T he BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Saturday announced West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its candidate for the Vice- President’s job. This was yet another deci- sion by the ruling regime that surprised all. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP pres- ident JP Nadda both evoked Dhankhar’s farmer creden- tials to term him “kisan putra” (farmer’s son). The decision regarding the 71-year-old Dhankhar, who hogged the limelight for his frequent face-offs with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was taken during a BJP Parliamentary Board meeting chaired by Modi and attended by Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, BJP national general secretary BL Santosh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. C hhattisgarh Minister TS Singh Deo, locked in a turf war with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, on Saturday resigned from the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, hinting that he was sidelined in the Government though he will continue to hold the other four portfolios. The development comes over a year ahead of the Assembly elections in the Congress-ruled State. Singh Deo will, however, remain the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax departments. The sudden development is seen as the fallout of an old political rivalry between Baghel and Singh Deo, who had tried to project him as the Chief Minister in the past. “I have resigned from the Panchayat and Rural Development Department,” he said. In a four-page resignation letter to the Chief Minister, Singh Deo cited various reasons stating that he was unable to fulfil the targets of the depart- ment as per the vision of the Jan Ghoshna Patra (poll mani- festo), given the “current sce- nario”. He said despite his repeat- ed requests, funds were not sanctioned under the PM Awas Yojna, as a result of which houses could not be construct- ed for eight lakh people in the State. He also claimed the draft of rules under the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act prepared by his department and sent to a com- mittee was changed without taking him into confidence. Under the Mukhyamantri Samagra Gramin Vikas Yojna, a committee of secretaries head- ed by the Chief Secretary was constituted against the standard protocol for granting final approval to works. F our juveniles have been apprehended for shooting at a man, identified as Javed (36), in Jahangirpuri area in the national Capital. The man suffered a gunshot injury and was hospitalised. The accused said that the man had beaten up the father of one of the minors seven months back and they had come to take revenge. The man was shot from point- blank range. The incident took place on Friday. A CCTV footage of the inci- dent was also doing the rounds on social media. S ri Lanka’s Parliament held a special session on Saturday to start the process of electing a new President on July 20 fol- lowing the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, with four contenders, including acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe joining the race to head the next Government that has the ardu- ous task to revive the country’s bankrupt economy. During a 13-minute special session, Dhammika Dassanayake, Secretary General of Parliament, announced the vacancy for the post of President after the resignation Rajapaksa, who fled the country after a popu- lar uprising against him for mishandling the country’s eco- nomic crisis. At the special session, Dassanayake read out the res- ignation letter from Rajapaksa to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena in which the former President defended his actions to address the eco- nomic crisis as well as the political turmoil. Rajapaksa, 73, blamed the Covid-19 pan- demic and the lockdown for Sri Lanka’s economic woes. Rajapaksa said he took the best steps like trying to form an all-party Government to counter the economic melt- down. “I served my mother- land to the best of my ability and I will continue to do so in the future,” he said in the let- ter. Dassanayake informed the House that nominations for the Presidency should be submit- ted to him on July 19. He also said if more than one candidate has submitted nominations, a vote would be taken in Parliament on July 20 to elect the new President. I n the most direct accusation yet, the BJP on Saturday held Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the “driving force” behind the “conspiracy” to implicate the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots, and defame and destabilise his elected Government in the State. The BJP alleged Sonia’s political advisor late Ahmed Patel and social activist Teesta Setalvad were mere pawns in her hands. While Patel’s daughter Mumtaz Patel said the BJP’s campaign for Gujarat poll has begun “by dragging my father’s name in conspiracy theories”, the Congress said “the Prime Minister’s political vendetta machine clearly does not even spare the departed who were his political adver- saries”. Earlier in the day, demanding answers to the affidavit submitted by Gujarat’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) before the court allegedly “detailing nexus of Patel and Setalvad” and trans- fer of “initial” Rs 30 lakh to the social activist to “opera- tionilise the conspiracy against Modi”, the BJP asked Sonia to hold a press conference to clarify her stand on the issue. “Not your social media head Jairam Ramesh but you should answer questions,” BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, adding “Patel only delivered the money. Sonia Gandhi gave it to be handed over to Setalvad”. P rime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, cau- tioned people against what he called the “rewri culture” under which votes were sought by political parties by promis- ing freebies and said this could be “very dangerous” for the development of the country. Addressing a gathering after dedicating the 296-km- long Bundelkhand Expressway to the people, Prime Minister Modi hit out at the previous dispensations in Uttar Pradesh for the lack of connectivity and said the double-engine Government was now ensuring major transformation of the State with fast-improving connec- tivity. He said the distance from Chitrakoot to Delhi by the Bundelkhand Expressway had been reduced by three-four hours, but its benefit was much more than that. D elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his Government’s schemes for free education, healthcare and elec- tricity were not “freebies” but efforts to lay the foundation for making India the number one country in the world. “I have been accused of distributing rewris (sweets), freebies. I am being abused. I want to ask the people of India, where am I wrong,” Kejriwal asked at a press con- ference. The PM did not take any names, though. Kejriwal said, “I am providing free quality education to the poor children of Delhi. Am I distributing rewris? Before we came to power, the plight of Delhi Government schools was mis- erable. The future of 18 lakh children was in the dark due to poor infrastructure. D espite the BJP vice-presi- dential nominee oft addressing Mamata Banerjee as his “sister” Dhankhar and the Bengal Chief Minister had always shared a stormy chemistry ever since he joined as the Governor of the State in mid-2019. While, the Governor had repeatedly raised the steadi- ly deteriorating law and order situation and a in creasing stranglehold of what hecalled “syndicate-mafia raj” marked by a culture of “cut-money and extortion” in the State he was responded to in equally strong words even as the Chief Minister compared him to a horse and her Trinamool Congress called him an agent of the BJP. It all started when the Governor — much to the chagrin of the Chief Minister — personally went to Jadavpur University in 2019 to rescue the then Union Minister Babul Supriyo who had been gheraoed by the Leftist stu- dents unions. J agdeep Dhankhar assumed charge of the office of the Governor of West Bengal on July 30, 2019. Born on May 18, 1951 in village Kithana, Jhunjhunu District, Rajasthan, to the late Gokal Chand and the late Kesari Devi, Dhankar was elected as the president of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association, Jaipur, when he was just 27-years-old. Having studied in Government primary and mid- dle schools, he passed out from Sainik School, Chittorgarh. Dhankar, an LLB, was the senior-most designated Senior Advocate of Rajasthan till tak- ing the oath of the office of the Governor. Since 1990 Dhankhar had been practicing primarily in the Supreme Court and his focus areas of litigation have been steel, coal, mine and International Commercial Arbitration, among others. He has appeared in various High Courts in the country. I t is almost six years since the AIADMK fountainhead and for- mer Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa breathed her last. But the struggle to inherit her political legacy and control of the AIADMK goes on. The internecine squabble between various caste groups in the 50-year-old party has turned ugly. The future of the major Opposition hangs in the balance. The AIADMK general council, the highest decision-making body, recent- ly ousted O Panneerselvam and his four associates from the primary member- ship of the party and elected Edappadi Palaniswamy as interim general secre- tary. This after the fight for the con- trol of the party reached the doors of the Supreme Court. The violent street protest by the OPS supporters speaks volumes about the state of affairs in the AIADMK. Both M.G.Ramachandran, the party’s founder, and Jayalalithaa, his successor, died intestate without any offspring. After Jayalalithaa’s demise, many women came forward claiming to be her daughters. “Many women in their mid-30s claim to be Jayalalithaa’s offspring. Jayalalithaa herself would have been shocked by these claimants had she been around,” said G C Sekhar, a longtime journalist who followed Amma’s news with interest. Another veteran journalist in Chennai who claimed to be Jayalalithaa’s biographer was not aware of the existence of Deepa and Deepak, her niece and nephew, till Amma’s demise. The world came to know about them when they came out in the open demanding the possession of Veda Nilayam, Jayalalithaa’s imposing bungalow in the high-end Poes Garden locality in Chennai. The exit of Jayalalithaa left a polit- ical vacuum in Tamil Nadu and this is yet to be filled. There was no second- in-command in the party as all were soldiers of Amma. O Panneerselvam was elevated to the post of chief min- ister on September 21, 2001, when the Supreme Court declared as null and void the action of the then Governor of the State swearing her in as chief min- ister despite her conviction and sen- tencing by a Special Court in a corrup- tion case. It was not because of any leadership qualities of Panneerselvam that he was handpicked by Jayalalithaa for the top job. She knew well that he would resign even without her asking once the Court clears her name in the case. Panneerselvam had no hesitation in accepting the fact that he was a puppet. “Sir, I am here because Amma could not function as chief minister because of the court verdict. Once the court clears her name, she would be back,” was his stan- dard reply to queries. He even declined to sit on the chair used by Amma and functioned from his cabin in the sec- retariat. The second time he assumed the chief minister’s post was when the Special Court sentenced Jayalalithaa to four years imprisonment in the dispro- portionate case. Once the Karnataka High Court acquitted her of all charges, Panneerselavam quit facilitating the return of his Amma to Fort Saint George. It was the sudden demise of Jayalalithaa that led to his coronation as chief minister for the third time (early hours of 6, December 2016). Jayalalithaa’s passing away led to a series of events in the AIADMK about which the Dravidian-dominated Tamil media refuse to write. The first ques- tion that remains unasked is the raison d’etre of V K Sasikala (personal aide of Jayalalithaa) and members of her Mannargudi clan in Veda Nilayam. Sasikala and her family members were ousted by Jayalalithaa from Veda Nilayam in October 2011. Amma issued a directive to the party cadres not to have any kind of ties with Sasikala and her relations, claiming they brought disrepute to the party. The action was welcomed by the party cadres by burst- ing crackers marking an early Diwali in the State. But Sasikala managed to re- enter Veda Nilayam by tendering a pub- lic apology in which she declared that her life was dedicated to serving Akka (elder sister), and she would stay away from all other activities including pol- itics. But on the morning of December 6, 2016, when Jayalalithaa’s mortal remains were lying in state Government Est enti ting around the coffin! TTV Dhinakaran, who had been ousted much earlier from the party as well as Vedha Nilayam was seen supervising the show. Nobody, including Panneerselvam or Palaniswamy, could explain how he managed to infiltrate Veda Nilayam. The moment the Tamil Nadu Police sounded the Last Post for Jayalalithaa, Sasikala started her machinations to usurp the party and government. Panneerselvam was summoned to Veda Nilayam and was forced to sign his res- ignation letter. The next day Sasikala was elected as the legislature party leader. and it was decided to hold her swearing-in ceremony on February 13 at the Madras University Centenary Hall. But the Supreme Court pro- nounced its verdict upholding the Special Court order sentencing Sasikala and two others to four years of rigor- ous imprisonment in the disproportion- ate asset case. So, on the day she was expected to swear in as chief minister, Sasikala surrendered before the super- intendent of Parappana Agrahara Central Jail to serve her imprisonment. It was Edappadi Palaniswamy who was sworn in as chief minister instead of Sasikala. But Dhinakaran, who was appointed as deputy general secretary by Sasikala, started calling the shots. Palaniswamy was a sitting duck as Dhinakaran sent out the message that the former should report to him on all issues. Dhinakaran declared himself as the party candidate for the by-poll to be held at R K Nagar hitherto represent- ed by Jayalalithaa. His mission was to become the chief minister once he got elected to the assembly. But that did not work out because Palaniswamy and Panneerselvam buried the hatchet and unitedly took on Dhinakaran. Dhinakaran won the bout at R K Nagar, but he and Sasikala were eased out of their positions and ousted fr the AIADMK in th meeti outfit by the name AMMK with Sasikala’s blessings. Panneerselvam, who had no lead- ership qualities other than his devotion to Jayalalithaa, thought that the chief ministership as well as the post of gen- eral secretary belonged to him and started maneuvering to emerge as the unchallenged leader of the party. But he was no match for Palaniswamy, a cool player who succeeded in winning friends and influencing people. Though Dravidian parties claim that there is no communalism and casteism in Tamil Nadu, it continues to be the most caste-ridden society in South India. The upper caste Hindus do not allow the Harijans to stay anywhere near their locality. This writer has experienced the two-tumbler system prevailing in many districts. Tes shops serve tea to Harijans in separate tum- blers even as cops deployed to oversee the eradication of untouchability watch silently. That much for the social jus- tice propagated by the Dravidian pol- itics which has been governing the State since 1967. The AIADMK has been dominat- ed by the Thevar community to which Sasikala and her clan belong. Panneerselvam too is a Thevar. Palaniswamy belongs to the Gaunder community. While there was a feeling that the Thevars may rally around Sasikala and Dhinakaran, it has not happened. Palaniswamy has succeeded in mobilizing the Thevar community around him and only a miracle could help Sasikala and her acolytes to bounce back. “She has a lot of money and can buy over people. But Palaniswamy has proved to be a tough nut to crack,” said R Rajagopalan, veteran political com- mentator. He said the weakening of AIADMK is a setback for the nati the Stat “ base. Moreover, it is known all over the State that he is devoid of any leadership qualities. His moves to bring back Sasikala to the party and anoint her to a top position has not gone down well with the people. Sasikala herself is a picture of con- tradiction. Though she tried to hijack the AIADMK, she had to drop the plan as the cadres are not enthusiastic about her intentions. Despite her declaration that she was quitting active politics (and that too for the second time), the lady moves around claiming herself as the general secretary of the AIADMK! The AIADMK may be down now, but it is the principal opposition party in the State. Though it lost the May 2021 assembly election, the party man- aged to poll 39.72 percent votes against the DMK’s 45.38 percent. There was no Jayalalithaa to campaign and the party had to face hostile media which was highly supportive of the DMK. The 2024 Lok Sabha polls would tell us more about the future of the AIADMK. It is not known whether Sasikala, Dhinakaran, and company would be able to make any difference to the for- tunes of the party. Sasikala may be a good reader but she is not a leader. The lady cannot make a public speech and she reads out from papers handed down to her by hangers-on. “Even Rabri Devi, wife of Laloo Prasad Yadav was better informed than Sasikala,” says a scribe who has been fol- lowing Sasikala’s antecedents. Jayalalithaa’s ‘Woman Friday’ has miles to go before she graduates into the big league of politics because it is not her cup of tea. She may be good in palace intrigues but that alone does not qualify her as a leader If P l manages to AIADMK, A HOSTAGE OF INTERNECINE WAR AIADMK, A HOSTAGE OF INTERNECINE WAR Covid spike BMC issues ‘no mask, no goods' rule PNS BHUBANESWAR In a bid to curb the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases in the capi- tal city, the Bhubaneswar Mu- nicipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday brought back the 'No mask no fuel' rule for vehicle owners under its jurisdiction. The BMC ordered the fuel refilling stations to not pro- vide fuel to those customers who turn up without wearing a face mask or face cover ap- propriately. The fuel station owners are also directed to put proper signage in the appro- priate place for information of all. The BMC order said, "There has been a sudden increase in the number of newly detected Covid-19 positive cases within the BMC area in the last fort- night which requires caution among the citizens of BMC. Proper wearing of a face mask, face cover is a key method to check the spread of the virus." Apart from the fuel stations, the BMC also issued an advi- sory for other traders and of- fice goers in the city and urged them to wear face mask or cover over the mouth and nose properly. The owners of business es- tablishments like shopping malls, shops, store owners shall not allow any staff or custom- ers without face mask, face cover inside their premises. They shall also put appropri- ate signage "No mask no en- try/ no mask no goods" at the entrance of their premises for information of all concerned, the civic body stated. Any vio- lations on the above-men- tioned aspect would attract penal provisions of the Odisha Covid-19 Regulations and amendments made from time to time, the BMC said. Concern in Assembly over SU question paper leak No new Covid guidelines: SRC Max 361 in Khordha dist PNS BHUBANESWAR For the second consecutive day on Saturday, the State reg- istered more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases as 1,065 people tested positive in 28 districts and the State pool. With this, the total tally rose to 12,98,240. Among the newly-infected were 122 children in the age group of 0 to 18 years. Notably, the State had re- corded 1,047 Covid cases on Friday. Out of the new cases, 624 cases were from quarantine and 441 local contacts. Khordha district detected the day's highest 361 cases fol- lowed by Cuttack with 135, Sundargarh 111, Sambalpur 58, Mayurbhanj 52, Puri 44, Subarnapur 31, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur 21 each, Kendrapada and Nayagarh 18 each, Baleswar and Kalahandi14 each, ,Rayagada 13, Nuapada 11, Ganjam and Kandhamal six each, Nabarangpur, Bhadrak and Deogarh five each, Keonjhar four, Gajapati and Koraput three each, Dhenkanal two and Boudh one. Besides, 76 cases were reported from the State pool. The number of ac- tive cases increased to 5,376. So far, 12,83,683 patients have recovered in the State. PNS BHUBANESWAR Amid the rising Covid-19 cases in the State, mischief mongers have posted a fake circular on social media that fresh Covid guidelines have been issued by the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC). The fake post containing an image of SRC Pradeep Jena features a set of Covid restrictions imposed in the State for the month of Au- gust. The restrictions in- clude night curfew, week- end shutdown in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri and 50% occupancy in cinema halls and restaurants. Taking cognisance of the matter, Jena took to Twitter and clarified that he has not issued any cir- cular on Covid after April 1, 2022. “A lot of fake messages are being circulated on so- cial media. Nor SRC is is- suing any circular on Covid restrictions in July/ August, 2022. No such or- der has been issued by SRC Odisha,” the SRC tweeted. PNS BHUBANESWAR Opposition members in the State Assembly on Satur- day expressed concern over the issue of question paper leak in the Sambalpur University. Deputy Leader of Opposi- tion Bishnu Charan Sethy (BJP) demanded an immedi- ate statement and action by the Education Minister. While the State Government is claiming everything in the education sector as of world level, the Education Minister needs to explain the affairs in the Sambalpur University, he de- manded. It has come to notice that two Lecturers are suspected to be involved in the paper leak, Sethy said, adding that strict actions should be taken against all those involved in such acts. Further rise: 1,065 new Covid cases in State
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The BJP-led NationalDemocratic Alliance
(NDA) on Saturdayannounced West BengalGovernor Jagdeep Dhankharas its candidate for the Vice-President’s job.
This was yet another deci-sion by the ruling regime thatsurprised all. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and BJP pres-ident JP Nadda both evokedDhankhar’s farmer creden-tials to term him “kisan putra”(farmer’s son).
The decision regardingthe 71-year-old Dhankhar,who hogged the limelight forhis frequent face-offs withWest Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, was takenduring a BJP ParliamentaryBoard meeting chaired byModi and attended by Nadda,Union Ministers Amit Shah,Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh,BJP national general secretaryBL Santosh and MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan.
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Chhattisgarh Minister TSSingh Deo, locked in a turf
war with Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel, on Saturdayresigned from the Panchayatand Rural DevelopmentDepartment, hinting that he wassidelined in the Governmentthough he will continue to holdthe other four portfolios. Thedevelopment comes over a yearahead of the Assembly electionsin the Congress-ruled State.Singh Deo will, however, remainthe Minister for Health andFamily Welfare, MedicalEducation, Twenty PointImplementation andCommercial Tax departments.
The sudden development isseen as the fallout of an oldpolitical rivalry between Bagheland Singh Deo, who had triedto project him as the ChiefMinister in the past.
“I have resigned from thePanchayat and RuralDevelopment Department,” he
said. In a four-page resignationletter to the Chief Minister,Singh Deo cited various reasonsstating that he was unable tofulfil the targets of the depart-ment as per the vision of the JanGhoshna Patra (poll mani-festo), given the “current sce-nario”.
He said despite his repeat-ed requests, funds were notsanctioned under the PM AwasYojna, as a result of whichhouses could not be construct-ed for eight lakh people in theState.
He also claimed the draft ofrules under the PanchayatExtension to Scheduled Areas(PESA) Act prepared by hisdepartment and sent to a com-mittee was changed withouttaking him into confidence.
Under the MukhyamantriSamagra Gramin Vikas Yojna,a committee of secretaries head-ed by the Chief Secretary wasconstituted against the standardprotocol for granting finalapproval to works.
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Four juveniles have beenapprehended for shooting
at a man, identified as Javed(36), in Jahangirpuri area inthe national Capital. Theman suffered a gunshotinjury and was hospitalised.The accused said that theman had beaten up the fatherof one of the minors sevenmonths back and they hadcome to take revenge. Theman was shot from point-blank range. The incidenttook place on Friday.A CCTV footage of the inci-dent was also doing therounds on social media.
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Sri Lanka’s Parliament held aspecial session on Saturday
to start the process of electinga new President on July 20 fol-lowing the resignation ofGotabaya Rajapaksa, with fourcontenders, including actingPresident RanilWickremesinghe joining therace to head the nextGovernment that has the ardu-ous task to revive the country’sbankrupt economy.
During a 13-minute specialsession, DhammikaDassanayake, SecretaryGeneral of Parliament,announced the vacancy forthe post of President after theresignation Rajapaksa, whofled the country after a popu-lar uprising against him for
mishandling the country’s eco-nomic crisis.
At the special session,Dassanayake read out the res-ignation letter from Rajapaksato Speaker Mahinda YapaAbeywardena in which theformer President defended hisactions to address the eco-nomic crisis as well as thepolitical turmoil. Rajapaksa,73, blamed the Covid-19 pan-demic and the lockdown for SriLanka’s economic woes.Rajapaksa said he took thebest steps like trying to form anall-party Government tocounter the economic melt-down. “I served my mother-land to the best of my abilityand I will continue to do so inthe future,” he said in the let-ter.
Dassanayake informed theHouse that nominations for thePresidency should be submit-ted to him on July 19. He alsosaid if more than one candidatehas submitted nominations, avote would be taken inParliament on July 20 to electthe new President.
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In the most direct accusationyet, the BJP on Saturday
held Congress president SoniaGandhi as the “driving force”behind the “conspiracy” toimplicate the then GujaratChief Minister NarendraModi in the 2002 riots, anddefame and destabilise hiselected Government in the State.
The BJP alleged Sonia’spolitical advisor late AhmedPatel and social activist TeestaSetalvad were mere pawns inher hands.
While Patel’s daughterMumtaz Patel said the BJP’scampaign for Gujarat poll has
begun “by dragging myfather’s name in conspiracytheories”, the Congress said“the Prime Minister’s politicalvendetta machine clearly doesnot even spare the departedwho were his political adver-saries”.
Earlier in the day,demanding answers to theaff idavit submitted byGujarat’s Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) before the courtallegedly “detailing nexus ofPatel and Setalvad” and trans-fer of “initial” Rs 30 lakh tothe social activist to “opera-tionilise the conspiracy againstModi”, the BJP asked Sonia tohold a press conference toclarify her stand on the issue.
“Not your social mediahead Jairam Ramesh but youshould answer questions,”BJP’s national spokespersonSambit Patra said, adding“Patel only delivered themoney. Sonia Gandhi gave it tobe handed over to Setalvad”.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi, on Saturday, cau-
tioned people against whathe called the “rewri culture”under which votes were soughtby political parties by promis-ing freebies and said this couldbe “very dangerous” for thedevelopment of the country.
Addressing a gatheringafter dedicating the 296-km-long BundelkhandExpressway to the people,Prime Minister Modi hit outat the previous dispensationsin Uttar Pradesh for the lackof connectivity and said thedouble-engine Governmentwas now ensuring majortransformation of the Statewith fast-improving connec-tivity.
He said the distance fromChitrakoot to Delhi by theBundelkhand Expressway hadbeen reduced by three-fourhours, but its benefit wasmuch more than that.
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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Saturday hit
back at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, saying hisGovernment’s schemes for freeeducation, healthcare and elec-tricity were not “freebies” butefforts to lay the foundation formaking India the number onecountry in the world.
“I have been accused of
distributing rewris (sweets),freebies. I am being abused. Iwant to ask the people ofIndia, where am I wrong,”
Kejriwal asked at a press con-ference.
The PM did not take anynames, though. Kejriwal said,“I am providing free qualityeducation to the poor childrenof Delhi. Am I distributingrewris? Before we came topower, the plight of DelhiGovernment schools was mis-erable. The future of 18 lakhchildren was in the dark due topoor infrastructure.
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Despite the BJP vice-presi-dentia l nominee of t
addressing Mamata Banerjeeas his “sister” Dhankhar andthe Bengal Chief Ministerhad always shared a stormychemistry ever since hejoined as the Governor of theState in mid-2019.
While, the Governor hadrepeatedly raised the steadi-ly deteriorating law and ordersituation and a in creasingstranglehold of what hecalled“syndicate-mafia raj” markedby a culture of “cut-moneyand extortion” in the State hewas responded to in equallystrong words even as theChief Minister compared himto a horse and her TrinamoolCongress called him an agentof the BJP. It all started whenthe Governor — much tothe chagrin of the ChiefMinister — personally wentto Jadavpur University in2019 to rescue the thenUnion Minister BabulSupriyo who had beengheraoed by the Leftist stu-dents unions.
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Jagdeep Dhankhar assumedcharge of the office of the
Governor of West Bengal onJuly 30, 2019. Born on May 18,1951 in village Kithana,Jhunjhunu District, Rajasthan,to the late Gokal Chand and thelate Kesari Devi, Dhankar waselected as the president of theRajasthan High Court BarAssociation, Jaipur, when hewas just 27-years-old.
Having studied inGovernment primary and mid-
dle schools, he passed out fromSainik School, Chittorgarh.
Dhankar, an LLB, was thesenior-most designated SeniorAdvocate of Rajasthan till tak-ing the oath of the office of theGovernor.
Since 1990 Dhankhar hadbeen practicing primarily in theSupreme Court and his focusareas of litigation have beensteel, coal, mine andInternational CommercialArbitration, among others. Hehas appeared in various HighCourts in the country.
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It is almost six years since theAIADMK fountainhead and for-mer Tamil Nadu chief minister
J Jayalalithaa breathed her last.
But the struggle to inherit her
political legacy and control of the
AIADMK goes on. The internecine
squabble between various caste groups
in the 50-year-old party has turned ugly.
The future of the major Opposition
hangs in the balance.The AIADMK general council, the
highest decision-making body, recent-
ly ousted O Panneerselvam and his four
associates from the primary member-
ship of the party and elected Edappadi
Palaniswamy as interim general secre-
tary. This after the fight for the con-
trol of the party reached the doors of
the Supreme Court. The violent street
protest by the OPS supporters speaks
volumes about the state of affairs in the
AIADMK. Both M.G.Ramachandran, the
party’s founder, and Jayalalithaa, his
successor, died intestate without any
offspring. After Jayalalithaa’s demise,
many women came forward claiming to
be her daughters. “Many women in
their mid-30s claim to be Jayalalithaa’s
offspring. Jayalalithaa herself would
have been shocked by these claimants
had she been around,” said G C Sekhar,
a longtime journalist who followed
Amma’s news with interest.Another veteran journalist in
Chennai who claimed to be
Jayalalithaa’s biographer was not aware
of the existence of Deepa and Deepak,
her niece and nephew, till Amma’s
demise. The world came to know
about them when they came out in the
open demanding the possession of
Veda Nilayam, Jayalalithaa’s imposing
bungalow in the high-end Poes Garden
locality in Chennai.The exit of Jayalalithaa left a polit-
ical vacuum in Tamil Nadu and this is
yet to be filled. There was no second-
in-command in the party as all were
soldiers of Amma. O Panneerselvam
was elevated to the post of chief min-
ister on September 21, 2001, when the
Supreme Court declared as null and
void the action of the then Governor of
the State swearing her in as chief min-
ister despite her conviction and sen-
tencing by a Special Court in a corrup-
tion case.It was not because of any leadership
qualities of Panneerselvam that he was
handpicked by Jayalalithaa for the top
job. She knew well that he would
resign even without her asking once the
Court clears her name in the case.
Panneerselvam had no hesitation in
accepting the fact that he was a puppet.
“Sir, I am here because Amma could not
function as chief minister because of the
court verdict. Once the court clears her
name, she would be back,” was his stan-
dard reply to queries. He even declined
to sit on the chair used by Amma and
functioned from his cabin in the sec-
retariat. The second time he assumed
the chief minister’s post was when the
Special Court sentenced Jayalalithaa to
four years imprisonment in the dispro-
portionate case. Once the Karnataka
High Court acquitted her of all charges,
Panneerselavam quit facilitating the
return of his Amma to Fort Saint
George. It was the sudden demise of
Jayalalithaa that led to his coronation
as chief minister for the third time
(early hours of 6, December 2016).
Jayalalithaa’s passing away led to a
series of events in the AIADMK about
which the Dravidian-dominated Tamil
media refuse to write. The first ques-
tion that remains unasked is the raison
d’etre of V K Sasikala (personal aide of
Jayalalithaa) and members of her
Mannargudi clan in Veda Nilayam.
Sasikala and her family members were
ousted by Jayalalithaa from Veda
Nilayam in October 2011. Amma
issued a directive to the party cadres not
to have any kind of ties with Sasikala
and her relations, claiming they brought
disrepute to the party. The action was
welcomed by the party cadres by burst-
ing crackers marking an early Diwali in
the State. But Sasikala managed to re-
enter Veda Nilayam by tendering a pub-
lic apology in which she declared that
her life was dedicated to serving Akka
(elder sister), and she would stay away
from all other activities including pol-
itics. But on the morning of December
6, 2016, when Jayalalithaa’s mortal
remains were lying in stateGovernment Estenti
ting around the coff in! TTV
Dhinakaran, who had been ousted
much earlier from the party as well as
Vedha Nilayam was seen supervising
the show. Nobody, including
Panneerselvam or Palaniswamy, could
explain how he managed to infiltrate
Veda Nilayam.The moment the Tamil Nadu Police
sounded the Last Post for Jayalalithaa,
Sasikala started her machinations to
usurp the party and government.
Panneerselvam was summoned to Veda
Nilayam and was forced to sign his res-
ignation letter. The next day Sasikala
was elected as the legislature party
leader. and it was decided to hold her
swearing-in ceremony on February 13
at the Madras University Centenary
Hall. But the Supreme Court pro-
nounced its verdict upholding the
Special Court order sentencing Sasikala
and two others to four years of rigor-
ous imprisonment in the disproportion-
ate asset case. So, on the day she was
expected to swear in as chief minister,
Sasikala surrendered before the super-
intendent of Parappana Agrahara
Central Jail to serve her imprisonment.
It was Edappadi Palaniswamy who
was sworn in as chief minister instead
of Sasikala. But Dhinakaran, who was
appointed as deputy general secretary
by Sasikala, started calling the shots.
Palaniswamy was a sitting duck as
Dhinakaran sent out the message that
the former should report to him on all
issues. Dhinakaran declared himself as
the party candidate for the by-poll to
be held at R K Nagar hitherto represent-
ed by Jayalalithaa. His mission was to
become the chief minister once he got
elected to the assembly. But that did not
work out because Palaniswamy and
Panneerselvam buried the hatchet and
unitedly took on Dhinakaran.
Dhinakaran won the bout at R K
Nagar, but he and Sasikala were eased
out of their positions and ousted fr
the AIADMK in thmeeti
outfit by the name AMMK with
Sasikala’s blessings. Panneerselvam, who had no lead-
ership qualities other than his devotion
to Jayalalithaa, thought that the chief
ministership as well as the post of gen-
eral secretary belonged to him and
started maneuvering to emerge as the
unchallenged leader of the party. But he
was no match for Palaniswamy, a cool
player who succeeded in winning
friends and influencing people.Though Dravidian parties claim
that there is no communalism and
casteism in Tamil Nadu, it continues to
be the most caste-ridden society in
South India. The upper caste Hindus do
not allow the Harijans to stay anywhere
near their locality. This writer has
experienced the two-tumbler system
prevailing in many districts. Tes shops
serve tea to Harijans in separate tum-
blers even as cops deployed to oversee
the eradication of untouchability watch
silently. That much for the social jus-
tice propagated by the Dravidian pol-
itics which has been governing the State
since 1967.The AIADMK has been dominat-
ed by the Thevar community to which
Sasikala and her clan belong.
Panneerselvam too is a Thevar.
Palaniswamy belongs to the Gaunder
community. While there was a feeling
that the Thevars may rally around
Sasikala and Dhinakaran, it has not
happened. Palaniswamy has succeeded
in mobilizing the Thevar community
around him and only a miracle could
help Sasikala and her acolytes to bounce
back. “She has a lot of money and can
buy over people. But Palaniswamy has
proved to be a tough nut to crack,” said
R Rajagopalan, veteran political com-
mentator.He said the weakening of AIADMK
is a setback for the natithe Stat “
base. Moreover, it is known all over the
State that he is devoid of any leadership
qualities. His moves to bring back
Sasikala to the party and anoint her to
a top position has not gone down well
with the people.Sasikala herself is a picture of con-
tradiction. Though she tried to hijack
the AIADMK, she had to drop the plan
as the cadres are not enthusiastic about
her intentions. Despite her declaration
that she was quitting active politics (and
that too for the second time), the lady
moves around claiming herself as the
general secretary of the AIADMK!
The AIADMK may be down now,
but it is the principal opposition party
in the State. Though it lost the May
2021 assembly election, the party man-
aged to poll 39.72 percent votes against
the DMK’s 45.38 percent. There was no
Jayalalithaa to campaign and the party
had to face hostile media which was
highly supportive of the DMK. The
2024 Lok Sabha polls would tell us more
about the future of the AIADMK. It is
not known whether Sasikala,
Dhinakaran, and company would be
able to make any difference to the for-
tunes of the party. Sasikala may be a
good reader but she is not a leader. The
lady cannot make a public speech and
she reads out from papers handed down
to her by hangers-on. “Even Rabri Devi, wife of Laloo
Prasad Yadav was better informed than
Sasikala,” says a scribe who has been fol-
lowing Sasikala’s antecedents.
Jayalalithaa’s ‘Woman Friday’ has
miles to go before she graduates into the
big league of politics because it is not
her cup of tea. She may be good in
palace intrigues but that alone does not
qualify her as a leader If P lmanages to
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AIADMK,A HOSTAGE OFINTERNECINE WAR
AIADMK,A HOSTAGE OFINTERNECINE WAR
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Covid spike
BMC issues ‘no mask, no goods' rulePNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
In a bid to curb the rapid risein Covid-19 cases in the capi-tal city, the Bhubaneswar Mu-nicipal Corporation (BMC) onSaturday brought back the 'Nomask no fuel' rule for vehicleowners under its jurisdiction.
The BMC ordered the fuelrefilling stations to not pro-vide fuel to those customerswho turn up without wearinga face mask or face cover ap-propriately. The fuel station
owners are also directed to putproper signage in the appro-priate place for information ofall.
The BMC order said, "Therehas been a sudden increase inthe number of newly detectedCovid-19 positive cases withinthe BMC area in the last fort-
night which requires cautionamong the citizens of BMC.Proper wearing of a face mask,face cover is a key method tocheck the spread of the virus."
Apart from the fuel stations,the BMC also issued an advi-sory for other traders and of-fice goers in the city and urgedthem to wear face mask orcover over the mouth and noseproperly.
The owners of business es-tablishments like shoppingmalls, shops, store owners shall
not allow any staff or custom-ers without face mask, facecover inside their premises.They shall also put appropri-ate signage "No mask no en-try/ no mask no goods" at theentrance of their premises forinformation of all concerned,the civic body stated. Any vio-lations on the above-men-tioned aspect would attractpenal provisions of the OdishaCovid-19 Regulations andamendments made from timeto time, the BMC said.
Concern in Assembly over SU question paper leak
No new Covid guidelines: SRCMax 361 inKhordha distPNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
For the second consecutiveday on Saturday, the State reg-istered more than 1,000 newCovid-19 cases as 1,065 peopletested positive in 28 districtsand the State pool. With this,the total tally rose to12,98,240.
Among the newly-infectedwere 122 children in the agegroup of 0 to 18 years.
Notably, the State had re-corded 1,047 Covid cases onFriday.
Out of the new cases, 624cases were from quarantineand 441 local contacts.
Khordha district detectedthe day's highest 361 cases fol-lowed by Cuttack with 135,Sundargarh 111, Sambalpur58, Mayurbhanj 52, Puri 44,Subarnapur 31, Jagatsinghpurand Jajpur 21 each,Kendrapada and Nayagarh 18each, Baleswar andKalahandi14 each, ,Rayagada13, Nuapada 11, Ganjam andKandhamal six each,Nabarangpur, Bhadrak andDeogarh five each, Keonjharfour, Gajapati and Koraputthree each, Dhenkanal twoand Boudh one. Besides, 76cases were reported from theState pool. The number of ac-tive cases increased to 5,376.So far, 12,83,683 patients haverecovered in the State.
PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
Amid the rising Covid-19cases in the State, mischiefmongers have posted a fakecircular on social media thatfresh Covid guidelines havebeen issued by the SpecialRelief Commissioner (SRC).
The fake post containingan image of SRC PradeepJena features a set of Covidrestrictions imposed in theState for the month of Au-gust. The restrictions in-clude night curfew, week-end shutdown in Cuttack,
Bhubaneswar and Puri and50% occupancy in cinemahalls and restaurants.
Taking cognisance ofthe matter, Jena took toTwitter and clarified thathe has not issued any cir-cular on Covid after April1, 2022.
“A lot of fake messagesare being circulated on so-cial media. Nor SRC is is-suing any circular onCovid restrictions in July/August, 2022. No such or-der has been issued by SRCOdisha,” the SRC tweeted.
PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
Opposition members inthe State Assembly on Satur-day expressed concern overthe issue of question paper leakin the Sambalpur University.
Deputy Leader of Opposi-
tion Bishnu Charan Sethy(BJP) demanded an immedi-ate statement and action bythe Education Minister.
While the State Governmentis claiming everything in theeducation sector as of worldlevel, the Education Minister
needs to explain the affairs in theSambalpur University, he de-manded. It has come to noticethat two Lecturers are suspectedto be involved in the paper leak,Sethy said, adding that strictactions should be taken againstall those involved in such acts.
Further rise: 1,065 newCovid cases in State
capital 02BHUBANESWAR l SUNDAY l JULY 17, 2022
Opp decries nonpayment of crop insurance money
For coming topower, new PCCchief must focuson winning voters'
trust
LALIT MOHAN MISHRA
When Congress presidentSonia Gandhi appointed the party's old
loyal guard Sarat Pattanayak as thenew Odisha Pradesh CongressCommittee (OPCC) chief on May23, there were mixed reactionsamong the party cadres as well asthe general public. Pattanayak hadthe Herculean task of facing theBrajrajnagar by-election on July 31,just after a week of the announce-ment.
But the result of Brajarajnagar by-poll came as a big prize for the newState Congress president. The Con-gress which used to end up with theforfeiture of deposit and a disastrous
Cong in the wilderness for long years in Odishathird position in the successive As-sembly by-elections since 2019general election, save Tirtol, couldscore the second rank in Brajrajnagrby-poll and pushed the BJP's can-didate and its former MLARadharani Panda to a humiliatingthird position.
The by-poll result of the Con-gress raised the confidence of theparty cadres and the public on thenew party chief. Though the otheraspirants for the State leadershippost were in low spirit after the ap-pointment of Pattanayak, theBrajrajnagar victory of the Con-gress slowly cooled them down.Pattanayak celebrated his assump-tion of office in a gentle mannerwithout much pomp and ceremonythat used to happen earlier. He fo-cused on field visits. Pattanayak hasbeen moving to the districts to buildcontact with the Congress cadres.He also has given promises of freeelectricity and other welfareschemes if Congress comes topower. The field movement ap-
proach of the State Congress presi-dent seems to be gathering momen-tum in the organisation.
In the meanwhile, he could notget time to focus on the co-opera-tive elections in the State which tookplace last month. The next task forhim is to carry his folks togetherfor the President election, sched-uled on July 18. It is evident thatboth the BJP and the BJD are play-ing the tribal card in Odisha in thePresident election as the State has23% of tribal population. It is sure
that the BJD and the BJP shall usethe anti- tribal voting stand ofCongress in the forthcoming elec-tions, which might come as a chal-lenge for the new PCC president.
The most important task beforePattanayak is to revamp the partyorganisation from the Panchayatto the State level. Every PCC presi-dent used to put new people in thedistrict and State committees butthey don't perform after a few days.Therefore, it is important to notonly put the loyalists in variousposts but also to assess their capa-bility for each post. The appoint-ments should not worsen thegroupism situation in party too.
It has been seen in the past thatthe State Congress did not followprotest and campaign activities ina continuous manner to activatethe organisation. Though some ac-tivities were carried out at the Statelevel, there was almost absence ofprotest activities at the Assemblyconstituency level. Similarly, theCentral campaigns were not car-ried forward to the districts. The
posters and banners of differentCentral campaigns were not seeninside the PCC campus. This givesan impression to the voters that theState Congress leaders are compro-mising with the BJD and the BJPwhich are in power at the State andthe Centre respectively. The StateCongress leaders must behave in-side and outside the Assembly insuch a manner that the voters willrepose faith on them. Rahul Gandhican give some percentage of votesto the State Congress due to hisprotest activities but the State andthe constituency leaders must earnthe Lok Sabha and Assembly votesby their own hard efforts.
As there is only one and a halfyears to the general election, thePCC president has to initiate con-stituency electoral work, identify-ing prospective Parliament and As-sembly Constituencies and study-ing the competitors' activities. TheCongress was in power during1995-2000 and the emergence ofthe BJD and the BJP have been di-luting its base since then. The 2009
general election was a good yearfor the Congress in the State inwhich it had gained five Lok Sabhaseats such as Sundargarh, Bargarh,Sambalpur, Kalahandi andNabarangpur. But the 2019 generalelection gave worse results, withonly 13% vote share in Lok Sabhaelection, 16% vote share in Assem-bly election, nine MLAs and oneMP. Pradip Majhi, the formerNabarangpur MP has left the partyafter 2019. Thus there is a need toidentify new and old leaders in LokSabha and Assembly Constituen-cies to fill up the vacancy createddue to the defection of party lead-ers over a period of time.
In electoral politics, money playsan important role now- a- days andthe Congress is weak in finance atboth Centre and the State level. Butrich PCC presidents and workingpresidents could not deliver resultsin the past either. What is impor-tant therefore is not the wealth ofthe PCC president but anorgnaisational plan to raise financefor the State-unit. Similarly, the
spokespersons, the media cell andthe IT cell must be active. It is of-ten seen that the young generationis not aware of the party's contri-bution to the State. The State unitmust prepare a list of the work doneby the past Congress Governmentsin each district, along with the workof the Union Governments andpublicise the same in various meet-ings and through posters and leaf-lets.
In the past, the Congress hastested various leadership criteria likecaste, region, age and wealth in theState. This time the party seems tobe testing the loyalty andorganisational experience factor ofthe State unit leader. Since 2014,there has been constant drifting ofthe Congress leaders and the cadersto the BJP and the BJD. If the newPCC president stops this process toa larger extent, then he wins halfthe 2024-battle against the BJDand the BJP.
(The writer is a freelance
journalist. Mob: 9439178588)
State’s Budget to be 2.65L cr by ’25-’26
Assembly uproar over 6 Kahipur diarrhoea deaths
Incessant rains hit life in twin cities
In State
Hooch claims 50 lives in 10 yrs
Centre neglecting State Khadi Board: Deb
Woman cop axed for misconduct
Centre decideson insurancefirm choice:
MinPIONEER NEWS SERVICE����� BHUBANESWAR
Opposition Congress andBJP cornered the State Gov-ernment on exploitation offarmers by insurance compa-nies engaged under PradhanMantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY) in the State Assem-bly on Saturday.
The members expressedconcern over a mess createdby the insurance companiesand taking the farmers for a
ride, during a discussion onadjournment motion movedby the Congress in the House.
However, the ruling partyMLAs held the Centre respon-sible for the mess and delay inpayment of compensation.
Congress MLA SantoshSingh Saluja said the State iswitnessing frequent droughtsand farmers were facing croploss regularly, but insurancecompanies were not payingcompensation in time. That’swhy they are suffering, headded.
Congress Legislative PartyLeader Narasingha Mishrapointed out that the con-cerned Minister in his state-ment had admitted that farm-
ers were yet to get compensa-tion of the year 2020-21.
“The crop cutting processwhich is the main criterion forpaying compensation is detec-tive. In many places only pa-per transactions are done, notmore than that,” Mishra told.
Mishra also urged the StateGovernment to write to theCentre to withdraw engagingprivate insurance companies.Only when the Governmentowned companies are as-signed, they pay compensa-tion to farmers in due time,he said.
He also expressed concernover the fact that banks, co-operative organisations werenot coming forward to pro-
vide crop loans to the farmers.BJP Member Mukesh
Mahaling wanted to knowfrom the Government whenthe pending compensation ofthe farmers would be dis-bursed.
Rengali BJP MLA NauriNayak said farmers have yetnot got compensation of2018-19 because of a defectiveprocess. That’s why as manyas 47% farmers are in loanburden and taking loans frommoneylenders at as high as 30-50%, he stated.
BJD member BhupinderSingh blamed the Centre forthe problem and said the StateGovernment had made specialbudgetary provisions for farm-
ers’ development.BJD MLA Debesh Acharya
said insurance companies hadtaken an escape route while theCentral Technical AdvisoryCommittee had not settledinsurance dues.
While replying, Coopera-tion, Food Supplies and Con-sumer Affairs Minister AtanuSabyasachi Nayak said therewere some justified claimsfrom Balangir, Bargarh andother districts and the claimshad been submitted to theCentral Government.
He said Odisha was provid-ing 58% loan through Coop-erative and Governmentbanks on priority basis to farm-ers than States providing only
18-19%. Besides, the StateGovernment has provided 42lakh Kissan Cards and agricul-ture loans to 36 lakh farmers,he told.
The Minister further in-formed that the loan size andnumber of beneficiaries hadincreased over the years in theState. While Rs 11,000 croreloan was disbursed to 30 lakhfarmers in 2017-18, it in-creased to Rs 15,189 crore for34.40 lakh farmers in 2020-21, he said.
The State Government haswritten two letters on July 4and 13 to the Centre to directinsurance companies to paycompensation to farmers with-out delay, he informed.
DoF prepares
Medium-Term
Fiscal Frame-
workPNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
The Annual Budget size ofthe State is estimated to reacharound Rs 2.65 lakh crore inthe Financial Year 2025-26, asper a Medium-Term FiscalFramework (MTFF) devel-oped by the Department ofFinance.
The Department of Fi-nance, in consultation withthe IMF’s South Asia RegionalTraining and Technical Assis-tance Center, has developedthe MTFF to support AnnualBudget formulation and me-dium-term fiscal planning tostrengthen Odisha’s public fi-nances and the credibility ofthe Budget process.
The MTFF is a set of fore-
casting and analytical pro-cesses that enable the State toprepare macroeconomic andfiscal projections for a three-year period. These projectionsare based on assumptions con-cerning global, national andlocal conditions, said a seniorofficial of the State Govern-ment.
The Fiscal Strategy Papersubmitted to the Odisha Leg-islative Assembly recentlypoints out that the frameworktakes into account variablessuch as global economicgrowth, inflation, volatility inthe mining industry and spe-cific fiscal risks, he said.
The objective of developingthe MTFF is to use it as a refer-ence for the preparation of theAnnual Budget and fiscal plan-ning over the subsequent twoyears. It gives a clear and com-prehensive sense of the fiscalstrategy within the broad ob-jectives of the FRBM Act, saidthe official.
The Annual Budget for theFinancial Year 2022-23 is Rs 2lakh crore which is 17.6% morethan the previous year budgetestimate. As per the MTFF, thebudget size is projected to reachRs 2.25 lakh crore, Rs. 2.45lakh crore and Rs 2.65 lakhcrore in FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25 and FY 2025- 26, respec-tively.
It is estimated that theprogramme expenditure is setto increase from the budgetestimate of Rs 1 lakh crore inFY 2022-23 to Rs 1.45 lakhcrore in FY 2025-26.
The Government has esti-mated that all the fiscal param-eters of the State Governmentwill remain within the limitsset by the FRBM Act.
Over the past eight years,Odisha’s economy has grownat an average rate of 8.1%. Thishas been faster than nationalGDP growth, and among thefastest-growing State econo-mies in India. As a result, the
State’s share of the nationaleconomy has grown to 2.5%of GDP.
For the period from FY2022-23 to 2024-25, the up-ward (best-case) scenariogrowth in GSDP is projectedat 11.9% and 9%, respec-tively. The most likely sce-nario is projected at 8% eachyear, as per the Fiscal Strat-egy Paper.
In the downward (worst-case) scenario, Odisha’seconomy will grow at 7% inthe medium-term during theperiod from FY 2022-23 to2024-25. Inflation (andgrowth in GSDP deflator) isprojected at around 5% fromFY 2022-23 to 2024-25.
Although Odisha has reg-istered impressive growth inrecent years, the economy isvulnerable to natural calami-ties owing to its geographi-cal location, dependence onnatural resources and the ex-ternal environment.
Nalco launches 240 smart classrooms
Congress questionsGovt's food security
claimPNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
The State Assembly wit-nessed pandemonium on Sat-urday over the death of sixpersons in tribals-dominatedKashipur block of Rayagadadistrict due to suspected diar-rhoea.
Raising the issue during ZeroHour, the Congress memberssought a statement in this re-gard from Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik. Later, they
created uproar in the House asSpeaker Bikram KeshariArukha refused to give rulingimmediately on the issue.
The Speaker had to adjournthe proceedings twice for 10minutes and then for 15 min-utes.
Later, the Speaker asked Par-liamentary Affairs MinisterNiranjan Pujari to make astatement in the Assembly onthe issue on Monday.
Congress Legislature PartyLeader Narasingha Mishra saidthe State Government isnumber one in food distribu-tion under the National FoodSecurity Act (NFSA) in the
country, but many people ofKashipur block are still de-prived of food security.
He said people of tribal andJhodia communities are dyingafter consuming non-fooditems like mango kernel andliquor. At least six people havedied due to consuming suchnon-food items in the lastthree days.
Mishra demanded a state-ment from the Chief Ministerto know the circumstancesleading to the death of peoplein Kashipur. Congress MLATara Prasad Bahinipati toourged the Speaker to give aruling asking the Chief Min-
ister to make a statement.While the Government is
claiming that it is providingrice at Rs 1 per kilo, beneficia-ries are deprived of the foodsecurity schemes and dyingdue to starvation. It is a sensi-tive matter, the Congressmembers said.
Rayagada IndependentMLA Makaranda Muduli de-manded to form a specialmedical team and providehealthcare service in Kashipurblock immediately.
As per reports, around over40 people of Kashipur blockhad lost their lives to diarrhoeain the year 2007.
PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
Spurious liquor has claimed50 lives in the State during thelast 10 years, informed ExciseMinister Ashwini Kumar Patrain the State Assembly on Sat-urday.
Replying to a question byCongress MLA Santosh SinghSaluja, the Minister said asmany as 41 persons had diedafter consuming spurious li-quor in Cuttack district in2011-12 financial year. Be-sides, nine deaths were re-ported in Bhadrak district in2019-20 due to consumption
of spurious liquor.He stated that the Excise
Department issues licences tomanufacturers for sell of alco-holic beverages verified by theconcerned regulatory bodies.
"If any licensed liquor shopis found manufacturing andselling spurious liquor, theowner is awarded 10-year jailterm as per provisions underSection-59 of Odisha ExciseAct-2008. Besides, the accusedis imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakhfor the offence. This apart, li-cence of the concerned liquortrader is cancelled under theAct," the Minister added.
PNS ����� CUTTACK
The Odisha Police on Sat-urday placed woman Inspec-tor-in-Charge SnigdharaniSuna under suspension for'gross misconduct'.
DGP Sunil Bansal initiateddepartmental proceedingsagainst the IIC, whose MarutiErtiga SUV was involved in aroad mishap killing three andinjuring six persons who were
travelling by an auto-rickshaw.During the period of suspen-
sion, she would remain underthe disciplinary control of theSundargarh Superintendent ofPolice, the order stated. Ear-lier in the day, Ajay Jethi, theperson who was said to be driv-ing Suna's SUV got bail froma local court in Sundargarh. Hehas been booked under MotorVehicle Act as he did not havea valid driving licence.
60 more in ad-
vanced stage of
completionPNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
As part of the Azadi KaAmrit Mahotsav, Nalco par-ticipated in the Iconic Weekcelebration of the UnionMines Ministry by launching300 smart classrooms in 120Government schools.
At a function held in hy-brid mode, Union Secretary,Mines Alok Tandon, in pres-ence of Nalco CMD SridharPatra inaugurated the 240smart classrooms in 91 schoolsin the first phase. The balance60 smart classrooms in 29schools are in advanced stageof completion.
The multi-locational eventwas witnessed by senior offi-cials of the Ministry of Mines,Directors of Nalco, large num-bers of school children, offi-cials and employees of Nalco,
officials of district administra-tion of Koraput and Angul,education officers, school au-thorities and public represen-tatives. At ground level, theinaugural ceremony was heldat Government High School,Angul and Sri JagannathBidyapith, Sunabeda.
The schools from the dis-tricts of Angul, Dhenkanal,Koraput, Nabarangpur andKhordha, where the smartclassrooms have been com-pleted were inaugurated.
The flagship educationproject of Nalco has been com-missioned by EdCIL(India)Limited. The schools have beenidentified in association withdistrict administration to de-velop smart classrooms by in-stalling integrated commu-nity computer-cum-projectorwith ancillary devices. Theproject also envisageshandholding and training ona continuous basis for teach-ers and students. The totalproject cost is Rs.7.65 crore.
PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
MSME Minister PratapDeb on Friday hit out at theCentral Government in theAssembly for not providingany grant to the State KhadiBoard. He said the State Gov-ernment was providing allgrants to the board to stay itafloat.
Replying to the principalquestion of BJP memberGaneshram Singh Khuntiaand supplementary questionof Opposition Chief WhipMohan Majhi, the Ministersaid as per the announcement
by the State Government, asum of Rs 2 crore has been pro-vided to 21 Khadi Boards forproviding salary and trainingof the staff. Deb said out of 21Khadi and Gramodyog soci-eties in the State, four are man-aged by voluntary organisationsand remaining 17 mills by pri-vate agencies. Both the Stateand Central Governmentshave always insisted onprivatising spinning mills, heasserted. The Minister said it isregrettable that the UnionGovernment had turned ablind eye to the welfare ofKhadi and village industries.
PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
The twin cities of Cuttackand Bhubaneswar experiencedintense spells of rains sincemorning on Saturday underinfluence of a low-pressurearea over coastal Odisha.
This threw normal life outof gear in the two cities.
"Intense spells of rain con-tinued over several parts of thetwin-city areas ofBhubaneswar and Cuttack. Itmay cause temporary water-logging in low lying as well asunderpass areas," tweeted theIMD.
As per the Regional Officeof the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) here,moderate to heavy rainfall
would continue in several partsof the State
As per the IMD, Balianta inKhordha district recorded 86mm of rainfall, followed byBalipatana (95.5 mm), Chilika)85mm) and Bhubaneswar air-port (49.1mm) rainfall by 8:30am on the day.
Earlier, the IMD had issuedan orange warning for heavyto very heavy rainfall in sev-eral parts of the State includ-ing Cuttack. A yellow alert wasalso issued for the districts ofMalkangiri, Koraput,Nabarangpur, Jagatsinghpur,Khordha, Puri, Nayagarh,Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak,Baleswar, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj, Kandhamal andBoudh.
capital 03BHUBANESWAR l SUNDAY l JULY 17, 2022
INBRIEF+2 ADMISSION PROCESS TO BEGIN ON JULY 20Bhubaneswar: The process of admission into Plus 2 colleges in
the State would begin on July 20, informed School and Mass
Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Saturday. Students
can apply for the admission online through SAMS portal
www.samsodisha.gov.in- between July 20 and August 10. The
deadline for submission of the application forms is likely to be
extended as the CBSE and ICSE Boards have not declared the
Class-X results yet, the Minister added.
143 GRAM BROWN SUGAR SEIZED, TRADER HELD IN JSPURJagatsinghpur: Acting on a tipoff, excise sleuths seized 143 grams
of brown sugar from the possession of a woman, Bharati Sahoo,
a resident of Sukida village near Machhagaon under Balikuda
block on Friday. The woman was arrested and forwarded to
court. District Excise Superintendent Baijanti Panda said a team
led by Excise Inspector Nimain Charan Singh raided the resi-
dence of Bharati at Sukida village and recovered the brown sugar
worth over Rs 14 lakh.
GOREKHANATH TEMPLE ROBBERY: 3 ARRESTEDJagatsinghpur: Police picked up three thieves allegedly involved
in the Gorekhnath temple robbery incident on Friday. The ar-
rested persons were identified as P Kameswar and T Laxmikant,
both belonging to the Rambha police limits in Ganjam district,
and Rinku Das from Sunagada village under Badachana block in
Jajpur district. Rs 98,000 and three mobile phones were recov-
ered from them and they were forwarded to court. On June 22,
miscreants had broken open the Hondi of the temple at Kerakera
village under Raghunathpur block and taken away cash and
jewelleries. After the crime, the thieves were staying at Barang in
Cuttack district.
MURALI MOHAN ELECTED B'PUR COOP URBAN BANKBrahmapur: R Murali Mohan
of the BJD has been elected
unanimously as President of
the Brahmapur Cooperative
Urban Bank. Total 14 Direc-
tors out of 15 zones from 42
wards were present in the election. BJD district president and
former MLA Dr RCC Pattnaik, MLA Bikram Kumar Panda, MP
Chandra Sekhar Sahu and BeMC Mayor Sanghamitra Dalai were
also present. Former Assembly Deputy Speaker Rama Chandra
Panda conveyed his best wishes to Mohan.
HYVK OF BNM CELEBRATES GURU PURNIMABrahmapur: On the Guru
Purnima days, the Hasa,Yoga
& Vyayam Kendra (HYVK)
of Baristha Nagarik Manch
(BNM), Lanjipalli here, held
a function to offer gratitude to their founder Vyayam Guru late
Laxmikant Satapathy and felicitate present Yoga Guru and BNM
president Prof Bhaskar Padhy and Vyayam Guru and BNM
treasurer Sibaram Panigrahi in the premises of Divine Life Soci-
ety. BNM secretary Biswanath Padhi emphasised the importance
of Guru Puja in the context of Sanatan Dharma. The members
offered 'mass Deepa Danam' to Swamy Sivananda and
Chidananda Saraswati Maharaj.
SATYASWARUP NOMINATED SSSO STATE PRESIDENTParadip: Dr Satyaswarup
Pattnaik has been nominated
as the new president of Sri
Sathyasai Seva Organisation
(SSSO) of Odisha State.
Nimish Pandya, All India
president of Shri Sathya Sai
Seva Organisation, an-
nounced the name of Dr Patnaik recently. Dr Patnaik is a cardi-
ologist and son of Antaryami Pattnaik, a well-known business-
man of Paradip and the convenor of Odisha Satyasai Trust.
Water drawal by industries, mines to dry up BaitaraniIt’s time forright measuresto save ‘Gangaof Odisha’
SANDEEP PATTNAIK
The Baitarani is one ofthe six major rivers ofOdisha. There is a vil-
lage named Baitarani in theBansapal block of Keonjhardistrict from where the riverBaitarani, also known as the“Ganga of Odisha” has origi-nated.
The coastal plain of Odishahas been termed as a“Hexadeltaic region” or the“Gift of Six Rivers”. These del-tas divide the coastal plain intothree regions from the northto the south. The Baitarani, theMahanadi and Brahmani riv-ers form the Middle CoastalPlain. It is one of the oldestrivers in the country flowingfrom a geological formationwhich is proven to have someof the earliest rocks in theworld.
The Baitarani river origi-nates and flows from one ofthe most mineral-rich areas on
the planet earth. It originatesfrom Gonasika hills in tribaldominated Banspal block at900 metre above sea level andruns 360 km before enteringthe Bay of Bengal. From thehills at Gonasika and after tra-versing through theneighbouring State ofJharkhand it meandersthrough the districts ofKeonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur,Kendrapada and Bhadrak be-fore it meets the Bay of Ben-gal near Dhamra. Along itsway, it is fed by 64 tributariesincluding nine large ones. Thecatchment area of the riverreceives average 1,488 mmrainfall in a year.
The Baitarani basin is thethird largest among the total11 basins of Odisha. It has acatchment area of 13,482sqkm in Odisha out of the to-tal 14,218 sqkm catchmentarea. The present situation onwater availability of Keonjhardistrict is already alarmingand water of the river is allo-cated to different industrialhouses without any consulta-tion with the local people, whohave the first right on the wa-ter. It is unfortunate thatthe construction of a dam over
Baitarani at Kanupur-KIP istaking a long time which canhelp farming and preservationof water.
Many companies are draw-ing huge quantity of waterfrom the Baitarani for mineraltransportation through slurrypipeline. Time will come whenthe district may turn into adesert because of such un-planned mining and industrialactivities.
The slurry pipeline projectsof Brahmani River Pellet Plant(BRPL) of 4mtpa and length230 km from Barbil toKalinganagar has annual wa-
ter allocation of 41,99,544Cusec of water from riverBaitarani. Slurry pipeline ofEssar Steel pellet plant of 6-mtpa and length 253 km fromDabuna to Paradip has annualwater allocation of 105,16,730Cusec of water from riverBaitarani. On similar lines,many slurry pipeline projectssuch as 30-mtpa capacity ofJSW and 24-mtpa capacity ofTriveni have already been ap-proved by the State Govern-ment where there is no provi-sion of return pipeline for re-plenishment of water and con-sistent drawal of water from a
single source. These projectswill further aggravate the wa-ter flow of Baitarani river.
The rampant exploitation ofthe mineral wealth of the dis-trict and continuous defores-tation are causing the river todie a slow death. Rapid defor-estation has resulted in verypoor flow in the river. Siltationdue to mines run off is show-ing up at strategic places.
From the agricultural pointof view, the river is the onlysource of water for farmers ofthe four out of the five dis-tricts through which it passes.Many irrigation projects have
been implemented or are inthe primary stages. The riveris the lifeline of the district,both for drinking water andirrigation purpose. In recentyears, the people have sufferedacutely during periods ofdrought and low rainfall. TheBaitarani and its major tribu-tary, Salandi, irrigate 61,920hectares of agricultural land.The proposed Bhimkund andupper Baitarani multi-purposeprojects envisage many moredams across this river and itstributaries. Only 28 per centof available water of theBaitarani could be convertedfor irrigation purpose. TheKanupur project started about43 years back and is yet to becompleted.
Though locals, particularlytribals and environmentalists,have time and again raisedtheir voice against unbridledexploitation of the natural re-sources including Baitaraniwater, their concern has goneunnoticed. It’s a matter of greatconcern that the Baitarani isin danger and if suitable stepswill not be taken in time thenwe have to pay a heavy pricefor not doing anything to-wards its protection.
Rs 2-cr online fraud by Vig SI to be probed
Odisha students performwell in various grades
3 detained in K'padagirl suicide case
In JajpurYouth held for blackmailing girls
Flood situation in Malkangiri worsens
Hirakud to releasefloodwaters on July 18
In Nuapada
3 villagers die, 2 hurt in wild bear attack
PNS ����� MALKANGIRI
The flood situation in Motuof Malkangiri district contin-ued to remain grim. Severalparts of the district are reelingunder floods after backwatersfrom river Godavari inneighbouring Andhra Pradeshinundated villages and farm-lands in Odisha followingheavy rains.
As per official sources, thebackwaters from riverGodavari have entered Motublock and some other placeson the banks of its tributariesSabari and Sileru.
As both Sabari and Silerurivers are now in spate the
flood water has entered Motutehsil. Three villages of the oldMotu area are now left inun-dated. Similarly, around six toseven villages in Motu areaalso submerged in floodwaters.People are being shifted tosafer places with the help ofboats by the district adminis-tration.
As the National Highwaynumber 326 is now sub-merged, the road communi-cation from Malkangiri toneighbouring AndhraPradesh, Telangana andChhattisgarh has been cut-off.Water level in river Godavarihas touched 70 feet atBhadrachalam, sources said.
After dupedinvestor lodgescomplaint incourtUBACHAK MOHANTY����� BALESWAR
The JMFC Court ofRasgobindapur, Mayurbhanj,has directed the local police toinvestigate a duping caseagainst a police Sub Inspectorposted in Vigilance Court,Baleswar Division.
The court directed the IIC
Rasgobindapur, LopamudraNayak to probe involvementof police officer RamachandraMahalik in the fraud, the tuneof the amount involved in thefraud and the number of af-fected investors.
The complainant, SumantiRout, alleged she had investedRs 9,500 online in a chainmarketing company after al-lured by Mahalik who assuredof high return. Although shewas assured of return of moneyafter a year, she still couldn'tget the principal amount. Fail-ing to get a relief from any-
where, she lodged a complaintin the JMFC court.
It is said although SI Mahalikwas not directly involved inthe marketing, yet he was get-ting it done through his wife
and a minor son. It is allegedthat Mahalik and his familyduped several other investorsof around Rs 2 crore. Mahalik, however, refuting the allega-tions said since he was in Gov-ernment service he was notinvolved in the scam and onthe other hand, he was notaware of what his family mem-bers were doing.
IIC Nayak said that the casewould be investigated thor-oughly and the Superinten-dent of Police, Vigilance,would be informed about theallegations against Mahalik.
201 stolen cell phonesseized in J’suguda
PNS ����� KENDRAPADA
The Patkura police on Sat-urday detained three persons,including a woman, and thehusband of the Sarpanch ofPadmapur gram panchayat ina case involving suicide of a22-year-old girl on Friday overher harassment by co-villag-ers at Mohammuda village inthe district.
Jharana Swain, mother ofthe deceased girl, ShubhraSubhadarshini Swain, in herFIR had complained that herdaughter had committed sui-cide because of constant ha-rassment and abusive lan-guage used against her by afew fellow villagers over apast grudge.
Kendrapada SP MadkarSandeep Sampat said, "Wehave been conducting an in-quiry from several angles toascertain the exact reason be-hind the suicide of the girl.While we have detained threepersons in this connection, afew other accused have fled thevillage to avoid arrest. How-ever, raids are on to nab them."
Jharana in her FIR had ac-cused eight persons of abet-ting suicide of her daughter,including Anusaya Behera,the sarpanch of Padmapur GPand her husband. Demand-ing the arrest of the accused,Jharana and her neighbourshad staged dharana on Fridayin front of Patkura police sta-tion main gate.
PNS ����� JAJPUR
A youth was arrested byBari Ramchandrapur police inJajpur district on charges ofmaking fake IDs by postingphotos of young women, chat-ting on Instagram and threat-ening to make pornographicphotos viral.
The arrested youth isSushant Behera of Jantuali vil-lage under the Bangsada po-lice station of Bhadrak dis-trict. While working inHyderabad, Behera used fakeIDs on Instagram to black-
mail and chat with variousyoung women. A youngwoman from Bari-Ramchandrapur police sta-tion area had lodged a com-plaint with the Enei police onJune 20 in this regard.
According to police, a casehas been registered againstBehera at Jagatsinghpur policestation on charges of black-mailing a woman. Manyyoung women, on the otherhand, have been reported tobe victims of his blackmailing.Behera was forwarded to courton Saturday.
PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR
Odisha students have beenperforming well in differentsubjects and the gradesachieved by some of them areeven better than the nationalaverage, said School and MassEducation Minister SamirRanjan Dash here on Friday.
Addressing participants of atwo-day workshop on the Na-tional Achievement Survey(NAS) organised by the Direc-torate of Teacher Education,State Council of EducationalResearch and Training in as-sociation with the UNICEF,the Minister highlighted thecollaborative effort of DIETsand field-level functionariesin different districts to en-hance the quality education inthe State.
Former Director, NCERTHrushikesh Senapati high-lighted the results of NAS-2021 along with strategies tobe taken up. Chief of Office,UNICEF Odisha Monika
Nielsen stressed the need fordistrict, block and cluster-levelplanning.
State Project DirectorAnupam Saha assured im-provement in classroom ac-tivities with the help of teach-ers on the basis of the surveyresults.
Director, TE and SCERTRaghuram R Iyer highlightedthe need to undertake differ-ent activities at zonal and dis-
trict levels and at school pointsto enhance the learning out-come of students.
The NAS 2021-Odisha Re-port card was launched forwider publicity on the first dayof the workshop. NAS 2021was held on November 12,2021 and grades of students ofClasses-III, V, VIII and X ofGovernment schools (Stateand Central), Government-aided schools along with pri-
vate schools were taken intoconsideration. From Odisha,5,479 schools, 25,143 teachersand 1,58,611 students partici-pated in the survey.
The workshop, which in-volved a large-scale survey ofstudents' learning undertakenby the Union Ministry of Edu-cation and gave a system leverreflection on effectiveness ofschool education, concluded onSaturday.
Animal beatento death byinjured duoPNS ����� NUAPADA
At least three persons werekilled and two others injuredwhen a wild bear attackedthem in a forest at Samarsingunder the Lakhna police lim-
its in Nuapada district.The deceased were identified
as Ratan Majhi (60), NakulMajhi (60) and Rabi Rana (27),all from Samarsing village.
According to reports, RatanMajhi had gone to the foreston Friday for collecting fire-wood when he became a vic-tim to a fatal bear attack.
In search of the elderly man,
four other villagers, NakulMajhi, Rabi Rana, Kuna Majhiand Parameswar Majhi, wentto the forest where they foundthe body of Ratan. At thistime, the wild animal attackedNakul and Rabi. The duofought with the bear but losttheir lives.
Kuna Majhi and ParameswarMajhi, who were injured in the
bear attack, beat the animal todeath.
On receiving information,officials of Forest Departmentand Fire Service reached thespot and recovered the threebodies from the forest. Thetwo injured villagers were ad-mitted to the Nuapada DistrictHeadquarters Hospital fortreatment.
Returned tooriginal ownersPNS ����� JHARSUGUDA
The police here conducteda high-tech operation to re-cover stolen mobile phonesfrom a racket active in the dis-trict.
In June, more than 413complaints were filed with thelocal police stations regardingthe theft of mobile phones.Out of them, 201 mobilephones were recovered worthRs 20 lakh by the police and
were returned to their originalowners. The phone ownershad lost any hope of being ableto find their phones; however,due to Jharsuguda police’s hightech drive, the thieves werenabbed, and the phones wererecovered from them.
They conducted an exhibi-tion at the police headquartersto showcase the recoveredphones and return them totheir rightful owners. The po-lice arrested four accused inthis regard. About 50 mobilehandsets were recovered fromoutside the State.
PNS ����� SAMBALPUR
The season's first floodwa-ter would be released from theHirakud Dam on July 18. Thisis necessitated by the rise inthe water-level in the reservoirdue to the incessant rains inthe upper catchment areas forthe last few days.
.As per official sources, theexcess water from the damwould be released through fivesluice gates. There are 64 sluicegates including 24 on the rightand 40 on the left side of thedam.
The gates of the dam would
be opened at 11 am on Mon-day, the dam's Chief Engineersaid on Saturday.
According to the Water Re-sources Department, the wa-ter level in the reservoir stoodat 603.77 ft against the opti-mum level of 630 ft on Fri-day.
The dam authorities saidthat as the water-level ofMahanadi and its tributaries isexpected to rise following therelease of water from Hirakud,there is a need to create aware-ness among people so that theydo not venture into these partsas a precautionary measure.
����������������������� �� ������ ��������
����� ��������
The Opposition parties onSaturday set the stage for
a stormy Monsoon Sessionthat commences on July 18 asa majority of them skipped thecustomary all-party meetingcalled by Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla.
None from the TMC,NCP, Samajwadi Party, BSP,BJD, CPM, JMM, TRS, TDP,Akali Dal and other partiesattended the meeting.
The Trinamool Congresshas said it would also boycottthe customary all party meet-ing convened by the VicePresident on Sunday.However, a separate meetingconvened by the Oppositionparties to discuss the strategy
for Monsoon Session anddeciding on the VicePresidential candidate is like-ly to be in full attendance onSunday.
The Government has alsocalled an all-party meetingon Sunday when PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isexpected to attend. If theOpposition will boycott thismeeting or not is not knownthough.
The invite has also beenextended to Telangana ChiefMinister and the head ofTelangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) K Chandrashekhar Raowho during the last one dayhave reached out to all non-BJP and non-Congress partyleaders to galvanise his ownpolitical force.
The Opposition meeting islikely to be litmus test of theirunity after parties like JMM,
Shiv Sena broke ranks to sup-port the NDA nominationDraupadi Murmu in the
Presidential polls. The meeting with the
Speaker came against thebackdrop of the recent rousingcontroversies over the list of'unparliamentary words' andalleged 'banning of protests' inParliament precincts.
The Opposition demand-ed a discussion on the shortfour-year 'Agnipath' militaryrecruitment scheme, unem-ployment and farmers' issuesand sufficient time be given toit to raise these issues,Congress leader in Lok SabhaAdhir Ranjan Chowdhury saidafter the meeting.
The first day of the mon-soon session will see voting forthe presidential election.
Besides Chowdhury, DMKMP TR Balu, Union
Parliamentary Affairs MinisterPralhad Joshi, BJP MP ArjunRam Meghwal, YSRCP MP PVMithunreddy, RLJP MPPashupati Kumar Paras andother parliamentarians fromother parties attended themeeting called by the Speaker.
Some of the bills that arein the pending list include TheIndian Antarctica Bill, 2022.The bill is pending in the LokSabha. The Weapons of MassDestruction and their DeliverySystems (Prohibition ofUnlawful Activities)Amendment Bill, 2022 waspassed by Lok Sabha and is yetto be passed by Rajya Sabha.The Wild Life (Protection)Amendment Bill, 2021 ispending in Lok Sabha, TheAnti-Maritime Piracy Bill,
2019 and The National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021 are alsopending in Lok Sabha.
The Constitution(Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes) Orders(Second Amendment) Bill, 2022(in respect of State of UP -amendment regarding changeof district name to be approvedby Cabinet) was introduced inLok Sabha in March 2022.
The new bills to be newlyintroduced in the Parliamentduring the Monsoon sessioninclude The Central UniversitiesAmendment Bill, 2022.
After the meeting, Birlasaid he appealed to all partyleaders to hold discussionson key issues currently facingus in the interest of the coun-try. "There will be 18 sittings
and a total time of 108 hourswill be available to housemembers. 62 hours have beenallotted for government busi-ness during the session," Birlasaid and informed that thetiming of submission of noticefor raising matters duringZero Hour has been changed.
Now Members can givenotices from 0900 hours of agiven day to 0800 hours of theSession day on which the mem-bers desire to raise their mat-ters in the House during ZeroHour. Notices for Monday orthe first working day of theweek may be given between0900 a.m. on Friday or the lastworking day of the previousweek and 0800 a.m. onMonday or the first workingday of that week.
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Maintaining that politicalOpposition is translating
into hostility, Chief Justice ofIndia N V Ramana on Saturdaysaid this is not a sign of ahealthy democracy.
He said there used to bemutual respect between theGovernment and theOpposition, which is dimin-ishing. "Political oppositionshould not translate into hos-tility, which we have been sadlywitnessing these days. Theseare not signs of a healthydemocracy," Ramana said.
He was speaking at theinaugural session of the 18thAll India Legal ServicesAuthority in Jaipur. The eventwas organised at the Rajasthan
Assembly by theCommonwealth ParliamentaryAssociation (CPA).
"There used to be mutualrespect between governmentand opposition. Unfortunately,space for opposition is dimin-ishing," he said.
The CJI also raised con-cerns over the quality of leg-islative performance. "Sadly,the country is witnessing adecline in the quality of leg-islative performance," he said,adding laws are being passedwithout detailed deliberations
and scrutiny.This apart, the CJI stressed
the need to increase the effi-ciency of the criminal justicesystem and pointed out that ofthe 6.10 lakh prisoners in thecountry, nearly 80 per cent areundertrials.
From indiscriminate arrestto difficulty in obtaining bail,the process leading to pro-longed incarceration of under-trial prisoners needs urgentattention, he said adding weneed a holistic plan of action toincrease the efficiency of theadministration of the criminaljustice system, he said.
Earlier, Union LawMinister Kiren Rijiju hadappealed to the State LegalServices Authorities to takeefforts so that maximumundertrial prisoners can be
released by August 15, 2022,when India celebrates its 75thIndependence Day.
At the same time, heexpressed concern over theexorbitant legal fees charged byprominent advocates, therebyputting justice out of reach forthe poor and marginalised inthe country.
“Resourceful people canafford big lawyers. There arelawyers in the Supreme Courtwhose fees a common mancannot afford. If they charge Rs10-15 lakh per hearing, howcan a common man pay up,”Rijiu asked while addressingthe event.
Rijiju said that 71 obsoleteActs will be repealed in theMonsoon session ofParliament, slated to beginfrom Monday, July 18.
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Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot Saturday
deprecated attacks on SupremeCourt justices over their obser-vations against suspended BJPspokesperson Nupur Sharmafor her remarks on ProphetMohammad, saying an "issue"was created when the twojudges expressed their views.
He was referring to theobservations made by aSupreme Court bench of JusticeJ B Pardiwala and Justice SuryaKant which had on July1rebuked Sharma for her "dis-turbing" remarks against theProphet Mohammad. Thebench had said Sharma'sremarks led to unfortunateincidents and ignited emo-tions across the country.
Gehlot said on Saturday
the Supreme Court judges hadexpressed their views about thecondition in the country but an"issue" was created. "RecentlyJustice Pardiwala and JusticeSurya Kant had said something.It is our duty to respect thejudiciary. 116 people weremade to stand (against thejudges), including former highcourt and Supreme Courtjudges, bureaucracy, and offi-cers. Don't know who theywere?How it was managed andwho managed it and an issuewas created in the country,"Gehlot said.
He was addressing theinaugural session of the 18thAll India Legal ServicesAuthority in Jaipur, attended byChief Justice of India N VRamana, other judges of theSupreme Court and those fromdifferent high courts.
Gehlot's mention of "116people" was probably a refer-ence to a group of formerjudges and bureaucrats whoearlier this month haddemanded that the SC recall itsobservations against NupurSharma, alleging the courtcrossed the "Laxman Rekha"while making comments.
The group, comprising 15high court judges, 77 ex-allIndia services officers and 25veterans (a total of 117), hadalleged that the "unfortunate"comments are not in sync withthe judicial ethos and have sent"shockwaves" in the countryand outside.Gehlot also saidpost-retirement concerns were"affecting" the functioning ofjudges. Judges and bureau-crats, he said, should work toserve
the country rather than be
concerned about their post-retirement ambitions. In thecontext, he mentioned thenomination of former ChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoias a Rajya Sabha MP, saying hewas one of the four SC judgeswho had said, at an unprece-dented press conference inDelhi in 2018, that democracyis in danger in the country.
He then became the chiefjustice and later a parliamen-tarian, Gehlot said. He thenwent to mention the crisis hisgovernment faced last year dueto a rebellion led by his thendeputy Sachin Pilot. "I don'tknow how my governmentsurvived. I would not havebeen standing before you today.You would have met someother chief minister today. Itwas a matter of touch-and-go,"Gehlot said.
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In an effort to showcase airprowess to people in differ-
ent parts of the country, theIAF annual fly past and paradethis year will take place inChandigarh instead of Hindonairbase, Ghaziabad. The flypast and parade will take placeon Air Force Day on October8.
Till now, the annual highprofile event used to take placeat the Hindon airbase for thepast few years after shiftingfrom the Palam airbase in2006. The Palam airbase host-ed the annual event for manydecades.
After gauging the responseof this year’s parade and fly
past, the IAF may hold theannual event in other cities ofthe country in the comingyears, sources said here onSaturday.
The main objective of shift-ing the fly past from thenational capital region is toexpose the general masses to
the IAF especially the thrillingaerobatics performed by frontline fighter jets, they said.These demonstrations may alsoinspire youngsters to opt for acareer in the IAF, sources said.
They also said IAF chief VR Chaudhari has also asked hisforce to involve as many peo-ple as possible in the celebra-tions related to Air Force Day.
Initial plans suggest the flypast this year may take place inthe backdrop of the Sukhnalake in Chandigarh where alarge number of people fromnearby towns can also comeand see the gala event.
The IAF will showcasemost of its frontline fighter jetsincluding the newly inductedRafales, SU-30, Mirage, Mig29s and Jaguars. The Surya
Kiran and Sarang teams willalso perform hair raising aer-obatic stunts.
The decision to have theIAF fly past in Chandigarhcomes at a time when the pre-sent NDA government hashosted several high profileevents outside the nationalcapital. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has hostedseveral foreign VIPs in differ-ent cities.
Moreover, the prestigiousdefence exhibition Def Expo isalso held in different cities forthe past few years after shiftingfrom New Delhi, they said.Besides involving local people,the aim of holding these eventsin other cities is to promotetourism and the economy ofthat region, they said.
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Hyderabad-based con-struction firm DEC
Infrastructure has emerged asthe lowest bidder for buildingthe Executive Enclave that willhouse the Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO), the CabinetSecretariat, the India Houseand the National SecurityCouncil Secretariat.
DEC Infrastructure andProjects (India) PrivateLimited had quoted an amountof around Rs 1,189 crore, 10.44per cent less than the Rs 1,328-crore cost estimated by theCentral Public WorksDepartment (CPWD), whichhas been executing theNarendra Modi government'sambitious Central VistaRedevelopment project.
The estimated cost alsoincludes maintenance andhousekeeping for five years.Tata Projects Limited, which isconstructing a new Parliamentbuilding, quoted Rs 1,407crore, which is 5.97 per centmore than the estimated pro-ject cost. Larsen and ToubroLimited had quoted a bidamount of around Rs 1,424crore, according to the docu-ment.Apart from the PMO, theExecutive Enclave will housethe Cabinet Secretariat, theIndia House and the NationalSecurity Council Secretariat(NSCS).
The India House will beused as a conference facilitylike the Hyderabad Housewhere high-level talks, espe-cially with top visiting leadersof various countries, are cur-rently held.
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The CBI on Saturday said ithas arrested a Plant
Protection Officer, Directorateof Plant Protection, Quarantine& Storage Department,Ministry of Agriculture,Visakhapatnam, and three pri-vate persons in a bribery caseand recovered Rs 1.86 croreduring searches.
A case was registeredagainst the Plant ProtectionOfficer Padam Singh and AthiBulli Reddiyya alias Murali,Regional Manager, EximLogistics Pvt. Ltd.,Visakhapatnam. The two otheraccused persons are S Siva
Rama Gupta, resident ofVisakhapatnam and propri-etor of Quality Fumigation &Pest Control Services, MylaSrikrishna Varma, officials said.
It was alleged that Singhwas demanding and collectinghuge amounts of bribes fromthe CHAs, Fumigators andShipping Agents for issuingPhytosanitary Certificates forexporting the goods andConsignment Release Orders
for imported consignments.It was further alleged that
the public servant demandedillegal gratification from theRegional Manager of the pri-vate company based atVisakhapatnam for clearingpending application and issu-ing favourable certificate toCustoms for release ofimport/export consignmentsof agricultural commodities.
“The CBI apprehended thePlant Protection Officer,Visakhapatnam and the saidRegional Manager of privatecompany and recovered thebribe amount of Rs 6,000,” theCBI said in a statement.
Searches were conducted at
the premises of the accused andothers, including his associatesat Visakhapatnam, Kakinada,Roorkee (Uttarakhand).
“Cash to the tune of Rs1,29,63,450 was recovered fromthe premises of the public ser-vant and Rs 56,86,000 alleged-ly belonging to the public ser-vant was recovered from thepremises of others. Certainincriminating documents werealso recovered," the agencysaid.
The arrested accused per-sons are being produced beforethe Court of Principal SpecialJudge for CBI Cases,Visakhapatnam for furtheraction, added the agency.
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Aconstable of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
(ITBP) fired upon and injuredthree of his colleagues beforeshooting himself dead at acamp in Udhampur districton Saturday.
All the injured personnelhave been shifted to the Army’sCommand Hospital,Udhampur and are safe. TheITBP has ordered a court ofinquiry to ascertain the reasonsbehind the incident.
“A constable of 8thBattalion, Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) was reported tohave opened fire injuring histhree colleagues in Udhampur,J & K. He later shot himself and
died, the ITBP said in a state-ment.
The deceased constablewas part of an ad hoc battaliondeployed in Jammu andKashmir looking after the secu-rity duties. “The incident tookplace at around 3.30 PM todayat the Devika Ghat CommunityCentre, Udhampur.Constable/GD (General Duty)Bhupendra Singh was part ofthe F Company of the 2ndAdhoc Battalion of the ITBP.”The paramilitary further said inits statement.
The incident comes a dayafter two Territorial Army per-sonnel were killed and as manyothers were injured in a fratri-cidal incident in Surankotearea of Poonch.
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India reported over 20,000new Covid-19 cases for the
third day in a row. On Saturday,20,044 new coronavirus infec-tions were logged in taking theactive caseload to over 1.40lakh. The country also report-ed 56 more deaths and over18,000 recoveries.
According to HealthMinistry data updated onSaturday, the death toll hasclimbed to 5,25,660 with 56more fatalities. Active casesincreased by 1,687 in a day andnow comprise 0.32 per cent ofthe total infections while the
national recovery rate is 98.48per cent.
The daily positivity rate hasbeen recorded at 4.80 per centwhile the weekly positivity rateis 4.40 per cent.
The total number of peo-ple who have recuperated fromthe Covid infection surged to4,30,63,651, while the casefatality rate was 1.20 per cent.According to the ministry,199.71 crore Covid vaccinedoses have been administeredin the country.
Of the 56 deaths, 27 arefrom Kerala, 10 fromMaharashtra, five from WestBengal, two each from Gujarat,Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar
Pradesh, and one each fromAssam, Bihar, Karnataka,Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu,and Uttarakhand. An increaseof 1,687 cases has been record-ed in the active COVID-19caseload in a span of 24 hours.The active cases comprise 0.32per cent of the total infections,the ministry said.
The total death toll in thecountry is now at 5,25,660. InIndia, the first death due to theCovid pandemic was reportedin March 2020.
The daily positivity rate onJuly 16 was recorded 4.80 percent. India's vaccine coveragehas reached the 199-croremark. Over 3.79 crore first
doses and over 2.60 crore sec-ond doses have been adminis-tered for the age group of 12 to14. Over 6.80 crore first dosesand more than 5 crore seconddoses have been given to the 15to 18 age group, as per the gov-ernment data. Meanwhile, over4.52 crore precaution doses(booster shots) have been givento people above 60 years of age,healthcare workers, and front-line workers.
Currently, India is alsoconducting a free PrecautionDose drive for all adults for 75days which commenced yes-terday to help all eligible cit-izens get their precautiondose.
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Scientists have found thatCovaxin, which is an inac-
tivated whole-virion vaccinemanufactured by BharatBiotech, an Indian pharma,induces robust immune mem-ory to SARS-CoV-2 (the virusthat causes COVID-19) andvariants of concern that persistfor at least six months aftervaccination and induces mem-ory T cells that can respondrobustly against the variants.
This may help in control-
ling the virus load and thus,reduce the disease severity,according to a study.
The study was publishedin the Nature Microbiologyjournal.
Although the clinical trialdata were available for the vac-cine efficacy, important ques-tions remained unansweredfor evidence-based policy-making particularly. Theseincluded whether the vaccineinduces immune memory,how long the vaccine-inducedmemory persists, and whetherthese memory responses are
able to sustain against theSARS-CoV-2 variants.
In a multi-institutionalcollaboration with theTranslational Health Scienceand Technology Institute(THSTI), Faridabad, All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), New Delhi, ESICMedical College, Faridabad,Lok Nayak Jai PrakashNarayan Hospital (LNJP)Hospital, New Delhi, LJI, LAJolla, Dr. Nimesh Gupta andgroup at the National Instituteof Immunology (NII), NewDelhi, investigated 97 SARS-
CoV-2 unexposed individualswho had received vaccine, upto six months after 2-dose vac-cination. The vaccine-inducedresponses were compared withthe immune memory in 99individuals who recoveredfrom mild COVID-19, theUnion Ministry of Science &Technology said in a state-ment.
The study supportedunder IRHPA-COVID-19 spe-cial call by the Science andEngineering Research Board,a statutory body of theDepartment of Science and
Technology, found that thevaccine produces antibodiesagainst Spike, RBD, andNucleoprotein of the virus, justlike in virus infection.However, analyses of both thebinding and neutralising anti-bodies revealed a reducedrecognition of variants of con-cern like Delta (India), Beta (S.Africa), and Alpha (UK).
“This study showed thatthe vaccine is capable of induc-ing memory B cells. Theresearchers found this satisfy-ing because antibodies maydecline with time, but these
memory B cells can replenishantibodies against the virus,whenever required. Their
study provided the first-everevidence of the detailed traitsof immune memory generat-
ed in humans in response toan inactivated virus vaccine,”the Ministry said.
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The crux of the UK primeministerial frontrunner
Rishi Sunak's message wasaround honesty as he clashedwith his four remaining rivalsin the first televised debate ofthe race to replace BorisJohnson as the ConservativeParty leader. FormerChancellor Sunak, who is
standing firm on his econom-ic plan of prudency over imme-diate tax cuts, went head-to-head with Foreign Secretary LizTruss over her promise to slashtaxes from day one if she iselected as the new incumbentat 10 Downing Street.
Trade Minister PennyMordaunt, among the top threecandidates, also wants to cutsome taxes, with Kemi
Badenoch and Tom Tugendhatslightly more measured in lay-ing out their plans over thedominant issue of the race.“You have to be honest.Borrowing your way out ofinflation isn't a plan, it's afairytale,” Sunak told Truss, asthe Channel 4 debate on Fridaynight got heated and he rub-bished her proposals andwarned against an "unfunded
spree" of tax cuts. All five can-didates admitted Johnson hadbeen less than honest over theDowning Street parties whenasked about partygate, withTugendhat the only candidateto reply a categorical “No”when asked if he trusted theoutgoing Prime Minister.
A snap survey fromOpinium on who performedbest at the end of the 90-
minute lively exchange putTugendhat as the winner with36 per cent of the vote, followedby Sunak on 24 per cent. BothMordaunt and Badenochreceived 12 per cent of the vote,with Truss trailing on 7 percent. The latest betting oddsanalysis shows Mordaunt in thelead as the bookie favourite, fol-lowed by Sunak, Truss,Badenoch and Tugendhat.
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Russia stepped up itsonslaught against Ukraine
on Saturday, with civilian casu-alties reported in several areasof the country. At least threecivilians were killed and threemore were injured in a Russianrocket strike on the northernUkrainian city of Chuhuiv inthe early hours, a regionalpolice chief said.
Serhiy Bolvinov, the deputyhead of Kharkiv's regionalpolice force, said that the rock-ets were likely fired fromRussian territory. Chuhuiv liessome 120 kilometers from theborder.
“Four Russian rockets, pre-sumably fired from around(the Russian city of) Belgorodat night, at about 3:30, hit a res-idential building, a school andadministrative buildings,”Bolvinov wrote on Facebook,adding that a two-story apart-ment block was partlydestroyed.
“The bodies of three peo-ple were found under the rub-ble. Three more were injured.The victims are civilians,”Bolvinov added. In the neigh-
boring Sumy region, one civil-ian was killed and at leastseven more were injured afterRussians opened mortar andartillery fire on three towns andvillages not far from theRussian border, regional gov-ernor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said
on Telegram on Saturdaymorning. Seven civilians werekilled and 14 more receivedinjuries over in the most recent24 hours in cities in Ukraine'sembattled eastern Donetskregion, its governor saidSaturday morning. Nearby,
however, Ukrainian troopsrepelled a Russian overnightassault on a strategic easternhighway, said Serhiy Haidai, thegovernor of the Luhanskregion. Haidai said that Russiahad been attempting to capturethe main road link between the
cities of Lysychansk andBakhmut “for more than twomonths.” “They still cannotcontrol several kilometers ofthis road,” Haidai wrote in aTelegram post. Russia's defensechief told troops to step upoperations across Ukrainian
territory, according to socialmedia updates from thedefense ministry on Saturday.A Facebook post said DefenseMinister Sergei Shoigu gave"instructions to further inten-sify the actions of units in alloperational areas, in order toexclude the possibility of theKyiv regime to launch massiverocket and artillery strikes oncivilian infrastructure and res-idents of settlements in Donbasand other regions.”
According to the post,Shoigu on Saturday inspectedsome of the Russian units thathave served in Ukraine, hand-ing out awards for bravery.Russia's military campaign hasbeen focusing on the Donbas,covering Donetsk and Luhansk,but Russian forces also havebeen pounding other parts ofthe country in a relentless pushto wrest territory from Ukraineand soften the morale of itsleaders, civilians and troops asthe war nears the five-monthmark.
In Ukraine's south, twopeople were wounded byRussian shelling in the town ofBashtanka, northeast of theBlack Sea city of Mykolaiv,
according to a Telegram post byregional governor Vitaliy Kim.
Kim said that Mykolaivitself also came under renewedRussian fire in the early hours.On Friday morning, he hadposted videos of what he saidwas a Russian missile attack onthe city's two largest universi-ties, and denounced Russia as“a terrorist state.” Two peoplewere killed and a woman washospitalized after a Russianrocket strike on the easternriverside city of Nikopol, emer-gency services said.Dnipropetrovsk governorValentyn Reznichenko said onTelegram that a five-storyapartment block, a school anda vocational school buildingwere damaged.
On Friday, cruise missilesfired by Russian strategicbombers struck the southeast-ern Ukrainian city of Dnipro,killing at least three people andwounding 16, Ukrainian offi-cials said. In a regular pressbriefing Saturday, Russiandefense officials said that thestrike had destroyed “work-shops producing componentsfor, and repairing, Tochka-Uballistic missiles, as well as
multiple rocket launchers.”Spokesman Igor Konashenkovdid not respond to Ukrainianallegations that the strike hadkilled civilians.
On Thursday, a Russianmissile strike killed at least 23people— including three chil-dren — and wounded morethan 200 in Vinnytsia, a citysouthwest of Kyiv, the capital,far from the front line.
Russia said the Kalibrcruise missiles hit a “militaryfacility” that was hosting ameeting between Ukrainianair force command and foreignweapons suppliers. Ukrainianauthorities have insisted the sitehad nothing to do with the mil-itary.
Ukraine's Interior Ministrysaid Friday that Russian forceshave conducted more than17,000 strikes on civilian targetsduring the war, killing thou-sands of fighters and civiliansand driving millions from theirhomes.
The invasion has also rip-pled through world economyby hiking prices and crimpingexports of key Ukrainian andRussian products such as grain,fuel and fertilizer.
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Chinese President XiJinping, who made a rare
visit this week to the restiveXinjiang region which bor-ders Ladakh, met the troopsand officers stationed thereand praised their “outstandingcontributions” to the borderdefence and stabilisation ofthe volatile province.
Xi, who heads the CentralMilitary Commission (CMC),the overall high command ofthe Chinese military, met therepresentatives of the officersand soldiers stationed inXinjiang in the provincial cap-ital Urumqi on Friday. Xi, whovisited the border provincefrom July 12 to 15 where his
government is widely accusedof oppressing predominantlyMuslim ethnic minorities,extended greetings to all thecommanders and fighters ofthe troops stationed in theprovince and fully affirmed the"outstanding contributions"made by the troops stationed inthe region, state-run Xinhuanews agency reported. Photos
in the official media showedthat besides the top brassof theWestern Theatre Commandof the PLA, which oversees the3,488-km-long LAC betweenIndia and China, Qi Fabao, theregimental commander of thePLA who was injured duringthe June 2020 clash at Galwanin eastern Ladakh was also pre-sent at the meeting.
He was subsequently hon-oured with “hero regimentcommander for defending theborder." While full details of hisaddress were not released, offi-cial media reports said thatPresident Xi emphasised that itis necessary to implement theruling Communist Party's ideaof strengthening the Army inthe new era.
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President Joe Biden wasusing a summit of Arab
nations on Saturday to lay outhis strategy for the MiddleEast as he closes the final leg ofa four-day trip meant to bolsterU.S. Relationships in a regionbracing for confrontation withIran. The president spent the
morning meeting individuallywith the leaders of Iraq, Egyptand the United Arab Emirates,some of whom he had never satdown with. Biden invitedMohammed bin Zayed AlNahyan, who became presidentof the UAE two months ago, tovisit the White House thisyear, saying he looked forward“to another period of strong
and growing cooperation”between their countries underthe sheik's leadership.
The Gulf CooperationCouncil summit, which isbeing held in the Red Sea portcity of Jeddah, is an opportu-nity for Biden to demonstratehis commitment to the regionafter spending most of hispresidency focused on Russia'sinvasion of Ukraine andChina's growing influence inAsia.
Hours before the confer-ence began, the White Housereleased satellite imagery thatindicates Russian officials havetwice recently visited Iran to seeweapons-capable drones it islooking to acquire for use in itswar in Ukraine.
None of the countries rep-resented at the summit havemoved in lockstep with the U.S.To sanction Russia, a key for-eign policy priority for theBiden administration. If any-thing, the UAE has emerged asa sort of financial haven for
Russian billionaires and theirmultimillion-dollar yachts.Egypt remains open to Russiantourists. Release satelliteimagery that shows Russianofficials visited Kashan Airfieldon June 8 and July 15 to lookat the drones could help theadministration better tie thewar's relevance to many Arabnations' own concerns aboutIran's nuclear ambitions, mis-sile program and support formilitants in the region.
A senior Biden adminis-tration official, who briefedreporters before the summit,said Moscow's efforts to acquiredrones from Tehran show thatRussia is “effectively making abet on Iran.”
Biden's attendance at theGulf Cooperation Councilsummit followed his Fridaymeeting with Saudi CrownPrince Mohammed binSalman, the oil-rich kingdom'sde facto ruler and heir to thethrone currently held by hisfather, King Salman.
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At least 31 people werekilled in tribal clashes in a
Sudanese southern province,authorities said, the latestbloodshed in a country in tur-moil since an October militarycoup. The fighting between theHausa and Birta ethnic groupsin the Blue Nile province grewout of the killing of a farmerearlier this week, according toa statement from the localgovernment late Friday.
The clashes also left atleast 39 people injured anddamaged some 16 shops shopsin the town of Roseires, it said.The local governmentdeployed the military and
paramilitary Rapid SupportForces — or RSF — to bringstability to the region.Authorities also imposed anightly curfew and bannedgatherings in the area wherethe clashes took place.
The violence came amidchaos in Sudan since the mil-itary's took over in October,removing a transitional gov-ernment that ruled the coun-try since a popular uprisingforced the overthrow of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashirin April 2019.
The coup upended thecountry's transition to democ-racy and raised questionsabout military leaders' abilityto bring security to Sudan's far-reaching areas.
United Nations: Over six mil-lion people or over 28 per centof Sri Lanka's population are"food insecure" and this situa-tion is likely to deteriorate asthe crisis unfolds in the islandnation which is grappling withits worst economic crisis, theWorld Food Programme hassaid.
Sri Lanka is currently reel-ing under a severe foreignexchange crisis with fallingreserves and the government isunable to foot the bill foressential imports. The eco-nomic crisis has led to anacute shortage of essentialitems like food, medicine,cooking gas, fuel and toiletpaper, with Sri Lankans beingforced to wait in lines for hours
outside stores to buy fuel andcooking gas. The WFP onFriday said in a situation reportthat 6.3 million people (28.3per cent) in the country arefood insecure and this is like-ly to deteriorate as the crisisunfolds.
Of these, at least 65,600people are severely food inse-cure. WFP warned that thesefigures could increase drasti-cally without immediate inter-vention, the report added.
WFP said skyrocketingfood costs are making it hard-er for the population to meettheir food needs. About 6.7million people are not con-suming adequate diets and 5.3million people are reducing thenumber of meals eaten. The
agency is immediately scalingup operations to reach 3.4 mil-lion people in 2022. The WFPsaid it urgently requires 63million dollars to carry out itslife-saving assistance.
The situation update saidthat household food securityand nutrition situation is set todeteriorate as the crisis ensues,according to the WFP andFAO's recent Crop and FoodSecurity Assessment Mission(CFSAM).
Further, incomes in thelast three months have plum-meted and about two in fivehouseholds reported that theirincome has been cut in half. Tocope with the lack of food, 5million people are using crisisor emergency livelihood cop-
ing strategies that are likely toimpact their medium- to long-term capacity for income-gen-erating activities and food secu-rity. Food inflation reached astaggering 80 per cent in June2022. Coupled with livelihooddisruptions, this further limitshouseholds' purchasing power.
The update said that theupcoming Maha season is atrisk of seeing a 50 per centreduction in paddy plantingareas and an unlikely recoveryof the fisheries and livestocksectors if farmers do not gainaccess to seeds, fertilizer, andfinancial assistance. PTI
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Financial leaders of theGroup of 20 richest and
biggest economies havewrapped up meetings on theIndonesian resort island ofBali without a final jointcommunique after talks wereovershadowed by divisionsover the war in Ukraine.
As G-20 host this year,Indonesia has sought tobridge divisions between G-20 members over Russia'sinvasion, but enmity over theconflict was evident even asthe finance ministers andcentral bank chiefs appearedto concur on the urgency ofglobal economic challenges,including decades-high infla-tion and food insecurity,which has been worsened bythe war.
Asked why there was nojoint statement or commu-nique from the meeting,Indonesian Finance MinisterSri Mulyani Indrawati saidthat all involved agreed themeeting took place “under avery challenging and difficultsituation because of thegeopolitical tensions."
She said delegates had“expressed sympathy thatIndonesia has to manage thissituation." But Indrawati andIndonesian central bank Gov.Perry Warjiyo said Indonesiawould later release a G-20chair's statement that wouldinclude two paragraphsdescribing areas where theparticipants failed to agree.
Indrawati said there werestill issues that could not bereconciled, “because theywant to express their viewsrelated to the war." In thestatement “related to the warthere are still views that are
different within the G-20," shesaid. Indrawati outlined arange of areas where themembers did agree, includingthe need to improve foodsecurity, to support the cre-ation of a funding mechanismfor pandemic preparedness,prevention and responses, onworking toward a global taxagreement and on facilitatingfinancing of transitionstoward cleaner energy to copewith climate change.
“The progress is morethan expected," Warjiyo said.With inflation running atfour-decade highs — U.S.Consumer prices were up9.1% in June — Warjiyo saidparticipants were “stronglycommitted to achieving pricestability."
“There is a commitmentamong the G-20 to well cali-brated macro economic pol-icy to address inflation andslowing growth," he said. Themeetings in Bali follow agathering of foreign ministersearlier this month that alsofailed to find commonground over Russia's war inUkraine and its globalimpacts.
During the talks thatbegan Friday, U.S. TreasurySecretary Janet Yellen con-demned Moscow for “inno-cent lives lost and the ongo-ing human and economictoll that the war is causingaround the world.” “Russia issolely responsible for negativespillovers to the global econ-omy, particularly higher com-modity prices," she said.
Canadian FinanceMinister Chrystia Freelandlikened the attendance ofRussian officials at the meet-ings to having “an arsonistjoining firefighters."
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Pakistan has assured the IMFthat it would try to receive
concessions from the Chineseinvestors participating in theChina-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) power plantsin the shape of either reductionin the profit rates on investmentor rescheduling the loan repay-ments, according to a mediareport on Saturday.
The assurance to seek con-cessions from Chinese investorswas given by Pakistani author-ities to remove one of bottle-necks in the finalisation of astaff-level agreement withInternational Monetary Fund,government sources told TheExpress Tribune newspaper.
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New York: A prominentIndian-American finance exec-utive, Naureen Hassan, hasbeen appointed President ofUBS Americas and CEO ofUBS Americas Holding,according to Switzerland-basedfinancial giant.
Currently, Hassan is thefirst vice president and chiefoperating officer of the FederalReserve Bank of New York(FRBNY). She will also beserving on UBS Group'sExecutive Board, according toa press release by UBSAmericas. Hassan will join inthe leadership role in Octoberthis year and will succeed TomNaratil, the Zurich and Basel-
headquartered company said ina press release. UBS Group AGis a multinational investmentbank and financial servicescompany founded and based inSwitzerland.
Co-headquartered in thecities of Zurich and Basel, itmaintains a presence in allmajor financial centres as thelargest Swiss banking institu-tion and the largest privatebank in the world. She willbecome a member of UBS'sGroup Executive Board inOctober 2022. Hassan thisweek stepped down from herrole as the First Vice- Presidentand Chief Operating Officer atThe Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, where she was theNew York Fed's second-rank-ing officer. UBS said in a state-ment that in her new role,Hassan will be responsible fordriving client relationships,promoting cross-business col-laboration, navigating theevolving public policy land-scape, and ensuring sound reg-ulatory and reputational riskgovernance.
In addition, she will leadthe firm's strategic growth anddigital initiatives in Americasregion, including transforma-tion of firm's WealthManagement AmericasPlatform, expansion of cus-tomised banking services.
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Ruling PML-N leader anddeposed premier Nawaz
Sharif 's daughter MaryamNawaz has for the first timeoffered a "hand of friendship"to Imran Khan's PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf, saying fightingbetween the two mainstreampolitical parties is not in thebest interest of the country.
“I don't want to fight withthe PTI. I want Pakistan to
progress and for this I offer ahand of friendship, peace andlove to the PTI youth and itssupporters. I first take this ini-tiative only for Pakistan.
I also ask Imran Khan tolet the country progress,”Maryam said while addressinga rally of the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) partyin Multan city of Punjabprovince on Friday ahead ofcrucial bypolls in Punjabprovince. She, however, warnedthe former prime ministerKhan, who was removedthrough a no-confidencemotion in April, and his partythat her "offer of peace" shouldnot be taken as her or herPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party's weakness as sheknows how to give a "tit-for-tat"response.
Bypolls in 20 Punjabprovincial assembly seats aretaking place on Sunday.
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Private banking majorHDFC Bank Ltd closed the
first quarter of FY23 with a netprofit of �9,196 crore.
According to HDFC Bank,its net profit for the periodunder review grew to �9,196crore from about �7,729 croreearned during the first quarterended June 30, 2021.
For the quarter ended June30, 2022, the bank had earneda total income of �41,560 crore,up from about �36,771 croreearned during the corre-sponding period the previousyear.
The bank's gross and net
non-performing asset (NPA) ason June 30, 2022 stood atabout �18,033 crore and �4,887crore, respectively, as against�17,098 crore and �5,485 crorein the corresponding period ofthe previous year.
Provisions and contingen-cies for the quarter ended June30, 2022 were about �3,187crore (which were comprised ofspecific loan loss provisions) asagainst total provisions of about�4,830 crore for the quarterended June 30, 2021.
Total balance sheet size asof June 30, 2022 was �2,109,772crore as against �1,753,941crore as of June 30, 2021, agrowth of 20.3 per cent.
New Delhi: Jet fuel (ATF)prices on Saturday werereduced by 2.2 per cent, reflect-ing a fall in international oilprices.
Aviation turbine fuel (ATF)prices were cut by �3,084.94per kilolitre, or 2.2 per cent, to�138,147.93 per kl, a pricenotification of state-run fuelretailers showed.
This is only the secondreduction in rates this year.Prices had peaked to�141,232.87 per kl (�141.23 perlitre) last month.
ATF prices are revised onthe 1st and 16th of everymonth based on rates of bench-mark international oil rates inthe previous fortnight.
There was no change inrates on July 1.
Prior to that, prices werehiked by the steepest ever 16per cent to catapult rates to anall-time.
International oil priceshave softened since on fears ofrecession in major economies.Oil prices are at pre-Ukrainewar levels.
On June 16, the price ofATF -- the fuel that helps aero-planes fly -- was increased byRs 19,757.13 per kl. That fol-lowed a marginal 1.3 per cent(�1,563.97 per kl) cut in rate onJune 1.
But for the one-offdecrease on June 1, ATF prices
have been on the rise through-out 2022.
In all, rates have beenincreased 11 times since thestart of the year. This has led torates almost doubling in sixmonths.
Prior to the cut onSaturday, prices had gone up by91 per cent (�67,210.46 per kl)since January 1.
With jet fuel making upalmost 40 per cent of the oper-ating cost of an airline, theincrease in prices had resultedin a rise in the cost of flying.Now there has been a margin-al relief.
Meanwhile, petrol anddiesel prices remained
unchanged at �96.72 per litreand �89.62 a litre, respective-ly.
An excise duty cut by thegovernment had helped reducethe price of petrol by �8.69 alitre and diesel by �7.05 per litreon May 22. But for that, thebase price has remainedunchanged since April 6.
Before that, prices hadrisen by a record �10 per litreeach.
The retail prices of petrol,diesel and domestic cookinggas are way below the cost.Petrol and diesel rates arerevised daily, based on equiv-alent rates in the internationalmarket. PTI
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New Delhi: Realty firmSupertech Ltd on Saturday saidthe company plans to sell itsfour commercial assets atMeerut and Haridwar for anestimated �1,000 crore, as partof its efforts to expedite con-struction in existing projectsand repay debt.
The company had putthese commercial assets onsale a few years ago but couldnot succeed as the hospitalityand retail sectors were badlyimpacted during the COVIDpandemic.
In a statement, Noida-based Supertech Ltd said thatthe company has put its assets-- shopping malls and hotels -- in Meerut and Haridwar onsale with the "target of raisingfunds to the tune of �1,000crore."
In Meerut, Supertech hasone shopping mall and onehotel and in Haridwar, therealty firm has one shoppingmall and one hotel.
On June 10, the NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT) orderedstarting of insolvency pro-ceedings in only one of thehousing projects of realty firmSupertech Ltd and not theentire company, and directedconstitution of the Committeeof Creditors for the said projectonly.
A two-member NCLATbench limited the Corporate
Insolvency Resolution Process(CIRP) to only "Eco Village IIProject" located at GreaterNoida (West).
Post NCLAT Order,Supertech said the companyhas resumed operations inlarge scale at all projects, whichearlier remained suspendeddue to uncertainty after theNCLT order.
On March 25, the Delhibench of the NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) had ordered to initiatethe insolvency process againstSupertech Ltd over a petitionfiled by the Union Bank ofIndia for non-payment of duesof around �432 crore.
However, this was chal-
lenged by Supertech promoterR K Arora before the NCLAT.
Arora said in the statementthat the NCLAT has alsoallowed the company to settlewith creditors most of whomare banks and private equityfunds whose repayment wasaffected due to the recessionafter Covid-19.
To achieve this, he said thecompany has put few com-mercial assets on sale.
"Further, several investorshave shown keen interest ininvesting as interim funding inthe projects of the company andit has been able to sign termsheets for investment worth �50crore and more are in thepipeline," Arora said. PTI
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New Delhi: Funding in star-tups dropped by 17 per cent onquarter-on-quarter basis toUSD 6 billion (about �47,800crore) in the April-June period,industry body Nasscom hassaid. According to the Nasscomquarterly investment factbookon tech startups compiled inassociation with PGA Labs,deals also dropped by about 17per cent due to dampenedmarket sentiments but despitereduction in deal value, fund-ing in growth stage continuedto increase.
The report said, "16 largeticket size deals helped gener-ate a total funding of USD 6 bil-lion in the second quarter (Q2)of calendar year (CY) 2022.Startup ecosystem witnessedthe birth of 4 new unicorns inQ2 CY22, taking the tally to 20
unicorns in the first half."Around 26 per cent of the
total funding went to fintechsegment.
"Large ticket deals likeCRED and Dailyhunt resultedin overall increase in totalinvestments in fintech andmedia and entertainment sec-tors, contributing around 45per cent of total funding in Q2,CY22," the report said.
Fifty-two per cent fundingwas in the ticket size of USD100 million or above withDailyhunt and ShareChat rais-ing big rounds.
Growth stage deals con-tributed 58 per cent of the totalfunding during the reportedquarter as the investors backedstartups have already reacheda certain scale, the report said. PTI
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Aday ahead of the start ofthe Parliament's Monsoon
session, the United Forum ofBank Unions (UFBU) hasgiven a call for a campaign onTwitter against privatisationof government banks, a topunion official said.
All India Bank Employees'Association (AIBEA) GeneralSecretary C.H.Venkatachalamalso said a protest will be heldbefore the Parliament on July21 and a strike call will be givenbased on the developmentsduring the session.
The monsoon session ofthe Parliament begins on July18 and one of the Bills that maybe brought is to enable pri-vatisation of the governmentbanks.
"The Twitter campaign by
the bankers will begin onSunday, the morning of July 17.During these days, campaign-ing through social media is alsoimportant apart from our tra-ditional campaigning mode,"Venkatachalam told IANS.
He had told the unionmembers to tweet in Englishand also in the regional lan-guages to reach a large numberof people. For a long time, it hasbeen said time has come tomerge the government banks tohave about five big banks.
Recently, in a paper,Poonam Gupta of NationalCouncil of Applied EconomicResearch (NCAER) andArvind Panagariya ofColumbia University had advo-cated privatisation of all gov-ernment banks barring theState Bank of India (SBI).
They had said, to startwith two banks with betterasset quality and higher returnsbe privatised and set them as anexample for disinvestment bythe government in its otherbanks.
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The Indian Government isplanning to make Big Tech
pay publishers for using theircontent on their respectiveplatforms, as other countriesaim to create a revenue-sharingbridge between internet com-panies like Google andFacebook and digital newspublishers.
According to Minister ofState for IT and Electronics,Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the gov-ernment is mulling revision inIT laws to effect this change.
"The market power on dig-ital advertising that is currentlybeing exercised by the Big Techmajors, which places Indianmedia companies at a positionof disadvantage, is an issue thatis seriously being examined inthe context of new legalisationsand rules," the minister told TheTimes of India.
If implemented, the new lawwill force Big Tech companies topay digital news publishers ashare of the revenue earned viausing their original content.Google has already signed dealsto pay more than 300 publish-
ers in Germany, France andother EU countries for usingtheir content on its platform.
The Canadian governmentalso moved a law early this yearto bring about fairness in rev-enue sharing between digitalnews publishers and interme-diary platforms.
In March this year, the theCompetition Commission ofIndia (CCI) ordered an inves-tigation into complaints againstGoogle for abusing its domi-nant position related to newsreferral services and GoogleAdtech Services in the Indianonline news media market.
According to the IndianNewspapers Society (INS),media houses are being kept inthe dark on the total advertis-ing revenue collected byGoogle and what percentage ofthe advertising revenue is beingtransferred to media organisa-tions. The CCI found thatprima facie, these allegations ofabuse of dominant position areunder the purview of theCompetition Act, 2002 andrequires a detailed investigationby the Additional DirectorGeneral.
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After the Centre took seriousnote of mis-selling of
courses to parents by edtechfirms including BYJU's and itsgroup companies, self-regula-tory organisation India EdtechConsortium (IEC) on Saturdaysaid it is committed to pro-tecting consumer interest andhas resolved 100 per cent com-plaints received till June.
The Ministry of ConsumerAffairs pulled up edtech firmsduring a meeting with them andIEC, according to sources, andaggressive misselling of coursesto parents was the key concern.
The IEC, which comesunder the aegis of the Internet
and Mobile Association ofIndia (IAMAI) and has creat-ed a two-tier grievance redres-sal mechanism, said that it hasresolved all complaints receiveduntil June 2022 complaintsreceived in July were goingthrough active screening forfaster resolutions.
"The edtech sector isextremely dynamic in natureand therefore, to address therising challenges, what IEC isproactively doing will certain-ly propel a stronger ecosystemin the coming times," said retdSC judge and chairperson ofIndependent GrievanceRedressal Board (IGRB), DrB.S. Chauhan.
The IEC also said that each
member company has appoint-ed a dedicated grievance officerinternally to address and assessthe problem and offer remedi-al action accordingly.
The IEC-member compa-nies are also registering at theNational Consumer Helpline(NCH) for streamlining theresolution process, it added.
"Edtech as a strong com-munity has been far moreresponsible and prompt thanour traditional counterpart inmanaging consumer complaintsand grievances," said MayankKumar, UpGrad Co-founderand MD and Chair at IEC.
The recent reports havesaid that as per the AdvertisingStandards Council of India
(ASCI) data, 33 per cent ofcomplaints are filed againstthe education sector.
However, the official state-ment by ASCI also states that 6per cent of the total complaintsreceived are against the edtechcompanies while the remaining94 per cent are filed against thetraditional education system,according to the IEC. Earlierthis month, the Centre warnededtech companies against unfairtrade practices. In a meetingwith the IEC, Consumer AffairsSecretary, Rohit Kumar Singh,said that if self-regulation doesnot curb unfair trade prac-tices, then stringent guidelineswould be formulated for ensur-ing transparency.
New Delhi: AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar on Saturday asked thepremium farm research organ-isation ICAR to focus onimproving productivity of var-ious crops like oilseeds andpulses as yields are much belowthe global average.
While addressing the 94thfoundation day of IndianCouncil of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR), the ministersaid the ICAR has played animportant role in making Indiaself-sufficient in foodgrain pro-duction and the country iseither number one or two interms of output of most crops.
"ICAR's foundation dayshould be celebrated as a pledgeday. ICAR should take somepledge on this day and makeefforts that the same getsachieved over the next oneyear," Tomar said.
Although a lot of successhas been achieved in the last 93years of ICAR's journey, theminister said there is a "greatchallenge" in terms of produc-tivity in front of us, especiallyin oilseeds, pulses and cotton.
"If we compare (our cropyield) with other countries,
then we will feel that there is alot of work to be done," Tomarsaid. The minister said thecrop productivity issue shouldbe part of the ICAR's pledge.
India imports around 60per cent of its annual domesticdemand of edible oil. The coun-try had imported a record �1.17lakh crore of edible oils in the2020-21 oil year endingOctober. Pulses too are beingimported but not in as muchquantity. Tomar asked the ICARto continue its research work tomitigate the challenge of climatechange on agriculture.
He spoke about the need
to promote organic as well asnatural farming, as excess useof chemicals and fertilisersimpacts human health.
Tomar highlighted that theModi-government has takenvarious initiatives and launchedseveral programmes for thegrowth of the agriculture sec-tor and doubled farmers'income.
He noted that incomes oflakhs of farmers have not onlydoubled but more than dou-bled in the last 7-8 years.
The minister stressed thatthere is a need to attract youngand educated people in the fieldof agriculture.
On the occasion, UnionMinister of Fisheries, AnimalHusbandry and DairyingParshottam Rupala asked ICARto document its achievements.
The minister emphasisedon improving soil health, whichhe said can be achievedthrough use of cow dung. Aprotocol for use of cow dungshould be prepared, he said.
Kailash Choudhary,Minister of State forAgriculture, said there is aneed to promote natural farm-ing. PTI
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New Delhi: Debt-ridden tele-com operator Vodafone Idea'sshareholders have approvedequity allocation worth �436.21crore to its promoter entity, theVodafone Group.
As per voting results sub-mitted to the stock exchangeson Friday evening, 99.94 percent of Vodafone Idea (VIL)shareholders approved alloca-tion of the equity to VodafoneGroup firm Euro PacificSecurities.
Vodafone Group at presentholds 58.46 per cent stake inthe company and Aditya BirlaGroup 16.53 per cent.
The company had raised�3,375 crore from VodafoneGroup and �1,125 crore fromAditya Birla Group in March.
VIL has been trying toraise funds in the range of�20,000-25,000 crore fromexternal sources since the lasttwo years but has failed toattract any investor.
The governmentannounced a reform package inSeptember last year which haslargely benefited VodafoneIdea.
The government hasallowed VIL to convert around�16,100 crore interest duesinto about 33 per cent stake inthe company to provide liq-uidity for investment in thebusiness.
Still, analysts have saidhigh leverage and weak balancesheet have impaired the com-pany's ability to invest in thenetwork.
As on March 31, 2022, thetotal debt (including interestaccrued but not due) of thegroup was �1,97,878.2 crore.The company has around�8,160 crore of payments dueover the next 12 month, as peranalysts. PTI
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Cooperation Minister AmitShah on Saturday urged
Agricultural and RuralDevelopment Banks (ARDBs)to extend more long-term loansto the agriculture sector,including for irrigation andother infrastructure.
The Government is build-ing a database on cooperativesfor expansion of this sector,which is important for boost-ing farm growth and doublingfarmers' income, he added.
Farmers' income cannotbe raised without improvingthe farm sector, especially irri-gation, he pointed out, andasked cooperative banks tofocus on providing loans forincreasing irrigated land inthe country.
The minister further saidIndia, which has 49.4 croreacres of arable land, highestafter the US, has potential tofeed the whole world if theentire arable land is irrigated.
Currently, about 50 percent of the arable land in thecountry is monsoon depen-dent.
Addressing a national con-ference here, Shah saidAgricultural and RuralDevelopment Banks have beenfunctioning in the countryunder different names in thelast nine decades. Most ofthem operated as land mort-gage banks and were first to
grant long-term finance tofarmers way back in 1924.
With the conversion ofthese banks into ARDBs, farm-ers' dependence on monsoongot reduced. Slowly, long-termfinancing evolved, he said.
"If we look back and seethe last 90 years' journey oflong-term financing throughcooperatives and how it haspercolated down, if you see thedata, it has not grown," Shahobserved.
"Especially in agriculturefinancing, be it long or shortterm, it is paralysed in manyparts of the country.
In many places, activitiesare done well but in somestates it is not. We need torevive them," he said.
Shah, however, stated thatthere are many hurdles in pro-viding long-term financing tothe agriculture sector. Time hascome to overcome those hur-dles with cooperative spiritand achieve agriculture growth,he asserted. The minister fur-ther said ARDBs have financedmore than 3 lakh tractors so far,but the target should be 8crore tractors.
(With inputs from PTI)
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India and Bank Indonesia onSaturday entered into an agree-ment to expand cooperation inpayment systems, digital finan-cial innovation, and anti-money laundering and com-bating the financing of terror-ism (AML-CFT).
The two central bankssigned a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) in Balion the sidelines of the G20Finance Ministers and CentralBank Governors Meeting toimprove mutual cooperation.
"With this MoU, RBI andBI committed to deepen rela-tions between both centralbanks and strengthen theexchange of information and
cooperation in the area of cen-tral banking, including pay-ment systems, digital innova-tion in payments services, andregulatory and supervisoryframework for AML-CFT," theRBI said in a statement.
The MoU will be imple-mented through policy dia-logue, technical cooperation,exchange of information andjoint work.
It was signed by RBIDeputy Governor Michael
Debabrata Patra and BI DeputyGovernor Dody Budi Waluyoin the presence of RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das andBI Governor Perry Warjiyo.
"This MoU serves as a sig-nificant milestone in the rela-tion between Bank Indonesiaand Reserve Bank of India. Ithas been a long period of timesince we began cooperatingproductively, and this MoU willonly ensure a more solid col-laboration in the future.
"Going forward, I am con-vinced that such excellent part-nership will result in fruitfuloutcomes that benefit bothcentral banks and the people ofboth nations," GovernorWarjiyo said. PTI
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�What is the show,Garud, about?
In Garud, we have show-cased his story, where all hewas present, his life and exis-tence. Moreover, the storyshows that Garud is sincere,who doesn’t spread hate, andhas a special bond with lordVishnu. That’s because Garud isthe transport of lord Vishnu.Basically, things that weren’tspoken about anywhere else.
�What is your role? I’m playing Garud and I’m
super lucky to play this charac-ter. That’s because this role hasgiven me a lovely experience.This character has so many
variations; he talks to hismother emotionally but hetalks to his brothers differ-ently. I had so much funplaying this character,though I wasn't able to domuch physically because Icarry wings and thesewere heavy. But the char-acter is such that when Iact it becomes complete.
�How did youmake it to this project?What do you personally
think about such mytho-logical shows?
People say that valuablelessons of life are passed
down from elders to young-sters. These mythologicalevents represent your place onthe planet and we can learn alot from them, like ups anddowns and life lessons. I thinkthese shows play an importantrole in teaching you a lot aboutlife. If you see some foreignprojects, I don't think you willlearn much but India has somany things that teach you somany things, so you can learn alot from these.
�Why and how is theshow relevant to today'sviewers? How have thereviews been?
I think people are loving itand our TRP confirms that.People took out precious timefrom their busy lives; thesethings matter a lot to us.
They like my performancein the show and I love it. Asalways, I say that I don't haveany reference. So the characterthat you see, I'm constructingit day by day. The responsehas been lovely, especiallyfrom my family with their loveand support. It has been ablessing and we are glad.
�Do you feel connectedto the character in terms ofqualities or character?
I think I'm very connected
to it because, as I said, thischaracter inspires me and I'ma mommy's boy. And Garudalways heeds the words of hismother. My personal life isnot as great as Garud's, butit's very beautiful and theconnection is meaningful.
�How tough was it toprepare for this role?
I had difficulties as therewasn't any reference. If youmake Bahubali, you will getreferences regarding Bahubaliand the works. Garud hasbeen created by us and we areworking on that character, dayin and day out. I had to workphysically with the wings andhad to shoot in them.Different ways to walk in, out,sit, sleep. You might have seenin the show that Garud does-n't lie on the ground. So manythings have been tough shoot-ing-wise and screen-wise. AndI have sai I didn't fight asmuch because of the heavywings, which are a disadvan-tage.
�But your TV debut hap-pened with a dance show.How did that happen?
My TV debut was DIDLittle Masters Season 2.Actually I didn't think much; Iused to learn dancing and give
auditions. I didn't even knowthe real reason for the audition.I just knew that I would beshown on TV. I just neededthose super wings that thejudges used to give out for out-standing performances, whichin fact I got only after giving somany auditions. Dancing gaveme an identity and then an act-ing debut as well. Dance hasdone so much for me and gaveme a TV debut as well. It feelsgreat that people view me formy talent.
�How did acting happento you?
I never felt like acting butmy father wanted me to be anactor. Once he asked me,‘Will you be able to answereverything right’? He wasabout to take me to an audi-tion. In the evening, I said‘Yes’ but, in my mind, Ibelieved that he was talkingabout studies so I was ready.Things like these have hap-pened. But I was not evenworthy of an audition backthen. When I gave a danceaudition for DID, I got anopportunity from Yash Rajfilms and it was a huge thingfor me. Although it didn't workout in the end, I was inspireddecided to start acting.
Plan Your Day
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Adopting a pet could be oneof the most rewardingdecisions in a person'slife. Being a pet owner canbe an extremely whole-
some and enriching experience, but italso comes with significant responsi-bilities. Owning a pet implies a num-ber of inherent duties and moral oblig-ations in order to care for themproperly and safeguard their healthand welfare. At Royal Canin, we’repassionate about cats and dogs, andbelieve that they make everyone’s livesbetter. Since 1968, we’ve been work-ing to help improve the lives of petsaround the world through our nutri-tional expertise. Beyond the quality ofour products and services, we havealways considered that responsible petownership plays a key role in the over-all health and wellbeing of cats anddogs. This is why we are committedto championing responsible (pet)adoption. Too many cats and dogs areabandoned each year and to face thissituation, we need to take action at thesource and help future pet owners toconsider just what it takes to welcomea cat or dog into their lives from ashelter, a breeder a friend or even fam-ily. With the right level of dedication,future pet owners can make sure thatthey gain a fulfilled, healthy, wellbehaved and affectionate family mem-ber who will be a pleasure to spendtime with.
Here are a few things one mustremember before adopting a pet:
Family's consentNever gift a pet unless the receiv-
er really wants it.The consent of thefamily is essential before getting a pethome. Owning a pet involves someregular spending. You’ll need to bud-get for feeding your pet, visiting a vet,vaccinating, deworming and more.Also, your family's financial conditionis a significant consideration whileplanning to adopt a pet. The petcomes in with many expenses, just likea new born baby. Right from period-ic medical check-ups to training,food, vaccination, grooming andmore, there is a large hole that thesecosts could dig in your wallet. So, youmust consider all these expenses andbe ready to bear them when the timecomes. Long term commitment
Welcoming a new pet to yourhome is an exciting moment in anyhousehold. It’s a moment of changethat can considerably impact thelives of each member of your family.It is also a long-term commitment thatentails a number of responsibilities. So,before you make your decision, it’simportant to ask yourself some fun-damental questions like time as petrequires regular grooming, visits toveterinarians as well as some affectionand stimulation.Breeds of cats
The breed of an animal con-tributes significantly to their person-ality. Some breeds are more active ormore independent, while others
require more attention. Cats make noexception and they also differ great-ly by breed. Bengals, for example, areenergetic and always on the go, whileragdolls tend to be more relaxed andeasy-going. It’s worth noting thatsome breeds may have genetic defectsand hereditary diseases. You can askyour veterinarian for more informa-tion on this. You can also choose toacquire a non-pure breed cat from ashelter or a neighbour/friend/ veteri-nary adoption clinic, etc.Where to get your pet
Responsible pet ownership beginswith responsible acquisition. Makesure you know where the pet has comefrom and the environment, whichhe/she has been raised in. Reputablebreeders sometimes advertise in news-
papers or on the internet, but youshould be cautious as these are alsocommon outlets for illegal animal traf-ficking. Make sure the ad offers pre-cise details about the breeder and thecat and ask plenty of questions whenyou make contact. You’ll benefit fromprofessional advice in a pet store, butalways find out where they sourcetheir kittens/puppies. A reputableestablishment selling kittens will beable to provide full details of the con-ditions in which they were bred andinformation about their parents.Responsible breeders are particular-ly attentive to disease prevention,genetic testing and socialisation,ensuring your pet is wellbalanced andhealthyHome environment
Meeting the environmentalneeds of pets helps to ensure theiroptimal wellbeing and behaviour,good health and overall quality oflife. These needs encompass not onlytheir physical surroundings, butalso their social interactions withpeople and other animals in thehome. A familiar and predictablehome in which the pet can exercisesome control over his physical envi-ronment and social interactions,helps to reduce his stress levels andenables him to cope with any chal-lenges. Never ever keep cats in acrowded state more than the capac-ity of the household. It can lead todisease conditions, stressful situa-tions and fights.
Health and care of a catPreventive healthcare for pets is an
essential part of pet health and can helpto reduce a cat’s risk of developing awide range of problems. A compre-hensive approach focusing on nutritioncounselling, vaccinations, parasite con-trol, dental care and behaviour coun-selling can help to mitigate issues suchas periodontal disease, fleas and ticks,heartworm disease, obesity or diabetesmellitus. Never give pain killers mendfor humans to cats. One crocin tabletcan kill a cat. Sterilisation surgeries areessential for house cats as they preventseveral unexpected complications.Dedicate time
If you decide to become a petowner, you should be comfortablespending some of your time with yourcat and your dog. Not only will thishelp you to forge a bond with them, butthey will also benefit in terms ofdevelopment and wellbeing. Active dogbreeds will require exercise and playsessions a few times a day, but all petswill be most content on the receivingend of your attention. Cats are con-sidered more independent than theircanine counterparts, but they stillprefer having their humans around asmuch as possible for cuddles, as wellas stimulation with interactive toys andplay sessions when they feel like it. Nocat or dog will appreciate being left totheir own devices without humancompany for long stretches of time.
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Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stormed intothe Singapore Open title clash with acommanding win over lower-ranked
Japanese Saena Kawakami in the women'ssingles semi-final, here on Saturday.
Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist,who had claimed two Super 300 titles atSyed Modi International and Swiss Openthis year, prevailed 21-15 21-7 overworld number 38 Kawakami in a 32-minute last-four clash.
The 27-year-old from Hyderabad,who has also claimed a bronze at theAsian Championships this year, is nowone win away from her maiden Super 500title of the 2022 season.
In the finals, the third seeded Indianwill face China's 22-year-old Wang Zhi Yi,the reigning Asian Championships goldmedallist, who was also part of the UberCup team, which won the silver atBangkok this year. Wang beat Japan'sOhori Aya 21-14 21-14.
Sindhu had defeated world number11 Wang in their only meeting at the AllEngland Championships this year. A two-time World Junior Champion and a YouthOlympics silver medallist, Wang had alsoreached the finals of Indonesia OpenSuper 1000 in June.
Sindhu came into the match with a2-0 head-to-head record, having playedher last at the 2018 China Open.Kawakami had received a walk-overfrom top-seed Tai Tzu Ying of ChineseTaipei in the second round.
A former world number 15,Kawakami, winner of the 2019 OrleansMasters and a finalist at Swiss Open thesame year, was a part of the Japanesewomen's team that won the bronzemedal in May this year. The Japanese had
played just three events last year and it washer fifth tournament in 2022.
Sindhu, a former world champion,looked in complete command againstKawakami, who just couldn't control theshuttle and was buried in a heap of errorsduring the lop-sided match.
Early on, Sindhu started with herwhipping smashes but the drift inside thehall, made decision making difficult andalso at times, the precision was lacking.
But the power in her stroke-playhelped the Indian moved to a healthythree-point lead at the break.
The 24-year-old Japanese, however,started putting the shuttle in from diffi-cult positions to draw parity. The match
came alive with both fighting for eachpoint.
Sindhu also won two video referrals,punished a weak high lift and also madegood calls at the baseline to move to 18-14. A power-packed smash and then twounforced errors by Kawakami helpedSindhu seal the opening game comfort-ably.
Kawakami's struggles continued inthe second game as she failed to controlthe shuttle and conceded a 0-5 early leadto her fancied rival.
Sindhu just had to keep engaging herrival in the rallies and patiently wait forher mistakes. A frustrated Kawakami justcould wryly smile as Sindhu first grabbed
a 11-4 lead at the mid-game interval andthen zoomed to 17-5 in a jiffy.
The Japanese had no answer toSindhu's attacking forehand returns anddeft backhand flicks which opened up adecisive 19-6 lead for her.
Sindhu sent one long but nextunleashed a whipping smash from thebaseline which her opponent could onlysent to the net. When Kawakami's returnfinally went out again, Sindhu pumpedher fist to announce her entry into thefinals.
The two-time CommonwealthGames medallist, will lead the Indiancharge at the quadrennial event inBirmingham starting July 28.
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The Indian OlympicAssociation on Saturday
announced a 322-strong con-tingent including 215 athletesand 107 officials and supportstaff for the upcomingBirmingham CommonwealthGames.
The Games are scheduledto be held in British city fromJuly 28 to August 8, and theIndia contingent will look toimprove upon its Gold Coast2018 CWG performance,where it finished third behindtraditional powerhousesAustralia and England.
Sharing his thoughts, IOAsecretary general Rajeev Mehtasaid, "We are sending one ofour strongest squads ever tothe CWG and even with astrength sport for us likeshooting not being there, weare confident of bettering our
performance from the lastedition.
"Make no mistake, thecompetition will be world classand fierce but our athleteshave prepared well and are fitand raring to go. We wish themall the very best."
The Games-bound Indianathletes and officials will bestaying at five different"Villages" with the women'scricket team being put up in aseparate facility in theBirmingham city centre.
In a press release issued bythe IOA, the apex sports body'stop office-bearer thanked thegovernment for its support tothe athletes and federations.
Mehta said, "It needs to besaid that the Government ofIndia led by the Hon. PrimeMinister have providedunprecedented support toOlympic sports in recent yearsand our best ever performance
at the Olympic Games standtestimony to that.
"We remain ever gratefulfor the same and are sure ourathletes will ensure that richrewards are reaped for theuntiring efforts put in by them,most of all the Union SportsMinistry and the SportsAuthority of India."
Some prominent namesin the squad include Olympicmedallists Neeraj Chopra, PVSindhu, Mirabai Chanu,Lovlina Borgohain, BajrangPunia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya.
Defending CWG champi-ons Manika Batra, VineshPhogat as well as 2018 AsianGames gold medallistsTajinderpal Singh Toor, HimaDas and Amit Panghal arealso part of the contingent.
Rajesh Bhandari, vice pres-ident of Boxing Federation ofIndia (BFI), is the Chef deMission of the squad.
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Murali Sreeshankarbecame the first Indian
male long jumper to qualifyfor World AthleticsChampionships finals while3000m steeplechaser AvinashSable also expectedly made thegrade on the first day of thecompetitions here.
Sreeshankar, who hadentered the championships asa dark horse for a medal at sec-ond spot in the season's toplist, had a best jump of exact-ly 8m, which he did in his sec-ond attempt, to finish secondin qualification round GroupB and seventh overall.
Anju Bobby George wasthe first Indian to make it tothe World Championshipslong jump finals and first towin a medal -- bronze in 2003edition in Paris.
Two other Indians in thefray, Jeswin Aldrin, who wascleared for the champi-onships despite failing toimpress the national selectorsin two rounds of trials, andMuhammed Anees Yahiyacould not make it to thefinals after finishing ninthand 11th in Group A qualifi-cation round with best jumpsof 7.79m and 7.73m respec-tively.
Those who achieved8.15m or the 12 best per-formers from across the twogroups qualify for the finals tobe held on Sunday (6:50amIST).
The 23-year-oldSreeshankar has been a consis-tent performer with his 8.36mjump at the Federation Cup inApril, followed by 8.31m and8.23m at an event in Greeceand National Inter-StateChampionships respectively.
Only Japan's YukiHashioka (8.18m) and MarquisDendy (8.16m) of USA crossedthe 8.15m mark during thequalification round of twogroups.
Olympic championMiltiadis Tentoglou (8.03m) ofGreece, who won Group Bqualification round ahead ofSreeshankar, world seasonleader Simon Ehammer (8.09m)of Switzerland and Cuba'sTokyo Olympics bronze medal-list Maykel Masso (7.93m) werealso among those who qualifiedfor the finals.
The 27-year-old Sable, whohad also qualified for the 3000msteeplechase final during 2019edition in Doha, finished thirdin heat number 3 clocking8:18.75 to qualify for the finalsto be held on Monday (earlymorning Tuesday in India).
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Pakistan took earlyadvantage in the first
cricket test against Sri Lankaby reducing the hosts to 80for four at lunch on the firstday Saturday.
Sri Lanka had elected tobat first at the GalleInternational Stadium afterwinning the toss in goodbatting conditions, but theteam's batsmen failed tolive up to expectations withseveral soft dismissals.
Captain DimuthKarunaratne dragged aShaeen Afridi delivery on tohis stumps for 1 and then a49-run stand followed forthe second wicket betweenOshada Fernando and KusalMendis.
Then Sri Lanka lostthree wickets for the addi-tion of just eight runs,slumping to 68 for fourafter being 60 for one.
Fernando and Mendisdeparted in the space ofthree deliveries with YasirShah breaking the partner-ship. Mendis (21) bottom-edged one to wicketkeeperMohammad Rizwan as theleg-spinner claimed his firstwicket since making acomeback. Yasir had notrepresented Pakistan sinceAugust last year due toinjuries.
Pakistan then made a
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Pakistan's fast-bowling greatShoaib Akhtar has hit out at
Virat Kohli's critics andreminded them that the formerIndia captain's 70 internation-al hundreds weren't scored in"aunt's backyard" or while play-ing "candy crush video game".
Kohli's painfully long leanpatch of nearly three years hasled to calls for his ouster fromthe T20 World Cup team, witheven the legendary Kapil Devvoicing support for his exclu-sion. While Akhtar said herespects Dev's opinion thatcontinuing with the woefullyout-of-form Kohli is unfair to
a performing junior, thePakistani reminded everyonethat it takes a lot of effort toscore 43 ODI and 27 Test hun-dreds."Kapil Dev is my seniorand he has an opinion and it isfine to have an opinion. If KapilDev says, you still understandas he is a great cricketer. He hasthe right to air his opinion,"
Akhtar said on his YouTubechannel.
"But, as a Pakistani, whyam I supporting Kohli? Well, hehas 70 hundreds. Woh 70 saukhaala ke ghar mein ya candycrush khelte huye nahi baneinhain. (Those 70 tons were notscored in his aunt's backyard orwhile playing Candy Crush).
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Tiger Woods made an earlyand emotional departure
from the British Open, possi-bly for the last time at St.Andrews.
Cameron Smith can onlywonder if the 150th Open willbe his arrival as an undisput-ed elite player.
Smith already won ThePlayers Championship thisyear and has risen to as highas No. 3 in the world. His 8-under 64 gave him his firstlead in a major, by two shotsover PGA Tour rookieCameron Young. Ror yMcIlroy was lurking anothershot behind.
"It's obviously a reallygood spot to be in," Smithsaid. "I feel like I've been inthis spot a lot over the pastcouple of years, and things justhaven't quite gone my wayyet."
Woods strode over theSwilcan Bridge without stop-ping to pose for pictures andsaid it "felt like the wholetournament was right there"when he walked the final 356yards of what was otherwisea long day of 75 to miss thecut.
Woods didn't retire frommajor championship golf orthe British Open. He's just notsure a right leg held together
by hardware or a lower spinethat has been fused will allowhim to compete when theOpen returns to St. Andrewsagain.
"It's very emotional forme," he said. "To me it felt likethis might have been my lastBritish Open here at St.Andrews. And the fans, theovation and the warmth, itwas an unbelievable feeling."
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SINDHU SAILS INTO SINGAPORE FINAL
bowling change, bringing HasanAli in from the City End and itworked as Oshada Fernando(35) nicked an out-swinger andRizwan took a good catch div-ing to his right.
Mathews spent 30 minutesat the crease but never lookedcomfortable. Yasir ended hismisery when the former captainhit it straight to Naseem Shah atmid-on and was dismissed with-out scoring.
Dinesh Chandimal, whohad made an unbeaten doublehundred in Sri Lanka's last testmatch in an innings victory overAustralia earlier this week, wasunbeaten on 12 at lunch withDhananjaya de Silva.
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It is almost six years since theAIADMK fountainhead and for-mer Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa breathed her last.But the struggle to inherit her
political legacy and control of theAIADMK goes on. The internecinesquabble between various caste groupsin the 50-year-old party has turned ugly.The future of the major Oppositionhangs in the balance.
The AIADMK general council, thehighest decision-making body, recent-ly ousted O Panneerselvam and his fourassociates from the primary member-ship of the party and elected EdappadiPalaniswamy as interim general secre-tary. This after the fight for the con-trol of the party reached the doors ofthe Supreme Court. The violent streetprotest by the OPS supporters speaksvolumes about the state of affairs in theAIADMK.
Both M.G.Ramachandran, theparty’s founder, and Jayalalithaa, hissuccessor, died intestate without anyoffspring. After Jayalalithaa’s demise,many women came forward claiming tobe her daughters. “Many women intheir mid-30s claim to be Jayalalithaa’soffspring. Jayalalithaa herself wouldhave been shocked by these claimantshad she been around,” said G C Sekhar,a longtime journalist who followedAmma’s news with interest.
Another veteran journalist inChennai who claimed to beJayalalithaa’s biographer was not awareof the existence of Deepa and Deepak,her niece and nephew, till Amma’sdemise. The world came to knowabout them when they came out in theopen demanding the possession ofVeda Nilayam, Jayalalithaa’s imposingbungalow in the high-end Poes Gardenlocality in Chennai.
The exit of Jayalalithaa left a polit-ical vacuum in Tamil Nadu and this isyet to be filled. There was no second-in-command in the party as all weresoldiers of Amma. O Panneerselvamwas elevated to the post of chief min-ister on September 21, 2001, when theSupreme Court declared as null andvoid the action of the then Governor ofthe State swearing her in as chief min-ister despite her conviction and sen-
tencing by a Special Court in a corrup-tion case.
It was not because of any leadershipqualities of Panneerselvam that he washandpicked by Jayalalithaa for the topjob. She knew well that he wouldresign even without her asking once theCourt clears her name in the case.Panneerselvam had no hesitation inaccepting the fact that he was a puppet.“Sir, I am here because Amma could notfunction as chief minister because of thecourt verdict. Once the court clears hername, she would be back,” was his stan-dard reply to queries. He even declinedto sit on the chair used by Amma andfunctioned from his cabin in the sec-retariat. The second time he assumedthe chief minister’s post was when theSpecial Court sentenced Jayalalithaa tofour years imprisonment in the dispro-portionate case. Once the KarnatakaHigh Court acquitted her of all charges,Panneerselavam quit facilitating thereturn of his Amma to Fort SaintGeorge. It was the sudden demise ofJayalalithaa that led to his coronationas chief minister for the third time(early hours of 6, December 2016).
Jayalalithaa’s passing away led to aseries of events in the AIADMK aboutwhich the Dravidian-dominated Tamilmedia refuse to write. The first ques-tion that remains unasked is the raisond’etre of V K Sasikala (personal aide ofJayalalithaa) and members of herMannargudi clan in Veda Nilayam.Sasikala and her family members wereousted by Jayalalithaa from VedaNilayam in October 2011. Ammaissued a directive to the party cadres notto have any kind of ties with Sasikalaand her relations, claiming they broughtdisrepute to the party. The action waswelcomed by the party cadres by burst-ing crackers marking an early Diwali inthe State. But Sasikala managed to re-enter Veda Nilayam by tendering a pub-lic apology in which she declared thather life was dedicated to serving Akka(elder sister), and she would stay awayfrom all other activities including pol-itics. But on the morning of December6, 2016, when Jayalalithaa’s mortalremains were lying in state at theGovernment Estate in Chennai, theentire Mannargudi gang was seen sit-
ting around the coff in! TTVDhinakaran, who had been oustedmuch earlier from the party as well asVedha Nilayam was seen supervisingthe show. Nobody, includingPanneerselvam or Palaniswamy, couldexplain how he managed to infiltrateVeda Nilayam.
The moment the Tamil Nadu Policesounded the Last Post for Jayalalithaa,Sasikala started her machinations tousurp the party and government.Panneerselvam was summoned to VedaNilayam and was forced to sign his res-ignation letter. The next day Sasikalawas elected as the legislature partyleader. and it was decided to hold herswearing-in ceremony on February 13at the Madras University CentenaryHall. But the Supreme Court pro-nounced its verdict upholding theSpecial Court order sentencing Sasikalaand two others to four years of rigor-ous imprisonment in the disproportion-ate asset case. So, on the day she wasexpected to swear in as chief minister,Sasikala surrendered before the super-intendent of Parappana AgraharaCentral Jail to serve her imprisonment.
It was Edappadi Palaniswamy whowas sworn in as chief minister insteadof Sasikala. But Dhinakaran, who wasappointed as deputy general secretaryby Sasikala, started calling the shots.Palaniswamy was a sitting duck asDhinakaran sent out the message thatthe former should report to him on allissues. Dhinakaran declared himself asthe party candidate for the by-poll tobe held at R K Nagar hitherto represent-ed by Jayalalithaa. His mission was tobecome the chief minister once he gotelected to the assembly. But that did notwork out because Palaniswamy andPanneerselvam buried the hatchet andunitedly took on Dhinakaran.Dhinakaran won the bout at R KNagar, but he and Sasikala were easedout of their positions and ousted fromthe AIADMK in the general councilmeeting held in September 2017.Though some legislators declaredtheir support for Dhinakaran andended up losing their membership,Palaniswamy functioned effectively aschief minister for the next four years.Meanwhile, Dhinakaran launched an
outfit by the name AMMK withSasikala’s blessings.
Panneerselvam, who had no lead-ership qualities other than his devotionto Jayalalithaa, thought that the chiefministership as well as the post of gen-eral secretary belonged to him andstarted maneuvering to emerge as theunchallenged leader of the party. But hewas no match for Palaniswamy, a coolplayer who succeeded in winningfriends and influencing people.
Though Dravidian parties claimthat there is no communalism andcasteism in Tamil Nadu, it continues tobe the most caste-ridden society inSouth India. The upper caste Hindus donot allow the Harijans to stay anywherenear their locality. This writer hasexperienced the two-tumbler systemprevailing in many districts. Tes shopsserve tea to Harijans in separate tum-blers even as cops deployed to overseethe eradication of untouchability watchsilently. That much for the social jus-tice propagated by the Dravidian pol-itics which has been governing the Statesince 1967.
The AIADMK has been dominat-ed by the Thevar community to whichSasikala and her clan belong.Panneerselvam too is a Thevar.Palaniswamy belongs to the Gaundercommunity. While there was a feelingthat the Thevars may rally aroundSasikala and Dhinakaran, it has nothappened. Palaniswamy has succeededin mobilizing the Thevar communityaround him and only a miracle couldhelp Sasikala and her acolytes to bounceback. “She has a lot of money and canbuy over people. But Palaniswamy hasproved to be a tough nut to crack,” saidR Rajagopalan, veteran political com-mentator.
He said the weakening of AIADMKis a setback for the nationalist forces inthe State. “Whether the BJP couldmake political capital out of this situ-ation is not known. The Hindutva partyhas a strong and young leader in KAnnamalai. But that alone would nothelp the party to fill the space vacatedby the AIADMK,” said Rajagopalan.
The career of Panneerselvam hassuffered a setback as he does not haveeven a single associate with any mass
base. Moreover, it is known all over theState that he is devoid of any leadershipqualities. His moves to bring backSasikala to the party and anoint her toa top position has not gone down wellwith the people.
Sasikala herself is a picture of con-tradiction. Though she tried to hijackthe AIADMK, she had to drop the planas the cadres are not enthusiastic abouther intentions. Despite her declarationthat she was quitting active politics (andthat too for the second time), the ladymoves around claiming herself as thegeneral secretary of the AIADMK!
The AIADMK may be down now,but it is the principal opposition partyin the State. Though it lost the May2021 assembly election, the party man-aged to poll 39.72 percent votes againstthe DMK’s 45.38 percent. There was noJayalalithaa to campaign and the partyhad to face hostile media which washighly supportive of the DMK. The2024 Lok Sabha polls would tell us moreabout the future of the AIADMK. It isnot known whether Sasikala,Dhinakaran, and company would beable to make any difference to the for-tunes of the party. Sasikala may be agood reader but she is not a leader. Thelady cannot make a public speech andshe reads out from papers handed downto her by hangers-on.
“Even Rabri Devi, wife of LalooPrasad Yadav was better informed thanSasikala,” says a scribe who has been fol-lowing Sasikala’s antecedents.Jayalalithaa’s ‘Woman Friday’ hasmiles to go before she graduates into thebig league of politics because it is nother cup of tea. She may be good inpalace intrigues but that alone does notqualify her as a leader. If Palaniswamymanages to cobble up an alliance withlike-minded parties, it is the end of theroad for Sasikala and Panneerselvam.Interestingly, Panneerselvam is theonly leader in the post-Jayalalithaagenre who is struggling to promote hisson to sustain the dynasty. The wholeof Tamil Nadu is agog with reports thatPanneerselvam, Sasikala, and ChiefMinister M K Stalin are handed ingloves to demolish the AIADMK.
(The writer is a senior journalistwith The Pioneer)
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AIADMK,A HOSTAGE OFINTERNECINE WAR
AIADMK,A HOSTAGE OFINTERNECINE WAR
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KEEP MONSOON WOES AT BAY����2"��F������$�2������FF�)2+� ������((��������$�+��$L������� )�����:��"�#��(�������2��� �������2��((�����3������#�2�������� ���+���!�����������2)���$������3���#��'���(��+ �2����$���������������������(�����������"����� ���������:�����������)#����)��!���� ��)���$���3��F�����$"���!2�����������+�������2( �����(����+ ��+)����'��!���������+�������$��������� �(����"������)�2���"���:����� %��������������(����:
Susceptibility of individualto acquire viral and bac-terial infections increas-
es specially during rains owingto high moisture content andprolonged survival of thesemicroorganisms. Most ofmonsoon related fevers areattributed to four major routes- contaminated water, food, airand mosquito borne.
Amongst mosquitoborne-most common andimportant fevers are denguefever, chikangunya andmalaria which has symptomsrange from fever, chills body-ache to complex multisysteminvolvement. Timely screeningand prompt judicious treat-ment is quintessential forcombating further complica-tions.
Use mosquito nets in yourhouse; Don’t allow water tostagnate or collect anywhere inand around the house
Food and water borne -these are spectrum of illnessand fever caused by consump-tion of contaminated foodand water. Children are theeasiest victims because of adeveloping immune systemthat is prone to contractingdiseases.
Typhoid, caused by bacte-ria, is a water-borne diseasethat spreads because of poorsanitation. Eating uncoveredor spoilt food and drinkingcontaminated water are thetwo major causes of typhoid.Symptoms include fever,
headache, joint pain, and sorethroat.
Cholera, also caused dueto poor sanitation and con-sumption of contaminatedfood, is accompanied by diar-rhoea or loose motions.
Hepatitis A - viral infec-tion causing prolonged feverand fatigue also caused byconsumption of contaminatedwater
Simple handy tip to keepthe disease away -
● Cover food items /Personal and hand hygiene/ Boil water before con-sumption
● Vigilance and suspicion inFevers of more than two orthree days with stomachupset and abdominal painwill support in early man-agement and fast outcome.
● Airborne diseases - mon-soon are season of virus inthe air owing to appropri-ate environmental condi-
tions.● Elderly and kids both are
more susceptible to pletho-ra of viral Infections.
● With entering postCOVID era, it should bedictum that any illnessinvolving fever, cold, sorethroat and cough to beconsidered either COVIDor non COVID. It alsomandates appropriatequarantine while waitingreports and then isolationof needed.
● Influenza and flu virusesalso have similar clinicalcourse and outcomes.Elderly people require spe-cial attention in terms ofmonitoring of fever andoxygen while having flulike illness
● Precautions especially inairborne infections aremust! Mask, hand hygieneand cough etiquettes areand should be consideredas mantras and part for ournew normal life.
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Poor sanitation and waterlogging during this season
lead to diseases which aretropical. So you have mos-quito- borne diseases--Indiabears a considerable burdenof mosquito-borne diseases,contributing 11% to globalmalaria and 34% to globaldengue cases.
People with a weakimmune system, such assenior citizens, immunocom-promised persons and chil-dren, are more prone tosevere illness. Water-bornediseases l ike Cholera,Typhoid, Hepatitis A and E,food poisoning and othergastrointestinal infections, ifignored can be fatal. Becauseof poor sanitation and over-flowing of sewage, water log-ging and blocked drains,hygiene gets compromised.People are more prone to gas-
tro-intestinal infections likeacute gastro- intestinal infec-tions, vomiting, diarrhoea,and gastroenteritis, causeddue to the consumption ofstale, uncovered, or contam-inated food and water. It isadvised to boil water beforedrinking and keep all foodscovered before consumptionto avoid stomach infections.Other diseases are infectiveglytoisis, liver abscess andfood poisonings plaguing themonsoon weather.
Hot and humid weatherpromotes more bacteria togrow. Leptospirosis is anoth-er bacterial disease thatspreads due to contact withcontaminated water or muckduring the monsoons. If anindividual has suffered aninjury, they must ensure tokeep it covered before step-ping out of the home.
).''.��/%0��-(.1,+'/Owing to excessive rain-
fall, increased humidi-ty, sweating and water stag-nation, we are at a risk ofvarious skin infections andother diseases.
Below are some of thecommon skin problems inmonsoons:ACNE■ Excessive oil secretion
from the skin can lead topimples. Hence, use nat-ural oil free soaps/facewash.
■ Drink lots of water andavoid drinking too muchtea, coffee and alcohol toprevent breakouts on theskin. Use dermatologistsapproved soaps, skincreams, powders andkeep the health of yourskin in check.
ECZEMA■ This causes a rash, itch-
ing, and redness on theskin. In many cases, italso causes irritation.*People with sensitiveskin have a higherchance of having thisinfection.Maintain proper hygieneby taking a bath regular-ly and keeping your skinwell moisturized.
TINEA FUNGAL INFEC-TIONS■ These include itchy and
highly communicableskin issues like ring-worms (skin infection inbody folds like armpits,
thighs, etc.); tinea capi-tis (itchy and flaky scalp)and onychomycosis(fungal infection in thenails causing them tobecome brittle and frag-ile). Closed shoes andrain water can be abreeding ground forinfection leading to ath-lete’s foot.
■ Pay attention to person-al hygiene at all times bybathing daily and wash-ing your feet and handsonce you reach home.Also wear light and cot-ton fabric which is prop-erly washed.
FOLLICULITIS■ A fungal or bacterial
infection of the hair fol-licle. The contactbetween sweat and fun-gus or bacteria results inskin problems which cancause folliculitis. It gen-erally occurs in theupper back, arms, thighsand scalp area and canbe really painful and
infected with pus.■ It can be controlled by
preventing excessivesweating, taking regularbaths and keeping theskin hydrated at times.
SCABIES■ A monsoon skin infec-
tion caused by tinymicroscopic mites.These mites hover on theskin for months and arehighly contagious. Theyburrow in the skin to layeggs which causesimmense uncontrollableitching which causesredness.
■ Scabies needs propertreatment because if leftuntreated, it can causeredness and can poten-tially spread to others.
NAIL INFECTIONS■ This infection causes nail
discoloration, brittleness,and swollen nail beds.
■ Dry and wipe your bodyproperly after a bath andavoid being barefoot inpublic places.
Contrary to the popularbelief, aesthetic or cosmet-
ic surgery is just a part of theplastic surgery being conduct-ed in the country. In fact, it ismore than that, asserts DrManeesh Singhal, Head ofDepartment of Plastic,Reconstructive and BurnsSurgery, AIIMS, Delhi.
Besides performing aes-thetic surgery, plastic surgeonsalso and conduct reconstructivesurgeries involving right fromhead to toe—such as burns,trauma/cancer/pressure sorereconstruction, cleftlip/palate/craniomaxillofacialsurgeries, hand surgeries,microsurgeries likereplants/limb transplants, hesaid.
Every day, AIIMS Delhiconducts around 18 plasticsurgeries while across the coun-try, as per rough estimates, thefigure is 7,500. The majority ofthese ie atleast 50% involveburns and trauma reconstruc-tion followed by congenital andcleft surgery 10%; hand surgery10%, cancer reconstruction 1%and cosmetic surgery 20%.
Dr Singhal revealed thatplastic surgery has been India's
gift to the world with the greatsage Sushruta, being the fatherof Plastic Surgery.
The doctor further saidthat it is recorded in history thatthe world's first plastic surgerywas done in Kashi about 3thousand years ago. When aperson came to MaharishiSushruta with a severed nose.First Sushruta made that persondrink intoxicants so that he doesnot feel pain. Took part of theskin from his forehead, under-stood the shape of his nosethrough the leaf and made thenose with stitches and joined it.
“It is also recorded inSushruta Samhita that Sushrutaused 125 different surgicalinstruments in Sushrut
Samhita. 12 types of fracturesand 7 dislocations have beenexplained. The world needs toknow the truth about plasticsurgery, that's why this festival
was named 'Sushruta FilmFestival',” Dr Singhal said,adding that a study on‘Sushruta as a plastic surgeon’is in the pipeline.
AIIMS Director DrRandeep Guleria said, “It wasunfortunate that the public per-ception about what plasticsurgery is and what it covers isstill largely lacking.” He cited astudy published in theInternational Surgery Journal in2019 in which as many as 84 percent of participants said plasticsurgery involves only cosmeticsurgery and 70 per cent saidplastic is used in plastic surgery.”
Innovative ideas like thisfilm festival will greatly help inaltering perceptions about thisfield and how patients withdebilitating diseases, cancers,trauma, burns, and congenitalanomalies will benefit from it,Dr Guleria said.
Dr Singhal informed thataround 90 plastic surgeons andtrainees from across India sub-mitted nearly 120 short films onhow lives were changed throughplastic and reconstructivesurgery of which 25 werescreened at the film festival,organised in collaboration withthe Association of PlasticSurgeons of India (APSI).
The best movie wasadjudged to "ConqueringDisability by Plastic Surgery" byDr. Parag Sahasrabudhe fromPune. It was a story of a teenag-er, Mahesh Patil who had bonecancer in his leg, and wasadvised amputation. But thanksto the plastic surgery, his leg wassaved. Thus, showing how plas-
tic surgery can help a person torebuild his life, dream big, dothe unbelievable and achieve theextraordinary.
The second-best movie tagwent to "From Despair to Hope"by dr. Subramania lyer fromKochi, Kerala. It highlighted thecase of one Manu, who had lostboth his hands in a train acci-dent and was given a new hope,when his plastic surgeonsoffered him hand transplanta-tion. Now, he has recovered well,and not only does his work byhimself, but he also works as atransplant counsellor in thesame hospital. The Third Moviewas Kathrivel, by Dr. S. RajaSabhapathy, from Coimbatore.It showed how plastic surgery
can restore debilitating postburn contractures.
Three more Special Awardswere also given. These were“Hands that Help" (By Dr. SunilGaba from Chandigarh) aboutthe reattachment of an amputat-ed hand. It educates how impor-tant part preservation is and howa plastic surgeon can reattachparts, they are brought to themin time and in a properly pre-served way. Two other movieswere "Imperfectly Perfect" (Dr.Shivangi Saha, Delhi) about apatient, an acid attack victim and“Empowering Children throughMicrotia Surgery" (Dr. ParagTelang, Mumbai). It is a movieshowing how difficult life is forkids born without ears and howa plastic surgeon can help restoretheir appearance back with theirtireless efforts.
The best 25 movies werealso given a consolation prize.
Two more movies "A rain-bow of Life" (Dr. Richie Gupta,Delhi) and "Happy Veena"(Dr.Sunil Kalda, Raipur) earnedpraises as they addressed theissues of transgender healthand role plastic surgeons canplay by Gender AffirmationSurgery.
Afew Yoga poses canhelp you strengthen
your immunity systemwhich is tested during mon-soon. Respiratory illnessesand aggravation of pul-monary medical conditionscan also be controlled byincluding Yoga in your dailyroutine. Highly effectiveYoga poses can help you stayfit and healthy duringMonsoon.
Five basic principles ofYoga during Monsoon 1. Shodhana: neti and
kapalabhati 2. Seasonal diet, avoid
capha generating foods. Boiled water 3. Clothing and comfort . Cotton clothes helps to breathe
better 4. Yoga practices
● Suryanamaskar ● Selected sukshma vyayamas to improve lungscapacity ● Tadasana/ Trikonasana/ Parshwakonasana/Ushtrasana/ Uttana andookasana/ Gomukhasana/Vakrasana/ Shalabhasana/ Makarasan/Pawanamuktasana / Vipareetakarani/ Matsyasana/Shavasana/ Nadishuddhi pranayama/ Suryabedhanapranayama/ Bhastrika pranayama /Dhyana theMeditation
5. Be with nature, follow principles of mansoon rutucharya,dinacharya and raatricharya, It's a period of growth.Make best use of it
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CONJUNCTIVITISThis is a type of infection that causes swelling
of the eyes. Due to this, the eyes become red,swollen, and sticky. Eye infection can happen dur-ing the rainy season and the eyes tend to becomered. One will also have a watery discharge.Coming in contact with a person suffering fromthis eye condition can also cause infection inanother person. In case of any kind of infection,the doctor should be consulted immediately
PRECAUTION: Wash your hands regular-ly with soap and water, don’t share your person-al belongings, do not rub your eyes with dirtyhands, and use hand sanitizer.
TREATMENT: Pink eye therapy is deter-mined by the underlying cause. In some circum-stances, symptoms will go away on their own insome days. Under such circumstances, anunderlying infection may require therapy withoral medications. Wearing contact lenses shouldalso be avoided unless your ophthalmologist tellsyou to do so. Don't put your contact lenses onuntil the conjunctivitis is gone.
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AYURVEDA REMEDIES
DIETZ: Water available in thereservoirs during monsoon is com-paratively heavy to digest and themetabolism is sluggish during thisperiod. An individual is likely toexperience loss of appetite. Hencefollowing changes in diet andlifestyle is advisable during mon-soon:
● Consume light and fresh foodsprepared from barley, rice andwheat
● Include cow’s ghee, lentils, greengram, rice and wheat in yourdaily diet.
● Consume small pieces of gingerwith rock salt before everymeal.
● Use sour and salted soups ofvegetables. Onion and othervegetables.
● During cooler days due toheavy rains, sour, salty and oilydiets are preferred.
● Drinkng of boiled and cooledwater mixed with little honey isrecommended.
● Addtion of ginger and greengram in daily diet is beneficial.
● Eating of warm food and avoid-
ing uncooked foods and saladsis better.
● Drinking of excess fluids to pre-vent further slowing down ofmetabolism is advisable.
● Avoid consuming stale food.● Consumption of leafy vegeta-
bles need to be avoided duringmonsoon.
● Avoidance of curds, red meatand any foodstuff, which takesa longer time to digest is goodduring the monsoon. One mayhave buttermilk instead ofcurds.
● Consumption of ‘Haritaki/Harad (Terminalia chebula)with rock salt in the monsoonseason is beneficial to health.
LIFESTYLE: Consumption ofhealthy diet only may not providedesired results unless it is support-ed by lifestyle beneficial for mon-soon. Following are the tips for theimportant changes in lifestyle ofthe rainy /monsoon season.● Avoiding sleep in the daytime is
good as it hampers digestion andslows down the metabolism.
● Over exertion and over expo-sure to sun, especially in theafternoon, is required to beavoided.
● Keep the surrounding dry andclean and not allow water to getaccumulated around.
● Keep body warm, to protectagainst any attack from virus-es as and when body tempera-ture goes down.
● Avoid entering an air-condi-tioned room with wet hair anddamp clothes.
● Avoid walking in dirty/damp-ened water.
● Feets are required to be keptdry.
NOTE: As per Ayurveda abruptchanges of diet and lifestyle suitablefor a particular season need to beavoided. The changes must begradual over a period of 15 days bygiving up the earlier lifestyle andadopting a new one for the acclima-tization. If abrupt changes arebrought, the body may not be ableto cope with them and this couldlead to problems.
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9�� ��������������:�������������:���������The assassination of former
Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe has unearthedlong-suspected, little-talked-of links between him and a reli-gious group that started inSouth Korea but has spread itsinfluence around the world.
Police and Japanese mediahave suggested that the allegedattacker, Tetsuya Yamagami,who was arrested on the spot,was furious about Abe’s report-ed ties to the UnificationChurch, which has pursuedrelationships with politicallyconservative groups and lead-ers in the United States, Japanand Europe.
Many Japanese have beensurprised as revelationsemerged this week of the tiesbetween the church and Japan’stop leaders, which have theirroots in shared anti-commu-nism efforts during the ColdWar. Analysts say it could leadpeople to examine more close-ly how powerfully the rulingparty’s conservative worldviews
have steered the policies ofmodern Japan.
A look at the church and itsdeep ties to Japan’s governingparty and Abe’s own family:
Church’s link to world leaders
Throughout his life, Moonworked to transform his churchinto a worldwide religiousmovement and expand its busi-ness and charitable activities.Moon was convicted of tax eva-sion in 1982 and served aprison term in New York. Hedied in 2012.
The church has developedrelations with conservativeworld leaders, including USPresidents Richard Nixon,Ronald Reagan and GeorgeHW Bush and more recentlyDonald Trump.
Moon also had ties withNorth Korea’s founder Kim IlSung, the late grandfather ofcurrent ruler Kim Jong Un.Moon said in his autobiogra-phy that he asked Kim to give
up his nuclear ambitions, andthat Kim responded that hisatomic programme was forpeaceful purposes and he hadno intention to use it to “kill(Korean) compatriots.”
Abe’s linkAbe was known for his
arch-conservative views onsecurity and history issues andalso was backed by powerfullobbies such as the NipponKaigi. He appeared in eventsorganised by church affiliates,including one in September2021.
In a video shown on a bigscreen at the meeting ofchurch-related Universal PeaceFederation, or UPF, Abepraised its work toward peaceon the Korean Peninsula andthe group’s focus on family val-ues. An emphasis on tradi-tional, paternalistic family sys-tems was one of Abe’s keypositions.
“I appreciate UPF’s focuson family values,” he said in the
video. “Let’s be aware of so-called social revolutionarymovements with narrow-minded values.”
Reports of his appearancein the 2021 event drew criti-cisms from the JapaneseCommunist Party and cultwatchers, including a group oflawyers who have watched theUnification Church activitiesand supported its alleged vic-tims.
In a news conference onMonday after the church’s con-nection to Abe’s assassinationwas revealed, the church’sleader in Japan, TomohiroTanaka, said Abe supportedUPF’s peace movement butthat he was not a member.
Police still have not pub-licly identified the group citedby the suspect, presumably toavoid inciting violence.
Japan’s polity The ties between the
church and Japan’s governingparty go back to Abe’s grand-
father, Nobusuke Kishi, whoserved as Prime Minister andshared worries withWashington over the spread ofcommunism in Japan in the1960s as labor union activistsgained strength.
Kishi, who was arrested asa war criminal but nevercharged, was known for hisright-wing political views, andthe Unification Church’s anti-communist stance matched hisviews of Japan’s national inter-ests, experts say.
Kishi’s close relationshipwith the church was publiclyknown. The church headquar-ters at one point was housed ina building next to Kishi’s Tokyoresidence, and he was seen withMoon in photos taken at thechurch and published in grouppublications. Media reportssay the suspect believed thatKishi brought the church toJapan.
“Japanese leaders at thetime saw the church as a toolto promote anti-communist
views in Japan,” said MasakiKito, a lawyer and expert onreligious businesses. For thegroup, showcasing close tieswith prominent politicians wasa way to get endorsement for itsactivity.
Ties between church-affil-iated organisations and LiberalDemocratic Party lawmakersdeveloped over decades sincethe church expanded, provid-ing solid political support andvotes for the governing party,experts say, though the groupdenied it.
A survey of 128 lawmakersobtained from police and pub-lished in the Weekly Gendaimagazine in 1999 showed mostattended events organised bythe Unification Church’s anti-communism affiliate, theInternational Federation forVictory Over Communism,also funded by Moon, andmore than 20 LDP lawmakershad at least one church mem-ber in their offices as a volun-teer.
Church and its criticsThe church denied any
favorable treatment by Kishiwhen it opened a Japan branch.Tanaka said Abe supportedcurrent leader Hak Ja HanMoon’s peace movement, butdenied any movement ofmoney between the group andthe LDP.
The church said it had norecords showing thatYamagami was a member. Thechurch said it had had nodirect relationship with Abe,although it interacted withother lawmakers through anaffiliated organisation.
Members of the NationalNetwork of Lawyers AgainstSpiritual Sales, who watch thechurch, say they have repeatedly asked Abe and otherLDP lawmakers to stop appearing at or sending mes-sages to the events organised bythe Unification Church or affiliates while ignoring thelong-standing church-relatedproblems.
Effect on ruling party“The assassination is shed-
ding a light on the UnificationChurch,” said Koichi Nakano,an international politics pro-fessor at Sophia University inTokyo. “The church’s relation-ship with the LDP’s right-wingfactions and its ultra-right-wing policies could comeunder close scrutiny,” and leadto a re-evaluation of Abe’slegacy.
It could lead to revelationsof how the party’s views havedistorted postwar Japanesesociety, while stalling progressof gender equality and sexualdiversity issues, Nakano said.
Takuya Tasso, the governorof Iwate in northern Japan, saidon Friday that as a formerbureaucrat and national law-maker he knew about the LDP’slinks to the church and he saidits alleged influence on votingand government policiesshould be thoroughly investi-gated.
(Courtesy: AP)
July 8, 2022, has become oneof the darkest days in the
annals of the post-war historyof Japan, with the assassinationof former Prime Minister andLiberal Democratic Party(LDP) leader Shinzo Abe dur-ing his election speech in thewestern province of Nara. Theassassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, a41-year-old unemployed, firedalmost point blank at Abe’schest from behind.
Abe’s murder is raisingcritical questions; like who wasthe shooter and what was themotive behind the assassina-tion. Earlier, Yamagami workedfor a manufacturer in theKansai region from aroundthe fall of 2020. But he left thatjob in May this year as permedia reports. He also workedas a member of the MaritimeSelf-Defence Force for aboutthree years. Yamagami, afterthe assassination, revealed thathe initially planned to attackthe leader of a religious groupcalled “Unification Church”better known as “Moon Sect”who, he believed, forced hismother to pay hefty donationsto the group thus bankruptinghis family. Yamagami also con-fessed to the police that hewanted to kill Abe believing hehad ties with the controversialreligious sect. After the tragicincident, the UnificationChurch confirmed thatYamagami’s mother attendedthe congregation, but it refusedto give details about the dona-tion part.
Yamagami told police thathe had been planning for theattack for months. He followedAbe at his campaign locations,including the city of Okayama,more than 120 miles fromNara, a day before the assassi-nation. At times he considereda bomb attack before opting fora gun. After the incident, whenthe security agencies searchedhis home, they found itemsbelieved to be explosives andhomemade guns, including theones similar to the weaponused in the current attack.This clearly indicates thatYamagami has been planningthe killing for quite some time;he was just waiting for the righttime to execute his plan. Andfinally, he got everything righton July 8.
The “Moon sect” wasestablished in Korea in 1954 bya man called Sun MyungMoon, who preached newinterpretations of the Bibleand conservative, family-ori-ented value systems. Duringthat time, the sect claimedthat it had nearly three millionfollowers. And all of themaccepted Moon as the “TrueFather”. He was born into afarming family currently locat-ed in North Korea. As the storygoes, at the age of 15, he
claimed to have had the sightof Jesus Christ asking him tocontinue his mission. The pur-pose of Moon establishing thesect was to lead humanity to asinless purity. He founded hisown church in Seoul, but soonbecame involved in local pol-itics. Moon took an anti-Communist stand in the begin-ning and finally received sym-pathy from the military regimeof the country. He graduallycame closer to political bigwigsof the time like then USPresident Richard Nixon. Infact, he offered public supportto Nixon when the latter wasembroiled in the infamousWatergate Scandal. Again inthe 1980s, Moon developedclose connections with theFrench right-wing movementknown as National FrontMovement. But in due courseof time, the austere churchturned out to be an economicenterprise expanding its influ-ence into various industrial sec-tors like construction, food,automobile, tourism, media,etc. Soon Moon became a bil-lionaire godman. Later he set-tled in the US in the 1970s, buthe was jailed for a year on thecharges of tax evasion inAmerica. Currently, the
Reunification church is underthe control of Hak Ja Han.
Yamagami believed thatthe Moon sect had influence onAbe, and he started linking Abewith all the economic problemsof his family. He was convincedthat Abe would send a messageof support to Moon sect’s reli-gious congregations.
But Tomihiro Tanaka,president of the Japanesebranch of the Moon Church,claimed, “Abe showed his sup-port for our global peace move-ment. However he never reg-istered as a member of ourchurch. We are a bit puzzledbecause there is a long way togo between holding a grudgeagainst us and killing Mr Abe.We can’t understand the sus-pect’s motives, so we will fullycooperate with the police tounravel the mystery.”
Japan’s longest servingPrime Minister Abe redefinedpolitics for a generation. Heserved two terms as the PrimeMinister from the right-leaningLDP: first from 2006-07 andthen 2012 to 2020. His secondstint was the longest consecu-tive term for a Japanese PrimeMinister. People and associatesclose to him always musedabout what was on his mind.
Indeed, he changed the world-view of Japanese politics.
Keeping the geopoliticallocation of Japan in mind, Abehad to rediscover and strategisethe country’s relations with itsdemocratic allies and partnersacross the world. He toured 176countries. Keeping the geopo-litical location of Japan inmind, Abe had to rediscoverand strategise the country’srelations with its democraticallies and partners across theworld. He toured 176 countries.With Abe, the official aircraftof the Japanese Governmenttravelled nearly 1,581,281 kilo-metres taking him far andwide to the globe as per vari-ous media reports.
He realised the fast-grow-ing aggressive behaviour ofthe three close non-democra-tic neighbours: China, Russiaand North Korea, all nuclearpowers. Therefore, he had toreinvent ties with other grow-ing power houses in the Asia-Pacific like India and Australia.His idea of free and openIndo-Pacific and Quad frame-work has heralded a new era ofsafety and security to this partof the globe. While strength-ening the US-Japan alliance, hedid enough to counter the
Chinese neo-imperial initiativecalled Belt and Road Initiativewith the help of the G7. Herevived the Sino-Japan rela-tions.
At home, Abenomics 2.0launched in 2016 was more tobring the younger generation tothe centre stage. Abe also low-ered the voting age from 20 to18 so as to encourage moreyoung people to participate inpolitics. Truly, his noble intentwas heard and responded to bythe youth of Japan. Anotherdistinct achievement for himwas securing the venue for theTokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
The attack on high-profilepolitical dignitaries like thePM is rare in Japanese politics,but not without a precedent.Precisely, there have been anumber of such murderousattempts made on top politi-cians in the country eitherwhen they were in power orafter they left the office. Morethan 101 years back in the year1921, Takashi Hara, a com-moner who became the PM ofJapan and the man who found-ed the full-fledged partyCabinet System, was stabbed todeath by a young railway work-er at Tokyo Station. Then nineyears later, a gunman attacked
then Prime Minister OsachiHamaguchi at the same Tokyostation, and he succumbed thenext year. In 1932, PrimeMinister Tsuyoshi Inukai wasassassinated by a group ofarmed naval officers whostormed into his office. Theassassination is known as the“May 15 incident” in Japanesepolitical history.
It must be noted here thatAbe’s grandfather PrimeMinister Nobusuke Kishi wasstabbed in 1960 at a receptionin his office. In the years 1975,1992 and 1994, Prime MinisterTakeo Miki, Deputy PM ShinKanemaru and PM MorihiroHokosawa were attacked, butthey all survived.
Without an iota of doubt,Abe was a towering worldstatesman. His untimely andtragic death will change thepolitical landscape of Japanand Asia. Most politicalobservers will remember Abefor elevating Japan’s place in theglobal governance system. Hisassassination is undoubtedlyone of the most shockingtragedies of this century forJapan. But what is more impor-tant is that his ghastly killingwill have reverberations inJapanese politics and society for
decades to come. When he roseto power in 2006, he had to exithis office in an ignoble fashionmainly owing to illness accom-panied by a litany of corruptionscandals and political mis-steps. But in 2012, he made apowerful comeback and sur-passed the records of all theprevious Prime Ministers ofJapan both in length of serviceand record of success. However,he had to step down in 2020because of his illness again.Above all, his grim determi-nation ensured a better futurefor his motherland. While bid-ding goodbye to a real globe-trotter in true sense of the term,it can well be said that his ideas,vision and worldview will cer-tainly have an indelible markboth in Japanese and worldpolitics. Sayonara, Shinzo Abe!
(Dr Makhan Saikia hastaught political science andinternational relations for overa decade in institutions ofnational and internationalrepute after specialisation inglobalisation and governancefrom Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Mumbai. He is thechief editor of the Journal ofGlobal Studies, an internation-al research journal)
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Last Wednesday, we celebrated GuruPurnima when the disciples, paidobeisance to their revered Guru. n
Indic system, many specific dates areassigned in annular calendar to get peri-odically reminded about fundamentaltruths of life, as human memory is usu-ally short. Guru Purnima is one suchsolemn occasion on Ashadha Purnimawhen the Sun transits Gemini signowned by intelligence signifyingMercury and Moon moves throughSagittarius sign owned by wisdom indi-cating Jupiter, also marked with theGuru. So, this particular date is pur-posely assigned as such. It will be inter-esting to note here that the word “Guru”comprises of two syllables: ‘Gu’, whichmeans ignorance and ‘Ru’ implies light.So, the one who enlightens his/her dis-ciples and make them aware of the liv-ing truths of life, qualifies to be a Guru.
Ancient India’s learned masters hadrealised that human beings are inher-ently born ignorant, bound by 6 consti-tutional limitations, which further getscompounded by self-acquired faultlines, coming as they may as Karmiccarryover from the past birth. They alsounderstood very well that though
human beings are equipped with thefaculty of discrimination, whichempowers them to self-reflect, identify,acknowledge and make necessary cor-rections through fresh educative inputs.The irony, however, is that ahamkara,which is a necessary constituent ofmind, ordinarily identifies itself withinborn individualistic human tenden-cies as well as tempting influences of theseeming world, and tale take them as itsend game. Ordinarily, ahamkara doesn’tlet you objectively discriminate upon,identify and acknowledge one’s infirmi-ties, as if that would be the person’sguiding spirit. Hence the necessity of anenlightened Guru. He first let you tem-per down the ahamkara element. Hethen helps you get over limitations ofmind and emotions, through awarenessroute, so as to come out with one’s best.
To name the constitutional limita-tions: 1. Limited creativity 2. Limitedknowledge 3: Born with a sense of want,thus, breeding in sense of desire, crav-ing, possessiveness, and other relatedshortcomings. 4. Limitation of time,whereby we measure things in terms ofpast present and future. In our day-to-day conduct, we are often guided by
impressions carried over from the pastor fancy the future cravings. In theprocess, we fail to objectively figure outthe callings of the present in the rightperspective due. Consequently, we are
not able to put in our best in the pre-sent, which, in fact sets the terms offuture, and with obvious consequences.5. Limitation of space, which plays apart in restricting the sense of vision,
for want of limited exposure. 6. The lawof causation that binds us to a cause-effect chain, which sets the premise ofthe theory of Karma that runs in succes-sion. It carries the potential to even getcarried over to the next life. It implies:‘as you sow, so you reap’. The contentand intent of your actions defines whatwe become due for in future.
As a further consequence of the lawof causation, going through the goodand bad experiences one would havehad, and the lessons learnt in the past,we are born carrying seed-potential ofcertain inherent limitations and virtues,which, given a congenial exposure,come into play. As different people gothrough varied sets of experiences,every one is born unique, having a pre-conditioned mind marked with individ-ual specific desire and mind trends,more often in conflict with others. Theworld, thus, becomes a natural breedingground for conflict of thoughts, percep-tions and interests. Hence, the need of aGuru, who may help overcome all indi-vidualistic as well as collective limita-tions and ensure smooth run of lifecycle in peace and harmony. The lessondoesn’t end here.
Having thus individually preparedthe disciple, Guru makes you aware ofthe existential realities of life, such asthe Vedantic concept of the ‘Creator’being a ‘Singular’ versatile reality thathas manifested into an enormous worldwith all its disparities and varieties, allweaved together as a unified organismby the eternal element of consciousnessrooted to the source. In this scheme ofthings, no individual existence has areality independent of the whole, all setinto an interdependent mechanism,complementing and supplementingeach other’s efforts, to together carryforward the cycle of life. We all sharecommon resources provided by naturesuch as space, air, sun light, and water,which know no geographical divide.With such a sense of unity conscious-ness dwelling in mind, one wouldremain conscious about one’s collectiveobligations even while pursuing aspira-tional urges. Life may then turn into abeautiful experience.
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