passenger flights from 25 May after a gap of two months due to the Coronavirus trig-gered lockdown. Scheduled interna-tional passenger flights still continue to remain suspended. Meanwhile, car-go flights have been operating during the lockdown period as usual.

An increase in Covid-19 cas-es in Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara in Andhra Pradesh, has a sec-tion of employees, the honor-ary chief priest asking for a temporary ban on darshans. Ramana Deekshitulu, the former chief priest and pre-sent honorary chief priest, said, “There are 15 priests who have tested positive for coronavirus. Still 25 results are awaited. But the TTD ex-ecutive officer and assistant executive officer refuse to stop darshans.”

TTD Chairman Subba Reddy admitted that 140 of the staff of TTD tested posi-tive for Covid-19 but not even a single devotee tested posi-tive so far. The TTD is taking utmost care during these

testing times. Subba Reddy said, “There is no question of closing the temple since the situation is under con-trol. Those who are above 60 years of age kept out of their duties. Of the 140 in-fected, 70 people were cured and they are under home quarantine. All of them are healthy except one person.”

The services of the Ven-kateswara temple in Tiru-mala  resumed on 8 June with due protocols. At pre-sent, only 12,000 pilgrims are allowed daily because of the pandemic.  Recently the collector of Chittoor district, where Tirumala is situated, had declared Tirumala a red zone but removed it follow-ing pressure from the temple authorities. As on Thursday, there were 2,195 active cases with total positive cases be-ing 3,536 and 38 deaths.

Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust will hold a meeting on 18 July to decide the date for Bhoomi Pujan of Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya. After the meeting at the circuit house in Ayodhya, general secretary of Ram Janmab-hoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust Champat Rai told The Daily Guardian that the final deci-sion on the Bhoomi Poojan of Ram temple will be taken in the trust meeting. Champat Rai said that the recent meet-ing with Nripendra Mishra, chairman of Ram Mandir

Construction Committee, was only a courtesy call, where the agenda for the 18 July meeting was discussed.

Few days back, another date for Bhoomi Pujan for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya had been sent to PM Modi. According to the sources at Ram Janmab-hoomi Tirtha Kshetra Nyas, the invitation sent to the Prime Minister mentions the  muhurta  of shravani purnima (Raksha Bandhan), over which the PMO has to inform about the PM Modi’s availability for the date. A member of the trust said that an invitation has been sent to the PM on their behalf.

After the Modi government’s encirclement of China at the global level, the Sangh Parivar has also launched a campaign against Chinese products on the domestic front. And with the festival of rakhi round the corner, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has formulated a big strategy – by taking cue from PM Narendra Modi’s “vocal for local” call -- to indigenous rakhis to sell them at cheaper rates, in order to counter the Chinese rakhis.

The VHP has assigned the task of making rakhis to the workers of its women or-ganisation -- Durga Vahini. According to Vagish Issar, executive president of VHP’s Delhi province, Durga Vahini,

“Rakhi symbolises the love of brothers and sisters, so the sisters of Durga Vahini will

be making indigenous ra-khis on a large scale. While this decision will strengthen the self-reliant scheme, it will also benefit the country’s economy under the Swadeshi Abhiyan.”

Right now about 120 wom-en workers of Durga Vahini are engaged in making these rakhis and so far, more than 10,000 rakhis have been made. Under the campaign to boycott all Chinese products, the VHP has also appealed to the common people as well as shopkeepers and retailers not to sell Chinese rachis and in-stead sell indigenous rakhis.

The VHP plans that these indigenous Rakhis will be kept not only in shops but also for online sale. And their price will also be kept very low -- between Rs 5 and Rs 7. The VHP wants other social organisations to come forward for the manufacture of such indigenous products.

Congress MLAs to file an amended petition against the dis-

qualification notices issued to them by the Rajasthan state Assembly Speaker.

The petition stated: “None of the petitioners herein have either by express conduct or implied conduct, indicated to the members of their con-stituencies and/or the public at large of their intention to leave or voluntary give up the membership of Indian National Congress.” The pe-tition junked the allegations as baseless and said that pe-titioners had no intention to voluntarily give up member-ship of the Congress Party.

Petitioners claim that mere expression of disagreement with certain policies or deci-sions taken by some mem-bers of the party can›t be held tantamount to acting against interests of the party

or the continuation of the state government.

The petition also high-lights that even if a person is expelled from a political party, he/she continues to be a member of the said po-litical party for all practical purposes under Explanation (a) to Para (2) of the Tenth Schedule.

The plea seeks to quash notices on the ground that they were issued without jurisdiction, with an abuse of powers under Tenth Sched-ule to «stifle the freedom of speech» of petitioners and to impose the majoritarian views of the party on them.

The ruling Congress dis-pensation sought disqualifi-cation of MLAs from assem-bly for “anti-party activities” under the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, while they were given time to respond to the Speaker’s notice by Friday.

been all along working at the behest of some of his rivals and when the time came, he

did not show up to express his soli-darity with the young politician.

Sources claimed that this particu-lar leader had introduced Sachin to a widow and had wanted her to be nominated to a statutory body in state politics. Information reached the then Deputy CM that this al-leged “mole” from the opposite camp was about to level serious allegations against him, and he re-

acted by challenging his senior in a public manner 

In the meanwhile, through a for-mer friend who is now with the BJP, Sachin is reported to have met some top BJP functionaries, pledg-ing to bring in around 31 MLAs with him, in order to topple the Congress government. However, Ashok Gehlot had by then swung into action and somehow managed to keep his flock intact. The BJP camp was apparently also not able to entice more MLAs as two indus-trialists including a pharmaceutical

baron declined to shell out the cash.All this while, the media propped

up his cause and stories of the Gandhis trying to plead with him started doing the rounds when the fact is that neither Sonia nor Rahul spoke with him even once. Finding himself politically isolated, Sachin over the last two days made a futile attempt to somehow make the Con-gress High Command provide him with a face-saving formula. This the Gandhis were not willing to do since they were peeved with him.

While Sonia’s chief political aide,

Ahmed Patel, played a crucial role in controlling the damage, two emissaries—Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken—were sent by K. Venugopal to sort out the issue in Jaipur. The two leaders were not warmly received with some MLAs even questioning why Surjewala, who had himself done cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls in Harya-na, and Ajay Maken, who had lost a series of elections, were there. They had expected some senior leaders to act as observers and intermedi-aries.    

On Thursday, most senior leaders in the Congress were of the view that Sachin had crossed the Lak-shman Rekha. There were enough reasons for the party to now expel him, thus also sending a warning to his other friends who had tweeted in his favour on Tuesday. In fact, Sachin is skating on thin ice and stands absolutely outplayed by his more experienced opponents. Therefore, there is now a question mark over his immediate future which at one stage looked very promising.

The Nitish Kumar govern-ment was in for a major em-barrassment after a portion of a bridge that was inaugu-rated last month got washed away in the swelling waters of river Gandak. On Wednes-day, a portion of the approach road, just before the bridge, got completely washed away giving the Opposition an op-portune moment to reproach state government.

The bridge was inaugurated by Nitish Kumar on 16 June and in less than one month a portion of it caved in. 

The Opposition is now rak-

ing up the issue and wants a Judicial or CBI probe into the issue. The bridge had taken nearly 8 years to be completed and had cost Rs 263.48 crore. The bridge flowing within the Ramayan circuit is an impor-tant connecting link between East Champaran and Go-palganj, as well as Saran and Siwan districts. Talking to The Daily Guardian, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said, “This government is completely embroiled in corruption. In the last 15 years, there have been 55 scams in the state. The rats eat away embankments here, and a bridge after get-ting inaugurated collapses in 29 days.”

The local BJP MLA Mithiesh Tiwari, however, blamed the engineers and the local au-thorities while giving a clean chit to the Bihar CM. He said that he would raise the issue in Vidhan Sabha and that the officials deliberately did this to get Nitish Kumar a bad name. 

On the other hand, the JD-U has reacted sharply to the al-legations. Minister Neeraj Kumar said, “Lalu is in jail for corruption and his un-educated son is trying to level allegations on the present gov-ernment without even know-ing the facts.”

Meanwhile, the repair work at the breach site has started on a war footing.

bIhar brIdge caves In wIthIn a month of InauguratIon by cm

punJab cm asKs dgp to create specIal covId reserves

Expressing concern over the increasing cases and fatali-ties in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed the DGP to create special Covid Reserves by with-drawing police personnel de-ployed on non-essential du-ties for the next few months.

 Chairing a Covid review video conference, the Chief Minister also asked DGP Dinkar Gupta to tighten the noose against violators of safety norms, especially those found not wearing masks. He further directed the DGP to instruct the SSPs of cities with large caseloads to strictly enforce all curbs.

On Monday night of 3 May 1937, Dr Nicho-las Butler, president

of Columbia University, stood before the two hun-dred and fifty alumni of the School of Journalism at the annual dinner. On that oc-casion, he announced the year’s award winners for the famed Pulitzer Prize. The award for the most distin-guished novel went to Mar-garet Mitchell for the best-seller, Gone with the Wind and Robert Frost picked up his third Pulitzer for his poetry. Then an award was announced for the most dis-tinguished example of a re-porter’s work, “the test being strict accuracy, terseness, the preference being given to stories prepared under the pressure of edition time that redounds to the credit of journalism”.

For the first time in the history of the Pulitzer Prize among the winners was an Indian: Dr Gobind Behari Lal.

The first Indian to win a Pulitzer Prize later recalled, “I was very excited when I won it… having won it was protection too in my job and other ways...” Unknown to the world of journalism Dr Lal held a secret close to his heart. As a dangerous In-

dian revolutionary he was still being shadowed by the Hukumat-i-Britannia. In 1912 Dr Lal had landed in San Francisco after winning a scholarship at Berkeley to pursue a PhD. He soon be-came a key functionary in the Ghadar party movement in California and served time at the Alameda Coun-ty Jail in Oakland in 1918 for the crime of fighting for the freedom of his motherland — India. On being released from jail he went on to write for Hearst Group of Papers and become the nationally recognised science reporter. For his eagerly awaited col-umns, he interviewed some of the most distinguished scientific, literary and po-litical figures of the 20th century, including Albert Einstein, Mohandas K. Gan-dhi, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis and Enrico Fermi. After winning the Pulitzer the following day all the major newspapers throughout the US flashed the photo of the genial Indi-an reporter with a receding hairline and thick reading glasses. Later the minuscule Indian community in New York that was excluded from acquiring US citizenship at that time gathered at Rus-tom Wadia’s famous Rajah Restaurant on 48th Street in Manhattan to felicitate a fellow countryman. On that night the Indian-Americans honoured Dr Lal, the man who had effectively broken the glass ceiling for the Indi-ans who had made the melt-ing pot their adopted home.

Starting as farmhands and labourers over a hun-dred and fifty years ago, the Indian immigrants realised

the American dream with incredible resilience in the face of racism and economic challenges. Leaving behind the shackles of India’s colo-nial past they worked hard to make unique and lasting contributions in all sectors of American society: business, education, engineering, medicine, military service, spirituality, sports, tech-nology, and the arts. There exist thousands of stories of trailblazers and pioneers among the Indian-American community. Adapting to the land of opportunity, Indians are now leading American corporations, universities, institutions, and even states as Governors. Indians have made their presence felt in the Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the Capitol, and even within the closed gates of Hollywood. Throughout America they are respected for their “first world intel-lect”.

According to a National Geographic magazine study, “In recent years South Asians have been one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in the United States, increasing in population from 2.2 million in 2000 to 4.9 million in 2015. About eighty percent of the de-mographic is Indian, with a median annual household income of $100,000—nearly double the median for all U.S. households.” The significant population of Indian-Americans is today shaping American history and identity.

Recently, President Don-ald Trump lauded Indian-American scientists for their efforts in discovering the vaccine for the deadly coronavirus. “We have a tremendous Indian popula-tion in the United States and many of the people that you are talking about are work-ing on the vaccine too. Great scientists and researchers.” He said. Without a doubt today, Indian-Americans have emerged as the most successful ethnic commu-nity in the US — the most

competitive professional environment on Earth. The value Indians have brought to America has had an un-precedented bearing on di-plomacy and now trade.

The past two years have been colossal for the bilat-eral business partnership of India and the United States. Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi visited the US in September 2019 and fol-lowed by President Trump’s successful visit to India in February 2020 led to ex-ceptional levels of public engagement. In the last few months, American technol-ogy powerhouses Facebook and Google have accounted for major investments in the Indian corporate world. Bilateral defence trade is on an encouraging trajectory between India and the US, making it India’s second-largest arms supplier.

According to figures re-leased by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), India-US trade peaked at $142.6 billion in 2018, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.8%, even while several unsettled trade issues continue to be under discussion by both govern-ments. In 2018 the bilateral goods trade totaled $87.9 bil-lion, while trade in services amounted to an estimated $54.8 billion. Freshly re-leased bilateral goods trade data for 2019 indicates that the US has replaced China as India’s top goods trading partner, as well as that India has decreased its trade defi-cit to $23.2 billion, and is no longer listed among the top ten countries with the larg-

est trade deficits with the US. CII’s survey reveals that the total value of tangible in-vestments made by Indian companies into the US ex-ceeds $22 billion. Addition-ally, the 155 Indian compa-nies employ nearly 125,000 people across all fifty states. Despite the global economic downturn, Indian compa-nies continue to view the US as the land of opportunity. Of the companies surveyed by the CII, 83% plan to hire additional local employees in the next five years. About 77% of companies are plan-ning future investments in the US, while 44% are also considering funding future R&D initiatives stateside. With each passing year, by investing in the local com-munities across the US, In-dian companies are not only rooting themselves, they are guaranteeing that their in-vestment story will continue to blossom and bloom.

On the diplomatic front the US administration made the right noises during the recent India-China face-off on the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC). As the US elec-tions are drawing closer, Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has already said that if he wins the November elec-tions, a high priority for his administration would be to strengthen the US’ relations with its “natural partner” India.

Some forty years ago in the early 1980s in the US, the over ninety-year-old, Dr Gobind Behari Lal hav-ing won the George West-inghouse Award, the Gug-

genheim fellowship and a Padma Bhushan was still deciphering the latest sci-entific developments in the US. He translated the com-plexity of inventions in eas-ily understood language for the common man through his newspaper articles. In his lifetime he had seen the demand for the phenom-enal Indian “dimaag” grow exponentially in the US. He also witnessed how an im-migrant population from a poor developing country became the most educated highest income group in the world’s most advanced nation. Furthermore, San Francisco and the Bay Area that was once the nerve center for Indian freedom movement’s dramatic pe-riod came to be identified with India’s extraordinary entrepreneurial and soft-ware engineering skills.

On 2 April 1982, the Indi-an patriot and the foremost science editor of America passed away in San Fran-cisco. At his memorial Ran-dolph Hearst, Chairman of Hearst Corp said, “He was a truly remarkable gentleman and distinguished journal-ist.” A week before his death, the Indian-American Science writer had stated in an interview, “My interest is to create among the reader›s lust for the knowledge of sci-ence, which destroys super-stition and all kinds of false assumption and raises the power of the human brain.” Dr Lal would have been proud to see that decades later the Indian “dimaag” is now a global phenomenon. Combined with a demo-cratic tradition and youthful enterprise the Indian brain-power has proven time and again that we can compete and rise to the top as world-beaters no matter what the competition is like. And the US is just the starting point. Bhuvan Lall is the author of ‘The Man India Missed The Most Subhas Chandra Bose’ and ‘The Great Indian Genius Har Dayal’. He can be reached at [email protected].

The flourishing dream of Indian-AmericansThe significant population of the Indian-Americans in the United States is today shaping American history and identity with its dedication, hard work and presence of mind.

Strong State

IncredIble journey

Beijing and Washington, already at loggerheads over rising trade rifts to human rights issues in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, resulting in the US sanctions against Chinese officials, are not ready to mend fences. Particu-larly the US administration, currently facing the presi-dential election heat, will not mend ties with China as a strategic tool. In fact, a tough stand against China will give President Donald Trump-led Republicans some “saving” points against the Democrats, against whom the former was losing on the issue of Covid-19, say dip-lomats and strategic affairs experts in DC think tanks.

Perhaps a virtual China-US war is already working in the background. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent statement echoing a tough stand against Beijing over its “arbitrary expansion in the South China Sea” to the new sanctions strategy imposed to keep the Dragon on a tight leash to positioning three best aircraft carriers in the Indo-Pacific waters to doing regular air sorties with Taiwan, which is to frustrate Beijing’s dream and claims of being a regional superpower — these are noth-ing but dragging the world to a near war in the South China Sea. Beijing needs to reassess its strategies in the South China Sea as it is set to be the new flashpoint.

The trigger could be the rising friction between China and the regional ASEAN countries as the US will come to aid of its ally, eventually making it a battle between Beijing and Washington, something even the ASEAN countries are cautious about in the long run. It is a fact that if there is a maritime clash of China with rival claim-ants — Vietnam, Malaysia or the Philippines — the US will have an excuse to step in, and that could trigger a direct military conflict between China and the US. The South China Sea has been simmering for a while and even as the US and the world were battling corona in the first stage in early March, China had already started troubling Vietnam and Indonesia with aggressive in-trusion and harassment in waters. The US, which has been watching China’s strong defiance in the region and occasional triggers to challenge Washington’s sea supremacy, have got a reason to employ a tougher ap-proach against China.

If one reads what David Stilwell, US Assistant Secre-tary of State for East Asia, said recently, the US is going to get tougher than earlier against China. At a confer-ence organised by the Center for Strategic and Inter-national Studies (CSIS), Stillwell said: “There is room (more sanctions) for that. This is a language the Chinese understand — demonstrative and tangible action.” The tough sanction approach by the US is to check China’s expanding footprint in the maritime region, which is rich in mineral deposits, seafood, strategic sea lanes, and untapped oil. Beijing’s behaviour in the South China Sea, which includes strong-arm tactics against neighbours and arbitrary expansion, flouting all international trea-ties and diplomatic norms are a big irritant for Capitol Hill policy makers. No wonder, the Trump administra-tion has started flexing its military muscle in the strategic waterway and pressing its regional partners and allies to take a stronger stand against China.

Beijing needs to improve its relations with its neigh-bours to avoid any further confrontation with ASEAN powers disputing its claims in the South China Sea and threatening to drag the Dragon to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Beijing should not miscalculate what it did last month in a bloodied LAC clash with New Delhi in Galwan Valley in Ladakh region of India, which not only made China take a heavy casualty, but also galvanised the world to stand by India’s side against China. A similar situation in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region, which is most possible in current conditions, is something China can’t afford.Maneesh Pandeya

perspectiveChina Cornered

beIjIng needS to Improve ItS relatIonS wIth neIghbourS

When Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi gave a bold and inspiring speech to the sol-diers, including a reference to the Sanskrit half-verse “Veer Bhogya Vasundhara”, in Ladakh, many had hoped that India would finally shed its shy and disempowering at-titude to strategic issues and recalibrate its approach to one coming from a position of strength.

However, considering how the Indian government finally had a diplomatic breakthrough with the Chi-nese apparently disengaging themselves at some positions

across LAC, it appears that we have once again chosen to limit ourselves to cosmetic victories, rather than taking the bull by its horn by militar-ily pushing back China from our territories. The fact India has chosen to not take any proactive action as on date despite extreme provocation from the Chinese, in effect implies that India may con-tinue with their disempower-ing and appeasing attitudes towards its enemies, rather than employ Kaultilyan strat-egies to subdue them.

Nevertheless, let us take a brief look into what it would mean if India were to get seri-ous about making “Veer Bho-gya Vasundhara” a corner-stone of its strategic vision. The half-verse is the motto of Rajputana Rifles, one of the oldest rifle-regiments of Indi-an Army, and as such, it could have been a widely prevalent notion among the Rajput communities even before the constitution of the regiment. The oldest textual reference to the half-verse appears to be

in the Shiva Purana, which is one of the eighteen major Puranas. Though, Bhagavad Gita echoes the idea that a Kshatriya if he wins the war will enjoy the kingdom, and if he loses the war, he attains heaven, the words used are different from the half-verse under consideration.

A clear articulation of how a state’s strategic approach should be if it were to make the half-verse its cornerstone appears in Mahasubhashi-tasamgraha, an anthology of Subhashitas, which are a collection of Sanskrit epi-grammatic poems, authors of which are often anonymous. The said Subhashita reads thus: “Casting off the incom-petent (king), the competent (king) enjoys (the land); of lords of men, not there is mercy, etc. The hero’s enjoy-ment is the earth.” In simply language, what the verse says is that the capable and competent rulers subdue and remove the incompetent and incapable rulers (enemies) without showing any mercy

to them, and having thus ac-quired newer territories, the brave and capable kings enjoy the earth.

This maxim goes against everything that modern, colonised Indians have been taught to believe. Our school education and media narra-tive have created a modern myth that Indian rulers al-ways fought only in defence, but never offensively to se-cure their respective interests. However, the fact is we not only have historical evidences of Indian kings continuously striving to expand their ter-ritories, but also have civilisa-tional teachings in texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata which specifically articulate why rulers must employ offensive strategic policies rooted in strength to secure overall wellbeing of the state and provides frameworks and tools like Rajasuya Yajna to accomplish the same.

Moving on, in the context of incompetent rulers/gov-ernments, they could be of three kinds. First is the in-

competency with respect to dharma, wherein the govern-ments will be entirely unethi-cal, inhumane, and oppresses its citizens in multiple ways. Second is the incompetency with respect to artha, wherein the government’s policies are full of corruption and in-competence with respect to economy, national security, foreign policy, etc. Third is the incompetency with respect to kama, wherein the state fails to facilitate the happiness and wellbeing of its citizens. The opposite attributes belong to competent governments.

If we are to apply this frame-work to two of India’s hostile neighbours — Pakistan and China — we can see that while Pakistan is a failed state with respect to all the three crite-ria, communist China with its unethical and oppressive ac-tions towards its own citizens, especially those belonging to its occupied territories, be it in Tibet, Hong Kong, or Xin-jiang, does badly with respect to dharma. However, China is competent with respect to

artha and has a clear strate-gic and civilisational vision. But, its record with respect to kama is difficult to gauge because of the strict govern-ment control over free speech.

Coming to India, we can see that despite being under colonial rule followed by governance based on Neh-ruvian secularism that has de-rooted much of Indian people and its institutions from its civilisation, we still do quite well on the param-eters of dharma and kama. It is in the department of Artha that we as a state are severely lacking. While our economy has greatly improved post economic liberalisation, our strategic vision and policies in particular are still guided by disempowering principles which are self-defeating and harmful to our civilisation. Because our strategic vi-sion is rooted in weakness and delusion, we project India as being a weak state, despite having a lot of po-tential. Forget China, India comes across as a weak-state

even in its engagement with countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. Even Sri Lanka appears as a stronger state in its dealing of domestic Is-lamic extremism than India.

It is high time that the Indi-an leadership does a serious thinking about how it wants to project the country glob-ally. Whether it wants India to remain a weak state which would eventually be subdued by stronger nations like Chi-na and the US, or does it want India to emerge as a strong state confident enough to di-rectly confront its enemies, be it China or Pakistan.

Let us not forget that Indian civilisation has continuously lost territories to invaders, colonisers, and enemy na-tions in the last 1,200 years, including after achieving po-litical Independence in 1947. Unfortunately, we have never proactively taken any steps to recover those lost territories post-Independence. We have not even made a single at-tempt to reclaim either POK or Aksai Chin that we lost

post-Independence. It is in this context that our current refusal to engage China mil-itarily despite provocation must be seen. The restraint is rooted not in the statesman-ship, but in the weakness of our political leadership and their mistaken notions of eth-ics and statecraft.

However, if we were to now recalibrate our strate-gic vision and make ‘Veer Bhogya Vasundhara’ its cornerstone, all this could change. India could then not only recover the lost territo-ries that rightfully belong to it, but we could also emerge as a global superpower within a few decades, which in-turn could pave way for it to truly become a ‘Vishwa-Guru’. Hope somebody in our political leadership is listening. Nithin Sridhar is an author, speaker, and a commentator on religion, politics and society. He is editor of IndiaFacts and chief curator of Advaita Academy. The writer thanks Angirasa Shrestha for his inputs.

Time for India to recalibrate its strategic approachNithiN sridhar

3comment & analysisthe daily guardian17 july 2020

new delhi

According to a ‘National Geographic’ magazine study, “In recent years South Asians have been one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in the United States, increasing in population from 2.2 million in 2000 to 4.9 million in 2015.

opinionBhuvan LaLL

Haryana has witnessed a 26.71% fall in cases of road accidents during the first half of 2020 in comparison to the corresponding period of last year. From about 30 daily cases of mishaps reported in 2019, the number fell to 22 in 2020. Similarly, the road fatalities declined by 26.77% between January and June while injuries to persons also saw an impres-sive dip of 26.88%.

Giving this information in Chandigarh on Thursday, Additional Director Gen-eral of Police (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh Virk informed that reduction in road mishaps and fatalities has been possible with better traffic safety mea-sures, improved enforcement of traffic regulations by the field units as well as continuous awareness about road and

traffic safety. However, the lockdown en-forced to contain the spread of Covid-19 from March 24 to May 31 also contrib-uted to a significant dip in road accidents in the state.

Virk said that the number of road mishaps between January and June this year came down to 4,024 from 5,491 in 2019, showing a fall of 1,467 cases. The incidents of casualties also went down by 678 cases, from 2,532 in 2019 to 1,854 in 2020.

Similarly, incidents of injuries to people also saw an impressive decline of 1247 cases. In total, 3,391 cases of injuries to persons were reported till June 2020 as compared to 4,638 last year. “We are hoping that road mishaps could be reduced further. In addition to the awareness on road safety, our field units are also keeping a close eye on drunk driving and speeding, one of the major causes of accidents,” added Virk.

Haryana witnesses decline in road misHaps in last 6 montHsRavindeR MalikCHANDIGArH

The economic activities all over the country have come to a stand-

still due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Jindal Steel Private Limited has a record production of 1.67 million tonnes, the highest ever production in the company’s history with the highest sale in this quarter. So, we spoke to Vidya Ratan Sharma, managing director at JSPL, to understand this unique success story.

Talking about how they achieved this extraordinary feat, Sharma said, “When Covid-19 started, we took a timely decision and we started exporting. Since most of the ports were open, and the Indian Railways was also pretty free we got that advantage. Due to Covid-19 most countries in Europe and in South-East Asia were suffering and the steel mills were not doing that well. JSPL grabbed the opportu-nity to increase its market share, finding opportunities under stress. JSPL took a leaf from Steel Minister Dhar-

mendra Pradhan’s interview and said, “Mr. Pradhan had told that the pandemic situ-ation is going to stay for the next two to three years and we must gear up to produce more for exports.”

Sharma highlighted the good approach of the Aat-manirbhar Bharat cam-paign. This campaign by the Prime Minister is going to open a lot of new opportuni-ties for the startups as well as the MSMEs, he said. “I think, down the line in six months’ time, we should be in a posi-tion not to import too many things in the country and we will try to develop those

components or consumables that are required to run a steel industry within the country. So, we are getting quite a bit of encouragement from the government agen-cies and also from the Indian Railways and Metro Rails and they are also now work-ing on how to promote and encourage the local space. Especially, I think, the steel imports will be minimised to a negligible amount in times to come,” he said.

Adding that the Indian steel industry is ready to meet the country’s require-ments, he said: “The coun-try today produces around

110 million tonnes of steel. In times to come, I think by 2025, we should reach 200 million tonnes of steel. We have to develop the facili-ties within the country and then only we can switch over like in medicines, software, hardware, and so many other items in which China is very aggressive and very competitive. So India will have to develop these facili-ties within the country.”

To increase opportunities for corporate India the coun-try has to prepare a policy. “It is not the private sector alone that can do it,” Sharma said adding that there should be

a company policy from the government side that what kind of engagement and promotion they are going to give to the people who are coming from China to India. According to him, it’s impor-tant to give them a congenial atmosphere so that they get one-table clearance.

Speaking on India’s move on China, Sharma said that it’s a good move and oppor-tunity but there are things that are yet to be decided. “The Government of In-dia will have to act as PR,” he said, adding that some links should be set up by the government in between the people who want to exit China and want to put up their shops in the rest of the world and how India can offer them a better and a trouble-free environment. “We should think that the new year has started in June and now we are picking up and we have a good 10 months’ time to recoup,” he said. The power tariff should be brought down and these two moths should be de-leted from the system and we should look forward to building a great nation, he added.

How to become self-reliant in fields of power & steel

covid impact?interview

ouR coRRespondentNeW DeLHI

news plus the daily guardian17 july 2020new delhi4

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd MD Vidya Ratan Sharma suggests several ways to become both self-reliant as well as self-sufficient in an exclusive interview with NewsX.

Law & Society

legally speakingthe daily guardian17 july 2020

new delhi 5

Five days ago, on July 13th, a Bench of the Supreme Court com-

prising Justice U.U.Lalit and Justice Indu Malhotra pronounced the verdict in the Sree Padmanabhas-wamy Temple case, which was pending before it since 2011. The 218-page verdict has finally put to rest all the unnecessary controversy surrounding the world-renowned Temple which is the object of worship and reverence for millions of devotees of the Presiding Deity the world over. The Temple and the Travancore Royal Family, which have been in the news for all the wrong reasons, stand vin-dicated by the judgement of the Apex Court which has restored the control and management of the Temple and all its assets to the titu-lar head of the Family. This was the result of a detailed analysis of the nature of relationship between the Temple and the Head of the Family (“Ruler”).

The relationship itself makes for an extremely interesting study not just from a religious or a legal perspective, but also from a civilizational perspec-tive because it informs us of the pride of place given to places of worship in and by the civilization of this ancient land and its rulers. Since unfortunately neither the Indian State nor schools nor families have either the intent or awareness of these fundamental un-derpinnings of Bharat, the judgement of the Supreme Court could perhaps serve as a catalyst to start a dis-cussion on such issues. In fact, a comparison between the verdict of the Kerala High Court of January 30, 2011 in the very same case which resulted in the mat-ter reaching the Supreme Court, and the current out-come itself speaks volumes of the identity crisis faced by the Bharatiya/Indic civi-lization.

The histories of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the erstwhile Travancore Princely State are inextricably inter-twined, so much so that the Deity of the Temple was treated as the Ruler of the Princely State thanks to the dedication of the Kingdom of Travancore in January 1750 to the De-

ity by its legendary ruler Sree Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma. This author, who represented the Chief Thantri (Priest) of the Temple and devotee organizations as interve-nors in the proceedings before the Supreme Court to present their challenge to and grievances with the judgement of the Kerala High Court, had the oc-casion to place before the Court several Indic sources and colonial records which established the antiquity of the relationship between the Travancore Royal Fam-ily and the Temple even be-fore 1750.

These sources attest to the fact that the relationship is traceable to the very found-ing of the Family and the consecration of the Temple, and at the very least to the dedication of the State to the Deity in 1750 which ef-fectively made the king the vice-regent of the Ruler, namely the Deity, and the king became “a Sree Pad-manabhadasa”, an eternal servant of the Deity, the earthly representative of the Deity and a custodian of His Temple and His prop-erty. All decisions were taken in the name of the Deity and all covenants and treaties were signed by the king on behalf of the Deity as His Padmanabhadasa. All Royal Proclamations were issued in the name of the Deity who was also re-ferred to as the “Deshana-than” i.e. Lord of the State.

Every successor of Sree Anizham Thirunal Mar-thanda Varma abided by this tradition, including when the Princely State of Travancore acceded to the Indian Union in 1949 under the stewardship of the then king Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma who signed the instrument of accession as the Sree Padmanabhadasa. Even af-ter the accession and after the abolition of royal titles and privileges by the 26th amendment to the consti-tution in 1971, the tradi-tion has continued till date wherein every titular head of the Travancore Royal Family has the prefix Sree Padmanabhadasa before his name, which informs the very identity of the Family and the erstwhile State.

On the Family’s commit-ment to the Deity and the Temple, Shri V.P.Menon, best known as the Secre-tary to the Government of India in the Ministry of States under Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, record-ed in his book “The Story of Integration of the Indian States” as follows:

“He (the Maharajah) added that he governed the State on behalf and as a

servant of Sri Padmanabha and that he attached great importance to this position being maintained; that if no satisfactory solution on these points was possible, and if the Government of India still insisted on the in-tegration of the two States he would rather abdicate than act against his convic-tions…. Lastly, he felt that on account of the dedica-tion of the State to Sri Pad-manabha and the special loyalty and devotion which the rulers of Travancore owed to that deity, it would not be possible for him to take the usual oath of office as Rajpramukh…. I reached Trivandrum on 21 May and had several meetings with the Maharajah. I told him that, with goodwill on both sides, there was no reason why we should not come to an agreement. The first hurdle was the Maharajah’s inability to take the oath of office as head of the State. The devotion of the present Maharajah to Sri Padma-nabha borders on fanati-cism; he rules the State not as its head but as a servant of the tutelary deity.

A problem peculiar to Travancore-Cochin related to the properties attached to temples, called Devas-woms. It is necessary to give some explanation of the history of the Devas-woms in each of these States. Travancore had been ruled by an unbroken line of Hindu kings from the earliest times and had retained throughout the centuries its essential char-acter of a Hindu State. The most important temple in this State has always been, and still is, the Sri Padma-nabha temple, richly en-dowed and possessing very extensive landed proper-ties….

I discussed the question with the ministries, as well as with the Maharajah of Travancore. Eventually we came to an agreement by which the annual payment of Rs.51 lakhs made to the temples by the Travancore Government would be continued and out of this amount a sum of Rs.6 lakhs would be contributed an-nually for the maintenance of the Sri Padmanabha temple.

The most difficult issue related to the administra-tion of this grant. After pro-longed discussion it was agreed that the administra-tion of the Sri Padmanabha temple should be conduct-ed under the control and supervision of the Maha-rajah through an executive officer to be appointed by him. It was decided that there should be a commit-tee of three Hindu mem-bers nominated by the Ma-harajah to advise him; and that one of the three should be nominated on the advice of the Hindu members of the Council of ministers. With regard to the other temples in Travancore, a body to be called the Tra-vancore Devaswom Board would be set up. This Board would consist of three Hin-du members, one of whom would be nominated by

the Maharajah, one elected by the Hindus among the Council of Ministers and one by the Hindu members of the Legislative Assembly of the Union.

…These decisions were subsequently incorporated in the covenant. Later on, when the Constitution of India was being finalized, a provision was included to safeguard the payment to the temples in Travancore by making it charged and non-votable by the Legisla-ture of the Union.”

These extracts, which the Supreme Court has re-produced in its judgement, make it abundantly clear that the Travancore Royal Family placed such impor-tance on its relationship with the Deity and the Tem-ple that it became perhaps the most important aspect of the negotiations with the Indian Union at the time of the State’s accession. It is precisely as a consequence of these negotiations that Article VIII of the Cove-nant jointly entered into in May 1949 by the then rul-ers of the Princely States of Travancore and Cochin with the Indian Union ex-pressly guaranteed to the then Ruler of the Travan-core State, Shri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, and his successors the right to control and manage the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

Pursuant to the said Ar-ticle VIII of the Covenant, Chapter III (Sections 18-23) of the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institu-tions Act 1950 (‘the TCHRI Act 1950’), which is the legislation that applies to administration of Temples in Kerala by Devaswom

Boards (religious endow-ment boards), specifically deals with the Sree Padma-nabhaswamy Temple and expressly codifies the rights guaranteed under the Cov-enant to the Travancore Royal Family. As negotiated during the accession, under Sections 18-23 of the said Act, the Ruler of the Family is empowered to adminis-ter the Temple through an Executive Officer appoint-ed by him, with the advice of a three-member Advi-sory Committee nominated again by him.

Despite such clear codi-fications of the sacred re-lationship in the Covenant as well as in the TCHRI Act, it was called into ques-tion in a Writ Petition filed in 2009 before the Kerala High Court by a tenant, a practising advocate, when he was asked by the Tem-ple’s management to va-cate the premises owned by the Temple. This led to the judgement of 2011 of the Kerala High Court in a batch of writ petitions and civil suits, wherein the High Court held that the Head/ ‘Ruler’ of the Tra-vancore Royal Family and his successors had no right to control or manage the af-fairs of the Sree Padmanab-haswamy Temple after the death in 1991 of the Ruler who had signed the Cove-nant, and also owing to the abolition of all royal titles by the Constitution (Twen-ty Sixth Amendment) Act, 1971.

To add to this, the High Court had issued detailed directions which empow-ered the State Government of Kerala to constitute a trust to take over the con-trol of the Temple, its as-

sets and management. Critically, such a trust was authorised by the High Court’s judgment to open all the vaults of the Temple, inventorise all their con-tents and create a museum to exhibit all the ‘treasures’ of the Temple for the pub-lic, devotees and tourists on a payment basis within the premises of the Temple. In other words, apart from re-writing the history of the relationship between the Family and Temple, the High Court’s judgement severed the nexus which is central to the Temple and its guardians. And the State Government, supposedly a secular body, was invited to take over a religious in-stitution and throw open all that was held as sacred for public viewing in a mu-seum on a payment basis within the sacred premises of the Temple, regardless of whether the visitor was a practising Hindu or not.

Simply put, the object of “Darshan” was reduced to an article of “Pradarshan” and a source for collection of revenues to benefit a secular State. So much for all the pontification and platitudes on principles of secularism and the sepa-ration of the State and Temple which one gets to hear so often in the pub-lic discourse. Clearly, the sanctity of the Temple as well as the idea of secular-ism were both casualties of the High Court’s judge-ment. To make matters worse for the Temple, its security risks skyrocketed because of all the irrespon-sible “treasure” talk by Governments which were eyeing them. This, in turn, made the Temple more de-

pendent on the state for its security. Long story short, everything that is uncon-stitutional, untenable and unsustainable with state control of Temples was fa-cilitated by a judgment of the constitutional court of the most literate state of the country.

In stark contrast, the Su-preme Court’s judgement has set the balance right by recognising the sacred and special relationship between the Travancore Royal Family and the Tem-ple which was evidenced and endorsed by Article VIII of the Covenant. The Court has recognised that Article VIII represents the acknowledgement by the Indian Union of the special relationship of Shebaitship (the earthly custodian and representative of the Deity) that exists between the Tra-vancore Royal Family and Lord Padmanabhaswamy. The Court has further rec-ognised that the relation-ship was independent of and unrelated to any titles bestowed upon Indian rul-ers by the British. There-fore, according to the court, the 26th Amendment of 1971 to the Indian Consti-tution has no bearing on the pre-existing special relationship between the Travancore Royal Family and the Temple since the amendment was meant to abolish only those titles and privileges which came in the way of the republi-can character of indepen-dent India.

The Court has held cat-egorically that Article VIII of the Covenant forms the basis of Chapter III (Sec-tions 18-23) of the TCHRI Act 1950 which specifically deals with the adminis-tration of the Sree Pad-manabhaswamy Temple, and which has never been amended by the State Gov-ernment of Kerala despite having undertaken mul-tiple amendments to the TCHRI Act 1950 before and after the 26th amend-ment, and even after the death of the original sig-natory to the Covenant in 1991. As a way forward the Court has laid down an administrative struc-

ture based largely on the suggestions of the Travan-core Royal Family which ensures that the overall control and supervision remains the titular head of the Family as promised in the Covenant and envis-aged by the TCHRI Act. However, the Supreme Court has left it to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Tem-ple to bear its security ex-penses, which is a matter of concern given the fact that the Temple’s exposure to security risks was caused by the constant talk of its ‘treasures’ by both the State and Union Governments between 2009 and 2011. Therefore, it would only be just and fair for either of the two governments or both to bear the security expense of the Temple.

All said and done, while the Supreme Court’s ver-dict restores the relation-ship between the Temple and its guardian Family which is bound to gener-ate a lot of debate around its specifics, the larger civi-lizational question which merits deeper delibera-tion is the treatment of the nerve centres of the Indic civilizational identity and their traditions by contem-porary institutions, which seem completely cut off from the moorings of this land. If every centre of civilizational importance has to constantly fight for its identity and survival as supplicants before the contemporary institutions of its own land, how dif-ferent is the situation from the colonial era? If contem-porary institutions cannot appreciate the sanctity of Indic religious spaces and view them primarily and merely as public spaces for revenue collection, are they doing justice to constitutionally guaran-teed fundamental rights and expectations of such spaces and their adher-ents? Since constitutional morality appears to be the flavour of the season, and has been for quite a while, the question that perhaps deserves to be asked and answered is, which canon of constitutional morality permits such treatment of institutions and practices native to this land? Or is such treatment reserved exclusively for institutions and practices native to this land?

Unfortunately, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to such questions has been the norm for decades now, the fond hope being that the situation has turned the corner thanks to the Supreme Court’s land-mark verdict in this case. Will a similar civilization-ally aware and sensitive ap-proach be adopted in simi-lar matters which relate to Indic traditions? Is the verdict the new normal or an exception? Will we con-tinue to the pit the civiliza-tion against the Constitu-tion in adversarial modes? Only time will tell. J. Sai Deepak is an Advocate practising as an arguing coun-sel before the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court.

The Sree Padmanabhaswamy verdict: A case for Indic civilisational identityEvery successor of Sree Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma abided by this tradition, including when the Princely State of Travancore acceded to the Indian Union in 1949 under the stewardship of the then king Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma who signed the instrument of accession as the Sree Padmanabhadasa.

indic viewsJ. Sai Deepak

Despite such clear codifications of the sacred relationship in the Covenant as well as in the TCHRI Act, it was called into question in a Writ Petition filed in 2009 before the Kerala High Court by a tenant, a practising advocate, when he was asked by the temple’s management to vacate the premises owned by the temple.

China is not the middle kingdomIt is the middle-aged kingdom

Why is China doing what it is doing? Two recent ar-

ticles highlight the dichot-omy of the situation. The article ‘China Talks of US Decoupling and a Divided World’ highlights the views of Zhou Li, a high ranker in CCP. He cautions China to prepare for shrinking exter-nal demand, disruption of supply chains, coexistence with coronavirus over the long term, an outbreak of a global food crisis (in China?) and a resurgence of inter-national terrorism (Tibetan and Uighur?). The Chinese economy is painted grim due to reduced exports, stalled production, blocked international logistics, raw materials lacking, and low productivity. Stable growth and job security are under high pressure. The other ar-ticle talks of China’s Uncon-ventional Levers of Power in World Affairs. The un-conventional levers include building and exploitation of economic dependence, unfair practices, influence operations, capture of the elite, coercion through min-imal force application but maximum reprisal prom-ise, capture of international communication enterprises and creeping territorial ex-pansion.

Things do not add up. A wannabe superpower with a grim economic outlook does not go around antago-nising its neighbors without a reason. We need to look elsewhere.

Historical perspectiveRecent Chinese History (1899 onwards) has five clear cycles.  Significant events of each cycle are list-ed. The Chaotic Cycle (1899-1948): Boxer Rebellion against the waning Manchu Qing Dynasty, Beiyang war-lordism , Rise of National-ists, End of imperialism,

Proclamation of Republic of China , Rise of Communists, Japanese invasion, Long March by Mao (1934-35), Civil war, and Famine (10 million dead). Mao’s Great Leap Cycle (1949-76): Annexation of Tibet, Great Leap Forward, Greatest Manmade famine (36-40 million dead), Sino Indian War, 10-years of Cul-tural Revolution, Nixon’s visit and Economic reforms. Deng’s Consolidation Cy-cle (1977- 97): Open-door policy, Four Moderniza-tions, One-child policy, Vietnam War, Tiananmen Square incident, Reversion of Hong Kong reverts, One country  two systems, Third largest economy and Super-power aims by 2050. The Cycle of Rise (1998- 2013): Second largest econ-omy, Joining WTO, World’s biggest exporter, Space en-try, ASAT capability, Beijing Olympics, and Weathering  global financial crisis. Aging demographics surface. The Overheated Expan-sion Cycle (2013 till date): Xi’s lifetime presidency, effi-ciency and anti-corruption drive, cooling economy, BRI and CPEC , Made in China 2025, Military expan-sion and modernisation, Trade war, South China Sea claims, Wuhan Virus out-break, Hong Kong crisis, and Sino-Indian crisis.Standout issues: Chinese sense of superiority is his-torical. It spurs the national ambition of attaining Su-perpower status. Deng set that to happen in 2050. The current cycle has seen ex-traordinary expansion of Chinese economic, military, and political power. The ‘China Dream’ of being a su-perpower was preponed to be achieved by 2030. Prima facie it seems over ambi-tious. Till one sees the de-mographics. Also, the pop-ular thinking that China has a long-term strategic view of things is a myth not borne by its history. The past cen-tury has been cycles of self-humiliation, internal strife, and revisionism where the state has promised prosper-ity and nationalism for sur-render of personal liberties.

China’s large population, is aging fastest due to fall-ing birth rates and rising life expectancy (see graph). Chinese birth rates are the lowest for 70 years despite

easing the one-child policy. China has approximately 24 million marriageable males without brides. It explains bride trafficking from Paki-stan! Its population is pre-dicted to peak at 1.4 billion. Working hands and taxpay-ers are decreasing.  Overall dependency is increasing. A smaller working-age popu-lation must support a big-ger, retired population. So-cial security net is minimal in China. Every working Chinese must support two parents and four grandpar-ents. Commonly known as the 4-2-1 phenomenon. Chi-na’s economic growth was based on labor-intensive manufacturing . The drop in labor force, increases la-bor costs, makes goods less competitive.

race against timeThe Middle-Aged King-dom will get old before it gets rich. Beyond 2030, China’s economic growth faces a cap, when the over-all dependency ratio starts spiking. If China must be a superpower, it must get rich before it becomes old and decline sets in. It is a race against time to 2030.

The ‘get rich before old scheme’ has four drivers. One, productivity-enhanc-ing reforms to snare the rich and lazy as well as the poor and unable.  Cre-ate inalienable depend-ence through a data driven manufacturing web. Two, the BRI and CPEC; which debt trap poorer countries. A slumlord mentality to garner money and power

at the bottom of the heap. Three, the ‘Made in China 2025 Plan’, which envisages transformation of a low end ‘Made in China’ label to the high end ‘Create in China’ symbol. Ten core areas were targeted for technological ascendancy and high value returns. Huawei was part of this drive. Four, build a world class military to pro-tect its interests and sort out rivals. The first driver is the basic one. The others rest on that. Incidentally the only two big economies with bet-ter demographics are the US and India. They are China’s chief threats! Logical so far?

Everything was going great. Purring smoothly on track barring the small blip of a ‘Trade War’. Till the Wuhan Virus hit everyone for a six.   

enter tHe virus:China realized the lethal-ity of Wuhan Virus by mid-January. China was being setback irretrievably. On 25 January they curtailed internal travel. Something was planned when Xi Jin-ping was out of public view for about ten days. They en-sured International travel continued to carry the Virus out; to flatten the field.

When global supply chains were disrupted, eve-ryone realised that China had surreptitiously cre-ated dangerous dependen-cies. Clamor for decoupling commenced.  As the virus spread, the BRI came to a grinding halt. ‘Made in Chi-na 2025’ was endangered by an anti-Huawei campaign. Plan Superpower was being broadsided by the Virus.

By the third week of Apr there were calls for hard decoupling. India and ASEAN were at the fore-front to reap the relocation dividend. How to save a falling economy? Plan 1: Gobble up attractive assets affected by the global stock market crash. That was re-sisted internationally. Plan 2: Undermine decoupling. Enable relocation through Chinese investment and tu-telage. Only countries like Bangladesh agreed. India was vying for Global Lead-ership also. Hence Plan 3: India and ASEAN had to be forced into submission to re-establish global de-pendency on China.  Isola-tion would then automati-cally end. India, a prime competitor, had to be dealt militarily. Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and others

needed different levers. The key: derail relocation/ de-coupling through coercive control taking advantage of a weakening US and a di-vided Europe. The BRI and Made in China 2025 would eventually recover. The ‘Su-perpower 2030’ plan would go through with some delay.

However any conflict with India could escalate and slow down the economy unacceptably. Hence the Chinese aggression had to be low key, calibrated, but belligerent to assert strate-gic control politically and economically. The hallmark of the current Sino Indian standoffs is that even till date Chinese deployments are not tactical. All they have tried is to demonstrate force, manufacture victory, talk peace, and re-establish economic control so that India cannot rise. Once that was achieved, the rest would follow suit. In this context, China’s Unconventional Levers of Power in World Affairs makes immense sense. If Galwan action had gone their way, China’s aim would have been achieved. However that was not to be. India stood up and inflicted a bloody nose. China has realised that it has miscalcu-lated. Its superpower ambi-tions are at stake. It started talking about peace.

tHe old man’s situationAn isolated China is in a two-front situation with its biggest competitors. PLA is negotiating with the In-dian Army after the bruis-

ing it received at Galwan. Substantial PLA forces will be tied down till status quo ante is achieved. Three US carrier fleets pivoting around Taiwan in the South China Sea are an overmatch for PLAN. The US is de-termined to not let China claim the South China Sea as its own. Other nations are aligning to this. Floods in central China, periodic surfacing of the Wuhan Vi-rus, Swine flu and Bubonic plague outbreaks are add-ing to economic and social problems. Hong Kong’s situation is still volatile. Banning of apps by India and Huawei’s ouster from the UK and USA will have a wider effect on the Chinese information game. Bank runs are surfacing. Bank withdrawals are being lim-ited. Combine it with Zhou Li’s views on economics -- jobs, production, exports, logistics, weak consump-tion. Problems galore.  

Back to the virus. It is still raging. As the virus con-tinues some decoupling is automatically happening. People’s habits are chang-ing. In addition, big players like Apple and Microsoft are gravitating towards India. Others will follow. It may appear that other countries are highly infected by the virus and China is better off. However other coun-tries and communities have started coexisting with the virus better. The bulk of the Chinese population is still not affected. Chinese strict lockdowns just kick the can down the road. The prob-lem is still ahead. 

In May, Xi Jinping exhort-ed China to be prepared for the worst-scenarios and PLA to prepare for war. The ‘Chinese Century’ and su-perpower status by 2030 is receding. This was what he had in mind. Decline of an aging China will be acceler-ated by lack of international trust. Xi Jinping knows this. That is why he has now written to Global CEOs to say that fundamentals of China’s long term growth will not change. Xi Jinping has not given up on his dream. His last gambit?

postulates for indiaIf China declines India must rise. So it is in India’s inter-ests that an aging China

declines. Prepare and act accordingly. The odd finger at Pangong Tso is irrelevant. Think beyond that. 

India rises despite set-backs and chaos. This is its history. Virus, China, Paki-stan, Floods, Earthquakes et al, affect India but can-not stop it. India underesti-mates its greatest strengths -- diversity, vitality, soft power, democracy, assimi-lation, and trust. India has the skill set to rise. We the people along with the gov-ernment must capitalise on this.

The Indian Armed Force is strong enough to hold China at bay to let India grow. If they are strength-ened, India will grow faster. Respond accordingly.  

dealing witH dragonWhile Chinese compre-hensive national power is much greater than India’s, it is not overwhelming. On the contrary, India has the power to derail the Middle-Aged Kingdom. The follow-ing needs to be strategically conveyed and executed. 

Altering the status of LAC unilaterally by China is sine qua non. We should not step back. China cannot afford war and is not prepared for it.  1. Do not give any trade

concessions to China to appease it. Do not be in a hurry. Do not buckle. 

2. Dry out Chinese seepage into our society. Deny data and information to China.

3. Ensure Aatmanirbharta and relocation through wise policy and imple-mentation.

4. Develop international democratic alliances to counter authoritarian-ism and expansionism.

5. Support democratic movements in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Lt Gen P.R. Shankar was In-dia’s DG Artillery. He is highly decorated and qualified with vast operational experience. He contributed significantly to the modernisation and indigeni-sation of Artillery. He is now a Professor in the Aerospace Dept of IIT Madras and is involved in applied research for defence technology. His other articles can be read on his blog www.gunnersshot.com.

Lt Gen P.R. ShankaR (Retd.)

AnAlysis

AnAlysis

6 defence t h e da i ly gua r d i a n17 j u ly 2 0 2 0n ew d e l h i

The middle-Aged kingdom’s lAsT gAmbiT India stood up to the Dragon at the Galwan Valley and inflicted a bloody nose. China has realised that it has miscalculated. Its superpower ambitions are at stake, so it started talking about peace.

As a Kashmiri, one obviously is enraged that an elected sarpanch was murdered in cold-blood by unidentified gunmen (a pet term for suspected terrorists). Not just because it was a Kashmiri Pandit murdered but also because an attempt at some semblance of democracy was murdered. Sar-panches are decision-makers, elected by the village-level con-stitutional body of local self-gov-ernment called the Gram Sabha (village government) in India. The sarpanch, together with other elected panchayat members constitutes the gram panchayat, in which he is the focal point of

contact between government of-ficers and the village community and retains power for five years.

Over the years, 19 sarpanches have been murdered in Kashmir, Ajay Pandita being the latest. Not just that, a woman sarpanch within a week was videotaped in a kind of interrogation in an or-chard, clearly being warned and made to resign as her pleas were being taped. Despite repeated re-quests, no security was provided for these upholders of democracy. Important to note in this is that there is an active war going on in the state, since 1989. Subsequent events have made it very clear from day one that pro-India voices and figures need security and open support of the state/government. At times certain individuals may ask for covert security, due to risk of coming into the crosshairs of the terror groups. These have to be in-dulged, as India needs a semblance of democracy on the ground.

Instead, we saw Z-security pro-

vided to soft separatist politicians, conflict entrepreneurs, and pro-secession Hurriyat members. This appeasement of soft-separatism, mollycoddling of the “Old Estab-lishment” exposed New Delhi’s knee-jerk reactions to events on the ground and the rush to quieten things with the numerous pack-ages and offers for the Hurriyat to not chant Pakistan, and the mainstream parties to maintain a false India-patriotism for optics.

After the brutal murder of the sarpanch, the TRF (The Resist-

ance Front, actually a front for the LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen) in the Valley has also issued a warning by putting up posters: “Do not be an informer and do not collaborate with India: Final warning by The Resistance Front to Kashmiri Pan-dits.” The poster has been issued by some Commander Hamza of the Resistance Front. The sarpanch killings and subsequent threats are aimed at terrorising the silent majority further into silence, and manufacturing a consent for jihad which the intifada factory, both

overseas and domestic will then exhibit as all Kashmiris wanting secession from India. That has been the tactic in all the three decades of the Kashmir conflict.

What has New Delhi’s plan been to counter this? It is to be noted that many mainstream politicians have been locked up and released only recently. It dawned quite late on New Delhi that the root of the terrorism and corruption prevail-ing in the state stems from the long innings of these politicians and political parties. Yes, NC work-ers have been killed and targeted for belonging to the said party, but it is more for the party’s policies and perspective of it being an In-dian puppet rather than the NC “holding the Indian flag high in the state”. The 1987 rigged elections keep propping up in a Kashmir debate, which enabled the first group of youth to crossover after being disillusioned of New Delhi, let’s not forget that.

Of course, detaining politicians

without any charge sheet or case or trial is undemocratic, but this over-dependence on the “Old Es-tablishment” has to go. Otherwise, as Albert Einstein observed, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” New blood needs to be brought in, and grassroots workers need to be protected; equal representation of Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists needs to be maintained in all po-litical parties. Ex-Army men and retired servicemen can be brought in for the purpose of security of these sarpanches because they are the ones dealing with the over-ground workers of terror groups directly, often nefarious mafia-styled henchmen working both sides, like the ones threatening the woman in the video.

The sarpanches have been ask-ing for protection since day one, and the communal angle notwith-standing, all of them are at high risk for even existing in their roles.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, an often misinterpreted quote of Samuel Johnson does not hold on the subcontinent. The first generation politicians of new India after 1947, and in Kashmir after the Instrument of Accession, were spawned by the freedom struggle, which entailed considerable per-sonal and professional sacrifice. Wrote Minhaz Merchant in his 1985 article ‘The First Refuge of Scoundrels?’: “Only men of mettle, who could make those sacrifices, were prepared to enter public life.”

For Kashmir, those lofty stand-ards are still in place despite dynas-tic politics, when people like Ajay Pandita, despite the enormous risk, come forward to uphold democ-racy. New Delhi needs to make sure that those picking up the mantle from Ajay Pandita and others like him, should be well-protected and made to feel secure.Arshia Malik is a writer, social com-mentator and educationist with a focus on conflict zones, especially South Asia.

Govt must protect J&K sarpanchs from terror threats

Sarpanch ajay Pandita was shot dead by terrorists on 8 June.

arsHia malik

INTRODUCTION The current situation re-garding the spread of CO-VID-19 has brought the entire world to a grinding halt. However, one of the sectors which seems to be immune from the CO-VID-19 impact is the phar-maceutical sector. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, pharmaceutical com-panies around the world have been aggressively en-gaged in the research and development (R&D) for a drug/vaccine which would assist in resisting COV-ID-19. Once such a drug/vaccine is developed by any pharmaceutical company, the said company will defi-nitely take all the necessary steps to protect the same by filing for a grant of a patent for the said invention.

Keeping in mind the times that we are in, there might come a situation where the principles behind the protection of intellectual property rights would have to be balanced with the public welfare. One such mechanism for balancing the rights of the intellectu-al property holder and the general public is compul-

sory licensing. The present article seeks to discuss the broad principles govern-ing compulsory licensing, the judicial view that has beentaken on the same, and whether the same can be resorted to in case of dif-ficulties in distribution of the possible drug/vaccine curing COVID-19.

PRINCIPLES GOVERNING COMPULSORY LICENCESCompulsory licenses are permissions that are given to a third-party by the Con-troller General of Patents to make, use or sell a product or use a process that has been patented to make a certain product, without the need of the authoriza-tion of the owner of the patent. Under the Indian Patent Act, 1970 (“Act”), the provisions regard-ing compulsory licensing are specifically laid down under Chapter XVI of the Act. The various criteria which need to be fulfilled for a compulsory license to be granted are laid down under Sections 84 and 92 of the Act, such as the

grounds for the grant of a compulsory license, fac-tors to be considered by the Controller while decid-ing a grant of compulsory license, the general purpose of the grant of compulsory license, etc.

A compulsory license can be granted on an ap-plication by any interested person, after the expiry of three years from the date of grant of the patent. The grounds on which a com-pulsory license may be granted are:1. The reasonable require-ments of the public with respect to the patented in-vention have not been satis-fied; or2. The patented invention is not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price; or3. The patented invention is not worked in the territory of India.

Importantly, under Sec-tion 92 of the Act, in cases of a national emergency, extreme urgency or cases of public non-commercial use, the Central Government may, at any time after the sealing of the patent, grant a compulsory license in re-spect of any patent in force to any person interested. Furthermore, in case of a public health crisis such as an epidemic, the procedure for grant of a compulsory license, as specified under Section 87 of the Act need not be followed. As Section 87 lays down the detailed procedure to be followed while applying for and granting a compulsory li-cense, making it non-appli-cable to cases of epidemics would expedite the process of grant of a compulsory license and the access to the patented invention to

the public would be fast-tracked. The Controller, while settling the terms and conditions of a license granted under this section, is required to endeavour to ensure availability of the products/articles made us-ing the patented invention at an affordable lowest pric-es to the public, at the same time ensuring that the pat-entees are also deriving a reasonable advantage from their patent rights.

JUDICIAL VIEW ON COMPULSORY LICENSINGThe landmark judgment in India regarding com-pulsory licensing is the case of Bayer Corporation vs Union of India (“Bayer case”). The Bayer case arose in relation to Bayer Cor-poration’s (“Bayer”) 2010 patent over a compound called “Sorafenib Tosylate” which was sold as Nexa-var and was used for the treatment of Liver Cancer. Natco Pharma (“Natco”) in 2010 approached Bayer for a grant of voluntary license for manufacturing and selling the patented drug in India under its brand name at a lesser price. However, the negotiations for the voluntary license failed, and thereafter in the year 2011, after the expiry of three years from the date of grant of Bayer’s patent, Natco filed an application to the Controller for grant of a compulsory license. The Controller after tak-ing into consideration the various provisions of the Act, granted a compulsory license to Natco for manu-facturing and selling the patented drug in India. The said order of the Controller was upheld by Intellectual

Property Appellate Boards (“IPAB”).

Bayer aggrieved by the same filed a writ petition before Hon’ble High Court of Bombay, challenging IPAB’s order. The Hon’ble High Court upheld the IPAB’s decision and held that as Bayer was not sell-ing the drug at an afford-able price, it had failed to meet the reasonable re-quirement of the public in respect of the patented drug. The Hon’ble Court held that the onus was on the patentee to show that the patented invention/ drug was worked in India, by way of manufacture or otherwise. The Hon’ble Court further observed that the proceedings under Section 84 of the Act were in the public interest as the entire basis of the grant of the compulsory license is based on the objective that patented article is made available to the society in adequate numbers and at a reasonable price.

CAN COMPULSORY LICENSING BE RESORTED TO DURING COVID-19?As discussed above, the Government has the right to grant compulsory li-censes in cases of national emergency, extreme ur-

gency, and in cases of pub-lic non-commercial use at any time after the sealing of the patent. However, to exercise the said pow-ers, circumstances such as national emergency or extreme urgency are re-quired to be established. Keeping in mind that CO-VID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organisation and its grave impact on the entire nation, it is possible to la-bel the present situation as a “national emergency” or a case of “extreme urgency”. The same would mean that in case any innovative vac-cine or an effective drug is developed by an inventor and patented, the Govern-ment would be well within its rights to issue a compul-sory license for the same to effectively combat the pub-lic health crisis. The grant of the compulsory license would aid public interest as it would result in the bulk manufacturing and sale of the patented invention (testing kits, vaccine, or a drug) at affordable prices to expedite the process of availability.

However, it should be kept in mind that issuance of a compulsory license is a drastic step that heavily impinges on the right of ex-clusivity and monopoly of a

patentee, and would force the patentee to unwillingly settle for possibly a lower royalty rate as compared to voluntary license. Hence, such a step should only be resorted to in case the pat-entee is unwilling to enter into reasonable licenses for the adequate supply of the patented drug/vaccine at reasonable rates.

Interestingly, one of the pharmaceutical companies i.e. Gilead which has pat-ented Remdesivir, a broad spectrum anti-viral drug which has demonstrated the potential for treating COVID-19, has signed a non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements with five generic pharmaceuti-cal manufacturers based in India and Pakistan to further expand the supply of Remdesivir The said li-cense agreements not only grant the companies a non-exclusive right to receive a technology transfer of the manufacturing process for Remdesivir, but Gilead has also generously agreed to not charge any royalty until the World Health Organization declares the end of the Public Health Emergency regarding CO-VID-19, or until a pharma-ceutical product other than Remdesivir or a vaccine is approved to treat or pre-vent COVID-19, whichever is earlier. This shows that a middle ground taken by pharmaceutical companies regarding licensing drugs/vaccines developed in rela-tion to COVID 19 would be beneficial for both the com-pany as well as the public and would ensure that the Government would not have to resort to the dras-tic step of having to issue a compulsory license.

CONCLUSIONThe judicial view taken in respect of compulsory li-censing is that the entire basis of the grant of the compulsory license is based on the objective of balanc-ing the rights of the inven-tor and the public and that public interest is paramount in deciding such a grant. In the present scenario, where the pandemic has infected people from every kind of economic background, the public interest would sure-ly dictate that any drug or vaccine developed to com-bat COVID 19 be available widely and at a reasonable price. However, it also has to be ensured that a pat-entee that has spent large sums of money in develop-ing such a drug/vaccine is adequately compensated for its efforts and hard work so that it is not discouraged from conducting further re-search into the field. A bal-ance between the two can be made if a patentee acts reasonably and enters into voluntary licenses which ensures wide distribution of the said drug/vaccine so that the situation of the Gov-ernment resorting to the issuance of a compulsory license and thereby taking away the autonomy of pric-ing and setting up terms of the license by the patentee can be avoided. Ajay Bhargava (Senior Part-ner), Ankur Sangal (Partner), Sucheta Roy (Senior Associ-ate) and Richa Bhargava (As-sociate) are part of the Intel-lectual Property Rights team of Khaitan & Co, New Delhi practicing (litigation and prosecution) across different forums nationally – Supreme Court, High Courts, District Courts and various quasi-judicial Tribunals.

Compulsory licensing amid the Covid-19 pandemicKeeping in mind the times that we are in, there might come a situation where the principles behind the protection of intellectual property rights would have to be balanced with the public welfare. One such mechanism for balancing the rights of the intellectual property holder and the general public is compulsory licensing.

We are more deprived of real visuals than we think: Why the Vikas Dubey ‘encounter killing’ should matter to media’s dependence on independent sources.

Policy & communication

legal Rumination

In many countries, what the news media calls “of-ficial sources”—usually spokespersons or state-ments released by a govern-ment or organisation—are having a field day. Being official somehow lends the assumption of credibility. Sometimes, a news agency could become a de facto

media outlet for these of-ficial sources. On the other hand, official sources are only ending up being on one side of an active binary.

Earlier this month, ABN-CBN, the largest broad-casting network in the Philippines, downed its shutters after the country’s National Telecommunica-tions Commission ordered a cease-and-desist. About 11,000 of its employees were out of jobs as the net-work’s licence expired this month. The lawmakers in Congress, most of whom are aligned with President Rodrigo Duterte, refused to renew it. Predictably, the network was critical of the government, doggedly exposing the government’s

authoritarian actions. This kind of drastic action

is unlikely in the foresee-able future in most demo-cratic countries. There is a more efficient and effective way to control narratives without having to change media ownership. In India, critical news media owners in India have faced tax raids and police FIRs. But an even more subtle and long-term is to co-opt credibility, where official sources pre-vail because the alternative, independent voices are not present, or are discredited.

The Vikas visuals. Let us examine one aspect of this strategy—the importance of visuals. This month’s “KIE” (killed-in-encounter) case from Uttar Pradesh has ruffled political feath-ers, again. Vikas Dubey, a gangster known for de-cades for his political links with every ruling party, crossed two state borders without difficulty and then was captured in a most perplexingly anticlimac-tic fashion. Several of my friends predicted on social media what would happen

next, one even predicting that “On his way back, Vi-kas will try to snatch a po-lice gun, and will be shot dead.” His forecast, a bot-like predictive logic, was stunningly accurate.

When the media did ar-rive, the scene looked like a crime scene set of a bad cops-and-robbers thriller. Since the official sources—the police—were ready with the story, reporters took their quotes, and then interpreted them through logic. The more pesky re-porters sought quotes from locals. But in the end, lack of visuals meant emergence of visualisation: The fact that media vehicles were stopped a few kilometres before this incident is only one of the inconsistencies in this incident. The police brazened it out, having suc-cessfully been through this routine hundreds of times in recent years (a report says Dubey’s is the 119th KIE since Yogi Adityanath be-came Chief Minister).

Absence of visual evi-dence also triggers visu-als that fill the gaps in the

narrative—memes, graphs, and photographs that are often manipulated. In one such “photograph”, Dubey is claimed to be seen pray-ing at Yogi Adityanath’s feet, perhaps in an attempt to establish a nexus be-tween the criminal and the CM. A news report veri-fies that the person is not Dubey at all.

Visuals are no longer the last word. Words have al-ways been suspect, but photographic evidence is considered clinching evi-dence. Traditionally, news media relies on visual evi-dence—photographs or video—and followed by independent sources. The lack of one means the col-lapse of the other. News me-dia attempts to report to us what reporters know from speaking to sources, but the lack of visual evidence is a big factor that gives rise to binary narratives.

With so many applica-tions freely available, pho-tographic evidence is just as vulnerable to manipula-tion. Under the presump-tion that people still trust

visuals more, social media rife with images—memes and others that nudge us to believe them. The idea that media messages, specifi-cally, visual messages, are value-laden is perhaps one of the biggest lessons in me-dia literacy. Fittingly, a large proportion of fake news is also based on visuals.

Setting a context. A recent study, jointly conducted by scholars at the Insti-tute of Data, Systems and Society at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technol-ogy (MIT) in the United States, examined role of misinformation on per-sonal chat and groups app WhatsApp. The study over the 2019 elections in India addressed, among other questions, how prevalent image-based misinforma-tion over WhatsApp is. The researchers gathered data from over 5,000 political groups on WhatsApp that discussed Indian politics, and collected over 5 mil-lion messages shared by over 250,000 users over nine months. Roughly 35 per cent of the content is

comprised of visuals. A sample of the visual con-tent was annotated. More than 25 per cent of the most popular images annotated turned out to be misinfor-mation, while about 40 per cent of them were clearly not fake. A large proportion could not even be verified.

The study reveals some-thing interesting. A much larger proportion of mis-information images are shared than those that are not fake. Also, images ma-nipulated on Photoshop or other editing applications constitute only 10 per cent of all fake images. The big-gest proportion (34 per cent) comes from old im-ages taken out of context. The second biggest chunk (30 per cent) is memes that rattle off false quotes or sta-tistics.

This is an interesting, but not surprising, finding. There is some debate about whether misinformation has a real impact on our belief and choice. Of the 64 per cent of images that are manipulative or tell only one side of a story, how

many exert real influence on a user, say, in our politi-cal beliefs?

But even more subtle are real images that do not build the entire context. A journalist friend recently confided that in his initial years as a journalist de-cades ago, they would nor-mally assume official sourc-es stated facts. (“The vehicle toppled and the gangster snatched a police gun.”) To-day, it has become custom-ary to prefix the statement with an attribution. (“Police claim the vehicle toppled and the gangster snatched their gun.”) As live visu-als of incidents are rare, we depend on a reporter on the ground to construct the context. This is shown to us as “live”—therefore, somehow real. In reality, it is a narrative constructed from the scene where a past incident happened. Such is the paradox of our trust in visual evidence.

Shashidhar Nanjundaiahb has led media institutes of repute and is the founder of BeingResponsible.

Visuals are narrative constructions too

opinion AjAy BhArgAvA , Ankur SAngAl, SuchetA roy &

richA BhArgAvA

dean’s deskShAShidhAr nAnjundAiAhB

policy & politicsthe daily guardian17 july 2020

new delhi 7

A few years ago, when San-jeev Sanyal came out with The Ocean of Churn: How the

Indian Ocean Churned Human History, an editor — well-read and open-minded — called me gushing about the book. He quoted Sanyal’s book to remind how in 731 AD, when the “prosperous Pallava kingdom in southern India faced an existen-tial crisis”, after the sudden death of King Parameswara Varman II without having any direct heir to the throne, it was decided to “reach out to a collateral branch of the dynasty that had survived in a distant land”.

Sanyal, while poignantly recount-ing the story, informs that five generations back a young Pallava prince, Bhima, had taken a long, ar-duous sea voyage to Cambodia and married a local princess. After the king’s death, it was decided to send a delegation there in search of an heir. A team of Brahmin scholars hurriedly began the sea journey and reached the court of Bhima’s descendants. The then king of Cam-bodia, Hiranya Varman, had four sons. The first three turned down the offer; the youngest prince, barely

12 years old then, however, took up the challenge. He later became one of the greatest Pallava rulers, Nandi Varman II.

It’s an amazing story not just of the enterprise, openness and unortho-doxy of our ancient people, but also of the endeavour to create an em-pire well beyond the Indian borders based on cultural and civilisational notions. But what startled me that this story is so little known to us all. R.C. Majumdar, among the greatest historians who later got sidelined for reasons primarily ideological, had written extensively about all this in one of the 11 volumes of The History and Culture of the Indian Peo-ple, published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. But such has been the ideo-logical hold of a section of the intel-ligentsia on our history books that even an editor of good, all-round knowledge was awestruck by the information that should ideally have been told to every child going to a school!

And that’s where the role of the likes of Sanyal and even more so of Amish becomes significant. They bring alive the so far airbrushed history of India and Indians we have been denied reading academi-cally and otherwise. Amish, to his credit, with his new book, Suheldev: The King Who Saved India, has gone a step further. He has set up a Writ-ers’ Centre — not a new phenom-enon in the West where authors like James Patterson have been doing this for a long time now — to help him expand his capacity as a writer. Amish writes in the ‘Foreword’: “I cannot write faster than a book every one-and-half to two years. And at that pace, I will die before I write down all the story ideas that He (Lord Shiva) has already blessed me with. I cannot carry these stories to my cremation pyre.”

With Suheldev, Amish is trying to create an ecosystem of writers who can work with him to resuscitate some of the long-forgotten heroes from the pages of Indian history. And there are many such heroes who have been relegated to the mar-gins — some to even footnotes — by

Delhi-centric and obsessed histori-ans. For instance, Rajendra Chola was the most powerful ruler in the country when Mahmud of Ghazni attacked India. But unfortunately, we are hardly told anything about him! He only finds a cursory men-tion in our history books. Maybe he will get full-fledged attention in one of Amish’s future projects.

Coming to Suheldev: The King Who Saved India, this 325-page book has Amish’s stamp all over. If in his pre-vious books, his uncompromising love for Indian culture and tradi-tion was evident, this one takes all of them along and sprinkles his overwhelming patriotic fervours for the nation. Unlike the Nehruvian historical consensus which desisted from showcasing any hint of barba-rism and bloodbath unleashed by the marauding invaders from the west, erroneously — and I must add, mischievously — clubbing Indian Muslims with the misdeeds of in-vading Turks and Arabs, Amish’s never attempts to brush aside such vandalisms committed by the bar-barians from the west but without questioning the integrity of Indian Muslims. In fact, one of the promi-nent characters in the book is an Indian Muslim who fights along-side Hindu and Buddhist warriors

against Ghazni’s forces.They came, they saw, they con-

quered. This is the impression we are given by our sarkari historians about Arabic and Turk invasions of India. In reality, it’s all bunkum. Within a hundred years of Prophet Mohammed’s death, the Arabs had breached the Spanish walls and were threatening to run over the entire Europe, but in the east they could make little headway. The almost forgotten Hindu Shahi rulers of Afghanistan incessantly fought, lost, regrouped, fought again, lost again! This went on till they survived. And not until 1192 AD could the Turkish forces get a strong foothold in the country, and that too because a year before Prith-viraj Chauhan had let go the utterly defeated Mohammed Ghori, failing to see the true nature of his enemy to his own tragic and disastrous end.

The book also hits out at the no-tion that Indians didn’t unite to fight against the invaders. They did. No doubt, they could have done bet-ter. Sometimes they were plain un-lucky too. So, in this case, Suheldev brings together everyone who be-lieves in the idea of India – from a Buddhist in Ashvaghosha and an Indian Muslim in Abdul to a former commander in Govardhan and an

orphan in Toshani — to challenge the Ghaznavaid commander Salar Masud in the battle of Bahraich. Such was the crushing defeat for the Turkish forces that they didn’t look back at India for over 150 years till the stupid magnanimity (or was it the ethical obsession?) of Prithiviraj Chauhan that gave them a chance to sneak in towards the end of the 12th century. Interest-ingly, Suheldev’s story also hits out at the notion of the lower castes siding with the invading forces to escape from the tyranny of the caste system! Suheldev — just like Shivaji in the late 17th century — belonged to a lower caste! Maybe it is also the reason why Suheldev fails to make it to our textbooks, for he wouldn’t have fitted into the “class war” no-tion of the eminent historians.

Suheldev is just one of the many heroes waiting to be rescued from the tyranny of selective historiog-raphy. Thankfully, Amish prom-ises to come out with more. Who knows Rajendra Chola could be the next character? Or, will it be Lachit Barphukan, the hero of the Battle of Saraighat, which stopped the march of the mighty Mughals in Assam?

In the meantime, read Amish’s Suheldev. It’s absolutely worth your time and money.

book beat the daily guardian17 july 2020new delhi8

The book, Decisions: How to Master the Art of Decision Making, by Dr Pankaj Garg offers a roadmap for making balanced decisions which is one of the most difficult things to do. The author is a renowned surgeon and innovator and the book delves into a topic which is of relevance to every human being.

This book is for all those who are in need of clear directions to navi-gate life. It is not only about investment/corporate/business-oriented decisions like the majority of books available out there but focuses on decisions of everyday life. The majority of daily decisions involve emotions and it’s challenging to take them while balancing our emotions. Taking into account the variety of hurdles faced by every individual in his/her daily life, Dr Garg lays down a step-by-step approach to face and resolve them rather than taking the “avoid-ance path”.

Divided into four parts, the first one rightly exhorts the reader to realise life’s long-term goals and prioritise issues and time. Part two helps in the process of decision-making and discusses important concepts such as stimulus-re-sponse gap, emotional quotient (EQ), seeking advice and meth-ods to optimise them. EQ has been described in great detail and clarity providing insight in understanding and improving one’s EQ. EQ, unlike IQ (intelli-gence quotient), can be improved is a fascinating idea. The concept of not getting offended by the troubling actions of others is also interesting and original.

The next part is dedicated to the evaluation of decisions, medita-tion and other crucial issues such as enhancing mental facul-ties. In which the “law of shift-ing responsibilities” is described to handle the feeling of guilt while analysing wrong/painful decisions. It is thoughtful, practical and of immense help for self-improvement. The fourth part deals with the charting of options, the final step and the overview of decision-making. A summary given at the end of every chapter helps to absorb its zest.

It is a remarkable read for all but more useful for youngsters and people in their early stage of career. Though, of course, decision mak-ing continues through the life. Lucid and practical, the narrative in-corporates stories and experiences that make it easier to understand as well as implement in real-life situations. The personal anecdotes add to its appeal.

The language is kept simple to help the common people under-stand it better. The flow of stories is admirable and has an array of examples, which I believe are valuable lessons from the author’s life.

The book is gripping which can be witnessed from the ‘Boston ex-perience’ in the very first chapter that sets the boat sailing. The tempo keeps on building and finishes off in style. Although there are over 20 stories in this small book, it is not easy to understand the concepts of decision-making in the first read as these are concentrated.

The book has some flaws as well. The concept of meditation, though dealt in good detail, would have been better if some light was thrown on a few specific methods of meditation for the reader’s benefit. ‘Bos-ton experience’ has been described to dig out one’s long-term goals from the subconscious which I found quite helpful. But it would have been better if some alternative method was also discussed.

Overall, it’s a fantastic book on a useful but rarely found topic of decision-making.Dr Pankaj Garg’s book, ‘Decisions’, is published by Notionpress.

Singapore-born American novelist Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, a major motion picture, and has been translated into more than 30 languages. In 2018, he even made it to Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people.

Kwan is back with his latest, Sex and Vanity, a comedy of manners set between two cultures that is seen as a tribute to E.M. Forsters’ A Room With a View and its Merchant-Ivory film adaptation.

As for the book’s plot, on her first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill, the daugh-ter of an American-born Chinese

mother and a blue-blooded New York father, sets eyes on Mafiosi of sorts George Zao and instantly can’t stand him. She doesn’t like when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can view the Tyrrhenian Sea and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa.

Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself and she ada-mantly denies having feelings for George but several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekend-ing with her new fiance, she finds herself drawn to him again.

Sex and Vanity, like Kwan’s previous books, is a modern love story with a twist.

A good primer to master the art of decision making

Novelist KwaN is bacK with ‘crazy rich asiaNs’

Celebrity author Amish has just come out with his new book on Suheldev.

Suheldev: The hero we chose to forgetAmish rescues Suheldev from the scrapped pages of history. But there are many more such heroes waiting to be rescued from the tyranny of selective historiography in India, writes Utpal Kumar.

Suheldev: The King Who Saved IndiaAmishWestland, Rs 399

review

AjAy ShuKlA

Books to look out for this week shamelesstaslima Nasreenharpercollins, rs 399Shameless is an uncompromising, heart-breaking look at ordinary people’s lives in our troubled times. ‘My name is Suranjan. You don’t recognise me? You wrote a novel about me called Lajja.’ One day in Calcutta, Taslima suddenly finds herself face-to-face with Suran-jan, the protagonist from Lajja. Perse-cuted in their native Bangladesh, he and his family have, like Taslima, moved to the city across the border. But is life for a Hindu family from an Islamic nation any better in a country where the ma-jority happens to be Hindu? Leading poor, unmoored lives, exploited and frustrated and always carrying with them the memories of a scarred com-munal history, Suranjan and many others like him seem to lead incomplete lives in their so-called ‘safe haven’.

boost your self-esteem in 30 DaysMarc reklaurupa, rs 195Boost Your Self-esteem in 30 Days is a guide to self-love, in which interna-tional bestselling author Marc Reklau shows you how to boost your self-esteem with simple and practical ex-ercises. Thirty days does make a dif-ference. All you have to do is change your life by changing the way you feel about yourself! Having healthy self-esteem is being happy with our-selves and believing that we deserve to enjoy the good things in life. Our self-esteem impacts every area of our life: our self-confidence, our relation-ships with others, the partner or job we choose, our happiness, our inner peace and even our personal and pro-fessional success. This book will help you change your life by changing the way you feel about yourself!

running toward Mysterytenzin Priyadarshi and zara houshmandPenguin, rs 2031Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi’s pro-found account of a lifelong journey as a seeker. It is a story of striving for en-lightenment and the vital importance of mentors in that search. Tenzin Pri-yadarshi was only six years old when he began having visions of a mysteri-ous mountain peak and of men with shaved heads wearing robes like the colour of sunset. At the age of 10, he ran away from boarding school and strangely enough, ended up at the Buddhist monastery that was the place in his dreams. Searching eve-rywhere possible, his frantic parents and relatives located and brought him home after two weeks. The vi-sions continued and he felt a strong pull to a spiritual life which he later embarked on.

Janaka and ashtavakraashraf Karayathrupa, rs 295A story of sage Ashtavakra and his disciple King Janaka is a gripping yet unknown episode from the Ramayana. A young boy Ashtavakra goes to King Janaka’s court to debate the kingdom’s most learned sages but is ridiculed for his deformed body. After the boy tri-umphs in the debate, the king realises he has an extraordinary intellect and becomes his disciple. While Janaka is obsessed with his quest for spiritual liberation, a treacherous plan unfolds inside the royal palace. Very soon war clouds gather on the horizon of Mith-ila but Janaka devotes more time to the young sage staying on the path to spiritual enlightenment. With Ashta-vakra’s guidance, the king enters the realm of a new world which alters his and his kingdom’s reality.

FictioN

selF-helP

sPirituality

literature

& FictioN

CoRReSpondenTNew Delhi

The pandemic has left each one of us vulnerable and gripped with fear of the

unknown. We all live locked up in our homes, protecting ourselves from a microscopic, invisible enemy that attacks everybody differently. Some it leaves mildly scathed. Others it can drag to ex-tinction.

Here are a few stories of strength featuring women of blue blood who could have simply re-treated behind the gilded gates of their homes and havelis. Instead they decided to do their two bits for humanity. Profiled are three Covid warriors who are not just helping and protecting the poor but also providing them liveli-hood by promoting their crafts.

We begin this story in Jhabua, a sleepy state in the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh. Young and dynamic Princess Nandini Singh, who otherwise helps the local tribal artists to sell their Gond art to museums overseas, has joined hands with Marina Shiekh to found a non-profit organisation called the Rising World Foundation. She shares, “Marina and I grew up together in Indore, this foundation run by her has done tremendous and noteworthy work in deliv-ering essential supplies to those that need it the most. Marina has personally gone to deep interiors of the most crowded suburbs of Mumbai to supply food packets and masks.” Nandini is replicat-ing that endeavour in Mahua, a backward region of Jhabua. Where each week, “We go down the dusty lanes giving away 500 food packets to the tribal families living there. Also, teaching them the importance of sanitation and wearing masks, something that is toughest to imbibe.”

Besides which she is busy meeting all her master artists like Jangram Shyam, Jaggu, etc, to, “create an art show under

my foundation Nandini Singh Jhabua for a gallery in Belgium. Besides what I pay these artists I will donate the rest to help these families feed and clothe them-selves.”

From Gond to Avadh, the re-gion of refinement, let’s applaud the Princess of Pratapgarh, Alka-rani Singh whose work towards Covid relief is very unique. An avid patron of folk music and a custodian to a group of Mirasins who traditionally sang at impor-tant occasions for the ruling elite, she is training these women to create exquisite masks made in tukri work of Avadh. She shares, “I was appalled to find out that they were begging for food. These Mirasins traditionally came to our kothis and the manzils of the nawabs (That is how our homes

were referred to in Avadh) and sang in praise of the lord. I told them don’t beg, work with us and make these masks.”

Tukri work in a form of craft is seen in Avadh. Used to embellish the farshis, it was originally “used to create small potlis to hold the ingredients of our paans!” Turn-ing them into masks then was not tough. She laughs, “I was so humoured to see the movie Gu-labo-Sitabo. This puppetry act was born in our state. Craft is in the blood of every Avadhi and I thought why not turn a disaster into a discovery of a forgotten world.”

From Avadh to the copper town of Muradabad where one of the Thakuranis has prover-bially created a storm with her organic cotton poshaks, farshis,

anarkalis, skirts et al. Kanwarani Kamini Singh from the Seohara noble family, a designer whose brand Rose Tree is known for its organic cotton ensembles, now shifts gear, creating outerwear in SITRA-certified fabric. Manu-

factured keeping all safety stand-ards in mind in her workshop in Delhi, these protective gears are washable and highly affordable. “They are perfect to give to your frontline workers: Your driver, dispatch boy, gardener, cook to be worn when they step out. It will keep them safe and in turn keep you protected,” says Kamini.

She has reached out to the many heritage enterprises run by royals and nobles to come forward and invest in these protective gears that will ensure their staff and guests are safe. Above all the project helps generate employment in Seohara, Uttar Pradesh. “I even went and gifted 300 of them to the local po-lice and healthcare workers.”

“I see it as a donation campaign where hoteliers, museum owners, people who have large personal staff can buy the gloves, masks, outerwear for their staff. I feel we, as citizens also, have to do our bit and not expect the government to do everything. This project also generates employment for my people. Which is very crucial for me,” informs Kamini.

The initiative empowers citi-zens to take charge of protecting themselves, their families, and communities. The designer has also created a line of non-surgi-cal reusable masks, for frontline warriors in appreciation for them working tirelessly for the well being of citizens during the pan-demic. Her daughter Chandni Kumari and she are in the process of designing very stylish outer-wear in khadi that can be worn by city slickers to work. “Best part being that they are Covid protec-tive.” The writer is the founder of Royal Fa-bles, a heritage platform that helps in the conservation of craft, culture and cuisine of princely India.

9t h e da i ly gua r d i a n17 j u ly 2 0 2 0

n ew d e l h i

Urvashi singh

royalty speaking

A visit to her studio, workshop and you will be enthralled by the many wooden blocks that fill her roof. It’s an asbestos roof, which is lined with blocks, etched by hand, over a thousand of them. Each one a motif she has personally devel-oped. From the proverbial kairi to the jaali design you can find them all in Rani Jaykirti Singh of Baria’s large crafts atelier. Housed within her Jaipur home, it is a synonym of the royal tradition of living with craft. “Jaipur is India’s Paris. It is its design hub, the craft heart of this magnificent nation and a city that has given me my identity.”

A quiet bahu of the Baria family, her tryst with design happened by chance. “It was this master block printer who came to our home asking to be employed as a guard and he requested that he wanted a space where he could work with blocks.” An out-of-ordinary request that had the family bemused.

She shares, “I was never a fan of blocks. I found them very ba-zaar-like. Till I got drawn to this ‘chowkidaar’s’ (imagine calling him that) brilliance and started giving him inputs on colour palette, design scale, etc, being a qualified textile designer.” He made a consignment for Jaykirti to wear and gift, but, instead, she was so swamped with ideas that she simply opened a cotton classic design studio by her name.”

Rani Jaykirti Singh of Baria — born into a noble family of

Zorawarpura Kishangarh and married to Akhilesh Vijay Singh of the Princely family of Baria in Gujarat — is today recognised as a master of the craft of block printing and creating interesting silhouettes that look beyond the predictable to swirl into billowy cotton dresses, flowing anarkalis, sharp culottes and lyrical farshis... All made of the finest cotton and block printed in soft hues and shades.

She says, “Each one of us is born into a family with a rich history and heritage. A legacy that is far beyond monetary considerations. It is important that we add our own sensibility to this inheritance. My drive is to make a difference in the lives of my kaarigars by pro-viding them employment and also sustaining their craft.”

At 25, Shambhavi Singh is a fresh graduate from Banga-lore’s Lavonne Academy of Baking Science and Pastry arts. The younger princess of Gamph has followed her father’s footsteps in deliver-ing world-class hospitality in their family-run haveli in Jaipur. The father-daughter duo reclaimed the erstwhile garage space of the property and recreated it into an ex-clusive gourmet eatery called Café Samsara.

Vibrant hues of turquoise, fuchsia, orange and green blend into an uplifting symphony against an abun-dantly white marbled space with archways and arched bay windows. A selection of novels and board games lies stacked in a corner and a door at the diagonally op-posite side of the Café opens up to Shambhavi’s very own workspace, laboratory and playground, all in one- the kitchen. Here, Shambhavi la-boriously whips up culinary delights for every season, occasion and mood. Warm, buttery croissants with ar-tisanal coffee. An indulgent array of toasties with wasabi and chicken tikka. Home-made pasta and hand-rolled ravioli. A Kerala-style stew with steaming appams. A rarely curated Rajasthani thali. A charlie full of deca-

dent brownies and bakes. All this and more, Shambhavi’s take on local and global cui-sines has only just started, in much style and charm.

Throughout her child-hood and early adoles-

cence, the young Chef grew up admiring her maternal grandmother of Khatipura, who honed an extraordi-nary skill of cooking. Being the youngest grandchild, Shambhavi would join her

grandmother in several cooking sessions and would help her document her vari-ous recipes in the form of a cookbook. “Khatipura cook-ing is a mix of recipes from various provinces such as

Sailana, Umarkot and many from Rajasthan. Apart from these, my grandmother learned how to cook from Chefs and khansaamas of the various places that she had travelled to. Since my grandfather loved his food, she would take the pains of sitting in select kitchens for hours on end in order to grasp a certain style of cooking or a recipe. I still re-member her telling me that her curiosity to master the Rampuri ran made her spend twelve hours in the kitchen while the khansaama pre-pared it! I admired that she was never shy in approach-ing people for the recipes that she set her heart upon”, says Shambhavi.

One afternoon, in reminis-cence of those cooking ses-sions, Shambhavi cooked the safed chicken that was

taught to her by her grand-mother, and there was no looking back ever since. Her passion and talent lay in the world of culinary delights and it was time to deliver that to the world. To ensure her preparation as a well-rounded food connois-seur, Shambhavi recently compensated for her lack of prior knowledge in baking and pastry arts by pursuing an intensive course at the aforementioned academy. The new patissier is taking the Pink City by storm with her multifarious delights that are appropriately sweet, sa-voury, creamy, spongy and moist- never more and never less.

Bearing sleek, manicured fingers, her languid hands refuse to give in even to the most trying of circumstances. To cite an example from the

recent distress that the surg-ing pandemic has thrown us all into, Shambhavi continues to cheer up our quarantined souls with her delectable goodies. She prioritises small-scale and thoroughly sanitiseddining preparations that are available for home delivery via popular apps such as Zomato. Once, when I marvelled at her culinary dexterity, she nonchalantly replied, “food is symbolic of love when words are inad-equate.” Creative, steadfast and agile, Shambhavi moulds each one of her handmade delicacies by pouring in a tiny piece of her mushy heart. In a time when the world pines for love, I can’t help but admit that Shambhavi hands it over on a decorated platter. The author is a writer, hotelier and a protagonist for Rajput culture.

The Covid warriors from the havelis

Royal Gazette

Good food

PRofile

Nandini Singh, Alkarani Singh and Kamini Singh—of three different royal families—are not just helping and protecting the poor but also providing them with a livelihood by promoting their crafts.

Into Shambhavi Singh’s rich and diverse culinary world

Kamini singh with her daughter.

nandini singh.

shambhavi singh.

alkarani singh.

Jaykirti singh and her work showcasing blockprints.

anshU Khanna

anshU Khanna

the queen who built heR studio with blocks

Actor Jim Carrey says actress Renee Zellweger was the love of his life. The 58-year-old actor dated the 51-year-old actress for a year after meeting on the set of their 2000 release, Me, Myself & Irene.

In his new semi-autobio-graphical novel, Memoirs And Misinformation, he called her his “last great love”. Now, while talking to Howard Stern on SiriusXM, Carrey said Zellweger was very special to

him, reports femalefirst.co.uk. “That’s true and she was spe-cial to me, very special. I think she’s lovely,” he said.

He also opened up about his relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt, who he dated before he made it big in Holly-wood. He said: “I do appreci-ate the people that have come through my life for the good that they gave me and that’s why (Ronstadt) has a special place in the book… Because, you know, it may have seemed like some... boy-toy kind of situation to some people look-

ing at it from the outside but she treated me with incred-ible respect.”

Meanwhile, Carrey re-cently ad-mitted he struggles with fame and didn’t appreciate his anonymity until he lost it.

10 t h e da i ly gua r d i a n17 j u ly 2 0 2 0n ew d e l h i

CorrespondentMuMbai

CorrespondentLos angeLes

entertainment

Actor R. Madhavan has tweeted that he scored just 58 per cent in his board exam, in a motivational post he shared for students, who are disappointed with their re-sults. “To all those who just got their board results congratula-tions to those who exceeded their expectations and aced it ... and to

the rest I want to say I got 58% on my board exams.. The game has not

even started yet my dear friends,” Madhavan tweeted.A user wrote to the actor asking about

what “product or procedure” he used to “lighten” his skin. “I really appreciate you being honest about your marks. Just using this opportunity to ask, since it’s quite vis-ible from this old pic as well, what product or procedure you used to lighten your skin? Genuine interested in knowing the secret.

Thank you,” the user wrote.Madhavan replied: “I never believed in

wanting to not be who I am—nor felt apolo-getic for looking the way I did. You shouldn’t either bro. Just look and be hygienic ... most attractive way to look I tan easily when I play golf—that is all there is to it.”

In what is seen as Netflix’s answer to Disney+Hotstar’s mega line up of films and Amazon Prime’s impressive offerings during the lock-down, Netflix has announced 17 films + series on Thursday.

The direct OTT releases include films like Janhvi Kapoor’s Gunjan Saxena, Sanjay Dutt’s Torbaaz, Anu-rag Basu’s multi-starrer Ludo, Bhumi Pednekar and Konkana Sen’s Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, Yami Gautam and Vikrant Massey’s Ginny Weds Sunny, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte’s Raat Akeli Hai and Bombay Rose.

Besides, there are Netflix Original Films on the plat-ter for the audiences, which include Kajol and Mithila Palkar’s Tribhanga, Anil Ka-poor and Anurag Kashyap’s

AK Vs AK, Bobby Deol’s Class of 83, Shabana Azmi and Kalki Koechlin’s Kaali Kuhi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Serious Men.

Speaking about the line-up of web series, there are pro-ductions like A Suitable Boy featuring Ishaan Khatter and Tabu, Masaba Masaba featur-ing fashion designer Masaba Gupta and her mother Neena Gupta, Bhaag Beanie Bhaag featuring Swara Bhasker, Mismatched featuring YouTu-ber Prajakta Kohli and actor Rohit Saraf, and last but not the least Bombay Begums.

Out of all, the first one to hit the streaming plat-form would be Janhvi Kapoor’s Gunjan Sax-ena, which is slated to release just be-fore Independ-ence Day, i.e. 12 August.

Netflix aNNouNces 17 films, web seriesIn an attempt to take on Disney+Hotstar’s impressive line-up of films and Amazon Prime’s amazing offerings, Netflix announces big flicks like ‘Gunjan Saxena’ and ‘Ludo’.

priyanka sharmanew DeLhi

Jim Carrey feels renee Zellweger was his

‘LASt GreAt Love’

ileana is missing ‘pool days’

MuMBAI: Actress and social media sensation Ileana D’Cruz is missing her fun time in the swimming pool and having a sun bath. In a word, she is missing “normalcy”. On Wednesday, Ileana shared a few throwback poolside photographs on her verified Instagram account. “TB to

when pool days and getting gloriously toasted in the sun was no big deal,” she wrote. That Ileana is missing the pool and sunbathing is evident from her social media posts. In June,

the actress had shared a boomerang video of herself enjoying the sun in a black bikini. On the work front,

Ileana will next be seen in Ajay Devgn’s produc-tion The Big Bull, a film reportedly based on

India’s biggest securities scam of 1992. The film also stars Abhishek

Bachchan.

i sCored 58% in board exams:

MAdhAvAN

“Go vocal for local” seems to be an apt slogan for Indian sports media to follow. Hav-ing been an athlete since 1968 I remember the days when I was young. The first competition I took part in was Delhi State Athletics and performing better there won me a published photo of mine in a newspaper.

It was the initial push that I needed for further motiva-tion, and it helped me to dedicate myself to running. However, when I compare

this with contemporary cov-erage I see most papers do not even bother to publish results of kids I coach. Their parents do not feel excited to support them, and they go back to their villages. So while top sportsmen at the Olympics receive a lot of coverage and awards, the in-dispensable publicity at the grassroots level is blatantly getting ignored. I remember in much the same manner, not many had heard of Dipa Karmakar in gymnastics and Sakshi Malik for wres-tling before the Olympics. Suddenly we see such a world-class performance at the Olympics. Their self-mo-tivation and the fact that they overcame such obstacles are altogether praiseworthy. Similarly, many performers in swimming nowadays are

very good, but not enough is written about them. Virdhawail Khade’s Bronze medal winning at Asian Games and his consistent National record-breaking performances do not receive adequate coverage either. Finalists of Olympics like Sri Ram Singh are still not very popular. Similarly, P.T. Usha despite being a bril-liant performer in the Los Angeles Olympics, because she finished fourth, did not receive as much attention.

Today’s coverage on sports pages devotes more atten-tion to the English Premier League, Lionel Messi, Cris-tiano Ronaldo rather than Indian football heroes. The Writer, a former National Junior Champion in Athletics, has studied Sports Science at Loughborough University, UK.

Dominic Sibley dug deep to hold one end up but Alzarri Joseph built on from Roston Chase’s early inroads by sending skipper Joe Root back in the hut as England are 207/3 at the end of the opening day of the second Test at Old Trafford on Thursday.

After off-spinner Chase (2/24) reduced the hosts to 29/2 either side of the lunch break, opener Sibley and Root—back leading the side after missing the first Test— shared a 53-run stand for the third wicket.

But fast bowler Joseph ended Root’s 23 run vigil off 49 deliveries with a classic outswinger that grazed the right-hander’s bat and flew to his counterpart Jason Holder at slipShortly after the

second session began, Zak Crawley was sent back for a golden duck by Chase who had the young No.3 batsman caught at leg slip by Holder. Having removed Burns in the last ball before lunch, Chase was on a hat-trick but missed the landmark. Root and Sibley then steadied the ship before the former departed with Stokes joining Sibley and both trying to negotiate Jo-seph and Holder’s fiery little spell where the ball moved sideways under overcast conditions.

Brief Scores: England: 207/3 (Sibley 86 batting, Stokes 69 batting; Chase 2/53) vs West Indies.

Time has come for sporTs media To be vocal for local TalenTs

messiah rooT falls early, sTokes and sibley Take charge

India is the undisputed leader in the cricket world. Cricket with-

out India would lose its charm and flavour. How-ever, it wasn’t always like this. Till the early 2000s, cricket was ruled mainly by the English and the Australians. They had the financial clout and a ma-jor portion of revenues would come from them. However, with the emer-gence of India as a finan-cial powerhouse, all that changed. The introduction and success of the IPL has cemented India’s position at the head of the table, and cricketers have also taken notice of the same.

There seems to be a stark difference in behaviour of foreign cricketers -- both playing and retired to-wards India post the suc-cess of the IPL. Back in the 1980s, it was common for players especially from England and Australia to refuse to come to play in India. For example, Greg Chappell has not played in India and neither had Sir

Don Bradman. The players from these two nations es-pecially would bicker about the heat and food in India.

I will be stating a few ex-amples of the comments which foreign cricketers have made about India both during and after their playing days.

Matthew Hayden, the ex-Australian opening bats-man had called India a “Third World Country” in 2008 in the aftermath of their defeat in a Test Series in India. The same Mat-thew Hayden now says that he “loves spending time in India”. Shahid Af-ridi is known for having a

love-hate relationship with India. During his playing days he made comments like “nothing like India ka pyaar”, etc, but now he seems to be singing a dif-ferent tune altogether. Dar-ren Sammy, the seemingly affable ex-West Indian all-rounder, is making com-ments on racism in India these days.

So, the question is… what changed? The answer to the question is simple. Mat-thew Hayden may have realised that life as an ex-cricketer in his native coun-try is not that easy. Cricket is not the No. 1 sport in Australia with Australian

Rules Football and Rugby taking the top spot. Con-versely in India, even ex-foreign cricketers still get asked for autographs and selfies from knowledgeable fans. Hence, it made sense for him to do a makeover from his tough no-non-sense image to a smiling amiable guy with a pen-chant for Indian food. In the case of Shahid Afridi, it seems that he may have had one eye on potential commentary or coaching contracts in India after his retirement. It is notewor-thy that Darren Sammy has strong connections with Pakistan after being

offered Honorary Citizen-ship of the nation.

We must be wary of for-eign cricketers, both cur-rent and retired. It seems that their statements of “love for India” are circum-stantial and driven by com-mercial motives. It always helps for foreign cricketers to be in the good books of Indian cricketers because it helps them in getting plum IPL and commentary and coaching contracts in India. One must never forget that Australian cricketers were bought at throw away pric-es in the first IPL in 2008 because the memory of their bad behaviour in the 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia was fresh in the minds of the In-dian public.

To know what foreign players really think about India, one should ask play-ers who don’t play in the IPL and have no pecuniary benefit arising from India. A few names that crop up are James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Dean Elgar, Joe Root and Tim Paine, among oth-ers.

We as Indians should appreciate the skill of the foreign cricketers when they come to our country to ply their trade, but we shouldn’t go overboard and “support” them, because their loyalty lies first and foremost with their coun-try. They remember that, let’s hope that we do too.

Nothing sincere in foreign cricketers praising India

coverage

second TesT

crickeT

We Indians should not go overboard and blindly ‘support’ the foreign players because their loyalty lies with their own country.

Former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden had called India a ‘Third World Country’ in 2008.

England’s Dom Sibley and Rory Burns.

Arjun HemmAdyNEW DELHI

sportsthe daily guardian17 july 2020

new delhi 11

rupinder SingHNEW DELHI

Our COrreSpOndenTMANCHESTER