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National

- Patent filings credit BBIL as ‘inventor’ of Covaxin, omit ICMR

- EC begins work on polls in J&K and three States

- Celebrating Yoga

- Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy toll touches 50; probe begins

- Kejriwal to stay in jail as HC stays lower court’s bail order

- SC refuses to put off NEET-UG counselling set to begin on July 6

- Act punishing organised cheating comes into effect

- Congress gears up to raise NEET issue in Parliament

- Trinamool joins Opposition chorus against implementing three new criminal laws

- Congress allegations on appointment of pro tem Speaker ‘misleading’: Rijiju

- Govt. diverting issue to protect paper leak kingpin: Tejashwi

- Marathwada simmers as Jarange-Patil, Hake cross swords

- NTA postpones joint CSIR-UGC-NET citing ‘logistical issues’

- FIR against Gujarat-based firm must be made public: Akhilesh

- Sena (UBT) demands transparency in MH-CET

- Gupta has not requested consular help, his family is in touch, says MEA

- Bangladesh Prime Minister arrives on two-day visit to India

- Trial court order had come down on ED ‘bias’ in Kejriwal case

- ‘Ele-fence’ in Kerala seeks to end man-animal conflict

- From Kashmir, PM attempts to shed religious connections with yoga

- Mirwaiz leads prayer at Jamia Masjid

- Tripura to move SC against HC judgment

- 98 Indians died during annual Haj pilgrimage

- Zonal Railways seek clarity on signal failure protocols

- 14208

- ‘Peer support from TB survivors aids treatment of over four lakh patients’

- Peace will return to Manipur in three months: Biren Singh

- Kuki-Zo tribal bodies urge boycott of polls to district councils

- The essence of Vedas

- Gujarat HC allows Netflix to release movie Maharaj

- SUDOKU

- Road to Atal Setu develops cracks in just six months

- Panchayat offers bribe to rape victim, NHRC issues notice

- Odisha Cong. president Sarat Pattnayak doused with ink

- NIA chargesheets 5 in cyber fraud, human trafficking case

Jacob Koshy

NEW DELHI

Rights issue: Health Ministry had claimed that the IP rights of the vaccine were ‘jointly owned’ by ICMR and Bharat Biotech. FILE PHOTOVENKATACHALAPATHY C

India’s first indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine, Covaxin, was a joint collaboration between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) with intellectual property (IP) rights jointly shared between the two organisations. That is what the public record states.

However, filings by the BBIL at patent offices in India, the United States and Europe suggest that only its scientists and personnel are credited as ‘inventors’ of the vaccine with no mention of ICMR scientists.

The Hindu has viewed documents detailing these patent applications. If BBIL personnel, credited in applications as Deepak Kumar and Krishna Murthy Ella — Chairman and Founder, BBIL — are indeed the only inventors, it contradicts a statement by the Union Health Ministry in the Rajya Sabha, which claimed that the IP rights are “jointly owned”.

In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 2021 by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who demanded details of the agreement between the ICMR and the BBIL for the development of Covaxin, the then Minister of State (Health Ministry) Bharati Pravin Pawar laid out a detailed response.

Jointly owned

The Minister’s statement said the ICMR would provide a “well characterised” virus strain for vaccine development, the BBIL would develop the final vaccine formulation and, be given a “non-exclusive” licence granted to commercialise the product within two years.

It was explicitly mentioned that the “...intellectual property over the product would be jointly owned by the ICMR and the BBIL”.

The ICMR would also receive as royalty 5% of net sales to be remitted half-yearly.

The ICMR said that while it had not funded the BBIL for Covaxin development, one of its institutes — the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune — had spent “funds for Covaxin development.”

Received royalty

It also funded phase-3 clinical trials of Covaxin at 25 locations, involving 25,800 participants. All in all, the ICMR spent ₹35 crore for developing Covaxin.

As of January 2022 — as per an update by the government to the Rajya Sabha — the ICMR received ₹171 crore as royalty for Covaxin.

Ms. Pawar’s response to Parliament, however, did not elaborate on the sharing of patent rights.

The BBIL, which has over the years had several research collaborations with public research bodies such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the ICMR itself, has listed scientists from all institutions as ‘inventors’ in patent applications.

A BBIL spokesperson told The Hindu that the patent filed by Bharat Biotech was only for “process development” and specific to the making of the vaccine. It also covered the use of an adjuvant (an ingredient used in vaccines to elicit a stronger response) that was licensed from the Kansas-based ViroVax and added to Covaxin.

India’s patent laws allow both product and process patents. Product patents grant an inventor a monopoly over, say, a drug. Process patents bar competitors from making a similar drug using the same sequence of steps.

EC begins work on polls in J&K and three States

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

It will be the first Assembly election since abrogation of Article 370 , division of J&K into two UTs; delimitation of constituencies to be held; Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand too gear up for polls

The Election Commission (EC) has kicked off preparations for holding Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir by updating electoral rolls in these States.

The terms of the existing legislative Assemblies will end on November 3 (Haryana), November 26 (Maharashtra) and January 5, 2025 (Jharkhand) and polls are required to be conducted before the completion of their terms.

Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are also to be conducted for constituting a new House after delimitation of constituencies, the EC said in a statement on Friday.

“Witnessing the huge participation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the commission has also directed for updating electoral rolls in the union territory with July 1, 2024 as the qualifying date,” the statement said.

In December last year, the Supreme Court had directed the poll body to hold Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30.

PM, CEC’s stand

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Assembly polls would be held soon in Jammu and Kashmir and plans were also afoot to restore Statehood to the Union Territory.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said recently that the poll body would soon initiate the process of holding Assembly polls in the Union Territory after witnessing the enthusiastic response during the Lok Sabha polls. It will be the first Assembly polls since the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.

The poll body said July 1 would be the qualifying date for the electoral rolls update.

Pre-updation activities will begin on June 25 to set up or rationalise polling stations at locations most convenient to electors in group housing societies, slums, city outgrowths and rural areas. The final electoral rolls will be published on August 20.

Celebrating Yoga

Wellness matters: Uniformed personnel mark International Yoga Day at the Gateway of India in Mumbai on Friday. EMMANUAL YOGINIEMMANUAL YOGINI

Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy toll touches 50; probe begins

The Hindu Bureau

KALLAKURICHI

Bidding adieu: Relatives of the hooch tragedy victims taking part in a funeral procession in Kallakurichi. S.S. KUMAR

The death toll in the hooch tragedy in Tamil Nadu rose to 50 with 13 more persons losing their lives after consuming spurious liquor at Karunapuram in Kallakurichi. The victims included five women and a trans person.

Most of the victims who died on the interim night between Thursday and Friday were from Karunapuram. Twenty-seven persons died at the Government Kallakurichi Medical College Hospital, 16 at the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital in Salem, four at the Government Villupuram Medical College Hospital and three at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) in Puducherry.

135 people hospitalised

A total of 135 others, including six women, are undergoing treatment at the Government Kallakurichi Medical College Hospital; government medical hospitals in Salem and Villupuram; and at Jipmer.

Official sources said a 71-member team of specialist doctors, nurses and technicians drawn from government medical colleges and hospitals in Salem, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Tiruchi and Chengalpattu had been sent to the Kallakurichi hospital.

Former High Court judge B. Gokuldas, the one-man commission appointed by the State government to probe the tragedy, on Friday visited the Kallakurichi hospital and Karunapuram, the epicentre of the tragedy, and held a meeting with officials. He visited those admitted to the hospital and inquired about the incident. He met the family members of the victims. He also held a meeting with Collector M.S. Prasanth, Superintendent of Police Rajat Chaturvedi and officials from various line departments.

Tamil Nadu Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma. Subramanian visited the Jipmer in Puducherry, where some of the victims are undergoing treatment.

The CB-CID police have arrested one more person for his alleged involvement in the tragedy.

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Arvind KejriwalSANDEEP SAXENA

After a day-long hearing on the Enforcement Directorate’s plea challenging the bail granted to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case, the Delhi High Court on Friday put on hold the trial court’s order.

“Till the pronouncement of this order, the operation of the impugned order (of the trial court) shall remain stayed,” a Vacation Bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said, adding that he was reserving the order for two to three days as he wanted to go through the entire records.

The ED had moved an urgent plea challenging the trial court’s bail order, which was passed late Thursday evening.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, representing the ED, contended that the agency was not given adequate opportunity to argue its case by the trial court.

On the other hand, senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Vikram Chaudhari, representing Mr. Kejriwal, urged the High Court not to stay the bail order; they instead suggested that the court send him back to jail if it found overwhelming and cogent circumstances.

Presenting his case before the High Court, Mr. Raju said, “Material facts were not considered by the trial court. There cannot be a better case for cancellation of bail than this one. There cannot be greater perversity than this.”

“I was not allowed to argue fully. I was not given proper time to file written submissions. The trial court said ‘finish off in half an hour’ as it wanted to deliver the judgment. It did not give us full opportunity to argue the case,” he said.

Refuting Mr. Raju’s claims, Mr. Singhvi said, “This matter lasted for five hours (before the trial court). Nearly 3 hours 45 minutes were taken by Mr. Raju (ED) and then trial judge is faulted because she does not repeat every comma and full stop.”

SC refuses to put off NEET-UG counselling set to begin on July 6

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to respond to pleas for conducting a fresh National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2024 following allegations of question paper leaks.

A Vacation Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and S.V. Bhatti, however, refused to postpone or stay the counselling process scheduled to begin on July 6.

“It [counselling] only commences from July 6. It will continue for a week. Meanwhile, the applicants have many options... to amend/modify...,” Justice Bhatti told a counsel for a petitioner. The court, for the second consecutive week, issued notice to pleas seeking a CBI investigation into the allegations. A petitioner urged the court to bring the exam under its direct monitoring.

Act punishing organised cheating comes into effect

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

The law has provision for up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹1 crore for exam malpractices; the UGC-NET exam cancelled on June 19 will not be covered by the new legislation

Worrying state: National Students Union of India (NSUI) supporters stage a protest against the irregularities in NEET-UG, in Nagpur on Friday. ANIANI

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 that has provision for up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹1 crore for malpractices and organised cheating in government recruitment exams was notified by the Union government to come into effect from Friday.

The UGC-NET 2024 examination that was cancelled on June 19 on grounds of being compromised and is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will however not be covered by the newly enacted law.

On February 6, Parliament passed the Bill.

A notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Friday said, “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 (1 of 2024), the Central government hereby appoints the 21st day of June, 2024 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force.”

The Act mentions punishments for “leakage of question paper or answer key”, “directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination” and “tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system” as offences done by a person, group of persons or institutions.

List of offences

Besides these, “creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain”, “conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat or for monetary gain” and “manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations” are also among the offences punishable under the law.

“Any person or persons resorting to unfair means and offences under this Act shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than three years but which may extend to five years and with fine up to ₹10 lakh,” said the Act.

A service provider, engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of examinations, shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine up to ₹1 crore “and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered” from it, according to the Act.

Such service providers shall also be barred from being assigned with any responsibility for the conduct of any public examination for a period of four years.

The Act defines service provider as any agency, organisation, body, association of persons, business entity, company, partnership or single proprietorship firm, including its associates, sub-contractors and provider of support of any computer resource or any material, by whatever name it may be called, “which is engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of public examination”.

Congress gears up to raise NEET issue in Parliament

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

Delhi Congress president Devendra Yadav while staging a protest over the NEET and NET exams issues, in New Delhi on Friday. ANIANI

The Congress is likely to demand the cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2024, a senior leader said on Friday as the principal Opposition party is all set to raise the issue in the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha that begins on June 24.

As a separate discussion on the subject may not be possible in the short session of Parliament that will conclude on July 3, the party is likely to work out a joint strategy with INDIA allies to raise it during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address to a joint sitting of Parliament.

The party will also demand a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities, including question paper leak, as well as a complete overhaul of the National Testing Agency (NTA) that conducts exams such as NEET. Many of these points emerged during Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with NEET aspirants on Thursday.

“Thousands of students appearing for NEET are on the streets with their families in the scorching heat and [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi is silently watching the spectacle. I assure them that in this struggle, India is with you,” Mr. Gandhi said in a post on X on Friday. He also released a seven-minute video of his interaction with the NEET aspirants, in which many of them demanded a re-examination and a probe.

In the video, Mr. Gandhi, addressing the 24 lakh NEET aspirants, said, “If government can’t protect you, the Opposition will. This issue I will take up personally in Parliament.” He said two crore youth had suffered as papers of public exams got leaked 70 times in the past 10 years.

On Friday, the Congress organised countrywide protests against the NEET and demanded that the 24 lakh students, who took the test, be given justice.

Leaders detained

Several Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders, including State unit president Ajay Rai, were detained for a few hours on Friday as they tried to hold a protest outside the Vidhan Sabha over irregularities in NEET and UGC-NET.

‘National problem’

In a post on X, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said question paper leaks had become a national problem under the BJP rule, which had “ruined the future” of crores of youth. “In the last five years, papers of 43 recruitment exams have been leaked in the country. Paper leak has become a national problem under the BJP rule. India has the largest youth population. Instead of making these youth skilled and capable, the BJP government is making them weak,” she wrote.

She said that crores of talented students prepare day and night for different exams and parents bear the burden of studies by sacrificing everything. “Children wait for years for a vacancy to come. When a vacancy comes, there is the cost of filling up the form, the cost of going for the exam, and finally the whole effort is wasted due to corruption. The BJP’s corruption is weakening the country,” she added.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose said the paper leaks exposed the “governance deficit” of the Modi government. “Why are heads not rolling? Who is responsible for these paper leaks? Who is the Modi government protecting? What are the permanent solutions that the government is advancing in order to sort out this problem of regular paper leaks?” Ms. Ghose asked.

Trinamool joins Opposition chorus against implementing three new criminal laws

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to pause the operation of the three criminal laws that replace the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.

Her letter comes after a meeting with senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, who also served as the Home Minister in the UPA government.

Mr. Chidambaram, Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien and DMK’s N.R. Elango were part of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and had given dissent notes to the reports on the three Bills.

This is the first sign of Opposition parties belonging to the INDIA bloc working together on crucial issues before the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha.

A senior Trinamool leader said the presence of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha was a stumbling block to cooperation between the Trinamool and the Congress.

In her letter, Ms. Banerjee noted that the three Bills were passed in the Lok Sabha at a time when 146 MPs had been suspended.

The Trinamool chief expressed “grave concern” over the impending implementation of the three laws — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, Bharatiya Sakhsya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023 and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023.

“The outgoing government of yours had passed these three critical Bills unilaterally, and with absolutely no debate. That day, almost 100 members of the Lok Sabha had been suspended and a total of 146 MPs of both Houses were thrown out of Parliament,” she said.

The Trinamool chief said the three Bills were passed in an “authoritarian manner” in that “dark hour of democracy”.

“I urge your esteemed office now to consider at least a deferment of the implementation date. Reasons are two-fold — ethical and practical,” Ms. Banerjee said.

(With PTI inputs)

Congress allegations on appointment of

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Kiren RijijuANI

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Friday termed the Congress party’s allegations that the claims of its MP, Kodikkunnil Suresh, had been overlooked in the appointment of pro tem Speaker as “misleading”. He insisted that the Opposition had no “valid argument” on its side.

On Thursday, President Droupadi Murmu assented to appointing BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab as pro tem Speaker — usually the senior-most MP elected to administer the oath of office to other MPs in the House — of the 18th Lok Sabha. However, the Congress protested the move, asserting that Mr. Suresh who had entered his eighth term was overlooked.

Mr. Rijiju claimed that Mr. Suresh, though an eight-term MP, was not a member of the Lok Sabha in 1998 and 2004 and hence did not have an uninterrupted tenure.

“Do you think such an argument is even valid,” he asked about the Congress’s accusation that Mr. Suresh was ignored as he was a Dalit. Mr. Mahtab, he said, was entering his seventh-consecutive tenure. “We wanted the proceedings of Parliament, meeting for the first time with a new set of MPs, to start on a good note. But, even before the start of the first session, the Congress resorted to misleading everyone,” Mr. Rijiju said.

He then went on to cite past precedents to show that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had ignored the seniority principle, specifically when Congress MP Balasaheb Vikhe Patil had been appointed the pro tem Speaker, ignoring former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the late George Fernandes and former Odisha Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang, who all had more terms under their belt.

“I have to say it with great regret that I feel ashamed that the Congress has talked like this. The post of pro tem Speaker is very temporary. They play their role till the election of the new Speaker,” he said.

Govt. diverting issue to protect paper leak kingpin: Tejashwi

Amit Bhelari

Patna

Tejashwi Yadav ANI

A day after Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha accused the private secretary of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav of being involved in the NEET paper leak case, Mr. Yadav on Friday said attempts were being made to “divert the issue” to “protect the kingpin”.

On Thursday, Mr. Sinha said Pritam Kumar, Mr. Yadav’s aide, had booked the government guest house for Sikandar Prasad Yadavendu, an accused in the case. One of the arrested students, Anurag Yadav, told the police that Mr. Yadavendu dropped him at the place of accused Amit Anand and Nitish Kumar, who gave him the NEET question paper and answer sheet.

RJD leader’s challenge

“If the government has any doubts, then call my private secretary and question him. I will ask the Chief Minister to arrest whoever is guilty. On the claim made by the Deputy CM, I am wondering why the Economic Offences Unit, which is investigating the case, has not issued any such statements,” Mr. Yadav said.

“The engineer who has been arrested may be a beneficiary, but the mastermind is Amit Anand and Nitish Kumar. This government is making an attempt to divert the issue. Why does it want to protect the kingpin,” he asked.

The RJD also hit back at the BJP by releasing an old photo of Mr. Anand along with Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary.

“The main accused in the NEET exam paper leak scam is with the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. The so-called powerful Minister who was felicitated by the accused has deleted all his photos with him from his social media handles but don’t worry we have them all. Send this to your worried counterpart, the other deputy CM,” the RJD wrote on its X handle on Friday.

The RJD leader blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the paper leak and said exam papers are leaked in the BJP-ruled States.

Marathwada simmers as Jarange-Patil, Hake cross swords

Shoumojit Banerjee

Pune

Maharashtra’s Marathwada region seethed with caste tensions yet again on Friday as other backward class (OBC) activist Laxman Hake, on an indefinite hunger strike, traded bitter barbs with Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil over the Maratha reservation and OBC counter-protest issue even as Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis and CM Eknath Shinde’s Mahayuti government strove to defuse tensions.

While Mr. Fadnavis said the government did not want “a Marathas versus OBC face-off” and wanted to preclude caste tensions, Mr. Hake refused to call off his fast which entered its ninth day in Jalna’s Wadigodri village today, reiterating that the State government give a written assurance that it would not accommodate Maratha community interests at the cost of harming OBC reservation.

Throwing down the gauntlet to Mr. Jarange-Patil, Mr. Hake said, “Jarange, you do not have the stature to argue with me on reservation. Someone needs to educate and teach him about policy. He knows nothing about the Mandal Commission.”

In a stinging riposte, Mr. Jarange-Patil accused Mr. Hake of being an ‘agent’ of his bête noire, OBC leader and Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and vowed to destroy the NCP leader’s political career.

“It is clear how casteist Laxman Hake really is. I warn the Shinde government that if they try and commit injustice towards the Maratha community, then we will put their leaders in their proper places,” Mr. Jarange-Patil said.

NTA postpones joint CSIR-UGC-NET citing ‘logistical issues’

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Amid multiple controversies that the National Testing Agency (NTA) is currently embroiled in, the agency on Friday issued a notification postponing the Joint CSIR-UGC-NET exam due to “unavoidable circumstances and logistical issues”.

The notification stated: “The candidates are hereby informed that the Joint CSIR-UGC-NET Examination June-2024 which was scheduled to be held between 25.06.2024 to 27.06.2024 is being postponed due to unavoidable circumstances as well as logistic issues. The revised schedule for the conduct of this examination will be announced later through the official website.”

Candidates have been asked to keep checking the official website.

Recurring issue

This comes days after the Education Ministry cancelled UGC-NET following inputs from the Home Ministry suggesting that the integrity of the examination had been compromised.

Over the past few days, students across the country have been questioning the testing agency over the irregularities in NEET-UG, and now about the cancellation of UGC-NET.

‘FIR against Gujarat-based firm must be made public’

The Hindu Bureau

Lucknow

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday raised questions about the Uttar Pradesh police recruitment exam paper leak and its connection with a Gujarat-centric company.

He suggested that the Gujarat-based firm which conducts the police recruitment exam paper is involved in leaking the paper and only after its owner fled abroad, the State government came to know about it.

“It is the identity of the ‘BJP’, they work for cheaters. The allegation is very serious that the Gujarati company which conducts the police recruitment exam paper is involved in leaking the paper,” Mr. Yadav said on X. He added that the U.P. government informed the public about it and blacklisted the company only as eyewash to avoid public anger.

“The U.P. government should make public the copy of the FIR against that company and its owner. Such criminals are guilty of ruining the future of 60 lakh youth of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP government should prove whether they are with these criminals or with the people of the State,” Mr. Yadav said.

Sena (UBT) demands transparency in MH-CET

Abhinay Deshpande

MUMBAI

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday called for transparency in the recently conducted Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) engineering exams. He demanded that students’ marks be disclosed and their answer sheets provided to them.

The Worli MLA criticised the administration of CET, describing it as ‘weird’ and noting that exams for two papers were conducted in 30 batches, with one paper held in 24 batches.

“We demand that the answer sheets be shown to the students and their marks be disclosed. Toppers should also be announced,” he said.

Referring to alleged irregularities in the NEET and the cancellation of the UGC-NET, Mr. Thackeray accused both the Union and State governments of undermining students’ futures.

The MH-CET, conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education of the Maharashtra government, facilitates admissions to professional courses such as engineering, management, pharmacy, agriculture, law, medical, AYUSH, and fine arts.

Gupta has not requested consular help, his family is in touch, says MEA

Suhasini Haidar

NEW DELHI

Ministry reiterates that a high-level committee is looking into various inputs on the U.S. charges against the businessman; it also slams Canadian Parliament’s decision to observe a moment of silence in the memory of Hardeep Singh Nijjar

1 of 2

2 of 2 We have so far not received any request for consular access from Nikhil Gupta, but his family has got in touch with us... we are looking at the matter, as to what can be done Randhir Jaiswal Ministry spokesperson

Nikhil Gupta, the businessman accused in the U.S. of an assassination plot against Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has not asked for consular help, the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

“We have so far not received any request for consular access from Mr. Gupta, but his family has got in touch with us, and we are in touch with the family members, and we are looking at the matter, as to what can be done,” said Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, confirming that Mr. Gupta was extradited from the Czech Republic to the U.S. on June 14. He was produced in a New York court on Monday where he pleaded “not guilty” to the charges in the case.

In a statement this week, U.S. Attorney-General Merrick Garland said Mr. Gupta will “now face justice” in an American courtroom. “This extradition makes it clear that the Justice Department will not tolerate attempts to silence or harm American citizens,” he added.

The government has denied that killing or targeting Khalistani separatists abroad is “Indian policy”. However, after U.S. agencies filed charges against Mr. Gupta in November, and identified — without naming — an Indian official while publishing transcripts, which if proven may implicate others in India’s security structure and leadership, the Ministry announced a “high-level” enquiry panel into the charges levelled by the U.S.

When asked by The Hindu last month why no details about the composition of the committee, or its investigation thus far had been announced more than six months later, the Ministry spokesperson said that he could only confirm “that the high-level committee has been constituted and the high-level committee is looking into all the inputs that were shared with us”.

Nijjar case

Meanwhile, India has consistently denied similar charges made by Canada on the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023. Reacting to the Canadian Parliament’s decision to stand for a moment of silence this week to mark Nijjar’s death anniversary, Mr. Jaiswal said India opposes “any moves giving political space to extremism and those advocating violence”.

“To advocate anti-India agenda is the real problem. And therefore, we have time and again been insisting that Canadian authorities take strict action against them,” he added, referring to Nijjar supporters who took out rallies and held “mock-court trials accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his killing”.

The Ministry also took sharp aim at Australian Broadcaster ABC for a recent documentary entitled “Spies, secrets and threats: How the Modi regime targets people overseas”, which alleged that four Indian diplomats were expelled from Australia for espionage and spying on Khalistani activists and contained accusations that groups allied to the BJP were engaged in “political interference” in Australia.

“The documentary is biased and reflects unprofessional reporting. We obviously oppose any such attempts to condone, justify, or even glorify terrorism,” said Mr. Jaiswal on Friday, but did not respond to specific questions about the alleged expulsion of Indian diplomats.

Economic ties, connectivity, energy likely to dominate Hasina’s India visit

Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at a meeting, in New Delhi, on Friday. PTI-

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh arrived here on Friday for a two-day visit that is being watched keenly as it is the first state visit by a foreign head of government just 10 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term in office. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was the first to call on Ms. Hasina soon after she reached Delhi.

“Her state visit to India underlines our close and abiding ties. Appreciate her guidance on the further development of our special partnership,” said Dr. Jaishankar. Ms. Hasina has maintained cordial relations with the Modi government and the two sides have often worked together on critical issues such as combating the pandemic or security matters, but in this visit, the presence of the Governor of the Bangladesh Central Bank Abdur Rouf Talukdar in the delegation of the Bangladesh side has heightened curiosity about the substance of the visit. Bangladesh is currently combating a financial crisis including high inflation and banking sector liquidity crunch.

The delegation also includes Secretary of Economic Relations Department Mohammad Shahriar Quader Siddiqui. Notably, Kazi Zafrullah, one of the biggest bankers in Bangladesh and a leading light of Awami League, is also part of the visiting delegation.

Bangladesh which is emerging from Id-ul-Azha holidays is faced with high prices of essential food items like vegetables and meat as well as the liquidity crisis in the leading banks that has prompted the central bank of the country to take some contractionary measures. In this background, the impression has gained ground here that the economic component will dominate the current visit of Mr. Hasina.

There is an expectation that the two sides may enter into an arrangement to conduct trade without dollars. Bangla Tribune, a prominent news outlet in Dhaka has reported that Bangladesh may seek assistance from New Delhi to reschedule some of the international loans that Dhaka has taken.

The guest delegation features Mohammed Habibur Rahman, Senior Secretary of Electricity Department, and Dr. Mohammad Humayun Kabir, Secretary of the Department of Railways.

The inclusion of these figures has indicated that connectivity, finance, and electricity-related agreements may be on the anvil.

Ms. Hasina will be welcomed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday morning which will be followed by delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House with Mr. Modi and meetings with Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and President Droupadi Murmu.

Apart from finance, power, and railways, Ms. Hasina has also brought her Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud.

Both sides are expected to take up the construction of reservoirs along the cross-border river Teesta that would help Bangladesh manage the Teesta’s resources better.While bilateral economic, connectivity and energy agreements are expected to be sealed during the visit, they are also expected to exchange ideas regarding the unfolding civil conflict next door in Myanmar.

Ms. Hasina made a sensational claim last month that an international plan is afoot to carve out a “Christian state” including parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar. In a meeting with the elected members of the ruling Awami League, she had vowed to resist any attempt to disturb regional stability.

Trial court order had come down on ED ‘bias’ in Kejriwal case

Ishita Mishra

New Delhi

The ED should be prompt and fair so that it can be perceived that the principles of natural justice were also being followed by the agency Delhi court

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was acting with bias against Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founder Arvind Kejriwal, who was booked in the excise policy case, the Delhi court observed on Thursday while granting him bail. The court’s order was then put on hold by the Delhi High Court on Friday.

The trial court had said that ED had failed to give any direct evidence linking Mr. Kejriwal with the proceeds of the crime.

It also came down heavily on the ED’s arguments that investigation was an art, “... because if it is so, then, any person can be implicated and kept behind bars by artistically procuring the material against him after artistically avoiding/withdrawing exculpatory material from the record. This very scenario constrains the court to draw an inference against the investigating agency that it is not acting without bias.”

The court’s statements came on the arguments made by the ED, through Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, in which the agency had said that an approver cannot be discredited for the reason that he had been given an inducement in respect of bail or pardon.

Special Judge Niyay Bindu also said that the agency remained silent on the fact that Mr. Kejriwal was not named by the Central Bureau of Investigation in its First Information Report or the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered by the ED.

The court noted that the allegations against Mr. Kejriwal surfaced only in the subsequent statements of certain co-accused. It noted that Mr. Kejriwal had not been summoned by the court to date but was lying in judicial custody on the insistence of the ED.

“ED has not shown anything on record that Vijay Nair was acting upon the directions of the applicant. It has also failed to establish that even if Vinod Chauhan has close relations with Charanpreet, how come the same going to help ED to establish the guilt of the applicant, even if, the applicant is having acquaintance with both of these co-accused,” the court noted.

‘No link’

“ED is also not clarifying as to how the alleged amount of ₹40 crore being traced out during the investigation is forming a part of the proceeds of the crime. It seems that ED also believes that the evidence on record is not sufficient to proceed against the applicant and it is taking time to procure the same in any manner whatsoever to convince the court with respect to the availability of the evidence against the applicant,” the court said.

It noted that the ED should be prompt and fair so that it can be perceived that the principles of natural justice were also being followed by the agency.

Commenting on the delayed bail in cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the court noted that it became impossible for the accused to obtain bail in such cases as the investigating agency gave its own reasons, putting the accused on par with a convict without any hope of release.

“The situation becomes more grave if later on, the accused comes out to be innocent and the agony he has undergone remains unexplained,” the court had said while granting bail to Mr. Kejriwal.

E.M. Manoj

KALPETTA

Kerala Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran visiting the installation works of ‘Ele-fence’ at Chelakkolly in Wayanad.Special arrangement

The installation of country’s first artificial intelligence-based smart fence, ‘Ele-fence’, is under way in Kerala’s Wayanad to mitigate the burgeoning cases of human-wildlife conflict in the region.

The pilot project is being implemented by White Elephant Technologies, a Kochi-based R&D firm, with support from the Kerala Forest Department at Chelakkolly, near Pambra, in the Chethalth forest range of the south Wayanad forest division.

The proposed 70-metre Ele-fence incorporates an effective blend of surveillance, real-time monitoring , and control as well as preventive and protective features, says Parrakkal Mohan Menon, CEO, White Elephant Technologies.

The design elements also involved a deep dive and study of elephant behaviour in typical conflict-prone situations. The fence has been installed with six-inch-wide steel girders, each 17 feet high.

The girders are concreted at four feet depth and welded with steel bars under the ground level for strength, he says.

The fence is duly equipped with AI-based logical trip wires, which enable early warning of intrusive elephant movements. There are 4K cameras for real-time video and audio disseminationto control rooms and the Rapid Response Teams of the Forest Department.

The fence has sound and alarm lights installed to keep the elephants from approaching the regions around the barrier.

It also has built-in features that will send light and sound alerts to pedestrians and motorists to warn them of elephants’ presence in the area. Apart from the loaded AI features, Ele-fence also uses lasher belt technology, which would prevent elephants from physically breaching the fence, Mr. Menon adds.

When the animal reaches within 50 to 60 metres range of the fence, multiple cameras would capture the live visuals and trigger alarm bells, warning local people of the elephant’s presence. The system would alert the nearest Rapid Response Team (RRT), forest office and the central forest control room with real-time video of the fencedarea. The fence is likely to be commissioned by the end of July, Mr. Menon adds. “We expect the latest project to protect human habitats from wildlife incursion and if it is found effective, it will be expanded to other parts of the State,” he adds.

From Kashmir, PM attempts to shed religious connections with yoga

Peerzada Ashiq

SRINAGAR

Narendra Modi interacts with students after the yoga session on International Yoga Day celebrations, in Srinagar on Friday. ANIANI

Posing for pictures amid scarf-wearing students, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday positioned yoga for global Muslims from the country’s Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the 10th International Day of Yoga (IYD) event at Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), with the Dal Lake in its backdrop, the PM said those who practise yoga could use any incantations, “whether it’s Allah, Ishwar or Waheguru”.

The PM made an elaborate statement on how Muslims globally were adopting yoga and cited the adoption of yoga therapy in Turkmenistan medical universities, as well as its inclusion in Saudi Arabia’s education system and yoga-specific schools in Mongolia.

“Yoga’s utility is being recognised globally. There is barely any world leader who has not discussed yoga during his interactions. Yoga has become a part of daily life in every corner of the world. Yoga has become a topic of research today and multiple research papers have already been published,” the PM said.

He suggested that yoga and tourism could “become a major source of employment in J&K too”. “Yoga is not only a discipline but also a science,” he added.

Events across J&K

An official estimate suggested that 50,000 to 60,000 locals of J&K participated in yoga programmes across the Union Territory on Friday. Scores of yoga sessions were held in several districts, along the Line of Control, and at the tourist spots of Kashmir Valley on the occasion.

Mirwaiz leads prayer at Jamia Masjid

Peerzada Ashiq

SRINAGAR

The Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor’s administration on June 21, in a rare decision, decided to allow Hurriyat chairman and the valley’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to lead the congregational prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 10th International Day of Yoga just 10 km away.

The move comes five days after the administration denied permission to the Mirwaiz and the caretakers of Jama Masjid to organise Id prayers at the mosque on June 17. According to the Anjuman Auqaf Jama Masjid, Id prayers have been banned at the Jama Masjid and Eidgah in the old city by the authorities since 2019, when the Centre ended Jammu & Kashmir’s special status.

In his Friday sermon, the Mirwaiz called for revision of the government policy to deny Id prayers at Jama Masjid and Idgah. “We have organised Id prayers in toughest times in the past. I fail to understand what stops the administration from allowing these traditional congregational prayers,” he said.

The Hurriyat chairman denounced violence as a means to resolve issues and reiterated his call for a dialogue. “The Hurriyat firmly believes that dialogue and reconciliation is the only way forward.”

Tripura to move SC against HC judgment

Syed Sajjad Ali

Agartala

The Tripura government has announced its decision to appeal a high court order that allowed gratuity benefits to the Anganwadi workers. Social Welfare and Social Education Minister Tinku Roy said the state government disagrees with the directive and has decided to take the matter to the top court.

The high court of Tripura, in a judgment last month declared that Anganwadi workers are entitled to coverage under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. This order was passed after considering 22 petitions from retired workers who were employed under the ICDS scheme. The high court cited a previous Supreme Court ruling in a similar case in Gujarat.

Following the high court’s order, the state’s Social Welfare and Social Education Department received numerous applications from former Anganwadi workers to be considered for gratuity benefits. However, the department was unable to process these applications without State approval.

98 Indians died during annual Haj pilgrimage

Press Trust of India

New Delhi

Ninety-eight Indians have died so far this year during the annual Muslim pilgrimage of Haj to Mecca due to natural causes, chronic illnesses and old age, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday.

The total number of deaths of Indians during the entire Haj period last year was 187, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during his weekly media briefing.

“This year, 1,75,000 Indians visited Mecca during the Haj period from May 9 to July 22. Till now, 98 deaths have been reported this year,” Mr. Jaiswal said.

“The deaths were due to natural causes, chronic illnesses, and old age. Six people died on the day of Arafat and four were accident-related deaths,” Mr. Jaiswal added.

The Ministry spokesperson was responding to a question on the deaths of Indians during Haj.

Zonal Railways seek clarity on signal failure protocols

S. Vijay Kumar, Shiv Sahay Singh

CHENNAI/KOLKATA

Confusion prevails over operation of trains during signal glitches , especially in automatic signalling areas; Western Railway asks for clarification, Eastern Railway withdraws order banning TA-912

Mangled remains of the Kanchenjunga Express train after a goods train rammed into it on June 17. PTI -

With frequent train accidents causing multiple deaths, confusion prevails in the railways over the operation of trains during signal failures, especially in the automatic signaling territory.

While investigation is on into the horrific collision of three trains, including the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express in South Eastern Railway on June 2, 2023, that left about 300 passengers dead and over 900 injured, the rear-end collision of two passenger trains in the Waltair Division of East Coast Railway in Andhra Pradesh on October 29, 2023, which caused the deaths of 17 passengers, and the Kanchenjunga train accident in the Katihar Division of Northeast Frontier Railway in West Bengal on June 17, this year, in which 10 people died and many others became injured, the primary cause of these major accidents is suspected to be signal failure or confusion in train operating protocols during such situation.

With increasing fatal accidents, Zonal Railways are confused over the Standard Operating Procedures.

The Eastern Railway on Wednesday issued an order banning TA-912, a travel authority issued during signal failures by Station Masters to loco pilots authorising them to cross the signal in red. However, the very next day the order was withdrawn.

A senior official of Eastern Railway told The Hindu that the order was issued by a junior official and was rectified by the the Senior Divisional Operations Manager (SDOM). In another case, the Western Railway, headquartered in Mumbai, has sought clarifications on certain confusion in travel authorities.

In a note, the SDOM, Ahmedabad Division, referring to the norms pertaining to train operations during failures in automatic signalling system said the rules mentioned in Chapter IX Automatic Block System in General and Subsidiary Rules 2008 edition were “contradictory and the same are required to be critically assessed. The necessary corrections, as required, may be effected to avoid any confusion among the staff.”

TV interview

While one of the loco pilots of the goods train that hit Kanchanjunga Express on June 17, Anil Kumar, died in the accident, assistant loco pilot Manu Kumar was admitted to a hospital in Siliguri with severe injuries. Mr. Manu Kumar told a private television news channel that by the time both the drivers spotted the express train, it was too late to apply brakes.

He said the loco pilot told him to apply brakes and also pulled the lever. According to the assistant loco pilot, Anil Kumar’s last words were to “’apply brakes... even if the bogies derail”.

(set by Dr. X)

1 of 4

2 of 4

3 of 4

4 of 4 Scan to play

Across

1 Divine food with beer at sea (8)

5 Bell-shaped hat of lady in company, revolutionary (6)

10 Stupor following damage - no cure primarily for malignant tumour (7)

11 Train ride on vacation enthrals retired couple (7)

12 Decayed mainly, wants money for dental filling (5)

13 Playing with money, group wins thousand by end of game (9)

14 What one maintaining a campfire might do to worsen a tense situation (3,3,6)

18 Desire to save sick woman with case of exceptional weakness (8,4)

21 Reveller in wild orgy, consuming ecstasy after knocking back gin (9)

23 Detach firewall at first in computer operating system (5)

24 Character's new concoction of rum and ale (7)

25 That is containing very superior form of chemical element (7)

26 Language of harridan is horrible (6)

27 Dug a hole finally, turned to keep small plant (8)

Down

1 Remains extremely sanctimonious in defeat (6)

2 Occasionally start to rise early, for a change (6)

3 Sexual invitation in Indian hill station by head of company during party (5,4)

4 Where old dad, smashed after drinking shot is sleeping very soundly (4,2,3,5)

6 Fresh after drinking bit of tea or coffee (5)

7 Proves criminals control corporation (8)

8 English singer popped ecstasy to perk up (8)

9 Perfect beau in pic - romancing her, freely expressing love (6,8)

15 Questionable value, cease to have sugar (9)

16 Disheartened author cuddled by lady on date (8)

17 Simple switches in fine electronic musical instrument (8)

19 Distinguished head of orthopaedics, often busy (2,4)

20 Reach out, start to eagerly kiss nurse (6)

22 Dilapidated, rusty nomadic dwellings (5)

‘Peer support from TB survivors aids treatment of over four lakh patients’

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI

Dignitaries releasing the National Impact Report on Unite to ACT project in New Delhi on Friday. Special Arrangement

Over four lakh people with tuberculosis across India received essential peer support and person-centred care from 2,000 TB survivors trained as ‘champions’, said the Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health (REACH), a non-profit organisation working on TB, at the national dissemination meeting of the Unite to ACT Project in New Delhi on Friday.

At the meeting, former NITI Aayog member Vinod Kumar Paul emphasised the vital role of community engagement in eliminating TB in India and appreciated REACH for developing a model worthy of emulation, with the ‘TB Champions’ at the forefront, according to a press release from REACH. ‘TB Champions’ are TB survivors who work as community role models to raise awareness about the disease and provide valuable care and support to affected people.

REACH director Ramya Ananthakrishnan said, “Through the Unite to ACT project, we have witnessed first-hand the commitment of TB Champions in transforming lives and reducing stigma within communities, by drawing on their own personal experiences of TB and driven by the motivation that no one should suffer like they did. As a result, we have been able to improve the overall treatment success rates for people with TB supported through this project.”

Arun Kumar Jha, former Economic Adviser, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; Raghuram Rao, Assistant Director General, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Nishant Kumar, Joint Director, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; and Sarabjit Chadha, Regional Technical Director (India & South-East Asia), FIND, participated.

Peace will return to Manipur in three months: Biren Singh

The Hindu Bureau

GUWAHATI

N. Biren Singh.PTI

Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh on Thursday said peace would return to the State in two or three months time, as the new National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre has given priority to resolving the 14-month-long conflict here.

He also claimed that with businesses opening up, Manipur has been slowly returning to normal.

“Although the State has been going through a crisis for 14 months, the actual violence happened for only half this period. This indicates that there were seven months of peace with schools and business establishments reopening,” Mr. Singh told journalists during an event to mark International Yoga Day in the State’s capital Imphal.

He admitted that there have been incidents of violence in some pockets of the State owing to a lack of security personnel, many of whom had left for election duty. They have been deployed once again in the vulnerable areas, he said.

“The situation will be better now. We hope to arrive at a solution to the crisis within two-three months,” he said, attributing the optimism to the “top priority” given by the “Narendra Modi 3.0 government” to ensure a reign of peace in Manipur.

An action plan is being worked on following a high-security meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah a few days ago, he added.

Mr. Singh asserted that influx from Myanmar and the drug menace from outside the region were responsible for the unrest in Manipur. Addressing these issues would lead to faster resolution of the State’s crisis, he said.

Kuki-Zo tribal bodies urge boycott of polls to district councils

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

Kuki-Zo tribal bodies from across several hill districts in Manipur issued a joint statement on Friday opposing elections to the Autonomous District Council, which the State Cabinet said last week would be held in September this year. The tribal bodies urged members of the public not to participate in the elections “unless political demands are met”.

In the joint statement, signed by representatives of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (Churachandpur), the Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), the Indigenous Tribes Advocacy Council (Jiribam and Pherzawal), and Kuki Inpi Manipur of Chandel and Tengnoupal districts, the groups said holding the elections in the middle of the ongoing ethnic conflict was nothing but an attempt to “create division among us by pitting us against each other”. The Kuki-Zo tribal people of Manipur have been demanding a separate administration since the ethnic conflict broke out, insisting that this had to be the first step to solving the crisis.

Meanwhile, days after top officials in the security establishment asserted that no buffer zones would be allowed in Jiribam district, like in other parts of Manipur, tribal bodies insisted that a buffer zone was needed in Jiribam to protect the Kuki-Zo-Hmar people from further attacks.

They said the recent violence in the district had already led to a “complete separation” between the Kuki-Zo-Hmar people and the Meitei people.

The essence of Vedas

Learning period is called “celibacy”, and married life is called “Gruhastha ashrama” — the period of implementing and following the rituals and righteous deeds learned during the previous period. Smt. Suryapriya said in a discourse that Vedic verses highlight the necessity of living without worldly desires, with righteous principles. This would be a healthy attitude. What various scriptures say in umpteen verses can be told in just half a line — “Paropakaraya Punyaya” — helping others and giving charity will yield all good.

The essence of Vedas contains three aspects — rituals, values, and attitudes. People who cannot learn Vedas can learn Sri Bhagavad Gita, the essence of Vedas. Ritual is a physical expression of emotions. They may be classified as family-centric, society-centric, nation-centric and international-centric. They all aim to create unity among people and signify humanity’s brotherhood. It helps create a symbiotic relationship. We should not be self-centred.

Nature’s elements such as water, earth, sky, plants, air, and sun contribute to and support our growth and welfare. We should reciprocate by propitiating these, which form part of God. Lord Krishna says: By nourishing one another, may you obtain the highest good (moksha), Chapter III Sloka 11.

A sequence revolves like a wheel through the mutual relations of cause and effect. A person who does not maintain the wheel lives a life of sin. He should nourish his mind and body by the ‘remainders of sacrifice’ (Chapter III, Sloka 16).

Gujarat HC allows Netflix to release movie

The Gujarat High Court on Friday allowed the release of Hindi film Maharaj on Netflix. The court concluded that it does not hurt the sentiments of the followers of Vaishnav Pushtimarg sect as the petitioners had claimed. The film, starring Junaid Khan, produced by Yash Raj Films, based on an 1862 libel case involving social reformer Karsandas Mulji, was earlier slated to be released on the OTT platform on June 18 but the court had granted an interim stay after concerns were raised that the film may hurt religious sentiments of the followers of Vaishnav Pushtimarg sect, an influential group in Gujarat.

Approach road to Atal Setu develops ‘minor’ cracks

Ateeq Shaikh

Mumbai

Cracks have appeared on an approach road to India’s longest sea bridge, Atal Setu, within six months of its opening, raising questions on the construction quality.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the 21.8 km-long Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu, built at a cost of ₹17,843 crore, on January 12 this year.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole inspected the affected site on Friday and accused the State government of corruption to fill its own coffers.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, which is responsible for the upkeep, said, “Minor cracks were found on the road surface at three locations on the ramp towards Mumbai.” It said the cracks could be easily repaired.

Panchayat offers bribe to rape victim, NHRC issues notice

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday issued notices to authorities in a case where a village panchayat in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh asked the mother of a sexual assault victim to take a sum of ₹5,000 from her daughter’s tormentors and terminate her pregnancy. The family of the victim, who is a minor, was also threatened at the behest of the harassers. The NHRC said it was painful to note that the panchayat connived with the accused belonging to a dominant section of society, instead of protecting the victim. Notices have been issued to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP) calling for a detailed report within one week.

Odisha Cong. president Sarat Pattnayak doused with ink

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Pattnayak was doused with ink allegedly by some ‘disgruntled’ elements in the party on Friday. Some party activists entered Mr. Pattnayak’s chamber at Congress Bhawan, the State headquarters of the Congress party, under the guise of greeting him. They threw ink at Pattnayak, who had been getting ready for the party’s nationwide protest against the alleged irregularities in the 2024 NEET-UG examination. After the incident, the culprits swiftly exited the Congress office and blended into the surrounding crowd. Despite the assault, the Congress chief participated in the protest in the stained clothes.

NIA chargesheets 5 in cyber fraud, human trafficking case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on June 21 chargesheeted five accused, including two foreign nationals, in an alleged international human trafficking and cyber fraud syndicates operating within and outside the country. As per the investigation, the accused were targeting Indian youth who were proficient in computer and English, and coercing them into working in fraudulent call centres on tourist visa for pecuniary gains. The victims were being recruited, transported and transferred from India to the Golden Triangle SEZ in Lao PDR via Thailand.

Regional

- Bengal’s recruitment protests fizzle out post LS poll, but aspirants pin hopes on SC verdict

- Were no lessons learnt from last year’s hooch tragedies , asks Madras HC

- Ensure people displaced due to post-poll violence return home, HC tells WB govt.

- Pune car crash: HC to pass order on plea to release accused minor on June 25

- Kharge hits out at BJP over grim Assam flood situation

- ‘T.N. govt. will bear education costs of bereaved children’

- AIADMK members evicted after sit-in over hooch tragedy

- Group clash: curfew relaxed for 6 hours in Balasore town

- The night of survival on a mountain

- The law, the land, and the parting of a people

- Kuwait inferno: mourning lives lost amid unanswered questions

Bengal’s recruitment protests fizzle out post LS poll, but aspirants pin hopes on SC verdict

Moyurie Som

KOLKATA

1 of 2 Teacher aspirants staging a demonstration near Matangini Hazra statue in Maidan, Kolkata, on Friday. DEBASISH BHADURI DEBASISH BHADURI

2 of 2 The fight has been going on since 2019. It is not possible for most people to keep their spirits high and continue fighting amid rising expenses Abhishek Sen A waitlisted candidate

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Kolkata’s Mayo Road was the site of massive demonstrations against alleged irregularities in teachers’ recruitment by the School Service Commission (SSC) in West Bengal.

Dubbed the ‘SSC scam’ by the Opposition, it was one of the planks on which the Bharatiya Janata Party fought the general election in the State. But the ruling Trinamool Congress’s performance in the poll, extreme heat, and dwindling finances of the job aspirants have driven the once-vociferous protesters away. The venue, abuzz with TV crew and police personnel, now bears a deserted look.

Abhishek Sen, 37, a waitlisted candidate, is among the handful of protesters holding fort. “The fight has been going on since 2019. It is not possible for most people to keep their spirits high and continue fighting amid increasing expenses,” he said, adding that most job aspirants spend a lot to travel to Kolkata from other districts to take part in the protest.

‘No income’

“There are candidates from Uttar Dinajpur, Malda and North 24 Parganas who have been coming here daily to protest against the recruitment process. We have spent years fighting for our jobs with zero alternative income,” he said.

Many job aspirants from the districts had rented rooms on the southern fringes of the city to commute to the protest site. Till recently, Kudrat-e-Kabir, 34, a resident of Chanchal in Malda district, had been living with 40 candidates from North Bengal in Narendrapur and Baruipur. “We have no income. Our responsibilities towards our families are increasing. We can no longer afford this. So many of us have come back home for good,” he said, adding that some aspirants still travel to Kolkata from faraway districts to attend the protest once a week.

For two years, the State’s politics had revolved around the recruitment ‘scam’, especially after the arrest of former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in July 2022. Since then, several Trinamool leaders have been arrested in connection with the case that involves the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff in State-run schools. But the Trinamool Congress’s resounding victory in 29 Lok Sabha seats indicates that the issue has not resonated with the people.

On April 22, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the cancellation of the 2016 recruitment panel that hired 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff. The Bench said OMR sheets were manipulated that year. However, the Supreme Court, on May 7, had stayed the High Court order, saying that “it would be unfair to set aside all the appointments if the tainted and untainted ones can be segregated”.

The CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who had represented the job aspirants in the High Court, told The Hindu, “The Supreme Court has listed the case for July 16. It will then become clear if the 2016 recruitment panel will be cancelled, and if the deserving and undeserving candidates would be segregated. If the undeserving candidates are filtered out, vacancies might open up, which can then be filled by aspirants.”

Near the Matangini Hazra statue at Maidan in Kolkata, the crowd of protesters, who are expecting appointments as primary and upper primary teachers, has dwindled from hundreds to just three.

Prasenjit Mal, 38, said he has been delivering gas cylinders since 2014 to sustain himself. “I wanted to be a teacher, but I am still delivering gas cylinders to make a living. I am left with no other option. I have ageing parents and I need to put food on the table,” he said, adding that he has to take leave from work to come to the protest site. “But how many times can I keep asking for leave?”

Priyali Pramanik, 34, another protester, said the heat wave this summer and a feeling of hopelessness have hit the movement hard. “Many job aspirants used to leave behind their parents, spouses, in-laws, and children to come to the protest every day. But for how long can our families bear this?” she said. “Most abandoned the protest because of hopelessness. Everyone had thought that before the elections, the Chief Minister would take some initiative to ensure justice. But now that the election is over, the optimism has gone down,” she said.

Only way forward

But keeping the protest alive is their only way forward. Many candidates have spent four years protesting to become teachers. As Mr. Kabir and his fellow protester Abhishek Sen put it, till the final verdict in the Supreme Court, the agitation will go on.

Were no lessons learnt from last year’s hooch tragedies, asks Madras HC

Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI

Court asks State to submit a report on action taken after the Villupuram, Chengalpattu incidents last year; remark comes on the PIL petition seeking CBI probe into Kallakurichi tragedy

Laid to rest: Bodies of victims of the hooch tragedy being cremated in Karunapuram, in Kallakurichi on Thursday. S.S. KUMAR KUMAR SS

The Madras High Court on Friday asked the Tamil Nadu government to explain how the Kallakurichi spurious liquor tragedy was allowed to take place even after similar incidents in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts last year.

Justices D. Krishnakumar and K. Kumaresh Babu wondered whether any lessons were learnt and any preventive action taken following the previous incidents. The questions were raised during the hearing of a plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Kallakurichi tragedy.

AIADMK legal wing secretary I.S. Inbadurai had filed the plea in public interest. His counsel, D. Selvam, accused the State government of inaction despite a specific motion moved by AIADMK Kallakurichi MLA M. Senthilkumar on March 29, 2023, regarding the sale of spurious liquor.

Justice Krishnakumar asked Advocate-General P.S. Raman to ensure that a detailed report on the action taken was filed in court by June 26. It must list the measures taken by the State pursuant to the motion moved by the MLA in the House and the deaths that took place last year, he said.

Justice Kumaresh Babu told Mr. Raman that he remembered reading a news report regarding the sale of spurious liquor in Kallakurichi much before the recent tragedy, and that some YouTube channels, too, had aired specific details regarding the illegal sale taking place with the connivance of officials across the State.

Action taken

In reply, Mr. Raman said that the investigation into the Villupuram and Chengalpattu deaths was transferred to the Crime Branch - Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID), after which several individuals were arrested and some of them were detained under the Goondas Act. Action was taken against police personnel, too, he said.

Mr. Raman pointed out that the Kallakurichi Collector was transferred and the Superintendent of Police suspended after the tragedy; the Additional Director-General of Police and the Superintendent of Police in the Enforcement Bureau CID had been transferred as well.

Stating that the government had also appointed a one-man commission, headed by retired High Court judge B. Gokuldas, to conduct an inquiry into the Kallakurichi tragedy, the A-G added that the commission was also expected to give its recommendations on the steps to be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.

He said that the government had deployed 162 doctors to treat the patients in Kallakurichi, and that 89 of the patients were found to be stable.

The judges said that a final decision on the plea for a CBI investigation would be taken after the State government files a detailed counter-affidavit to the petition.

‘Ensure people displaced by Bengal post-poll violence return home’

Shiv Sahay Singh

Kolkata

The court also extended the deployment of Central forces in the State till June 26.File photo DEBASISH BHADURI

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the West Bengal government to take note of complaints of post-election violence and restoration of the displaced persons to their place of residence.

A Division Bench of Justices Harish Tandon and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya also directed that the police administration “shall ensure the safety and security of such displaced persons and make a constant vigil in the area of the residence and ensure that no threat perception or any kind of violence takes place in such area”.

The court extended the deployment of Central forces in the State till June 26. Allegations of post-election violence and threats have been raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters across the State and the party has sent a team of MPs to assess the situation.

“We cannot shut our eyes to the spate of complaints as disclosed and the allegation on the role of the Police Administration for which we feel that the deployment of the Central forces may continue for a limited period. We, therefore, extend such deployment till June 26, when the matter would be listed next to be taken up at 2 p.m.,” the order read.

The court had earlier ordered the deployment of the Central forces in the State till June 21. Additional Solicitor General Asok Kumar Chakrabarti, representing the Central government, stated that if the court directs, it will continue the deployment of the Central forces in the State.

Advocate General Kishore Dutta said 800 complaints had been processed and taken note of by the State government, out of which more than 200 cases had been detected as cognisable offences and the rest needed sanction from the Jurisdictional Magistrate concerned and a feeble number of cases were still under scrutiny.

The Division Bench also directed to “take note of those complaints so disclosed and shall take immediate action, as may be required, including the registration of the complaints/FIR and restoration of the displaced persons into their residence”.

It said that the plea of compensation as claimed in the instant public interest litigation petitions shall be considered in due course.

Meanwhile, Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has written a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the violence.

Pune car crash: HC to pass order on plea to release minor on June 25

The Hindu Bureau

Mumbai

Car crash victim Ashwini Koshta’s grief stricken kin in Jabalpur. The HC said on Friday that both sides have gone through trauma.PTI

The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved till June 25 its order on a habeas corpus petition filed by the aunt of the 17-year-old accused in the Pune luxury car accident case that killed two software engineers.

The Division Bench of Justices Bharti Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande questioned the approach of the Pune Police by which the minor was granted bail but then put in an observation home following public outcry.

The High Court said that both sides had gone through trauma. “Those who met with the accident and lost their lives, of course, their families are in trauma. But the child is also in trauma. Give him some time,” the court said.

Raising objections against the habeas corpus petition filed by the minor’s aunt who was seeking the accused’s release from the observation home, public prosecutor Hiten Venegavkar argued that such a petition must be based on the incompetence of the judge or the mechanical passing of the order, neither of which were mentioned in the plea.

To this, the court said, “Prima facie we have made up our minds that in such a contingency, if we do not entertain either writ of certiorari or habeas corpus, we will be failing the citizens of this country.”

Mr. Venegavkar argued that since the grandfather and parents were in custody, the minor had to be in an observation home under the supervision of a probation officer.

Mr. Venegavkar informed the court that there was no obligation for the minor to leave unless someone physically ‘fit’ comes to take him but till date, no one approached the authorities. He also stressed that sending him to the observation home was important for the minor’s safety and well-being.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Aabad Ponda argued that once a juvenile was granted bail, in no circumstances can they be placed in an observation home.

Father granted bail

Meanwhile, a court in Pune granted bail to the father of the juvenile accused in one of the cases pertaining to the car crash. The court also granted bail to five other accused, including the owner and managers of two bars who were arrested for allegedly serving liquor to underage patrons.

Kharge hits out at BJP over grim Assam flood situation

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Friday hit out at the BJP over flood management in Assam, claiming that people have been squarely betrayed by the “double engine Modi-Shah” promise of making Assam flood-free. The flood situation in the State remained grim on Friday with over four lakh people reeling under the deluge in many districts, officials said. “Congress party stands in solidarity with the people of Assam,” Mr. Kharge said in a post on X. “In the past 10 years, on every issue, Modi government has only indulged in the politics of lies, deceit and treachery,” the Congress chief said. PTI

‘State will bear education costs of the bereaved’

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday said that the State government would meet the educational expenses and hostel fees of all the children who had lost either one or both of their parents to the Kallakurichi spurious liquor tragedy, until they graduate.

Responding to a calling attention motion in the Assembly, he said that the government would offer ₹5,000 a month to the orphaned children.* “Moreover, the government would deposit ₹5 lakh in their names which, along with interest, would be given to them when they turn 18. In the case of children who have lost one of their parents, the amount would be ₹3 lakh. These children would also get priority in all government schemes,” he said.

Reiterating that the State was taking stringent action against those involved in the illicit brewing of liquor, and that such persons had been arrested under the Goondas Act, Mr. Stalin said that 14,606 cases had been filed against the brewing and sale of spurious liquor since the DMK came to power.

AIADMK members evicted from T.N. Assembly

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI

AIADMK MLAs were evicted from the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday after they staged a sit-in over the hooch tragedy which has so far claimed 50 lives in Kallakurichi district.

Speaker M. Appavu ruled that the AIADMK MLAs could not attend the House for the rest of the day. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was not present in the House at the time. When he arrived, he requested the Speaker to allow the members to raise the issue after the question hour.

Clad in black shirts and holding placards demanding the resignation of Mr. Stalin, the AIADMK members, led by former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, raised slogans immediately after the House met. Though the Speaker said the issue could be raised after the question hour, the MLAs continued to raise slogans; at one point, they rushed to the Speaker’s podium and staged a sit-in.

Later, Mr. Appavu asked the media not to report the incident that took place in the House. “Do not report anything, including what I have said,” he said.

Group clash: curfew relaxed for 6 hours in Balasore town

Curfew was relaxed for six hours in Odisha’s Balasore town to allow people to buy essential items, an official said. Curfew was clamped in the town on Monday night following a group clash in which 10 people were injured. Internet service also remains suspended in the town. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has appealed to the people to maintain peace. Meanwhile, six companies of central forces have been deployed at sensitive pockets in the Balasore Municipality area, an official said. As many as 54 people have been sent to judicial custody since Tuesday after being arrested either on the charge of rioting or violating the curfew norms. PTI

The night of survival on a mountain

A trekking group of 22 from Bengaluru got caught in a blizzard while descending from Sahastra Tal in Uttarakhand on June 3. Nine members died due to hypothermia after being forced to take shelter overnight. Group leader Sudhakar and other survivors narrate the events to Jahnavi T.R.

1 of 4 Some of the members of the trekking team from Bengaluru during their expedition in Uttarakhand. special arrangement special arrangement

2 of 4

3 of 4 From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., my body kept involuntarily shivering every 2 minutes. I put my hands into my poncho and collapsed because of exhaustion. Vinay M.K.

4 of 4 The trekking group from Bengaluru before tragedy struck them in Uttarakhand on June 3-4. Photo: Special Arrangement Handout E Mail HANDOUT E MAIL

“As the evening got darker and we were all huddling against a boulder, our trek group leader, S. Sudhakar, told us, ‘This is the night of survival. Nobody is coming to help you. As soon as we see some light in the morning, we will go down.’ This motivated many of us to make it through the night,” said Sheena Lakshmi, a 47-year-old woman, remembering the events of June 3, when a 22-member trekking group from Bengaluru got caught in a blizzard while descending from the Sahastra Tal summit in Uttarakhand.

“I knew that death was not an option for me as I had to go back to my daughter and mother ... Even with four layers of clothing, including thermals and jacket, and a hat and a muffler, it was not warm enough,” she recalled. According to some surviving trekkers, the temperature touched anywhere between –8 degrees to –10 degrees Celsius that evening.

Nine members of their group died on June 3 and 4 due to hypothermia, as they were forced to benight near a boulder for their safety after a whiteout and a snow blizzard a few hours earlier made it impossible for them to trek down. Sudhakar’s wife, Asha Sudhakar, was one among the dead. Despite suffering a personal tragedy, group members remember how Sudhakar maintained a level head and took care of everyone else throughout the night.

“On one side, you know what you are going through, and on the other, there were young people who had families and their children waiting for them (and I had to keep them alive). Irrespective of what had happened, I had to focus on what was best for the team,” Sudhakar said in his house in Jakkur in North Bengaluru.

Sudhakar, who is in his mid-60s, and his wife Asha, who was in her early 70s, had met in the mountains decades ago. The duo had trekked several routes, including the Himalayas, over the years. Their home is a testament to their love for mountaineering and their fitness. While many pieces of art and photographs of the Himalayas adorn the walls, Asha’s swimming medals are displayed in one part of the living room. When they embarked on their recent trip to the mountains in Uttarakhand in the last week of May, they had not imagined that it would be their last adventure together.

Two fateful days

Sitting next to his wife’s photograph, Sudhakar, who is also the joint secretary of the Karnataka Mountaineering Association (KMA), which had organised the trek, began to narrate the events of those two fateful days.

“Everything was going beautifully up until that point,” he said. The tragedy occurred on the fifth day of their schedule. By then, the trekkers had developed a sense of camaraderie among them. Most of them had met before on similar treks. After meeting in Dehradun on May 28, the group trekked from Sila to Base Camp between May 30 and June 2. On June 3, they had to ascend 4,610 metres (over 15,000 feet) to reach the summit. It was the D-Day.

“We had briefing sessions every day, and we regularly checked parameters like oxygen levels and heartbeat of all the trekkers. In fact, on the day of our ascent to Sahastra Tal, we had to send a trekker back to Kush Kalyan (below the base camp) as she had developed a headache. Her husband volunteered to go back with her, and we also spared a guide and a mule for them. The remaining 20 of us, along with our three guides, began our trek around 5.30 a.m.”

Thunder from a distance

The group reportedly encountered a few minor difficulties on the way as they had to manoeuvre snow patches on the mountain. On the way, five people stayed back as they felt they would slow down the entire team. The rest of the group, after reaching the summit around 1.15 p.m., started their descent around 1.30 p.m. A little down the road, they could hear thunder from a distance, and sleet had begun to fall.

But the sight of snow did not cause any alarm immediately. “It was my first actual snowfall experience, and all of us were excited. Nobody had anticipated anything like this at that time,” said Sheena. She lost both of her tent mates, Padmini Hegde and Sindhu Vakekalam, in the tragedy.

A few minutes later, when sleet turned into snow pebbles and the wind started picking up, worry set in, and the trekkers started to move at a faster pace. “When the wind started picking up, something inside me made me nervous. The snow kept getting heavier as we walked,” Sheena said.

Eventually, the members who had stayed back also joined the group. By 4.30 p.m., the group had reached a difficult snow patch (under the circumstances), and by then, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. The group walking in a line was suddenly hit by a blizzard which overturned their jackets and ponchos while blowing away their sticks, goggles and hats. There was also a whiteout soon, and the trekkers said they lost all visibility at that point. Sudhakar said it was at this point that he decided to benight.

“I had never seen this kind of weather in my 35 years of trekking experience. There were some four to five inches of snow, but it was the wind and the whiteout that upturned our plans,” he said.

The harrowing hours

By around 6 p.m., all 20 trekkers and the guides were together. It was decided to take shelter for the night under a rock — around a metre tall and a metre and a half wide — near a point called Khukli Top Base (Khukli Top was a ridge that had to be crossed for the trekkers to get to base camp). Some trekkers had temporarily sought shelter under a smaller rock, which was approximately 50 to 100 metres away. As the group tried to make its way to the bigger rock for shelter, two lives, Padmini Hegde (34), the youngest member of the group, and Anita Rangappa (60), were lost between 6 and 7 p.m.

Asha, who Sudhakar said had a frail body (but full of grit and determination), also collapsed during this walk. “Somehow, she had collapsed. But I knew that I had to take care of the entire team, not just one person. So, we put her near the boulder and covered her in warm clothes. I knew at the time that her condition was bad,” he recalled. Asha did not make it to the next morning.

“When you are seeing people you are close to, especially Asha ma’am, who was like a mentor to me, pass away, it hits you hard,” said Anil Bhatta (52), another survivor. He shared his poncho with two others throughout the night to stay warm. He said by 11.30 p.m., the weather conditions were better and recalled pulling his phone with great difficulty to check the time. “I checked my phone a few more times that night as I kept reminding myself that I only had to make it through a few hours until I could get to the camp. By 3 a.m., wind picked up again,” he said.

The trekkers sat between each other, slept on each other’s laps, rubbed each other’s hands and shared their warm clothing, even when they could not make out who the person sitting next to them was.

“From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., my body kept involuntarily shivering every 2 minutes. I put my hands into my poncho and collapsed because of exhaustion. My mind had blacked out, and I had no thought, emotion or fear. Just a void,” recalled Vinay M.K. (47), another survivor.

On the other hand, Sudhakar and a few others took it upon themselves to keep the group members active till the morning. “We asked people to huddle and share warm clothing. We asked them to keep their fingers and toes moving. We woke them up, talked to them and cheered them up throughout the night. Everyone was helping each other,” Sudhakar said.

Despite the team’s best efforts, there were two more deaths between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. While the more active members of the group knew of it, some of them did not realise it until the next morning. “When I woke up in the morning, I saw that my tent mate (Sindhu), whom I remembered by her blue raincoat, had slouched down into a ball. I cried out to someone to check up on her, only to realise that she had passed away,” Sheena sadly recalled.

As the first signs of light started to appear on June 4, Sudhakar, two guides and a few other survivors began their descent around 4.30 a.m. to pass on the SOS message to the District Disaster Management (DDM) authorities of Uttarkashi and the secretary of KMA, while some others stayed back to take care of those who were not fit to walk. Over the next few hours, five more people, including a couple who shared the same birthday (Vinayak Mungurwadi and Sujatha Mungurwadi), had also breathed their last, taking the death toll to nine.

“Whoever we suspected had passed away, we would check for their pulse, and if they were gone, then there was no crying or panic. We just had to help whoever had survived,” said Sheena. However, the survivors also said it seemed like whoever had passed away did not suffer any pain as most of them just dozed off into a sleep and did not wake up.

Eight members had reached the base camp by evening while Sheena and a husband-and-wife duo, Soumya Kanale and Vivek Sridhar, had to spend another night near the same rock as Sheena and Soumya were not in a condition to walk. Even those who had made it to the base said the descent, which should have ideally taken 1.5 hours, took over 3 hours due to exhaustion.

The second night, the guides had managed to take tents, mats, sleeping bags, hot beverages and food to the point where the three were staying (along with a guide). “They brought supplies for eight people as when they had departed, there were eight of us alive. But by the time they came back, it was only the three of us,” Sheena said. The trio were there at the same place until Indian Air Force flights airlifted them on June 5.

The aftermath

With the intervention of the governments of Karnataka and Uttarakhand, all 13 survivors came home safely. But once they were home, survivors’ guilt started troubling them. “It was hard to leave teammates behind, but when we were given instructions to move, we had to move. But the questions start haunting you the next day. Could I have done something to save someone? Did I leave my teammates there?” Anil said. He said he was considering getting professional help for the same.

All 22 members of the group were experienced trekkers but said they had never experienced a weather event like that before. Every member in the group knew one another and said even in the face of the tragedy, there was a familial bonding.

Vinay put it this way: The more I thought and spoke about it the more I became convinced that I came back to tell the tale. A tale of camaraderie and endurance. Of hope, acceptance, sacrifice and, above all, pure valour. A tale to be told to the world on how the trekkers fought against the odds. A tale etched on life for those who came back with scarred faces, broken hearts and numb limbs.

Back to mountains?

Will the survivors, for most of whom mountaineering is a passion and an almost spiritual experience, go back to the mountains after the tragedy? The answers differed.

“At this point, I am undecided about going back. I must recover and come to terms with what happened and personally recalibrate. I must also consider the views of my family members, who told me now that they would not let me climb any hills other than the small hillock in Lalbagh. But I do not know. I might go to the mountains again,” said Anil.

Sheena said although she had decided that she would not climb the mountains again during those days, she too might go back one day. “For me, climbing is like meditation. Last week, I had a strong desire to go back to the mountains,” she remarked.

As for Sudhakar, it is a definite yes. “To be frank, I intend to go to the same place again. I wish to make a small memorial there for all the people who lost their lives. It will take me some time, but I will go back,” he said.

A Muslim woman in Gujarat’s Vadodara is not being allowed by the Hindu majority to occupy an apartment allotted to her by the State government. Maitri Porecha visits different parts of the city to uncover its communal complexities and spatial segregation

1 of 4 Motnath Residency in Vadodara, Gujarat, where residents are not allowing a neighbour to occupy her house. VIJAY SONEJI VIJAY SONEJI

2 of 4 What is frustrating is that there is no timely solution in sight. My property file keeps moving up and down between the police and the district admini- stration Mohammed Proprietor of an optician shop

3 of 4 In 2023, we received 946 fresh applications seeking permission for Hindu-Muslim property deals... a backlog of 488 cases was closed A.K. Sambad Deputy Collector, Vadodara City

4 of 4 The dargah demolition site at Champaner Darwaza, where abandoned police vans have still not been cleared. VIJAY SONEJI VIJAY SONEJI

In spite of temperatures that have hovered around 40 degrees Celsius across India’s north and west, Muslims in Vadodara, celebrated Bakrid on June 17 with their usual enthusiasm: they dressed up in new clothes, sacrificed the goat, went to prayers, and stepped out to eat Gujarati snacks at roadside stalls. One of Gujarat’s major cities, it is an academic centre that operates at a slow, calm pace.

The family of 43-year-old Tabassum (name changed to protect identity) though, was not in the same mind space. She had been allotted a flat under the affordable housing scheme of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), in the predominantly Hindu neighbourhood of Harni, barely 4 km from her family home.

The exciting prospect of moving into a new home with her college-going son quickly turned sour as the majority of the 461 residents of the housing complex, Motnath Residency, sent applications to the District Collector’s office, Vadodara police, and VMC demanding that her allotment be cancelled. They came out in protest and refused to let her park her scooter outside the society gate, with the security guard forcing her to sign the visitors’ register.

Since 2020, Harni has fallen under the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, 1991. The Act that does not speak of any particular religion, states that all transfers of immovable property in disturbed areas (that have seen riot or mob violence) must be done with the sanction of the Collector, who will hold “a formal enquiry” into whether the transfer is mutually agreeable and has a “fair value”. About 75% of Vadodara is now under the Act. Subsequently, through amendments to the Act, the Collector has been given more powers to order police investigations.

Subsequently, all property-related transactions between Hindus and Muslims began to be subjected to police verification. Opinions of neighbours are sought to understand if they have any objection to sale or purchase. The latter two clauses were not part of the original Act.

“In 2023, we received 946 fresh applications seeking permission for Hindu-Muslim property deals. In the same year, a backlog of 488 cases was closed at the Collector level,” A.K. Sambad, Deputy Collector (Vadodara City), says.

He says most of these inter-religious land transfers don’t go through either because neighbours object or the police cite the danger of compromised law and order. Since January 2024, up to 259 such applications have been received, and all of them are pending approval, as they are stuck at the police verification stage. A register of Hindu-Muslim property transactions is maintained separately at the Collector’s office.

In Gujarat, a State that has not recovered from communal riots, first in 1982 in Ahmedabad, then in 2002 in Godhra, and in 2006 in Vadodara, the real estate law, meant to protect a minority community against distress sale of property, is being used to ‘prove’ that its majority is under threat.

Tabassum, a single mother, is a Central government employee and gold medallist in electronics engineering from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. A relative says in 2018, she was delighted when her name was picked in the government lottery scheme under the CM Awas Yojana that provides affordable housing. “Since this has caught national attention, we do not want to speak to anyone, especially the media. We are scared,” says the relative. She adds that Tabassum still wants to live there. “She hopes to integrate into the community the way sugar dissolves in milk.”

Outside the low-income-group (commonly known as LIG) housing gate are larger-than-life portraits of Hindu gods Ram, Sita, and Hanuman. Saffron flags bearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’, flutter outside matchbox-sized apartment windows.

VMC’s affordable housing cell executive engineer Nilesh Parmar, says, “We do not differentiate between communities when accepting applications online. There are instances where different communities reside together and there have been no protests in government housing scheme-related allotments. In this case, the allotments occurred before the area came under the Disturbed Areas Act.”

Your shop or mine

Vasna Road, which cuts across the breadth of Vadodara, is an invisible line dividing the predominant Muslim quarters of Tandalja from the Hindu colonies that lie on the other side. In Tandalja, also under the Act, a conflict is brewing between neighbouring shop owners: a branch of Shree Kheteshwar Sweets and Farshan run by Suresh, 30, the nephew of a local BJP politician, Mahavir Rajpurohit, and proprietor of Amin Opticians, Mohammed, 43.

Mohammed says he purchased the shop from former BJP local corporator Dakshaben in 2019 for a little over ₹70 lakh. He has still not received the sale deed copy from the Registrar’s office, because the government office is demanding that he produce no-objection certificates from the police and the district administration. Suresh has raised an objection under the Disturbed Areas Act, and wants Mohammed to shift his shop.

“Back in 2002, the Hindu mob that had turned violent charged towards our Muslim neighbour’s toyshop to burn it down. We pleaded with the mob to stop because if the Muslim’s shop had been burnt, so would ours,” Suresh says. He doesn’t want to live in fear of losing a business he has built up if communal tension surges again.

Mohammed, who sits solitarily at his brightly lit shop, is distraught. He pays the electricity bill every month, though it arrives in the name of Dakshaben, the former owner. He blames the law for ruining agreeable Hindu-Muslim real estate business deals. “What is frustrating is that there is no timely solution in sight. My property file keeps moving up and down between the police and the district administration, and I am running to both offices to get documents that are rightfully mine,” he says.

Navigating broad roads, then narrow lanes, about seven-and-a-half kilometres away from Tandalja, lies the stone pre-Mughal-era Champaner gate, which serves as one of the four entry gates to the walled city of old Vadodara.

The 15th-century gate bears witness to riots that broke out in 2006, after a nearly 200-year-old dargah of a wali (or saint), who followers believe came from Arabistan, now a province in Iran, was razed during the 2006 violence.

Now, two rusty, broken down police vans from the time of the riots block the main road and occupy the space in front. There is a gate separating the space between the dargah, located in the Hindu part of the city, and areas of Fatehpura and Yakutpura, dominated by Muslims.

Mohammed Salim, 60, whose father was the dargah caretaker, points at the fresh offering of rose petals that have fluttered away underneath the police vans. His family, the sole Muslim family here, has stayed in the neighbourhood for over 100 years. He says the Disturbed Areas Act, which was first notified in 2009, three years after the mob incident, has complicated property transactions between Hindus and Muslims.

“Instead of sending buyers and sellers into a paperwork spiral, the law should have simply banned Muslims and Hindus from buying property from each other,” he says, tired of the complications that have arisen between the two communities because of the law. He leaves to offer his afternoon namaz on the other side of the gate.

Both communities suffer

A 20-minute drive from the old city to Kesarbaug, a posh housing colony, where the roads are broad and the trees look less tired, 46-year-old educationist Faisal Fazlani lives in a sprawling 15,000 square foot bungalow with his family. Geeta Goradia had sold the property to him for ₹6 crore. All the paperwork pertaining to the Disturbed Areas Act was in order by 2019, and just when the transfer was to take place, the Special Secretary of the Revenue Department asked the District Collector to stay the sale, until complaints of five Hindu neighbours were investigated.

Fazlani filed a case in the Gujarat High Court that ruled in his favour in November 2023. The court said the objections raised by the neighbours were not maintainable as the purpose of the Disturbed Areas Act was to prevent distress sale, and not to maintain law and order.

Vadodara-based advocate Hitesh Gupta explains that if a housing society has eight Hindu families and two Muslim families, the Disturbed Areas Act is invoked to ensure that the Muslim families are not selling their houses under any distress to the majority.

A top officer in the Vadodara police agrees: “The protectionist law was made to prevent ghettoisation, but it is now promoting it.” The ambit of the Act is fast expanding with large swathes of land in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, and even parts of rural Amreli district coming under its ambit. While Fazlani had the time and means to go to court, most people do not have the economic ability to seek legal recourse.

Pratap Rajput, 75, owns a 1,700 square foot patch of land, on which he has built his two-room house in the Muslim-dominated area of Fatehpura. Rajput, who recently underwent a leg surgery, was contemplating selling his property to return to his village. He gave up the idea because only Muslims wanted to buy the land, and the legal processes seemed too daunting.

“A decade ago, there were at least 20 Hindu families in this neighbourhood. Now there are only three, including mine,” he says. He points at a narrow three-storey mansion opposite his home. “After the [2002] mob violence, the Prajapatis sold their home for ₹9 lakh to neighbouring Muslims, and ran away overnight, without any paperwork in order. Now, the building is occupied by Muslims, but the electricity bill still comes in the name of the Prajapatis as the transfer of property has not occurred. Legally transferring property would also evoke objections from Hindu families living within 500 metres on the other side of the road,” adds Rajput, lounging on his charpoy.

When 70-year-old Lataben wished to sell her property to 43-year-old Iliyas, a middleman approached them and offered to forge transaction documents, including a fake police verification and district administration approvals. When this came to the notice of the Collector’s office, an FIR was registered and a look-out notice was issued for both Lataben and Iliyas, Deputy Collector Sambad says.

Iliyas, who was on his way to the Haj, was stopped at Ahmedabad airport by immigration authorities and jailed, while Lataben, who is seeking anticipatory bail, has gone underground.

“The two parties wished to peacefully sell and buy a piece of property, but the fear of the Disturbed Areas Act and the next to impossible property transaction led them to resort to criminal means,” Gupta says.

lost amid unanswered questions

A massive blaze at a labour camp in Kuwait snuffed out the lives of 50 migrant workers, including 46 from India, on June 12. Hiran Unnikrishnan visits homes of some of the victims from Kerala and looks at the issues scarring the migrant labour scene in West Asia

1 of 3 Jinumol, wife of Thomas C. Oommen, along with their five-year-old daughter, grieving over the body of her husband at their residence in Mepral, near Thiruvalla; (below) family members of Shibu Varghese, a native of Payippad in Kottayam, mourn next to his coffin kept at a church before the funeral. THULASI KAKKAT

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The road begins as a narrow lane at Mepral, a village straddling the border between Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts. It stretches for about 200 metres, ending at a small house squeezed into a tiny property.

Beyond it lies an endless expanse of water merging into the polders of upper Kuttanad. Outside, the thick scent of camphor sticks masks the pervasive stench. The sombre mood inside starkly contrasts with the devotional songs that fill the air.

A mobile freezer is placed outside the house. It holds the lifeless body of Oommen C. Thomas, known as Jobi, a 37-year-old who died in a blaze that engulfed a labour camp in Mangaf, Kuwait, last week. Jinumol, Oommen’s widow, sits motionless beside the freezer. Three days have passed since the news of her husband’s death shattered her world and she remains in a state of shock. Jesica, her five-year-old daughter, innocent and oblivious to the people pouring in, plays with her doll.

“Even when the news first broke, Jobi’s name wasn’t on the list of the deceased. We clung to hope, prayed he had escaped. But it was all in vain,” laments Rani, Jobi’s mother. Oommen used to call the family every day after his duty hours, but he didn’t on the day of the fire. The family was told that he had been dropped back at the building just half-an-hour before the fire by a friend and probably didn’t get time to talk to his family one last time.

Oommen, who had been working in the quality check wing of the company for the past five years, was building a new house with his brother in another piece of land, higher up with better road access. “He planned to come home for vacation in August and move us to the new house,” she says, her voice choked in grief.

Fifty people, including 46 Indians, lost their lives in the blaze that tore through a six-storey building on June 12. According to the Indian embassy in Kuwait, the victims from India included 23 from Kerala, seven from Tamil Nadu, three each from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, two from Odisha, and one each from Bihar, Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Haryana. The building, rented by the NBTC Group, a construction major run by Keralite businessman K.G. Abraham,housed a total of 196 people, predominantly Indians.

Occupants were sleeping

Among the dead were three Philippine nationals and one unidentified person. Most fatalities were due to smoke inhalation, as the accident occurred around 4 a.m. when the occupants were asleep.

Eyewitness accounts paint a terrifying scene at the accident site. “Bedsheets could be seen dangling from the handrail of the balcony of the building, which, according to some eyewitnesses, were used by men to get out of the apartment. Many others were not so lucky as they could not escape the smoke and fire that engulfed them in their sleep,” says Sahar-Moussa, a senior journalist of Kuwait Times, who reported the accident for the newspaper.

A few others fell to death as they jumped off the fifth and sixth floors of the building in their desperate effort to escape the inferno. Some lucky men survived the fall though they suffered broken limbs. The injured ones were shifted to hospitals, says Moussa.

“It all started around 4 a.m. when all the workers were fast asleep after the day’s hard labour. A short-circuit at the lower floor of the building triggered the fire, which quickly spread to the upper floors. Most of the victims died in their sleep as thick smoke filled the rooms in which they were sleeping,” says Moussa.

Fire and rescue workers and the police arrived within four minutes of the accident and began rescue operations. There were around 200 inmates in the building at the time of the accident. Some rooms were packed with around 20 men, she says.

Kuwait’s Fire Force attributed the fire to an electrical short-circuit at the security guard’s office on the ground floor, based on a field examination which was reported by the State-run Kuwait News Agency. Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Fahad al-Yousuf al-Sabah visited the site and ordered the immediate arrest of the building’s owner. “Unfortunately, the greed of real estate owners leads to these tragedies,” he was quoted as saying.

The country’s public prosecution later announced on X that it had taken several individuals, including a Kuwaiti national, into custody on charges of committing “killing and injury by error due to negligence of security and safety precautions against fires”.

Many hopes snuffed out

Of the 24 Keralites who lost their lives, five were from Pathanamthitta district, four from Kollam, three each from Kottayam and Kannur, two each from Thiruvananthapuram, Kasaragod, and Malappuram, and one each from Alappuzha and Thrissur districts. The victims were all workers pursuing various jobs, from engineers and accountants to drivers and storekeepers.

Sharafudheen Kanneth, former president of the Kuwait Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre, was at the forefront of the relief mission in Mangaf. “Of the 29 people rescued with injuries, 23 are still in different hospitals here. Except for a few in ICUs, the rest are expected to leave the hospital in a few days. Most sustained injuries trying to escape by jumping off the building or climbing down through cables,” he says over the phone from Kuwait.

Thomas Joseph, a 51-year-old from Karukachal in Kottayam, made a providential escape by jumping off the fourth floor of the building at the urging of his wife and two sons, who saw him running for his life in a live video. He hit the ground face down, breaking both his hands and injuring his face. “Thank God he is saved. He’s now out of the ICU and under the care of his brother Benny Joseph, who also works in Kuwait,” says a relative.

Similarly, Nalinakshan from Thirkkarippur in Kasaragod and Sarath from Thavanoor in Malappuram all escaped with daring jumps.

Safety of building in question

But as stories about the tragic deaths and miraculous escapes circulate, they also give rise to questions about the safety of the building that housed these ill-fated workers. According to experts, many labourers in the relentless heat and humidity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries live in substandard conditions.

“It looked like a decent labour camp from outside but where were the basic systems such as fire alarms or water sprinklers?” asks Divya Balan, an Assistant Professor at Flame University in Pune, specialising in expatriate issues in West Asia.

“The victims were alerted to the fire only when others raised an alarm or they inhaled smoke. Safety often takes a backseat in such camps, often called bachelor houses accommodating single men, as compliance with standard norms is poor,” she notes.

Having done extensive fieldwork in workers’ camps across the United Arab Emirates, Divya points out that the standard of most labour camps in the GCC countries depends on the status of the employer. Most workers do not have the bargaining power to demand better facilities. Such fire accidents are not random but often go unreported unless there are injuries or casualties. Low-paid blue-collar workers, who work in hazardous conditions and live in cramped housing provided by companies, often do not have insurance. Adding to their woes, there are no mandatory centralised provisions for insurance in most cases, she adds.

“Such accidents are bound to happen as long as the Kafala (contractual labour) system of employment exists there. The existing labour laws in that country are indeed hostile to workers and instead support employers and labour contractors,” points out a top office-bearer of an organisation that works to ensure the welfare of non-resident Keralites abroad.

According to him, the labour laws in most parts of GCC countries regard migrant workers as a disposable component. “Employers are least bothered about the safety of workers as long as they can substitute person X with person Y,” he says.

Although the choice of residence for Keralites has shifted away from the GCC (from 89.2% in 2018 to 80.5% in 2023, according to the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2023), West Asia still remains the strongest corridor for the Keralite diaspora. The KMS shows that the UAE accounts for the highest number of emigrants with 38.6%, while Kuwait, in fifth place, accounts for 5.8% of Keralite emigrants.

Entitled to compensation

P.P. Narayanan, a former community welfare officer at the Indian embassy in Kuwait, says the dead and injured in the accident are entitled to compensation. “Depending on various criteria, including the family background of the deceased, each victim’s family will receive up to ₹50 lakh. The process, however, may take a couple of years to complete,” he says.

Regarding compliance with fire safety in Kuwait, he points to gaps in the safety system in most labour camps due to weak enforcement mechanisms. But Indian companies generally ensure a decent standard of living for their workers, primarily in the face of check-ups from the embassy. Since expats are not allowed to own buildings, the building owner will naturally be held accountable in case of accidents in such units.

The NBTC Group has offered ₹8 lakh to the kin of the victims. Additionally, there is insurance coverage for all employees, ensuring that families receive four years’ salaries of the deceased, said Abraham, founder managing director of the group, at a press conference in Kochi. “We will also provide jobs to the dependents of the families in our group as per their educational qualifications,” he added.

The company also dismissed reports of crowding in the ill-fated building. “The six-storey building had 24 apartments, each with three rooms. Managers occupied one room, and two engineers shared another. International law permits accommodation for four persons per room, or four cubic metres per person,” explained Abraham.

Many relief offers

The Kuwaiti government has announced that it will provide compensation of $15,000 (approximately ₹12.5 lakh) to each family of the victims who lost their lives in the devastating fire. The Union government has already announced compensation of ₹2 lakh each to the families of Indian nationals. The Kerala government has also pledged to provide ₹5 lakh financial assistance to the victims’ families, besides a sum of ₹11 lakh announced by various Gulf-based businessmen from Kerala.

“But how much is a mother’s grief for her child worth?” asks Sherly Abraham, mother of Stephin Abraham Sabu from Pampadi, Kottayam, who died in the accident. Stephin, 29, was the eldest of her three sons. “He was soon going to have a home of his own, and we were actively searching for a girl for him. Why has fate been so cruel to us?” she laments inconsolably, gazing at the lifeless body of her son.

There are no satisfactory answers to her dilemmas, and perhaps, there never will be.

(with inputs from K.S. Sudhi)

Edit

- A mandate for a new economic approach

- A progressive Indian policy on Myanmar outlined

- Testing times

- New Cold War

- letters to the editor

- Catching a falling star

A mandate for a new economic approach

Pulapre Balakrishnan Honorary Visiting Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram

The results of the just concluded general election may partly be interpreted as signalling a discontent with economic conditions. The substantial drop in the number of seats won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh — which is among India’s poorest and most rural States — aligns with this view.

Discontent, its sources

Dissatisfaction with governance is bound to be high at a time of unemployment and persistent inflation. Food-price inflation, in particular, has remained elevated for five years. It is highest for cereals and pulses, which are staples. For households at the bottom of the income distribution, food constitutes close to half their household expenditure. Past experience suggests that the price of food can be a determinant of how the electorate votes. For instance, historically high food-price inflation towards the end of its decade-long tenure had preceded the end of the A.B. Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government in 2004. When it comes to jobs, the unemployment rate has mostly been higher since 2014. The Periodic Labour Force Survey also shows a decline in the real earnings of regular employees and the self-employed, being substantial in the case of the latter. These are some of the sources of the economic discontent that may have propelled the shift away from the BJP.

In the spirit of democracy, which he constantly refers to, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must now honour the mandate given by the people. His government must address the sources of their discontent. This would require a change from the economic approach that has been followed for the last decade. We are yet to see indications that the government has this in mind. The Finance Minister has promised ‘reforms’, and some supportive commentators have spoken of how they are essential for growth. Two points spring to mind as reforms are brought to the table.

First, Mr. Modi’s much praised reforming zeal has not translated to a higher average growth rate after 2014. Reforms understood as changes in the policy regime are effective only to the extent that they affect the forces of demand or supply. Clearly, this has not happened strongly or widely enough in the economy, whatever the reforms undertaken by the present regime so far.

Second, the growth that we have seen since 2014 has not brought along with it the things that Indians aspire to. I have already mentioned the high food inflation. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that close to 75% of the Indian population cannot afford a healthy diet. This is not surprising given the extent of increase in food prices in the past five years and the highly unequal distribution of income in the country. Apart from affordable food, Indians aspire to infrastructure, both physical and social. Social infrastructure is constituted mainly by health care and education. Physical infrastructure is almost everything that is necessary both for everyday life and engaging in economic activity. Both are crucial for living.

The economic policy of the past decade has focused on attracting foreign investment, moving to digital payment in all spheres, building a manufacturing sector through subsidy and, in the past three years, unleashing a highway construction spree. Combined with this, there have been a host of transfers, cash for farmers and housewives and free rations for the poorest. This might appear to be a winning formula, but it has not been enough to bring the BJP back with a majority. To continue with this would be to ignore the people’s verdict. To honour it would require going beyond vague pronouncements on reforms or doubling down on welfare transfers, even if there was fiscal capacity for this. Showcasing macroeconomic stability also will not do. Till the COVID-19 pandemic, the central government had had fair success with fiscal consolidation, though not equally with inflation control, but that could not prevent growth from sliding even before COVID-19 had struck. While you certainly do not want macroeconomic instability, we can now see that it does not necessarily bring more growth or deliver the goods citizens aspire to. Continued high growth in India would require a rise in the investment rate. Private investment is guided by anticipation of demand. The private investment rate in India has not budged for a decade. Whether it will rebound at a time when its principal cheerleader, Mr. Modi, has lost his majority in Parliament is to be seen.

Glaring deficits

So, if ‘more reforms’ is not the way for economic policy to respond to the electorate, then what is? It would be to undertake specific interventions at the pressure points which currently signal a presence. The first, as already flagged, is the rising price of food. Other than the promotion of millets, agriculture has been a generally neglected aspect of the Modi economic package of the last decade. The relentless rise in prices of staple foods is the sign of an under-developed economy, and sits uncomfortably with the goal of a ‘Viksit Bharat’. While wheat production only experiences shortfalls in certain years, the production of pulses, a major source of protein for workers, has chronically fallen short of demand for decades. Making India self-sufficient in pulses must be taken up in mission mode. The supply of fruits and vegetables, the sources of vitamins and minerals, is hobbled by the absence of cold-storage facilities and poor transportation.

A second pressure point in the country is to be found in the Indian Railways. Its leadership appears to have been caught unawares by the rise in long-distance migration for work. Pictures of reserved compartments on long-distance trains swarming with ticketless travellers have sent shock waves across the country. In such a situation, to treat high-end ‘Vande Bharat’ trains as a priority, not to mention the bullet train, is a serious failure of judgment when it is not actually irresponsible.

A third pressure point is the strained water supply situation in our mega cities. First Bengaluru and now Delhi have witnessed severe deficits this summer. These are India’s leading agglomerations and water shortage can cripple their economic potential, apart from endangering social harmony. ‘Nal se jal’ must seem a distant dream to many.

The public sector is crucial

I have selected only a small set from the many deficits in India today, but this would be sufficient to see the point being made. Expressways and a Digital Stack, which the BJP has championed , have their place for sure, but connecting cities and digitising India are not the most pressing of the country’s needs right now. The country needs infrastructure that supports both everyday life and economic activity. The first is easily understood, but the second perhaps not. Firms, including the self-employed, need producer services ranging from efficient transportation and steady electricity supply to sewerage and waste disposal facilities. When such services are unavailable, production cannot take place, and employment cannot expand.

The relatively high growth in India over the past quarter century has not delivered these services sufficiently, and they are unlikely to be supplied by the private sector within any time frame. Only the public sector can supply them at scale. Surely, this must be obvious to Mr. Modi as he travels the world to attend summits held in locations with impressive public infrastructure. His economic approach has banked too much on the private sector to take the lead in developing the country. But this has not materialised in a decade, and it is unlikely to change. The government, however, can undertake course correction now. Instead of promising, or even implementing, liberalising reforms, it should move swiftly to address the pressure points that are so obvious. It has set 2047 as the date to make the country a developed economy. However much it may grow by then, India will remain underdeveloped without the infrastructure to support life.

A progressive Indian policy on Myanmar outlined

Angshuman Choudhury New Delhi-based researcher and writer from Assam, and formerly an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research

Three years on, the military in Myanmar, which overthrew the elected civilian government in February 2021, continues to kill, maim and displace its own people. India has steadfastly maintained formal relations with this regime, which has so far murdered more than 5,000 people and displaced some 2.5 million people. In its second tenure, the Narendra Modi government did very little to engage with the pro-democracy resistance, which now has both political and military wings. Indian foreign policy scholars and practitioners have doggedly defended this policy by arguing that India needs to work with the junta if it has to protect its “interests” in Myanmar and not get swayed by an idealistic preoccupation with “values”.

How India can step out of China’s shadow

But, in foreign policy, there is no clear line between “values” and “interests” simply because neither has a standard definition. It all depends on how a country defines these terms. This is also the case with India’s Myanmar policy. New Delhi has long defined its “interests” in the Southeast Asian country in narrow strategic terms. But now, it needs to leverage a unique set of “values” to better defend its interests. It is possible for India to put in place a more progressive, values-driven Myanmar policy that works in favour, and not against, its national interests.

This new policy should have two key pivots, namely, democracy and human security. The new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, therefore, needs to take four interlocking steps immediately.

First, India needs to use its credentials as the largest federal democracy in the region to sharpen its influence in Myanmar. For long, Myanmar’s pro-democracy political elites and civil society have looked up to India as a model of a federal democratic union with a well-oiled power-sharing arrangement between the centre and various subnational units. This is even more relevant today as the democratic resistance in Myanmar, which is led by the National Unity Government (NUG), dozens of ethnic revolutionary organisations, civil society organisations, and trade unions, strives to replace the military-drafted 2008 constitution with a federal constitution. By helping this vibrant opposition achieve its aim through capacity-building and knowledge exchange programmes, India can distinguish itself from China, its primary regional competitor in Myanmar. Both Beijing and New Delhi can sell military hardware to Myanmar, but only India can sell the spirit of federal cooperation. Here is a chance for the new Indian government to outmanoeuvre the Chinese in their own ‘backyard’.

Weapons sales and humanitarian outreach

Second, India needs to immediately halt all weapon sales to the Myanmar military. According to the advocacy group, Justice For Myanmar (JFM), Indian state-owned military hardware manufacturers have sold a range of non-lethal and semi-lethal equipment to the junta since the 2021 coup. In its most recent report, published on March 27, the group claimed that on January 2, the Indian Air Force transferred a package which had 52 items, including navigation and communication parts, to its Myanmar counterpart. Another recent investigation by Frontier Myanmar claims that India sold more than $1.5 million worth of navy-grade diesel to junta-linked entities since the coup. New Delhi needs to immediately put a stop to these, as the Myanmar military continues to use all its three services — the army, air force, and navy — to attack non-combatant civilians using imprecise lethal tactics.

Third, India needs to immediately open cross-border humanitarian corridors to help civilians affected by the conflict along three border provinces — Sagaing Region, Chin State and northern Rakhine State. According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) data, Sagaing Region has seen the largest quantum of internal displacement in all of Myanmar since the coup (as of March 25, 2024). Rakhine comes next, while Chin State sits tenth in the list. Continuing air strikes by the junta and clashes between armed groups in these areas have only pushed more civilians across the borders. New Delhi needs to first revoke its plans to fence the India-Myanmar border and reinstate the Free Movement Regime, or the FMR, which the Union Home Ministry suspended in February 2024. Then, it should engage existing humanitarian aid networks along the India-Myanmar border to send emergency relief assistance including medicines, food and tarpaulin to the other side. Mizoram, where a multi-layered asylum and aid ecosystem is already operational, is a good starting point. India should also collaborate with local and international non-governmental organisations with experience in the field. Best practices from Thailand, which recently started cross-border aid deliveries into Myanmar, should also be adopted. New Delhi should use its clout to ensure that the aid is not distributed by the junta, which not only has a disastrous track record in this field, but is also not even in control of large areas along the India-Myanmar border. It is also possible to run cross-border aid corridors without allowing contraband to pass through, with stringent checks and pre-delivery vetting.

Detention of asylum seekers

Fourth, the Narendra Modi government should immediately halt the detention and deportation of asylum seekers from Myanmar. This is especially so in the case of Manipur, where the BJP-led government has so far deported 115 asylum seekers to Myanmar — the latest round was on June 11. These are people who entered India not because they wanted to or with mal-intent, but because they were forced to. Regardless of the fact that India has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is incumbent upon the government to treat them as refugees in need of humanitarian assistance and protection rather than as “illegal immigrants”. Both the Indian Constitution and international law allow the Indian state to do so. In fact, the customary international legal principle of non-refoulement discourages India from deporting refugees back to a home country where they face a threat of persecution or death. The Centre should also urge the BJP-led Assam government to release the 27 Chin refugees detained in the State and house them in a humane refugee shelter.

India, the “Vishwabandhu”, routinely claims to stand with the people of Myanmar. It should now walk the talk.

Testing times

The National Testing Agency needs an overhaul to regain credibility

The cancellation of the UGC-NET examination on Wednesday, just a day after its supposed “successful conduct” by the National Testing Agency (NTA), is one more load of straw threatening to break the agency’s creaking reputation. Coming as it did after irregularities in this year’s NEET-UG (medicine), and complaints about the JEE (engineering), the NTA is under intense pressure. In some ways, the Education Ministry’s actions are in stark contrast to its response to the ongoing NEET fiasco, and seem to indicate that it has learnt some lessons. It took suo motu action on the basis of the Home Ministry’s cybercrime team’s inputs, even without any formal complaints from candidates, unlike in the NEET case where it has dragged its feet through committees and court cases despite multiple allegations and police complaints of paper leaks. The Ministry immediately cancelled the UGC-NET and promised a fresh examination. It has asked the CBI to probe the case, while not heeding the persistent demand of NEET aspirants for a similar probe. However, for the over nine lakh UGC-NET candidates who studied for months, and then travelled long distances to their examination centres, some taking loans to cover their costs, this is little consolation.

These young people deserve answers, and right now, most of the questions are still unanswered. For one, no one in the government’s education establishment has explained why the NET was an offline exam conducted by the CBSE till 2018, when it was taken over by the NTA and became an online exam, only to revert this year to an offline, pen-and-paper exam, which is potentially more vulnerable to paper leaks. As the investigation is carried out, full transparency is key to any hopes that the NTA can regain trustworthiness in the eyes of candidates. The second is accountability and punishment of the guilty. The government would also do well to consider a rehaul of the NTA’s systems and personnel to ensure that the technical glitches, cheating scams, paper leaks, and proxy candidates that have plagued the exams this year are not allowed to happen again. With the fate of lakhs of India’s educated youth and youngest voters at stake, it is not surprising that the testing agency’s woes have become a political hot potato. Some Opposition leaders have demanded that the NTA be dismantled and the responsibility for entrance examinations be handed over to the States instead. This may well curb the Union government’s centralising tendencies leading to examinations of enormous scale that are harder to manage in a far-flung nation. However, some all-India examinations will always remain, and the need is for the States to join the Centre in recovering the integrity of the beleaguered examination system.

New Cold War

Russia’s pact with North Korea will deepen U.S. ties in East Asia

The security pact reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, in which both countries promised mutual assistance “in the event of aggression”, has echoes from the Cold War era. Russia and North Korea, erstwhile allies, are facing biting sanctions, but for different reasons. And, both are at odds with the West. Now, they seem determined to revive the alliance so that they can stand up to the western-led global order together. Mr. Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, his first in 24 years, itself marked a new beginning. The Russian leader has supported multilateral efforts to curb the North’s nuclear programme in the past. Moscow has also voted for sanctions at the UN Security Council against Pyongyang over its nuclear arsenals. But the Ukraine war appears to have altered Kremlin’s geopolitical arithmetic and provided an opportunity for Pyongyang to make itself useful as an ally. When the Ukraine war dragged on and Russia came under western sanctions, Mr. Putin turned to Mr. Kim for ammunition and ballistic missiles. After Mr. Kim’s visit to Russia in September 2023, North Korea reportedly supplied ammunition to Russia. Moscow stepped up supplies of food and fuel, and there was speculation that it could help the North’s defence sector with critical technologies. While both have rejected reports of weapons trade, the security pact clearly elevates ties to the level of a de facto alliance.

Ever since the Ukraine war, Mr. Putin has steadily expanded Russia’s cooperation with countries that are at odds with the U.S. He reportedly bought kamikaze drones from Iran. China has also emerged as a key economic, technological and energy partner. And, by promising to help North Korea, an isolated, one-family-ruled totalitarian state that is still technically at war with South Korea, in the event of an attack, Russia has signalled its readiness to play a larger role in northeast Asia. Mr. Putin, essentially a cold warrior, wants to build an axis of the ‘others’ opposed by the West to expedite the churn in the global order. China remains cautious but seems fine with the idea of its closest partners challenging the western order. This will have far-reaching geopolitical consequences. North Korea will now have little incentive to discuss denuclearisation. Russia, which already has testy ties with Japan, could see its relationship with South Korea deteriorating. The agreement is also likely to strengthen the emerging tripartite partnership in East Asia among Japan, South Korea and the U.S., further solidifying the new cold war between great powers, which is still in its early stages.

Kallakurichi and policy

It is heart-wrenching that several families in Kallakurichi district have lost their breadwinners. It is likely that the Tamil Nadu government will take action against bootleggers, at least in the short term. However, the elephant in the room — flawed liquor taxation policies — is being ignored. Liquor is viewed as an easy source of revenue for governments, as consumers are from diverse social classes and are not organised, allowing the governments to raise taxes without much backlash. Since total prohibition has been shown to be ineffective historically, there is a need for measures to ensure a safe product. Simultaneously, efforts to promote de-addiction and more awareness of the impact of alcohol on health must be scaled up.

Michael Jom,

Thiruvananthapuram

Examination scandal

It is a real shame and pathetic that even decades after Independence, a competitive examination cannot be conducted in a fair and scandal-free way in India. The plight of hapless aspirants cannot be imagined. Their being demoralised is only one aspect.

Even though there are loopholes in the legal system in India, there needs to be stringent legal action and severe punishment even if the political class is found to be involved.

K.V. Ramesh Nair,

Chennai

The killing of Renukaswamy, allegedly by Kannada film actor-producer Darshan and his associates, has made news even in places he and his films are not popular. K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj and G.T. Sathish chronicle the horrifying series of incidents that mirror society’s realities: fan-culture, alleged social media violations, and violence so brutal that it caused death

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2 of 5 Actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, after being arrested in connection with an alleged murder case. Murali Kumar K. MURALI KUMAR K

3 of 5 Last year, we got him married to Sahana. June 28 is his wedding anniversary, and we were planning an event to mark the occasion Kashinath S. shivana- gowdru Renukaswamy’s father

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5 of 5 Police seal the shed were Renukaswamy, a fan of actor Darshan, was allegedly tortured and murdered. Murali Kumar K. MURALI KUMAR K

A food delivery executive out with a Sunday-breakfast parcel on June 9, was headed to one of the apartments in Sattva Anugraha, an upmarket complex on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Bengaluru’s western suburbs. On his way, he saw street dogs pull at what looked like the body of a man in a storm water drain. He alerted the security guards, who in turn called the police.

Based on the complaint of Kevalram Dorji, the security officer of the apartment complex, the police recovered the body riddled with injuries. It was stuck on a bushy slope off the road and had not fallen into the running water. There was no identification on him.

The CCTV footage from the apartment complex gave leads on two suspicious vehicles. As is routine, the police secured the body in a morgue and put out an advertisement with photographs in newspapers that evening, seeking information. It might have ended up as one of the many unidentified bodies in the metropolis, but the police were in for a surprise on the evening of June 10.

At about 7 p.m. that day, four men walked into the Kamakshipalya police station and confessed to the murder of the man they said was K.S. Renukaswamy, 33. A resident of Chitradurga, a district headquarters in central Karnataka, around 200 kilometres away from Bengaluru, Renukaswamy worked at a retail pharmacy chain. Raghavendra, 43, also from Chitradurga; Karthik, 27; Keshavamurthy, 27; and Nikhil Naik, 21, all from Bengaluru, claimed they had a financial dispute with the deceased, had abducted and brought him to the city, beaten him up, and he had died.

Police action

The police were sceptical: “The victim did not have a profile which could have led to his murder due to a financial dispute. Such surrenders usually happen only in underworld cases,” said a senior police official, who has been leading the investigation.

Following sustained interrogation, the four told a different story. “What they revealed came as a shock to us,” the official said. The men said Darshan Thoogudeepa, one of the most popular Kannada cinema actors, had got the victim abducted from Chitradurga, had him brought to a shed in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru, and had beaten him up by his associates, leading to his death.

They said the victim had sent obscene messages to Darshan’s alleged partner Pavithra Gowda on social media. The actor had sent the four to surrender, paying them to keep his name out, police say. One of the four, Raghavendra, was the president of the Chitradurga District Darshan Fans’ Club.

In the next few hours, the police arrested seven more people: Vinay V., 38, owner of Stonny Brook resto-bar in Bengaluru, where the actor had been partying on Saturday afternoon. Vinay’s uncle owns the shed where the victim was allegedly tortured and killed. Deepak, 39, is a partner in the company running the shed and a nephew of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) city MLA. Pavan K., 29, is an employee of Darshan, working as Pavithra Gowda’s helper. Pradosh, 40, is a corporate executive and has been Darshan’s friend for two decades. Nandeesh, 28; Lakshman, 54; and Nagaraju, 41, were allegedly present at the shed and had assaulted the victim.

The next morning, as Gowda was arrested in Bengaluru, city police arrested Darshan, who was at a hotel in Mysuru for a film shoot.

Darshan is one of the highest paid actors in the Kannada film industry, called Sandalwood informally. “He did at least two or three movies a year earlier, and was considered a ‘dependable’ hero. Producers invested money in him; exhibitors felt the need for such a hero so that theatres would be busy most of the year. Both the industry and the audience admired him for different reasons,” said Shashidhar Chitradurga, author and film journalist.

Darshan’s most recent action film Kaatera is the industry’s biggest hit this year so far. At election time, politicians flocked to get the D-Boss, as he is popularly known, to campaign for them, especially in southern Karnataka.

Last day at home

At about 2.30 p.m. on June 8, Renukaswamy had called his mother Rathnaprabha, 62, over the phone to tell her that he would not come home for lunch, and would return late in the evening. That was their last conversation. His body was brought to Chitradurga three days later.

Renukaswamy had left home around 9 a.m. on Saturday and parked his two-wheeler near Balaji Bar, close to the circle where the roads connecting Chitradurga with Bengaluru and Challakere taluka meet. As per CCTV camera footage, he got into an autorickshaw, and the vehicle took the Bengaluru route. After a couple of kilometres, the passengers in the autorickshaw and the driver shifted to a taxi.

They have now been identified as Raghavendra, the driver Ravi Shankar, and two of his associates Anu Kumar, 25, and Jagadeesh, 36, all from Chitradurga. Raghavendra had allegedly lured them into the plot, promising them a meeting with their idol, Darshan.

Back home, his mother; father, Kashinath S. Shivanagowdru, 75; and wife, Sahana K.S, 26, waited, as the evening turned to the next day, and there was no sign of him. “We called his friends and the pharmacy, but no one knew anything,” says Shivanagowdru.

As they contemplated lodging a complaint with the police on Monday, Shivanagowdru, who retired as a senior assistant from the Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) 17 years ago, got information of his son’s death from the police. “I felt the ground beneath me cave in,” recalled the father, still shaken.

Renukaswamy, who was actively involved in the activities of a few Hindutva groups, according to people in the locality, had dropped out of college, where he was studying Commerce. He secured a job in the sales section of a pharmacy company and worked at its outlets in Chitradurga, after undergoing training. “Last year, we got him married to Sahana. June 28 is his wedding anniversary, and we were planning an event to mark the occasion,” said Shivanagowdru.

Instead, on June 17, the family held a ritual in memory of Renukaswamy. “Sorry, the moment I start to speak about my son, I cannot hold back my tears,” Shivanagowdru said. What haunts him most are the reports of torture. “The moment I remember him, I start to imagine how he must have suffered. I imagine him pleading with folded hands, wailing in pain. He must have cried for help; he must have begged them not to torture him.” Then, “His wife is five months pregnant.”

Where it all happened

The now infamous shed, about 300 metres away from the road, is situated on a four-acre plot owned by Pattanagere Jayanna, who has significant land holdings in the Pattanagere village, now subsumed within Rajarajeshwari Nagar, a suburb in west Bengaluru. Intact Autoparc India Pvt Ltd had rented the land parcel. About 400 seized vehicles, including some trucks and buses, allegedly of loan defaulters, are parked in the space. It has a two-storey building at one end and is covered by at least eight CCTV cameras.

Raghavendra was allegedly instructed to take Renukaswamy to the shed, where at least one movie of Darshan had been shot. Darshan was partying at Stonny Brooks.

Gowda, who runs a boutique, had on January 24, this year, posted pictures with Darshan on social media with the caption, “One decade down; forever to go. #10year. It’s been 10 years of our relationship. Thank you.” A sprinkling of hearts and stars was added. Gowda became a target of trolls. The message upset many Darshan fans who sided with his wife, Vijayalakshmi, and wrote messages against Gowda.

Renukaswamy was one of them. Allegedly operating under multiple fake Instagram identities, he had persistently trolled Gowda publicly. Police say he used the account @goutham_ks_1990 to send her obscene messages and pictures. Police have now found that Renukaswamy was a habitual offender and had employed a similar modus operandi with many women. One of them had brought it to the notice of a police officer in March 2024, but no action was taken.

These messages enraged Gowda, who allegedly informed her help Pavan. Posing as Gowda, he had chatted with Renukaswamy, managing to extract his mobile number and details of his whereabouts. With this information, Darshan allegedly contacted Raghavendra, seeking his ‘help’. Using the photo and number, Raghavendra tracked down Renukaswamy and brought him to the shed, allegedly on Darshan’s instructions.

Darshan then allegedly landed up at the shed with Gowda and several of his associates, including Pavan, the pub owner Vinay, and his friend Pradosh. Investigations have now revealed that Darshan got Gowda to beat up Renukaswamy and made him apologise. Renukaswamy was later tortured for several hours. Police claim that Deepak, a partner in the company running the shed, who had been out on work, joined them midway.

Past and present offenders

The post-mortem report says that Renukaswamy’s death was “due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries sustained,” say the police. The police’s remand application gives graphic details of the torture.So far, 17 arrests have been made.

Police claim Pavan took charge of the cover-up, roping in three associates. Late in the night, the trio along with four others, took the body in two SUVs and threw it into the drain. “They assumed it would be washed away, but the body got stuck in the bushes,” a police official said.

Darshan claims he only warned Renukaswamy, got Pavithra to slap him, and left, and that he had nothing to do with the murder. But police say he was present for much longer. The actor has now reportedly confessed to having paid Pradosh ₹30 lakh for the cover-up. Pradosh allegedly gave ₹5 lakh each to three who surrendered before the police, taking the blame for the murder. They had been promised more money for their families. Police have recovered the money.

Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said they were confident of the case against the actor, as the arrest was based on strong evidence. “Barring Darshan, who had a domestic abuse case [in 2011, when he was arrested after his wife filed a case]; three others have petty cases against them; none of the other accused has any criminal record,” another senior police officer leading the probe, said. He adds this was the reason they did not know how to cover their tracks.

Fact, fiction, and the film world

Following Darshan’s arrest for murder, social media is abuzz with multiple clips from his films which eerily mirror the happenings in the case. The characters Darshan plays in the movies often portray a type of masculinity that punishes those who violate women, by taking the law into their hands. At 6.3 feet and a gym-built body, Darshan’s appeal was at many levels.

“In the initial years, people appreciated his screen presence and stunts, in addition to his looks. It was the time when gym culture picked up in Karnataka. Young boys who were keen on their physical appearance followed theactor,” said Shashidhar.

Despite being the son of on-screen villain and character-actor Thoogudeepa Srinivas, well-known in the 1970s and 1980s, Darshan started at the bottom of the film industry pyramid, working as a light boy, when he lost his father at 18. His first break as a lead actor came with the 2002 superhit Majestic, in which he played an orphaned youth led astray into Bengaluru’s underworld.

With his arrest after the domestic violence case, for which he got bail, his relationship with the media soured, but most of his films continued to rake in money. Days after the domestic violence case, his film Sarathi, in which he played an auto driver fighting to take revenge over his father’s murder, became a blockbuster.

Today, fans stand outside the police station where he is being held, and the police, have had to impose prohibitory orders around the station. Social media is awash with fan support.

In recent years, Darshan had made an effort to break away from the mould he found himself in, essaying roles of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna and the Mahabharata’s tragic-hero Duryodhana in recent films. These brought him closer to family audiences. His recent films Yajamana, Kranti, and Kaatera, made good business and were hailed for their social messages.

Away from the blinding camera lights, Chandrappa, 60, accused person Anu Kumar’s father, collapsed and died on hearing the news of his son’s arrest. Chandrappa was a construction labourer; his wife Jayamma works as a domestic help. In their one-room tenement in Chitradurga, Jayamma says, “My son Anu’s friend Jagadish is Darshan’s fan. He forced Anu to join him for the trip,” she says, weeping.

Business

- IBBI to strengthen creditors’ rights on personal guarantors

- ‘Growth sacrifice’ view grows in MPC

- Global headwinds may dampen India’s exports of steel

- ‘Private sector activity perks up; business optimism falls’

- Centre unveils 10th tranche of commercial coal mine auction

- ‘Create a retirement corpus that covers longevity and inflation’

- ‘Maruti Suzuki to scout for all technologies to make entire fleet hybrid’

- RBI’s Rao stresses on customer protection in NBFC sector

- Sun Pharma to unveil Takeda gastrointestinal drug in India

- Zepto raises $665 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion

- Samrat appointed convenor of GST rate rationalisation panel

IBBI to strengthen creditors’ rights on personal guarantors

K.R. Srivats

New Delhi

Bringing clarity: The regulator has issued a discussion paper and sought public comments by July 10. Getty Images/iStockzimmytws

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India proposes to make it unequivocally clear that the submission or approval of a resolution plan for a corporate debtor under the IBC does not automatically release guarantors from their liability to repay the debt.

The IBBI now seeks to amend its CIRP regulations to ensure that submitting a resolution plan does not prevent creditors from enforcing their rights against the personal guarantor. Insolvency law experts said the IBBI’s plan is likely to provide legislative clarity, strengthen creditors’ position, and boost recoveries from personal guarantors.

The IBBI has released a discussion paper addressing, among other things, the “release of guarantees in a resolution plan.” The last date for public comments through electronic mode is July 10, IBBI has said.

SC’s approach

To clarify that approving a resolution plan does not automatically discharge a personal guarantor’s liabilities from an independent contract, the IBBI has followed the Supreme Court’s approach in Lalit Kumar Jain vs Union of India.

In the Lalit Kumar Jain vs Union of India judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the November 15, 2019, MCA notification enforcing the IBC’s provisions on personal guarantors’ insolvency.

The court also ruled that approving a resolution plan does not absolve personal guarantors from their obligations or extinguish their liability.

Experts’ take

Sushmita Gandhi, Partner, INDUSLAW, said the case of Lalit Kumar is one of the many instances where judicial interpretation bridged the lacuna in the IBC, which is still a nascent law.

“The proposal indicates that the IBBI is cognisant of such gaps and is attempting to bridge the same to avoid ambiguity relating to the position of release of guarantees,” she added.

‘Raises concerns’

Misha, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., said the language of the proposed amendment raises concerns.

“On a plain reading, it suggests that a resolution plan cannot prevent creditors from enforcing their rights against the guarantors of the corporate debtor. This should not be the case where the creditors have agreed to discharge the guarantor along with the corporate debtor,” she observed.

Hari Hara Mishra, CEO of the Association of ARCs in India, said the IBBI proposal, if implemented, will be a shot in the arm for creditors and a boost to improve recovery from the enforcement of guarantees.

‘Sanctity of contracts’

“This will reinforce the sanctity of contractual obligations, the backbone of a robust framework of credit culture,” he said.

Sumit Khanna, Partner, Deloitte India, said,“By prohibiting resolution applicants from extinguishing guarantees, this change strengthens creditors’ positions, promising a more efficient recovery process. With creditors recovering close to 2 per cent of claims from PGs, this amendment is crucial for bolstering recovery.”

Vishwas Panjiar, Partner, Nangia Andersen in India, said personal guarantors remain liable for the guarantees they have provided.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

‘Growth sacrifice’ view grows in MPC

Lalatendu Mishra

MUMBAI

External member Goyal cautions MPC against repeating the mistake of 2015 , when policymakers avoided cutting interest rates on fears that crude prices could rise again and thus hurt growth; joins Varma in voting for a 25 bps rate reduction

Ashima Goyal joined Jayanth R. Varma as the two external members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted as a minority for a 0.25% rate cut at the latest MPC meeting, warning against the rising risks of ‘status quosim’ and ‘growth sacrifice’ as a result of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) persisting with its tight monetary policy approach, the minutes of the June 5-7 meeting released on Friday show.

“Headline inflation has been around 5% since January... while core inflation has been below 4% since December 2023,” Dr. Goyal noted. “The headline inflation projection of 4.5% for 2024-25 gives an average real repo rate of 2% implying that the real repo rate will be above neutral for too long if the repo rate stays unchanged,” she pointed out.

Stating that slowing inflation had raised real repo above unity, she said this would reduce real growth rate with a lag. “Expected growth is around 7% in 2024-25 below the 8% achieved in 2023-24. Status quoism is praised as being cautious. But if doing nothing distorts real variables it aggravates shocks instead of smoothing them and raises risk,” she asserted.

Dr. Goyal stressed that it was necessary to avoid the mistake of 2015 when global crude oil prices fell substantially but the fear that they would rise again prevented an adequate cut in the policy rate. “Real interest rates rose substantially and hurt growth.”

Mr. Varma said: “I expressed concern about the growth sacrifice in 2024-25 induced by restrictive monetary policy. It now appears that the maintenance of restrictive policy for unwarrantedly long will lead to a growth sacrifice in 2025-26 as well.”

RBI Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra, however, said policy needed to stay focused on aligning inflation to the target or risk undermining medium-term growth.

Global headwinds may dampen India’s exports of steel

Abhishek Law

New Delhi

The country’s steel exports continue to see sluggish demand in June across key markets that include the Europe Union, West Asia and the South East Asian region.

While higher-than-expected price quotations are said to be a key reason for subdued demand, sources said hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to South East Asia and West Asia continue to face Chinese competitive price resistance, thereby impacting demand.

Offers to West Asia are apparently in the $600 per tonne range as against expectations (primarily Chinese offers) being in the $550–580 per tonne range.

European demand

In case of Europe, sluggish economic conditions – after a brief period of improvement in early-June – persist.

In case of Europe, there was slight increase in price quotations early June, rising to $560-610 per tonne (lower and higher end) after settling in the $560-600 range, by mid-June.

In contrast, European HRC prices experienced a marginal uptick despite lacklustre demand.

This increase coincides with the European Union’s extended safeguard measures, aimed at restricting imports from specific countries and potentially tightening supply within Europe.

India will be among the countries that could see a hit in its exports to Europe.

On the other hand, cold rolled coil offers to Europe saw a 6-7% decline to $700 per tonne, as against $750 in the previous week.

According to consultancy firm, BigMint, the Indian steel mills have maintained their HRC export offers to Europe “unchanged”, focusing on the domestic market as a priority.

“Some sluggishness in domestic market is expected post June, as monsoon set in,” a steel mill official told businessline. “Budget expectations will also weigh in on trade level prices while mills are also expecting counter-measures to safeguard duties of the EU,” the official added.

Domestic market

India’s imports of bulk HRC and plates have begun to grow, outpacing exports.

The onset of the monsoon season is anticipated to reduce demand across various regions of India too.

“Narrowing profit margins and reduced sales within the trading sector, is fostering a pessimistic market sentiment. Moreover, the increasing influx of imports is poised to exert additional downward pressure on prices,” BigMint said in its report.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

‘Private sector activity perks up; business optimism falls’

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Manufacturing as well as services activity picked up pace in June, as per the HSBC Flash India Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMI) released on Friday, but business optimism levels slumped sharply despite an improvement in margins amid a marked reduction in input costs.

Rising demand and capacity pressures compelled manufacturing as well as services businesses surveyed for the PMI to ramp up staffing levels and input buying, with hiring reckoned to have grown at the fastest pace in 18 years.

Manufacturing sector activity recovered after slipping to a three-month low in May, as per the Flash PMI that serves as an advance indicator for a month’s economic momentum, and rose to 58.5 from 57.5 last month.

Gains in the services sector were not as sharp, with the PMI rising marginally, from 60.2 in May, to 60.4. However, services players did better than goods producers in terms of global demand, with fresh orders reported.

While input costs moderated, manufacturers raised output prices, while services firms tempered charges to customers.

“However, we should remain slightly cautious as the future output index fell sharply,” HSBC economists Pranjul Bhandari and Maitreyi Das wrote in a note. “The overall degree of optimism weakened to a three-month low, but remained above the series average,” they added.

Centre unveils 10th tranche of commercial coal mine auction

The Hindu Bureau

HYDERABAD

The Union Coal Ministry on Friday unveiled the 10th tranche of commercial coal mine auction.

As many as 67 coal mines, including a few that were offered under previous rounds across Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana, will be auctioned. Fully explored and partially explored as well as three coking coal mines figure in the list.

Union Minister of Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy and senior officials of the Coal Ministry said here that the auction would be conducted online through a transparent two stage process, based on percentage revenue share.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled the first round in 2020. In the nine rounds, a total of 107 coal mines had been successfully auctioned and involved an investment of ₹38,400 crore, the Minister said, adding that the initiative was aimed at reducing the dependency on coal imports.

‘Create a retirement corpus that covers longevity and inflation’

The Hindu Bureau

Coimbatore

Financial planning to create a retirement corpus should start early, said Vasudevan Desikachari, Zonal Head, South, LIC Mutual Fund, in Coimbatore on Friday.

Speaking at an Investor Conclave on the theme: “Retire with confidence” organised by bl.portfolio, along with LIC Mutual Fund, he said that by investing wisely, it will be possible for a person to grow his wealth and create value. The government quoted inflation at 6%.

The investment should beat inflation. He urged the investors to go for goal-based planning. There are several options: gold, stocks, mutual funds, insurance, etc. India is growing at a rapid pace in mutual funds. Investors should also read scheme-related documents before investing in a product, he added.

A person planning for a retirement corpus should look at creating a corpus that will outlive the investor, said Parvatha Vardhini C, Editor of bl.portfolio. There are several challenges — inflation, longevity, and healthcare — that should be taken into account while planning for the retirement corpus.

The investor should also plan for the right withdrawal rates by estimating the living expenses, post-retirement, and deciding on asset allocation. The investment should be rebalanced and reviewed a few years before retirement, she added.

‘Maruti Suzuki to scout for all technologies to make entire fleet hybrid’

Mini Tejaswi

Bengalaru

Maruti Suzuki India said it will explore all technologies to cover its entire fleet under hybridisation, which comprises electrification and alternative fuel options.

Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, told The Hindu that these technologies would include a wide range of pure electric and alternative fuel combos comprising battery EVs, strong hybrids, strong biofuels like ethanol, or even be CNG-based.

The company would also explore another bio-fuel called compressed biogas within CNG, he added.

According to Mr. Banerjee, hybrid is such a powerful technology that it improves energy efficiency and reduces Co2 consumption at least by about 30% with the help of a lithium-ion battery and a motor.

“The other advantage of hybrid is that it offers high torque, fuel efficiency, and peppiness at the same time,” he said, adding, “The biggest advantage is you don’t need charging. it’s like a self-charging machine. So we already have the Grand Vitara and Invicto, and the market and people who have driven themswear by them.”

RBI’s Rao stresses on customer protection in NBFC sector

The Hindu Bureau

MUMBAI

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Executive Director R. Lakshmi Kanth Rao on Friday stressed the importance of compliance and customer protection in the non-banking financial company (NBFC) sector.

“NBFCs are a critical part of the financial system, contributing to diversification and innovation. However, their growing size necessitates a shift from pure activity-based regulation to a framework that considers both activity and scale to effectively manage risk,” he said, addressing the Assocham 10th National Summit on NBFCs & Infrastructure Financingin Mumbai.

“There could be lesser importance given to compliance due to lighter regulations in the past.

However, with increased scale, NBFCs are required to meet stricter compliance requirements,” he added.

Sun Pharma to unveil Takeda gastrointestinal drug in India

Drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has entered into a non-exclusive patent licensing agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company to commercialise the latter’s gastrointestinal drug Vonoprazan tablets 10 mg, 20 mg in India under the brand name Voltapraz. Discovered and developed by Takeda, Vonoprazan is a novel, orally active potassium competitive acid blocker, used to treat reflux esophagitis and other acid peptic disorders.

Zepto raises $665 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion

Consumer internet company Zepto said it had raised $665 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion, nine months after it had raised $235 million at a $1.4 billion valuation. Avenir, Lightspeed, and Avra had joined as new investors, among others, the company said in a statement. Existing investors Glade Brook, Nexus and StepStone co-led the round with Goodwater and Lachy Groom doubling down as well, the consumer internet firm added.

Samrat appointed convenor of GST rate rationalisation panel

Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary has been appointed as convenor of the GoM on GST rate rationalisation. Other members of the reconstituted panel are U.P. FM Suresh Kumar Khanna, Goa Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho, and Rajasthan Medical and Health Services Minister Gajendra Singh, West Bengal FM Chandrima Bhattacharya, Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, and Kerala FM K.N. Balagopal, according to a memorandum. pti

Foreign

- Mob kills tourist in Pakistan for ‘desecrating’ the Koran

- Armenia becomes the latest nation to recognise Palestine

- Russia fires Deputy Defence Minister jailed for corruption

- Mid-year New Year

- Hinduja family members get jail term for exploiting staff

- Hong Kong charges two under the new national security law

- South Korea summons Russian Ambassador

- U.S. Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic abusers owning guns

- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Abbasi launches political party

- Heavy rainfall in China leads to flood, mudslides, killing 47 people

- Namibian court strikes down law criminalising same-sex relations

- ICC unveils arrest warrant for top Sahel jihadist leader

- New strategic pact between Russia and N. Korea could dent China’s influence

- Argentina has surplus harvest, but farmers want more from President Milei

- Iranians split on presidential vote as hardships mount ahead of election

- Head-on collision

- Beijing to punish ‘diehards’ of Taiwan independence

Mob kills tourist in Pakistan for allegedly desecrating the Koran

Press Trust of India

Peshawar

Local residents inspect the spot where a mob lynched and burned a man in Madyan in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday.APNAVEED ALI

A mob in the picturesque Pakistani town of Swat has gunned down a tourist, dragged him through the town and later hanged him in full public view for allegedly committing desecration of the Koran.

The incident happened on Thursday night when Muhammad Ismail, a resident of Sialkot in Punjab province, was visiting the northwestern Pakistan hill resort town of Swat and was accused of having burnt the pages of Islam’s holy book in Madyan tehsil of Swat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

District Police Officer (DPO), Swat, Zahidullah said that initially the police had taken Ismail in custody and locked him up in the police station when the alleged desecration incident was reported.

However, the incident was announced from mosques through loudspeakers in the market, prompting thousands of people to gather outside the police station.

Soon after, the angry mob demanded that the police hand over the suspect to them. On refusal, a fierce exchange of fire took place between the local people and the police in which eight persons were injured.

After that the mob torched the police station, forcing the cops on duty to flee for their lives.

“After that, the people entered the police station and shot and killed the suspect and dragged his body to the Madyan Ada, where they hanged him. The people also set the police station and police vehicles on fire, while the policemen on duty fled. Meanwhile, more police force was called to control the mob,” the officer was quoted as saying.

Law and order

According to the police officials, the incident has caused a law and order situation in the hill town. More police force was called to restore order in the popular tourist destination.

Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Ali Amin Gandapur has sought a report from the provincial police chief.

He has directed the Inspector General of Police to take emergency steps to control the situation and urged people to remain calm.

Armenia becomes the latest nation to recognise Palestine

Agence France-Presse

Yerevan

With the move, Yerevan joins the ranks of Spain, Ireland, and Norway who officially recognised Palestine last month; the former Soviet republic also condemns Hamas’s kidnapping of civilians

Sorry state: Armenia also criticised Israel’s military conduct in Gaza where more than 37,000 people have been killed.REUTERSMOHAMMED SALEM

Armenia announced on Friday it was recognising the State of Palestine, the latest country to do so during the war in Gaza, saying it was against “violence towards civilian populations.”

A series of nations have recognised the State of Palestine amid the war between Israel and Hamas, drawing strong rebukes from Israeli officials.

Envoy summoned

Shortly after the former Soviet republic announced the recognition, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned Yerevan’s Ambassador for a “severe reprimand”.

Yerevan noted it is “genuinely interested in establishing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East [West Asia].”

“Confirming its commitment to international law, equality of nations, sovereignty and peaceful coexistence, the Republic of Armenia recognises the State of Palestine,” Armenia added. Yerevan, which has itself been ridden by conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan for decades, slammed Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.

Call for freedom

It also criticised Hamas for “the captivity of civilian persons” and said Armenia “joins the demands of international community on freeing them.”

In late May, Spain, Ireland, and Norway officially recognised the State of Palestine, stating they saw the move as a step towards peace in the region.

Israeli authorities accused the European trio of “rewarding terrorism” with their actions.

Russia fires Deputy Defence Minister jailed for corruption

Associated Press

Timur Ivanov

Russian authorities have formally dismissed a Deputy Defence Minister jailed on bribery charges and accused by Kremlin critics of living a lavish lifestyle, Russian media reported on Thursday. A court ordered that his pretrial detention be extended for three more months.

Timur Ivanov, 48, is one of several senior military officers arrested on corruption charges in recent months. He was a close associate of Sergei Shoigu, whom President Vladimir Putin replaced as Defence Minister last month.

Ivanov, arrested in April, was charged with taking an especially large bribe. His lawyers said he maintains his innocence. The Basmanny District Court in Moscow on Thursday extended his detention pending investigation and trial until at least September 23. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Russian media, citing an online registry of government officials, said Thursday that Ivanov was dismissed from his post. His lawyer Denis Baluyev confirmed the dismissal in comments to Russian business news site RBK. It wasn’t immediately clear from the reports when exactly Ivanov was fired.

Other top military officials arrested in recent months include deputy chief of the Russian military general staff Lt. Gen. Vadim Shamarin; Gen. Ivan Popov, a former top commander in Russia’s offensive in Ukraine; and Lt. Gen. Yury Kuznetsov, head of the Defense Ministry’s personnel directorate.

All three have been accused of bribery.

Ivanov was appointed in 2016 by a presidential decree. He oversaw property management, housing and medical support for the military, as well as construction projects.

Ivanov’s arrest came nearly a month after Mr. Putin called on the Federal Security Service to “keep up a systemic anti-corruption effort” and pay special attention to state defense procurement.

Russian media reported that Ivanov oversaw some of the construction in Mariupol — a Ukrainian port city that was devastated by bombardment and occupied by Russian forces early in the war. Ivanov has been sanctioned by both the United States and European Union.

Zvezda, the official TV channel of the military, reported in 2022 that the ministry was building a residential block in Mariupol.

That same year, the team of the late Alexei Navalny, alleged Ivanov and his family had been enjoying luxurious trips abroad, lavish parties and owning elite real estate. The activists also alleged that Ivanov’s wife, Svetlana, divorced him in 2022 to avoid sanctions and continued living a lavish lifestyle.

Mid-year New Year

An Aymara musician plays an instrument during a ceremony to ring in the Andean New Year 5532 in La Paz in Bolivia on Friday.REUTERSCLAUDIA MORALES

Hinduja family members get jail term for exploiting staff

Agence France-Presse

GENEVA

Prakash Hinduja

A Swiss court handed jail sentences to four members of Britain’s richest family on Friday for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion.

The Hindujas — who were not present in court — were acquitted of human trafficking, but convicted on other charges in a stunning verdict for the family whose fortune is estimated at 37 billion pounds ($47 billion).

Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja each got four years and six months, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata received four-year terms, the presiding judge in Geneva ruled.

The cases stem from the family’s practice of bringing servants from their native India and included accusations of confiscating their passports once they were flown to Switzerland.

Prosecutors argued the Hindujas paid their staff a pittance and gave them little freedom to leave the house. The family denied the allegations, claiming the prosecutors wanted to “do in the Hindujas”.

The Hindujas reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the three employees who made the accusations against them. Despite this, the prosecution decided to pursue the case due to the gravity of the charges.

Geneva prosecutor Yves Bertossa had requested a custodial sentence of five-and-a-half years against Prakash and Kamal Hinduja.

Aged 78 and 75 respectively, both had been absent since the start of the trial for health reasons.

In his closing address, the prosecutor accused the family of abusing the “asymmetrical situation” between powerful employer and vulnerable employee to save money.

But the Hinduja family’s defence lawyers argued that the three plaintiffs received ample benefits, were not kept in isolation and were free to leave the villa.

Hong Kong charges two under the new national security law

Agence France-Presse

Hong Kong

Hong Kong has charged two persons in the span of a week with “sedition” over social media posts and clothing slogans, under a new national security law.

The city passed a homegrown security law in March, commonly known as Article 23, which the United States and Britain have criticised for curbing rights.

The legislation is Hong Kong’s second national security law and follows the one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests a year earlier.

On Friday, authorities charged Au Kin-wai, 58, with publishing “seditious” posts on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and X.

Authorities separately charged Chu Kai-pong on June 14 with sedition, saying the 27-year-old wore a t-shirt calling for Hong Kong’s “liberation” and a mask with a design suggestive of a protest slogan, local media reported.

History of law

Under Article 23, the maximum jail term for sedition — an offence created during British colonial rule — has been upped from two years to seven.

The offence was also revamped to cover inciting hatred against China’s Communist leadership and socialist system.

Authorities said that as of June 7, 299 people have been arrested for national security crimes under various laws.

South Korea summons Russian Ambassador

Associated Press

SEOUL

South Korea summoned the Russian Ambassador to protest the country’s new defence pact with North Korea on Friday, as border tensions continued to rise with vague threats and brief, seemingly accidental incursions by North Korean troops.

Earlier on Friday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border, and South Korea’s military said it had fired warning shots the previous day to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the rivals’ land border.

That came two days after Moscow and Pyongyang reached a pact vowing mutual defence assistance if either is attacked, and a day after Seoul responded by saying it would consider providing arms to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to protest the deal and called for Moscow to immediately halt its alleged military cooperation with Pyongyang.

Mr. Kim, the South Korean diplomat, stressed that any cooperation that helps the North build up its military capabilities would violate UN Security Council resolutions and pose a threat to the South’s security, and warned of consequences for Seoul’s relations with Moscow.

U.S. Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic abusers owning guns

REUTERSAmanda Andrade-Rhoades

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal law prohibiting a person subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm. The case was the first involving gun rights to come before the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, since a major ruling it issued last year loosening curbs on guns. afp

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Abbasi launches political party

APMarkus Schreiber

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday formed a new political party named Awaam Pakistan after parting ways with the ruling PML-N. Mr. Abbasi, who was Prime Minister from August 2017 to May 2018, was joined by former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail who also parted ways with the PML-N. pti

Heavy rainfall in China leads to flood, mudslides, killing 47 people

REUTERSSTRINGER

At least 47 people have died as downpours in southern China’s Guangdong province caused historic flooding and mudslides, while authorities warned of more extreme weather ahead in other parts of the country. The heaviest rains were on Sunday, with an average rainfall of 199 mm, and one town seeing 365.7 mm. ap

Namibian court strikes down law criminalising same-sex relations

REUTERSOpas Onucheyo

A top Namibian court on Friday struck down colonial-era laws criminalising same-sex relationships in a “historic” verdict. The high court in the capital, Windhoek, declared the crimes of “sodomy” and “unnatural sexual offences” as “unconstitutional and invalid” in its ruling on the case brought by a local LGBTQ activist. afp

ICC unveils arrest warrant for top Sahel jihadist leader

Agence France-Presse

The Hague

International Criminal Court judges made public an arrest warrant for one of the Sahel’s top jihadist leaders over alleged atrocities in the Malian city of Timbuktu from 2012 to 2013. Iyad Ag Ghaly is said to be the undisputed leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). The JNIM is accused of numerous attacks against national forces and atrocities against civilians.

New strategic pact between Russia and N. Korea could dent China’s influence

Associated Press

BEIJING

Beijing so far has not commented on the deal and only reiterated boilerplate statements that it seeks to uphold peace in the Korean Peninsula; one area that China could be concerned about is whether Russia will help N. Korea’s weapons programme by sharing niche technology, says an analyst

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang. AP 朝鮮通信社

With no obvious options, China appears to be keeping its distance as Russia and North Korea move closer to each other with a new defence pact that could tilt the balance of power among the three authoritarian states.

Experts say China’s leaders are likely fretting over the potential loss of influence over North Korea after its leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the deal this week, and how that could increase instability in the Korean Peninsula. But Beijing may also be struggling to come up with a response because of its conflicting goals: keeping peace in the Koreas while countering the U.S. and its Western allies on the global stage.

Beijing so far has not commented on the deal — which requires both countries to provide defence assistance if the other is attacked — and only reiterated boilerplate statements that it seeks to uphold peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and advance a political settlement of the North-South divide.

The Chinese response has been “very weak,” said Victor Cha, senior vice-president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it could be a sign that Beijing doesn’t yet know what to do.

‘Bad option’

“Every option is a bad option,” he said. “You’re either unable to make a decision because of very strongly held competing views or... you’re just incapable of making a decision because you just don’t know how to evaluate the situation.”

Some in Beijing may welcome the Russia-North Korea partnership as a way of pushing back at America’s dominance in world affairs, but Mr. Cha said that “there is also a great deal of discomfort” in China, which doesn’t want to lose its sway over its neighbour to Russia, doesn’t want to see a destabilising nuclear power on its doorstep, and doesn’t want to bring the conflict in Europe to Asia.

But China is not raising these concerns publicly. “They don’t want to push Kim Jong-un further into the arms of Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Cha said, referring to the leaders of the two countries.

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, declined to comment on the new agreement. “The cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is a matter between two sovereign states. We do not have information on the relevant matter,” he said, referring to North Korea by the initials for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, told reporters that the pact between Russia and North Korea “should be of concern to any country that believes that the UN Security Council resolutions ought to be abided by.”

The Security Council has imposed sanctions on North Korea to try to stop its development of nuclear weapons.

Mr. Kirby also said the agreement “should be of concern to anybody who thinks that supporting the people of Ukraine is an important thing to do. And we would think that that concern would be shared by the People’s Republic of China.”

One area that China could be concerned about is whether Russia will help North Korea’s weapons programme by sharing advanced technology, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“If China is indeed concerned, it has leverage in both Russia and North Korea and it could probably try to put some limitations to that relationship,” he said.

The meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Kim this week was the latest chapter in decades of complicated political and military relationships in East Asia, where the Chinese Communist Party, once an underdog, has emerged as a leading power that wields influence over both North Korea and Russia.

That and other developments have raised alarms in the U.S. that Beijing, now the world’s second-largest economy, could challenge the U.S.-led world order by aligning itself with countries such as Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Beijing has rejected that allegation.

Sun Yun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Center, said Beijing doesn’t want to form a three-way alliance with North Korea and Russia, because it “needs to keep its options open.”

Possible cold war

Such a coalition could mean a new Cold War, something Beijing says it is determined to avoid, and locking itself to Pyongyang and Moscow would be contrary to China’s goals of maintaining relationships with Europe and improving ties with Japan and South Korea, she said.

Ms. Sun added that the rapprochement between North Korea and Moscow “opens up possibilities and potentials of uncertainty, but based on what has happened so far, I don’t think that China’s national interests have been undercut by this.”

Closer relations between Mr. Putin and Mr. Kim could weaken Beijing’s sway and leave it as the “biggest loser,” said Danny Russel, who was the top U.S. diplomat for Asia in the Obama administration.

“Apart from irritation over Mr. Putin’s intrusion into what most Chinese consider their sphere of influence, the real cost to China is that Russia’s embrace gives North Korea greater impunity and room to manoeuvre without consideration to Beijing’s interests,” he said.

Argentina has surplus harvest, but farmers want more from President Milei

Agence France-Presse

Lobos

Bumper crop: A farmer harvesting corn fields in Lobos in Buenos Aires province in Argentina. AFPJUAN MABROMATA

In the pampas, Argentina’s vast and fertile grasslands outside Buenos Aires, grain silos overflow with this year’s harvest — but nobody is selling just yet.

Though the country’s farmers largely gave their votes to President Javier Milei in the November election, they now want him to deliver on promises to slash taxes and ease exchange rate controls.

Until then, their bumper harvest will sit.

“The silos are full. One sells just enough to cover expenses,” Ricardo Semino, a farmer from Lobos, 110 km southwest of Buenos Aires, said as he finished harvesting his corn and wheat fields.

“Those who can wait, do so.”

High expectation

After the country’s worst drought in a century saw agricultural exports plummet, leading to a shortfall of $20 billion in revenue, the industry is expecting an excellent harvest in 2024.

The latest estimate from the Rosario Board of Trade indicates that the grain harvest could yield 131.1 million tonnes, a sharp rise from the 82.2 million tonnes gathered in the previous year.

But farmers say that low global prices and the delay in freeing up the exchange rate at which producers can sell their goods abroad have complicated the seemingly good news.

Agriculture is a major part of Argentina’s economy, accounting for 55% of the country’s exports. It is among the world’s largest food producers, ranking third in soybeans behind only Brazil and the United States.

Argentina usually sells about 70% of its agro-industrial production, while the rest goes into storage.

Agricultural exports are estimated at $29.3 billion this year, falling short of the average $32 billion a year over the past five years.

The combination of increased production and unfavourable economic conditions has left Argentina’s fields dotted with “silo bags” — basically, tons of harvested soybeans and grains wrapped in plastic.

Mr. Semino says sending grain to actual silos is a bit of a crapshoot.

“Usually you speculate when you send [the grain] to the silo plant,” he explained.

“Nowadays the silo plants, which belong to big companies, give you the possibility to deliver the grain and you can sell it within five, six, seven months or a year.”

Unsold grains

The Rosario Board of Trade estimates that there are some 35.6 million tonnes of unsold grains in the country, valued at almost $10.6 billion.

Despite Mr. Milei’s campaign promises, he raised taxes on exports of soybean meal and oil from 31 to 33% upon taking office. Taxes also increased on fuel.

Reforms to exchange rate controls have not been forthcoming, and no timeline has been set. Inflation, though trending down, was still at 276.4% in May year-on-year.

Argentina has half a dozen dollar exchange rates. Exporters get a preferential rate, but still far less than the value of the peso on the parallel informal market (1,300 pesos to the dollar) — which is the rate producers use to pay for farming supplies.

Six months into Mr. Milei’s tenure, all of that translates into uncertain costs for farmers.

In the past year, “the price of a tractor went from $1,70,000 to $2,50,000,” Mr. Semino said.

Nevertheless, support for Mr. Milei persists in the countryside, with Semino explaining that a devaluation of the peso in December did help farmers.

And despite all the uncertainty, the future still seems brighter.

The agricultural sector does not stop production, no matter what happens in government, Mr. Semino explained.

Iranians split on presidential vote as hardships mount ahead of election

Agence France-Presse

Tehran

People make their way past electoral posters in Tehran, ahead of the June 28 presidential election in Iran. AFPATTA KENARE

With just a week remaining before a presidential election, Iranians are divided over whether voting will address pressing economic issues and mandatory hijab laws.

Iranians head to the polls on June 28 to choose from six candidates — five conservatives and a relative reformist — to succeed Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month.

The election comes as Iran grapples with economic pressures, international sanctions and enforcement of the compulsory headscarves for women.

“They promise change, but will not do much,” said Hamid Habibi, a 54-year-old shop owner at Tehran’s bustling Grand Bazar. “I have watched the debates and campaigns; they speak beautifully but need to back their words with action,” he said.

Despite his scepticism, Mr. Habibi plans to vote next week.

The candidates have held two debates, each pledging to tackle the financial challenges impacting the country’s 85 million people.

“The economic situation is deteriorating daily, and I don’t foresee any improvements,” said Fariba, a 30-year-old who runs an online store. “Regardless of who wins, our lives won’t change,” she said.

‘Change is certain’

Others, like 57-year-old baker Taghi Dodangeh, remain hopeful.

“Change is certain,” he said, viewing voting as a religious duty and national obligation.

Iran’s Guardian Council approved six candidates after disqualifying most moderates and reformists.

Leading contenders include conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and the sole reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Keshvar, a 53-year-old mother, intends to vote for the candidate with the most robust economic plan.

“Young people are grappling with economic hardships,” she said.

“Raisi made efforts, but on the ground, things did not change much for the general public, and they were unhappy.”

This election comes at a turbulent time, with the Gaza war raging between Iran’s adversary Israel and Tehran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, along with ongoing diplomatic tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Head-on collision

Two trains collided in the commune of San Bernardo in Santiago in Chile early on Thursday. Railway officials reported that two persons were killed and several injured following the collision between a goods train and a test train. AFPJAVIER TORRES

Beijing to punish ‘diehards’ of Taiwan independence

Agence France-Presse

Beijing

A supporter of Taiwan’s independence holds a sign during the vote for the Parliament Reform Bill in Taipei. AFPI-Hwa Cheng

China included the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases among judicial guidelines on criminal punishments for “diehard” supporters of Taiwanese independence published on Friday, state media reported.

Beijing views democratic Taiwan as part of its own territory and has refused to renounce using force to unify with the self-ruled island one day.

It has stepped up pressure on Taipei in recent years and held war games around the island last month following the inauguration of its new leader Lai Ching-te.

State news agency Xinhua said on Friday Beijing had released a notice about punishing “‘Taiwan independence’ diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession”. It said the notice specified the death penalty for “ringleaders” of independence efforts who “cause particularly serious harm to the state and the people”. Other leading advocates could face jail terms ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment, the notice said, according to Xinhua.

Taipei hit back swiftly, saying Beijing “has no legal jurisdiction at all over Taiwan” and that the rules “had no binding force on our people”. “The actions of the Beijing authorities will only provoke confrontation between the peoples across the Taiwan Strait... and are not conducive to positive developments in cross-Strait ties,” the island’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.

The rules take effect in China from Friday, Xinhua said.

Sports

- High-flying India takes on struggling Bangladesh

- Bangladesh could be another warm-up for India

- de Kock, Miller take South Africa to 163

- Having three left-arm spinners is an advantage on the wickets here: Axar

- Cummins’ ’trick and Zampa’s artistry win it for Australia

- Suryakumar changed the tempo of the game: Afghanistan’s Rashid

- Bumrah gets his execution perfect, hails Kumble

- Hat-trick hero Cummins says the bowling line-up has to adapt

- Should have made at least 170, feels Bangladesh skipper Shanto

- McLaren’s quest to reclaim its glory days is well on track

- STACKING UP

- ‘Viswanathan Anand as the role model has worked for India’

- Aquatic ballet?

High-flying India takes on struggling Bangladesh

Press Trust of India

North Sound (Antigua)

A win against Shanto’s men, who are coming off a loss, will go a long way in clinching a semifinal spot for the Men in Blue ; Rohit, Kohli will be keen on providing a strong start with the bat

Lot to cherish: Rohit’s men had almost everything going in their favour in the match against Afghanistan. K.R. DEEPAKDEEPAK KR

An undefeated India takes on a faltering Bangladesh, both teams desperately hoping for their batting stars to strike form in a Super 8 clash of the T20 World Cup, here on Saturday.

The Men in Blue produced a clinical performance against Afghanistan. With only a travel day separating their remaining two games, they would be hoping that the players who have not performed as per expectations so far, deliver the goods.

Top of that list would be the opening pair of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. They have made a conscious effort to force the pace but have ended with minimal returns.

Another under-pressure team member is left-hander Shivam Dube, who was picked in the squad to hammer sixes in the middle and death overs.

On the bowling front, India is expected to retain the combination having given the first opportunity of the tournament to crafty left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

India’s sole aim in the Caribbean is to win the trophy and a solid performance against Bangladesh will be another step forward in that context.

Bangladesh finds itself in a must-win situation after the loss to Australia. The lack of power-hitters is hurting the side and there is no quick fix to that problem.

The under-performance of opener Litton Das and Tanzid Khan has also compounded Bangladesh’s woes.

The side will need to find a way to tackle Jasprit Bumrah, who has been sensational thus far, taking eight wickets at an unparalleled economy rate of 3.46.

The pacers, led by Mustafizur Rahman, have done alright but leg-spinner Rishad Hossain needs more support in the spin department.

Bangladesh could be another warm-up for India

Sunil Gavaskar

Go-to man: Bumrah has delivered whenever Rohit has turned to him. K.R. DEEPAKDEEPAK KR

The easy win over Afghanistan in the first game of the Super Eight stage would have boosted the Indian team’s morale even more. They were unbeaten in the American stage of the league — that too on pitches about which the less said the better. Then, when they would have looked to get some good match time in their last group game in Miami against Canada, the wet outfield put paid to those plans too as the game was washed off.

Therefore, the match against Afghanistan became a bit more crucial as it would not give the players the time to ease into the Super Eight stage of the tournament.

The next game against Bangladesh could well be another warm-up for the Indians. Mind you, in recent times, the clashes between the junior teams of the two countries have been pretty spicy with loads of aggro between the players. It's not necessarily the same as the senior players like Shakib, Mustafizur play in the Indian Premier League and so know the Indian players well and have a very good equation with them.

They have had an up and down tournament so far, but the Super Eight stage gives the players a fresh start and a new page to write on.

Indias batters, especially the openers, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, will look to get more runs and time out in the middle before the clash against Australia.

Pant played a lovely cameo against Afghanistan and is looking dangerous with every outing. Suryakumar was simply SKY as he batted as only he can and even toyed with Rashid Khan, who bowled so well to the other Indian batters.

Then it was Boom Boom Bumrah who tied up the Afghan top-order with his extraordinary skill and reading of the batters’ mind. There is no one remotely close to the Indian pacer in the way he sets batters up and sends them back to the change room. The spinners bowled well too and didn't allow the Afghan batters any leeway.

A win against Bangladesh will assure India a place in the semis and also give them more confidence to take on the impressive Aussies to see who finishes top of the table.

(Professional Management Group)

Proteas prevail over England in nail-biter

Ayan Acharya

Gros Islet (St. Lucia)

Turning it on: de Kock raced to 65 off 38 deliveries with four fours and as many sixes. PTIRAMON ESPINOSA

In a thrilling T20 World Cup Super 8 match at the Daren Sammy ground here on Friday, England fell agonisingly short against South Africa, losing by seven runs. Chasing 164, Jos Buttler’s men were in deep trouble at 63 for four in 11 overs. However, Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone ignited hopes, smashing 52 in three overs at one stage.

The turning point came in the 17th over when Ottniel Baartman’s full tosses allowed Livingstone to smash three consecutive boundaries. But, with 25 needed off 18 balls, Kagiso Rabada dismissed Livingstone for 33 off 17 in an over that cost just four runs. Marco Jansen’s tight penultimate over followed, leaving England needing 14 off the final six.

Brook, having reached his first T20 World Cup fifty, went for a boundary shot off Anrich Nortje, but Aiden Markram’s stunning catch at mid-off dented England’s hopes. The final over went for just six runs, extending South Africa’s unbeaten run in the tournament. Keshav Maharaj’s masterful two for 25 on a slow pitch set the stage.

England must now secure a big win against the USA and hope that the Net Run Rate (NRR) works in its favour in case the West Indies prevails in its remaining matches.

Earlier, Reece Topley and Moeen Ali sought to leverage their favourable match-ups against Quinton de Kock (65 off 38 balls). de Kock first broke free against Moeen with consecutive boundaries before hitting Jofra Archer for three sixes in a 21-run over.

Archer made amends, giving away just eight in his final over and taking two wickets. England’s spin duo of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali excelled, maintaining an economy rate of 6.42. Buttler shone with the big gloves, jumping high to take a one-handed catch to send back de Kock and making a direct hit to run out Heinrich Klaasen. David Miller’s 43 off 28 helped South Africa post a total that proved just enough.

The scores: South Africa 163/6 in 20 overs (de Kock 65, Miller 43, Archer 3/40) bt England 156/6 in 20 overs (Brook 53, Livingstone 33, Rabada 2/32, Maharaj 2/25); Toss: England; PoM: de Kock.

Having three left-arm spinners is an advantage on the wickets here: Axar

Ashwin Achal

BRIDGETOWN (barbados)

Left is right: India’s spin trio of Jadeja, Kuldeep and Axar is expected to play a key role again.K.R. DEEPAKDEEPAK KR

The Indian bowling attack in the Super 8 fixture against Afghanistan here on Thursday was unique. It is not too often you see three left-arm spinners in the eleven.

Kuldeep Yadav offers variety as a wrist spinner, while Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja come on with a stifling line and length. Axar, in particular, is adept at changing it up according to the match situation. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is waiting in the wings.

The trio formed an effective combination on a slow, dry Kensington Oval pitch. Kuldeep, playing his first match of the tournament, took two wickets. Axar (1/15 in 3 overs) and Jadeja gave nothing away and applied the choke on the Afghan chase.

Active communication

Axar believes that active communication makes for a good partnership. “Having three left-arm spinners is an advantage on the wickets here. Our combination is very good. We communicate well. For example, whoever comes on to bowl first will communicate to the others on what is working and what is not. This is important when you bowl as a unit,” Axar said at the press conference after India eased past Afghanistan by 47 runs.

Being versatile to satisfy the needs of the team is crucial, Axar added. “I can bowl in the PowerPlay, middle or towards the end. I can be called by the captain in any situation. If I feel that I need to attack, then I plan accordingly. In the Pakistan match, when I came to bowl the 16th over, I felt that if I give less runs it will be very good for the team,” said Axar.

Axar described pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah as a “world class bowler”, and that the quality of the Indian attack can “get us out of a tough situation”.

Cummins’ ’trick and Zampa’s artistry win it for Australia

Press Trust of India

North Sound (Antigua)

On fire: Cummins’ three-in-three — the edition’s first — helped Australia restrict Bangladesh to 140.Getty ImagesGareth Copley

Premier pacer Pat Cummins grabbed the tournament’s first hat-trick and spinner Adam Zampa showcased his artistry to fashion Australia’s 28-run win over Bangladesh via the Duckworth Lewis method in its Super 8 fixture of the T20 World Cup.

If Zampa (two for 24) operated with precision in the middle overs, Cummins (three for 29) claimed three wickets off successive balls at the back end, as Australia restricted Bangladesh to 140 for eight after Mitchell Marsh opted to bowl first in the rain-interrupted game.

Australia was in a hurry to finish the game with openers David Warner and Travis Head going hammer and tongs from the very first ball.

The pair raced to 60/0 before rain interrupted play. Once play resumed, the Aussies lost a bit of momentum as Rishad Hossain removed Head and Marsh in quick succession.

Despite the twin blow, Australia never looked in trouble. When rain stopped play again, Australia was 28 runs ahead of the DLS par score.

The scores: Bangladesh 140/8 in 20 overs (Shanto 41, Hridoy 40, Cummins 3/29, Zampa 2/24) lost to Australia 100/2 in 11.2 overs (Warner 53 n.o., Head 31, Hossain 2/23) by DLS method; Toss: Australia; PoM: Cummins.

Suryakumar changed the tempo of the game: Afghanistan’s Rashid

K.R. DEEPAKDEEPAK KR

Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant knock turned the game in India’s favour, Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan said. “We started well with the ball, but in the middle, Suryakumar changed the tempo of the game. He played his shots. That is what makes him unique and great,” Rashid said.

Bumrah gets his execution perfect, hails Kumble

K.R. DEEPAK

Anil Kumble hailed Jasprit Bumrah on his brilliant performance against Afghanistan. “He gets the execution perfect. You know, that’s what it is. For each batter, he would have figured that out and then did it right in a big game. This doesn’t come easy,” Kumble told ESPNCricinfo.

Hat-trick hero Cummins says the bowling line-up has to adapt

Getty ImagesGareth Copley

Pat Cummins admits that even taking the first hat-trick of the T20 World Cup may not save him from the axe when Australia faces Afghanistan. “Yes, potentially. We’ve been pretty open with that, that anyone in the squad’s ready to play and the bowling line-up might change at different times,” said Cummins.

Should have made at least 170, feels Bangladesh skipper Shanto

AFPANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said his side should have scored at least 170 runs in the Super 8 encounter against Australia. “The wicket was good, a bit slow, but we should have made at least 170. Playing against this team, we should have gambled,” Shanto said.

S. Dipak Ragav

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2 of 3

3 of 3

Ferrari has been Formula One’s pre-eminent force. A competitive Ferrari has always helped the health of motorsport’s most prestigious category, with a passionate, worldwide fanbase tuning in.

But every sport needs a fierce rivalry to get the buzz going. Ferrari’s closest historical competitor is McLaren, F1’s second-most-successful outfit in terms of wins and championships.

The eponymous team, founded by Bruce McLaren, has powered the likes of Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton to titles. More importantly, it is best known as the outfit with which Ayrton Senna, one of F1’s greatest-ever drivers, won his three championships.

A part of F1 folklore

The Ferrari-McLaren battles — Senna vs. Prost, Schumacher vs. Hakkinen, and later Raikkonen/Massa/Alonso vs. Hamilton — are part of F1 folklore.

However, the eight-time constructors’ champion, which also has 12 drivers’ titles, has endured a decade of underperformance since 2013. In 2024, though, things are finally looking up for the British team, as it fights for wins and podiums consistently, raising the fans’ excitement level.

“It is important for F1 to have a competitive McLaren. After Ferrari, it is the team with the most loyal fanbase, and these are the two teams where the fanbase for them is bigger than their drivers,” says Karun Chandhok, India’s second F1 driver, now a TV pundit.

The team’s decline started when it adopted a new car concept in 2013, after fighting for the title in 2012. Its ill-fated switch in 2015 to Honda power units, which were uncompetitive and unreliable, exacerbated the problem. From 2015 to 2018, the team was in the bottom half of the standings. There was also turmoil off the track due to management and ownership changes.

“When they went to the Honda engine, they struggled. There was a cultural clash between McLaren and the Japanese side. There was a lot of blame on the engine front, but they also took their eyes off the chassis. So when they went to Renault [2018-2020], it was a shock and an eye-opener for them that it wasn’t all the [fault of the] Honda engine, but there were deficiencies on the chassis side, which had to be addressed,” says Chandhok.

It was only in 2019 that McLaren started laying down the building blocks for its recovery under former team principal Andreas Seidl. Since then, the team has been bouncing around to be the best of the rest behind Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. The highlight was the 2021 Italian GP, where Daniel Ricciardo led Lando Norris to a 1-2 finish, McLaren’s first win since 2012.

Closing the gap

Over the last two years, there has been a growing belief that good days are on the horizon, as the Woking-based team has started to close the gap to the top.

After starting the 2022 rules cycle on the back foot, the team missed the initial targets for 2023 and struggled even to score points in the early part of last year. In the background, there was another management shake-up, with Andrea Stella becoming team principal, and changes to the technical structure, including the departure of technical director James Key.

Fortunately, the team has methodically put the pieces together under Stella. McLaren fashioned a sensational turnaround last year, becoming the second-fastest car at some weekends during the season’s second half. The progress has continued this year, with Norris registering his maiden victory in Miami and the team notching up five other podium finishes.

In the recent Canadian GP, Norris finished second and teammate Oscar Piastri came home fifth. A year ago, McLaren would have taken the result gladly, but now, the race will go down as a missed opportunity, showing how far the team has come.

Chandhok credits Stella and CEO Zak Brown with getting the team back on track. “He [Stella] is a pragmatic leader. His core belief is about engineering success and being honest about things when they are not working. There is a no-blame culture, and he ensures that people are empowered to speak up and highlight any weakness in the collective system that helps them move forward. He has been a fantastic asset for McLaren,” says Chandhok.

“Zak [Brown] has gone on and found the money, and the team has more than 40 partners to give the financial muscle to invest in the factory and people to grow the team.”

Strong driver pairing

Apart from the technical talent and resources, McLaren also has one of the stronger driver pairings in Norris and Piastri, both of whom made their F1 debut with the team.

In 2021 and 2022, Norris blew away the experienced Ricciardo, showing how well he could adapt to a tricky car.

His consistent ability to extract the most from his car has led to him being considered one of the grid’s elite drivers, alongside Max Verstappen, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Piastri, meanwhile, has impressed everyone in only his second year and even won a sprint race last year in Qatar. Though he has areas to work on, like his tyre management in races, the Australian has kept Norris on his toes and has often been quicker over one lap in qualifying.

“Apart from Lewis and Charles in what Ferrari will have next year, this is the best line-up in F1. Oscar is incredibly fast, calm, methodical and a good team player. He and Lando are fast drivers but have similar styles, wanting the same thing from a car. It means that the team can develop the car in the same direction. Lando has good experience now but is also maturing. There is a difference between a guy scoring points and someone fighting for podiums and wins. It takes a different level of maturity, and we are seeing that,” says Chandhok.

At the same time, the engineering group has also made the car more of an all-rounder. “Over the last few years, the car had a lot of drag, making it slow on the straight line. Last year, they also struggled in slow corners. But now, they have widened the envelope of the car’s performance, reducing drag without losing downforce. There is no real weakness, and it is competitive on most tracks,” explains Chandhok.

As the F1 circus prepares for the triple-header in Spain, Austria and Britain, McLaren will hope to be right up there at the sharp end of the grid.

While the team is not far off leader Red Bull, a title fight may not be on the cards this year. But if McLaren can finish runner-up — it trails second-placed Ferrari by just 40 points in the constructors’ standings, and Norris is third, seven points behind Leclerc, among the drivers — it will mark a critical inflection point in its quest to reclaim its glory days.

‘Viswanathan Anand as the role model has worked for India’

P.K. Ajith Kumar

FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich talks about the rise of India and Asia, the upcoming World championship match, the game’s governing body taking chess places it has never been, the need to bring more women to the sport and the suspension of the Russian federation

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2 of 2 Asia, no doubt, is very strong now, very competitive. The infrastructure is modern and there is government support, too

FIDE

Arkady Dvorkovich took over as FIDE president in 2018 from Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The Russian is now in his second term, which he won during the Chennai Chess Olympiad two years ago. He was back in India recently for the closing ceremony of the World junior chess championship at Gandhinagar. The head of the world chess governing body sat down for an exclusive interview with The Hindu. Excerpts:

This year’s World championship match has attracted three bids, two of them — Chennai, New Delhi — from the same country.

Yes, we have received three strong, very competitive bids. It is quite unique, having three bids and two of them from the same country. We haven’t had such a situation for a long period of time. There are of course some big pluses in all bids, strong government support and really good venues. I think it is important to understand the official government position in this respect. For international sports federations, it is important to have the national government’s support. I understand the specifics of India, of course, and the role of the States.

How exciting is it for world chess to have someone as young as D. Gukesh as the challenger in that match against Ding Liren? He turned 18 a few weeks ago.

Now all the youngsters around the world know they have a chance if they work hard. I have been watching his progress as a player for a long time. I am also impressed by India’s other young players. I think Viswanathan Anand as the role model particularly worked for India. At the Chess Olympiad in Chennai, two Indians teams were strong but the younger one did better. And we saw so many Indians competing at the recent Candidates tournament. Arjun Erigaisi, who didn’t play at the Candidates, is doing very well in open tournaments. I think now he will get invitations to play in closed tournaments.

The defending women’s World champion is also Chinese, like Ding. The next one is guaranteed to be from China too, as Ju Wenjun’s challenger is her compatriot Tan Zhongyi. Are you surprised by Asia’s rise in world chess?

No, I am not surprised. I think numbers matter. And the world’s top-ranked country is the United States. So given the population, it is not a surprise. But, the Soviet chess school is still very strong, if you take the whole thing [countries that used to form the USSR].

A small country like Uzbekistan won the gold at the last Olympiad…

Then there are also countries such as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine... Asia, no doubt, is very strong now, very competitive. The infrastructure is modern and there is government support, too.

Chess was probably the only truly global sport that grew during the pandemic. And FIDE did some quite good work by organising so many online events, including the Online Chess Olympiad.

Yes, we tried to use the opportunity to boost the interest in chess. Of course we were helped by things in the media like the series, The Queen’s Gambit. But I am not surprised by the rise in popularity of chess. It is the oldest game in the world, but at the same time, it is also modern. Everyone who starts learning chess finds an excitement and intellectual challenge in playing the game.

Anand is deputy president at FIDE. How do you find working with the five-time World champion in this administrative role?

He is a very good friend and one of the best players in the world. He is a very comfortable person to work with. His opinions are always very important for me, since he has huge experience. And his reputation helps our team in our efforts to increase the popularity of chess around the world.

As FIDE president, what areas would you like to work on?

I want more women to play chess. We are working on equal opportunities. I am happy to see more women playing in the open tournament [and not just the events for women]. I see some Chinese players, like Ju Wenjun, doing it of late.

The recent tournament she won in Norway had equal prize money, as did the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in Kolkata last year.

The parity in pay for women may not be achieved quickly. But we need to make sure that the opportunities are there for them. Apart from the focus on women, we also are looking closely at chess in the universities and schools. And we also want to make the World corporate chess championship bigger. We are also thinking about new formats in terms of time control and combinations to make chess more interesting.

FIDE has also taken chess to prisons.

We are working with new communities like prisons, slums, families and seniors. We are also bringing chess to new countries and regions. Some regions in different parts of the world like Africa, Latin America and countries in South East Asia require more development in chess. And Indian coaches can actually help in some of the countries there.

Along with India’s rapid rise as a major power in international chess, it is also building a reputation as a capable organiser of big events. Its conduct of the Chennai Chess Olympiad two years ago had won much praise.

Yes, of course. I am sure that during the next 12 months we will have more international events here in India.

How do you look back at your time so far as FIDE president?

Well, I am always ambitious. I always want to do more, but the trend is positive anyway. Our team is quite strong and I feel the support from national federations, including India. This support gives us a boost.

Your comment on the suspension of the Russian Chess Federation by FIDE’s Chess Ethics and Disciplinary Commission?

I cannot comment on the legal issues. It was a decision of the first panel of the commission. I was a part of that and I presented my arguments in my defence. The Chess Federation of Russia did the same. We will appeal. We will see what will happen. I think a fair decision will be made. We have to defend the interests of the players.

Aquatic ballet?

Synchronised swimming or artistic swimming is a discipline in which competitors perform choreographed routines, accompanied by music.

Traditionally a women’s sport, artistic swimming has diversified since: mixed-gender duets and men’s individual events have been introduced and added to major competitions over the last decade. The discipline has been a part of the Summer Olympics program since 1984 and the World Aquatics Championships since the beginning (1973).

Known as water ballet in its earliest days, artistic swimming has drawn from dance choreography, film-making principles and robust swimming techniques. Sculls — hand movements used to propel and support the body, especially critical when a swimmer is performing upside down — and eggbeater kicks — a form of treading water that contributes to the competitor’s stability — are important techniques in the sport. Swimmers wear rubber nose-clips to prevent water from entering their noses and protective earplugs when performing. Performances are judged on execution, artistic impression and difficulty.

Weekend

- Far from the madding crowd

- A mango bite in Kuala Lumpur

- Mamma tells a tale

- Kartik Aaryan’s podium finish

- Vijay Sethupathi stands out in this almost-there thriller

- A blend of survival drama and comedy

- Superhero abuse and election blues

- Misses out on the substance

Kalpana Sunder

The quiet luxury travel trend is having its moment with well-heeled travellers trading flashy parties and popular cities for novel experiences and offbeat destinations

1 of 5 (Clockwise from above) A snapshot from Iceland; the Ganges Voyager; the Norwegian Cruise Line; Lubaina Sheerazi in Antarctica; a tourist in Finland; and a shot from Iceland. getty images/istock, kalpana sunder, and lubaina sheerazi

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In March this year, Lubaina Sheerazi did a polar plunge. Organised by Antarctica21, the fly-cruise expedition to Antarctica had experts leading a small group of travellers on the great white continent.

“From transiting the Lemaire Channel, also known as the Kodak Gap because of its breathtaking beauty, and cruising on a Zodiac vessel to continental landing at Cape Perez, doing a polar plunge, and sailing through an active volcano, the itinerary was curated a day before, based on weather conditions,” says Lubaina, CEO and co-founder of Mumbai-based tourism marketing agency, BRANDit.

She also did a cruise aboard the Magellan Explorer where experts gave informative talks on Antarctica’s history, expedition centres, The Antarctic Treaty, the region’s wildlife, and more. “My co-passengers, some of whom were Indians, also had similar tastes and were very interested in learning more about the peninsula that we were sailing around,” she adds.

In a trend that is called ‘quiet luxury’ or ‘stealth wealth’, high net-worth travellers, including Gen Z and millennials are looking for remote offbeat locations, discreet getaways, and meaningful connections, instead of glitzy cities or casinos. Case in point is the Q Odyssey Private Jet Round the World tour, the latest offering from The Q Experiences, a luxury travel company launched in 2018. This 27-day journey of opulence and adventure takes one across six continents on a private jet, focussing on experiences rather than mere destinations.

The trip also charters one of the most luxurious trains, The Rovos Rail, which traverses through the lush jungles of Africa, to Victoria Falls and Pretoria, followed by a private jet ride that explores the captivating canyons and desert landscapes of Al Ula in Saudi Arabia. You will witness the mesmerising Northern Lights on Lofoten Island in Norway, ride a hot air balloon over the Teotihuacan Pyramids in Mexico, and unravel the mysteries of human civilisation on Easter Island, Chile. This luxury air travel experience unfolds aboard a chartered Boeing 757, where seats recline into fully lie-flat beds. With a dedicated crew, which includes two accomplished international chefs, voyage of opulence is priced at a whopping ₹99 lakh per traveller.

Exploring the untouched

“Today’s travellers seek exclusivity, comfort, and a personalised experience that caters to their every whim. They aspire to embark on journeys that are thoughtfully curated to offer an unparalleled realm of opulence, with seamless access to the world’s most remote and remarkable destinations,” says Vasim Shaikh, founder and CEO, The Q Experiences.

Take for instance, Sriram Krishnan, an IT professional based in Bengaluru. Every year, he plans a luxury annual getaway with his family to offbeat locations like Mongolia, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. “We have stayed in a glass igloo in Finnish Lapland and glamped in Ladakh. The more offbeat and experiential, the better,” says Sriram, who plans to explore Albania later this year.

Regular travellers like Sriram aside, the pandemic was a watershed moment for many who realised their love for the outdoors during the lockdowns. “After Covid, we saw amongst our clients, a deep desire for connecting with and being one with Nature. A definite shift from “happening places” to going off the grid is happening,” says Loveleen Arun, founder-director of Panache World, a luxury boutique firm in Bengaluru. Whether it is staying in a tiny lodge in the Finnish Lapland surrounded by acres of wilderness, or glamping on the quiet sands of the Thar, taking long flights to outer islands of the Great Barrier Reef or staying in obscure mountainsides in New Zealand, our clients have opted for the luxury of the untouched,” says Loveleen, adding, “We have woven in shows of sunsets, instead of theatre and star-gazing instead of shopping.”

Instead of heading to well-known destinations like the Swiss Alps or the French Riviera, many affluent travellers now prefer hiking in the remote Svaneti region of Georgia, going on a safari in Botswana, or winding down in an exclusive wellness retreat in the Himalayas. Africa, with its wildlife and untouched landscapes and luxurious properties, is becoming a favourite with many high-end travellers. Immersive experiences like mushroom or strawberry picking, foraging on a farm, or taking a flamenco class add value to their trips.

A growing market

While quiet luxury is gaining momentum now, the concept has been around for years. Launched in Chennai with just ticketing services, Baywatch Travels has now grown to have a boutique approach to luxury holidays. Manish Kripalani, managing director of Baywatch Travels, says, “There is a lot of change in the mindset of travellers. They don’t want to stay at the Versace or the Ritz, but are willing to pay the same money for a luxurious cottage in the hills with all the frills. Many people want to go where others have not gone, for the brag value and of course social media.” While his company offers luxury holidays, destination weddings, and bespoke trips, they have now forayed into the luxury villas segment in South India.

More recently, in India, many new ways of exploring the country have emerged. River cruises, for instance, offer an immersive experience with excursions to historical and architectural wonders, dance and music performances, a taste of the local cuisine, meeting with artisans and interacting with locals.

“River cruising as a concept is relatively new to India, however it has great opportunities, especially given the culture and community, and history that developed and thrived around its river systems since time immemorial,” says Raj Singh, founder-chairman of New Delhi-based Antara Luxury River Cruises, which offers cruises on the Ganges, with the longest one being between Varanasi and Dibrugarh that takes 50 days. Generally, a 7-night/8-day cruise costs around $3,575 (base category), which is approximately ₹3 lakh per person on full board basis, including shore excursions, jetty transfers, and guides. They have also launched luxury catamarans in Odisha’s Bhitarkanika National Park and its rivers.

Secrecy and discretion is what many wealthy, high-profile travellers crave. In cruise ships like the NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line), there is a section on the upper decks of the ship called the Haven that has the most luxurious, well-appointed and spacious accommodation with a 24-hour butler service, and a private sun deck and elevators.

What’s trending

At Mumbai-based travel company, Destination Globe, popular destinations this summer include Svalbard in Norway, Iceland, and countryside villas in Europe. Founder Parul Mehta says, “Client requests change every season; last year we did a lot of Africa, and this year a lot of Scandinavia. We cater to the age group between 30 and 70 years, and curate tours for families, honeymooners, as well as milestone anniversaries or birthday celebrations.”

Emerging as a top destination is Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, says Parul. “It’s ideal for people between 30 and 55 years of age. Iceland is ever-growing and it’s open for summer and winter. Of course, such destinations are limited to a certain age, not for very young or for very old people,” she says. So, how much do these experiences cost? A 10-day trip to Svalbard could cost up to ₹10 lakh per person and a holiday to Iceland for that duration could cost up to ₹8 lakh per person. “The definition of luxury has undergone a massive makeover in the last couple of years, thanks to the awakening of the revenge traveller. Travellers, who truly can be defined as luxury travellers, are looking now at experiences above and beyond the beaten path. They would rather opt for lesser known and lesser crowded destinations, which offer a more indigenous experience, rather than plan a trip to the “IT” destination of that year,” says Saloni Mahajan Narang, a Mumbai-based luxury brand consultant.

One of the many sides of this trend is that evolved travellers value aspects like sustainability and benefitting local communities.

“Our clients enjoy a safari in Botswana at the Okavango Delta which begins at first light with a 10-minute helicopter flight, then saddling up for a guided horseback ride through the delta. They quietly move past wild dogs, elephants, buffalo, hippos, and zebra in their natural habitat,” says Kanan Fotedar, founder and CEO of TravelnLiving, a Mumbai-based luxury travel company, who works closely with partners like Great Plains Conservation “who refuse to make any trade-offs between offering a luxury safari and sustainability”.

“This ability to contribute and benefit the local communities by ways of their travels is a big draw for these discerning travellers,” adds Kanan. Generally these trips cost between ₹6-12 lakh for a couple. But they are growing every year and by 30%,” she says adding that popular destinations include Seychelles, South Africa, Greece, and Sri Lanka.

One of the effects of this trend is that many prefer not necessarily big luxury hotels, but also high-end boutique properties like villas and bungalows, with personalised services and niche experiences. Coco Shambala in Sindhudurg on the Konkan coast, with luxury villas perched on a hill, has seen many HNI clients who want seclusion. “From its discreet villas blending seamlessly with the landscape to its farm-to-table dining experiences, puppet performances, and pottery classes, every aspect of Coco Shambhala exudes a sense of mindful luxury,” says founder Giles Knapton.

Glenburn Tea Estate is another exclusive boutique property located in a tea estate near Darjeeling, with old planters’ bungalows converted into a luxury hotel with immersive experiences like tea tasting and hiking.

“People still love the hardware of luxury: beautiful suites, great linen, fabulous design, but love the sense of space, a forest or river in the vicinity and activities that engage them fully. A day out fishing, birding, photography in the wild, just adds to the sense of luxury. That said a fabulous bar, great coffee, pool and top class cuisine is something they will always talk about,” says Shoba Mohan, founder of RARE India, a collection of luxury boutique properties across India and Nepal.

Saloni explains how she is witnessing a surge in bookings for boutique hotels, not located near cities. The demand for wellness getaways, she believes, “has been tremendous as health is no more taken lightly and guests are dedicating more than one holiday in a year where they completely dive into the programme”. She concludes, “In my opinion, luxury travellers need stories; stories which stand out from the clutter. Stories which will make them feel that they added an element to their life.”

Shonali Muthalaly

From a savoury cocktail with duck fat and truffle oil to one inspired by the scent of rain, here’s our guide to some of Malaysia’s most creative bars

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I did not expect to see a beehive in a bar. However, in Kuala Lumpur, where theatre, nostalgia, and science combine to create memorable cocktails, there are surprises at every counter. Now with Indians eligible for visa-free entry to Malaysia (till the end of this year), and several competitively priced flights to Kuala Lumpur, this is a good time to explore the city. Join us on a boozy cocktail trail through some of its most innovative bars.

Mamma tells a tale

Shilajit Mitra

Alia Bhatt turned author with Adventures of Ed-a-Mamma: Ed Finds A Home , the first in a series of children’s picture books

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2 of 2 Alia Bhatt with a copy of her first children’s bookAdventures of Ed-a-Mamma: Ed Finds A Home. Special Arrangement

A little girl, Alia, discovers she has the gift of communicating with Nature. She rescues and forges a bond with Ed, an abandoned pup, and is assisted on this adventure by a talking crow and a talking coconut tree. So runs the premise of Alia Bhatt’s debut work as an author (she demurs at the label, preferring storyteller instead), a children’s picture book titled Adventures of Ed-a-Mamma: Ed Finds A Home.

Published by Puffin, the children’s imprint of Penguin Random House, the book is co-created with Vivek Kamath and Shabnam Minwalla and illustrated by Tanvi Bhat. The first of a planned series, it expands on Alia’s vision, embodied in her sustainable clothing brand Ed-a-Mamma, of creating mini-planeteers — getting children to engage with Nature and sustainability at an intimate, imaginative level. In a conversation with The Hindu, the actor-entrepreneur spoke about the journey of creating the book, how motherhood deepened her love for storytelling and her plans for expanding the series into an animated show and toyline. Excerpts...

Question: When did you first start working on this series of stories for children?

Answer: This was pre-Covid and pre-Ed-a-Mamma. Vivek and I sat down and thought of doing a series of children’s books and turning that into an animation series. We had the germ of an idea, about a little girl who rescues a dog (Ed comes from the name of one of my three cats, Edward) and how they go on little adventures to save the planet. It started with our interest in nurturing in children a love of Nature. As we know, children are already deeply fascinated by the outside world, about birds and trees and animals. You have to do very little to let their imagination run wild and free.

Q: What’s the trick of writing a children’s book?

A: The first book is a rescue story told extremely simply, through the universal themes of loneliness and unexpected friendship. We have subtly woven little life stories and themes into the tale. For instance, one of my favourite moments in the book is the description of the little girl’s home, where the mother was working and the father was cooking. There’s also this idea that daydreaming in the classroom is not a wrong thing at all. Furthermore, the book is hand-drawn on FSC-certified paper, making it environment-friendly.

Q: What are reading sessions at home with your daughter, Raha, like?

A: One of our favourite books to read is The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr. In the book, the name of the little girl is Sophie, but during my readings, I changed it to Raha. Raha also adores Bill Martin’s Bears series of books. I read out Ed Finds A Home to her but after four pages, she moved on to another book (laughs).

Q: What are your plans for taking this series ahead?

A: The next book will be about Ed and Alia saving the day with a couple of new characters introduced. We have three stories fully written out, with plans for three more. I would love to collaborate with my sister Shaheen on one of these. One of my dear friends, Ayesha Devitre Dhillon (writer of Kapoor & Sons, Gehraiyaan), writes children’s books for her family members and never publishes them. I told her it would be great to have her energy on board for the series. We will continue to build this universe through sustainably made toys and personal care products, and are researching how to create educative toys.

Kartik Aaryan’s podium finish

Anuj Kumar

Filmmaker Kabir Khan’s inspiring sports drama celebrating India’s first Paralympic gold medalist takes time to find its footing, but once it does, it soars

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Filmmaker Kabir Khan is good at telling tales of social misfits and underdogs. The writer-director has this rare ability to amalgamate fact and fiction for a multiplex audience that wants to watch something ‘real’ but doesn’t have the patience to experience the slice of life getting stewed. After83, this week, Kabir has put together yet another rousing sports drama; the difference is that he has picked an unsung hero this time.

Drawn from the inspirational real-life story of Murlikant Petkar, India’s first Paralympic gold medallist in 1972 who made headlines after years of obscurity when he was awarded the Padma Shri in 2018, the action unfolds in mud pits, boxing rings, and swimming pools, but essentially is a celebration oftaqdeer ke khel, the game destiny plays with us.

Told in flashback, here is a tiny Maharashtrian boy who wants to make a name in wrestling after watching the victory procession to felicitate K D Jadhav after he secured a bronze medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics, the first individual medal for the newly independent nation.

Teased by his mates, taunted by his father, and underestimated by his coach, Murli’s life changes on the day he brings down the much-fetched son of the village headman in his first public fight leading to a riot that forces him to leave his village.

As luck would have it, Murli’s dreams find refuge in the Indian Army. Under the guidance of a new coach, Tiger Ali, he shifts to boxing, but his ambition of an Olympic medal is shattered by the bullets fired by the Pakistani soldiers in the 1965 war. Not to be undone by fate or the bullet lodged in his spine, Murli keeps his head above water and swims to glory in the Heidelberg Paralympics... only to be forgotten by his countrymen until a journalist clears the dust off his achievements.

The film brings to memory Rakyesh Om Prakash Mehra’sBhaag Milkha Bhaagwhere the champion athlete ran against his painful past to attain glory on the track with the help of his training in the armed forces. Interestingly, the film also notes that both were active in the same period.

In cricket, experts say when the pitch is favourable for the bowlers, they should just keep pitching in the right areas and not do too much; this is exactly what Kabir does here. Petkar’s life has so much action, emotion, and drama that he just has to follow the process of making a biopic. As a para-athlete, Petkar excelled in other disciplines as well, but Kabir sticks to swimming to save time and focus.

No doubt, he exaggerates to generate drama and thrill; for instance, the commentary during the swimming competition sounds jarring but Kabir’s background in documentary films ensures that he keeps a check on the exploits of his characters. When Yashpal Sharma goes over the top in the name of training his bunch of jokers, Kabir makes Murli march to “Gore Gore Banke Chhore” (Samadhi, 1950) to capture Hindi cinema’s influence on all sections of society. The lilt of Lata Mangeshkar’s number makes one tap feet in unison with the soldiers on screen. Similarly, the female attention that Murli gets in Japan is a predictable but appealing distraction nonetheless.

Kabir doesn’t delve deep into the socio-political commentary, but slips into historical context so that the leap of faith doesn’t feel outlandish. He brings in the terror attack on athletes in the Munich Olympics without getting into the nationality of the extremists and the athletes. Chandu Champion also comments on how awards bring development to a neglected region.

One of the highlights is Sudeep Chatterjee’s cinematography, particularly in the boxing ring. It provides teeth for Kartik to bite into the challenge after an uneven start. Under Kabir’s direction, the actor crosses the channel of mediocrity and delivers a career-defining performance, similar to what Farhan Akhtar achieved with Mehra. Kartik is the right choice for a character whose unique selling point is that he punches above his weight. As someone who seems like easy game, Kartik looks the part and the script and cinematography provide him the springboard to become the game-changer in whichever ring he chooses to enter.

The actor’s physical transformation is praiseworthy and the highs and lows in the emotional graph translate on-screen without friction. Writers Sudipto Sarkar and Sumit Arora have laced the intense story with interludes of everyday humour, providing Kartik with the ground to bring his comic timing into play. He is convincing in scenes where he counters all the ghosts that have made their home in his mind because of the ridicule he faced all his life.

The supporting cast and their little arcs help fill the gaps and beat the predictability of the middle overs which is mostly unavoidable in biopics. Vijay Raaz is predictably impressive as Murli’s coach; like water, Vijay takes the shape of all the different characters he essays. Without donning boxing gloves, he is the coach Tiger who turns his precocious cub into a fighter. For once, Rajpal Yadav is not turned into a buffoon and gets to perform. Bhuvan Arora is believable as the well-meaning Sikh friend who lands a helping hand to Murli when his own had backtracked.

Once again, it is Kabir’s way of doffing his hat to the community that rises in crisis.

Chandu Champion is currently running in theatres

Vijay Sethupathi stands out in this almost-there thriller

Bhuvanesh Chandar

A morbid sense of dread tirelessly pulses through the two films that director Nithilan Saminathan has made till now. In these films, even the morally-right get easily corrupted as they face ordinary humans in their most perverse form. In Maharaja, when a group of robbers loot houses and do unspeakable deeds, they do not miss out on the opportunity to cook themselves a hot meal.

It is not the ideas or the situations that are meant to grip you, but more by how they are executed; Nithilan meticulously works on the writing to show evil as banally as possible. When the camera introduces us to Selvam (Anurag Kashyap), he is talking about onions to his friend in the kitchen, with a zoom-out revealing the women who are tied up next to him — a shot reminiscent of the opening of 2017’s Kurangu Bommai, Nithilan’s first film.

This is no mere coincidence; Nithilan consciously rehashes some of his tropes and educates us on the filmmaking style he wishes to follow. There is an effort to play on the audiences’ minds by juxtaposing timelines, and a specific object becomes a motif to pivot the story around — like the bag with a monkey face in his first film, there is a trash can in Maharaja that is meant to pose a question: just because you deem something useless, does it lose its value?

His characters also have unusual idiosyncrasies. A notorious murderer plays street cricket with kids, or like in this film, a gangster, a hard-core fan of Kunal Singh, beats up a man for not watching Punnagai Desam, and for losing the sunglasses that the late actor gifted him (!). Kalki Raja, who played a thief in the first film, returns as a thief named ‘Police’ who steals TVS 50s because… he can’t drive geared vehicles.

All of this is to imbue the film with a lot of dark humour, as is evident in the scene that kickstarts the story; Vijay Sethupathi’s titular lead, a man with a bandaged ear, enters a police station with an unusual complaint: his home was looted the previous night and he’s lost his valuable ‘Lakshmi,’ an iron-made trash can that saved the life of his daughter in an accident. Maharaja is even willing to pay ₹7 lakhs to the Inspector of Police, Varadharajan (Natty), confirming the suspicion that the complaint is a mere ruse for something more. Natty and co. take the bait with the hope of double-crossing Maharaja eventually.

The proceedings in the police station are intercut with all that happens in the life of Maharaja’s teenage daughter, Kashyap’s character of Selvam, and the flashbacks meant to piece things together. The writer in Nithilan builds this world and jumps across timelines, while also meticulously plotting some set-ups and pay-offs; like a shot featuring Varadharajan’s family or when Maharaja takes leave to go shopping, only for the shop to be just opposite his house.

However, sometimes, with such careful plotting, the convenience in writing gets to you, especially in the later portions of the film. The bigger issue is how the final act — the ‘prestige’ in Nithilan’s grand magic act — is written. All the effort to withhold information and create tension comes with a sudden turn of events — written for a specific reaction from the audience — but the idea that propels this moment is such a cliché in Tamil cinema that it comes close to turning the tables for Maharaja. You wonder if all the world-building, intricate writing and character-building was only a ruse to tell the story of an ordinary revenge-thriller.

And yet, what positions the film, especially with Anurag’s pathetic lip-sync driving one mad, is Vijay Sethupathi’s performance. In his 50th outing, the actor gets under the skin of this fascinating character with awe-inspiring ease and delivers quite a few stand-out scenes for us to cherish.

Maharaja is yet another sign of the serious filmmaker Nithilan is, and shows us how a good writer can convert even a dated idea into a gripping big-screen experience.

Maharaja is currently running in theatres

A blend of survival drama and comedy

SR Praveen

Grand ideas often look good on paper, yet they come with the risk of massive failure. Making Mojo, a real lion, act is one of the grand ideas at the centre of Grrr. The other is the attempt to extract humour from a survival scenario, for this film was branded as a ‘survival comedy’, whatever that means. It could probably be challenging for the audience to survive this comedy of errors.

Perhaps, the makers expected the lion to have the powers to carry the film, as they have forgotten to pay attention to some important tasks, like writing an engaging screenplay. Nothing beyond the basic plot revealed in the trailer is written with conviction. One can only take so much of the plight of a man caught in a lion’s den.

Rejimon (Kunchacko Boban) jumps into the lion’s enclosure in a zoo after his girlfriend Rachana (Anagha) fails to turn up on the day they are supposed to elope and marry. It is not a suicidal act but something driven by his drunken stupor. Bizarrely, it is also an attempt to prove his bravery to the girl who questioned his courage to take on her politician father and his goons. The zoo guard (Suraj Venjaramoodu), caught up in troubles of his own in the family, also becomes a victim of the man’s thoughtless act.

Filmmaker Jay K, who debuted with the moderately impressive horror film Ezra, appears to have come down several notches as a filmmaker with Grrr. Thefilm has only a few redeeming qualities. The animatronics and VFX work involved in filming a real lion and blending it seamlessly with the performance of real actors must have been a tough task, considering the limited budgets of Malayalam cinema. However, the efforts go wasted in the movie.

From disjointed scenes to humour that falls flat to an uninspiring background score, several aspects go wrong in Grrr. There is an attempt to infuse a dose of politics and caste dynamics. However, it turns out to be half-hearted and thus ineffective in saving a film that meanders aimlessly between the lion’s den and the high-decibel televised drama outside. The humour from the goof-ups of the authorities also do not land. As for the talented cast, most of them seem to be going through their motions, with their acting chops not put to great use.

Grrr ends up as a forgettable attempt at blending the survival drama and comedy genres. The poor lion deserved better.

Grrr is currently running in theatres

Superhero abuse and election blues

Ayaan Paul Chowdhury

As the superhero genre teeters on the brink of self-parody, The Boys remains audaciously relevant, skewering not only its caped contemporaries but society too

The year has been fairly devoid of comic book cinema now that superhero fatigue seems to have chronically set in. While the genre is still beleaguered by formulaic plots and diminishing returns, Prime Video’s fourth season of The Boys continues to disgust and disturb with unabashed gusto, serving up a razor-sharp antidote to prosaic supe storytelling.

Having established its super-saturated universe with its previous seasons, and a spinoff at Godolkin University last year, Season 4 wastes no time diving into the rancid morass of its characters’ psyches, with a slower more contemplative approach.

Homelander, still terrifyingly portrayed by Antony Starr, grapples with an existential crisis as he scrutinises a single golden pubic hair with aghast. Starr’s portrayal captures the essence of a god grappling with his own mortality, his manic episodes, punctuated by moments of eerie calm (think Squidward crippled by the monotony of Tentacle Acres).

With his power more unchecked than ever before, Homelander seems simultaneously self-assured and deeply insecure about the sycophancy surrounding him. This dichotomy is embodied in his obsessive need to control everything around him, including his own son, in a desperate attempt to cement a legacy that will outlast his own fading supremacy. This fixation on his legacy and creeping mortality adds a fascinating new layer to one of television’s most terrifying villains, making his descent into madness all the more menacing.

Fresh faces in the Seven like Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) and Firecracker (Valorie Curry) add dangerous spice to the already potent mix. Touted as the world’s smartest person, Sister Sage becomes a conniving player in Homelander’s machinations, while Firecracker, an alt-right conspiracy peddler, feels like a character ripped from today’s headlines and exaggerated to revolting extremes.

The Boys themselves are in fine form. Frenchie (Tomer Capone) gets a beefier (albeit rather tedious) sub-plot, navigating a complicated relationship, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) decides that the only way to come to terms with her past is to kill it. Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) wrestle with their own personal struggles, while Butcher (Karl Urban) displays unexpected depth fuelled by a terminal diagnosis, balancing his ruthless vengeance with a reluctant paternal instinct. While they feel more filler than usual; these arcs provide a rough emotional backbone that grounds the season amidst its latest batch of outlandish antics.

With an election year setting for an election year release, The Boys continues to wield satire with a gut-busting (quite literally) abandon, holding up a cracked mirror to the contemporary American political landscape. Homelander channels the narcissism of authoritarian bullies in power, his orange undies and populist bluster a not-so-subtle nod to a freshly convicted tangerine tyrant. Vought International, the show’s sprawling, corrupt conglomerate parodies the insidious influence of big business in politics, turning corporate malfeasance into a twisted art form. By dialling these elements up to grotesque extremes the series offers a biting commentary on the fragile state of democracy and the insidious nature of power in the 21st century with unnerving accuracy.

Of course, it wouldn’t be The Boys without its signature hyperviolence and depravity. So far, we’ve already had the pleasure of witnessing a few standard procedure Homelander laserings, a couple faces being pulverised beyond recognition and some auto-erotic Human Centipede. Oh, and The Deep is still at it with the octopus.

Despite its pointed statements testing the limits of human nature and societal decay, the series retains its cynical sense of optimism. Where the moral didacticisms of superhero franchises are either imploding or stagnating, The Boys seems to stand defiantly tall, its blood-soaked cape flapping in the wind, all while making us laugh, gag and wince at the absurdity of its own diabolical existence.

The Boys Season 4 is now streaming on Prime Video

Misses out on the substance

Gopinath Rajendran

It would not be an overstatement to call many of veteran director M Night Shyamalan’s films as seminal works that redefined the thriller genre. His films with his unique style of filmmaking that uses sound and vision as storytelling tools, have turned out to be cult classics over the years. The Watchers, his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan’s debut directorial, borrows some elements from the auteur’s works. But the film’s answer to whether the apple has fallen far from the tree is more complicated than a mere yes or no.

In The Watchers, Ishana Night Shyamalan’s antagonists are mysterious creatures who watch trapped people in a room through a mirrored window. When a lost Mina (Dakota Fanning) finds herself in the company of Ciara (Georgina Campbell), Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), and it is up to the ragtag group of survivors to escape from the forest.

The film starts with a nameless man being dragged into a forest by a creature, and when Mina steps into the location, the film skims through them rapidly and puts us straight into the middle of the action. After the formal induction by the comparatively more experienced Madeline, who was once a teacher, Mina and the audience understand the dos and don’ts. What follows are a series of discoveries as the characters and we get closer to who these creatures are and why they get hooked to being peeping Toms with the trapped folk.

The film does its best when it sticks to the fear of the unknown. Shyamalan lets us indulge in the fantasy of how these creatures might look before they appear in all their glory. But once that wrapper is off, the film has very little to offer. For starters, for a film with just four primary characters, The Watchers’ supporting cast lacks depth, and as they fight through life-and-death situations, it rarely makes us fret about them, let alone root for them.

Similar to M Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water, where the protagonist loses his wife and children and then encounters a mythological creature, Mina from The Watchers is struggling to cope up with the death of her mother which she inadvertently causes as a child. But the expositions only help in adding more weightage to the character and not the film itself.

Despite an interesting premise, The Watchers succumbs to the templates of the genre, and the fact that it would remind viewers of films that reinvented thrillers — like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or even M Night Shyamalan’s very own The Village, do not help much. With uninteresting characters and thrills expected from suspense rather than scares, The Watchers does not do justice to the genre or its famous source material. You know a thriller is in trouble if the only character you want to escape unscathed is an animal!

The Watchers is currently running in theatres

Table of Contents

The Hindu Jun 22, 2024

National

Patent filings credit BBIL as ‘inventor’ of Covaxin, omit ICMR

EC begins work on polls in J&K and three States

Celebrating Yoga

Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy toll touches 50; probe begins

Kejriwal to stay in jail as HC stays lower court’s bail order

SC refuses to put off NEET-UG counselling set to begin on July 6

Act punishing organised cheating comes into effect

Congress gears up to raise NEET issue in Parliament

Trinamool joins Opposition chorus against implementing three new criminal laws

Congress allegations on appointment of pro tem Speaker ‘misleading’: Rijiju

Govt. diverting issue to protect paper leak kingpin: Tejashwi

Marathwada simmers as Jarange-Patil, Hake cross swords

NTA postpones joint CSIR-UGC-NET citing ‘logistical issues’

FIR against Gujarat-based firm must be made public: Akhilesh

Sena (UBT) demands transparency in MH-CET

Gupta has not requested consular help, his family is in touch, says MEA

Bangladesh Prime Minister arrives on two-day visit to India

Trial court order had come down on ED ‘bias’ in Kejriwal case

‘Ele-fence’ in Kerala seeks to end man-animal conflict

From Kashmir, PM attempts to shed religious connections with yoga

Mirwaiz leads prayer at Jamia Masjid

Tripura to move SC against HC judgment

98 Indians died during annual Haj pilgrimage

Zonal Railways seek clarity on signal failure protocols

14208

‘Peer support from TB survivors aids treatment of over four lakh patients’

Peace will return to Manipur in three months: Biren Singh

Kuki-Zo tribal bodies urge boycott of polls to district councils

The essence of Vedas

Gujarat HC allows Netflix to release movie Maharaj

SUDOKU

Road to Atal Setu develops cracks in just six months

Panchayat offers bribe to rape victim, NHRC issues notice

Odisha Cong. president Sarat Pattnayak doused with ink

NIA chargesheets 5 in cyber fraud, human trafficking case

Regional

Bengal’s recruitment protests fizzle out post LS poll, but aspirants pin hopes on SC verdict

Were no lessons learnt from last year’s hooch tragedies , asks Madras HC

Ensure people displaced due to post-poll violence return home, HC tells WB govt.

Pune car crash: HC to pass order on plea to release accused minor on June 25

Kharge hits out at BJP over grim Assam flood situation

‘T.N. govt. will bear education costs of bereaved children’

AIADMK members evicted after sit-in over hooch tragedy

Group clash: curfew relaxed for 6 hours in Balasore town

The night of survival on a mountain

The law, the land, and the parting of a people

Kuwait inferno: mourning lives lost amid unanswered questions

Edit

A mandate for a new economic approach

A progressive Indian policy on Myanmar outlined

Testing times

New Cold War

letters to the editor

Catching a falling star

Business

IBBI to strengthen creditors’ rights on personal guarantors

‘Growth sacrifice’ view grows in MPC

Global headwinds may dampen India’s exports of steel

‘Private sector activity perks up; business optimism falls’

Centre unveils 10th tranche of commercial coal mine auction

‘Create a retirement corpus that covers longevity and inflation’

‘Maruti Suzuki to scout for all technologies to make entire fleet hybrid’

RBI’s Rao stresses on customer protection in NBFC sector

Sun Pharma to unveil Takeda gastrointestinal drug in India

Zepto raises $665 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion

Samrat appointed convenor of GST rate rationalisation panel

Foreign

Mob kills tourist in Pakistan for ‘desecrating’ the Koran

Armenia becomes the latest nation to recognise Palestine

Russia fires Deputy Defence Minister jailed for corruption

Mid-year New Year

Hinduja family members get jail term for exploiting staff

Hong Kong charges two under the new national security law

South Korea summons Russian Ambassador

U.S. Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic abusers owning guns

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Abbasi launches political party

Heavy rainfall in China leads to flood, mudslides, killing 47 people

Namibian court strikes down law criminalising same-sex relations

ICC unveils arrest warrant for top Sahel jihadist leader

New strategic pact between Russia and N. Korea could dent China’s influence

Argentina has surplus harvest, but farmers want more from President Milei

Iranians split on presidential vote as hardships mount ahead of election

Head-on collision

Beijing to punish ‘diehards’ of Taiwan independence

Sports

High-flying India takes on struggling Bangladesh

Bangladesh could be another warm-up for India

de Kock, Miller take South Africa to 163

Having three left-arm spinners is an advantage on the wickets here: Axar

Cummins’ ’trick and Zampa’s artistry win it for Australia

Suryakumar changed the tempo of the game: Afghanistan’s Rashid

Bumrah gets his execution perfect, hails Kumble

Hat-trick hero Cummins says the bowling line-up has to adapt

Should have made at least 170, feels Bangladesh skipper Shanto

McLaren’s quest to reclaim its glory days is well on track

STACKING UP

‘Viswanathan Anand as the role model has worked for India’

Aquatic ballet?

Weekend

Far from the madding crowd

A mango bite in Kuala Lumpur

Mamma tells a tale

Kartik Aaryan’s podium finish

Vijay Sethupathi stands out in this almost-there thriller

A blend of survival drama and comedy

Superhero abuse and election blues

Misses out on the substance