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National

- SC will examine if Governors’ actions ‘subvert’ federalism

- SC extends stay on Uttarakhand, U.P. order to shops on Kanwar Yatra route

- 17 candidates secure perfect scores as NTA declares final results of NEET-UG

- After arson attacks on rail network, show by the Seine rolls out in Paris

- Olympics kick off

- Scrap NITI Aayog as it has not served any purpose: Mamata

- BJP alliance with TDP, JD(U) is a ‘Fevicol-like’ bond, says Rajiv Singh

- Minister ducked question on legal guarantee for MSP, says Opposition

- 219 proposals for High Court judges’ appointment are being processed: Centre

- Remarks on ‘division of West Bengal’ lead to uproar in House

- Tempers fray as BJP MP allowed to speak on Valmiki ‘scam’

- Brittas’ Bill faces protests from treasury benches

- ‘Bangladesh govt. acting as if a foreign army is invading the country’

- PM defends Agnipath scheme on anniversary of Kargil War

- Defamation case a move to gain ‘cheap publicity’: Rahul

- ASEAN cornerstone of India’s Act East Policy: Jaishankar

- Congress ignored needs of our armed forces: Vaishnaw

- Modi’s claim ‘blatant lie’, an insult to our armed forces, says Kharge

- Pakistan rejects Modi’s Kargil Vijay Diwas speech as ‘rhetoric’

- Mosques covered on Kanwar Yatra route in Haridwar

- Congress questions Centre’s ‘fiscal mismanagement’ in J&K

- Chargesheet filed against 7 accused in Pune car crash case

- Royal burial mounds of Assam now on UNESCO World Heritage List

- AAI flags increase in fire accidents at airports, stresses need to follow SOP

- 14238

- Getting Navy frigate upright may take up to 3 months: official

- The way out of sins

- CBI arrests one more in NEET paper leak case

- Heavy rain floods parts of Gujarat; IMD issues red alert

- India, U.S. sign agreement to protect cultural heritage

Krishnadas Rajagopal

New Delhi

The court’s decision comes on a petition by Kerala over the Governor sitting on crucial Bills and eventually referring them to the President

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine if Governors, by indefinitely sitting on crucial Bills only to eventually refer them to the President who solely acts on the advice of the Centre, are opening the doors for Union interference in the legislative domain of States, thereby subverting federalism.

The decision of the court to intervene came in a petition filed by the State of Kerala which brought into focus the role of its Governor, who kept Bills pending for two years before reserving seven of them for the consideration of the President, who has no discretion and entirely depends on the aid and advice of the Centre. The President had subsequently withheld consent to four though none of the seven Bills had dealt with Centre-State relations.

Withholding assent

Kerala, represented by senior advocates K.K. Venugopal, Jaideep Gupta and advocate C.K. Sasi, said the Governor should have returned the Bills, which dealt with amendments to State cooperative societies, Lokayukta and university laws, to the State Legislative Assembly “as soon as possible” and given reasons for his objections.

Instead, the Governor had sat on them. He denied the people of Kerala the “benefits of the welfare legislation” before referring the seven Bills to the President in November last year without mentioning the time-lapse.

Kerala said the Centre had withheld assent on four Bills without assigning any reasons.

Thus, the State said, the machinations of the Governor saw the Centre take decisions on issues exclusively coming within the ambit of the State’s legislative domain.

It argued that the Governor’s power to reserve a Bill for the consideration of the President is limited and confined to specific circumstances detailed in the proviso to Article 213 of the Constitution.

Chief Justice Chandrachud said the court would look into “when Governors can refer Bills to the President”. The next hearing of the case has been posted on August 20.

The court issued notice to the Additional Secretary to the Kerala Governor and the Home Ministry.

“The actions of the Governor subvert the delicate balance envisaged by the Constitution between the three organs of State, by rendering the functioning of the elected executive, which has drafted and introduced the Bills, and then the State Legislature, which has passed the Bills, wholly ineffective and otiose. The actions of the Governor also subvert the federal structure of the Constitution, by reserving for the President (acting on the aid and advice of the Union Cabinet) Bills which are wholly within the domain of the State under the Constitution,” the State of Kerala argued.

“This is a sad state of affairs. The Supreme Court should step in and tell the Governor when they can refuse Bills and when they can refer them to the President… Otherwise, the Constitution is being rendered otiose,” Mr. Venugopal addressed the Bench.

The court similarly issued notice to the Home Ministry and the Secretary to the West Bengal Governor.

The Chief Justice asked Mr. Venugopal, Mr. Gupta and senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the State of West Bengal along with advocate Astha Sharma, to meet and frame the legal issues to be decided by the court.

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Pilgrims voyage: ‘Kanwariyas’ carry sacred water from the Ganga river as part of the yatra in Haridwar on Friday.PTI-

The Supreme Court on Friday reasoned that laws should apply equally to all and in every part of the country while countering Uttar Pradesh’s argument that its directive to shop owners and staff along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their names was in line with a “Central law”.

A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S.V.N. Bhatti refused to rethink the court’s earlier stay on the implementation of the directives issued by Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and extended the stay orders till August 5.

Uttar Pradesh, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, said that there was nothing wrong in ordering shop owners and their staff along the yatra route to prominently exhibit their names outside their establishments. “It is a requirement by law. Your Lordships’ order staying it violates the Central law,” Mr. Rohatgi claimed.

“Then enforce it all across and not in only certain areas. You can file an affidavit showing you have enforced it everywhere,” Justice Roy retorted.

‘Issued in all festivals’

Mr. Rohatgi asked for an early date for a detailed hearing of the case.

Uttarakhand Deputy Advocate General Jatinder Kumar Sethy said that similar directives were issued in “all festivals”. He added that the directive was an antidote against “law and order problems”.

An applicant, who introduced himself as a devotee, claimed that in Muzaffarnagar, there were eateries which were named after Hindu deities but serve non-vegetarian food. He said that he had a right to his choice of food and beliefs.

Justice Roy agreed about his right and said that the court had not stopped any shopkeeper from voluntarily displaying his name. The Bench said the order was only meant as a safeguard against authorities compelling shopkeepers to put up nameplates.

Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, submitted that Uttar Pradesh, in its affidavit, “accepts the discriminatory nature of the directives, but adds that it is only temporary”.

Mr. Singhvi, along with other senior advocates appearing for the petitioners, said that the response of the Uttar Pradesh government to their pleas had only reached them on July 25. They sought more time to study the response and urged the court to adjourn the hearing.

17 candidates secure perfect scores as NTA declares final results of NEET-UG

Maitri Porecha

New Delhi

Massive protest: Students protest over the paper leak case outside the Education Ministry in New Delhi.SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday released the final results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical and paramedical courses.

Seventeen candidates scored 720 out of 720 to share the top rank, down from 67 in the first version of the results released on June 4.

The latest results were published after the SC asked the NTA to deduct marks for a physics question that had two ‘correct’ answers. The second version of the results was released on July 1 after conducting a retest for 1,563 candidates, of whom only 812 opted to appear, and the third iteration was issued on July 20 in a format prescribed by the SC.

Four of the 17 toppers are from Rajasthan, three from Maharashtra, two each from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, and one each from Bihar, Punjab, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Chandigarh.

Six score 716

Six candidates scored 716 and 77 scored 715 in the latest results announced by the NTA.

Of the 67 toppers in the first version of the results, six had received grace marks that were later rolled back by the the NTA following Supreme Court hearings. Nearly 45 petitions were filed in the top court against the NTA’s arbitrary manner of awarding grace marks for purported “loss of time” during the exam at select centres.

Forty-four candidates had scored 720 on account of an ambiguity created by the physics question.

The court had ruled that five marks be deducted for all students who had answered the question as per the old NCERT book.

The number of qualifying candidates has also dipped by 415 in the final results. Of the 23,33,162 candidates who had taken the test, 13,15,853 have qualified. According to the results issued on June 4, 13,16,268 had qualified.

After arson attacks on rail network, show by the Seine rolls out in Paris

Associated Press

PARIS

Celebrating its reputation as a cradle of revolution, Paris kicked off its first Summer Olympics in a century on Friday with a rule-breaking opening ceremony studded with stars and fantasy, showcasing the city’s resilience as authorities dealt with suspected acts of sabotage that targeted the country’s high-speed rail network.

Widespread travel disruptions triggered by what French officials said were coordinated arson attacks on high-speed rail lines and rains in Paris had dampened the mood ahead of the ceremony.

But as global audiences tuned in, the show’s spectacular launch lifted spirits. A humorous short film featured football icon Zinedine Zidane. Plumes of French blue, white and red smoke followed. And Lady Gaga sang, in French, with dancers shaking pink plumed pompoms, adding a cabaret feel.

Crowds crammed along the Seine and those watching from balconies “oohed” as Olympic teams began parading in boats.

The stakes for France were immense. Dozens of heads of state and government were in town and the world was watching as Paris turned itself into a giant open-air theatre.

Rains that soaked spectators and athletes highlighted the risks of Paris’ bold choices. The sprawling ceremony gave organisers bigger crowds to transport, organise and safeguard than would have been the case if they had followed the example of previous Olympic host cities that opened with stadium shows.

“Of course, when you organise an outdoor spectacle, you prefer good weather,” said Paris Games’ chief organiser, Tony Estanguet. But the ceremony “was thought out so it can be held in the rain,” he said.

Spectators who followed organisers’ advice to arrive well ahead of time along the ceremony route fumed over long waits to get to their seats.

“Paris has been great, anything to do with the Olympics and dissemination of information has been horrible,” said Tony Gawne, a 54-year-old Texan who turned up six hours in advance with his wife. “When you spend $6,000 on two tickets, well, that’s a little frustrating.”

Award-winning theatre director Thomas Jolly, the show’s creative mind, used the Paris cityscape as the playground for his imagination. His task: tell the story of France, its people, and its history in a way that leaves an indelible imprint on Olympic audiences.

Let the Games begin

A billion hopes: The Indian contingent sails down the Seine at the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday. AFP

Scrap NITI Aayog as it has not served any purpose: Mamata

Sobhana K. Nair

NEW DELHI

The West Bengal CM says the body did little except organise annual meetings; she calls for the Planning Commission to be restored as it provided a discussion platform to State governments

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata on Friday.PTI-

A day before the meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for “scrapping” the body claiming that it had little use other than that of organising annual meetings.

Six Opposition Chief Ministers are skipping the meeting protesting the alleged bias in the Union Budget which they claim, only catered to the NDA-ruled States. Ms. Banerjee and her Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren are the only Opposition Chief Ministers who are expected to attend the meeting.

“I will be there for some time. If they allow us to record our voice, will record. Or else will protest and come out of the meeting. I will try to speak on behalf of my State,” Ms. Banerjee told reporters before leaving for New Delhi.

Ms. Banerjee said the Planning Commission provided a platform for the State governments, but with NITI Aayog, there was no “hope or scope”. “I will tell them that NITI Aayog needs to be scrapped. Please bring the Planning Commission again,” she said, while adding that the erstwhile body had laid the roadmap for the development of the country as a whole and the States.

To several questions on why the Trinamool Congress decided to attend the meeting when other Opposition Chief Ministers were boycotting it, Ms. Banerjee said she had confirmed her presence almost a week before the INDIA bloc decided to skip the meeting in protest.

She also underlined that she came to know about the INDIA bloc’s decision to boycott the meeting, only through media reports. Her statement is at odds with the fact that Trinamool leaders were part of the meeting where this idea was first mooted. “They [NITI Aayog] had asked for my speech even before the Budget came,” Ms. Banerjee said.

Expressing her disappointment with the Union Budget, she said it was “anti-poor” and “anti-people”.

When asked if she thought that West Bengal would have got special packages and more funds had the Trinamool aligned with the BJP, she said: “I cannot compromise on my ideology and can’t deviate from my commitment, whether it suits or not. We are not beggars.”

MGNREGA funds

In the case of West Bengal, she pointed out that the Centre has not given funds for several rural development schemes such as MGNREGA for which the State government, she said, had to bear even the Centre’s share.

A total of ₹1.71 lakh crore of the State’s dues remain unpaid by the Centre, she claimed.

“Even our food subsidy has been withdrawn,” she added, while pointing out that the government has been insisting on branding all centrally-sponsored schemes with the Centre’s stamp.

(With inputs from

Shiv Sahay Singh)

BJP alliance with TDP, JD(U) is a ‘Fevicol-like’ bond, says Rajiv Singh

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi, on Friday. PTI-

Janata Dal (United) leader and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Friday said the ruling BJP’s alliance with JD(U) and TDP was held together by a “Fevicol-like” bond even as he targeted the Congress saying the 99 seats it won is a “dangerous number” as it can go down to zero soon.

The Congress had won 99 seats in the current Lok Sabha. The tally came down to 98 after Rahul Gandhi vacated the Wayanad seat and retained Rae Bareli.

Making an intervention during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Singh rejected the Opposition’s charge that the Budget appeased the two key allies of the BJP government at the Centre.

“Ye pre-poll alliance hai aur ye alliance Fevicol se sata hua hai (This is a pre-poll alliance and it is held together by a Fevicol-like bond)...” he said on the partnership between the BJP, JD(U) and TDP at the Centre.

Using the analogy of a ‘Snakes and Ladders’ board game, the senior JD(U) leader said the Congress will fall to zero from 99 seats after being bitten by a snake.

Referring to Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee’s speech on the Budget earlier this week, Mr. Singh said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should apologise for the alleged mistreatment of women in her State.

He claimed that a senior Congress leader had expressed frustration over unmet promises and unheld meetings. The name of the leader was, however, expunged from the records.

More demands

Congress MP from Haryana Deepender Hooda took objection to the JD(U) leader’s comments that his party colleague Kumari Selja discussed Haryana when the debate was on the Budget. “Haryana is part of India and speaking about it like this... it is both seditious and defamatory”.

Also participating in the debate, actor and BJP MP from Himachal Pradesh Kangana Ranaut requested an international airport in her constituency, Mandi, to promote tourism in the State.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal said only nine States had been mentioned in the Budget.

She highlighted the issues of inflation and price rise affecting farmers, and reduction of allocations in various government schemes.

Ms. Badal demanded that the international border with Pakistan be opened to increase business opportunities for the people of Punjab.

She also accused the previous Congress and the current AAP government in the State of draining the exchequer to the extent that there was now ₹3.4 lakh crore debt.

Minister ducked question on legal guarantee for MSP, says Opposition

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar tries to restore order as Congress MP Randeep Surjewala and other MPs object to Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s reply in the House on Friday. ANI

Accusing Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of ducking the question on introducing a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), a demand from the farmers organisations, the Congress and other Opposition leaders strongly registered their protests inside the Rajya Sabha, leading to noisy scenes.

The question was posed by Samajwadi Party MP Ramji Lal Suman, who asked, “whether the government is contemplating to bring legislation to provide legal guarantee of MSP to farmers..” In response, Mr. Chouhan listed the steps taken by the government for the welfare of farmers and spoke about the committee looking into strengthening the MSP system but stopped short of talking about a legal guarantee for crop support prices.

Following the Minister’s remark, Congress MPs, including Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh, protested, saying that Mr. Chouhan’s reply was incomplete. Mr. Dhankhar’s exhortations for order, had little effect, with vociferous protests from the Opposition. The Chairman also named a few of the Congress MPs including Randeep Surjewala, asking him to withdraw from the House for the remainder of the day.

Proceedings disrupted

Opposition members, however, refused to relent and continued to shout slogans, disrupting proceedings for a few more minutes.

On the question of whether the government wants to give a legal guarantee of MSP to farmers or not, the Minister said it is continuously working towards farmers’ welfare. The MSP rates have been increased regularly to give proper prices to farmers, he added.

“We have given twice the MSP rates as compared to when (Randeep) Surjewala’s government was in power,” Mr. Chouhan said.

He also added that a panel had been formed to give suggestions on making the MSP system more effective and transparent.

219 proposals for High Court judges’ appointment are being processed: Centre

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

The Union government said 219 proposals for the appointment of High Court judges across the country are in various stages of processing.

Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal, responding to questions raised by Rajya Sabha Member Haris Beeran, said the Supreme Court Collegium (SCC), as of July 19, has processed 82 of the 90 proposals sent to it by the government for advice.

“One hundred and twenty-nine fresh proposals received recently are being processed for seeking the advice of the SCC,” the reply said.

High Courts have still not sent recommendations on the remaining 138 vacancies.

Against the total sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges in various High Courts, 357 posts are lying vacant.

Chief Justices of the High Courts are required to initiate the proposal to fill up a vacancy of a High Court judge six months prior to the occurrence of the vacancy. “However, this timeline is often not adhered to by the High Courts,” the government complained. Names recommended by the High Court Collegium are sent with the views of the government to the SCC for advice. Recommendation of the SCC is mandatory for appointment.

“Appointment of Judges in the High Courts is a continuous, integrated and collaborative process, involving approval from various constitutional authorities,” the government assured.

Collegium inputs

The process of finalising a revised Memorandum of Procedure for Appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts to bring in more transparency and accountability in the appointment process has not seen the light of the day. The government claims it is waiting for the Collegium’s inputs on a draft while the latter maintained that it has already given its final views about the draft in March 2017, and has nothing more to add.

Meanwhile, the government said it is considering a proposal for the transfer of five High Court judges.

“No timeline has been prescribed in the MoP for transfer of judges from one High Court to another,” it explained.

Remarks on ‘division of West Bengal’ lead to uproar in House

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

The Lok Sabha was briefly adjourned on Friday when the Opposition and the Treasury benches locked horns over remarks made on the “division of West Bengal”. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also raised the alleged Valmiki Corporation scam in Karnataka.

Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, during the Zero Hour, raised the issue of the “division of West Bengal”. Mr. Banerjee was referring to Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region Sukanta Majumdar’s proposed division of the State and incorporating the region of north Bengal with the northeast. The Minister, the BJP’s West Bengal president, has said that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has submitted a formal proposal on the matter.

Speaker Om Birla, however, did not allow Mr. Banerjee to raise the matter contending that Mr. Majumdar’s comments were not made in the House. The Speaker also disallowed BJP leader P.C. Mohan from raising the Valmiki Corporation ‘scam’.

As Trinamool Congress members trooped into the well of the House, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and senior BJP leader Anurag Thakur were seen raising slogans against the Karnataka government.

Amid the uproar, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 12.30 p.m.

Tribute to soldiers

Earlier, when the House assembled, Mr. Birla recalled the Kargil war and the bravery shown by the soldiers despite the tough conditions.

The House paid tributes to their efforts.

Mr. Birla expressed sympathy for the relatives of the armed forces personnel who lost their lives in the war.

Tempers fray as BJP MP allowed to speak on Valmiki ‘scam’

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

Tempers were frayed in the Rajya Sabha on Friday morning, when after declining notices — on alleged corruption in Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC) — moved by BJP MPs under Rule 267 which requires suspension of business to discuss the issue at hand, one of the movers was allowed to raise the issue during Zero Hour.

Iranna Kadadi, Brij Lal, Naresh Bansal and Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP had given the notices.

“All of them (notices) belonged to the ruling party. These notices ignore my directives which were explicit. There may be issues of great importance, many have been raised under 267 earlier (by the Opposition), I declined all of them. No issue which is otherwise of great urgency and contemporary relevance call for invocation of Rule 267. This invocation notwithstanding your feelings on the issue does not come up to the requirement of Rule 267,” Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said while rejecting the notices.

However, he said, Mr. Kadadi had been permitted to raise the matter as part of his Zero Hour mention. Congress members strongly objected to the move and pointed out that Mr. Kadadi’s name did not appear on the list of speakers for the Zero Hour.

Mr. Dhankhar said that while giving his ruling on the notices under Rule 267, he had categorically informed multiple times that Mr. Kadadi had been allowed to raise the issue during the ongoing Zero Hour.

DMK’s Tiruchi Siva requested that the Chairman permit other members too speak as well.

After the Zero Hour, Mr. Kadadi demanded that the Centre order an investigation into the syphoning of funds in Valmiki Development Corporation. He alleged that the Siddaramaiah government indulged in large-scale irregularities in funds meant for the welfare of STs. Over ₹180 crore had been illegally transferred to some banks in Andhra Pradesh.

Brittas’ Bill faces protests from Treasury benches

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

BJP members stonewalled CPI(M) MP John Brittas’ private members’ Bill seeking an amendment in the Constitution to disallow Governors from taking up Chancellorship and other non-Constitutional posts. Meanwhile, his colleague, A.A. Rahim who moved a similar private members’ Bill aimed at restricting the powers of Governors from interfering in the functioning of the executive had a smooth ride, with none in the Treasury benches realising Bill’s full implication.

Mr. Rahim introduced The Constitution (Amendment) Bill that makes a Minister’s continuation in office at the confidence of the Assembly. Since Mr. Rahim did not elaborate, it went through without any objections. But, Mr. Brittas spoke briefly on his Bill and soon faced protests from Treasury benches.

‘Bangladesh govt. acting as if a foreign army is invading the country’

Suhasini Haidar

New Delhi

Nobel Laureate and political rival of Sheikh Hasina says that there are standard procedures to handle protesters in a democracy where there is rule of law; he calls for international community, particularly India, to use informal channels to cool down the situation over the demonstrations against the quota system and says another election may be necessary for order to be restored

Nearly 200 have reportedly been killed in Bangladesh in the past few weeks of protests over the quota system. Speaking to The Hindu from Paris, Nobel Laureate and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus appealed for the international community, and particularly India, to reach out to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to call for calm. Mr. Yunus, a political rival of Ms. Hasina, faces many cases that he says are politically motivated. He says another election may be warranted for the restoration of democracy in the country.

Give us a sense of what you’ve heard about the situation in Bangladesh. It seems to be under control after the new Appellate Court verdict…

Well, it’s not something that happened after I came here [to Paris, as special guest for the Olympics ceremony]. I was there.

The issue is the government is treating the situation as if a foreign army is invading Bangladesh… mobilising the army and paramilitary to suppress demonstrators with bullets. They are in the mood to defeat them, not for bringing order. Why did they mobilise all those forces ? It’s your own citizens, young people from universities, the top one per cent of society who are ready to run the country. And you’re killing them at random as if they are an invading force from another country! Shooting them on sight!

You have called for the international community to get involved. How exactly would you like them to act ?

I was not looking for any formal response. I was hoping that they can use their informal relationships and informal channels to restrain our leaders, make them aware of the serious departure from the norm of democracy. As a friendly action, to pick up the phone and say, “What’s going on there?”. The kind of things friends do for friends, some way of cooling it down which would be helpful in saving people’s lives.

India has already made a statement saying that this is an internal matter of Bangladesh.

You may say this in public as a public figure, but you can still use your friendship privately. PMs may be talking to each other if they see that something is going wrong.

We still have the dream of SAARC. We help each other. We make things easier for each other. There are natural bonds among us. If something happens in one country it can happen to another country with ease.

In India, the concern about the protests over 1971 quotas is that they are also fuelling anti-India sentiments. Do you think that’s true?

That will be stretching the imagination too far. The quota movement has not the slightest touch regarding the relationship between Bangladesh and India. The issue is democracy, rule of law, human rights, role of the judiciary. People have the right to express their views and the government has no right to kill them for their views.

You’re objecting to the way the protests were handled. The Hasina government says that the protesters themselves turned violent, that they were picketing police posts.

If demonstrators are unruly, there are standard procedures to handle such a situation. There is something terribly wrong with rule of law and practice of democracy in Bangladesh. Let us not turn our face away from it for our convenience.

All the media should come and see what is happening. First thing that they [Bangladesh government] did was to close down everything so that they can do things under cover of darkness so that nobody can see it from outside or even from inside. Why are they afraid of their own people?

The students have put out a list of their demands, including asking for Ms. Hasina to apologise for calling them razakars (traitors), and for the resignation of Ministers.

These are the demands for the students, and the procedure is that government responds to those things. That’s not how it’s working out.

Prime Minister Hasina has just won elections [in January 2024]. Isn’t calling for resignations undemocratic?

We have committed ourselves to democracy and to stay with democracy. Whether you’re freshly elected or you’re not elected, you are abusing your position without the consent of the people... You cannot just pick up somebody because he belongs to Opposition party, so he is liable to be arrested.

The government has filed several cases against you. Is the fight with Ms. Hasina personal?

These cases are also a failure of the rule of law. The accusations against me are about embezzlement, forgery, and money laundering — these are government accusations. These are totally fabricated stories, all made up. Many human rights organisations have said they are baseless. It is to harass me.

In a labour law violation case, I have already received a six-month prison sentence which is another cooked up case.

What do you think can bring Bangladesh back from this point, back to the norms of democracy that you say has failed?

Get the people’s mandate, freely and fairly. That’s it. Democracy cures problems by getting people’s instructions, because state belongs to the people, not to some people in the government.

Are you suggesting another election?

Of course, election is the ultimate solution of all political problems. When something doesn’t work, you go back to the people to seek their instructions. They are the ultimate owners of the country. Make sure it is a genuine election, not an election of a magician.

(Full interview is at

thlink.in/Yunus)

PM defends Agnipath scheme on anniversary of Kargil War

Peerzada Ashiq

Kargil

The goal of Agnipath is to make the Army young and keep it continuously fit for war, says Modi as he slams Congress for opposing the scheme; he calls out Pakistan’s support to proxy war in J&K

In memoriam: Narendra Modi pays homage at the Kargil War Memorial on the occasion of ‘Vijay Diwas’, in Dras, on Friday. PTI PTI

Speaking on the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Kargil War, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday defended the Agnipath scheme and targeted the Opposition for its criticism of the scheme.

He also warned Pakistan of “a befitting reply” for its continuous support to terrorism and the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The Agnipath scheme is an example of the necessary reforms done by the Army. For some people, the Army was meant for saluting politicians and parades. But the Army means the faith of 140 crore countrymen. The goal of Agnipath is to make the Army young, to keep the Army continuously fit for war,” Mr. Modi said.

Referring to the Opposition’s criticism of the Agnipath scheme, Mr. Modi said, “Unfortunately, people have made such a sensitive issue related to national security a subject of politics. These are the same people who weakened our Army by committing scams worth thousands of crores in the Army. These people never wanted the Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) to be self-reliant. They never wanted Tejas to be introduced in the IAF.”

Mr. Modi targeted the Congress for its failure to meet the demands of the armed forces in the past. “The Congress failed to meet the demands of forces, including the Army and the Air Force. These demands fell on the deaf ears in the past. There was a huge yearning for reforms. Our government took a step to listen to the forces and today we have a list of 5,000 weapons that are no longer being exported from outside,” he said.

The Prime Minister also called out Pakistan’s support to the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir and said the enemy would be given a befitting reply. The remarks came against the backdrop of growing terrorist attacks in the Jammu region.

“Pakistan has failed in all its nefarious attempts in the past. Pakistan, however, has not learnt from history. It is trying to keep itself relevant by supporting terrorism and proxy war. I am speaking from a place where the masters of terror can hear my voice directly. I want to tell these patrons of terrorism that their nefarious intentions will never succeed. Our soldiers will crush terrorism with full force and the enemy will be given a befitting reply,” Mr. Modi said.

The Prime Minister paid homage to war heroes at the Kargil War Memorial at Dras in Kargil district.

Mr. Modi recalled the Indian Army’s operations launched in the high-altitude peaks of the region. “India wanted peace but the enemy showed its dual face. Finally, falsehood got defeated. The victory in the Kargil War showed our commitment towards our nation and the valour of our brave forces. Our forces successfully executed the operation despite the extreme and challenging battle conditions,” he said.

He said the land of Kargil was witness to the supreme sacrifices made by the bravehearts 25 years ago. “The names of those who offered their lives for this land will remain alive forever,” he said.

He pledged that India will defeat every challenge that comes in the way of development of Ladakh or J&K.

“It will be five years since Article 370 was abolished in August. J&K is staring at a bright future, talking about big dreams. Besides infrastructure development, the tourism sector is also growing rapidly in Ladakh and J&K.”

Defamation case an attempt to gain ‘cheap publicity’, says Rahul Gandhi

The Hindu Bureau

Lucknow

Rahul GandhiNand Kumar

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday appeared before an MP-MLA court at Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh in a defamation case. He said the case had been filed to gain “cheap publicity”.

The Congress leader told the court that he had never made a statement against anyone which could lead to a case of defamation, Kashi Prasad Shukla, Mr. Gandhi’s advocate, informed reporters.

A local BJP leader, Vijay Mishra, had filed the defamation case against Mr. Gandhi on August 4, 2018 for making alleged objectionable remarks against the then BJP national president Amit Shah. The court of special judge Shubham Verma fixed August 12 as the next date of hearing, when the statement of the petitioner would be recorded, and the evidence would be presented.

Meets cobbler

Mr. Gandhi reached Lucknow in the morning and travelled to Sultanpur with a large number of Congress leaders and workers accompanying him.

On his way to Sultanpur, Mr. Gandhi stopped at a cobbler’s shop for an interaction.

He had a chat with the man — Ram Chait — and learned to mend shoes. Mr. Chait reportedly informed the Rae Bareli MP of his weak financial situation and sought help.

“Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi stopped the car on the way and met a family of cobbler. We are continuously fighting for the rights of these hardworking people, raising their voice from the streets to the Parliament. Our aim is to make their present safe and their future prosperous,” the Congress party wrote in a post on X.

ASEAN cornerstone of India’s Act East Policy: Jaishankar

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was the cornerstone of India’s Act East Policy and its Indo-Pacific vision, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday, as he sought to expand cooperation with the bloc. Mr. Jaishankar was in the Laotian capital of Vientiane to participate in the meetings of ASEAN members. In his remarks at the opening session of the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting, he said, “The current political, economic and security cooperation with ASEAN is of the utmost priority so is the people-to-people linkages, that we are constantly seeking to expand.” Mr. Jaishankar’s visit to Laos was of particular significance as this year marked a decade of India’s Act East Policy, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, the Ministry of External Affairs said. PTI

Congress ignored needs of our armed forces: Vaishnaw

Press Trust of India

New Delhi

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday hit out at the Congress, accusing the past United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments of ignoring the needs of the armed forces and making them dependent on imports. It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was taking the nation on the path of self-reliance, he said.

Addressing reporters in the national capital, Mr. Vaishnaw said the country, under Mr. Modi’s leadership, had taken huge strides in the defence sector by ushering in structural reforms, giving preference to indigenous production of defence equipment, and encouraging exports.

“During the Congress rule, the Defence Minister used to question the need for building border roads. But, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, more than 6,800 km of roads have been built for the armed forces,” the Minister noted.

Modi’s claim ‘blatant lie’, an insult to our armed forces, says Kharge

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of doing “petty politics” even on the occasion of paying tribute to the martyrs on Kargil Vijay Diwas, referring to the Prime Minister defending the Agnipath scheme as one that was launched at the behest of the armed forces.

Mr. Modi’s claim that his government implemented the Agnipath scheme at the behest of the Army was “a blatant lie and an unforgivable insult” to the armed forces, he said.

“Modiji, it is you who are spreading LIES! Former Army chief General M.M. Naravane (retd) has said on record that 75% of recruits were to be taken for permanency in the ‘Agnipath Scheme’ and 25% of people were to be let go after 4 years. But the Modi govt. did the opposite, and forcibly implemented this scheme for all three armed forces,” he said.

BJP chief J.P. Nadda, however, hit back at the Congress, saying, “Unfortunately, for some people politics is the first priority and national interest takes the back seat.”

Pakistan rejects Modi’s Kargil Vijay Diwas speech as ‘rhetoric’

Press Trust of India

Islamabad

Pakistan on Friday rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks at an event at Dras in Ladakh as “rhetorical statements” and said it cannot deflect international attention from India’s efforts to “suppress” the Kashmiri people.

According to Pakistan’s Foreign Office, the “rhetorical statements by the Indian leaders cannot deflect international attention from India’s heavy-handed approach to suppress the Kashmiri people’s just struggle for realisation of their fundamental rights and freedoms”. “Bravado and jingoism undermine regional peace, and are totally counter-productive for resolution of long-standing disputes between Pakistan and India, especially the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Foreign Office (FO) said.

It stated that Pakistan stands resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its sovereignty against any aggression. “While Pakistan is ready to counter India’s aggressive actions, it remains committed to promoting peace and stability in the region,” it added.

Mosques covered on Kanwar Yatra route in Haridwar

Facades of two mosques and a mazar along the Kanwar Yatraroute in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar were on Friday covered with large sheets of white cloth to “prevent trouble” but uncovered by the evening after objections from various quarters. The sheets were hung on bamboo scaffoldings in front of two mosques and a mazar, all in the Jwalapur area. The mosque’s maulana and the mazar’s caretakers said they were not aware of any administrative order in this regard and claimed this was for the first time that such a step had been taken during the yatra. Though the Haridwar Senior Superintendent of Police and District Magistrate were not available for comment, Minister Satpal Maharaj told reporters that it was done to maintain peace. “Any such thing is done only to prevent trouble,” he said. PTI

Congress questions Centre’s ‘fiscal mismanagement’ in J&K

The Congress on Friday accused the Centre of “unprecedented fiscal mismanagement” in Jammu and Kashmir. Jairam Ramesh asked why Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was “benevolent” towards Andhra Pradesh and Bihar but not to the Union Territory. He claimed that the Budget document revealed “astonishing details”. “The FM got approval from Parliament to borrow ₹12,000 crore last year. This year, Budget documents reveal that the actual borrowings were twice the amount, at ₹24,000 crore. Borrowings have risen five-fold in the last two years. This is unprecedented fiscal mismanagement,” he said. “The fiscal deficit which was pegged at 1.6% has turned out to be 5.36% in FY24. Capex has been slashed by 10%,” he said.

Chargesheet filed against 7 accused in Pune car crash case

Press Trust of India

Pune

The 900-page police document names parents of the minor accused, whose case is being handled separately by the Juvenile Justice Board

A bouquet and posters at the accident spot in Kalyani Nagar in Pune where a luxury car had hit and killed two people. File photo

Police in Pune have filed a chargesheet against seven accused in connection with the luxury car accident case, including the parents of a minor boy, who was allegedly behind the wheel, in a Pune court, more than two months after the fatal crash, an official said on Friday.

The 900-page chargesheet, submitted on Thursday in a sessions court, has excluded the 17-year-old boy, whose case is being handled separately by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), while the seven accused have been charged under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence, among others.

The high-end car allegedly driven by the minor under the influence of alcohol knocked down two motorbike-borne IT professionals, originally hailing from Madhya Pradesh, in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar on the morning of May 19, killing them. The boy’s father is a prominent builder.

“We have filed a 900-page chargesheet against seven accused, including the parents of the minor, two doctors and a staffer from Sassoon General Hospital and two middlemen, in a Pune court on Thursday,” said Shailesh Balkawade, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).

The boy’s parents and two Sassoon General Hospital doctors — Ajay Taware, then head of the forensic medicine department, and Dr. Shrihari Halnor — and Atul Ghatkamble, a staffer at the Maharashtra government-run medical facility, are accused of swapping the blood samples of the minor with those of his mother after the crash.

Two other accused — Ashpak Makandar and Amar Gaikwad — acted as middlemen between the boy’s father and the doctors to facilitate financial transactions to swap the blood samples, according to the chargesheet. Mr. Balkawade said the chargesheet contains a crash impact analysis report, technical evidence, forensic laboratory and DNA reports.

Royal burial mounds of Assam now on UNESCO World Heritage List

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi/Guwahati

An aerial view of the royal burial mounds built by the Ahom dynasty in Charaideo in eastern Assam.APAnupam Nath

The Charaideo Moidams, a 700-year-old mound-burial system of the Ahom dynasty from Assam, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on Friday, making them the 43rd property from India to be included in the prestigious index.

The announcement was made at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee being held in Delhi.

“This historic recognition brings global attention to the unique 700-year-old mound burial system of the Ahom kings at Charaideo, highlighting the rich cultural heritage of Assam and Bharat,” Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told the media after the announcement.

Similar to the pyramids of Egypt, the Moidams are earthen burial mounds of the members of the Ahom royalty whose 600-year rule was ended by the British takeover of the region.

The Ahoms adopted the Hindu method of cremation after the 18th century and began entombing the cremated bones and ashes in Moidams at Charaideo.

The highly venerated Moidams make the Charaideo district a tourist destination.

The Moidams are the first from the notheastern States to be recognised as a World Heritage Site in the cultural category. Assam has two other such sites in the natural category – Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park, both upgraded to tiger reserves.

“THIS IS HUGE. The Moidams make it to the #UNESCO World Heritage list under the category Cultural Property – a great win for Assam. Thank You Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji, Members of the @UNESCO World Heritage Committee and to the people of Assam,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on X.

He said the Charaideo Moidam embodies the deep spiritual belief, rich civilisational heritage, and architectural prowess of Assam’s Tai-Ahom community.

The Moidams were nominated as India’s official entry in 2023.

Of the 386 Moidams explored so far, 90 at Charaideo are the best preserved, representative, and most complete examples of this tradition.

AAI flags increase in fire accidents at airports, stresses need to follow SOP

S. Vijay Kumar

CHENNAI

Fires were preventable if proper safety measures were put in place, the AAI said.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has issued a safety advisory expressing concern over the recent increase in fire accidents at airport buildings. The safety advisory laid emphasis on following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to prevent and respond to fires.

The Directorate of Aviation Safety, AAI, urged all employees engaged in airport operations and air traffic services to scrupulously follow the SOP set for the purpose. The recent incidents of building fires at some of the international and domestic airports had raised concern about the maintenance and operation of fire-prevention equipment, preparedness of the staff to deal with contingency situation, and storage of inflammable materials, it said.

Fire in a terminal building could create chaos and result in loss of life and/or flight disruption at an airport.

On the other hand, fire in operational buildings housing navigational equipment could lead to contingency situation not only at airports, but also for aircraft in the air.

The advisory pointed out that though fires were unpredictable and destructive, they were highly preventable with proper safety measures. By practising fire safety and prevention at workplace, every employee of AAl could contribute to a safe environment, and there would be no disruption of civil aviation on account of fire incidents.

It gave a check-list of Do’s and Don’ts in regard to measures to prevent fire hazards, such as ensuring the efficacy of smoke alarms, displaying emergency hotline numbers at prominent places, and promoting fire safety by including all the staff members, including contractual employees, in fire drills. To minimise risk of loss of life, damage to property and flight disruption, it was essential for all AAI employees engaged in airport/air traffic operation to be aware of fire reporting and be trained in basic fire-fighting and rescue operations, it said.

The safety guidelines come in the wake of different incidents of fire reported in airports across the country. On May 17, a fire was reported at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and fire tenders pressed into service. There were no casualties.

A few days later, a fire broke out in the Air Traffic Control tower building at the Chennai airport. The blaze noticed on the fourth floor of the ATC around 3.30 a.m. was put out in about 30 minutes. An electrical short circuit in one of the rooms was suspected to have caused the fire.

(set by Gussalufz)

1 of 4

2 of 4

3 of 4

4 of 4 Scan to play

Across

1 Luv it! Am incessantly stashing health supplement (7,1)

6 Fixed typo besetting each table (6)

9 One can root (4)

10 One thousand die after hunger, with closures in Chicago stadium cooking area (10)

11 Mercury possibly contains nitrogen? That's bonkers! (6)

12 Bishop left wearing cross, sister is angry (8)

13 Boy! Start fires in empty godowns and plant diseases? (10)

15 Tough, but not over rough and tough (4)

17 Architect's note (4)

18 Running short race? Sprint, chasing time record (10)

20 Regularly recurring acid dreams, weed, no electronic communications (3,5)

22 Surprising raid, no? (6)

24 Spots in secret FL resort (10)

26 With last of cash gone, credit used for vehicle (4)

27 The sly, depraved radicals (6)

28 Caught wild bus ride along the edge of a street in LA (8)

Down

2 Will he? (Although not all there, and suffering) (3,6)

3 Back around noon: naked cooking! (5)

4 Point-blank shot strikes frying pan — part of a psychological test? (7)

5 Result when one's put on tan foundation at night? (3)

6 The ghost is less frequently seen in these regions (7)

7 One commenting on art a ton, affectedly (9)

8 Gas with tiny mass, abbreviated: I (5)

12 Headgear from Punjab, and an amulet (7)

14 Crooked agent pockets second case of every show's earnings (4-5)

16 Haphazard international body criticised over Israel, finally (9)

18 Distributed freely after deleting appallingly rude pieces (7)

19 Clip of space habitat welcomed by music after docking (7)

21 Release electron stream (around speed of light) (5)

23 Amidst brawls, one retreats to get food items (5)

25 Some revolting chemicals in insect secretion (3)

Getting Navy frigate

Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI

Indian Navy frigate INS Brahmaputra experienced severe listing on the port side following a fire on Sunday.ANIANI

It may take up to three months to get INS Brahmaputra upright and on even keel, defence officials said. The frigate, which turned to a side after a fire onboard on Sunday while it was undergoing a refit at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, has listed by about 40 to 45 degrees on the port side.

“The frigate turned to a side likely due to imbalance during the firefighting efforts with water. However, it has only listed at an angle and not entirely like in the case of INS Betwa,” an official in the know said. A sailor was killed in the incident.

It is expected to take two to three months to get the ship upright and on even keel, the official said.

There is no major ingress of water into the ship, officials added. The preliminary assessment of the ship which will determine the manner of getting it upright will be carried out very soon. Once the ship is upright, the Navy will undertake a precise estimation of the damage to the ship and what needs to be done to make it fully operational and battleworthy again.

INS Betwa, also a Brahmaputra-class frigate, fell 90 degrees in the dry dock at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai in December 2016. Two people were killed and 14 injured in the incident. The ship was made operational again in the first quarter of 2018.

For the salvage operation, global firms will need to be roped in, like in the past.

The way out of sins

The tenets of Hinduism lay stress on concepts like heaven and hell, noble souls and sinners, good and bad deeds, world here and hereafter. Puranas say the tribulations that a person may undergo in the world of hell are indescribable. People may commit mistakes or sins through their minds, words or other physical faculties (manas, vak and kayam). Sri Kesava Vajapayer Swamy said if a person turns a talebearer, he incurs sins through the same.

For cleansing of our sins, various ways are suggested such as taking a dip in holy rivers such as the Ganga, fasting on Ekadasi, following dharmas with steadfastness, regulation in food (Ahara Niyamam), pinning faith in Sastras, believing the words of learned men, controlling the mind and senses, and giving charity to good and deserving people. Yudhishthira asked grandsire Bhishma what was the best time to give charity, and Bhishma replied that whenever a pious person is seen, charity should be extended immediately.

For a person who is habitual in committing mistakes, how will the remedial measures (prayaschita) rescue him? It will be like an elephant sprinkling sand on its head after it has been given a bath. Our sins will be destroyed automatically like bamboo catching fire by friction in a gusty wind. But the same bamboo will grow again if it rains because the roots are not destroyed. By chanting the names of God (Namasankeerthanam), the evil effects of our sinful deeds will be completely uprooted.

With deep devotion, all our actions should be submitted to His satisfaction.

CBI arrests one more in NEET paper leak case

Amit Bhelari

Patna

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested one more accused, Pawan Kumar, from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district on Friday in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case. This is the 37th arrest in the case in Jharkhand and Bihar.

The agency recovered a sack full of documents and a few phones from a pond based on information given by Mr. Pawan whose name surfaced during the interrogation of Amit Kumar. Mr. Amit was arrested from Dhanbad along with Aman Singh. Mr. Amit told the investigators that Mr. Pawan had played a pivotal role in distributing the leaked question paper. After the CBI received information that Mr. Pawan was in his house in Dhanbad, a team reached the town on Friday and took him into custody.

He told the agency about the documents and phones along with other equipment that were thrown into a pond in Sudamdih locality. The CBI took Mr. Pawan to the location, recovered the items, and left with him for Patna. The youth arrested from Dhanbad are linked to Oasis School in Hazaribagh.

Heavy rain floods parts of Gujarat; IMD issues red alert

Around 2,500 people were rescued and more than 18,000 were shifted to safer locations in areas affected by floods caused by incessant rain in south Gujarat and Saurashtra regions. The IMD has issued a red alert in a few places while an orange alert has been issued in the districts in south Gujarat region. So far, around 12 people have died in rain-related incidents in the State in the past one week. Severe flooding and damage to properties have been reported in 13 districts, including Tapi, Dang, Surat, Navsari and Dwarka. The Purna river in south Gujarat is now flowing above the danger mark. Twelve teams of the NDRF have been deployed for rescue operations.

India, U.S. sign agreement to protect cultural heritage

India and the U.S. on Friday signed a cultural property agreement aimed at enhancing cooperation to protect cultural heritage of both countries. Cultural property agreements prevent illegal trade of cultural property and simplify the process by which looted and stolen antiquities may be returned to their country of origin. The U.S.-India Cultural Property Agreement was signed by U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti and Union Culture Secretary Govind Mohan in the presence of Minister of Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the U.S. Embassy said. With this, India joins the ranks of 29 existing U.S. bilateral cultural property agreement partners.

Regional

- U.P. Deputy CM a ‘pawn’, says Akhilesh; save SP from extinction: Maurya

- Fact-finding report exposes ‘flaws’ in West Bengal eviction drive

- RJD MLC Sunil Singh expelled for his ‘derogatory’ remarks against Bihar Chief Minister

- Uttarakhand hikes ex gratia for martyrs’ kin to ₹50 lakh, set to give quota for Agniveers

- Rathore replaces Joshi as Rajasthan BJP president

- Quota for Agniveers in police, State armed forces, says M.P. CM

- Remarks on Governor should conform to law, HC tells Mamata

- Char Dham pilgrims will have to carry trash bags in vehicles

- Congress forms poll panels for Maharashtra, Mumbai

- Curtailed freedoms, policed bodies

- Echoes of a war and its wounds

- Killed by the job

U.P. Deputy CM a ‘pawn’, says Akhilesh; save SP from extinction: Maurya

Mayank Kumar

Lucknow

SP chief promises to protect the principles enshrined in the Constitution , and fight for the rights of backward classes, Dalits, minorities; he is playing into hands of ‘foreign powers’, claims BJP leader

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav inaugurating the ‘Samvidhan Manastambh’ in Lucknow on Friday. SANDEEP SAXENASANDEEP SAXENA

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday described Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya a “mohra” (pawn) after which the latter hit back by saying the SP chief was the “mohra” of the Congress. Mr. Maurya also suggested that Mr. Yadav should save his party from “extinction.”

“These people [BJP] spoiled our State. Every system and every department is being destroyed...I heard that Mauryaji is a ‘mohra’. He is the password of Delhi’s Wi-Fi. Tell me, how will the government run like this? They cheated the people of Uttar Pradesh and the mandate,” Mr. Yadav said at a press conference in Lucknow.

Pushing his Backward, Dalit and Minorities plank, Mr. Yadav hinted at the caste identity of the U.P. Chief Minister and other top State functionaries, and asked, “Who is the Chief Minister? Who is the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Home), or in other departments? You people used to raise the questions of casteism; this is a serious question,” Mr. Yadav added.

Mr. Yadav unveiled also ‘Samvidhan Manastambh’ established to house a copy of the Constitution at the SP office in Lucknow. He vowed to save the principles enshrined in the Constitution and the rights of Backwards, Dalits, minorities and other deprived sections.

‘Misunderstanding’

Reacting to Mr. Yadav’s remarks, the Deputy CM said, “The SP leader is harbouring misunderstandings about the BJP. Instead of targeting and insulting the backward sections, he should focus on saving SP from extinction. The BJP will repeat 2017 in 2027, the lotus has bloomed and will keep blooming,”.

Mr. Maurya accused the SP chief of being anti-Backward and anti-Dalit. “Akhilesh Yadav and his family are staunch opponents of the Backward Classes and Dalits. He is a Congress pawn and playing into the hands of foreign powers,” Mr. Maurya wrote on X.

‘Monsoon offer’

In a previous post on X, the SP chief had, on July 18, announced a “monsoon offer” asking dissidents to bring 100 MLAs and form the government in Uttar Pradesh. The offer came amid speculation of a ‘rift’ within the Uttar Pradesh unit of the ruling BJP after the Lok Sabha polls.

In the past weeks many ruling parties MLAs questioned the functioning of the BJP government, after the BJP-led NDA performed below expectations in 2024 polls winning 33 Lok Sabha seats in U.P.

Fact-finding report exposes ‘flaws’ in West Bengal eviction drive

Shiv Sahay Singh

Kolkata

A footpath in Gariahat being cleared of hawkers after the CM said people had no place to walk on pavements in the State. File PhotoDEBASISH BHADURI

A survey conducted across municipalities and civic bodies in West Bengal on the recent eviction drive has pointed out that neither were laws passed by the Assembly followed nor attempts made to compensate or rehabilitate hawkers and vendors.

Last month, the police and civic bodies swung into action and started evicting hawkers after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said hawkers were occupying streets and people had no place to walk. “No rehabilitation was provided during the eviction process, forcing many vendors to leave their vending locations and move elsewhere,” said the report, ‘Bulldozers vs. Livelihoods: Unmasking the Plight of West Bengal’s Street Vendors’.

The fact-finding report was made public on Friday by several organisations such as Right to Food and Work Campaign, West Bengal, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Amra Ek Sachetan Prayas, and workers unions in unorganised sectors. “Bulldozers or earth movers were utilised during evictions in towns such as Rampurhat, Bolpur, Burdwan, Durgapur, and English Bazar, among others,” the report said.

This was the first occasion in the recent past when bulldozers were out in the streets of West Bengal against street vendors. “The Bulldozer Rule continued even after June 26, despite the Chief Minister’s announcement to halt all actions for a month, with evictions being carried out and expedited with support from the ruling party,” the report said.

Subha Protim Roy Chowdhury, who has been associated with the report, said the team of surveyors interacted with the affected hawkers across 12 municipalities in the State.

“Evicted hawkers were in trauma, their family members were facing sleepless nights since the eviction drive started. In Durgapur, some hawkers said the evicted land was allotted to the muscleman of the ruling party for car parking. In Rampurhat, hawkers told us that if a new hawker market is constructed in future, then first the authorities will allot shops to their loyalist hawkers and then they will claim large sum of money for reallocation,” Mr. Chowdhury said.

Swapan Ganguly, of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, one of the organisations behind the survey, said in every instance of street vendor eviction across the State, the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 was violated. The Act gives powers to town vending committees for management of hawkers, but such committees have not been operational in many parts of the State.

Advocate Purbayan Chakraborty, who was also associated with the survey, expressed surprise at the drive being suddenly taken up after Lok Sabha polls and added that such a move could have been politically motivated.

“What is evident from the survey is that for management of hawkers, municipalities will have to take responsibility and ensure that the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 is implemented in letter and spirit,” Mr. Chakraborty said.

The report also pointed out that some resistance by hawkers was evident at Rampurhat town, but it did not last more than a few days. Whereas in Suri Municipality, street vendors successfully resisted attempts to evict them. However, in most civic bodies, there was little or no resistance, as vendors were unsure how to respond to the sudden eviction drive.

RJD legislator expelled from House for his ‘derogatory’ remarks against Bihar CM

Amit Bhelari

Patna

Opposition MLAs protest in Bihar Assemblyover special status issue. ANI

The Ethics Committee of the Bihar Legislative Council expelled Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLC Sunil Singh from the House on Friday for making ‘derogatory’ remarks against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The committee, headed by legislative council member Rambachan Rai, expelled Mr. Singh, a close associate of party supremo Lalu Prasad, for his comments on the CM and for doing mimicry on the floor of the House in the last budget session in February.

The committee has also taken action against another RJD MLC, Quari Sohaib, for his ‘rude’ behaviour and has suspended him for two days in the next session.

Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council Rabri Devi termed the action a“dark chapter”. She said that by taking action against the RJD legislators, the Nitish Kumar government has murdered democracy. Ms. Devi said a “dictatorial and mafia government” is in place in Bihar.

Speaker loses cool

Meanwhile, on the last day of the Monsoon session of the Bihar Assembly on Friday, Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav lost his cool over Opposition MLAs trying to pull the reporter’s table in the House. Mr. Yadav dared the MLAs saying if anyone attempts to move the reporter’s table, they will be thrown out of the House with the help of marshals. It was for the first time that Mr. Yadav has used such harsh language against the Opposition.

As soon as the Assembly proceedings began, the Opposition entered the Well of the House and started shouting over Bihar not getting the Special Category Status (SCS) in the Union Budget and continued to create a ruckus during the proceedings.

During the question hour when Opposition members tried to pull the reporter’s table, Mr. Yadav warned that he would take action against them.

Uttarakhand hikes aid for kin of slain defence personnel; plans job quota for Agniveers

Ishita Mishra

New Delhi

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday announced that the ex gratia given to the families of slain defence personnel will be increased from ₹10 lakh to ₹50 lakh.

Mr. Dhami, who was addressing a public gathering to mark the 25th anniversary of the Kargil Vijay Diwas, added that the State is preparing to give reservation to Agniveers in government jobs upon their return after serving in the armed forces.

“The amount given to the families of martyrs will be increased from ₹10 lakh to ₹50 lakh. Now the family members of our soldiers, who have sacrificed their lives for the country, will be able to apply for government jobs for five years instead of two years,” Mr. Dhami said. He said the dependents of those who die in action used to get appointment only when there were vacancies in Group C and D posts in the District Magistrate’s office, but now vacancies will be given for the said group posts in other departments as well.

“The State government is also fully dedicated to the welfare of soldiers. There should be no disagreement on the grant amount given to soldiers. We are working on ensuring that their parents and wives both get the benefit of this,” Mr. Dhami added.

Leave for contract staff

He also announced that the contract workers of the Sainik Welfare Department will be given leave equivalent to that of permanent employees in the department.

“We are making provisions and bring an Act to give reservation to Agniveers in government jobs,” Mr. Dhami said.

While paying tributes to the martyrs of Kargil at the Shaheed Smarak in Dehradun, he also honoured their families. Around 75 soldiers from Uttarakhand had sacrificed their lives in the Kargil war. The CM said that being a soldier’s son, he has seen the struggle of a ‘fauji’ and their families.

“At the time of the Kargil war, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. We won the war and also won diplomacy at the global level,” Mr. Dhami said.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Dhami said the Indian Army is not only becoming more capable and stronger than before but its fame and glory is also increasing under the PM’s leadership.

Rathore replaces Joshi as Rajasthan BJP president

The Hindu Bureau

Jaipur

CM Bhajan Lal Sharma with new State BJP chief Madan Rathore (right) on Friday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appointed Rajya Sabha member Madan Rathore as the new president of the party’s Rajasthan unit, replacing C.P. Joshi. Mr. Joshi had offered to resign following the BJP’s poor performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in the State, where it lost 11 seats to the Congress and its INDIA bloc partners.

In an announcement made in New Delhi late on Thursday night, the BJP also appointed its Rajya Sabha Member from Uttar Pradesh and national general secretary, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, as the party in-charge of Rajasthan, and party national secretary Vijaya Rahatkar as co-in-charge of the State BJP.

Caste equations

Mr. Rathore, 70, has been nominated to the top post amid the BJP’s efforts to balance caste equations ahead of the State Assembly bypolls to five seats. Both Mr. Joshi, appointed as the State president in March 2023, and Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma are Brahmins, while the party needed a face from other castes of the Hindu community to mollify the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

A native of Pali district, Mr. Rathore belongs to the OBC Ghanchi community and served as MLA during the then CM Vasundhara Raje’s two tenures in 2002-2008 and 2013-2018. Before moving on to mainstream politics by joining the BJP in the mid-1980s, Mr. Rathore was a pracharak with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Pali.

He held various posts in the district unit of the BJP, including as district president, before he joined the party’s State unit in Jaipur. He won from the Sumerpur Assembly constituency in Pali twice, defeating Congress leader Bina Kak both times.

Agniveers to get quota in police, State armed forces, says M.P. CM

The Hindu Bureau

Bhopal

The Agniveer soldiers will be given reservation in recruitment for police and State armed forces, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minster Mohan Yadav said on Friday on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas.

Mr. Yadav made the announcement in a video message he shared on social media platform X. “Today, on the occasion of Kargil Day, the Madhya Pradesh Government has decided that as per the wishes of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, Agniveer jawans will be given reservation in the recruitment of police and (State’s) armed forces,” the Chief Minister said.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Yadav visited the Shaurya Smarak in Bhopal to pay tributes to the heroes of the Kargil war of 1999.

“The Agniveer scheme is an attempt not only to modernise our armed forces and to recruit capable jawans but also to keep it young,” the Chief Minister said.

Under the Central government scheme, soldiers are recruited in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force for a period of four years.

Lok Sabha poll issue

Rolled out in 2022, the scheme has faced criticism from Opposition parties and protests by aspirants in States like Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The matter was also a major election issue in the Lok Sabha polls, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promising to scrap the scheme.

M.P.’s Gwalior-Chambal region, which has large number of armed forces aspirants, had seen massive protests after the announcement of the scheme.

Remarks on Governor should conform to law, HC tells Mamata

Press Trust of India

Kolkata

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee can make statements on Governor C.V. Ananda Bose as long as they conform to the law.

Ms. Banerjee and Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh had moved an appeal before a Division Bench challenging an interim order by a single-judge Bench directing the Chief Minister and three others against make any defamatory or incorrect statements against Mr. Bose.

Modifying the order, a Division Bench presided by Justice I.P. Mukerji directed that Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Ghosh will be free to make statements about the Governor that conform to the laws of the land and are not defamatory.

The Bench observed that a man’s reputation is sacrosanct to him and the law gives him power to protect it. Freedom of speech and expression is also conferred to every citizen, which cannot be throttled. This freedom is subject to reasonable restrictions, the Bench said.

The court said every member of the public has the right to know the truth and everyone has the right to bring forth the truth. It should, however, stand the test of justification, it said.

Char Dham pilgrims will have to carry trash bags in vehicles

Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi on Thursday instructed officials to ensure that pilgrims travelling on the Char Dham Yatra route carry trash bags in vehicles. The Char Dham temples of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath are situated over 3,000 metres above sea level and fall under an eco-sensitive zone. Ms. Raturi asked the officials to permit only those vehicles that have a dustbin or garbage bag in it. She directed them to issue challans and impose penalty on those found violating rules. She also instructed the Transport department to officially inform their counterparts in neighbouring States about the new mandatory compliance.

Congress forms poll panels for Maharashtra, Mumbai

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has constituted poll committees for Maharashtra and Mumbai to enter into negotiations with its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition partners Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) for seat sharing arrangements. The negotiations for the upcoming Assembly election is pending between the three constituents of the MVA. The polls are likely to be held either in October or November as the Assembly’s term expires on November 26. The Maharashtra panel includes State unit chief Nana Patole and LoP Vijay Wadettiwar.

The Anti Romeo Squads of the Uttar Pradesh police have issued ‘warnings’ to 1.26 crore people since their inception in 2017. Ashna Butani and Samridhi Tewari speak to the youth in the State to find that every social interaction in public between genders is fraught with the fear of being questioned, even jailed

1 of 4 A couple at a park in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, meet furtively, worried that an Anti-Romeo Squad may question them or call their parents. SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

2 of 4 While we were walking on the road, the police asked me who we were, and to avoid a situation, we said we were friends.... The police told me to go back home, or we would get into trouble Akash* A stenographer at a Noida-based company

3 of 4 We patrol areas and try to understand from the woman’s body language if it is consensual Head constable Mahila thana

4 of 4 Policewomen at the mahila thana in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

In a quiet corner of Malka park, Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, Rohan*, 25, and Malvika*, 22, are seated next to each other on the grass. Between them is a bag placed for ‘propriety’, so they are not subject to police scrutiny. The couple frequents the park after workdays, but this Wednesday evening Rohan is introducing his partner to his best friend, who works in a different city, via a video call.

Every time someone walks by, the couple looks up in panic. The fear of being questioned by the police’s Anti-Romeo Squads is high. “Are we doing anything wrong by sitting and talking?” Malvika says, fiercely. “If we have a few hours and we just want to be by ourselves, where do we go?” she says, in a social setting where partnerships out of choice are still considered shameful.

In March 2017, the Uttar Pradesh police, under the direction of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who leads the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the State, formed Anti-Romeo Squads in all 75 districts to “make places completely safe for women and girls”.

U.P. Police data from 2017 to April 2024 show that under the initiative, 30,496 people were arrested, 22,559 cases were registered, and 1.26 crore people were issued warnings, which “provided them an opportunity for improvement”.

In 2016, U.P. registered 49,262 cases of crime against women. In 2022, this figure climbed to 65,743, as per National Crime Records Bureau data. In both years, the State recorded the highest number of such cases in the country. Despite the numbers, the BJP, which is in power in Rajasthan now, had promised in its manifesto for the Assembly election in the State last year to establish Anti-Romeo Squads in every district.

Squad control

The Anti-Romeo Squads, 1,702 in all in Uttar Pradesh, are positioned in public areas that see a high footfall, such as educational institutions, markets, and parks. Each team is made up of a constable, head constable, assistant sub-inspector or a sub-inspector. Of the 7,520 personnel forming the Anti-Romeo Squads, 4,166 are women. The squads, sometimes in plain clothes, question and, if necessary, pick up youth who they identify as ‘Romeos’.

A U.P. Police officer unfamiliar with the Shakespearean play says a Romeo is a man, usually in his youth, found “loitering around”, either in a group or alone. Another officer at a mahila thana (women’s police station) — there is at least one per district — says, “We understand from the body language and the way they dress if their intent is ‘good’ or not.” Young men with a few shirt buttons open, groups of men in the vicinity of a girls’ school or college, or just a man with a woman, are targeted by the squads.

“The idea behind Anti-Romeo Squads was to ensure that girls and women can go about their business without fear. This includes identifying hotspots of crime against women using technology, ensuring police deployment, and taking legal action against wrongdoers,” says Amitabh Yash, Additional DGP, Special Task Force, U.P. Police.

Many women say this robs them of their choice to meet partners and friends of another gender. Young men fear stepping out to enjoy themselves as they may be branded as ‘Romeos’.

In another corner of the same park in Bulandshahr, Akash*, 22, a stenographer, and Sneha*, 23, who works in a Noida-based company, sit next to each other, despite a run-in with the police three months ago. The two had decided to meet late one night, since Akash finishes work only after sundown. “While we were walking on the road, the police asked me who we were, and to avoid a situation, we said we were friends. They got out of their vehicle and looked straight at us. The police told me to go back home, or we would get into trouble. We left quickly. Now, we only meet in parks during the day,” says Akash. They avoid calling themselves a couple in public.

True detective

About 500 metres from Malka park is a mahila thana, where a head constable explains that if a couple is causing “public nuisance” they are “warned”. “We patrol areas and understand from the woman’s body language if it is consensual.” Men are usually let off with a warning, even if the police feel that the woman has not been coerced. “We will ask for the youth’s parents’ contact numbers and make calls to their homes. If the parents say it is okay, we do not press any further. In some cases, parents scold their children,” she says.

The officers add that they go to schools, where they address girls through seminars and tell them to stay away from “men who loiter” in the street. Dolly Anand and Radhika Singh, college students, both 19, say Anti-Romeo Squads are “for our safety” so parents “let us go out”.

Over the years, the number of cases registered has remained consistent in some districts, while they have gone up in others. Data accessed via a Right to Information (RTI) request say a police station in Jhansi district’s Babina booked 1,342 people in 2017 when Anti-Romeo Squads were first formed. The numbers stayed consistent until 2023, when 1,397 cases were recorded. Meanwhile, Meerut recorded one arrest every year until 2020, when it rose to 30.

RTI responses revealed that one of the common sections under which people were booked was Section 294 (obscenity in public) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In Kanpur Dehat for instance, all cases recorded in one station since 2017 were under the section. A station in Agra, too, saw a majority of cases being registered under the same section. People were also booked under Sections 354 (criminal force), 508 (causing a person to believe they will be an object of divine displeasure), and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC in some cases.

According to the National Commission for Women, Uttar Pradesh recorded 3,544 cases of crime against women, out of a total of 12,600 complaints, in the first half of 2024.

Though initially implemented to prevent harassment of women, RTI responses showed that Anti-Romeo Squads often question women and, in some cases, arrest them. Data from a station in Moradabad show that 115 men and 10 women were arrested between 2017 and 2024. A station in Lucknow recorded 856 arrests since 2017, of which 614 were men and 242 women.

In Hapur, Rahul*, 18, who recently secured a government job, is wary every time he visits a park with his partner. “Around a month ago, I was sitting with her on a bench, and we were recording a reel. Four police officers caught me and brought out a stick. They told her they would call her parents and she got scared. Then they took me to the station, where they warned me and eventually let me go after I told them I would not do it again,” he says.

Another man in his 20s was questioned when the police thought he had an extra shirt button open. “I got away by saying I was going to the temple,” he says, cognisant of the religiosity in a State where the CM is a monk who dons saffron clothes and mahant (head) at Gorakhnath Math, the country’s biggest monastery.

A 24-year-old woman, who works as a schoolteacher in Bulandshahr, was questioned by the police when she was with her husband. “When I showed them my mangalsutra, they jokingly said I should ensure that it was visible,” she says.

Cop land

Shadab Bano is a History professor at Aligarh Muslim University, and also teaches a course in Gender History. She feels the Anti-Romeo Squads are a tool “to threaten and harass young couples”, because there are already laws in place to protect against sexual harassment, and the police should work on implementing those. “It is problematic that they are taking a moral policing route in the name of protecting women. It is the state supporting patriarchy in the name of protection.” She adds that “too much protection” is a form of violence. “It gives the state and the family the legitimacy to control a woman’s life.”

Amit*, a 29-year-old historian and resident of Kanpur, was in Lucknow in December 2022, when he was visiting Rumi Gate at 1.30 a.m. with a female friend. “I wanted to show her how beautiful this city was. We were having tea, and two policemen on a bike asked me what we were doing,” he says. “I tried explaining to them that we were just having tea, but they told us they would take us to the nearest chowki (police station). I told them they couldn’t take a woman to the chowki after sunset.” The police then “made obscene comments”, he says. “They didn’t have name badges and confiscated my phone. I managed to get out of the situation with the help of my family members, but it was traumatising.”

A senior police officer involved in the implementation of the project says Anti-Romeo Squads help when the woman’s community is Hindu and the man’s is Muslim, and there are communal tensions. “However, we ensure that equal action is taken,” he says.

Right-wing groups such as the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have an unofficial role to play in the State where a mosque was brought down and a temple built on its ruins. A Bajrang Dal member, who ‘manages’ western U.P., says they ‘assist’ Anti-Romeo Squads by “tracking both men and women” to ensure that “justice is delivered”.

They claim they work against ‘love jihad’ by tracking the movements of girls and women, depending on who they are going out with. “Sometimes, family members and people from a neighbourhood reach out to us, so we act on that ‘complaint’,” he says.

Members of his team also track digital footprints, where they keep an eye on people under their ‘jurisdiction’. If they see a social media post with a Hindu woman and Muslim man, they flag it to the police. He says this is protectionist, for “humari betiyan (our daughters)”.

Once a woman is ‘rescued’, he says, members of Durga Vahini, the VHP’s women’s wing, ‘counsel’ her and her parents about the “good and bad” of interfaith relationships. They don’t mind if a Hindu woman and man are together, except if the man indulges in what he calls “gundagardi (villainous behaviour)”.

A member of Durga Vahini explains that they have also “developed contacts in schools and colleges with principals and teachers”. They share complaints of teenage boys and men who they believe spend an inordinate time in the neighbourhood of educational institutions.

Anas Tanwir, a Delhi-based lawyer, originally from U.P., says the state is within its right to constitute these squads. “However, if it involves civilians, people who are not designated officers, and are serving as vigilantes, it is illegal. Further, if two consenting adults are questioned by the police or vigilantes get involved, it is illegal.”

The targeting of minorities goes beyond religion. Hamsafar, a support centre for women, youth, and queer persons, has dealt with cases of trans couples being harassed too. “When it started in 2017, trans couples were picked up quickly. Police would question, blame, and misbehave with them at times,” says Ruchi Rastogi, a programme coordinator at Hamsafar. Their challenge was to get trans people, a vulnerable community, to file a complaint against the police. “We understand people are scared of power, and the harassment they might face later.”

She says in U.P.’s rural and urban centres, “even when we try to explain the concept of consensual relationships to families, it is difficult”. “Ideas of ‘ladki ghar ki izzat (woman as the upholder of the family’s respect in society)’, and ‘parivar ka naam (the family name)’ still persist.”

(*Names changed to protect privacy.)

Echoes of a war and its wounds

Twenty-five years after the Kargil War in 1999, deep emotional scars of the conflict linger. Ravi Reddy and V. Geetanath speak to officers, soldiers, and war widows from Telangana, who highlight the courage and sacrifice of soldiers, and share how the pain of loss continues to impact their lives

1 of 3 Veer Naris (war widows) of Sergeant Pilla Venkata Narayana Ravi Prasad, Lance Naik Gopaiah Chary and Lance Naik M. Y. Ramachander and Havildar S.A.S. Narayana Rao with Sainik Welfare Department director Col Ramesh Kumar ahead of Kargil Diwas on July 26.NAGARA GOPALNAGARA GOPAL

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3 of 3 War is an unforgettable experience. I am privileged to have been through it and lived to tell the tale. Colonel Bopanna Sashidhar (retired)

On July 2, 1999, Poloju Sharada’s heart lightened when she received an inland letter from her husband, Lance Naik Gopaiah Chary. “I am far away from the war zone. There is nothing to worry,” read the letter. Gopaiah’s reassuring words brought her a moment of relief amid the turmoil of the ongoing war in Kargil district of Jammu & Kashmir. She clutched the letter, sent almost two months after he had left for the India-Pakistan Kargil War, and imagined him safe and sound.

Just hours later, an official of then united Andhra Pradesh government, landed up at her father’s house. Sharada listened in disbelief as he broke the news of Gopaiah’s martyrdom. The comfort from his letter, posted barely two weeks ago, shattered instantly.

A native of Suryapet in erstwhile Nalgonda district of Telangana and the sixth among 11 children of his parents, Gopaiah had joined the Army in 1985 at the age of 19. His was the first artillery unit — the 315 Field Regiment — to be deployed in Drass, a town near Kargil, during the initial phase of the war that began on May 14, 1999. The hostilities finally ended on July 26, 1999, with the Indian Army reclaiming most of the area on the Indian side occupied by infiltrators. “The entire town turned up to pay their last respects when his body was brought to Suryapet,” recalls Sharada, now 47, as tears run down her face.

Sharada and Gopaiah had been married for three years when he passed away. Their daughter, then six months old, now runs a hall that she leases out for events, in Suryapet, and is married.

Four days later in Hyderabad, the capital of united Andhra Pradesh, M.Y. Divya’s world was upended by the news of her husband Lance Naik M.Y. Ramachander’s death. A resident of Bolarum in Secunderabad Cantonment, he had been selected to the Madras Regiment in 1994 at the age of 19. “He was home on leave when the situation in Kargil was getting tense. I asked him to stay back for a few days, but he refused to extend his leave, saying that the country’s honour was at stake,” says Divya, now 43. She got married to Ramachander, a close relative, just weeks before the war broke out in 1999.

Ramachander rejoined his unit and was rushed to the war front. “I got worried when news channels reported the death of Lance Naik Gopaiah from Nalgonda, on July 6,” she adds.

She heaved a sigh of relief when she received Ramachander’s letter the very next day, urging his family to stay calm as he was safe. That relief, however, was short-lived. The same night, she learned her husband had been killed in action, along with a few other soldiers. His body arrived at the Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad a day later, and the immense turnout for his last rites partially eased her grief. “I was moved by the overwhelming tribute,” she recalls with pride.

With the 25th anniversary of the Kargil War on July 26, observed as Vijay Diwas, the grief of the bereaved families endures, while for Army personnel who served in the conflict, memories of those three months continue to haunt.

“Our jawans were least concerned about their own safety; their focus was solely on the country’s pride. They knew many of them would face death or serious injury, and we did suffer hundreds of casualties,” says Colonel Bopanna Sashidhar (retired), his voice filled with pride tinged with sadness.

“That war showed our soldiers’ courage and dedication to safeguarding the pride of their regiment and the nation,” he asserts, recalling the memorable victory for the Indian armed forces 25 years ago.

Haunting memories

Col. Sashidhar, 60, an explosives and construction expert, joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) in 1983 and was in the Corps of Engineers. Now settled in Hyderabad post-retirement, he recounts the moment he got the order to join the war: “It was May 25, 1999. I was a Major commanding an engineer field company. I had just returned to my office from the Kashmir hills at Awantipur when I received a call on the secured Army network instructing me to move to Drass immediately. Pakistani incursions in Kargil had been detected a few weeks earlier, but we had scant information then.”

Within two hours, they were mobilised in 25 trucks and, after a few days of acclimatising at Ghumri, arrived in Drass and placed under the 79 Mountain Brigade. “Given the continuous enemy fire from a high altitude, we were confined to deep bunkers and operated mostly at night,” he explains.

Three brigades were tasked with evicting the intruders and reclaiming lost ground, based on intelligence and air surveillance. “Tololing, near Drass, was captured on the night of June 28, but not without the sacrifice of brave officers like Major Padmapani Acharya from Hyderabad who was martyred with two more officers and many others,” Col. Sashidhar recalls.

The next major attack was on Tiger Hill, captured on July 4, 1999, with Bofors guns playing a role in demolishing Pakistani hideouts on the rocky, icy peaks.

The fiercest battle was for Point 4875, where soldiers had to ascend 80-degree slopes carrying heavy equipment in rarefied air while enduring relentless enemy fire from above, he says. “The battle raged on for three days as men from the 12 Mahar Regiment, 13 J&K Rifles, 17 Jat Regiment, and 2 Naga Rifles participated in the final assault. On July 7, victory was ours but then we lost two brave officers — Captain Vikram Batra and Captain Anuj Nayyar.”

Though the territory was reclaimed at a great cost, the Indian Army’s artillery continued to pound Pakistani positions. Despite a formal ceasefire being announced on July 26, 1999, Col. Sashidhar and his team remained in place until November 1999 to clear the captured heights littered with enemy weapons, mines, booby traps, and explosives.

For Colonel K. Jagan Mohan Roy of the NDA’s 64th batch, the sound of whistling shells landing just metres from his jeep as he rushed his company towards Kargil still rings in his ears. “The shells landed continuously, either just in front or behind us. We had to keep moving; four other vehicles carrying 150 of mybattalion men followed suit. Stopping even for a moment meant risking instant death. We were lucky,” says the 62-year-old wryly.

He remembers the dark Kargil landscape illuminated like “fireworks during Diwali” though the sounds were far from festive. His unit was stationed overlooking Tiger Hill and near a key highway targeted by Pakistani forces. “Our mission was to secure the flanks, prevent infiltration, and keep the highway open for reinforcements and supplies,” he explains.

Col. Roy and his men worked in pitch darkness, from 2.30 a.m. to 4.30 a.m., using stones and cement to repair damaged sections of their wall. “The enemy could see us, but we were out of sniper range. We had only 5-10 seconds to find cover when shells were fired,” he says.

In his mid-30s then, he was commissioned into the Fifth Battalion, the Sikh Light Infantry, and had his wife Malathi Chandra, then 31, and daughter Spurti, then 9, with him at Tral, when he received orders to travel 500 kilometres to Harkabahadur, near the Kargil battle zone.

“I had just enough time to see my family at the airport, without telling them what was happening, before rushing to join my unit,” he recalls. “We knew something major was happening as we saw IAF sorties and other military preparations.”

Emotional toll

Havildar S.A.S. Narayana Rao, a para commando, shares a gripping account of his mission. His team of 35 men was tasked with capturing Point 5300. “We faced a steep, snow-covered climb amid intense enemy fire. I was hit on the left arm, and others were also injured, but we continued advancing until replacement troops arrived. I had to walk 8 km back to Batalik for evacuation from where I was evacuated to a military hospital. Due to splinter injuries and frostbite, four of my fingers had to be amputated,” he says.

While some survived to tell their tale, many lost their lives in the war, leaving only memories for their families. Anuradha, widow of flight gunner Sergeant Pilla Venkata Narayana Ravi Prasad, breaks down recalling the news of his death.

Prasad, hailing from Razole (East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh) joined the Indian Air Force in 1984. “One morning, he received a message to report to the airbase. He volunteered to join the operation, to cover for a colleague who had to be with his pregnant wife. He left on May 28, saying he would be back in a few days,” she shares.

The very next day, she received a message from Air Chief Marshal Y.P. Tipnis informing her that Prasad, along with three others, had been killed when their MI-17 helicopter was struck by a missile near Tiger Hill. “The chopper crashed from a height of 1,700 feet. The bodies were badly mutilated,” she says, her voice choking.

Nearly all those who fought in the Kargil War had extensive experience dealing with insurgency and militancy in Jammu & Kashmir and the northeast region. Rao had, in fact, taken part in the Indian Peace Keeping Force operations in Sri Lanka apart from operations in the northeast.

Anuradha recalls that her husband, Sergeant Ravi Prasad, had previously cheated death during a similar operation in the northeast. “The Air Force was tasked with dropping cash boxes for a nationalised bank in a remote Mizoram village. As the chopper landed, the crew came under fire. In a split second, the pilot took off, saving everyone from potential death,” she says.

Col. Roy acknowledges that while the armed forces are “accustomed to combating insurgency”, the Kargil War presented a new level of challenge due to the firepower involved. As for fear during battle, he notes, “Fear is always present, but when the moment comes, army training instinctively takes over.”

Although he emerged unscathed, his family endured a harrowing few days when a picture of a martyred officer appeared on television. “My wife and daughter were deeply shaken, and I had no idea what they were going through until I called them on the satellite phone later,” he says.

Rebuilding shattered lives

The Sainik Welfare Department of Telangana has played a crucial role in assisting bereaved families. Colonel Ramesh Kumar, Director of Sainik Welfare, says war widows received an ex-gratia sum of ₹15 lakh (₹10 lakh from the Centre and ₹5 lakh from the State government) and LPG gas distributorships. “Efforts are also on to provide house plot to all these families,” he says.

Anuradha, who lost her husband when her daughter was just three, says: “She is now working as an HR manager. I am proud of her.”

Divya used to run a courier service, but despite receiving other financial benefits, she is yet to receive the plot promised to her soon after the martyrdom of Lance Naik Ramachander, for constructing a house.

Sharada, the widow of Gopaiah, now conducts motivational classes and is often invited for lectures in schools and colleges, and lives in Hyderabad. “Don’t hesitate to join the armed forces; it’s a privilege,” she says, adding that her late husband’s legacy inspired at least 15 youth from their district to enlist for the Army.

Col. Sashidhar, who stays with wife Sampoorna in Hyderabad and has two sons, reflects on how Kargil War changed the border landscape, noting outposts that once had only shepherds and goats now host Bofors guns. “War is an unforgettable experience. I am privileged to have been through it and lived to tell the tale,” he says.

N. Joy died in the swirl of canal water and the rubbish that the citizens of Thiruvananthapuram threw into the public spaces. His death has woken the administration up to the high risks sanitation workers face. S.R. Praveen speaks to the force that keeps the city clean, only to find that while two agencies blame each other, it is really the citizens who need a behaviour change

1 of 3 Fire and Rescue Services team members along with Corporation workers search for N. Joy, who went missing in the Amayizhanjan Canal near the Central railway station in Thiruvananthapuram. S. MAHINSHA

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3 of 3 N.Joy’s mother, Melhi, with his brother, Koshy, and sisters Jessy and Jolly at Koshy's home. S.R.PraveenSR Praveen

Inextricably linked to the memories of Koshy and Jessy about their brother N.Joy are images of him wading through powerful currents of water. Sitting inside Koshy’s house at Marayamuttom, on the outskirts of rural Thiruvananthapuram, Jessy remembers how he used to swim fearlessly in the Kudayal river near their home, when the water breached its banks in Kerala’s tropical monsoon. “To catch the driftwood and coconut that came with the floodwaters,” Koshy remembers, indicating the risks the family’s precarious financial situation forces them to take.

On July 13, the family woke up to television visuals of the Amayizhanjan Canal where Joy, 47, hired temporarily as a sanitation worker by a contractor for the Indian Railways, had gone missing. It was a morning of heavy rain, and on such days, the 15-kilometre-long canal, believed to have got its name because it “crawls slowly like a tortoise”, attains the raw power of all the storm water gushing into it from various corners of Kerala’s capital city.

Joy, along with two other temporary workers, had gone to clean a 117 metre-long, tunnel section of the canal which passes under the rail lines, close to the Central railway station in Thiruvananthapuram. Joy slipped and was caught in the floodwaters. His fellow workers tried to rescue him initially with ropes, but their efforts were overpowered by the fierceness off the water.

Over the next two days, the attention of the entire State was glued on this area, as Fire and Rescue Services personnel, scuba divers, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) searched the canal. The struggle of the scuba divers to wade through the mounds of solidified waste inside the constricted canal as well as fresh loads of waste that kept pouring in, gave people an idea of the risks that sanitation workers like Joy take.

Although equipped with oxygen masks and other safety equipment, the divers were taking almost the same risk as Joy, the sanitation worker, to earn a living. Forty-six hours after he went missing, his body, caught in a pile of waste, was spotted by contingent workers of the city Corporation.

In the past decade, there have been three such accidents across the State and five deaths. Two temporary workers died in Kozhikode in 2015; an autorickshaw driver who tried to rescue them also died. Two more temporary workers died in Kozhikode this year. Joy’s is the fifth preventable death. He lost his life to a job that can be outsourced to technology in a city where citizens still throw their garbage on to the street and into canals, despite a waste disposal system.

Cause and effect

Joy lived with his mother, Melhi, in a dilapidated, one-room house behind the one where his brother Koshy’s family lives. Koshy’s wife died less than two months ago, battling cancer. The family was still grieving for her when news of Joy’s accident came.

“Earlier, Joy and I used to work for sand-miners in the river waters. After it was banned, he took up odd jobs, including rag-picking. But, when he started cleaning drains, contractors would often hire him, because many are not willing to do such work. He was ready to swim in any kind of water,” says Koshy, adding again that he was a strong swimmer. Koshy says here, the swirling waste in the water probably had a role in his death.

Joy’s death led to a blame game with the State government and the city Corporation on one side and the Railways on the other. Minister for Local Self-Governments M.B. Rajesh as well as Mayor Arya Rajendran blamed the Railways for not heeding repeated reminders from the government to clean up the section of the canal in its premises. Here, Corporation workers are not allowed, they said. They also blamed the Railways for not providing any protective gear to the workers.

The Railways and the Opposition parties, meanwhile, blamed the indiscriminate dumping of waste into the canal in the Corporation area and the civic body’s failed waste management strategies for the tragedy. While the government handed over a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the family, the Railways are yet to announce any.

Citizenship off the road

Lost in this din were the voices of the thousands of sanitation workers who often work in unpredictable, hostile, unhygienic conditions. Lali S. took up sanitation work with the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation 10 years ago as a widow looking for a stable job to take care of her children. She begins her daily work in the Manacaud ward at 4 a.m., scrambling to clean up the main roads before the day’s rush begins.

“Every ward has a WhatsApp group, where we get regular updates on things to do, everything from clearing drains to burying dead cats or dogs found on the streets. If we are assigned to clean one km of a road, that would mean cleaning all the byroads and sometimes clearing the drains that run along them. But the toughest part is segregation of all the waste,” says Lali. She wishes people wouldn’t just throw everything on the roads and into canals without thinking about those who have to pick up after them.

Though the Haritha Karma Sena, formed in 2018 for doorstep collection of waste, now covers 86.6% of households across the State, the sanitation workers who do the hard job of cleaning up the streets say that dumping of waste on public roads and canals continues unabated. The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has 1,100 permanent workers.

B. Kumar, a sanitation worker at the Sreekandeswaram circle in Kerala’s capital, recollects the struggle in removing sacks filled with different kinds of waste from canals and drying and segregating them. “Some of these sacks have soiled adult diapers filled with worms. Due to the kind of work we sometimes do, we usually have breakfast only after the cleaning work ends around noon,” says Kumar.

Though the Corporation’s sanitation workers get gum boots and gloves, many have skin issues or breathing-related complications. “A large number of sanitation workers end up with one disease or the other by the time they retire due to constant exposure to waste materials. Some of those who retire struggle with diseases like filariasis,” says V. Rajesh Kumar, a sanitation worker.

Earlier, contingent workers in local bodies were categorised into 20 categories, including sweepers, anti-mosquito workers, carpenters, and gardeners. In 2000, a government order was issued dividing them into two categories of skilled and unskilled workers.

This meant an expansion in the nature of duties of these workers. From cleaning up schools before the annual reopening to keeping the city clean round the clock during festivals like Attukal Pongala, a 10-day temple celebration, and carrying out fogging activities, their workload has increased.

“We end up doing a lot of things we are not used to or trained for. After the COVID-19 outbreak, I entered a mortuary for the first time in my life to help identify dead bodies for family members and then take them for cremation,” says S. Fathima Beevi, a sanitation worker.

In recent years, the area under municipalities has expanded with an increase in population, but new posts have not been created for sanitation workers in the past four decades, according to V.R. Vijayakumar, State general secretary of the Kerala Municipal Corporation Workers Federation (CITU).

“As per a Government order, medical check-ups have to be done for sanitation workers every six months, but it has not been done in the past 2-3 years. Though a pay revision happened in 2016, the pay in hand is still low for the work that they do (Rs.21,000 with deductions),” he says.

Tech solutions

Though there have been debates on the need to use modern machinery to clean drains and canals and limit the duty of sanitation workers to cleaning up the streets, such machinery is yet to be widely used.

Bandicoot, the robot meant to replace manual scavenging, is being deployed at some places, but not to a scale enough to cover entire cities. Suction-cum-jetting machines to clear blocks in drains have been used in Kochi since last year, while the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode Corporation have given orders for them.

Jiji Thomson, former Chief Secretary of Kerala, who led the Operation Anantha flood mitigation drive in the State capital in 2015, says that alternative methods to using humans in hazardous situations are the need of the hour.

“During operation Anantha, we used machinery like mini JCBs to clear the canals and drains. We managed to remove 700 truckloads of waste from canals. There is no need to send labourers into tunnels like the one Joy went into,” he says. Thomson further questions the State government for the lack of continuity for Operation Anantha, during which encroachments in the Amayizhanjan Canal were removed for several kilometres, easing the flow of water and reducing incidence of flood in many areas.

A day after Joy’s body was recovered, the Corporation’s night squad seized seven vehicles while they were being used to dump waste into the same canal. Despite appeals, warnings, and the existence of waste collection mechanisms, behavioural change is still a long way away.

Edit

- Using children’s personal data legally and securely

- A new push in the Bay of Bengal

- letters to the editor

- Fiscal federalism

- Special relationship

- Fighting militants in the mountains

Using children’s personal data legally and securely

Jyotsana Singh Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

The Indian school education system is one of the most expansive ecosystems in the world. Composed of approximately 15 lakh schools, 97 lakh teachers, and nearly 26.5 crore students enrolled from the pre-primary to higher secondary levels, it boasts of stakeholders from varied socioeconomic backgrounds.

Collecting information

To realise its objective of managing the wide-ranging education system in India in a sound manner, the Ministry of Education conceived of the UDISE+ platform in 2018. The UDISE+ plays a crucial role in collecting and exchanging real-time information on school infrastructure, teachers, student enrolment, and academic performance. This allows the Ministry to curate outcome-based policies to enhance the quality of education in India. By improving the process of resource allocation and the monitoring of educational programmes, UDISE+ is also notably utilised to map educational trends. The objective of strengthening administration and optimising service delivery is charted out as the ultimate goal of this exercise.

In terms of the National Education Policy 2020, the Ministry also introduced the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry identification (APAAR). This serves as a unique identifier of a given student. This facilitates the collation of academic credentials of students at one place. The demographic information per user so collected includes Aadhaar information, obtained vide a voluntary consent-based mechanism.

Measures are being introduced to enhance ease of schooling, which necessitate linking of APAAR and UDISE+. Steps to automate student admissions, in turn, to reduce dropout rates during the transitional phases and enhance opportunities for continuing education, fall within the umbrella of such ease of schooling measures.

Entities such as DigiLocker and ed-tech companies frequently collaborate with State governments. They consequently form integral constituents of the modern education system. Interlinking of UDISE+ and APAAR, in the manner explained above, exposes student data amassed to such actors in the educational ecosystem. The Education Ministry commendably formulated a data-sharing policy for school education and literacy in 2020. However, this is yet to be updated to reflect the regulatory overhauls post the enactment of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. In the absence of clear regulations or minimum standards (importantly, for ed-tech players), their compliance with the Act comes under question.

There are numerous potential pressure points wherein non-compliance of the involved actors may materialise. For instance, there is limited guidance on what constitutes verifiable parental consent. Consent from parents for minors’ data, sought under the UDISE+/APAAR regime, may violate this requirement. Moreover, the DPDP Act emphasises the importance of collecting personal data for specified legitimate purposes only. Sharing children’s data under UDISE+ for a purpose incremental to the authorised one could violate this statutory requirement. The Ministry acknowledged the benefits of sharing student data at a national scale — for instance, to track intra- and/or inter-State student migration. Streamlining the system to manage educational records efficiently is therefore critical. Notably, the DPDP Act sanctions a specific and voluntary consent-based mechanism. The specific and voluntary nature of consent required (for purposes like the above) is clinching.

The three-part test

The Supreme Court recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (2018) and laid down the three-part test against which state action must be adjudged. This test is deployed to assess the impact of state action on the right to privacy of citizens. The three conditions stipulated under this test are: (i) there exists a legitimate state interest in restricting the right; (ii) such restriction is necessary and proportionate to achieve the interest; and (iii) the restriction is imposed/effected by law. Aadhaar integration in APAAR/UDISE+ must comply with these three prongs. Due caution is also a prerequisite to counter potential cases of data thefts and cyber breaches. Adherence to the principles of data privacy and data minimisation is particularly pertinent given the sensitive nature of children’s personal data.

The need for specific protocols

Regarding exchange of personal data of children for an unspecified purpose, integration of third parties (such as entities like DigiLocker, etc.) could also raise doubts on the role thereof. Identification of actors who qualify as data fiduciary, data processor, and data principal, would be required from a liability affixation standpoint. This is a complex task and is presently not being undertaken. Although the privacy policy for APAAR dictates certain data security, aggregation, third party integration, retention requirements, sharing of personal data of children for an unmentioned purpose may require specific protocols, which are absent.

Additionally, both the data policy and the annual report emphasise on the absence of any legal liability of the Ministry in respect of disclosure/accuracy of the data shared onto UDISE+. Further, the privacy policy directs grievances received to a grievance officer. However, there is no clarity on the manner in which the legal liability is affixed or practically incurred. This exhibits a blatant lack of a grievance redressal forum and mechanism for the data principals whose personal data is collected and exchanged under APAAR.

Queries regarding interoperability, consent, and grievance redressal abound. Standard operating procedures, both technical and legal, under an overarching governance framework are a pressing priority. Such protocols will facilitate preservation of data authenticity and prescription of legal obligations for stakeholders concerned. Hopefully, this will also help further a conscientious spirit in the actors for sharing, using, and retaining personal data of children, lawfully and securely.

A new push in the Bay of Bengal

1 of 2 Harsh V. Pant Professor at King’s College London and is Vice President for Studies and Foreign Policy at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

2 of 2 Sohini Bose Associate Fellow, Neighbourhood Studies at ORF

India hosted the 2nd BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in New Delhi earlier this month with a focus on providing an “informal platform to discuss ways and means of cooperating and accelerating action in security, connectivity, trade, and investment within the Bay of Bengal.” The retreat was held in preparation for the sixth summit meeting, scheduled for September, in which the BIMSTEC leaders will meet in person for the first time in the post-pandemic era. They are also expected to sign the BIMSTEC Agreement on Maritime Transport Cooperation to improve regional connectivity — a foundational aim of this grouping.

Strengthening ties with eastern neighbours

BIMSTEC is the regional organisation devoted to the Bay of Bengal, with a membership of five South Asian and two Southeast Asian countries, cooperating across seven diverse sectors. It allows New Delhi to engage multilaterally with the other countries of the Bay of Bengal region, which are its eastern neighbours and therefore vital for its economic development, security, and foreign policy imperatives. India also remains intent on solidifying relations with its eastern neighbours as China’s growing presence in the Bay of Bengal poses a potential threat to regional stability and New Delhi’s position as a preferred security partner in these waters.

Strengthening ties with Bangladesh and Myanmar accords India the advantage of providing its landlocked north-eastern region with access to the sea. Improved ties with Myanmar and Thailand will also lend India the opportunity to have a more profound presence in the Indo-Pacific, as it holds the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), in which these two countries are members, to be of central importance in its vision of the Indo-Pacific. Thailand reinforced this idea at the retreat by identifying itself as a bridge between BIMSTEC and ASEAN. These priorities were reflected in the opening address by the Minister for External Affairs, S. Jaishankar, when he stated that BIMSTEC represents the intersection of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ outlook, the ‘Act East Policy’, and the SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region) vision.

Two parts of the retreat

The retreat was divided into two parts. In the first segment, participants assessed the current state of regional cooperation within BIMSTEC, building on a presentation by India on the implementation of key outcomes of the 1st Retreat. Multiple ideas were shared by the member states including the establishment of Centers of Excellence in member states, focusing on Agriculture, Disaster Management, and Maritime Transport. India announced support for cancer research, treatment, and issuance of e-visas for patients of all BIMSTEC states, while Sri Lanka proposed the inclusion of kidney disease. The need for involving the private sector in trade and promoting young entrepreneurs was also highlighted, as was the importance of connectivity, cyber-security, and countering the trafficking of narcotics and illegal arms.

In the second session, the expectations of each country from the forthcoming summit were discussed. Sri Lanka underscored the need to map mineral resources found in abundance in the BIMSTEC countries and create opportunities for the vertical integration of stages of production within specific sectors in the economies of the countries, enabling them to diversify their production structure. Bangladesh highlighted the need for cooperation in the Blue Economy and urged member states to ban fishing during the breeding season to address the problem of depleting catch in the Bay. Bhutan expounded on the need for collaboration in tourism and cultural exchanges, while Nepal highlighted its ‘whole of the region’ approach to leverage synergies among member states and transform BIMSTEC into a results-oriented regional forum. Thailand underscored the need for cooperation in non-traditional security domains, and Myanmar added the need to combat online scamming to the list. These proposals will be presented to the heads of state before the September summit.

Bilateral merits

While the retreat was a multilateral milestone for India, it had its bilateral merits too. Mr. Jaishankar met several of his counterparts on the sidelines. He shared with Myanmar India’s concerns over the flow of displaced persons, narcotics, and arms across the border and urged for the return of unlawfully detained Indians. He also held a meeting with the Bangladesh Foreign Minister, who requested him to ensure the smooth supply of daily essentials and send a technical team for the Teesta project, signifying another step towards easing this long-pending concern. At the end of the retreat, the Foreign Ministers called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This year marks a decade of India’s Act East and Neighbourhood First policies, and the thrust on BIMSTEC is a manifestation of New Delhi’s efforts to continue nurturing collaborative growth for national and regional well-being. Thus, Mr. Jaishankar encouraged future collaborations through new energies, resources, and a renewed commitment to cooperation.

It remains to be seen how many of these proposals find culmination at the forthcoming Summit but the intent of the member states to push forth with a bold vision for the region was clearly evident at the retreat.

Supreme Court verdict

This is a landmark verdict that will have a far-reaching impact on the federal structure of the Constitution (“States have unlimited right to tax mineral-rich lands: SC,” July 26). The Union government has often been in the news for stifling the powers of the States. Limiting the power of the States to impose taxes has been held unconstitutional. It is hoped that this order will enable the States to exercise their powers freely and function in the spirit of federalism.

S.V. Venkatakrishnan

San Jose, California

This judgment will go a long way in improving the fiscal plight of States. Many of them have been unhappy with the Central government. There are constant battles over funds. The Supreme Court’s decision has come as a blessing for the mineral-rich States.

P.K. Sharma

Barnala

Visit to Russia

The U.S.’s criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia is a brazen attempt to browbeat India into toeing its line on global affairs (“India rejects U.S. criticism of Modi’s Russia visit,” July 26). India is an independent, sovereign, democratic republic and has every right to choose its friends. It is free to formulate its strategy to safeguard its own interests, as other countries do. India has rightly rejected the U.S.’s criticism.

Ravi Mathur

Noida

Mind your language

Donald Trump has used unparliamentary language to describe U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (“Trump attacks Kamala Harris, calls her ‘lunatic’,” July 26). This is unbecoming of a former President. Mr. Trump has every right to be critical of the current government's domestic and foreign policies, but he cannot indulge in character assassination.

Rajamani Chelladurai

Tirunelveli

Job crisis

Is it wrong for Kannadigas to ask for a fair share in the State’s job pool? (“The Karnataka Bill is a symptom of a larger problem,” July 26). Rising unemployment is a serious issue for the youth in India, so many migrate to regions which have jobs. South India is often seen as a beacon of hope for both skilled and unskilled youth from the north and elsewhere. But this is also becoming a problem for locals. Where can they migrate to if jobs are scarce elsewhere? Asking for a share of the jobs in their own State is a fair demand.

H.N. Ramakrishna

Bengaluru

The Karnataka government will not only face challenges in implementing this Bill, but will also have to deal with questions about how it affects national unity. If all the States start adopting similar measures, it would foster regionalism and erode the principle of equal opportunity. Such laws could weaken national integrity. They may also face legal challenges for violating constitutional principles of equality and freedom of employment.

Narayanan Kizhumundayur

Thrissur

Inadequate allocation

The budgetary provision of ₹1,112.57 crore for the provision of Kavach is negligible and shows how much the government cares about the lives of passengers. As The Hindu Data Point had shown (June 25), it costs about ₹45,000 crore to implement the system across all tracks and in all engines. It is unclear why the government is allocating only this much, especially given the frequency of Railway accidents. It seems keen on only providing more Vande Bharat trains, which are beyond the reach of the common man.

T.M. Uday Shankar

Hyderabad

Fiscal federalism

The ruling on taxing mineral rights opens up resource avenue for States

It is not often that fiscal federalism finds a prominent place in judicial discourse. The Supreme Court judgment, holding by an overwhelming majority of 8:1 that the States can tax mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands, is a truly landmark ruling, as it protects their legislative domain from interference by Parliament. For decades, it was believed that the States were denuded of their power to impose any tax on mineral resources extracted from their land because of the prevalence of a central law, the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. Even though the right to tax mineral rights is conferred on the States through Entry 50 in the State List of the Seventh Schedule, it was made “subject to any limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development”. The Union government argued that the very existence of its 1957 law was a limitation on the States’ power to tax mineral rights, but Chief Justice of India, Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, writing for the Bench, examined the Act’s provisions to conclude that it contained no such limitation. The royalty envisaged by the 1957 Act was held to be not a tax at all. The Union was hoping that once royalty was accepted as a tax, it would wholly occupy the field and thus remove the States’ scope for taxing mineral rights. However, the Court chose to see royalty as a contractual consideration for enjoyment of mineral rights. Also, it ruled that States could tax mineral-bearing lands under Entry 49, a general power to tax lands.

Proponents of fiscal federalism and autonomy will particularly welcome the fact that the judgment opens up a significant new taxation avenue for the States, and the observation that any dilution of the taxation powers of the States would adversely affect their ability to deliver welfare schemes and services to the people. However, Justice B. V. Nagarathna, in her dissent, argues that if the Court did not recognise the central law as a limitation on the State’s taxation powers, it would have undesirable consequences as States would enter into an unhealthy competition to derive additional revenue, resulting in an uneven and uncoordinated spike in the cost of minerals; and purchasers of minerals paying too much, leading to an increase in the price of industrial products. Further, the national market may be exploited for arbitrage. Given these implications, it is possible that the Centre may seek to amend the law to impose explicit limitations on the States’ taxation power or even prohibit them from imposing a tax on mineral rights. However, such a move may result in mining activities being left wholly out of the tax net, as the majority has also held that Parliament lacks the legislative competence to tax mineral rights.

Special relationship

The broad national consensus on Israel in the U.S. is slowly breaking up

On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) issued a new evacuation order, asking Palestinians to leave several neighbourhoods of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, including areas that had earlier been designated as a humanitarian zone. When Mr. Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Wednesday, more than 39,000 Palestinians, a vast majority of them women and children, had already been killed in Gaza by the IDF in less than 10 months. At least 90,000 Palestinians have been wounded and nearly the entire population of the enclave has been displaced, some of them several times. Dozens of journalists have been killed. Private charities, UN aid workers, hospitals, ambulances, and even tent camps of the displaced have been bombed. Gaza, besieged by the IDF, does not have enough food, water, or medicines. The UN, which has repeatedly tried to draw the world’s attention to the suffering of Palestinians, now warns of epidemics. Two UN Security Council resolutions called for a ceasefire in Gaza. There have been two rulings from the International Court of Justice, which is hearing a case of genocide, against Israel’s conduct of the war. None of this seems to bother the U.S. lawmakers, who applauded Mr. Netanyahu throughout his speech.

Without the U.S.’s political and military support, Mr. Netanyahu’s government would not have been able to fight such a disastrous war, which was triggered by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, in Israel, killing 1,200 people. More than 100 people taken hostage on October 7 are still in Hamas’s captivity, which Israel cites as the reason for the continuation of the war. But in the name of fighting Hamas, Israel has been punishing the entire Palestinian population in Gaza. Officials of the Biden administration have voiced concerns over civilian casualties. But besides the verbal protestations, Washington has done little to force Israel to act. Worse, the U.S. continues to provide military assistance to Israel. Yet, there are underlying tensions in the relationship. The protests in Washington while Mr. Netanyahu was speaking at Congress point to the growing public criticism of his war and America’s support for it. The welcome Mr. Netanyahu received at Congress shows that he has the support of the elites. But the protest on the streets and the dissenting voices even among lawmakers suggest that the national consensus on Israel is eroding in the U.S.

Fighting militants in the mountains

This year, officials recorded the highest militant footprint in Jammu region since 2005. Insurgents have revived old infiltration routes and set up base in the Pir Panjal and Chenab valleys, seeking cover in dense forests and caves. Peerzada Ashiq reports on the worries and challenges of the security forces in tackling this problem

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3 of 4 Abishek Badkali’s father, Amarjit Sharma, a chemist, was murdered at night in Mela village in Kathua district of Jammu division. Imran Nissar Imran Nissar

4 of 4 Omkar Dinanath, a resident of Kathua’s Saida village, was fired upon by militants. He sustained a bullet injury in the arm. Imran Nissar Imran Nissar

It has been 45 days since 20-year-old Abishek Badkali’s father, Amarjit Sharma, a chemist, was murdered at night in Mela village in Kathua district of Jammu division. His family and the residents of Mela are still in shock. They have near heard of brutal murders taking place in this region, located in the lush green Shivalik hills in the outer Himalayas.

A charpoy lies at the entrance of the single-storey house of the family. This is where the family — Abishek, his mother, and sister — gather for some respite from the unbearably hot rooms inside. The backyards of the small cluster of houses in Mela village are dotted with the deciduous Khair trees, and Chir pines; the forest stretches out ahead. Venturing deep into them could be dangerous for many, but for militants, whose presence has been increasing in the region, the density provides cover and security.

Abishek, a science graduate, says his father, 49, left the house at 10 p.m. for a walk on June 9. “I was relaxing on the terrace. When he didn’t return, we called him on his phone, but he didn’t answer. When we started searching for him on the narrow track leading to the forest, we saw him lying dead on the ground, with his face towards the surface. There was a deep, long cut on his neck,” he says.

The residents of Mela are certain that militants killed their beloved “doctor sahib”. “We all suspect that my father spotted the local guide of the militants. They may have killed him to ensure that the identity of the guide does not get revealed,” says Abishek.

After the dilution of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in 2019, which ended the special status of the erstwhile State, more and more militants have been entering Jammu, according to senior security officials. They say this is “a deliberate and desperate bid to destabilise the region after the abrogation of Article 370 integrated J&K into the mainstream.”

The government believed that militancy had ended in the Jammu region by 2005 after security forces had launched major operations. In 2020, however, 18 militants were killed in the area. In 2021, militants made the Pir Panjal valley, comprising Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu division, their new base and began attacking Army camps and convoys, especially in Dera Ki Gali and Bhata Dhurian.

Now, militancy has spilled over into the Doda, Ramban, and Kishtwar districts in Chenab valley in Jammu division. Twelve security personnel, including 11 soldiers from the Army, were killed this year in the Jammu division. So were five militants. Fourteen militant attacks were reported in June and July alone this year — nearly one every four days. Security officials describe the Pir Panjal and the Chenab valleys as “Jammu’s Tora Bora”, the mountain ranges in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda survived for years.

Kathua, a transit route

On June 11, two days after Amarjit Sharma’s body was recovered, two militants surfaced in Saida village, just 10 kilometres away. They knocked on the shutters of a kirana shop that sells basic necessities, such as oil, salt, and spices.

“I was sleeping on the floor when I heard them knock,” says 62-year-old Maniram Sharma, the owner. “I saw two boys in their 20s with guns. One sported a short beard. The other had shaven his moustache. They asked for water. Before they came to me, I had heard a loud bang. I heard later that they had opened fire nearby. I noticed that they had a Lahori accent, which is used on the other side of Punjab (Pakistan).”

According to locals, the militants had opened fire in the village. One unidentified militant died after a grenade exploded in his hand. Another, who ran towards the forest and later killed a jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was killed in a 15-hour-long anti-militancy operation, carried out jointly by the J&K Police and the CRPF. The militants also opened fire on civilian houses. Omkar Dinanath, a civilian, was hit in the arm and carries a scar. The incident has also left a bullet mark on the wall of his house.

Since the encounter, the residents of Saida return home early and are suspicious of outsiders. “People have grown fearful. We are poor. We have to tend fields and cattle to survive,” says Shankar Chand, a resident of Saida.

The police recovered knives from the militants at the encounter site. They have sent them to the forensic science laboratory to determine whether one of these was used to kill Amarjit Sharma.

“Even at the peak of militancy in J&K (in the 1990s) and in Punjab (mid-1980s to the mid-1990s), we never encountered a gunman in Saida village. The government must find a political solution to end militancy,” says Maniram.

Located around 20 km from the International Border (IB) between India and Pakistan, Saida village, much like many other villages in Kathua, is being used as a transit route by militants from Pakistan, say police officials. They describe how militants dig tunnels and enter the region.

On July 5, a farmer stumbled on one such tunnel in Thangli village in the Hiranagar sector of Kathua, when the water from his farmland started draining only at one point, 500 metres away from the border. Security forces have started a major exercise on the IB to detect underground tunnels but admit that it “is humanly impossible to sanitise the entire region” on a daily basis.

Kathua, a Hindu-majority district, is adjacent to Punjab. The police say the militants use the area to fan out into nearby districts such as Doda, which has become the new battleground.

That militants are shifting their base is nothing new in Kashmir. In the last three decades, militant commanders have shifted their base from north Kashmir to central Kashmir and later to south Kashmir. However, security agents say they did not think that the militants would shift to districts where they have little local support.

“Militants have revived old infiltration routes in Jammu region, especially using the IB, in Kathua and Samba. And also in Punjab. These routes were active during the Punjab militancy, which impacted Jammu too, and also during the peak of Kashmir militancy. All these routes had dried up by 2000 due to the efforts of security forces,” says a senior police official, who recently attended a high-level inter-State meeting of top officials of the Army, Border Security Force, and police from J&K and Punjab, in Kathua.

A challenging terrain

A Jammu-based Army officer says the highest militant footprint in Jammu region since 2005 has been recorded this year. “The terrain is being used by terrorists to their advantage. It is a challenging situation, but we are prepared to defeat them,” he says.

Security agencies say this is “a deliberate move to achieve certain strategic goals including raising the cost of the conflict by forcing troop de-induction (the withdrawal of troops from conflict areas) and re-induction (redeployment of troops where trouble resurfaces) processes, subverting troop thinning exercises, and shifting focus from the Ladakh front”.

The Army has re-inducted more than 700 soldiers this month. It has stepped up patrolling in the Pir Panjal and Chenab valleys. It also uses drones to patrol the dense forests. An official says a tip-off about the presence of militants from the upper reaches of the Doda mountain region takes the Army anywhere between six hours to a few days to reach the spot. The mountain slopes are sparsely populated and dotted with caves, which the militants use for shelter.

The forest area in Jammu is eight times the size of Delhi. Militants who were dominating the Pir Panjal valley, a mix of coniferous and deciduous forests, between 2020 and 2023 are shifting towards higher peaks and the forests of the Chenab valley, says a senior police official.

“The upper reaches in the Pir Panjal and Chenab valleys are far away from the roads. It takes the Army days to patrol these pockets by foot and return to their bases,” the Army officer says.

In Doda, the mountains are 1,200-1,500 ft high. The militants have been spotted in the upper reaches of the Bhalessa, Chattergala, and Dessa forests. “This arc has provided strategic depth to militants,” says a senior police official.

“They are operating from the upper ridges. The presence of nomads in the upper reaches in summer makes it easy for the militants to fetch food. They keep changing their locations. They get to know about the Army’s movement because of their positions,” says a senior police officer, who led anti-militancy operations in the Doda belt in the recent past.

Doda was a hub for militants in the 1990s. According to police data, 118 locals have shifted to Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir since the 1990s. The police have begun to re-open old cases against locals and seal the houses of suspected active militants. Such action has pushed many people who joined the mainstream back to the margin, say residents.

Change in modus operandi

Jammu is witnessing a dynamic shift in militancy. According to Army officials, terrorists no longer engage the security forces in a stand-off fire, but lay an ambush with the intention of killing them and fleeing from the spot. “They are highly trained in jungle warfare,” says an Army officer.

The arrest of two locals — Nissar Ahmad, 56, a resident of Rajouri’s Gursai, in April 2023; and Hakam Din, 40, a resident of Rajouri’s Bandhrahi, in June this year — gave officials an idea about the modus operandi of the militants. Ahmad allegedly hosted a group of them, who later carried out an attack in Dangri that left seven civilians dead in January 2023. Din allegedly sheltered a group of militants who were responsible for the attack in Reasi in June, which left nine pilgrims dead and more than 33 people injured. Ahmad, the father of two schoolgoing children, has also been accused of ferrying weapons for the militants. He had militant links in the 1990s, but stayed silent all these years, the police say.

According to the police, militants do not rely on locals for shelter for a long period of time; they remain on the move. There is growing evidence that the militants use mobile apps like Alpine, which trekkers use, to cover steep slopes of mountains, without accessing the Internet.

Din did not have any association with militants earlier, but hosted the Reasi attackers. He admitted that he informed the militants about the movement of the pilgrims’ bus, say the police. In fact, he stayed in the area where the attack took place, in Teryath village near Shiv Khori area, to provide a cue to the attackers about the movement of the bus, say the police. “Din’s role went beyond providing shelter. His ideological inclination too is under investigation,” says another senior police officer.

Both Din and Ahmad belong to the Gujjar community. A police officer says the support network for the militants could increase because of various factors, such as increasing polarisation between Hindus and Muslims. The Gujjars feel alienated after a new reservation policy included the Paharis, who, they believe, are a linguistic group and well-off. Growing unemployment could also push more Gujjars into the support network, he says. The Rajouri-Poonch belt is home to around 11 lakh Gujjars and Bakerwals. Hundreds of them have been rounded up for questioning in the past three years, especially around areas where militants attacked security forces. Army officials say they have set up special mobile schools, and medical patrols for Gujjars, Bakerwals, and even their livestock, “to reach out to the population”.

From across the border

Police officials also worry that the effects of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020 will spill over into J&K.

“In the past, locals would mostly say Urdu and Punjabi-speaking militants passed by or stayed with them. Sometimes, Pashto-speaking militants roamed the forests too. Whether they are from Afghanistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (a province in Pakistan close to Afghanistan) has to be investigated,” says another senior police officer.

Officials point out that the increasing use of U.S.-made M4 carbine, steel bullets, guns fitted with night thermal cameras, Glock and Beretta pistols, Austria-made Steyr AUG rifles, and Tukey-made rifles indicate this spillover.

“Handling guns fitted with night thermal cameras requires a higher degree of training. Those are not like pistols or AK rifles, which are easier to fire from,” says a police officer.

“Most active militants have also changed the way they dress. Khan suits and Afghan headgear are hardly found in the photos that were recovered during investigation. The militants don’t have flowing beards. A militant roams around the way an Army trooper would. It is hard to differentiate the two,” he adds.

With winter approaching in a few months, the upper reaches will be covered in snow and will turn hostile for the militants. Security agencies fear that the militants will come down the mountains, which could mean more encounters. “Our bigger worry is that they may recruit locals in the Doda belt. That could prove disastrous. It is a hard-earned peace in Doda for security agencies. But the high unemployment rate, inflation, and polarisation could all be exploited by them. We need to take measures now,” says a police officer.

Business

- ‘Capital gains rejig won’t hurt realty’

- No tax relief for non bank P-Note holders from Gift IFSC

- ITC plans to invest ₹20,000 cr. in 5 years for organic growth: Puri

- Sugar mills seek policy framework to promote sustainable fuels

- DGFT tweaks EPCG scheme to make compliance easier

- Russian coking coal imports at 5-year high in Q1FY25

- IndiGo Q1 net dips 12% as costs mount

- ‘Govt. on track to reduce fiscal deficit’

- Chennai Petro Q1 standalone net declines 38% to ₹343 cr.

- CUB Q1 net rises 16% to ₹264 cr., lower provisions aid

- IndusInd Bank Q1 net rises 2% to ₹2,171 crore

- Shriram Finance Q1 PAT grows 18.2% to ₹1,980.59 crore

- Nifty-50 hits all-time high, Sensex surges 1,233 points

- Power Grid Corp Q1 net profit grows 3.5% to ₹3,724 crore

- Cholamandalam Investment Q1 net rises 30% to ₹942 crore

‘Capital gains rejig won’t hurt realty’

Vikas Dhoot

NEW DELHI

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra says capital gains tax changes aimed at removing the arbitrage between asset classes such as equity shares and real estate; observes that India’s tax-to-GDP ratio is not low as is generally assumed

India’s tax-to-GDP ratio is not low as is widely assumed, and suggestions that the proposed changes to the capital gains tax regime will hurt the real estate sector are misplaced, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra asserted on Friday.

Acknowledging that expanding India’s tax base was a real challenge with no simple solutions, the gradual formalisation of the economy would make it difficult for people to stay outside the tax net, Mr. Malhotra said at an interaction with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). “Our tax-to-GDP, given our level of development is actually not so low… when you take into account the State taxes. The ratio is at about 11.7%-11.8%, so let’s say 12% for the Government of India, and another 6% is States, so it is about 18%,” he said.

“It has been empirically demonstrated that this could also be a function of income levels in various countries. So if you plot it with per capita income... then we are slightly above what that per capita income should actually indicate. So we are not doing poorly,” he underlined.

Addressing industry members’ concerns on the loss of indexation benefits in long term capital gains, especially in real estate transactions, Mr. Malhotra said the changes in the capital gains tax regime are aimed at removing the arbitrage between various asset classes such as equity shares and real estate. To a lesser degree, it is also meant to reduce the gap between taxation on capital gains and other forms of incomes, such as those from salary, business or rentals, Mr. Malhotra said.

“Some people may say we need to promote housing, and I saw some report saying that the housing industry will be negatively impacted… I looked at the Nifty Realty [index] and to my surprise, I saw it went down immediately after the Budget… After that, it has recovered,” he noted.

No tax relief for non bank P-Note holders from Gift IFSC

Ashley Coutinho

Mumbai

The Budget has failed to provide tax relief to non-resident holders of offshore derivatives instruments (ODIs) or P-Notes, issued by non-bank entities from Gift IFSC.

In May, the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) allowed non-bank entities registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to issue ODIs with Indian securities as underlying at Gift-IFSC. Till then, only foreign banks could issue them.

Advantage banks

At present, Section 10(4E) of the Income-Tax Act provides an exemption to non-resident ODI holders in the case of transfer or distribution of any income earned on derivative instruments contracts entered with IFSC banks.

“The omission of extending section 10(4E) tax exemptions to non-residents dealing with non-bank entities in IFSC creates disparity and uncertainty. Ensuring tax clarity akin to that provided for IFSC banks is very much needed to develop this product,” said Jaiman Patel, Partner, EY India.

“Non-bank entities at Gift IFSC such as broker dealers and fund managers have been allowed to issue P-Notes to overseas investors. No corresponding amendment, however, has been made in this Budget to provide tax exemption to these subscribers.

“A relaxation in tax law should be considered soon in order to boost further investments via this route, especially in debt instruments,” said Rajesh Gandhi, Partner, Deloitte India.

Relying on treaty

Tax relief will give certainty under domestic tax laws as against relying on treaty benefits for ODI structures done outside India that are subject to onerous conditions, experts said.

For instance, those writing an ODI from U.K. have to rely on the UK treaty to take the tax benefit on interest income and dividend. Tax authorities, at a later stage, can potentially deny the tax benefit on the pretext the investor is not the beneficial owner.

Coming through Gift IFSC, however, provides an added layer of certainty as treaty-abuse and indirect transfer provisions do not apply and there are no capital gains to be paid on the debt investment.

The Budget 2023 had amended Section 18A of Securities Contract Act, 1956, to provide ODI contracts issued by FPIs in GIFT IFSC and regulated by the IFSCA will be valid and legal contracts. P-Notes accounted for 2.14% of total assets under FPI custody at March end.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

ITC plans to invest ₹20,000 cr. in 5 years for organic growth: Puri

The Hindu Bureau

MUMBAI

Sanjiv Puri ANI

ITC Ltd. plans to invest ₹20,000 crore in the medium term (five years) to scale up its businesses, CMD Sanjiv Puri said.

“Despite the near-term headwinds, the medium-term growth story remains strong and investments made across all our businesses to enhance structural competitiveness and build an enterprise of the future, position company well to leverage emerging opportunities in the market,” Mr. Puri told shareholders at the company’s AGM held in Kolkata.

“Our confidence in the India story is unwavering and is reflected in the company’s investment outlay of about ₹20,000 crore in the medium term.”

Lion’s share for FMCG

Elaborating at a media briefing, he said while about 40% will be invested to grow the FMCG business, about 20% will go to the paperboards and packaging. The balance will be invested in ari business, for corporate purposes and in innovations, he added.

The demerger of the hotels business into a separate company was on track and the new entity is expected to be listed by the end of this year. In line with the ‘asset-right’ strategy for the hotels business, 32 hotels have been opened in the last 24 months, taking the total to almost 140 hotels.

“Segment ROCE of hotels has risen by nearly 1,100 bps over the pre-COVID period,” he said. The value-accretive acquisitions of the ITC Group in recent years were showing appreciable progress.

Sugar mills seek policy framework to promote sustainable fuels

The Hindu Bureau

COIMBATORE

The Indian Sugar & and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) said it met Union Minister of Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi and made a detailed presentation seeking a policy framework for transition of sugar mills into bio-refineries.

The association said in a press release that along with bio-ethanol, bio-electricity and bio-gas, the units can also produce sustainable aviation fuel, green hydrogen, E-100 and 2-G ethanol.

Deepak Ballani, Director General of the ISMA, said the association discussed a roadmap for making the 55 million Indian sugarcane farmers, who are already providing the raw material to make fuel for cars, to cater to aviation fuel too.

The Centre unveiled 400 E-100 (100% ethanol) pumps last year, he pointed out. The delegation assured to work closely with the government to quickly build these new, high-tech sugar mills, ISMA said.

DGFT tweaks EPCG scheme to make compliance easier

Amiti Sen

New Delhi

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) announced changes for simplification of the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme making it easier for exporters to comply with norms and cutting time and effort for meeting requirements, the government said

The scheme, which allows import of capital goods for pre-production, production and post-production at zero customs duty against an obligation to export, will now provide exporters an extended period to submit installation certificates for imported capital goods, reducing pressure on businesses to meet timelines.

Also, a simplified and reduced composition fee structure for extending the export obligation period has been introduced to minimise manual intervention, streamline compliance and speed up service delivery, as per a statement issued by the Commerce Department.

“These changes align with the commitment of the government to create a more business-friendly environment and improving India’s manufacturing competitiveness,” it was said in the statement.

The Policy Relaxation Committee decisions regarding export-obligation extensions and regularisation of exports will be implemented with a levy of uniform composition fee making it easier to implement through the system.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

Russian coking coal imports at 5-year high in Q1FY25

Abhishek Law

New Delhi

India’s Russian coking coal buying for April – June period (Q1) is at a five-year-high at 2.02 million tonne (mt); while share of shipments from Australia – the key hard coking coal supplier – in total imports has fallen to a five-year-low of 56% to 8.54 mt.

Australia, though, continues to be the highest supplier despite its steadily declining share in Indian imports. And, the USA is the second highest supplier of coking coal at 2.08 mt, down 2.5% y-o-y.

Changing market

Incidentally, share of Russian coking-coal imports have steadily moved up from 9% to 13% of total imports between Q1FY21 (1 mt out of 11 mt) and Q1FY25, indicating a CAGR of 15%. In fact, on a y-o-y basis, shipments from Russia in the April – June period of this fiscal was up 45% from 1.40 mt, as per market research firm BigMint data.

Russia displaced other popular sources such as Mozambique and Canada. In Q1FY25, India imported 15.49 mt, up 4%-odd, year-on-year. Coking coal imports for the same period last fiscal was 14.98%.

“Steel mills have steadily explored new countries for securing coking coal sourcing. And, from 62% in Q1FY21, and 75%-odd (share to total imports), Australian supplies are significantly down this time. Price volatility and recalibrating furnaces are seen as key reasons for the change,” a Steel Ministry official told businessline.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

IndiGo Q1 net dips 12% as costs mount

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Budget carrier IndiGo recorded an 11.7% YoY slide in net profit for the first quarter of FY25. In the April-June quarter, which is the peak travel season on account of summer break, IndiGo’s profit after tax (PAT) slid to ₹2,728.8 crore from ₹3,090.6 crore in the year-earlier period.

This was despite an 11% increase in aircraft capacity and an 8.7% rise in revenue per seat kilometre (the ability to raise airfares measured through yields).

Total income rose 18% to ₹20,248 crore while total expenses surged 24% to ₹17,444 crore.

CFO Gaurav Negi said the results were impacted by costlier fuel, including because some States that had cut VAT on aviation turbine fuel, reversed their decision. There was also an increase in airport fee, inflationary pressure in maintenance, rising lease rentals and staff costs.

‘Govt. on track to reduce fiscal deficit’

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Fitch Ratings on Friday exuded confidence over the Centre’s ability to achieve its enhanced fiscal deficit reduction goal of 4.9% of GDP this year, and below 4.5% of GDP in FY26, but noted that the post-election Budget did not provide clarity on medium-term targets.

While the Budget did highlight “a desire to manage deficits to keep debt on a declining path”, Fitch Ratings reckoned that the long-term deficit target of 3% of GDP under the 2003 Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act “no longer appears to be a guiding objective”.

“Public finance metrics remain a weakness in India’s credit profile; its fiscal deficit, interest-to-revenue and debt ratios are still high compared with ‘BBB’ category peers.

“Sustained fiscal consolidation that supports a downward trajectory in the government debt ratio over the medium term... would support India’s credit profile and could ultimately contribute to upgrade potential for the rating, combined with the positive momentum on macroeconomic performance and external finances,” Fitch Ratings said.

Chennai Petro Q1 standalone net declines 38% to ₹343 cr.

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, (CPCL) reported standalone net profit for the June quarter contracted 38% from the year-earlier period to ₹343 crore. Revenue from operations rose to ₹20,361 crore from ₹17,986 crore, the company said in a statement. CPCL achieved crude thruput of 2.830 million tonnes against 2.677 million tonnes. Gross refining margin (GRM) stood at $6.33/bbl compared with $8.33/bbl in the year-earlier period.

CUB Q1 net rises 16% to ₹264 cr., lower provisions aid

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI

City Union Bank Ltd. (CUB) reported standalone net profit for the June quarter rose 16% year-on-year to ₹264 crore helped by an increase in interest income, improvement in asset quality and lower provisions.

Interest income grew by 10% to ₹1,389 crore and net interest income stood at ₹545 crore (₹523 crore). Net interest margin shrank to 3.54%, from 3.67%, the private sector lender said.

Gross non-performing assets declined to 3.88%, from 4.91%. Net non-performing assets slid to 1.87% (2.51%), with the bad loans ratio easing back to pre-COVID levels.

IndusInd Bank Q1 net rises 2% to ₹2,171 crore

The Hindu Bureau

Mumbai

IndusInd Bank reported consolidated Q1 FY25 net profit grew 2% from the year-earlier period to almost ₹2,171 crore, according to a regulatory filing.

The year-on-year growth in net profit was about 30% in Q1 FY24. The slower growth was the result of an increase in provisions and contingencies by 5.9% in the reporting quarter and heatwaves and general elections impacting rural economy in some pockets, said Sumant Kathpalia, MD & CEO.

Gross Non-Performing Assets ratio climbed to 2.02% from 1.94% and Net NPA to 0.60% from 0.58%.

Shriram Finance Q1 PAT grows 18.2% to ₹1,980.59 crore

The Hindu Bureau

MUMBAI

Shriram Finance Ltd. reported first-quarter standalone net profit grew 18.2% to ₹1,980.59 crore from ₹1,675 crore in the year-earlier period.

Net interest income for the period ended June 30, 2024 stood at ₹5,354 crore, up 20.6% YoY. Provisions increased to ₹1,188 crore from ₹879 crore in the year-earlier period.

Net interest margin (NIM) stood at 8.79% in Q1 FY25, down 23 bps YoY. NIM was largely constant due to stable yield on advances, the company said.

Nifty-50 hits all-time high, Sensex surges 1,233 points

The Hindu Bureau

MUMBAI

Key benchmark stock indices on Friday gained about 1.7% following heavy buying in infrastructure, IT and pharma stocks.

BSE Sensex gained 1.62%, or 1,293 points, to hit 81,333 points, close to its all-time high level.

NSE Nifty-50 index rose 1.76%, or 429 points, to 24,834.85, its all-time high.

Top Sensex gainers included Bharti Airtel (4.51%), Adani Ports (3.61%), Tata Steel (3.27%), JSW Steel (2.98%), and Infosys (2.93%).

Power Grid Corp Q1 net profit grows 3.5% to ₹3,724 crore

Power Grid Corporation of India reported first-quarter consolidated net profit rose 3.5% to ₹3,724 crore from ₹3,597 crore in the year-earlier period. Revenue for the quarter ended June 30, fell to ₹11,006.18 crore from ₹11,048 crore in the same period last year. Revenue from the transmission business declined to ₹10,728 crore, from ₹10,829 crore a year earlier. On a standalone basis, the Q1 profit fell to ₹3,412 crore from ₹3,543 crore ayear earlier.

Cholamandalam Investment Q1 net rises 30% to ₹942 crore

Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co. Ltd. (CIFCL) reported standalone net profit for the June quarter increased 30% from the year-earlier period to ₹942 crore. Total revenue from operations increased to ₹5,785 crore from ₹4,063 crore. Net income grew by 43% to ₹3,033 crore. Net interest margin rose to 7.6% (7.3%). Assets under management (AUM) increased 38% and stood at ₹1,68,832 crore, the company said in a statement.

Foreign

- I will not be silent on Gaza, Harris tells PM Netanyahu

- Sri Lanka presidential polls to be held on Sept. 21

- Ceremonial finish

- Former deputy Defence Minister held on charges of corruption in Russia, says FSB

- Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police

- US arrests Mexican drug lord 'El Mayo' and El Chapo's son in Texas

- French rail network hit by 'sabotage' on eve of Paris Olympics

- Over 150 JI, PTI workers arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province for protests against government

- EU transfers €1.5 billion raised from Russian assets to Ukraine

- Abu Ara, Hamas leader in West Bank, dies in Israeli custody

- Philippines races to avoid 'environmental catastrophe' from oil spill

- Barack Obama endorses Kamala Harris, offers backing

- Belgium charges three Chechens for ‘terrorism’

- With uncertainty across the Atlantic, Europe worries about its own security

- Greece’s ‘Instagram island’ Santorini nears saturation point

- Sacred and the broken

- U.S. sanctions target Chinese companies linked to North Korea’s weapons programme

- 4th century Gaza monastery put on endangered site list

- Rival gangs sign truce in Haiti’s largest shanty town

I will not be silent on Gaza, Harris tells PM Netanyahu

Agence France-Presse

Washington

Ripping up outgoing President Joe Biden’s playbook of behind-the-scenes pressure, the Vice President told the Israeli PM that it was time to end the ‘devastating’ war in the ‘frank’ meeting

Changing stance: Kamala Harris meets with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, in Washington DC on Thursday. REUTERSNATHAN HOWARD

Kamala Harris signalled a major shift on U.S. Gaza policy on Thursday, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be “silent” on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.

Ripping up outgoing President Joe Biden’s playbook of mostly behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel, the Vice President said after meeting Mr. Netanyahu that it was time to end the “devastating” war.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Ms. Harris told presspersons.

“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb — to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

The 59-year-old — now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after Mr. Biden said over the weekend he would not stand in November’s election — said she pressed Mr. Netanyahu on the dire situation in the “frank” meeting.

She said she “expressed with the Prime Minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians”.

Mr. Biden, for his part, held Oval Office talks with Mr. Netanyahu and called on him to swiftly “finalise” a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, and “reach a durable end to the war in Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the meeting.

Ms. Harris also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and, similar to Mr. Biden, urged both Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Ms. Harris’s outspoken comments were a stark contrast to the largely amiable greetings between Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu earlier in the day, even if it masked months of tensions between the two men.

Ms. Harris has been more outspoken on Gaza in the past than Mr. Biden and there had been speculation that she could adopt a tougher approach on Israel.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sharply criticised his Democratic political rivals and pledged to work for peace in the West Asia if re-elected as he met with Mr. Netanyahu in Florida on Friday.

Sri Lanka presidential polls to be held on Sept. 21

Meera Srinivasan

COLOMBO

Ranil Wickremesinghe -

Sri Lanka’s presidential polls will be held on September 21, the Election Commission said on Friday. Some 17 million voters will have their first chance of electing the country’s leader, after a mass people’s uprising ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa two years ago.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe was among the first to formally get into the fray. His office announced making a cash deposit at the Commission for his candidacy as an Independent, although he has relied on the Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Front) since his rise to presidency through an urgent parliamentary vote, after Mr. Gotabaya’s resignation amid the 2022 economic downturn.

During his two years in office, Mr. Wickremesinghe has vowed to rebuild the country’s economy with an International Monetary Fund-led austerity and reform programme. While no official announcement in regard to his candidacy was made until Friday, the senior politician has sought to highlight his efforts towards economic stability in recent public speeches, signalling a desire to contest. However, his government faces fierce criticism over high living costs, with several sectors demanding salary hikes to cope.

Prominent challengers

Mr. Wickremesinghe, 75, has served as Prime Minister six times, and as President for two years now, but has never won a presidential election through a popular vote.

In the election scheduled to be held this September, he faces two prominent challengers in Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and Leader of the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Sri Lanka’s first three-cornered presidential race. All past presidential polls in Sri Lanka have had two main contenders, and in most cases, one obvious winner.

Both Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Dissanayake have been campaigning with a pledge to end corruption and alleviate people’s economic distress through a renegotiated IMF package.

The Rajapaksas’ SLPP is yet to name its candidate, likely to be a non-Rajapaksa. Some other aspirants, including former Army chief Sarath Fonseka and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, have thrown their hats into the ring.

Meanwhile, a group of northern Tamil parties have agreed to field a “common Tamil candidate”, a proposal that some others in Tamil polity have deemed a non-starter.

Ceremonial finish

To the booths: Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez raise their arms during their closing campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela on Thursday. The presidential election is set for July 28. APMatias Delacroix

Former deputy Defence Minister held on charges of corruption in Russia, says FSB

Reuters

MOSCOW

Dmitry BulgakovKIRILL ZYKOV

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that Dmitry Bulgakov, a former deputy Defence Minister, had been arrested and charged with corruption, the Interfax news agency reported.

The RIA state news agency quoted the FSB as saying that an investigation was under way to establish the facts of Mr. Bulgakov’s alleged “illegal activities”. It said he was sent to a pre-trial detention centre in Moscow.

Mr. Bulgakov, who was in charge of military logistics until he was dismissed in September 2022, is the latest in a string of high-profile Defence Ministry figures to have been charged with corruption.

The arrests are the biggest scandal to hit the Russian Army in years and come at a time when the new Defence Minister, Andrei Belousov, an economist with no military experience, has been tasked with purging the Army of corruption and streamlining its finances to fund what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The clampdown on high-level corruption began on April 23 with the arrest of Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov, a close ally of ex-Defence Ministry Sergei Shoigu.

The Kremlin has played down the previous arrests and said other Russian state agencies were engaged in similar anti-corruption efforts.

Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police

Agence France-Presse

Dhaka

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff said.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month’s street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to a count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

“They took them from us,” Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky said.

The trio’s student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not “at the expense of so much blood”.

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

U.S. arrests Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ and El Chapo’s son

Reuters

WASHINGTON

Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and the son of his former partner, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, were arrested on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, in a major coup for U.S. authorities that may also reshape the Mexican criminal landscape.

Zambada is one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico’s history and co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo, who was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.

Both Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo, face multiple charges in the U.S. for funnelling huge quantities of drugs to streets, including fentanyl, which has become z leading cause of death for Americans.

French rail network hit by ‘sabotage’ on eve of Paris Olympics

Agence France-Presse

Paris

France’s rail network was paralysed on Friday by coordinated acts of sabotage which knocked out most of its high-speed train services hours before the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

French rail operator SNCF said three night-time arson attacks had destroyed cabling boxes at strategic junctions around its network at locations north, south-west and east of Paris.

A fourth attempted act of vandalism south-east of the capital was thwarted by rail workers who spotted intruders in the early hours of Friday.

“Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilised to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal posted on X, calling the attacks “prepared and coordinated acts of sabotage”.

The Paris Olympics are set to open in a spectacular and unprecedented ceremony on the river Seine on Friday evening, with many ticket holders set to travel to the City of Light by train. Around 25% of trains on the Eurostar network were cancelled.

Over 150 JI, PTI workers arrested in Pakistan’s Punjab province

AFP

More than 150 workers of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were arrested by law enforcement agencies in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Friday for planning to stage protests against the hike in electricity bills and demanding the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. PTI

EU transfers €1.5 billion raised from Russian assets to Ukraine

Getty Images

The EU on Friday said 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) had been made available to support Ukraine, the first chunk of money earned from profits on Russian frozen assets. EU member states had agreed in May to use the profits from frozen Russian central bank assets to help arm Ukraine and fund its post-war reconstruction. AFP

Abu Ara, Hamas leader in West Bank, dies in Israeli custody

REUTERS

Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, a 63-year-old Hamas leader in the West Bank died in Israeli custody, Palestinian authorities and the militant group said on Friday. Abu Ara was arrested in October and was subjected to torture and starvation, the Palestinian body and the watchdog said. AFP

Philippines races to avoid oil spill from sunken tanker off Limay

AFP

The Philippine Coast Guard on Friday raced to offload 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil from a sunken tanker and prevent an “environmental catastrophe” in Manila Bay. One crew member died when the MT Terra Nova sank in rough seas nearly seven kilometres off Limay municipality early on Thursday. AFP

Barack Obama endorses Kamala Harris, offers backing

Associated Press

ATLANTA

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have endorsed Kamala Harris in her White House bid, giving the Vice President the expected but still crucial backing of the nation’s two most popular Democrats.

The endorsement, announced on Friday in a video showing Ms. Harris accepting a joint phone call from the former first couple, comes as Ms. Harris builds momentum as their party’s likely nominee after President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and endorse his second-in-command against Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.

Ms. Harris, who has known the Obamas since before his election in 2008, thanked them for their friendship and said she looks forward to “getting there, being on the road” with them in the three-month blitz before the Election Day.

Belgium charges three Chechens for ‘terrorism’

Agence France-Presse

Brussels

A Belgian judge on Friday charged three Chechens on suspicion of terrorism offences, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

They are suspected of involvement with the Islamic State (IS) group’s Khorasan offshoot in central Asia. Seven people, all of Chechen origin, were detained on Thursday.

With uncertainty across the Atlantic, Europe worries about its own security

Associated Press

LONDON

After relying on U.S. leadership of NATO to protect them with nuclear, conventional capability for the past 75 years, European nations are under pressure to take a larger role in funding and leading the 32-nation bloc because their interests are increasingly diverging from those of the U.S.

Common cause: NATO country members flags flutter at the bloc’s headquarters in Brussels. FILE PHOTOGeert Vanden Wijngaert

When Donald Trump suggested during the 2016 presidential campaign that he might not honour a U.S. commitment to defend other NATO countries if they were attacked, it triggered alarm throughout the trans-Atlantic alliance.

With Mr. Trump’s “America First” rhetoric drawing cheers from fervent supporters, the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is once again on the agenda. But this time, European leaders acknowledge the alliance must evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century and say they are ready to shoulder more responsibility for their own defence.

A lot has changed in eight years.

Military support

First, Mr. Trump’s presidency forced Europe to recognise that U.S. military support was no longer guaranteed, then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscored the threat on its eastern border. Meanwhile, the U.S. has increasingly focused on China’s expansion in the Asia-Pacific, as well as Iran and North Korea.

“Confronted with powers such as Russia and China, and the United States whose pivot to Asia seems inevitable, no matter who wins the next election, we Europeans need to do more to ensure our own security,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, wrote last weekend in The Times of London.

After relying on U.S. leadership of NATO to protect them with overwhelming nuclear and conventional capability for the past 75 years, European nations must take on a larger role in funding and leading the 32-nation alliance because their interests are increasingly diverging from those of the United States.

“We are talking about a NATO which the United States is still part of, but which the United States is no longer the indispensable leader (of),” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank focused on defence and security. “I mean, that is what J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are talking about. They’re talking about a NATO that is transformed and one in which the Europeans take the greatest share of the burden.”

NATO grew out of secret talks among U.S. officials after Second World War about how to supply military equipment to Western Europe and ensure a coordinated response to any attack by the Soviet Union. The 12 founding members signed the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949.

NATO’s military structure is headed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who is also the commander-in-chief of American forces in Europe. The U.S. is expected to spend almost twice as much on its military this year as all the other alliance members combined, according to NATO statistics.

Wake-up call

Mr. Trump’s skepticism about NATO was underlined last week when he named Mr. Vance as his running mate. Mr. Vance has opposed U.S. support for Ukraine, has criticised European nations for slashing defence spending since the Cold War, and said it’s time for “Europe to stand on its own feet.”

Europe got another wakeup call on Sunday when President Joe Biden, whose strong support for NATO was cemented during stand-offs with the Soviet Union in the 1970s, said he would not seek reelection. Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, has backed the administration’s position on NATO and aid to Ukraine, but she entered politics long after the Cold War and is better known for her work on domestic issues.

“The question is whether she will have that same strong trans-Atlantic view that’s kind of part of her blood in the way that Mr. Biden had it,” said Armida van Rij, an expert on European security policy at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Mr. Trump’s threat to renege on NATO’s collective security guarantee, a cornerstone of the alliance, is based on his belief that member states aren’t living up to their funding commitments, forcing U.S. taxpayers to subsidise Europe’s defence.

That argument has weakened since 2016.

Twenty-three of the alliance’s 31 non-U.S. members will meet or exceed their commitment to spend at least 2% of economic output on defence this year, up from just three 10 years ago, according to figures compiled by NATO. Overall, the non-U.S. members now spend 2.02% of gross domestic product on defence, compared with 3.4% by the U.S.

Besides that, the EU has ambitious plans to boost its defence industry in response to the threat posed by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has urged European nations to seek more independence on airspace defence and relocate production to the continent.

The risks for Europe, as well as the United States, are evolving. It’s not just about Russian tanks on Europe’s borders. NATO, as a defensive alliance, must also consider the threats posed by Iran, China and North Korea and be prepared for cyber warfare and foreign interference in elections, as well as conventional military attacks, Ms. van Rij said.

That means European nations need to increase troop numbers, upgrade equipment such as tanks, fighter planes and transport aircraft, and improve their ability to counter technological threats, she said.

Greece’s ‘Instagram island’ Santorini nears saturation point

Agence France-Presse

Greece

Overrun, overwhelmed: Tourists wait for the sunset in the village of Oia on the Greek island of Santorini. AFPARIS OIKONOMOU

One of the most enduring images of Greece’s summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.

This scene has inspired millions of fridge magnets, posters, and souvenirs — and now the queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can take more than 20 minutes.

Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.

Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents.

“We need to set limits if we don’t want to sink under overtourism,” Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos said. “There must not be a single extra bed... whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals.”

As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia, thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause.

For canny entrepreneurs, the Cycladic island’s famous sunset can be a cash cow.

One company advertised more than 50 “flying dresses”, which have long flowing trains, for up to 370 euros ($401), on posters around Oia for anyone who wishes to “feel like a Greek goddess” or spruce up selfies.

But elsewhere in Oia’s narrow streets, residents have put up signs urging visitors to respect their home.

‘Respect Oia’

“RESPECT... It’s your holiday... but it’s our home,” read a purple sign from the Save Oia group.

Shaped by a volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago, Santorini’s landscape is “unique”, the mayor said, and “should not be harmed by new infrastructure”.

Around a fifth of the island is currently occupied by buildings.

In 2023, 800 cruise ships brought some 1.3 million passengers, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.

Cruise ships “do a lot of harm to the island”, said Chantal Metakides, a Belgian resident of Santorini for 26 years. “When there are eight or nine ships pumping out smoke, you can see the layer of pollution in the caldera,” she said.

In June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis floated the possibility of capping cruise ship arrivals to Greece’s most popular islands.

“I think we’ll do it next year,” he told Bloomberg.

In an interview, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni echoed this sentiment and said: “We must set quotas because it’s impossible for an island such as Santorini... to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time.”

Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year. But not all local operators agree.

The modern tourism industry has also changed visitor behaviour.

“Instagram has defined the way people choose the places to visit,” tourist guide Kostas Sakavaras said, explaining everybody wants the perfect Instagram photo to confirm their expectations.

Sacred and the broken

A statue of the Virgin Mary amidst the rubble of homes demolished at Adjame village in Côte d’ Ivoire. Clashes broke out between the police and hundreds of residents of Abidjan on Thursday morning during a demolition and eviction drive. AFPISSOUF SANOGO

U.S. sanctions target Chinese companies linked to North Korea’s weapons programme

Agence France-Presse

Beijing

Workers file through the glass doors of a quiet office in suburban Beijing, the unassuming targets of new U.S. sanctions aimed at breaking their company’s alleged links to North Korea’s weapons programme.

China is a key ally and economic backer of diplomatically isolated North Korea, and analysts say Pyongyang relies heavily on Chinese firms and banks to buttress its military and moribund economy.

Washington announced sanctions on Wednesday against six people and five companies in China, accusing them of helping North Korea procure crucial materials “in flagrant violation” of UN Security Council resolutions designed to rein in its nuclear weapons development. China maintains that it consistently implements UN sanctions and opposes “unilateral” actions by Washington.

One of the companies targeted on Wednesday was Beijing Sanshunda Electronics Science and Technology Co. Ltd., a firm run out of a small 13th-floor office in a sterile business park in the south of the capital.

The U.S. Treasury accuses Shi Qianpei, a Chinese citizen, of serving as a kind of fixer, using the company to procure illicit items for Choe Chol Min, a Beijing-based North Korean operative at a secretive group responsible for developing Pyongyang’s advanced weapons systems.

Shi’s network of contacts and companies helped Choe obtain “sensitive electronics” and “metal sheets... known to be used in the production of North Korean missiles”, the Treasury said.

The U.S. Treasury alleges that Chen is Shi’s wife and business partner also helped to procure items for Choe. But Chen denied that she took part in its day-to-day operations.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has become a “safe haven” for North Korean sanctions evasion, said Joshua Stanton, a U.S.-based lawyer .

Beijing has “not only protected Pyongyang’s money laundering but also its arms trafficking, cyber crime, use of forced labour and proliferation” of weapons, he said.

4th century Gaza monastery put on endangered site list

Agence France-Presse

Paris

A worker walks on scaffolding at the archaeological site of the Saint Hilarion Monastery in central Gaza Strip. AFPMOHAMMED ABED

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the West Asia, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said on Friday.

UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the “imminent threats” it faced.

“It’s the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context,” Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, said, referring to the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant “provisional enhanced protection” — the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention — to the site.

UNESCO had then said it was “already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture” in Gaza.

The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Rival gangs sign truce in Haiti’s largest shanty town

Agence France-Presse

Port-au-Prince

Two rival gang leaders signed a truce to end armed conflict in Haiti’s largest shanty town, a community leader said on Thursday.

Haiti has long been rocked by gang violence, but conditions sharply worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince to overthrow the then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

The gangs control 80 per cent of the Caribbean country’s main roads and are accused of numerous murders, rapes, looting, and kidnapping for ransom.

Under the agreement between leaders of the G-9 and G-Pep groups, roadblocks in the Cite Soleil (Sun City) shantytown of around 3,00,000 inhabitants were taken down, said Pastor Jean Enock Joseph, an influential figure in the commune. “A new stage has just been reached”, the pastor said. However, he added a similar truce had been signed in July 2023 before falling apart a few weeks later.

Like much of Port-au-Prince, Cite Soleil residents were unable to move freely in the shantytown — divided into zones controlled by the rival gangs — for fear of being caught in crossfire.

The G-9 and G-Pep gangs have not clashed since February when they joined a coalition fomenting coordinated attacks to overthrow Henry, but they had maintained the divisions within Cite Soleil until Wednesday.

Nearly 600,000 people are displaced in Haiti, according to the UN.

Sports

- Paris unveils the ultimate spectacle with pomp, fervour and splendour

- The undisputed victor of Olympic shooting

- The long road to equal participation at the Games

- Postcard from Paris

- Canada soccer removes Priestman as Olympic women’s team coach

- Nadal returns to training after Olympics injury scare

- Evenepoel unhappy with ‘holes’ in road for Olympics time trial

- Osaka aims to make a grand return with a stellar show in Paris Games

- stacking up

- Plotting India’s World T20 title defence: does winning template need altering for a team in transition?

- Destiny’s child, outlier, everyman: the many shades of P.R. Sreejesh

- Merciless beauty

Paris unveils the ultimate spectacle with pomp, fervour and splendour

Y.B. Sarangi

PARIS

There has never been a celebration this grand during the 128-year history of the modern Olympiad as the Opening Ceremony, along the Seine, features iconic landmarks before culminating at Eiffel Tower; 78 athletes and officials from 12 disciplines take part from the Indian contingent

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2 of 2 Vibrant start: Sharath and Sindhu lead India’s contingent at the Opening Ceremony.Getty ImagesPool

The magnificent City of Light, dotted with the spectacular Eiffel Tower and scores of majestic buildings featuring admirable architecture, welcomed the 33rd Olympic Games in a unique way, with the much-awaited Opening Ceremony on the Seine involving a stretch of Paris’ rich heritage, here on Friday.

The riot of colours and lights turned the Seine and the pastel city into a surreal place, amalgamating history and contemporariness in a spellbinding show conceptualised by Thierry Reboul and directed by Thomas Jolly, to celebrate the return of the Olympics to the city after a century.

Contrast this to the eighth edition of the Games which were held inside the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in 1924. The Eiffel Tower was as young as only 35 years and the Roland Garros, the home of French Open for close to a century now, was only 33 and was still a year away from hosting its first Major. Paris’ Olympic reincarnation exactly after a century tells a story of the world’s evolution as well.

The novel parade, over six kilometres on Seine, took off from the Austerlitz bridge beside the Jardin des Plantes in the evening before passing under several bridges and gateways. It provided the athletes a nice view of some of the Games venues, such as Parc Urbain La Concorde, the Esplanade des Invalides, the Grand Palais and the Iena bridge, where the parade ended before the finale took place at the Trocadero.

Greece, the first host of the Games, led the flotilla of 85 boats carrying 6800 athletes with water fountains adding to the beauty of the setting. A Refugee Olympic Team followed, underlining the times we live in as 205 delegates from different countries and hundreds of thousands of people, including several who watched it free, witnessed the amazing show.

With helicopters keeping a watch overhead, 12 cultural tableaux, a cabaret show by Lady Gaga and stunning musical performances by leading French artists, including Aya Nakamura, broke the monotony of the parade.

71 giant screens, beaming the live action from 170 cameras, and strategically placed speakers allowed everyone to enjoy the magical atmosphere of this show reverberating throughout Paris.

Dressed in their tricolour-themed ceremonial attire, the designer kurta bundi sets for men and sarees for women, the Indians stood out.

78 athletes and officials from 12 disciplines took part in athletes’ parade, led by double Olympic medallist shuttler P.V. Sindhu and five-time Olympian Sharath Kamal.

The Indian athletes who took part in the grand event included some prominent names such as four-time Olympian archers Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai, Tokyo Games bronze medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain, shooters Anjum Moudgil, Sift Kaur Samra, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Anish Bhanwala, paddler Manika Batra and tennis player Rohan Bopanna.

At twilight, the bridges on the Seine lit up and set the stage for the Olympic flame to take its pride of place.

The undisputed victor of Olympic shooting

Jonathan Selvaraj

PARIS

Quality matters: Rane is in Paris to incorporate feedback on his jackets and further improve its quality.EMMANUAL YOGINIEMMANUAL YOGINI

Having drawn a blank in Tokyo, there might understandably be a hint of nerves among the Indian shooting contingent ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, beginning at Chateauroux on Saturday. There is one Indian, however, who is supremely confident of his prospects going into the event.

It is Nilesh Rane and Capapie - a Thane-based rifle jacket-making company, he founded 27 years ago and whose products are ubiquitous in elite shooting now.

Thoroughly dominant

Regardless of how the Indian team does, the gold medallist at rifle events will most certainly be wearing a jacket, the arm of which bears the trademark Capapie patch of a kneeling rifle-shooter on a green triangle.

According to 44-year-old Rane, the challenge would be to better Capapie’s performance from three years ago. “Shooters wearing Capapie jackets won eight of the 15 medals and four of the five gold medals in rifle events. Shooters wearing our jackets can win every medal in Paris,” he says.

At the Tokyo Olympics, by Rane’s own estimate, some 70 per cent of the rifle shooters were using his jackets. This time, he conservatively guesses, the number is around 90 per cent although Abhinav Bindra – speaking to Sportstar – thinks the number might be even higher.

Using a patented material and custom tailoring provides a massive edge at the elite level. Many feel the rapid rise in rifle scores over the last couple of Olympic cycles is a testament to the obsequiousness of the jacket’s use.

Unlike the kit for most other sports, the shooting jacket is critical to performance, especially in rifle events. Its main function is to support the shooter’s body. “In rifle events, shooters lean away from the target and towards their heels, which is an unnatural position. Jackets were introduced to relieve stress on muscles, tendons, and bones. A jacket that fits properly supports the back and reduces the effort needed to hold that position,” says Heinz Reinkemeier who coached Bindra to a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Growing up in Mumbai, Rane was always interested in sports. He only took up shooting because his grandfather had a nearly 100-year-old boar-hunting rifle and he had heard that it would be easier to get a license once he became a national shooter. Training under Sanjay Chakravarty, he went on to compete at the national level.

Those were early days of shooting in India and equipment was scarce.

Rane, tired of sharing his shooting jacket, made one for himself. Eventually, other shooters started noticing his kit and asked him if he could make one for them as well.

Rane was a fairly strong shooter but eventually decided to switch full-time to making jackets. “There came a time when people started calling me, not because of my shooting, but because I made good-quality jackets,” he says.

Slow start

For all his passion, the going was slow in the initial years. Shooting jackets are a very niche market and all of Rane’s customers were from India.

He says he sees his early years not as a struggle but a time for experimenting with materials and pattern making.

That tinkering finally paid off in 2014 when Rane came up with a material that he would term Capitex, a synthetic-canvas blend that provided far superior stiffness than previous fabrics had while still being flexible enough to pass the ISSF’s standards.

Perhaps, the toughest market to crack was China. “They were the most reluctant to change. They are extremely particular about what they want but when they saw that everyone else who was using my jackets was doing well, they had no choice. The entire Chinese rifle shooting team switched to Capapie in 2019, just one year before the Olympics and then, they won three gold medals out of five,” he noted.

Rane is currently in Chateauroux where he will be speaking to shooters and coaches to try and see how he can further improve his product. “I’m always looking to get better. That’s how you stay in front,” he says.

The long road to equal participation at the Games

Y.B. Sarangi

PARIS

With Paris 2024 setting a new benchmark as the most gender-equal Games ever in terms of number, it is time to look back at the long road the modern Olympics has taken in its 128-year-old journey to reach this stage.

When the Games was revived in 1896 at its spiritual home Athens, women’s participation was zero. It was during the first Paris Games in 1900 that 22 women (2.2 per cent out of the 997 participating athletes) were reluctantly allowed to compete for the first time.

Paris again took the lead with a significant number of women participating (the number crossing 100 for the first time, with 125 women out of 3070 athletes) in 1924 and ultimately attained equality after a hundred years.

“Although Paris 1924 was the last edition of the Games at which women were not able to compete in athletics events, their participation in tennis, fencing, swimming, and — albeit less prominently — in other events (sailing and artistic gymnastics) was significant at a time when they were still being firmly rejected by the world of sport,” wrote Thierry Terret, former minister delegate for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, in Olympic Review.

Grudgingly conceded

It has taken more than a century for different sports disciplines, ruled mostly by men, to slowly concede and let female athletes compete.

Although athletics, one of the most anticipated disciplines, permitted women to take part in 1928, it was not until 1984 that the women’s marathon event was added.

Three other popular sports — swimming, fencing and gymnastics — started witnessing women athletes from 1912, 1924 and 1928 respectively.

Female athletes began competing in shooting in 1968, before a separate women’s events were added in 1984.

Modern pentathlon and weightlifting welcomed the women in 2000, but wrestling had to wait until the following edition.

Boxing, another combat sport, took quite a while — as late as 2012 London Games — to accept women.

The participation of women slowly increased in the post-World War II era and finally crossed 30 per cent (34 per cent to be precise) in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) working with International Federations and National Olympic Committees to push for increased participation of women, the percentage has witnessed a steady rise over the last 25 years to reach 48 per cent in Tokyo and even closer to 50 per cent in Paris (out of the projected total figure of 10,500 athletes).

Initiatives such as an increase in the number of medal events for women and introduction of mixed gender events have contributed in making the greater participation of women more meaningful.

Crowd support: Despite the rail disruptions, fans came out in large numbers to watch the Opening Ceremony. Y.B. Sarangi

An embellished

Eiffel Tower

If Paris is hosting the Olympics, how can its most recognisable landmark, the Eiffel Tower, be left alone!

A visit to one of the most famous towers, which was first opened for the public way back in 1889, shows how nicely the engineering marvel has got in sync with the Games being held 135 years after its birth.

The Olympic rings placed upon it adds to its beauty. On the other side, the fenced arena of the beach volleyball venue creates a fine ambience.

A bit of music played from temporary stands builds the mood for celebrations.

Commuting made easy

The vast, multi-layered, complex and efficient transport network in Paris has made some adaptations to serve the massive Games related crowd.

Metros, RER trains, buses and trams not only connect almost all the major Games venues, but have also sufficient signage to guide the commuters.

For the personnel working in the deliverance and coverage of the Games, special Navigo Easy travel cards and Transport Accred app makes life easier while traversing the length and breadth of the big city.

Palpable excitement

Despite the disruption of train services, the Parisians’ excitement for the Olympics opening ceremony was noticeable. Thousands of spectators, holding the French tricolour, walked up to different entry points in orderly manner.

It was a pleasant surprise to see some members of the Indian contingent, including table tennis player Kamlesh Mehta, who are not part of the opening ceremony, in the crowd. To witness the overall enthusiasm for the Games was a beautiful experience.

— Y.B. Sarangi

Canada soccer removes Priestman as Olympic women’s team coach

REUTERS

Bev Priestman was removed as head coach of the Canadian Olympic women’s football team on Thursday after Canada Soccer found evidence of drone spying before the Paris Olympics. Assistant coach Andy Spence will lead the Canadian women’s national team for the remainder of the Paris Olympics, Canada Soccer said.

Nadal returns to training after Olympics injury scare

Getty ImagesClive Brunskill

Rafael Nadal returned to training on Friday after an injury scare had put his participation at the Olympics in doubt. Nadal practised with Carlos Alcaraz, with whom he is scheduled to compete alongside for Spain in the men's doubles first round on Saturday. He wore a bandage on his right leg after suffering a thigh injury on Wednesday.

Evenepoel unhappy with ‘holes’ in road for Olympics time trial

AFP

Remco Evenepoel, one of the favourites for Olympic time trial gold on Saturday, criticised the presence of numerous “holes” on the Paris roads which will stage the event. “The first and last five kilometres are not the best roads unfortunately. There are a lot of holes in the tarmac so it’s not great for a time trial bike to ride on it.”

Osaka aims to make a grand return with a stellar show in Paris Games

REUTERSVIOLETA SANTOS MOURA

Japan’s Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron in Tokyo three years ago but she has it all to prove in Paris as she continues her slow-burning return to tennis. She begins her Paris Games campaign against Germany’s Angelique Kerber on Saturday. “I have high ambitions and I hope that I can do really well and get a medal.”

getty images

Plotting India’s World T20 title defence: does winning template need altering for a team in transition?

Ashwin Achal

The success achieved by the Rahul Dravid-Rohit Sharma partnership will be a tough act to follow for the new dispensation, helmed by Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav. The tour to Sri Lanka will offer a glimpse of the future, with the 2026 edition a little over 18 months away

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Only a few weeks ago, India was crowned the World T20I champion. Now it is a team in transition.

The T20I retirements of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, coupled with the exit of Rahul Dravid as head coach after the high of lifting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup trophy in Barbados, has forced major changes.

Starting over

There is a new T20I captain in Suryakumar Yadav, a new vice-captain in Shubman Gill, and a new head coach in Gautam Gambhir. The next T20 World Cup is less than two years away, and India is starting from scratch.

Suryakumar’s appointment came as a surprise, as Hardik Pandya — Rohit’s deputy at the World Cup — was expected to take charge. Hardik had a fantastic run with both bat and ball in the USA and West Indies, which strengthened his case for leadership.

It should have been the great climax of Hardik’s redemption story — from being booed during IPL 2024, to winning the World Cup and becoming the India captain. But instead, Hardik has fallen down the leadership pole, stripped of the vice-captaincy post. Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar explained that Hardik’s recurrent injury troubles were to be blamed. “The biggest thing is the captain should be on the park more often than not. I mean, that’s a prerequisite,” Agarkar remarked.

While Hardik’s roller-coaster ride continues, Suryakumar has been pushed into the hot seat. Suryakumar’s credentials with the bat are beyond doubt, but as captain, he is fairly untested. The Mumbaikar led India in a five-match T20I series against Australia in November-December last year, when Hardik was out with an injury. India won the series 4-1, and Suryakumar retained leadership duties in a three-match South Africa T20I leg that followed (series tied 1-1).

Generally an all-out attacking stroke-maker, Suryakumar added nuance to his game in the World Cup when he curbed his instincts to adjust to the tough New York pitch. This ability to adapt to different situations should hold him in good stead as a leader. At 33, Suryakumar is a fairly experienced campaigner, even if the bulk of his career was spent navigating through the domestic circuit.

With Rohit retained as the ODI and Test captain, the Indian team has gone back to the split-captaincy model. If history is anything to go by, this is not a preferred permanent solution. A few months after Kohli announced that he would step down from T20I captaincy at the end of the 2021 T20 World Cup, he was replaced by Rohit as ODI captain. Kohli soon gave up Test leadership as well.

All-format captaincy situation

Suryakumar’s progression may be restricted to the white-ball formats, given that he has appeared in just one Test match. The red-ball captaincy could be a step too far.

And thus the next all-format captaincy could go to Gill. It has been an incredible couple of months for the batter, who flew back to India at the end of the group stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Batting coach Vikram Rathour dismissed suggestions that Gill was sent home for disciplinary issues, stating that the Punjab cricketer, a reserve player, was simply superfluous to the team’s needs.

Just when it seemed that Gill had fallen out of favour, he has been given a new lease on life. Immediately after the World Cup, Gill led a young side in the T20I series against Zimbabwe, which went 4-1 in India’s favour.

“Shubman is the guy we feel is a three-format player, and he has shown quality over the last year or so,” Agarkar said.

At 24, Gill has time to develop and learn from the best. “He can learn from a couple of the senior guys — Suryakumar or Rohit. He has shown some decent leadership qualities. We want to try and get him the experience,” Agarkar said.

Where does this rejig leave Hardik? The all-rounder, so crucial to the team balance, will continue to play an important part in the T20I and ODI set-up.

Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal will replace Rohit and Kohli at the top of the order in the 20-over format. Like Gill, Jaiswal did not get a game in the World Cup, but the southpaw did stay with the squad until the end of the tournament.

Jaiswal brings a fresh aggressive approach, in contrast to Kohli’s more sedate style. Jaiswal, unafraid to go for the big shots in the Powerplay, is a better fit for modern-day T20 cricket. An unbeaten 53-ball 93 against Zimbabwe earlier this month was a reminder of the match-winning ability the 22-year-old brings to the table.

Unlocking value

In Axar Patel, the side already has someone with Jadeja’s left-handed multidimensional profile. Axar, in fact, adds greater value given that he is a capable batter when promoted up the order. Jadeja’s exit opens the door for Rinku Singh, who could come in as a finisher.

The bowling unit, India’s greatest strength, does not require any tinkering. Jasprit Bumrah is the world’s best bowler across formats, and Arshdeep Singh has risen as an able ally. Mohammed Siraj is an efficient third seamer, while Mohammed Shami is working his way back from injury. Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav shines as the strike-bowler.

India’s immediate focus turns to the 2025 ODI ICC Champions Trophy, which commences in seven months’ time. For now, India will rely on old heroes Rohit and Kohli to come good in the 50-over format. Gambhir took it one step further, saying that the duo has enough in the tank to feature in the 2027 Cricket World Cup scheduled for October-November that year. This could be mere lip service, given that Rohit would have turned 40 and Kohli would be weeks from his 39th birthday when the big event comes around.

The tour to Sri Lanka, which includes three ODIs and three T20Is, will give the first glimpse of what lies ahead for the national team. Will Gambhir’s straight-talking nature be accepted in the dressing room? Will Suryakumar put his stamp on captaincy? Is Gill one for the future?

Squad depth, horses for courses, and backing players to the hilt — this is the winning template established by Rohit and Dravid. It is a hard act to follow for Gambhir and company. The short turnaround time to the next T20 World Cup leaves little room for slips and missteps.

Destiny’s child, outlier, everyman: the many shades of P.R. Sreejesh

Uthra Ganesan

The 36-year-old has had a remarkable life in hockey. Set to play in his fourth Olympics, he talks about what continues to drive him, the many battles he has fought, why he does not want to change his past, and how his family and a ‘guardian angel’ have kept him tending India’s goal

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Star. Veteran. Prankster. Fun. Crowd favourite. Team man. Brother. Life of the party. Legend.

These and other such epithets have been used to describe a 36-year-old whose name will forever be associated with the Indian men’s hockey team throwing off the albatross of a 40-year medal drought at the Olympics. The irony of six seconds defining a two-decade-long career, with its fair share of ecstasy and agony, is not lost on P.R. Sreejesh.

Those six seconds

“That’s just how life is, isn’t it? I have made better saves, played better games, won tougher matches and yet, my hockey career is, in a way, all about those six seconds in Tokyo. And the funny thing is, it shouldn’t even have been that way, we were the better side and should have won easily. And then I would have been just one in a team of 16. I still am, but that final save brought me front and centre. Makes you believe all the more in destiny, right,” he says, settling down for a chat just before leaving for Paris.

Destiny. The word has been intricately entwined with the man from Kizhakkambalam village, Ernakulam, in Kerala. How else do you explain the lanky youngster moving to G.V. Raja Sports School in Thiruvananthapuram at the age of 12? Or trying out hockey goalkeeping even though that is one event his State, a sporting powerhouse, never identified with?

Athletes are supposed to be all about their performance on the field. Yet, it’s the person off the field that often shapes and defines careers. Sreejesh, always ready with a smile and a selfie with fans, has managed to lock his struggles away from the spotlight. This time, he makes an exception, opening a tiny window into himself when asked why he wants to go to a fourth Olympics.

“When I first came into the national camp — the humiliation I faced, the rock bottom I hit on and off the turf — all that is like a fire inside that has never allowed me to sleep peacefully. That constant burning is the only thing that has pushed me hard every day. Because after winning the bronze, I realised we are capable of doing better. I feel if we had only given that one percentage extra, we could have had a different medal. And that’s why I’m here. It’s one last chance for me to change that colour,” he explains.

“Tokyo did not happen overnight. The hard work, the dedication, the humiliation, the sacrifices — not only me, my parents, my family. All that forces me to stay greedy because it’s not about me. It’s my parents, my kids. When they said you are never there with us. Now when they see me winning medals, they realise their daddy’s doing something special.”

Sreejesh’s happy-go-lucky persona hides the several battles he has fought, physically and mentally, even after becoming the country’s No. 1 goalkeeper.

Overcoming adversity

“I have no idea of the number of broken bones, many of them permanently deformed. My injury in 2017 [at Azlan Shah] was the big one, I was out for almost eight months after surgery and the youngsters — Akash Chikte and Suraj Karkera — were doing good, [Krishan] Pathak was coming into the scene. That was the first time I thought of retirement, but I wanted to wear that India jersey just once more. And that drove me.

“But 2018 was not good. I was the best goalkeeper at the Asian Games but we couldn’t get into the final and lost in the quarterfinals at the World Cup, my father went through heart surgery. I was thinking about retirement because of the pressure. I wouldn’t say it was depression — more like taking the blame and too much guilt for everything going wrong. There were people who suggested I was letting my team down. And then we got a two-month break, I spent time at home, blocked everything and everyone else. That helped me decide to give it one more try.”

To hear a livewire like him talk about depression and guilt — something most Indians are still wary of — is revealing. But there were those, too, who stood by him in those times. And Sreejesh is thankful to them, including former Dutch goalkeeper Jaap Stockman, whom he calls his ‘guardian angel’.

“At Tokyo, I was texting him every time, ‘I need your help’. At Rio, we had lost in the quarters so I wanted to know how to keep myself up. Semifinals was really new to me and then the bronze medal match was an absolutely new thing. I kept asking him, ‘What should I do? What do I focus on?’ He always reminds me, ‘It’s your game. Don’t worry, don’t overthink, just focus on basics, don’t think of negative talk when you concede.

“It wouldn’t be wrong to say that I took his experience with me to Tokyo. Even after that, I was thinking of giving up when he messaged, ‘Why? Has anyone told you to? Has the federation or the coach said you are not fit enough? How will you know till you try?’ I think that one message has kept pushing me till now.”

The past, however, is never too far from the surface and it comes up every time he talks about his family — his parents who know nothing about hockey but never had second thoughts over doing what made their son happy; his kids who would sleep in the car every night before he had to leave for another camp to try and keep him, leaving him heartbroken to move them gently; and his wife, who has managed to keep it all together, allowing him to focus on the game.

“We talk about it every time. How my father got me a new passport in one day for my first camp. The journey to my first school, how I cried there, how I joined hockey and became goalkeeper. If you ask me whether I want to change anything in my past, no I don’t — not the injuries, not the downfall, not the matches we lost at London 2012. Because everything taught me something, helped me to be what I am today.”

When greed is good

The years have also given him the confidence to declare what every successful sportsperson secretly believes — athletes are selfish people. “I am a very greedy player. We hockey players are not rich in terms of bank balance. We are rich with our performances, the medals which we get. It’s not the luxury that tempts us. It’s the respect you get when people say you inspire them, the pride you feel when you tell them, you play hockey for the country, you are an Olympic medallist. I want that all the time,” he declares.

So, what happens if that elusive medal doesn’t come at Paris? Will he keep pushing his body and mind, even though he has declared the end of his international journey? “There will always be the next tournament, the ACT, then the Pro League, the HIL, then next season. No. I’m done.”

Merciless beauty

The Royal Troon Golf Club was recently in the limelight again, staging the 152nd edition of The Open Championship and offering the sport’s ardent fans the many delights of links golf.

This view of the par-3 14th green may seem like the afterglow of a beautiful dream, but the famous Scottish course is often a nightmare to tackle. It’s the quintessential links course: wild, wind-swept, chastening and rewarding in equal measure.

With a traditional out-and-back routing for the 2024 Open, the back nine was a battle against the wind. Champion Xander Schauffele hit a 3-wood into the breeze on the third day that he felt would have travelled at least 300 yards in normal conditions; he fell nearly a 100 yards short of his estimation. “That was pretty humbling,” he said.

Links golf, because of its rough-hewn nature, demands a different set of skills than those developed in more manicured conditions. As Schauffele said after giving the winner’s Claret Jug a first kiss, “Literally, everything we do [here] is completely different than what we do in the States.”

Weekend

- The journey beyond the game

- Sighting Sibu

- What champions of eat

- Mosaic makes a mark

- A half-baked dramedy

- This Priyadarshi, Nabha Natesh starrer is a disorderly drama

- An unimaginatively written series

- A muddled mess of sex and gore

- An imperfect horror outing

The

Praveen Sudevan

Indian sports tourism is surging, with many heading to the Paris Olympics for a blend of athletic thrills and cultural experiences

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6 of 6 Play time (Clockwise from left) Cricket fan Saravanan Hari with a Pakistani supporter; Olympic rings at the Eiffel Tower; a fan takes a selfie with F1 racer Lewis Hamilton; swimmer Srihari Nataraj; strawberries and cream and champagne at Wimbledon; and fans at Wimbledon. Getty Images/istock, AP and Murali Kumar K

In Alain de Botton’s contemplative exploration of travel, The Art of Travel, he posits that our journeys extend beyond mere physical movement. Travel, according to de Botton, is an opportunity to encounter unfamiliar landscapes, both external and internal. It allows us to escape the mundane and engage with the extraordinary.

Now, consider sports tourism, a burgeoning global trend where people traverse borders to witness iconic sporting events. The global sports tourism market size, valued at $323 million (₹2,697 crores) in 2020, is projected to reach $1.8 billion (₹15,046 crores) by 2030. By de Botton’s words, these travellers are not merely chasing scores or cheering for their favourite teams; they are also on a quest for meaning. The roar of a stadium crowd becomes a universal language, transcending linguistic barriers. The adrenaline rush of a last-minute goal or a photo finish connects them to a collective human experience.

Sports tourism is growing in India, too.

Azerbaijan Tourism’s CEO, Florian Sengstschmid, reports a notable rise in Indian tourists to Azerbaijan in 2024’s first half, with 118,985 arrivals, up from 47,670 in 2023, partly due to the Baku F1 Grand Prix. Similarly, the American Express Global Travel Trends report highlights an increasing trend of Indian sports fans, especially F1 fans, planning to visit Singapore, with 29% intending to travel more for sports events and 30% specifically for F1.

“The Singapore race experience extends beyond the circuit,” says Renjie Wong, area director, Singapore Tourism Board. “People can enjoy 10 days of race-themed festivities, nightlife, entertainment, retail, dining, and attractions across the city, from Kampong Gelam to the Civic District.”

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series 2024-2025 is expected to boost Indian travel interest to Australia. According to Cricket Australia, ticket sales from India are six times higher than last year and 10 times higher than the 2018/19 edition, when India scripted a historic series win.

“The upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series 2024-2025 presents a unique opportunity to not only capitalise on the immediate surge in interest from Indian cricket fans but also to cultivate a lasting affinity for Australia as a travel destination,” says Nishant Kashikar, country manager – India and Gulf, Tourism Australia.

Rajeev Kale, president and country head, Holidays, MICE, Visa - Thomas Cook (India), highlights a 40% surge in demand for global sporting events in 2024, with the cricket World T20, Wimbledon, the Olympics, and F1 races topping the list. The company received approximately 200 queries for the India-Pakistan cricket fixture in New York.

Booking.com’s travel trends show that 23% of Indian travellers factor sporting events into their vacation plans. Their flight data reveals India is among the top five Asian countries booking flights for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The Olympics experience

Beyond the awe of witnessing peak athleticism, the Olympics is a global celebration of diverse sports and cultures. No other event unites as many countries and disciplines under one roof.

“I don’t easily talk to strangers. But one of the best parts of mega sporting events like the Olympics is the possibility of instant connection with people around you,” says Tareque Lasquer, a Bengaluru-based research professional, who will be attending the Paris Olympics, which started on July 26 . “The shared passion for sports creates a natural conversation starter, breaking down barriers and turning strangers into friends.”

Tareque and his friend have secured tickets for archery, badminton, and tennis at the iconic Roland Garros, where one of its greatest champions, Rafael Nadal, will compete in his final Olympic Games. Nadal’s farewell is drawing scores of tennis fans to the event.

Hasnain Kapadia, a pilot and tennis enthusiast from Chennai, will be in Paris for work during this time. Since his trip coincides with the Games, he bought tickets for tennis and badminton, each costing nearly 200 euros.

“Even without the Olympics, Paris is wonderful. You can simply settle down at a café overlooking the river and the Eiffel Tower, have a couple of beers, and enjoy a great day,” he says.

However, attending the 2024 Games comes at a price. Experts estimate international spectators will spend at least $5,000, including hotel, airfare, and event tickets. Despite this, sports tourists from India and elsewhere are flocking to Paris. According to Airbnb, India saw a 30% annual increase in bookings.

“Sports travel is no longer for the affluent. Now, families and young Indians across cities and regions are merging their sports passion with travel, fuelled by higher disposable income and a desire for experiential journeys,” says Daniel D’Souza, president and country head, Holidays, SOTC Travel.

For superfans and non-fans

The many Indians who witnessed the India-Pakistan game from the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York included Saravanan Hari, a superfan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise. Cricket has taken Saravanan to various corners of the world — Dubai, Sri Lanka, the UK — and now, the US.

Saravanan, who works in logistics, had saved some money through brand collaborations during the Indian Premier League to attend the World T20 (held in the US and West Indies), in which India triumphed. But he was not sure if the money was enough (the estimated budget was ₹10 lakh, and he had only four). And a US visa is not easy to secure.

But fortune favoured Saravanan: his visa application, sent in March, came through in May. Accommodation was a hurdle until an old friend in the US offered a place to crash. The CSK management provided tickets for three matches, including the India-Pakistan fixture.

“In the end, thanks to amazing friends and some good fortune, my World Cup dream became a reality,” he says, “Even with those savings, the entire thing cost me ₹4 lakh. But it was worth it! A group of Pakistani fans recognised me. We bonded over our love for cricket. I also saw some iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Centre, Times Square, Niagara Falls... Most of all, I experienced the pure joy of seeing India lift the cup.”

Beyond the competition

Travelling for sports is a thrill not just for the spectators but also for the athletes. Beyond gaining home fan support abroad, they enjoy exploring new places, people, and food. “In the past, I avoided exploring during tournaments, fearing it would disrupt my focus. But I’ve realised that enjoying a good meal and exploring responsibly are fine,” says swimmer Srihari Nataraj, who will represent India in the 100metres backstroke event at the 2024 Olympics. “Now, I make it a point to soak in local culture and sights, especially history and architecture. It’s become a key part of my travel experience beyond just the competition.”

Srihari is among the 10,500 athletes vying for glory in Paris. With over nine million spectators expected, the city will buzz with excitement as fans and athletes alike dive into its rich culture and history. As the track, field, stadia, and pools await them, so do the museums, boulevards, and cafes.

Now, then, let the games begin!

Adithya Narayan

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4 of 5 (Clockwise from left) Hand-made noodles being dried; the laksa; a snapshot of Sibu; and tourists at a night market. Adithya Narayan

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London, Paris and Bangkok are tourist destinations that double up as capital cities and are on most people’s checklists, for they grant them one of the key takebacks from a holiday — bragging rights. But look beyond the horizon of capitals: crowds diminish, commodities are cheaper, and curated programmes give way to authentic experiences. In Malaysia’s case, bustling Kuala Lumpur may rank as the capital and draw most tourists, but it could be more rewarding to look across the South China Sea, to the city of Sibu set on Borneo Island.

Borneo, the third-largest island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea, was ruled by the Sultan of Brunei till the 18th Century. By the time colonisation ended, the territory of Brunei shrank to a speck and the rest of the island was split between Indonesia’s Kalimantan State and Malaysia’s Sabah and Sarawak states, with Sibu falling under the latter.

Step outside Sibu Airport, and a sense of déjà vu greets the visitor. Across the road stands a patch of green that harks back to the verdant landscapes of many South Indian states. Sarawak, by virtue of being a tropical region, is replete with rainforests, and Sibu’s topography is no different.

The similarities are far outnumbered by differences though. Population density is less, leaving people and buildings few and far between. Roads, dotted with large pick-up vehicles and small-capacity scooters, are plied by laid-back motorists who have no qualms about stopping at red lights, and honking is seldom heard. Business establishments welcome customers with dedicated open-parking spaces reminiscent of the ones seen in Hollywood movies.

Sarawak, Malaysia’s biggest State, is dominated by ethnic tribes and Malays. Sibu, with its strong Fuzhou presence — people who migrated from China looking for work — is an outlier. The cuisine, however, is a mix of everything. Laksa, a noodle soup with meat and coconut milk, traces its roots back to China, while midin, a jungle fern cooked in fish broth, is a native of Sarawak.

Interestingly, Sibu shares culinary traditions with India too. On a visit to one of the longhouses, a building on stilts that stretches to the back, where the native Iban population lives, visitors are greeted with welcome snacks, which are essentially Tamil Nadu’s paniyaaram (known by the same name) and Kerala’s achappam (called kuih rose).

Sightseeing prospects in Sibu include boating along the Rajang river and a stroll through the night market. Here, everything from cooked meat and dumplings to fresh-cut fruits and alcohol is sold. Mee sua, a type of thin wheat noodle, is also part of Sibu’s tradition. The city is home to a small group of people who have been employed in the business of hand-made noodles for generations. A visit to one such enterprise offers a glimpse of what goes into making noodles by hand. The transformation of a pile of dough into a thin strand of noodles is fascinating to behold.

The city is home to this and much more. Ultimately, if losing oneself is not a priority, and the joy of discovering something takes precedence, Sibu is a haven for such souls.

The writer was in Sibu at the invitation of Scoot.

Ananyaa Desikan

With prawn Madras, vegetable biryani and more, the Indian contingent at the Olympics is guided by chief nutritionist Aradhana Sharma

1 of 4 (Clockwise from left) German IOC president Thomas Bach at a salad bar; a restaurant on the premises; Aradhana Sharma; and the Asian food district. Getty Images/istock and special arrangementChina News Service

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When we travel to a foreign country, one of the things we are keen to explore is the food the place has to offer — armed with medicines to treat heartburn, just in case. But for Indian sportspersons in Paris for the Olympic Games 2024, familiarity is paramount.

The Olympic Games in Paris have officially begun. More than 110 participants are at the Olympic village as part of the Indian contingent. Along with them is a team of coaches, doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, and for the first time, a nutritionist as well.

“Nutrition plays a major role in their performance. They will have to consume a well-balanced meal and try avoid having something new. When they are in a foreign country, there may not always be dishes they have eaten previously or even know of, and will want guidance. If there is no Indian alternative, I can suggest a close alternative. And in case they suddenly feel tired or unwell, their diet will require some tweaking,” shares Aradhana Sharma, chief nutritionist, IOA (Indian Olympic Association) who is in Paris with the contingent. This is Aradhana’s fourth Olympic cycle in India as a nutritionist, and she has worked with several Olympians, including archer Tarundeep Rai, boxer Amit Panghal, and shooter Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar.

The Olympic village has four dining districts: World, French, Halal, and Asian. These halls will be functional round the clock, but the participants will not be allowed to cook anything within the venue. “We were sent the menu well in advance and the Olympic hospitality team was very cooperative in accommodating our requirements as well. The dishes are available with many alternatives. So if it’s a curry, for example, there will be a non-vegetarian variant with different proteins, a vegetarian option, and a plant-based one as well. This is very helpful as we have a lot of vegetarian participants,” says Aradhana.

In the menu, staples like eggs and bread are available across all districts. As part of the Asian district, dishes like prawn Madras, dal, vegetable biryani, lamb korma, butter chicken, and chicken curry with mango are available along with basmati rice. Other than these options, vegetables, fruits, smoothies, and other beverages are also served. The menu served is on an eight-day rotational basis.

“The Indian participants, especially the ones at this level, would have participated in the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, or even in the previous Olympic editions. So they are familiar with what to consume, even non-Indian dishes — some of our participants include quinoa or tofu as part of their diet. But for this event, the IOA has come up with an app to aid them through their stay there. The menu with the dietary details will be available on it, and they can check any time,” Aradhana says.

“The meal plan cannot be the same for all. We don’t even generalise it within each sport. It is very personal,” she adds. “For example, if an athlete requires 3,000 calories, based on the sport they play, we calculate the protein, fat, and carbohydrate quantities in percentage. We don’t let carbohydrates go below 55% of the total calories. If they are an endurance athlete, 60-65% should come from carbohydrates. But a power sport athlete will require more protein,” explains Aradhana.

Along with the training given by coaches, the athletes also work with personal nutritionists as they prepare for events of this scale. “I got their diet chart and all the data from their personal nutritionists a couple of months back and have been working with that. Some athletes only qualified at the last minute, but we have managed to get their diet plan and allergies or preferences.”

While these stringent diet plans and restrictions are in place, there is always room for comfort food. “If a participant has difficulties in getting acclimatised, they would want to eat something comforting like a bowl of ice cream. So based on their fitness goal, we allow cheat days once in five or 10 days,” she concludes.

Praachi Raniwala

Sisters and artist duo Aashika and Tanishaa Cunha dress the windows of Hermès Mumbai store with hand-cut glass mosaic

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3 of 3 (Clockwise from left) A carousel with horseshoe-inspired seats; a ferris wheel; and (below) Tanishaa (left) and Aashika. Special arrangement Six Ways to Sunday

As luxury houses recognise the value of thinking glocal for a market like India, collaborations with homegrown names have been on the rise. For French luxury house Hermès — that has continually championed the intersection of fashion, craft and culture — this has been a no-brainer. The brand’s codes may be steeped in equestrian heritage, but a steady patronage of art is just as integral to it. Case in point: its special window displays, where the brand commissions select artists to turn its storefront into a whimsical canvas, designed to make one stop and stare.

And if you are due for a visit to Hermès’ new store in Mumbai’s Jio World Plaza luxury mall, you can witness the latest one. It has been dreamed up by sisters and mosaic artist duo Aashika and Tanishaa Cunha, who have also created murals and figurines for Ala Moana Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Elephant Parade in the past. As Hermès celebrates Faubourg at its historic address on 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris all through the year, the sisters have used the ancient craft of hand-cut glass mosaic to create their fairground of joy.

Over 1,200 hours and 36,000 tiles (a mix of Indian and Italian) across two windows later, the result is an immersive window installation that lets you step into a fantastical realm, all taking its cues from the architecture of the brand’s iconic store. A ferris wheel attached to a stairway alongside a gilded ironwork elevator adorns one window. The metal work extends to the next window through connecting stairways and archways. A brightly lit carousel with horseshoe-inspired seats is a nostalgic nod to the quintessential fairground, but adapted using Hermès objects. “We transformed the gilded ironwork elevator and other metal work into whimsical rides in order to capture the magical energy of a fairground as well as the Faubourg,” says Tanishaa.

This is not the brand’s first artist collaboration in India, it has also worked with the likes of Sumakshi Singh and Rooshad Shroff in the past. In April this year, Hermès also had designer and filmmaker Aradhana Seth create the Faubourg in an Enchanted Forest window installation inspired by Gond art for the launch of the JWP store.

This latest collaboration with the Cunha sisters was particularly relevant because of the dominant presence of mosaic in Hermès stores around the world. “We wanted to create a joyful setting through a well-balanced geometric play of lines and patterns,” explains Aashika, who also works at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum in Mumbai. “The idea was to depict imaginary levels combined with connecting pathways made of stairs and archways, inspired by the labyrinth-like structure of the Faubourg store,” adds Tanishaa.

The process started with digital explorations and drawings and patterns, followed by honing in on the colours of the vitreous glass tiles before they could be washed and cut. “We both believe that beauty is in the curves, so the glass tiles were cut manually, and this process is very intricate,” admits Aashika. The design was then sketched out on a cement sheet for the tiles to be glued on to. “We used the house’s emblematic codes like the Art Deco-inspired H deco pattern and the chaine d’ancre motif (often used in their jewellery), and recreated it with mosaic tiles,” Tanishaa carries on. “It’s been thrilling to collaborate with a brand that has craftsmanship and creativity at the core of its DNA,” they sign off.

On display at the Hermès in Jio World Plaza, Mumbai, until October 15.

A half-baked dramedy

Anuj Kumar

Bling, banter,and background score don’t align properly in this feather-weight contest between career and cupid

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After going for theKill,the Dharma family returns to its bread and butter recipe where producer Karan Johar has mastered the art of pushing the envelope only to take it off fire much before the boiling point. A spiritual successor to Good Newwz (2019), director Anand Tiwari bringsBad Newzwith clickbait headlines but little detailing. More like a product frompopular Punjabi cinema written for a Hindi-speaking audience, it is the kind of film where the background score makes a screeching entry before the hero arrives. The comedy is centred around heteropaternal superfecundation, a rare condition where two eggs of a female with more than one partner get fertilised by two different sperms in one menstrual cycle.

In Bollywood terms, it is the biological impact of the chemistry that love triangles cause. And Tiwari has tailored it according to the sensitivity ofBollywood behemoths that want their films to taste like aconcoction of liberal values and youthful zingbut can’t risk the disapproval of conservative family audience.

Saloni Bagga (Triptii Dimri), a young chef aspiring to win a Meraki Star for her restaurant falls in love with a rakish West Delhi boy, Akhil Chaddha (Vicky Kaushal), who runs a popular soya chaap shop. Beneath the flamboyance and magical charm, Akhil is a mamma’s boy whose overprotective and clingy nature comes in the way of Saloni’s rise in her profession. As the two part ways, Saloni shifts to a hotel in Mussoorie where she finds a sedate Punjabi colleague in Gurbir (Ammy Virk), recovering from a broken relationship with a Gujarati girl by opening a restaurant devoted to Gujarati cuisine.

In a rare feat for a Hindi film heroine, Saloni gives in to her hormones only to find that it was not such a wise thing to make new bonds without clearing the emotional clutter of the previous relationship. Somewhere deep beneath the bling and banter, Saloni’s condition is a metaphor for the dilemmas a working woman with well-defined career goals deals with. The fraternal twins developing in her womb are like her career and love. Does one have to feed off the other to survive? Can they coexist?

However, given the way the screenplay is structured and executed,there is hardly any scope for subtlety or attempting to touch upon the mental architecture of today’s girl. It turns Saloni’s relatable condition into a spoof. In thegame of the predictable one-upmanship between the two fathers, there is hardly any discussion on her career for which she moved away from Akhil.

Writers Ishita Moitra and Tarun Dudeja are keen on keeping the film featherweight withcomic set pieces meant to keep the masses interested. Some of them work well. The insight into elderly people’s engagement with daily soaps and reality shows is spot on. The connection between Gujarati girlfriend and non-vegetarian food rings a bell but the situational humour is neither consistent nor not consistently well etched out. It feels like references from other sources have been cut and pasted without proper context and emotional impact.

It seems the makers want the audience to tune in toTauba Tauba, the chart-busting item number,after listening to heteropaternal superfecundation and some empty talk on theimportance of Meraki Star in a chef’s career. The film sounds like an advertisement for the rating system that evaluates the quality of services provided by businesses. For a film where the three central characters are in the business of food, theambience doesn’t match the ambition. It is neither true to Karol Bagh nor ingrained in South Delhi.

After being anointed national crush by social media, Triptii is going through the Bollywood frippery that most female stars go through in the early stages of their careers. She needs to work on her comic timing but every time the emotional pitch rises, one can see she retains theBulbullin her that made her an actor to watch out for. For a change, the Sikh character is not stereotyped in a Hindi comedy and Ammy Virk impresses as the boy who perhaps puts brain ahead of brawn but the writers haven’t given the chicken-loving character enough meat in the script to chew on.

Vicky Kaushal is the lifeline of the dramedy, keeping it on course even when the humour sags and the drama deflates. His Akhil Chaddha feels like the firstcousin of Ranveer Singh’s Rocky in Johar’s universe. If some of the fluidity in his dance steps seeped into the storytelling,Bad Newzwould have brought cheer.

Bad Newz is currently running in theatres

This Priyadarshi, Nabha Natesh starrer is a disorderly drama

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo

How far would you go for the sake of love? This question has anchored several relationship dramas in books and cinema. In the Telugu film Darling, written and directed by Aswin Raam, and starring Priyadarshi Pulikonda and Nabha Natesh, when the male protagonist finds himself in a muddle, his resolute expression makes it evident that he is willing to give it his all. However, the foundation of this romance is so weakly established that it can make viewers wonder why he does not just walk away. The answer to this comes towards the fag end of the film; by then, it is too little and too late to hold interest.

Portrayals of psychological conditions such as dissociative disorder or multiple personality disorder are not new to Indian cinema. In the past, such characters have been a part of thrillers and vigilante dramas, the most popular being director Shankar’s Aparichitudu (Telugu dubbed version of Anniyan). Aswin Raam’s story aptly references Aparichitudu to explain how in that film, the central character takes on different identities and the styling makes it amply clear to viewers which identity is at play. Reality, though, is a different ball game. A spouse or a family member might struggle to identify the shifting identities of someone diagnosed with a psychological condition.

Darling is narrated from the point of view of Raghav (Priyadarshi), who is told as a child that only if he studies well can he dream of a well-paying job and a good wife with whom he can travel abroad for a honeymoon! He grows up rather naive, nurturing the sole dream of a career and marriage as a ticket to Paris.

Much of the first hour goes by narrating Raghav’s attempts to find the perfect match, surrounded by friends who have a stereotyped notion about women and married life. When an unexpected turn of events makes him meet Anandhi (Nabha Natesh), things happen swiftly. The two get married and he knows next to nothing about her.

When he gradually discovers her psychological condition, the film tries to deal with situations partly with humour and partly with seriousness, doing neither convincingly. The presence of Nandini (Ananya Nagalla) as a psychologist ensures that Anandhi’s condition does not become a butt of jokes among Raghav’s friends but the methods outlined to deal with the condition are certainly cinematic.

The film takes far too long to establish the conflict point and even after Raghav knows what is ahead of him, the narrative is mostly a meandering mess. When Raghav’s parents get involved in the drama and he tries to manage situations by not revealing her condition, the situations get further contrived. Had he sat across the table and talked to them, we would have been spared the rest of the drama.

Priyadarshi depicts Raghav’s dilemma with sincerity. He effectively portrays the agony of a man who desperately wants to help his wife and is willing to do everything with patience. However, he can only do so much to salvage an overdrawn and boring film. On her part, Nabha tries her best to portray the different identities in her character and hits the right notes in certain segments. Vishnu Oi is wasted in a friend’s role. Muralidhar Goud manages to make an impression occasionally. Vivek Sagar’s music works as the saving grace in several portions of the film. Naresh Ramadurai’s cinematography is characterised by warm, sunny tones that offset the despair in the relationship drama.

There are rare moments in Darling when the protagonist extols the significance of marriage and its guests that give his character and the story some gravitas. These moments are rare and buried underneath a messy screenplay.

Darling is currently running in theatres

An unimaginatively written series

SR Praveen

Nagendran, the titular character in Nagendran’s Honeymoons, appears to be a creation of convenience. He is written as a naive, hapless man who would roll without resistance in any direction that he gets kicked. Nothing appears to interest him except good food. Not even a glimmer of desire is visible in his eyes when he looks at any of the six women he marries, one in each episode of the series.

This portrayal is convenient in deflecting the anger that one must naturally feel towards a man who indulges in serial marriage fraud. His close friend Soman (Prasanth Alexander), a marriage broker and a drama artiste, is the character written in such a way as to bear the brunt of the anger. The scheming Soman devises plans to fix Nagendran (Suraj Venjaramoodu)’s marriage with multiple women, to swindle the dowry money.

Nagendran goes with the plan without resistance, abandoning each of the women without remorse so that he can get enough money to fly to Kuwait with the help of another friend. In another writing choice notable for its convenience, most of the women have a flaw; Lilly (Grace Antony) has mental health issues and indulges in bouts of violence, Laila (Shweta Menon) is out from jail having served a term for murder, Savithri (Niranjana Anoop) is pregnant from another man and Thankam (Kani Kusruthi) is a sex worker.

Most of the episodes are iterations of the same narrative, of the fraudulent duo entrapping a vulnerable woman in marriage. One thing that saves the poorly written episodes is the change in locale in each, from the backwaters to the highlands across Kerala. Some thoughtful work gets done in recreating the late 1970s time period in which the story is set, but the background score used to evoke the period only works at a few points.

For filmmaker Nithin Renji Panicker, who debuted with the controversial Kasaba (2016) and made the rather forgettable Kaaval (2021), some of the episodes in Nagendran’s Honeymoons are signs of slight improvement. But, some others, like the one set in Ottapalam, are written unimaginatively. The entire extended part of Savithri’s romance with a college professor and the emotional drama in her household would make us wonder whether it was a spoof on some old film. But, no, the makers are serious about this.

The saving grace in the series is the performance of Prasanth Alexander and, to an extent, that of Suraj Venjaramoodu, Grace Antony, Shweta Menon, and Kani Kusruthi. It was also a joy to watch yesteryear actor Janardhanan after a long time.Nagendran’s Honeymoons is an unimaginatively written series that does not tread any new ground.

Nagendran’s Honeymoons is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

A muddled mess of sex and gore

Mini Anthikad Chhibber

Roland Emmerich has failed to turn this story of a fraternal power struggle, an ailing emperor, crooks and conmen, slaves and obsession, into an engaging spectacle

After Tudor England, ancient Rome is another cornucopia that content creators have raided forever. William Wyler’s Ben-Hur is something of a gold standard. That jolly mix of friends turning against each other, a nobleman being condemned to becoming a galley slave and redeeming himself on the arena are irresistible. And that chariot race is! Eleven minutes of heart-stopping thrill, where the only sound is of the thundering hooves and the whistle of air as the horses and their rider make the tight turns on the spine, never fails to thrill.

Master of disaster, Roland Emmerich, seems to be the man to helm this story of the games in ancient Rome. Emmerich, who has given us jaw-dropping spectacle in films such as Independence Day and 2012, is out of sorts in this adaptation of Daniel P Mannix’s Those About to Die. The book, which is supposed to be a non-fiction account of the history of the games, plays fast and loose with history but is supremely entertaining for all that. Incidentally, Mannix’s book was also an inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, whose sequel is coming out in November 2024 (yay).

Now that we have got all the background out of the way, let us get into Those About to Die, which is what gladiators said to Caesar before fighting each other to death. All who thought of AC/DC get full marks for their music taste, we salute you. All this distraction and going down various pop culture rabbit holes is thanks to the all-round tediousness show.

Emperor Vespasian (Anthony Hopkins) rules with twinkly-eyed gravitas while his sons, the warrior general Titus (Tom Hughes) and the politician Domitian (Jojo Macari), go about the business of keeping the empire running. Grain shortages have kept the public on a short fuse, and one way to distract them is with games in the Colosseum.

The games have many stakeholders, from the patricians to those who run the betting houses, the gladiators, trainers, charioteers, medics, stable boys, and slaves. Tenax (Iwan Rheon), who grew up on the streets, is the master of the seamy side of the games, setting right whatever needs fixing, from games to races and annoying senators.

There are many threads to the tale. There is the Imperial power struggle, the fight between the four charioting factions, with Tenax setting the cat among the pigeons by starting a fifth faction with star charioteer Scorpus (Dimitri Leonidas). Numidian Cala (Sara Martins-Court) finds work with Tenax only as a way to free her daughters Jula (Alicia Edogamhe) and Aura (Kyshan Wilson), who were sold as slaves.

Jula is a slave at the house of the Blue faction leader Marsus (Rupert Penry-Jones), and his wife Antonia (Gabriella Pession) and Tenax see an opportunity for some spying. Cala’s son, Kwame (Moe Hashim), is sold as a gladiator, and we get to see a day in the life of a gladiator, which includes swapping sentimental stories of home with cellie, Viggo (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) and playing David to the Goliath-size gladiator, Flamma (Martyn Ford).

Everyone does their evil and pointless machinations while mouthing dialogue woodener than the swords they spar with. There is a lot of gratuitous sex and bloodletting — just one example is the search for that legendary “man with the scar”, that is conducted in a brothel, voyeuristically peeping at various moaning couplings. One is willing to forget the cardboard characters, the historical inaccuracies, the dreadful acting (poor Anthony Hopkins!), and planet-sized plot holes if only Emmerich had given us breath-taking spectacle — we are not very different from our Latin counterparts, with our craving for bread and circuses!

Unfortunately, the games are mind-numbing, with the chariot races and gladiatorial battles dully repetitive. By the time of the climax with the flooding of the amphitheatre, and releasing the crocodiles to attack the treacherous senators, one is exhausted and uncaring and even the morose hippopotamus grunting in its cell does not create a flutter of interest.

Those About to Die is streaming on Prime Video

An imperfect horror outing

Gopinath Rajendran

A young woman from the US, wanting to deepen her relationship with God, reaches the shores of Italy to a convent filled with nuns. In the process of taking her final vows to adhere to the evangelical counsels and becoming a nun, she uncovers a series of sinister events leading to a horrific discovery that explains the methodically mediated happenings of her life. This is the story of The First Omen, a film released just a while ago. But if you took it as a plot summary of Sydney Sweeney-led Immaculate, you aren’t particularly wrong either.

In a shocking hit to the bodily agency women had, the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to have an abortion which was upheld for decades and by rights, it became fodder for Hollywood to churn out horror stories. No wonder it feels cathartic when Sweeney rakes up a body count of religious extremists who try to snatch away her right to bodily autonomy. Though limited, they make for the best stretches of this horror film which doubles as a hat-tip to yesteryear Italian horror flicks.

After a good long stretch called the first half, most of which should have ended up below the editor’s work table, we, along with Cecilia (Sweeney), discover that she’s pregnant despite being a virgin. The film picks up pace as we are introduced to what she endures as the trimesters add on and it hits a crescendo when both her water and hell break loose. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that Sweeney single-handedly carries Immaculate on her able shoulders. The film does not reinvent the horror wheel and would have fallen flat if not for its central actor doing right by the film’s title. Sweeney takes charge of the tale like her life depends on it... a part of which could actually be true, considering she’s also its co-producer.

Director Michael Mohan’s film lacks ambition and sticks to the basics of its chosen genre. A character calls Cecilia “an angel of light” and then we are shown an inscription of Corinthians 11:14 as a callback. We are told about the catacombs under the convent 15 minutes into the film and as expected, that’s where the climax unfolds. An early mention of science makes a comeback when it’s used to perpetrate unspeakable horrors in the name of instigating the Second Coming. Immaculate is riddled with Chekhov’s Guns but all they shoot are blanks, offering little to no impact in driving home its point.

If the sub-genre of nunsploitation with a spoonful of gore and jumpscares tickles your fancy, the film might be right up your alley. But suppose you are on the lookout for a solid horror flick that has the propensity to make you scream like how the brilliant Sweeney does in the film’s final moments, Immaculate might not offer you anything euphoric except for a neat performance from the Euphoria star.

Immaculate is currently running in theatres

Table of Contents

The Hindu

National

SC will examine if Governors’ actions ‘subvert’ federalism

SC extends stay on Uttarakhand, U.P. order to shops on Kanwar Yatra route

17 candidates secure perfect scores as NTA declares final results of NEET-UG

After arson attacks on rail network, show by the Seine rolls out in Paris

Olympics kick off

Scrap NITI Aayog as it has not served any purpose: Mamata

BJP alliance with TDP, JD(U) is a ‘Fevicol-like’ bond, says Rajiv Singh

Minister ducked question on legal guarantee for MSP, says Opposition

219 proposals for High Court judges’ appointment are being processed: Centre

Remarks on ‘division of West Bengal’ lead to uproar in House

Tempers fray as BJP MP allowed to speak on Valmiki ‘scam’

Brittas’ Bill faces protests from treasury benches

‘Bangladesh govt. acting as if a foreign army is invading the country’

PM defends Agnipath scheme on anniversary of Kargil War

Defamation case a move to gain ‘cheap publicity’: Rahul

ASEAN cornerstone of India’s Act East Policy: Jaishankar

Congress ignored needs of our armed forces: Vaishnaw

Modi’s claim ‘blatant lie’, an insult to our armed forces, says Kharge

Pakistan rejects Modi’s Kargil Vijay Diwas speech as ‘rhetoric’

Mosques covered on Kanwar Yatra route in Haridwar

Congress questions Centre’s ‘fiscal mismanagement’ in J&K

Chargesheet filed against 7 accused in Pune car crash case

Royal burial mounds of Assam now on UNESCO World Heritage List

AAI flags increase in fire accidents at airports, stresses need to follow SOP

14238

Getting Navy frigate upright may take up to 3 months: official

The way out of sins

CBI arrests one more in NEET paper leak case

Heavy rain floods parts of Gujarat; IMD issues red alert

India, U.S. sign agreement to protect cultural heritage

Regional

U.P. Deputy CM a ‘pawn’, says Akhilesh; save SP from extinction: Maurya

Fact-finding report exposes ‘flaws’ in West Bengal eviction drive

RJD MLC Sunil Singh expelled for his ‘derogatory’ remarks against Bihar Chief Minister

Uttarakhand hikes ex gratia for martyrs’ kin to ₹50 lakh, set to give quota for Agniveers

Rathore replaces Joshi as Rajasthan BJP president

Quota for Agniveers in police, State armed forces, says M.P. CM

Remarks on Governor should conform to law, HC tells Mamata

Char Dham pilgrims will have to carry trash bags in vehicles

Congress forms poll panels for Maharashtra, Mumbai

Curtailed freedoms, policed bodies

Echoes of a war and its wounds

Killed by the job

Edit

Using children’s personal data legally and securely

A new push in the Bay of Bengal

letters to the editor

Fiscal federalism

Special relationship

Fighting militants in the mountains

Business

‘Capital gains rejig won’t hurt realty’

No tax relief for non bank P-Note holders from Gift IFSC

ITC plans to invest ₹20,000 cr. in 5 years for organic growth: Puri

Sugar mills seek policy framework to promote sustainable fuels

DGFT tweaks EPCG scheme to make compliance easier

Russian coking coal imports at 5-year high in Q1FY25

IndiGo Q1 net dips 12% as costs mount

‘Govt. on track to reduce fiscal deficit’

Chennai Petro Q1 standalone net declines 38% to ₹343 cr.

CUB Q1 net rises 16% to ₹264 cr., lower provisions aid

IndusInd Bank Q1 net rises 2% to ₹2,171 crore

Shriram Finance Q1 PAT grows 18.2% to ₹1,980.59 crore

Nifty-50 hits all-time high, Sensex surges 1,233 points

Power Grid Corp Q1 net profit grows 3.5% to ₹3,724 crore

Cholamandalam Investment Q1 net rises 30% to ₹942 crore

Foreign

I will not be silent on Gaza, Harris tells PM Netanyahu

Sri Lanka presidential polls to be held on Sept. 21

Ceremonial finish

Former deputy Defence Minister held on charges of corruption in Russia, says FSB

Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police

US arrests Mexican drug lord 'El Mayo' and El Chapo's son in Texas

French rail network hit by 'sabotage' on eve of Paris Olympics

Over 150 JI, PTI workers arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province for protests against government

EU transfers €1.5 billion raised from Russian assets to Ukraine

Abu Ara, Hamas leader in West Bank, dies in Israeli custody

Philippines races to avoid 'environmental catastrophe' from oil spill

Barack Obama endorses Kamala Harris, offers backing

Belgium charges three Chechens for ‘terrorism’

With uncertainty across the Atlantic, Europe worries about its own security

Greece’s ‘Instagram island’ Santorini nears saturation point

Sacred and the broken

U.S. sanctions target Chinese companies linked to North Korea’s weapons programme

4th century Gaza monastery put on endangered site list

Rival gangs sign truce in Haiti’s largest shanty town

Sports

Paris unveils the ultimate spectacle with pomp, fervour and splendour

The undisputed victor of Olympic shooting

The long road to equal participation at the Games

Postcard from Paris

Canada soccer removes Priestman as Olympic women’s team coach

Nadal returns to training after Olympics injury scare

Evenepoel unhappy with ‘holes’ in road for Olympics time trial

Osaka aims to make a grand return with a stellar show in Paris Games

stacking up

Plotting India’s World T20 title defence: does winning template need altering for a team in transition?

Destiny’s child, outlier, everyman: the many shades of P.R. Sreejesh

Merciless beauty

Weekend

The journey beyond the game

Sighting Sibu

What champions of eat

Mosaic makes a mark

A half-baked dramedy

This Priyadarshi, Nabha Natesh starrer is a disorderly drama

An unimaginatively written series

A muddled mess of sex and gore

An imperfect horror outing