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Issue 1568 Friday July 24, 2020

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RACE COMMISSION SPARKS OUTRAGE

EXCLUSIVE

by BARNIE CHOUDHURY

THE government’s newly appointed race commission has been widely criticised by Asian and black leaders, who said that it lacks credibility and consists of a “rigged panel whose minds are already made up”. Some senior Tory parliamentarians ac cused Number 10 of setting up the latest review to “kick the burning issue of insti tutional, systemic and structural racism in Britain into the long grass”. “I’m afraid there’s a reluctance to en gage with this issue,” a Westminster insi der told Eastern Eye. “There are a few out there who think that if we talk about it, we will damage race relations in this country. “My response is, black and Asian com munities already mistrust public services. Without a positive, engaging response to the issues which have been identified, it will have a more damaging impact.” Last week, prime minister Boris John son named the 10-person panel, which will be led by Dr Tony Sewell CBE, head of the charity Generating Genius. But his appointment as chair has been widely criticised by minority communi

ties because of controversial views on racism that he made a decade ago. “Much of the supposed evidence of institutional racism is flimsy,” Sewell wrote in Prospect Magazine in 2010. “What we now see in schools is chil dren undermined by poor parenting, peer-group pressure and an inability to be responsible for their own behaviour. “They are not subjects of institutional racism. They have failed their GCSEs be cause they did not do the homework, did not pay attention and were disrespectful to their teachers.” A Tory party source said, “It’s outra geous that somebody with such views, especially views he expressed quite re cently, not 10 years ago – he expressed such a view recently in a [Daily] Telegraph article – so, I think it’s outrageous such a person should hold that position.” It is a view that is shared by Preet Kaur Gill, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbas ton and shadow international develop ment secretary. “For the new commission on race equ ality to be effective and credible, it must have the respect and confidence of the communities it has been set up to engage with,” said Gill. “That members of the black commu nity have criticised Dr Sewell’s appoint ment, given his controversial comments, Continued on page 4

Asian and black leaders say it does ‘nothing for confidence and trust’ in ethnic communities

MILESTONE MOMENT: Tanya Maniktala plays Lata Mehra in the six-part BBC adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, directed by Mira Nair

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SUITABLE FOR PRIME TIME: INDIAN DRAMA ON BBC

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Probe into death after takeaway

Oxford vaccine results ‘step in the right direction’ “There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the Covid-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise,” vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert said. “We still do not know how strong an immune response we need to provoke to effectively protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection.” Gilbert said researchers needed to learn more about Covid-19 and continue late stage trials, which have already commenced. Prime minister Boris

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Johnson described the data as “very positive”. “A huge well done to our brilliant, world-leading scientists and researchers at University of Oxford,” he said. “There are no guarantees, we’re not there yet and further trials will be necessary – but this is an important step in the right direction.” AstraZeneca has signed agreements with governments around the world to supply the vaccine should it gain regulatory approval. The company has said it will not seek to profit from the vaccine during the pandemic.

CORONA CHEER: The AstraZeneca vaccine trials are showing encouraging results, developers have said

Home Office set to appeal Begum return © BBC

AN EXPERIMENTAL Covid-19 vaccine was safe and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers, data showed on Monday (20), with the strongest response seen in people who received two doses. Called AZD1222, the vaccine is being developed by AstraZeneca and scientists at the University of Oxford. It did not prompt any serious side effects and elicited antibody and T-cell immu ne responses, according to trial results published in The Lancet medical journal.

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CONTROVERSY: Shamima Begum

Action to end all-white panels HARROW Council could abolish all-white committees after passing motions on tackling racism at a council meeting last Thursday (16), writes Adam Shaw. It formed part of a Labour Group motion brought by councillor Adam Swersky, of West Harrow ward. Queensbury ward councillor Kiran Ramchandani said those on all-white or allmale panels should forgo their positions in support. But Marilyn Ashton, deputy leader of Harrow Conservatives, argued the motion has been “hijacked by the far-left of the Labour party”. (Local Democracy Reporting Service)

HOPE: Bhavini Makwana

SHAMIMA CAN FIGHT CITIZENSHIP REMOVAL IN THE UK, SAYS COURT FORMER Briton Shamima Begum is said to be “happy, but very nervous” following the recent ruling that she should be allowed back into Britain to appeal the removal of her UK citizenship. Begum, born to Bangladeshi parents, left London in 2015 when she was 15 and went to Syria via Turkey with two school friends. In Syria, she married a Daesh (Islamic State) fighter from the Netherlands. She was discovered in 2019 in a detention camp in Syria, where three of her children died. The home secretary at the time, Sajid Javid, stripped her of citizenship on security grounds. However, last week, three judges from England’s court of appeal unanimously agreed Begum could have a fair and effective appeal of that decision only if she were permitted to come back to Britain. “Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns,” Judge Julian Flaux wrote in a ruling last week. “I consider that Ms Begum’s claim for judicial review of the decision of SIAC (Special Immigration Appeals Commission)... succeeds.” The judge said that if Begum, who is now 20, was considered a security threat, and if

A MAN has died after ordering a meal from a Newcastle takeaway, writes Daniel Holland. Northumbria Police confirmed that it has launched an investigation after a 23-yearold died at a house in Jesmond on July 10 having earlier eaten food from the Dadyal restaurant in Shieldfield. While the exact cause of death is yet to be established, police did confirm he had food from the Indian takeaway and died afterwards. An investigation is now under way, with officers working with Newcastle City Council’s food safety team to determine what happened. Restaurant owner Gulfam Ulhaq said staff were “in shock” after hearing one of their customers had died. He added: “I was really shocked when police told me. It is very sad.” (Local Democracy Reporting Service)

there was sufficient evidence, she could be arrested on her return to Britain. Commenting on the ruling, the Home Office said the court’s decision was “very disappointing” and that it would apply for permission to appeal against it. “The government’s top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe,” a Home Office spokeswoman said. According to a source from the camp Begum is currently living in, she is “very happy” about the decision. However, she has voiced concerns “about what will happen to her and how people will look at her there”. “She is in a good mood because she will see her family and her country again. But everything is very uncertain,” a source told the Daily Mail this week. When Begum was first discovered in the detention camp, she angered many Britons by appearing unrepentant about seeing severed heads. She also said a suicide attack that killed 22 people in the city of Manchester in 2017 was justified. Javid had stripped her of citizenship soon after on the grounds that she could claim

Bangladeshi nationality through her parents. His successor and current home secretary Priti Patel also backed the decision and ruled out the prospect of her return to the UK. “We cannot have people who would do us harm allowed to enter our country – and that includes this woman,” said Patel, in reference to Begum, who had pleaded with the authorities to allow her to return to her family in the UK. Last Sunday (19), prime minister Boris Johnson said he would be reviewing rules which helped Begum obtain legal aid. The aid helps those who cannot afford legal representation in the UK court system. Johnson said: “It seems to me to be at least odd and perverse that somebody can be entitled to legal aid when they are not only outside the country, but have had their citizenship deprived for the protection of national security.” Under UK law, a person can legally have their citizenship revoked but they cannot be made stateless. The British government maintains that Begum has access to Bangladeshi dual citizenship through her parents, even though Bangladesh has since denied any such rights. (With agencies)

Mother praises sight charity help AN INDIAN mother of two will talk about living with an inherited sight loss condition in a new BBC Lifeline Appeal. Bhavini Makwana’s appeal for Retina UK, which works for people with inherited sight loss, will be aired on Sunday (26) on BBC One at 1:50pm. Makwana, now an ambassador for Retina UK, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of 17, but hid her condition from those around her for 15 years. “At first I hid my sight loss because I felt ashamed and didn’t want to be labelled disabled. I worried about what my family and community would think,” she said. “This left me depressed and isolated. “Support from Retina UK helped me find my inner confidence and realise I could still achieve my ambitions.”

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Indo-UK royal history captured in new show

EASTERN ENCOUNTERS FEATURES RAJ-ERA ART AND MANUSCRIPTS

Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020

A NEW exhibition featuring four centuries of paintings and manu scripts gifted to the British monar chy from the Indian subcontinent is a “once in a generation experience,” its curator has said. Eastern Encounters showcases a number of artworks, including vivid depictions of the Mughal court, royal portraits and illustrations from Hindu epics. Showcased at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, this will be the first time the items are on display to the public. Emily Hannam is the exhibition curator. As the collection is so “delicate,” Hannam said they are unable to be on public display for long periods of time. “(The collection) is so fragile and delicate so we’ve gone through a long project of conservation to allow them to travel from Windsor up to Edinburgh to be seen in the Queen’s Gallery,” she told Eastern Eye. “We would love to be able to have them out all the time, but they are very light sensitive, so we have to balance the conservation needs of the works. “This is really a once in a generation experience.” Originally due to premiere in April, the exhibition is now accessible to the public after museums and galleries were approved to reopen following the easing of Covid-19 lockdown measures. It will be the first time the collection will be shown in Scotland. “The exhibition is bringing together the highlights of the south Asian paintings and manuscripts from the Royal Collection, usually housed in the Royal library at Windsor so it is really exciting that we are bringing them to Scotland,” Hannam said. Revealing her personal favourite from the collection, Hannam pointed out A Chameleon by animal painter Ustad Mansur. Originally from the 17th century, the miniature painting depicts a chameleon watching a small insect hover by. Mansur used tiny dots of paints to mimic the surface of the chameleon’s skin and a gold crescent can be seen in the animal’s black pupil. When light shines on the painting, Hannam noted, the gold reflects so the creature looks as though he “has a glint in his eye”. “I feel all these works are like that the more you look at them, the more you see,” Hannam, who has worked at the Royal Collection for six years, said. “You only really appreciate these de-

HERITAGE: (Clockwise from this image) A Chameleon; Queen Victoria’s Hindustani diaries; Maharajah Duleep Singh dressing Prince Arthur in Punjabi Attire; a painted frontispiece of The Queen’s Travels in Scotland and Ireland tails if you get really close to them.” Other items within the showcase include a Mughal album of pa intings and specimens of calligraphy assembled under Emperor Muhammad Shah; an 1854 painting entitled Maharajah Duleep Singh dressing Prince Arthur in Punjabi Attire and Queen Victoria’s Hindustani diaries. The diaries feature pages of the famous Monarch’s writing, as she attempted to learn Hindi. Appointed Empress of India in 1876, the Queen was known for her fascination with the country. “Her Hindustan diaries are basically her schoolbooks,” Hannam explained. “It is more content about what the weather is like, or what she is doing on that particular day – like when you learn a language at primary

‘End cultural tokenism’ ARTIST Anish Kapoor (above) has urged art galleries and museums to put an end to cultur al “tokenism”. Ahead of the opening of his latest exhibition Anish Kapoor at Houghton Hall, the Turner Prize-winning sculptor claimed insti tutions were “paying lip service to world art”. “Artists like me, art ists from elsewhere, have to refuse – we have to say no more tokeni sm,” the British-Indian artist said. “Collect the

by LAUREN CODLING

school. “It is not her deepest darkest thoughts and desire. It is very much her practising the language that she would have in conversation, if she was to have polite conversations with someone who spoke Hindi.” Hannam believes most people think of Queen Victoria when they associate the relationship between the monarchy and the subcontinent. However, the curator hopes visitors will be in-

trigued when they lea rn about the earlier relationship between Indian rulers and British monarchs such as Ge orge III and George IV. Hannam also expressed hope guests will enjoy the stories of the items on display. “(The exhibition) isn’t only focusing on the art – the painting and manuscripts tell this amazing story of more than 400 years of the shared history between the British monarchy and south Asia,” she said. “It had a massive impact on the Britain of today and people will see it is an important story that hasn’t been told before.” n Eastern Encounters: Four Centuries of Paintings and Manuscripts from the Indian Subcontinent will be open to the public on Thursday (23). For more information, see: www.rct.uk/

work properly or don’t collect it at all, both are fine. Museums are pay ing lip service to world art. We have to think ab out it again ... radically. He said: “Museums have a lot of work to do. For the historic muse ums, they have to recog nise out of what legacy the collections come.” Kapoor’s latest exhi bition features 24 sculptures, a selection of drawings, and small er works. The showcase will be open to the pub lic until November 1.

Munchetty slams trolls

BBC presenter Naga Munchetty (right)cla pped back at online trolls who criticised her appearance on so cial media last week. The BBC Breakfast presenter responded to a now-deleted tweet which mocked her for wearing silver brogues on a recent edition of the show. Another user tweeted: “I never understand why (Munchetty’s copresenter) Charlie Stayt has to wear a formal business suit and that Asian bird seems to be able to wear whatever the hell she wants?” In response to the trolls, Munchetty said: “Three suggestions. 1. Add a picture of your

self to your Twitter profile 2. Think about what you tweet before you write 3. I’ll leave you to guess this one.” Previously, Mun chetty has defended her style choices after some users criticised her for wearing highheeled shoes.

First blind chef on show ENTREPRENEUR Amar Latif became the first blind contestant to ap pear on BBC’s Celebrity Masterchef last Wednesday (15). ‘I hope people wat ching might be inspired to try something new,’ Latif, who lost his sight in his late teens, said. “As a blind person, I find a lot of people con

stantly tell you that you can’t do things – I hope this shows that, with a bit of single-minded ness and some creativi ty, anything is possi ble,” he added. The 45-year-old pre pared a portion of tur bot served on a brocco li puree with pickled and roasted cauliflower in a London restaurant.

Fans send wishes as Aishwarya and daughter in hospital STABLE: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (left) and Aaradhya

INDIAN actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her daughter have been sent well wishes from fans across the world, after the pair were hospitalised for contracting Covid-19 last Saturday (18). Aishwarya’s father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan and husband Abhishek Bachchan were admitted to Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital last week. The Bachchan family are the most prominent personalities to be suffering from the virus in India, which last Friday (17) recorded one million cases. Aishwarya, 46, and her eight-year-old daughter,

Aaradhya, tested positive for the disease nearly a week ago but were quarantined at home in Mumbai. Following the news, fans of the family took to social media to wish them a “speedy recovery”. One user tweeted: “Stay strong. You are our strength. The whole world is sending blessings and prayers and wish your family a speedy recovery.” Hollywood actor Steve Martin, who starred alongside Aishwarya in Pink Panther 2 in 2009, also took to social media to express his best wishes for the family. “I’m wishing Aishwarya Rai Bach-

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chan and her daughter a speedy recovery. She was such an elegant and delightful acting partner in Pink Panther,” Martin wrote. An Indian news outlet said that both mother and daughter were “fine” after they were admitted to Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital. Amitabh and Abhishek were also reported to be stable with mild symptoms of the virus when they were admitted to the hospital’s isolation ward. Amitabh has been regularly sending Twitter messages since his hospitalisation.

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‘We’re going over old ground’ Continued from page 1

shows that this government is just not serious about tackling structural racism in this country.” Baroness Sandip Verma, the former international development minister in David Cameron’s govern ment, was also a spokeswoman for the government in the Lords on equalities and women’s issues. She told Eastern Eye that a commission was needed “if there is no alternative, but it is not the solution”. “I will be very concerned if the chair still believes that it’s not institutional, and those at the top are the blockers and barriers to change, deliberate or not,” she said. “But unless this is resolved, we will still be talking about this for several decades to come. The commission is sadly unbalanced and that does nothing for confidence and trust.” Among its terms of reference, the commission will “build on” the work of Theresa May’s Race Disparity Audit, the causes of “persistent disparities”, and “con sider how greater integration and addressing segre gation within communities can contribute to ad dressing disadvantages faced by some groups”. But some grassroots Asian Tory members say that the commission is going over old ground, and they are “reviewed-out”. “There is absolutely nothing here that was not done by previous governments and only three years ago by Theresa May,” said one. “(Tony) Blair had three reviews into segregation after the northern riots in 2001, Theresa (May) had some great ideas and crossed the political divide by asking David Lammy to investigate race disparities. Why on earth do we need to “review progress”? There’s already been too little progress.” Labour MP David Lammy, who is the shadow justice secretary, carried out an independent review of the treatment of BAME people in the criminal justice system, and his findings were published in September 2017. The view that the commission is unnecessary is shared by the deputy leader of the Liberal Demo crats in the Lords, Navnit Dholakia. As a former commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equali ty, the peer was instrumental in changing the way black and Asian people were sentenced, after inves tigations showed the disproportionate and harsher sentencing of ethnic minorities. “I think one of the problems is they will come up with the same arguments that we have heard again and again since the early 1970s,” he said. “Monitoring is always the end product which effectively shows the inequality that exists in this country. It’s about time we took action to remove those inequalities.” Lord Dholakia thinks the report will have recom mendations but, like other reviews, it will be left on a shelf to gather dust. “Rather than putting things in the long grass, it’s about time we started accepting that things are fun damentally wrong. Move forward,” he said. “Rather than having another commission and another lot of people looking to see what happens, don’t let these reports gather dust. I’ve seen that

MPs AND ANALYSTS SAY REPORTS FROM PREVIOUS RACE PANELS SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED

Dr Tony Sewell happen from the 1960s-1980s. Things happen more quickly from pressure by communities than by writ ing reports.” The government is to “provide opportunities for interested parties to offer evidence” to the panel. Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, is the first black man to be directly elected to mayoral office by the city’s constituents. “This is the sophisticated use of power,” he said. “What they’ve just done is narrow down the alterna tives, narrow down the options for outcomes. They’ve just swept away a whole suite of areas for investigation. No one doing an honest investigation would do that.” He is concerned the commission has already made up its mind on the outcomes of its investigation. “If you’re going to do an honest piece of research, you’re asked to open the door to the possibility that your world view is going to be challenged or found wanting. You have to approach it with that level of humility. I would say, in the same way, my under standing is there to be challenged. What it sounds like is they want solutions within their pre-existing world view, and that’s very dangerous.” Baroness Verma thinks race and equality must be taken seriously and tackled immediately rather than waiting for recommendations and reports. “I have always been clear on the issues of race and inequality – you are limiting the potential of your own economy and missing out on huge swathes if talented people. “Where institutions and the leadership are failing to open access and bring people from all back grounds in, then parliament needs to force the

Baroness Sandip Verma change. I think action can be taken now, and each recipient of public funds demonstrates within 12 months what they have put in place.” Gill told Eastern Eye that the government already had the answers. “Much of what Dr Sewell and the panel will be looking at as part of this review has al ready been presented to the government. “The commission’s priority then must be to look at why the countless recommendations from the many reviews and investigations over the years have not yet been implemented by the government. There is little point in commissioning review after review if the government will not act on their findings.” Rees also agrees that the government needs to act rather than investigate, and is asking it to be truthful in its approach to deal with a decades-old problem. “You don’t need another commission, we should be on implementation. It’s that which grows cyni cism. You just keep asking questions at the expense of taking action, and this is the problem. “There are so many constructive reports out there already with a whole suite of recommendations. We need to be focused on putting in place an action plan, with measurable outcomes and dates for delivery.” He added: “Don’t begin to box the conversation about race inequality into a place in which it be comes about guilt and conflict. What we need to do is to be honest with ourselves. “We shouldn’t allow a fear of exposing those gaps between who we are and what we want not to be put in the public domain. We sometimes fall short on the values we espouse, and I think that’s one of the things that hampers the conversation on race.” For the Conservative party, there is another prob

New race commission members include Asian experts ASIAN experts are part of the new commission looking into race disparity in the UK. Lord Ajay Kakkar, chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission and chair of the King’s Fund; Dr Samir Shah, CEO of Juniper TV, former BBC journalist and former chair of race relations thinktank Runnymede Trust; and businessman Aftab Chughtai, a cofounder of the campaign group Muslims for Britain, member of the Grenfell Tower Taskforce and chair of West Midlands Police Independent Advisory Group, are members of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. Dr Tony Sewell, head of the charity Generating Genius, will be chair. It will report to prime minister Boris Johnson, it was announced last Thursday (16).

Set up after the anti-racism protests following the death in the US of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody, the commission is tasked with looking at all aspects of inequality, including criminal justice, education, employment and health in the UK. Johnson said, “This crossgovernment commission will examine inequality in the UK, across the whole population. “The commission will be inclusive, undertaking research and inviting submissions where necessary. It will set a positive agenda for change.” Other members in the commission are Dr Maggie AderinPocock, scientist and co-presenter of BBC’s The Sky at Night; Keith Fraser, chair of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales; Dr Dambisa Moyo,

international economist and author; Martyn Oliver, CEO of Outwood Grange Academies Trust; Naureen Khalid, cofounder of online national school governor forum UkGovChat; and Mercy Muroki, a senior policy researcher and columnist. The commission is expected to submit its report by the end of this year. The exchequer secretary to the Treasury and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said: “The Commission demonstrates this government’s mission to level up opportunity for everyone whatever their background. Our expert chair and commissioners will make evidence-based recommendations to change lives for the better. Their work will be crucial in informing and improving the national conversation on race.”

Dr Sewell CBE said: “I am delighted to be chairing this new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. I have spent my entire career in education striving to help all students achieve their full potential. I know, however that inequality exists, and I am committed to working with my fellow commissioners to understand why. Together we will set out recommendations for action across government, public bodies and the private sector, and will seek to inform a national conPANELLISTS: Lord versation about Ajay Kakkar; and race, led by (right) Dr Samir Shah the evidence.”

Lord Navnit Dholakia lem, and that is getting its south Asian and black members to retain their faith, analysts said. As its chair, May told the annual Conservative party con ference in October 2002 that people called it the “nasty party”, and that label remains to this day, one south Asian member admitted. “This race commission has no credibility. I’m re ally disappointed because there should have been wider consultation about who was going to be ap pointed. No one knows who these people are, they are not exactly heavyweights, are they? They ask me for fat donations year after year, but year after year, I refuse. If this is the way they carry on, then there’s even more of a big question mark.” Another said, “It goes to the heart of what I think is one of the most fundamental British values and that is fairness. It goes to the fact that communities feel that just because of the colour of their skin, their ethnicity, they do not have the same access and the same opportunities as others, and that simply can not be right.” Downing Street and the Cabinet office said they would only comment on complaints about the panel make up and its chair. They would not address the specific accusations that the commission was rigged with a ready-made set of conclusions, that it lacked credibility among ethnic minority communities, and the process was an exercise in kicking the problem of racism in the UK into the long grass. Instead, a spokesperson referred Eastern Eye to what the prime minister said when he announced the commission last month. Johnson said, “I am thrilled to have assembled a group of 10 talented and diverse commissioners, who each bring a wealth of experience from across a range of important sectors.” The commission is scheduled to submit its find ings to the prime minister by the end of the year.

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‘Racial bias’ in medical research may be hiding BAME Covid risk factors, say doctors A GROUP of Asian doctors has claimed that “inherent racial bias” in medical research and practice could be exacerbating the disproportionately severe impact of Covid-19 among ethnic minorities in the UK and globally. The UK-based cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) chairman JS Bamrah and US-based infectious disease and obesity physician Ravi Kamepalii said genetic predisposition may be a key factor behind south Asians developing conditions linked to obesity, such as Type 2 diabetes, at much lower levels of body fat. They claim that these are not being identified as high risk and managed ap-

EVERY pupil in England will see another rise in funding in 2021 as schools are set to receive a £4.8 billion boost next year compared to 2019. Each secondary school will attract a minimum of £5,150 per pupil and each primary a minimum of £4,000 per pupil under the national funding formula from 2021, up from the £5,000 and £3,750 which schools are receiving this year. It is part of the £14.4bn funding settlement over three years. Schools will also receive grants from the government’s £1bn Covid catch-up package next academic year. Disadvantaged pupils in schools and colleges will also benefit from the second part of the catch-up fund, a £350 million tutoring fund. “This year has been incredibly challenging for schools, teachers, and students due to Covid-19, with everyone ... going to incredible lengths to ensure children can get back to the classroom,” said education secretary Gavin Williamson.

Pay rise for public sector ALMOST one million public-sector workers in Britain are to be given aboveinflation pay rises, the government said on Tuesday (21), to reflect their work during the pandemic. Teachers will receive the largest overall increase at 3.1 per cent, while doctors and dentists will be given rises of 2.8 per cent. The police will get a 2.5 per cent increase and members of the armed forces will receive 2 per cent, the government said. More than a million nurses and hospital staff have previously agreed a separate pay settlement, which works out at 4.4 per cent this year. The coronavirus crisis has shown that many people critical to Britain’s efficient functioning are among the lowest paid. “These past months have underlined what we always knew – that our public sector workers make a vital contribution to our country and we can rely on them when we need them,” chancellor Rishi Sunak said.

In their paper titled Poor metabolic health is the major issue for increased Covid-19 mortality in BAME groups, the doctors note, “Just as racism is endemic in the NHS, racial bias exists in the identification and management of patients from BAME backgrounds at high risk. “Unfortunately, the current NHS risk assessment tool doesn’t directly measure metabolic health, which is a more sensitive method to identify and subsequently manage BAME individuals at high risk.” Poor diet, lack of activity and severe vitamin D deficiency are highlighted as the common factors leading to poor metabolic health among BAME backgrounds, particularly south Asians.

The doctors called for an immediate update of the risk assessment tool to take into account five factors that will help identify those from ethnic minority backgrounds at the highest risk from not just Covid-19 complications, but longerterm risk of death and heart attack. These five factors are – blood pressure above 120/80mmHg, (pre-hypertension or hypertension); HbA1c > 5.7 (pre-diabetes/Type 2 diabetes); high blood triglycerides; low HDL-Cholesterol; and increased waist circumference. MetS, which has been identified as having up to several-fold increased risk of mortality from Covid-19, is defined as having at least three of the above risk factors, but this is not being assessed in the

current NHS risk assessment tools, the doctors note. They also draw on a “concerning picture” of lifestyle factors not being addressed behind those risk factors, which include a diet low in whole fruit and vegetables, and one that’s high in sugar and refined carbohydrates especially in those from south Asian backgrounds. The authors stress that many of the risk factors they highlight can be impro ved, and even reversed, quickly through diet and lifestyle changes. More research and publicity on diet and lifestyle interventions in metabolically unhealthy BAME groups, including those with a normal BMI who are at highest risk, is urgently required, they add.

‘We swap labels to say clothes are made in UK’

LEICESTER WORKER REVEALS EXPLOITATION IN GARMENT INDUSTRY

EXCLUSIVE

by LAUREN CODLING

AN ASIAN worker has revealed the “exploitative” work environment at a Leicester-based factory, including claims that employees are underpaid and working in unacceptable conditions. In an exclusive interview with Eastern Eye, worker Anita Patel* also alleged UK customers are being deceived with false labelling which claimed clothes were made in Britain. She said garments were actually made in Pakistan and India, and relabelled. In addition, she highlighted a lack of safety measures being put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. The claims follow a number of media reports of workers being exploited in factories across Leicester, with many being paid below the minimum wage and working in an unsuitable work environment. “For the last six months, we have been labelling clothes such as T-shirts, hoodies and jogging bottoms (with labels indicating they are) made in India or Pakistan,” Patel said. “We remove the labels of that country and put the labels of the fashion brand with ‘Made in UK’ on them. “All staff have not been doing any other work for the last six months except this. Labelling of this type is currently underway in most of the factories throughout Leicester.” She has also alleged that conditions were unsafe throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Although the facility closed during the first month of the lockdown, workers had to make their own face masks from materials in the factory. Social distancing was observed, she said, but only after government officials began conducting checks in June. However, employees were required to take Covid-19 tests when a new lockdown was announced in Leicester. No workers have tested positive so far, she said. In terms of a typical working week, employees work from 8am to 5:30pm every day, with many averaging 55 hours a week, six days a week. However, Patel claimed she is paid for fewer hours than she actually works. Her wages are allegedly paid cash in hand and she claimed the same payslip is given each time. Pension contributions, national insurance, taxes, and other amounts are deducted, she added. “I am paid much less than the UK government norms and even after deductions,

Students to get funding boost

propriately because of the general focus on Body Mass Index (BMI) as a proxy for “healthy weight”. “Using BMI as a proxy for ‘healthy weight’ may provide the illusion of protection and will miss a substantial proportion of those from black and south Asian ethnic minority groups with MetS risk,” they write in the peer-reviewed academic journal The Physician. BMI is determined by a person’s weight relative to their height, and a BMI above 30 is taken as the standard measure for obesity in the UK. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) increases a person’s wider health risk and is known to be behind the severity of the deadly virus among some ethnic groups.

I am given cash in hand,” she said. “I think my payslip is also messed up. “Some of the staff who have young children do not mind getting cash in hand pay as they get tax credit and other benefits.” Eastern Eye has been given photographs of the ‘Made in UK’ labels and pay slips, which corroborate Patel’s story. As well as claims of loss of pay, Patel alleged that employees do not receive pay for working bank holidays or annual leave. Most people’s salaries allegedly range from £ 4.50 to £5 an hour. The National Minimum Wage as of April 2020 is £8.72 for workers aged 25 and over. There is no human resources manager in the company and all issues must be directly discussed with the manager, she said. Therefore when Patel requested an increase in salary and questioned why she was not being paid minimum wage, her manager rejected her claims. “(My boss) told me clearly that he could not afford to increase my salary,” she said. “I told him two or three times about it, but he did not believe me and finally told me, ‘if you want to go to work elsewhere you can’.” Talking about working conditions at the factory, Patel said workers do not have access to basic necessities, including tea and coffee. They were also made to bring in toilet rolls from home.

STITCHED UP: Practices including false labelling of garments and unsuitable labour conditions are widespread in Leicester’s textile sector, worker claims

“For the past month, (our manager) has only just started putting a toilet roll in one toilet,” she said. “We have two 15-minute breaks at 10am and 3-30pm and a 30-minute lunch break in the afternoon. We do not get paid for a lunch break,” she added. “We can go to the bathroom, but the boss reprimands us if we are even a little late.” The factory is mostly staffed by Gujaratis, and Indians from Diu and Daman, as well as other south Asian countries. Patel, who is a British citizen and of south Asian descent, is unsure how many people are working il-

legally. “We are not allowed to talk to each other during work, and if we do talk, we are scolded by (our manager),” she said. Explaining about deadlines, Patel alleged staff are forced to get jobs done within a certain time period, even if it seems “impossible”. If needed, workers work for an extra two or three more hours to get the job done, but receive no extra pay. “(Our boss) says ‘hurry up’ to get the job done but how fast can we go?” she said. “When we are forced to do more than we can handle, we know not to let them down.” *Name has been changed to protect identity

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’ Blackburn concern AFTER months of uncertainty through out the Covid-19 crisis, the UK is slowly easing out of lockdown. Most shops and restaurants have reo pened, albeit with safety measures, while last week, prime minister Boris Johnson encouraged more people to return to their workplaces. However, some areas in the UK are still causing concern. Leicester became the first city in Britain to be placed in a local lockdown last month, after public health officials voiced concern at the high num ber of coronavirus infections there. Last weekend, it was revealed that Blackburn has now overtaken Leicester as England’s Covid hotspot. Worryingly, the director of public health for Black burn with Darwen council has confirmed there is a clustering of cases in multigenerational south Asian households in areas with smaller terraced housing. The city recorded 114 new cases in the past fortnight, with 97 of those being from the south Asian population. Even as lockdown eases, we cannot become complacent. Covid-19 is still a deadly virus which can have an over whelming impact on the country. We must continue to ensure that communi ties are aware of the appropriate safety measures and equipment, such as wear ing face masks in public spaces and keeping physical contact to a minimum. Government messaging has previously been criticised for not catering to ethnic minority communities, who may struggle with language barriers or have cultural beliefs which may affect safety measures. The authorities should therefore ensure messaging is being delivered and under stood clearly by all communities.

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‘Action must replace talk on race equality’

NEW PANEL WILL HAVE TO OFFER BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE AT ALL LEVELS by SUNDER KATWALA Director, British Future THIS must be a year when talk turns into action on race. The government’s new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities is due to report to the prime minister Boris Johnson by Christmas. “Inquiry fatigue” leads to questions about whet her it is needed. But there are only a few key areas – notably Wendy Williams’ road map for Home Of fice reform after Windrush and David Lammy’s Criminal Justice review – where previous reports offer a blueprint for action. There is no comprehen sive action plan for race equality in Britain sitting on the shelf. Can this new commission produce that? Many are sceptical. I would set three tests of success as it begins. Can it deepen public understanding of where we are now? Can it build consensus on key priorities for change, by navigating a contested de bate about race, or will it mainly reinforce the trenches in which existing debates often gets stuck? And can it speed up change, by combining a long er-term vision with important changes that should happen within 12 months? The commission inherits the strongest evidence base on race and opportunity in any major democ racy. Yet much public discourse is unaware of its basic contours. The race disparity audit, under then prime minister Theresa May, compiled the evi dence, but did not develop a clear public narrative of what needs to be done about it. Identity clashes over “cancel culture” excite the media much more than patterns of opportunity and disadvantage that are more complex than ever before. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be uni versity graduates than their white British peers. If that would surprise many in newsrooms, the gen eral public won’t hear about it either. So a key ques tion of why ethnic minorities are doing better in education than in the workplace is rarely spotted. The commission should set out why a race equality agenda in 2020 must work at different lev els. An effective strategy must recognise social ex clusion at the bottom; pursue fair chances in the

middle, building on progress in education to close ethnic gaps in recruitment and progression; and speed up change at the top, so this moment of change for race equality reaches into the citadels of economic, cultural and political power. Some challenges need long-term interventions – such as the links between housing and health in equalities, or the support needed to ensure that neither white nor black poor working-class boys struggle to access higher education. But important changes could happen much fast er. One of the clearest pieces of evidence of systemic racial disadvantage in Britain is that job applicants with similar qualifications will get fewer interviews if their CV has an identifiably ‘ethnic’ name. This commission must identify a solution. It could com pile evidence on which interventions appear most likely to reduce this disparity. But the most effective change could be to secure commitments within key sectors – such as the biggest businesses and the le gal profession – to begin sustained transparent monitoring, year on year, of how far this remains true, sustaining pressure to close the gap. A big, achievable change would be to end allwhite boardrooms in Britain during 2021. There is an existing voluntary target for the FTSE 100 and 350, though a third of top firms have not met it. The commission should recommend that all public sec tor bodies and NHS trusts adopt this, and invite educational, cultural and sporting bodies, and all charities above a particular size, to commit to the

same goal. Rather than an end in itself, this should be part of an agenda for every institution to discuss race equality at board level – and identify the changes it can make, close to home. Can the commission meet these tests? The jury is out. The general public won’t yet have heard of a new panel being announced. A major ITV poll cap tured a worryingly deep disillusion, especially among the black British, about race in Britain. Bridging that trust gap will be difficult. Civic society voices will wait to see if a group in vited to report to the prime minister can demon strate its independence. Chair Tony Sewell has a strong track record in education, while early skir mishes have focused on his past scepticism about structural discrimination. “I know that inequality exists and I am commit ted to working with my fellow commissioners to understand why,” Sewell said in response. Johnson says “the Commission will be inclusive, undertaking research and inviting submissions where necessary”. An open call for evidence would be the obvious first step – challenging those outside government to bring solutions to the table, not just critiques of the status quo Critics of this government will have low expecta tions, but should set themselves a similar task. By the time this commission reports, will they be cam paigning on a clear, compelling manifesto of five priorities for change on race? It is time to focus on what needs to change.

and 50 per cent; and 18 per cent seeing a drop over 50 per cent. It will take these small businesses time to recover, especially those in the hardest hit sectors. This is why the Federation of Small Businesses has called on the government to encourage local trading, ensure public sector procurement is fully ac cessible to small busi nesses during the re covery, and provide fur ther support for small businesses with em ployment costs beyond the end of the Job Re tention Scheme.[4] Beyond the econom ic response, the govern ment needs to get Test, Track and Isolate fully operational and restore

signed to plug the gaps in the initial round of funding will not stretch far enough to support all those who need it. There is an important aspect to this which shows how the interests of large and smaller businesses are inter connected. Aviation shows this well, a sector dominated not just by large players, but by small businesses who form much of the sup ply chain. Larger busi nesses like Heathrow should review procure ment processes post lockdown to ensure in clusion for local SMEs. Where SMEs can be en gaged early as part of the supply chain, they can plan ahead in order to be able to hold on to

from Covid-19 has ex posed the greater risk to jobs and incomes of those in precarious em ployment, with women, single parents, BAME communities, young people and the self-em ployed being hardest hit. As the outbreak slows, communities need to work together and en courage friends, neigh bours, and family to take the public health advice as seriously as they did at the beginning and adapt responsibly to changing circumstances. But the government must do more to give clearer guidance and al so get Test, Track and Isolate fully operational to help build vital pub lic confidence. Conflict ing advice from the gov

SETTING THE AGENDA: Britain needs a comprehensive strategy to address inequalities across society

‘Clear guidance needed to help small businesses recover’

by SEEMA MALHOTRA Labour MP for Feltham and Heston, and shadow employment minister SMALL businesses are the backbone of our economy. They have been hit hard by the lockdown and the slow steps back to trading. SMEs [small and me dium-sized enterprises] account for three-fifths of the employment and around half of the turn over. Total employment in SMEs was 16.6 mil lion (60 per cent of the total), while turnover was estimated at £2.2 trillion (52 per cent)[1]. Of these, around 250,000 are ethnic mi nority-led, contributing

an estimated £25 billion to the UK economy.[2] Any hit to small busi nesses will be a big hit to the national econo my. Analysis over the last few weeks suggests that businesses are now re-opening, with 10 per cent remaining closed compared to 24 per cent in the week follow ing the lockdown.[3] Yet smaller businesses have been harder hit, with 17 per cent of SMEs re porting turnover had dropped by up to 20 per cent; 22 per cent report ing a drop between 20

confidence in the health response so that the economy can grow. This is even more criti cal for BAME commu nities, who have seen a double hit in terms of the health impact and the economic fallout from this crisis. Instead what we have seen is a frustrating drip-feeding of advice that has sometimes raised more questions than answers. Certainly, that is what we have had from local busi nesses in Hounslow. Many small businesses were shocked to find out they were not eligi ble for the Coronavirus Business Grant. The lo cal authority tells me that that the discretion ary business grants de

the employment they can. This is particularly important as the fur lough scheme begins to scale down. That’s why Labour has also called for longer schemes for harder-hit industries and for greater flexibili ty in furlough. We need to be seeing more action now for an inclusive recovery. This week, I will be speaking at a Fabian Society event marking three years since the Taylor Review of modern work ing practices reported on how to achieve good secure work in a chang ing labour market. As yet, only seven of the 53 Taylor Review recom mendations have been legislated for. The economic fallout

ernment only hinders the fight against the vi rus, and additional con fusion can happen when confused guid ance is translated into different languages, as happened with face masks. Clear communi cation is vital in com batting the spread of Covid-19 and needs to be a greater focus now as a matter of urgency. [1] www.fsb.org.uk/uksmall-business-statistics. html; [2] www.fsb.org. uk/resource-report/ unlock.html; [3] www. ons.gov.uk/economy/ economicoutputand productivity/output/ datasets/businessimpactofcovid19survey bicsresults; [4] www.fsb. org.uk/resource-report/ new-horizons.html

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Amit Roy

Shamima dilemma

Off-colour argument

WHAT does Britain do about Shamima Begum? Three appeal court judges, one of them the Indian origin Lord Jus tice (Rabinder) Singh, ruled last week in favour of Shamima, who was stripped of her British nationality for going to Syria to join the Daesh (Islamic State) terrorist group when she was a schoolgirl of 15 in 2015. The court of appeal said that “the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the UK to pursue her appeal”. I have argued in the

past that Shamima, who lost all three of her ba bies, should be allowed back on compassionate grounds. There are no easy answers where se curity considerations conflict with the strict requirements of the law. However harsh, the interests of the Bangla deshi community in the UK would probably be best served if Shamima, who was found in a Syri an refugee camp in 2019, was not allowed to return. It would warn other young women of the consequences of fol lowing her example in the future.

SETH DEFENDS CHOICE OF WHITE SCRIPTWRITER FOR A SUITABLE BOY

PLINTH PRESENCE: Sculpture of Jen Reid

RELATIONSHIP REALITY: Brooklyn Beckham with Nicola Peltz; and (right) Priyanka Chopra-Jonas and Nick Jonas

Colston controversy

MARC QUINN, a 56-yearold white sculptor in London, secured free pub licity last week by putting quite an attractive statue of Black Lives Matter pro testor Jen Reid on the plinth left empty after the bronze of slave trader Ed

ward Colston was pulled down in Bristol in June. Reid’s unauthorised likeness was quickly re moved by the black mayor of Bristol, but not before Quinn had managed to get worldwide attention for his work.

Coronavirus campaign fit the context of early post-Inde pendence India – and how could he possibly have known every detail of that, any more than when dealing with Tsarist Russia? – there were other interpreters to point this out. There was me as the writer, there was Mira (Nair) as the director. We indicated anomalies, and Andrew took things on board. “Together, through an iterative process, we have created some thing that retains Andrew’s wonder

ful moments of television drama but also includes aspects of India, such as considerable chunks of dia logue in Hindi and Urdu – where they ring true – and that reinforce its authenticity. The result is far bet ter than I, the anxious author, could have imagined.” Eastern Eye readers will soon be able to judge for themselves as the six-part adaptation of A Suitable Boy begins on BBC1 on Sunday (26) at 9pm.

THE problems with the Since the coronavirus Indian community in message is clearly not Leicester and the Paki getting through to Asians, stani population in there needs to be “cul Blackburn, where police turally sensitive” mes are investigating a fune saging tailored specifi ral service at the Jamia cally for the Indian and Ghosia mosque allegedly Pakistani communities. attended by 250 people It is not very helpful – the legal limit is 30 – simply blaming ethnic bears out what Eastern minorities for spreading Eye has been saying the virus or operating from the early days of sweatshops with under the pandemic. paid workers.

Ways of young love in modern times SOME people have suggested that at 21, Brooklyn Beckham, who has announ ced his engagement to 25-year-old ac tress Nicola Peltz, daughter of an Amer ican billionaire, is too young to get mar ried, but the union has been blessed by his parents, David and Victoria Beckham. According to Hindu philosophy, the desirable age for a wife should be half the age of her husband plus seven. So, in theory, Brooklyn’s parents should be looking for a daughter-in-law aged 17 years and six months. In India of old, a woman of 25 would be considered pretty much abandoned

on the shelf. And in rural India, Brookyn would have been betrothed at 11 to a girl of probably eight or nine from the next village. So it is a good thing that society is moving on and the old cus toms are being abandoned. Brooklyn does not have a job as such, but the boy can tweet: “Two weeks ago I asked my soulmate to marry me and she said yes xx I am the luckiest man in the world. I promise to be the best hus band and the best daddy one day. I love you baby xx.” And Nicola replied reassuringly: “You’ve made me the luckiest girl in the

world. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life by your side. your love is the most precious gift. I love you so so much baby.” The couple are favourites to win the Priyanka Chopra-Nick Jonas PDA prize. On her 38th birthday last Saturday (18), Priyanka’s husband, who is nine years her junior, wrote on Instagram: “I could stare into your eyes forever. I love you baby. You are the most thoughtful, caring and wonderful person I have ev er met. I am so grateful we found one another. Happy birthday beautiful.” Like Brooklyn, Priyanka’s preoccupa

recognised as one of the best script writers in the business. Seth continued: “Should Ang Lee not have directed Sense and Sensibility because he’s culturally Chi nese? Should Andrew Davies not have adapted War and Peace be cause he isn’t Russian? “There’s only one criterion: are you good at something or not? Col our, gender, sexuality, religion, age and how many whorls there are in the fingerprint of your left thumb should have nothing to do with it.” Seth, who was either involved in choosing Davies or blessed his se lection, added: “After seeing War and Peace and Les Miserables (nei ther of them particularly English), it was obvious to me that Andrew has a huge gift for bringing the essence of an expansive book into believa ble, filmable human vignettes – and for connecting these into an organ ic and compelling whole. “Of course Andrew is not Indian,” Seth concedes. “But whenever so mething in the script did not quite

WAR OF WORDS: Mira Nair (left) and Vikram Seth; and (below right) Andrew Davies

A SUBCONTINENTAL expression which amuses me is “a befitting reply”, which Pakistani and Indian politicians and generals deploy every time the two countries have any kind of conflict. Now, Vikram Seth has given a ‘befitting reply’ to the suggestion that Andrew Davies should have been disqualified from adapting his novel, A Suitable Boy, for BBC TV on the grounds that he is white. The task should, instead, have been given to an Asian scriptwriter, according to Nikesh Shukla – au thor of The Good Immigrant – and some others. Shukla said: “With such a lack of shows about south Asian lives on television, it’s such a slap in the face that a mainstream show was written by a white guy. I am not interested in Vikram Seth and Andrew Davies and who chose who… I am only in terested in what opportunities there are for brown screenwriters.” He also tweeted: “If brown writ ers aren’t approached to write sto ries that aren’t specifically about being ‘brown’ (ie, in the default world of whiteness) and they aren’t approached to write stories about brown people, what opportunities are there? Where do you go? What do you do?” Seth has now hit back by saying that race “should have nothing to do with it”. To a great extent, I agree with him, though what Shukla says is also not without merit. Perhaps he should have actually named some suitable scriptwriters, assum ing they exist. The author of one of the longest novels in the English language countered with a very pertinent question: “Should I, as an Indian, not have written An Equal Music because it’s set in an English string quartet? Or The Golden Gate beca use it’s set in California and doesn’t have any Indian characters?” It should, of course, be pointed out that Seth has had a privileged western education, first at Doon, then at Tonbridge and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and finally at Stanford University in the US. Davies, who attended Whitch urch Grammar School in Cardiff and University College London, is

tion seems mostly with social media. Of her former best friend, Meghan Markle, we hear nothing. Probably, Meghan has moved on.

n Views in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper

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Former top Asian civil servant’s ‘worry’ at turmoil in the service EXCLUSIVE

by BARNIE CHOUDHURY

HE REMAINS the only south Asian civil servant to have reached the top tier of the government in the UK. Sir Suma Chakrabarti left the govern ment in 2012 as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The only other post more senior is the head of the civil service, who automatically becomes the cabinet secretary, working alongside the prime minister. Eastern Eye has learned that two prime ministers, as well as several former and current civil servants urged Sir Suma to apply for the top job. “Suma was approached by the outgo ing head, Sir Mark Sedwill, a number of current permanent secretaries as well as (Tony) Blair and (David) Cameron, urg ing him to throw his hat in the ring,” said a reliable source. “If you look at his CV, he’s an obvious person to go for this job.” The deadline to apply to run the UK’s administrative arm passed last Friday (17). Although it will be the prime minis ter who decides who will be appointed, the Civil Service Commission has this week been drawing up the shortlist. When he spoke exclusively to Eastern Eye, Sir Suma would not be drawn on whether he had been approached or whether he would apply. “I’m 61 now and having run two depart ments already, having run a multinatio nal institution, the question for me is re ally whether my life is better now in terms of my contribution to actually not go and run another organisation,” he said. “Is it better for me to advise the civil service or advise government on civil service matters here, and in other emerg ing markets? Maybe that’s the best place for me to be rather than to head another organisation again.” Sir Suma joined the Overseas Develop ment Administration (ODA), which be came the Department for International Development (DfID), in 1984 as a senior economic assistant. In 2002, at the age of 42, he became its, and the government’s, youngest permanent secretary since the Second World War. Although his rise was meteoric, it was not universally welcomed, and Sir Suma faced subtle forms of racism.

“Throughout my career, in some other departments, I think there have been some people wondering whether I’m be ing promoted simply because I’m an eth nic minority,” he recalled. “Why has this boy made such a rapid rise? Is it because the government, the top of the civil service, need to show that they’ve got one or two brown civil serv ants who are making it quickly? Is this really proof of any talent that he has, or is this actually tokenism? “I think I’ve had quite a bit of that going on. People wouldn’t say directly to your face, but I know that has been discussed from time to time.” Today’s civil service is still short of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) representation at the highest levels. The latest figures, published in November 2019, showed that only eight per cent at the senior civil service level – the very top grade – were non-white. Just over four per cent are Asian, and of the 40 permanent secretaries, none is BAME. During his time at the civil service, Sir Suma mentored colleagues, including Sharon White, and he was responsible for bringing in Minouche Shafik from the World Bank. Dame Minouche took over as permanent secretary of DfID after Sir Suma, while White became the first black person to be appointed as a second per manent secretary. “What’s worrying, I think right now, is that you can talk about me, you can talk about Minouche, you can talk about Sha ron, but all three of us have left. There isn’t another permanent secretary at the moment from an ethnic minority,” said Sir Suma. “There are more senior civil servants now in that cadre below the level of permanent secretary who are from an ethnic minority, more than when I was there, but it would be nice to see some of them coming through into the top leader ship positions.” The lack of progress does worry him, he said. “Part of being a leader is to create a structure; not a revolving door, but an assembly line of people who can come through these positions. Maybe the three of us who did that, the originals if you like, we didn’t quite succeed in making that assembly line really function well.” Sir Suma is also concerned about the current reforms and problems in the civil service. Sir Mark is thought to have re signed after negative press briefings and falling out with Number 10, while former permanent secretary, Sir Philip Rutnam,

SIR SUMA CHAKRABARTI LOOKS BACK AT HIS CAREER

LEADING THE WAY: Sir Suma Chakrabarti who resigned in February, is suing the Home Office for unfair dismissal. He said he was a victim of a “vicious and orches trated” campaign against him in the de partment, which home secretary Priti Patel has denied. The permanent secretary at the For eign Office, Sir Simon McDonald, leaves in September after its merger with DfID. And Sir Richard Heaton, the permanent secretary at the MoJ, which Sir Suma once headed, will go in the summer. “The civil service does need to contin ue reforming. Fundamentally, the ques tion I’d ask is, is the civil service doing enough, being allowed to do enough, to

actually reform? The second area is the division between political responsibilities and civil servant responsibilities. I’m a strong believer in the British political neutrality approach of the civil service. “I don’t know why they’re leaving, I’m not privy to the exact reasons for each of them, but it is concerning that so many are leaving at the same time. I hope the subs bench is good, it’s not great when you lose four players in one go.” Sir Suma would not reveal whether he had been approached to apply or would go for the top civil service post. But one source said, “The advantage is that Suma is a clean skin in so many ways. He’s also

a change agent and he’s not going to watch them sort of politicise the service and not speak out. He would be perfect.” Eastern Eye asked for comments from Blair’s and Cameron’s offices, but they did not respond. A former cabinet secretary under Blair, and for a short time with Cameron, Lord Gus O’Donnell said, “I will not comment on any conversations I had with Suma, but it is certainly true that I hold him in the highest regard.” As Eastern Eye went to press on Tues day (21), the paper understands that Sir Suma has decided not to apply for the cabinet secretary’s position.

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THE statue of Robert Clive will remain on its plinth in Shrewsbury town centre after Shropshire councillors voted to take no action over calls for its removal, writes Keri Trigg. More than 23,000 people signed two petitions asking for Clive to be replaced, arguing that he was not a figure deserving of such commemoration. But Shropshire councillors rejected the idea at a meeting last Thursday (16), in a move that has been described as “tone deaf” by campaigners. A debate on the statue’s future ended with 28 councillors voting for a proposal by deputy leader councillor Steve Charmley for “no further action”. There were 17 votes against one abstention. Councillor Julian Dean said he had only recently become aware of the background of Robert Clive, known as Clive of India,

and his role in the East India Company which established British colonial control of India and large parts of southeast Asia through looting, theft and crippling taxes. Dean said: “Now that this is understood by those of us with responsibility, to suggest that the statue should stay is effectively saying that we are comfortable celebrating this man’s life as a corrupt mercenary. “It’s saying we are not bothered by the offence it causes and people should just grin and bear it.” He said in other aspects of society it was accepted that “an injury to one is an injury to all”. He added: “On that basis, I don’t think there is any way we can justify continuing to have that statue here.” Council leader Peter Nutting said the statue should remain but that more work should be done on educating people about Clive’s

life so that they could make up their own minds. He suggested an information board be put up either next to the statue or in Shrewsbury Museum, adding that there was also a statue of Clive in Kolkata that the Indian people were “proud of” and did not want to be removed. Charmley said the removal of the statue would not be straight forward due to its Grade II listing. A rival petition in support of the statue was signed by 9,000 people but was not submitted to the council in time to be debated. Following the vote, David Parton, who started one of the two petitions for the statue’s removal, said: “We are disappointed by Shropshire Council’s tone-deaf decision to retain the statue of the mass-murderer Robert Clive in The Square, Shrewsbury. “It is vital we learn from our past, but we should not have to live in it. Despite more than

Shropshire Council’s ‘tone-deaf’ move on Clive statue criticised

STATUS QUO: Robert Clive’s statue in Shrewsbury town centre 20,000 people calling for this statue to be moved to a museum, council members chose to ignore the concerns of minority communities and revel in Clive’s murderous legacy. “This vote was just the start of the movement to remove Clive’s statue. Like with [Edward] Col

ston and [Cecil] Rho des, Clive will fall. Today’s decision has simply delayed the inevitable.” A motion was also tabled at the meeting by Councillor Nat Green, calling for a referendum to let the people of Shropshire decide the fate of the statue. Councillor Andy Boddington,

presenting the motion on Green’s behalf, said Shropshire Council was “not representative of the broader community” on the matter. The motion failed to gain the necessary support, with 10 votes for and 34 against, with two abstentions. (Local Democracy Reporting Service)

Pandemic fitness idea ‘worked out’

BHANGRACISE FOUNDER AWARDED POINTS OF LIGHT FOR KEEPING PEOPLE’S BODIES AND MINDS HEALTHY by S NEERAJ KRISHNA

BHANGRA in the time of coronavirus? Manchester-based journalist Rajeev Gupta has seen scepticism make way for optimism as his online “bhangra-plusexercise” training sessions recently won him the Points of Light award for “lifting the bodies and souls of thousands”. When the UK government announced a lockdown in March, Gupta’s regular ‘bhangracise’ classes – which was attended by about 40 to 50 people in Manchester – took a hit, but several participants suggested the online route. “I was hesitant, as I am not very techsavvy,” said Gupta, who has been teaching bhangracise for 15 years. “However, I gave it a shot, and was overwhelmed with the response.” The BBC producer said he discovered that virtual bhangra was a great way to bring people from diverse backgrounds together, while helping them boost their physical and mental well-being. Gupta explained he was driven by the belief that bhangra – “a peppy dance that gets the endorphins going like no other” – could uplift the mood of people while helping them stay fit. Last week, that concept received validation from prime minister Boris Johnson, who said he was “delighted” to recog nise Gupta as “a Point of Light for so many during this difficult time”. “Over the last few months, your online bhangra classes have brought a surge of energy to participants across the country and beyond, lifting the bodies and souls of thousands who have been staying at home during our battle against coronavirus,” he noted in a personal letter. Earlier, Gup-

ta’s “bhangra in the living room” initiative saw him being named as a “Local Hero” by the Co-Op. His virtual bhangracise sessions, however, did not remain ‘local’. They went global, with over 100,000 viewers across the globe, including people from India, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UAE. “I realised I can reach so many more people across the world through the online space,” said Gupta, whose bhangra classes have students aged between four and 70. “The lockdown facilitated a mindset shift where, out of necessity, people were more willing to connect via the online medium. It means that, as opposed to 40-50 local people in my area, I could reach an unlimited number of people across the world.” There were even families and friends from various cities coming together on video-conferencing platforms by streaming the videos live, he added. Sessions were offered free, as Gupta believed they “were serving a social good”. However, he said he received “huge payments” in the form of “appreciation from people telling me how it was helping them mentally and physically”. “It’s a very positive energy… and the excitement and uplifting music leave people feeling really high and wanting more,” said the father of two. “I have had amazing messages, espe cially people telling me that it’s really helped with

FIT FOR PURPOSE: Rajeev Gupta; and (inset below, left) with a member of his bhangracise team their mental health. One lady said her daughter was really struggling in life, and joining the sessions together had brought them closer and really helped her daughter’s state of mind.” Gupta stressed that bhangracise was an “excellent full-body workout” that helped to “improve cardio health, fitness levels, fat-burning and muscle strengthening”. Moreover, similar to yoga, bhangra “brings together people from various backgrounds, and leads to positive interactions”, he said. “I always try give people an understanding of

where things come from, what they mean, and that just helps build understanding and awareness,” explained Gupta, whose job as a journalist sees him cover topics such as diversity and culture. “For instance, bhangra doesn’t really have martial roots, as many believe. It was dance of joy that farmers indulged in during harvest seasons, or at the end of a hard day’s work. “For sure, that is encapsulated in its spirit. The music, the expressions and movement are all very upbeat and highspirited... that’s what makes it special.” Thanks to his Punjabi roots, Gupta had a natural inclination towards bhangra right from his childhood, he said. “My mum kept encouraging me and my brother to get involved with Indian culture,” he recalled. “So, by the age of about five, I started dancing bhangra. “Growing older, I began to learn it seriously, and started performing with a team in Reading in my teens.”

Gupta went on to launch the Aston Bhangra Society at Birmingham University, and was teaching there before he moved to Manchester, where he taught at the Manchester Bhangra Society and eventually launched bhangracise. Now, with many parts of the world lifting their Covid-19 lockdowns, Gupta said that “people will probably go back to their usual ways” and the popularity of virtual classes might fall. “But I do think there is still an opportunity to carry on at least one online class a week,” he added. “I’m always trying to promote bhangracise as much as possible because it can help lots of people, and I hope it gets a bigger platform. “Take India, for instance. It’s an ideal place for bhangracise to explode, considering the large population of young and vibrant people.” n Gupta’s ftiness sessions are available at www.bhangracise.co.uk and www.the bhangrateam.com.

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Kingsbury temple leader mourned PURUSHOTTAMPRIYADASJI SWAMISHREE MAHARAJ MET JOHNSON AND KHAN INDIA’S prime minister has led tributes to a prominent Indian spiritual leader who passed away last week. Acharya Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj, the leader of the Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan, died last Thursday (16); he was 78. He was the founder of what was described as the world’s first ecotemple in northwest London and was revered by thousands of disciples across the world. India’s prime minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter: “We will always remember Acharya Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj for his noble service to society. He worked hard to alleviate human suffering and further compassion. He will be remembered by countless people, not only in India but globally. “I will never forget my many in teractions with him. Om Shanti.” In 2014, then London mayor Boris Johnson met Acharya Swamishree Maharaj during the opening of Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, Kingsbury, in northwest London. Johnson praised Acharya Swamishree Maharaj for his efforts and said, “London is the world’s most diverse city and what better example of that diversity

than what we see here today – a traditional, magnificent Mandir on one side of the courtyard and a modern sports and community centre on the other.” Current London mayor, Sadiq Khan, too, had visited Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kingsbury before he took office, and again soon after. Born in May 1942 in the small village of Bharasar in Kutch, Gujarat, Acharya Swamishree Maharaj took up an ascetic life in 1962. He then became a personal aide to then spiritual leader Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa and in February 1979, was appointed his heir and successor. Acharya Swamishree Maharaj presided over 200 spiritual and

cultural organisations around the world, including in the UK, North America, Africa, Australia, UAE and India.He visited rural areas, towns, cities and countries to promote the values of spirituality, morality, simple living and helping underprivileged people. He was regarded as the “ultimate humanitarian” for his charitable endeavours and campaigns to promote equality, social mobility, sustainability and peace. Acharya Swamishree Maharaj was bestowed with an honorary tit le, ‘World Peace Ambassador,’ in 2018 by 120 of the world’s leading peace workers from over 30 nations. Dr Mahesh Varsani, trustee of the UK arm of the organisation,

DIVINE LIFE: Acharya Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj with Boris Johnson; and (left) with Narendra Modi said, “Acharya Swamishree Maharaj was revered for upholding the Lord’s values and spreading them so tirelessly around the world and as the ultimate humanitarian for his relentless campaigning and selfless societal endeavours. “His legacy is that he imbued these values in his own disciples, as well as the wider communities

he touched. For the community here at Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kingsbury, and for the wider Shree Swaminarayan Gadi family, he was simply known as Bapa – father. “Despite his majestic qualities and global status, he had the time, energy and love to be a father for his each and every child. It is that

which we will miss most sorely.” An 11-day period of remembrance and devotion will be observed in his honour. n Visit www.SwaminarayanGadi. com for more information about Acharya Swamishree Maharaj, Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan, and their commemorative events

LAST CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Enter now at www.actas.co.uk Nominations will close next Friday 31 st July 2020. Entries received thereafter may not be considered.

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A MAN has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a member of hospital staff “several” times last Sunday (19). Joseph George, 56, was reportedly knifed on the 11th floor gynaecology ward of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton by suspect Connolly Mellon. Mellon, 30, appeared at Bright-

on Magistrates Court on Monday (20) in connection with the attack. The defendant entered no plea to the attempted murder charge and a second charge of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. According to witnesses, George was grabbed by the knifeman and was told to open a cabinet containing medicine. When George,

a member of the hospital’s catering team, was unable to open the cabinet, he was stabbed. The suspect subsequently fled the scene. Sussex police have confirmed the injuries are not life-threatening and he was discharged from the Royal Sussex hospital on Sunday evening. In court, prosecutor Martina Sherlock said Joseph had suffered

five stab wounds, causing injuries to his arm, lip, throat and torso. Chairwoman of the magistrates Patricia Brockman remanded Mellon in custody to appear at Lewes Crown Court on August 17. She told the defendant: “These matters will now go to the Crown Court at Lewes on 17th August. Until then you will be remanded in custody.”

Man charged with attempted murder of hospital worker VICTIM: Joseph George with wife Beena

Patel vows action on Windrush

WARY: Blackburn residents are seen wearing protective face masks last Thursday (16)

Asians most hit as infections rise in Blackburn VYMAN S

WITH CASES DOUBLING IN A WEEK, COUNCILLORS APPEAL AGAINST STIGMATISING THE COMMUNITY BLACKBURN has overtaken Leicester in becoming the UK’s coronavirus hotspot as cases doubled in just one week, it was revealed on Monday (20), as officials warned the Asian community are most affected. According to Public Health England data, the borough of Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire has a rate of 79.2 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 in the seven days to July 17. New measures have been introduced after the spike after officials warned of a “rising tide” of infections, affecting mainly the town’s large Asian community. According to reports, in the two weeks up to July 11, residents from south Asian communities accounted for 85 per cent of 114 new cases. Blackburn with Darwen borough has an Asian population of about 28 per cent. However, some Blackburn co uncillors have warned that Asian communities should not be stigmatised by coronavirus flare-ups. “It should be a concern to anybody if any community is stigmatised and we know the facts are there, we are open about those facts,” local councillor Saima Afzal said. Councillor Mohammed Khan, leader of the council, also claimed he had received “nasty emails” blaming the community for the

rise in cases. “People are sending me nasty emails saying things like ‘what the hell is going on in the Asian community’,” Khan said. “But the reality is the Asian community has shouldered the community’s burdens for the last four months. Delivering food to hospitals, going door to door asking if people need shopping. They have done a wonderful job.” Strict measures have been introduced after the spike, including rules on wearing face coverings in enclosed public spaces and tighter limits on visitors from another household. Meanwhile, local lockdown restrictions have been lifted in some parts of Leicestershire, with areas outside of Leicester City and the borough of Oadby and Wigston returning to national norms from last Saturday (18). Following an expert review, authorities said restrictions will have to continue till July 24 only in Leicester city, and Oadby and Wigston, where “prevalence of the virus is higher”. As part of the easing, non-essential shops, bars, restaurants and hairdressers can reopen in Leicester – except the protected areas – from Saturday. In the excluded zones, they will remain closed until a review on August 1. Schools and childcare facilities

in the Leicester area will also reopen in line with national restrictions. However, in the excluded zones, they will have to wait till July 24. The health department added that shielding advice will remain in place for the entire area of Leicester, including where restrictions had been eased. It noted that the seven-day infection rate per 100,000 people and percentage of people testing positive for the virus had dropped in the region, but remained above the national average. Health secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged the local lockdown had been “difficult” for those living in and around Leicester. “While we are not yet in a position to lift all the restrictions in place, we are now able to take cautious steps to allow areas outside of Leicester City and the Borough of Oadby and Wigston to fall in step with national guidelines,” he said. He acknowledged that the situation would be “frustrating” for people in areas that still remained under lockdown. “I am determined to be straight with you all – we will ease restrictions as soon as the data shows that it is safe to do so,” he said, thanking the people of Leicester for “taking this pandemic seriously” and the “huge local effort to keep the virus at bay”.

THE home secretary has announced a number of actions to implement recommendations put forward by the Windrush Lessons Learned review, it was announced on Tuesday (21). The review was announced following the 2018 Windrush scandal, in which a number of people were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, and, in at least 83 cases, wrongly deported from the UK. Following its findings, Priti Patel has said staff at the ministerial office will have comprehensive training to ensure they understand the history of migration and race in this country. Every existing and new member of staff working for the Home Office will be required to undertake this learning, it was confirmed. “I want the Windrush generation to have no doubt that I will reform the culture of the department so it better represents all of the communities we serve,” Patel said.

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Will Your Company Cope With Recession? We are facing possibly the greatest recession in economic history caused by the lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. If you are a director of an insolvent company, and fail to act appropriately, you could face legal action and personal liability. What business issues are you likely to face? a Contract Risk – strained commercial relationships. a Employment Issues – redundancies, workplace disputes or tribunal cases. a Litigation - parties will argue about where the risk of losses should lie. a Landlord and Tenant Issues - who should bear the rental loss. a Debt Recovery Action - winding up or legal proceedings by or against you. a Regulatory & Compliance Risk – breach of corporate governance and regulatory requirements. a Insolvent Counterparties - customers, suppliers, or sub-contractors.

KPIs or key performance indicators It is impossible to make confident, strategic business decisions, without KPIs e.g. cashflow forecasts, weekly budgets and projections, and sales and expenditure forecasts. What are the warning signs of impending insolvency? 1. Decreased sales or revenue. 2. Suppliers or customers having difficulty in supplying or paying you. 3. Increased costs e.g. supplies, staff wages, materials. 4. Difficulty in securing loans, finance, or other facilities. 5. You are unable to meet your liabilities e.g. rent, staff wages, tax, suppliers. 6. Important customers or suppliers becoming insolvent. If you suspect your company is insolvent To avoid potential personal liability, you should take appropriate steps to avoid increasing loss to creditors. If you act quickly, you may be able to save your business or at least avoid personal liability. How we can help

What is Insolvency? In brief terms, a company is insolvent if its liabilities exceed its assets (balance sheet test) or it is unable to pay its debts as they fall due (cash flow test).

At Vyman, we are experienced in insolvency law and commercial law. If you have any concerns about your company’s financial position, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are currently offering FREE initial consultations.

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BUSINESS NEWS THAT MATTERS

Every week, gives you the latest news, whether it’s about a country or a company. This is the place to find out what’s happening with Asian-run businesses in the UK, developments in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Send your press releases and pictures to editor@easterneye.biz

Port Talbot furnaces could go green as Tata Steel seeks bailout cash TATA STEEL is mulling plans to close its two blast furnaces at its Port Talbot steel works in Wales (left) and replace them with electric arc furnaces as part of plans to access millions of pounds via a UK government coronavirus bailout fund, according to a media report. The Indian steel giant and its sister company, the Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), are trying to obtain state support via the Project Birch fund, set up to help “strategically important”

companies hit by the Covid-19 pandem ic, The Sunday Times (19) said. Ministers have placed stringent condi tions on Project Birch cash, including demanding that it helps achieve its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and that jobs are not lost. Under the proposal, which is reportedly being studied by the UK government’s business department, the state would in vest alongside Tata, with the conversion of the furnaces starting in 2025.

However, workers’ unions are con cerned that the switch could lead to mass unemployment at the site, especially if Port Talbot’s two blast furnaces are not kept open while their electric arc re placements – which require fewer work ers and produce far lower carbon emis sions – are built. The vast Port Talbot steelworks, which employs about 3,500 people, is one of two in Britain capable of turning iron ore and coal into molten iron and steel.

The steelworkers’ union Community told the newspaper: “We are seeking ur gent clarification from Tata – but rest as sured, the unions will not accept the end of blast furnace steel production at Port Talbot, which would leave the UK unable to make a range of specialist steels.” Tata Steel said it remains in “active discussions” with the government on several options for the future of Port Tal bot operations to create a sustainable, decarbonised footprint for the future.

‘License factories to end abuse’ The letter said the proposed li cencing scheme would protect workers from forced labour and mistreatment, ensure payment of taxes and create a level playing field for businesses to compete fairly by preventing rogue manu facturers undercutting prices. It would also encourage retailers to source their clothing from the UK, thus supporting the industry. Retailer signatories include Wal mart-owned Asda, ASOS, M&S, Morrisons, N Brown, Joules, New Look, River Island and Matalan. Online fashion retailer Boohoo was not a signatory. It wrote its own letter to Patel last Friday (17) backing a licensing scheme. “We fully support the proposals of the BRC and others on the need to implement statutory licensing of garment factory owners and man agers,” said a Boohoo spokesman. Investor signatories include Al lianz Global Investors, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Fidel ity International, Jupiter Asset Management and Schroders In vestment Management. Britain’s minimum wage is £8.72 for people over 25 and £8.20 for 21 to 24 year-olds. (Reuters)

INDUSTRY EXPERTS CALL FOR URGENT ACTION TO PREVENT EXPLOITATION OF GARMENT WORKERS

A GROUP of 50 British politicians, retailers such as Marks & Spencer and New Look, and investors and NGOs called on Monday (20) for urgent action to prevent the exploitation of garment factory workers in the UK. Their letter, coordinated by in dustry lobby group the British Re tail Consortium (BRC) and addres sed to home secretary Priti Patel, asked for the introduction of stat utory licensing of garment facto ries to ensure they all meet their legal obligations to employees. The move followed recent me dia reports of workers being paid below the minimum wage, not being supplied with personal pro tection equipment (PPE) and working in unsafe conditions. The BRC said it and its mem bers have been calling for greater enforcement by the authorities to support retailers seeking to en sure fair treatment of workers and to enourage businesses to invest in UK fashion manufacturing. “Recent reports in the media demonstrate the urgent need for action before more workers are taken advantage of,” said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.

STITCH IN TIME: Recent media reports have highlighted the need to safeguard workers in Britain’s fashion and garment industry

Community development only way to stop misconduct in textile sector, say activists

A GOVERNMENT taskforce and proposed factory licensing scheme are unlikely to prevent labour abuses in Britain’s garment industry without the involvement of trade unions and community groups to help workers, advocates in the city of Leicester said. The textile sector in Leicester has been in the spotlight this month after media reports that suppliers to fashion brands were paying workers as little as £3 an hour – less than half the minimum wage. Home secretary Priti Patel last week said a cross-government taskforce “will be on the ground” soon in Leicester. However, local campaigners and community organisers said such a topdown approach will do little to reassure workers or address their inability to join trade unions, demand better conditions, or report abuses without fear of being fired or deported. “We need a community development approach, to work door-to-door

... for people to be able to organise, get support within the community and have a decent standard of living,” said Mark Mizzen of the Leicester Unemployed Workers Centre charity. Yet organising is difficult as employers do not have to allow access to unions and most suppliers in the city have a small number of workers on a casual basis, activists said. Industry experts say labour exploitation in Leicester – home to about 1,500 textile factories and 10,000 garment workers – has long gone unaddressed despite various exposes in recent years and a parliamentary probe into the matter in 2019. Garment workers in the city, many of whom come from south Asia, are unlikely to speak out, often because they lack the right to work or live in Britain or cannot afford to lose their jobs no matter how low-paid or exploitative, campaigners said. “More and more garment workers

are falling into in-work poverty,” Mizzen, whose group provides workers in Leicester with advice about state welfare, explained. Charities said the criminalisation of undocumented migrant workers be repealed and called for the reporting of workplace exploitation to be kept separate from immigration enforcement, as well as a local helpline dedicated for workers in Leicester. Britain’s anti-slavery tsar Sara Thornton said this month that whistleblowers needed “security and support” to speak out. Unions and activists have also called for laws requiring retailers to publish details of their suppliers and audits and making them responsible for any abuses in their supply chains. Leicester community groups met several retailers in October 2019 to discuss a plan to hire two local representatives to contact garment workers and run support services, minutes of a

COMPLEX ISSUE: Leicester is home to about 1,500 garment factories and around 10,000 workers meeting seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed. Despite getting the green light from brands for the project, the promised funding never materialised, local organisers said. Nigel Venes of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a group of unions, firms and charities that was present at

the meeting, said several brands were committed to raising standards in Leicester but warned that a more holistic approach was needed. Meanwhile, authorities this month said that they had found no evidence of modern slavery in initial visits to factories in Leicester. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

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Borrowing of £128bn is UK record

CHANCELLOR SUNAK PLEDGES FINANCES WILL BE SUSTAINABLE

BRITISH government borrowing surged to a record £128 billion in the first three months of the 2020-21 financial year, when Covid-19 lockdown measures were tightest, more than double the entire previous year’s borrowing. Borrowing in June, excluding state-owned banks, was £35.5bn, the Office for National Statistics said. April, May and June made up the three highest months of borrowing in Britain’s history, even though spending on job support was lower than first estimated, and tax revenues higher, the ONS added. Following the figures, chancellor Rishi Sunak restated his intention to put the public finances on a more sustainable footing over the medium term. He also launched a muchdelayed long-term review in-

HIGH DEBT: Rishi Sunak

Medina Dairy jobs may go MILK processor Medina Dairy has announced a price increase and a planned closure of its Watson’s Dairy site in Hampshire after its operations were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The company’s milk prices will jump by 1p per litre and buyers will pay 25.75p per litre from September 1. This marks the third consecutive price rise since June, but the company said prices will return to pre-coronavirus levels in the future. The pandemic lockdown and closure of the hospitality sector across the UK resulted in a decision to shut the Watson’s Dairy site, leaving 144 jobs at risk. Medina Dairy said the move is part of a streamline and said sales in April were “almost zero”. It hoped to “create a more sustainable and

appropriately scaled business” it said. “It is with much regret that we have announced our proposal to cease operations at our Watson’s Dairy site. The proposal follows a review of our business, which concluded that by simplifying and consolidating our processing activity we will be able to create a more sustainable and appropriately scaled business,” said Sheazad Hussain, chief executive of Medina Dairy. “This in turn will enable us to continue to deliver a high level of service to existing customers and provide a platform from which we can respond to future market opportunities.” However, the closure would not affect any of its 156 farmer suppliers and customers as production at Watson’s will be transferred to other sites.

to government spending. “It’s clear that coronavirus has had a significant impact on our public finances, but we know without our response things would have been far worse,” he said. “The best approach to ensure our public finances are sustainable in the medium-term is to minimise the economic scarring caused by the pandemic. “I am also clear that, over the medium-term, we must, and we will, put our public finances back on a sustainable footing,” the chancellor said. Last week, Sunak set out up to £30bn of new measures, partly to encourage businesses to take workers back when he ends a furlough scheme supporting more than nine million jobs in October. Public sector debt, excluding state-owned banks, stayed a fraction below the milestone of 100 per cent of

gross domestic product it appeared to pass in May, after an upward revision to GDP, and now stands at £1.984 trillion or 99.6 per cent of GDP. This is still the highest debt burden since the 1960s, the statistics office said. The government has announced extra spending and tax cuts worth around £192bn for this financial year, and last week its Office for Budget Responsibility estimated borrowing would hit £322bn or just over 16 per cent of GDP. This figure is based on a scenario where the economy shrinks by 12.4 per cent over 2020, and the unemployment rate rises to its highest since 1984 at 11.9 per cent by the end of this year. The OBR said borrowing was running 15 per cent below this scenario – though it noted the official figures were likely to be revised. (Agencies)

Indian couple buys Rutland hotel ASIAN entrepreneurs Dineshbhai and Savitaben Patel have bought Barnsdale Hall Hotel (above) in Rutland from Derek Penman, chairman of the UK’s prominent Penman Group. The property was on the market with Frank Knight with a guide price of £10 million. “We fell in love with it the moment we saw it, and are incredibly excited to have the opportunity to take it to the next stage of its development and journey,” said the couple. They co-founded Cofresh foods in 1974. The lakeside resort was built in 1890 as the family hunting lodge of the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam, where he hosted royalty, including Edward, the late Duke of Windsor, among other members of England’s aristocracy. Under the Penman Group, the hotel was refurbished to become a 55-acre lakeside resort. It has 66 guest bedrooms, 49 timeshare lodges and apartments, 11 events suites, four bars and restaurants, a swimming pool, squash and tennis courts, air-conditioned studio, gym and spa. “Dineshbhai and Savitaben Patel and their family have acquired a truly exceptional lakeside resort, offering unparalleled views over Rutland Water,” said Matthew Smith, partner at Knight Frank. Recently, the family sold their snacks business to Vibrant Foods. The couple’s son Priyesh Patel is the second generation of his family to Cofresh, which is currently investing £20m in a new factory in Nuneaton.

East End Food’s Wouhra joins Aston University governing body

ROLE MODEL: Jason Wouhra

ENTREPRENEUR Jason Wouhra OBE has been appointed to the governing body of Aston University. “I look forward to working closely with Jason. I do not doubt that his counsel, advice and guidance will make an important contribution to the University’s future success, in particular about our strong links to business in the region and support our focus on highly employable graduates,” said Professor Alec Cameron, vice-chancellor of Aston University. Wouhra was presented an honorary doctorate for his contribution to entrepreneurship and business development by Aston University in 2014. He was also awarded an OBE in 2017 for services to business and international trade. Wouhra joined the family firm of East End Foods after completing his law degree in 1998. He was director and company secretary of East End Foods until its sale to Private Equity in 2019. Wouhra recently established Lioncroft Wholesale Limited and re-purchased East End Foods’ wholesale division. He holds a degree and masters in

commercial law, is an Institute of Directors (IoD) chartered director and became the youngest and first BAME chairman of the IoD in the West Midlands in 2013. He was also non-executive director of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust and also held past and present chairmanships of the West Midlands India Partnership. Other positions include being on the Library of Birmingham advisory board, on the Birmingham child poverty commission, Aston University development board and vice-chair of the Black Country LEP. Wouhra has been a patron of Acorns Children’s Hospice charity since 2018. Dame Yve Buckland, pro-chancellor and chair of the council, Aston University, said, “Jason will be a great role model for Aston University students in the light of his Brummie background and business career.” Wouhra said, “I look forward to helping the university achieve its vision of having an international reputation for delivery of outstanding graduate outcomes.”

Business

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

Hinduja renames bank THE newly appointed CEO of Hinduja Bank, Karam Hinduja, has renamed the Genevabased institution as SP Hinduja Banque Privée. The name change was approved by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority last Thursday (16). Hinduja was appointed as the CEO of the bank on June 15. Since then, the bank has expanded its private banking services by launching divisions that include private capital and strategic growth advisory, as well as asset management and investment advisory offerings that include fintech, clean energy and healthcare strategies. “I want SP Hinduja Banque Privée not just to become a better bank, but to redefine what private banking stands for,” said Hinduja, who holds a degree from Columbia University. “In doing so, we will uphold the values of our founder, my grandfather SP Hinduja. Those values have informed our mission, to catalyse

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Paul Theatre at MIT

PEER GIVES FUNDS TO US ALMA MATER IN DAUGHTER AMBIKA’S MEMORY VALUES: Karam Hinduja sustainable, global economic and social development while generating long-term value for our clients, through our multigenerational experience and reach. Hinduja is also the founder of Timeless Media and its subsidiary Karma, a media platform aimed at developing and distributing content for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) as well as impactdriven investors and entrepreneurs. Founded by SP Hinduja in 1978, the bank has offices in Geneva, Zurich, and Lugano – as well as a presence in Dubai, London and India. It offers private banking and global investment services.

LEARNING LESSONS: Lord Swraj Paul; and (right) a music performance at the MIT auditorium

BRITISH INDIAN industrialist Lord Swraj Paul has donated $5 million (£3.94m) through his family’s Ambika Paul Foundation to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Kresge Auditorium, a landmark that serves as a venue for community and cultural activities at the university. As a young student, Lord Paul studied mechanical engineering at MIT before he founded the Caparo Group, which has interests in steel products, among others. His sons, Akash Paul and the late Angad Paul, also studied at MIT in the 1970s and 80s. “I first came to MIT from India in 1949 at a time when there were very few Indian students in the US, and the experience changed my life,” said Lord Paul. “Because of my time at MIT, I decided to expand my Caparo companies into the US. For more than 30 years, we have made significant investments across the country in our Bull Moose Tube and XL Trailers businesses,” he added.

The hall in the MIT auditorium will be named as the Lord Swraj Paul PC ’52 and Angad Paul ’92 Theatre. It will more generally be known as the Swraj Paul Theatre. Designed by Finnish-Ame rican architect Eero Saarinen, the Kresge auditorium was opened in 1955 and renovated in 2016. It serves as a venue for community activities including MIT events and symposiums, as well as student performances. The Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and New England Philharmonic also perform there. The Ambika Paul Foundation was established in 1978 in memory of Lord Paul’s daughter, Ambika, who died of leukaemia in 1968 aged four. It was for her medical treatment that Lord Paul and his wife first came to Britain in 1966. He went on to set up Caparo, a diversified global group of businesses with interests predominantly in the design, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of valueadded steel and niche engineering products.

The foundation promotes the well-being of children and young people worldwide.

NOMINATIONS ARE STILL OPEN

@GG2Diversity #GG2Awards WWW.GG2LEADERSHIPAWARDS.CO.UK Nominations will close on Friday 21st August 2020 at 6.00pm. Entries received thereafter may not be considered.

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Pakistan warns TikTok over ‘vulgar and harmful’ content PAKISTAN has issued a final warning to Chinese-owned social media app TikTok to clamp down on what it called “immoral, obscene and vulgar” content on the video-sharing platform. TikTok is a global sensation with its 15 to 60-second video clips and is popular among young Pakistanis, with some users building up millions of followers. But the app has faced a backlash in the country, with critics blaming it for spread-

ing nudity and pornography. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced it was blocking another app, Bigo, and had received a number of complaints about TikTok over its “extremely negative effects on the society and the youth in particular”. In a statement late on Monday (20), it said it had already issued notices to the company asking it to moderate content, before issuing a final warning ordering

filters be put in place to stop “obscenity, vulgarity and immorality”. Arslan Khalid, a digital media adviser to prime minister Imran Khan, welcomed the de cision and claimed the “exploitation, objectification and sexualisation of young girls” was causing pain to parents. A TikTok spokesperson said the platform had removed more than 3.7 million videos that violated standards in Pakistan between July 1 and December 31 last

year.“We are committed to further strengthening our safeguards to ensure the safety of our users, while increasing our dialogue with the authorities to explain our policies and demonstrate our dedication to user security”, the TikTok representative said. Pakistan’s telecommunications authority also announced it was blocking the less popular Singapore-based live-streaming app Bigo Live over its content.

India domination deal?

RELIANCE-GOOGLE VENTURE EYES BIG PIE OF SMARTPHONES MARKET A DEAL $4.5 billion (£3.5bn) under which Alphabet’s Google will collaborate with India’s Reliance Industries on a new smartphone likely heralds a big shake-up for the world’s second-largest mobile ma rket, industry executives and analysts say. Reliance boss Mukesh Ambani, announcing the partnership at his company’s annual meeting last week, said Google would build an Android operating system (OS) to power a low-cost “4G or even 5G” smartphone that Reliance would design. The alliance will see Google invest $4.5bn in Reliance’s digital unit, which houses telecoms and fibre businesses, as well as music and movie apps. While Reliance has given no details on the specifications or price of the new smartphone, the timing of its launch, or who might build it, the Jio network’s 387 million subscribers and the Google brand name will give it a big leg up. The Reliance-Google phone would likely be optimised for the Jio network and offer users improved performance, said Arvind Vohra, a tech consultant and the former India head of China’s Gionee. Just as important are the possibilities for bundling Jio’s massive video and music libraries with the phone. Google’s Android team also aims to ensure access to apps related to health, communications and jobs, and ease of use for first time smartphone owners, Sameer Samat, vice president for Android and Play at Google, said. That kind of packaging could help woo some 350 million Indians who still use basic, non-touch phones and are yet to taste highspeed mobile data on fancier devices. “This will help users choose

a device for its software and bundled content rather than just specs alone,” said Vohra. Reliance’s ambition to hand a smartphone to every Indian could also win subscribers from telecoms rivals Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, who still have hundreds of millions of users with

DISRUPTIVE: Nita and Mukesh Ambani; (above) the Jio network has some 387 million subscribers

old-style feature phones on basic 2G networks. Realme declined to comment. Reliance, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo did not respond to requests for comment. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The new phone is set to pose a major challenge to Chinese vendors such as Xiaomi and BBK Electronics, owner of the Realme, Oppo and Vivo brands, which currently dominate a $2bn market for sub-$100 smartphones in India. Powered by a mix of Bollywood, cricket-driven marketing and product features such as powerful cameras, the Chinese firms sell roughly eight of every 10 smartphones in the country. “If history is anything to go by, Reliance will undercut other brands and pose a thre at to the low-end smartphone market,” said Rushabh Doshi of tech researcher Canalys. Reliance executed a similar plan in 2017 with the launch of the JioPhone, a no-frills device that gave users internet access for as little as $20. JioPhone now has more 100 million users, many of whom are internet first-timers. “They (the Chinese players) are likely to cut their price to compete and their margins could shrink,” said A Gururaj, the former India head of contract manufacturers Wistron and Flextronics. “I see the Google-Jio phone as a big hit.” Jio Platforms has also since April won the backing of global investors, including Intel and Qualcomm, which could bolster its ambitions.

Smooth online shopping a challenge for Reliance group BACKED by multi-billion-dollar investments from global tech giants, India’s richest man is ready to rumble with Amazon and Walmart for the country’s huge e-commerce market through his conglomerate Reliance. But it is far from certain that Mukesh Ambani’s latest gamble will pay off in a crowded market where many suppliers are not well-versed in digital business. The mogul has long trumpeted his ambition to revolutionise retail in the country by convincing farmers and shopkeepers to sell goods on his new JioMart platform launched this year. But modernising India’s creaky, inef-

ficient supply chains will not be easy, even for Reliance, the nation’s largest retailer by revenue with a portfolio including supermarkets, electronics stores and fast-fashion outlets. Ambani’s success will depend on India’s mom-and-pop stores and their ability to adapt to the demands of an online business, analysts say. Keeping bargain-hungry consumers satisfied in a fiercely contested market may be even harder for Ambani as he attempts to take on Amazon, BigBasket and Grofers, all of which have established supply and delivery networks in India. The 63-year-old tycoon will likely de-

ploy the same strategy he used to make his Jio mobile service a market leader following its 2016 launch (see above). In recent months, Ambani has raised more than $22 billion (£17bn) in a rights issue and through selling stakes in Reliance to foreign investors. The conglomerate is now net-debtfree and has cash to burn, analysts say. “JioMart will use the money by offering deep discounting to get consumers, and is in it for the long haul,” said independent analyst Minakshi Ghosh. But the firm will also need to pump funds into training local shopkeepers in online trading. Many say their busi-

nesses have been badly hit by the rise of supermarkets and e-commerce. A Reliance source said JioMart had received an “amazing” response from consumers. “People in small towns are buying Del Monte olives and focaccia bread... They want more options,” he said. But he acknowledged the firm faced “teething issues” in logistics – problems which analysts believe could prove its Achilles heel. “You need consistent delivery models and customer satisfaction” to run a successful e-commerce operation, Forrester Research senior forecast analyst Satish Meena said. (AFP)

Uber defends its work model UBER defended its business model on Tuesday (21) at Britain’s Supreme Court in a battle over rights in the workplace that could have ramifications for millions of Britons earning a living in the gig economy. In a case brought by two drivers, a London employment tribunal ruled in 2016 that they were entitled to workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, paid holidays and rest breaks. As things stand, Uber drivers are treated as self-employed, meaning they are legally entitled only to minimal protections. While the drivers point to a contractual relationship with the firm, Uber says there is a looser set-up. “Drivers were under no obligation to use the app at any time, or to accept trips offered to them; Uber did not pay them for any services and the drivers incurred all necessary expenses,” the firm said in a legal document. The Silicon Valley-based firm has lost two appeals in the case, prompting it to seek a hearing at the Supreme Court, which is considering the matter on Tuesday and Wednesday (22). A judgement is not expected until at least October. If Uber loses, the firm is highly unlikely to be able to appeal and a further tribunal hearing may be needed to decide how the ruling is applied in practice. Separately, in London, the company is trying to win back its licence.

Optare names new chairman HINDUJA GROUP’S flagship firm Ashok Leyland last Saturday (18) said former Aston Martin CEO Andrew Palmer has been appointed as nonexecutive chairman of its British arm Optare Plc. Palmer will replace its long-serving chairman John Fickling, who is stepping down due to personal reasons, Ashok Leyland said. Fickling had more than a decade of association with Optare Plc. Ashok Leyland chairman Dheeraj Hinduja said: “The next phase of Optare’s gro wth is centred on expanding our electric vehicles business in the UK and many new markets... I am happy to announce that Andrew Palmer will be taking the position of non-executive chairman.” Palmer, who served as Aston Martin’s CEO from 2014 to May 2020, was also with the leadership team of Japanese auto major Nissan.

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COOPERATION: US aircraft carrier Nimitz

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Indian Navy holds joint drill with US aircraft carrier other of stoking tensions in the region. India’s relations with China have also been strained recently after a deadly clash on their disputed land border last month, prompting calls for closer security ties with the US and its allies, including Japan to balance regional security. Rear Admiral Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz Carrier

Strike Group, said in a statement that Monday’s (20) joint drills with the Indian Navy had helped improve interoperability of the two forces. The drills were carried out near India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands which sits near the Malacca Straits, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes for trade and fuel, an Indian source said. India has a

military base on the islands. “While operating together, the US and Indian naval forces conducted high-end exercises designed to maximise training and interoperability, including air defence,” the US navy said. It said the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is currently deployed in the Indian Ocean in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

INDIAN Navy ships held joint exercises with US aircraft carrier Nimitz in the Indian Ocean, the US navy said, in a sign of growing cooperation between the two naval forces in the region. The USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan have been deployed to the South China Sea for the second time in two weeks as China and the US accuse each

CONTROVERSIAL: A publicity still of Indian Matchmaking

Debate over marriage show

TOUGH CONDITIONS: Doctors and nurses attend to a coronavirus patient at the Intensive Care Unit of the Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida last Wednesday (15)

Relief as Delhi Covid-19 cases fall in seven weeks

l BUT STATES IMPOSE CURBS TO CHECK VIRUS SPREAD l RED ALERT FOR DOCTORS AS HEAT POSES PPE THREAT NEW DELHI recorded fewer than 1,000 coronavirus cases for the first time in seven weeks on Tuesday (21), even as more Indian states imposed restrictions to halt the spread of the pandemic. India last week became the third country after the US and Brazil to hit one million cases, but many experts say that with testing rates low, the true number could be much higher. More than 28,000 people have died, with Maharashtra, home to Mumbai and its teeming slums, suffering the highest death toll followed by the national capital Delhi and Tamil Nadu in the south. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, but it has been steadily eased in recent months to lessen the devastating economic impact. But, independent from the federal government, individual states have been tightening restrictions as case

numbers have soared – including in Bangalore, Bihar and parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. On Monday (20) authorities in West Bengal state, home to about 90 million people, imposed a strict lockdown two days a week beginning Thursday (23). “The state government feels that the efforts to break the chain of Covid-9 spread have to be initiated in a strong manner,” the state’s home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said. All government and private offices will be closed and there will be no public transport. Private vehicles will be allowed for essential needs only. The small northeastern state of Sikkim, bordering Tibet, on Monday also ordered a lockdown until July 27. Delhi has offered a rare piece of good news, however, with the crisis easing since June, when hospitals and morgues in the sprawling megacity of some 20 million people appeared close to collapse. Monday’s count of 954 new infec-

tions in the city marked the first time the daily tally was under 1,000 in 49 days and was down from a peak of almost 4,000 in late June. The news comes as it was revealed that almost 100 Indian doctors have died since the pandemic began, working punishingly long hours in temperatures that can top 40° Celsius. The Indian Medical Association, a voluntary group of doctors, this week issued a “red alert”. “Doctors need to take charge of the situation and ensure their safety of themselves, their families, colleagues and staff,” it said in a statement. At the private Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida outside New Delhi, doctor Showkat Nazir Wani, 29, said, “Wearing this PPE kit at the temperature of 40 degrees, it’s very difficult, I can say because you are drenched in sweat. Still, (we try) to do our best to save the lives of patients.” Sharda Hospital has been providing free treatment to Covid-19 patients

under instructions from the state government, which means facilities are basic and many patients are poor. Not all patients are in hospital gowns. One was on a bed wearing a bedraggled T-shirt with bloodstains. Because there is no air conditioning, doctors and nurses are quickly drenched in sweat. Since they are enveloped head-tofoot in plastic protective gear, the sweat can’t evaporate to cool them down. And as going to the toilet means removing all the gear and then putting a new set, some staff skimp on drinking enough water. Nausea and dizziness can sometimes ensue, and in the long term the staff can risk serious problems including organ damage. Abhishek Deshwal, who heads the hospital’s intensive care unit, said working in such heat while wearing the body suits was “doubly stressful for the staff”. “But we are trying to do our best, we don’t have any other option.” (AFP)

A NEW Netflix show about an Indian matchmaker catering to the high demands of potential brides and grooms, and their parents, has stoked an online debate about arranged marriages in the country. The eight-part series Indian Matchmaking premiered on Netflix last Thursday (16) and is currently among its top ranked India shows. It features Sima Taparia, a real-life matchmaker from Mumbai, who offers her services to families in India and abroad. Arranged marriages in India see parents leading efforts to find a suitable match for their children. The show has become a subject of memes and jokes, and criticism, on how individuals and their parents are picky and have a long list of demands that centre around caste, height or colour. The show “makes very clear how regressive Indian communities can be. Where sexism, casteism, and classism are a prevalent part of the process of finding a life partner,” wrote Twitter user Maunika Gowardhan. Thousands of Twitter and Instagram posts echo that view. “The show is simply holding a mirror to the ugly society we are a part of,”

Vishaka George, another Twitter user, wrote. Created by Oscarnominated director Smriti Mundhra, the show focuses on matchmaker Taparia’s visits to the homes of families who need her assista nce. After hearing their demands, she presents résumés of prospective matches and then arranges for meetings. “The two families have their reputation and many millions of dollars at stake. So the parents guide their children,” Taparia says at one point in the show, referring to some of her wealthier clients. In the first episode titled Slim, Trim and Educated, an Indian mother tells Taparia her son is getting a lot of marriage proposals but in most cases the prospective bride’s education or height was not ideal. Taparia says: “So you want a smart, outgoing, height ...” the mother interjects, “I won’t even consider (a girl) below 5 feet 3 inches.” Some have praised the show for its honesty and treating its subjects respectfully. “The hate against it is, frankly, baffling ... Indian Matchmaking is well on its way to becoming a cultural phenomenon,” a column in the Mint newspaper said.

Flood toll mounts in Asia THE toll from heavy monsoon rains across south Asia has climbed to nearly 200, officials said last Sunday (19), as Bangladesh and Nepal warned that rising waters would bring further flooding. Officials in Bangladesh said at least 67 people had died and another 2.6 million had been affected by

swollen rivers bursting their banks and inundating villages over the past two weeks. In Nepal, 79 people have died and 46 are missing after floods and landslides. Floods killed another 45 people across India’s northeastern Assam state in the last two weeks, officials said.

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Khan calls for subdued Eid celebrations to keep Covid in check PAKISTANIS should celebrate the upcoming Eid festival with “simplicity” to prevent a spike in new coronavirus cases, prime minister Imran Khan said last Friday (17). Many people ignored social distancing guidelines and flocked to mosques and markets during the last religious holiday marking the end of Ramadan in May – helping fuel a subsequent surge in

Covid-19 cases across Pakistan. The increase prompted the World Health Organization to call for new lockdowns across Pakistan. “Eid ul Azha must be celebrated with simplicity so as not to repeat what happened last Eid when SOPs (standard operating procedures) were ignored & our hospitals were choked”, Khan tweeted, adding that he was ordering the

“strict implementation” of government guidelines. The Eid festival of animal sacrifice will begin at the end of the month and lasts for several days. Authorities expect a rush of people going to markets for sheep, goats and other animals to slaughter. According to official tallies, around 260,000 people in Pakistan have tested positive for coronavi-

EXPERTS FEAR SURGE IN CASES OWING TO FOUR-MONTH SUSPENSION OF VACCINATION PRECAUTION: Vaccinators get their temperature checked during an anti-polio campaign in Karachi on Monday (20)

children for oral polio drops, the Emergency Operations Centre for Polio in Sindh province said in a statement. Muhammad Nadeem, a 63-year-old shopkeeper from Karachi, said his family had been waiting anxiously for their twoyear-old son to be vaccinated against the highly infectious disease. “It is a matter of our son’s future, and today we are finally

ADVICE: Imran Khan

rus, including more than 5,470 deaths, as Eastern Eye went to press on Tuesday (21). Recently, Pakistan has seen the rate of new infections slow considerably. While some medical experts have said this is because of a decrease in testing, Khan said the “positive trend” was primarily the result of “smart” lockdowns in which hotspots are sealed off.

Pakistan restarts polio drive after virus break PAKISTAN resumed its polio vaccination campaign on Monday (20) after a fourmonth pause due to the coronavirus outbreak, which health authorities feared would cause a surge in cases of the crippling disease. The country is one of only two in the world where polio is still a serious problem. In its first phase, the drive will target 800,000 children under the age of five in districts where polio is in continuous circulation, including in parts of Quetta, Karachi and Lahore, before broadening to a nationwide campaign by the end of the year. “Right now, we can’t say what impact the four-month suspension will have on our fight against polio, but one thing is sure – that the current year is going to be worse than the previous years in regard to the number of new cases,” said Zulfiqar Babakhel, a spokesman for the country’s vaccination authority. As well as the pause to the campaign, a further 2.8 million newborns also missed out on polio vaccinations, he said. According to official figures, 60 polio cases have been reported in 2020 thus far in Pakistan. Cases fell to eight in 2017 and 12 in 2018, but then spiked up to 147 in 2019, the World Health Organization said. Vaccination teams in the southern port city of Karachi went door to door, flanked by armed police, administering polio drops into children’s mouths without touching them, in line with new safety guidelines. Azra Fazal Pechuho, health minister in the province of Sindh, told media that field staff had been given extensive training to ensure child safety. Vaccinators have been instructed to minimise contact and ask parents to hold

feeling relieved after four months of fear and impatience,” he said. While the Covid-19 poses the greatest threat this year, vaccination drives in Pakistan have previously faced numerous challenges. Last year, religious hard-liners in the northwestern city of Peshawar spread rumours of children falling sick due to the vaccine, triggering backlash in the con-

servative northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where most of Pakistan’s polio cases have been detected. The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF warned in May that millions were at risk of diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted routine immunisation services around the world. 128 x(Agencies) 87

Licences of 166 pilots validated PAKISTAN last Thursday (17) validated licenses of 166 pilots working in foreign countries amid a scandal involving “dubious” flying certificates, which caused a global alert. Pakistan’s civil aviation ministry grounded 262 pilots for “dubious” qualifications last month, prompted by a preliminary report into an airliner crash in Karachi in May that found the pilots had failed to follow standard procedures and disregarded alarms. That crash killed 97 passengers and crew. The ministry had said earlier that Pakistan has a total of 860 pilots, 107 of whom work for foreign airlines, but updated last Thursday in a statement that it had receiv ed requests from 10 countri es for validation of 176 pilots. It said 166 of them have been validated by Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as “genuine and certified” and the remaining 10 will have their process completed by next week. The 10 countries where these pilots are employed included United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, the ministry said. It said the validation had been conveyed to the respective countries. Out of the 262 grounded pilots, the statement said, the licenses for 28 pilots have been cancelled, and a process of verification for another 76 was underway. Britain and the United States revoked landing rights for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

India claims broken deal over Jadhav INDIA last Thursday (16) said its diplomats protested and left a meeting arranged by Pakistan in Islamabad with an Indian man condemned to death on charges of spying, saying an agreement to allow “unimpeded” consular access had not been honoured by Pakistani officials. Former Indian Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested in 2016 in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan and convicted of espionage and sabotage by a Pakistani military court a year later. India took the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered a stay on Jadhav’s execution in 2019, as well as consular access for India. “Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Is-

Gujarati Breakfast Delivered To Your Door CONFINED: Kulbhushan Jadhav was convicted for espionage and sabotage lamabad were provided unimp eded and uninterrupted consular access to Commander Jadhav at 1500 hours,” Pakistan’s foreign office stated last Thursday. However, according to the India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the consular officers left after protesting the access did not permit free conversation.

“Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were pr esent in close proximity of Shri Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side,” the MEA stated, adding the conversation was recorded. Pakistan’s foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Court: Widow Sri Lanka court stops Rajapaksa move to relax sand mining curbs can sue UK firm A BANGLADESHI woman whose husband died while dismantling an oil tanker at a ship-breaking yard in 2018 can file a negligence claim against a British company, which was involved in the vessel’s sale, London’s high court ruled last week. Khalil Mollah, 32, fell to his death while working on a tanker called the EKTA in the port city of Chattogram in southeastern Bangladesh, where scores of end-of-life ships are sent to be scrapped each year. British lawyers representing his widow, Hamida Begum, took her case to court in April 2019, arguing that Maran (UK) Ltd was responsible for the ship ending up in Bangladesh, where working conditions in ship-breaking yards were known to be dangerous. Maran was not immediately available to comment on the high court judgement. “The proximate cause of the accident was the deceased’s fall from a height, but on a broader, purposive approach the accident resulted from a chain of events which led to the vessel being grounded at Chattogram,” the court’s judgement read. The ruling denied an application filed by Maran earlier this year to have Begum’s claim struck out.

A SRI LANKAN court last Friday (17) blocked president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s controversial move to relax restrictions on sand mining and transport which conse rvationists said threatened fragile river eco systems. A two-judge bench ruled that the govern-

ment had no powers to remove tight controls established under a 1992 law to protect the environment and eco systems along rivers across the island. Court of Appeal president AHMD Nawaz ordered police to enforce controls over the

transportation of sand and other construction aggregates, despite the government waiving the strict licensing for sand mining and transport. “The court instructed the police chief to implement the law as the government had not changed the law

despite verbal instructions not to prosecute offenders,” a court official said. The activist Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) petitioned the court to stop the free transport of construction material arguing that it had led to widespread mining and caused

serious damage to rivers and other water bodies. The law provided for fines up to two million rupees (£8,485) and six months in prison for those transporting sand without permits which are usually issued under strict environmental considerations.

Rajapaksa, who won a landslide at November elections, lifted the permit requirement, bowing to the demands of the construction industry. The latest court action came three weeks ahead of the August 5 parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka.

RELUCTANCE: The number of people being tested for coronavirus in Bangladesh has fallen from about 18,000 to just over 10,000

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BANGLADESH’S state medical research agency has approved a third-phase trial of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, as infections rise in the densely populated country. Sinovac has been looking for volunteers outside China as the number of coronavirus cases there has dwindled, said a member of Bangladesh’s national technical advisory committee to tackle Covid-19. The trial, to be conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), could begin next month. “We have given ethical permission for the trial after reviewing the research protocol,” said Mahmood Uz Jahan, director of the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC). The trial will involve 4,200 volunteers, Jahan said. “Half of them will get vaccinated,” he said. The trial would be conducted in seven hospitals specialising in

treating novel coronavirus infec-

tificates to thousands of patients

the condition of anonymity. A Sinovac representative said it was waiting for official approval from Bangladesh. A senior Bangladesh health ministry official, who declined to be identified, said there should not be any objection from the government as Bangladesh would “get priority” if they can successfully develop the vaccine. The news comes as the number of people being tested for coronavirus in Bangladesh has fallen by almost half, in the wake of a huge screening scandal. According to the health department officials last Sunday (19), the number of tests carried out daily has fallen from about 18,000 in late June to just over 10,000 in the past two weeks. The huge drop followed the arrest of more than a dozen people, including a Dhaka hospital owner, on charges they issued fake cer-

Two hospitals and a testing centre in Dhaka were also shut by authorities over the scandal. “The panic among the people has gone,” health department spokeswoman Nasima Sultana said about the lower testing figures. She added that monsoon floods, the cost of tests at 200 Taka (£1.86) and fears of being quarantined were making people reluctant to get properly diagnosed. Dhaka banker Muminur Rahman said he did not trust the testing regime as his 42-year-old brother received a negative result in mid-June even though he was suffering from virus symptoms. His brother died a week later, and his sister-in-law, 34, followed him in July. Neither was formally diagnosed as having the virus. The country has recorded 2,618 deaths and more than 200,000 infections, as Eastern Eye went to press on Tuesday (21). (Agencies)

tions in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s saying they werefor virus-free their loved ones will be provided whilst wecap-prepare them their withital, an ICDDR,B official said on out testing them.

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Flying high on the wings of talent HOW VERSATILE ACTOR AMIT SADH USED HARD WORK TO CARVE OUT HIS OWN PATH IN A COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY by ASJAD NAZIR IT HAS never been tougher for an outsider to make it in Hindi cinema and those who do break through need to have outstanding talent. One actor, who battled through the challenges and gained a reputation as a powerful performer is Amit Sadh and he is regularly called upon to add weight to high-profile projects. The naturally gifted actor has mixed up movies with an outstanding turn in Amazon Prime series Breathe and its newly released sequel Breathe: Into The Shadows. His forthcoming projects include hotly anticipated biopic Shakuntala Devi, powerful drama series Avrodh and gangster movie Yaara. Eastern Eye caught up with Amit Sadh to for a searingly honest conversation about his acting journey, being an outsider, new series, hopes and late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, with whom he worked in both their breakout project Kai Po Che. How do you look back on your acting journey? It’s been a tough journey with lots of hard work and sacrifices, but it’s been worth it. Firstly, as an outsider you have to work twice as hard to even get acknowledged in an industry which I feel is closed. An industry that employs friends and family over talent! We live in a society that values ‘ready made’ people. By this I mean someone who has hit life’s milestones, like having a car, money, house and ‘proper job’, over someone with good qualities as a person. People don’t know how to judge good qu alities and use superficial ones to judge character, and whom to love and accept. This has been the toughest part of my journey.

FIRE STARTER: Amit Sadh

Tell us more… This crushes a lot of people and destroys dreams. It makes artists crave attention over actually paying attention to what they should be doing, which is to create good art. They do whatever they can to just get attention and love. I guess the silver lining in my struggle is that I have been able to spend time alone to develop myself as a person. As Goethe said ‘talent is developed in privacy’. I fully believe that the alone time I’ve had has made me into the person I am today. Continued on page 25

Music

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

Getting ready for a musical Upgrade

Facebook.com/easterneye

MY PLAYLIST with Zaman Khan

POP STAR ARIAN ROMAL ON HIS BIG PLANS TO CREATE A NEW GENRE

by ASJAD NAZIR

RAISED in the UK and now based in India, Arian Romal has had an interesting musical journey that has seen him mix up solo material with producing tracks for other artists. Most recently, he teamed up with actress Tia Bajpai for the song Again, which is accompanied by an animated music video and taken from a forthcoming album they have worked on together. This is the latest chapter for the multitalented rapper, music producer and video director, who has mixed up projects, done things on his own musical terms and clocked up millions of views on YouTube. Eastern Eye caught up with Arian Romal to talk about his musical journey, latest song, hopes, inspirations and more.

and talent I work with, where they are not kept in a box and have to do something just to survive. I want to create space where artists can be themselves and explore their own dimensions. As without artists the world is actually boring, and without talent everything is meaningless.

Who would you love to work with? Rihanna, and not because she is a big celebrity and a huge name! She is one of the few artists in the world who does what she wants, what she believes in and feels like. Her creative soul is way bigger than anyone and anything else. Her music is different and each song is unique.

‘Music is within all of us’

What is it that first connected you to music? As a child, I always loved music as it used to instantly invigorate me. This then evolved from a curiosity of how it’s made to the love of actually making it.

What have been the most memorable moments from your musical journey? I was 17 when I first performed for a huge audience of almost 20,000. I still get goose bumps with excitement remembering that day as I was performing the single Shake It, and more than half of the audience knew the lyrics and were singing along. You can’t imagine how amazing it felt like at that age on your second performance, jumping from an 800 audience at a small festival directly to your own performance with this huge crowd. Tell us about your new song? I’m working with Tia B on her international album. The new song is a combination of new funk mixed with a modern pop sound and Hindi lyrics. The whole idea is to get this international sound from India, which would be played all over the world. It’s about creating a new kind of music and genre for the Indian public. How does producing music for another artist compare to producing music for your tracks? There is a vast difference. When I produce for myself, no limitations and explanations are needed. I can experiment freely without any rules or boundaries as I know my highs and lows, and wants from my music. With others, it’s almost like being put in a box as a creative person/artist with references of old songs and fitting into the genre, and ideation of other artists. Now, I only work with artists who allow me the freedom to be creative and enable me to bring out the best in them, harmoniously.

What music dominates your own playlist? My own music!

What inspires you creatively? My creative inspiration comes from every situation, every moment and different circumstances. It’s what I experience and feel at the very moment, and then boom, I capture it.

If you could master something new in music, what would it be? I would like to build a new instrument, which will have a completely new sound. If you could ask any artist, alive or dead, a question, who would it be and what would you ask? It would be Michael Jackson, of course! I’d ask him how to be and behave when you reach a point where you’re being pressurised and judged by everyone. It would be interesting to hear from him on how he dealt with positive and negative vibes. Like how

What can we expect from you next? One of the biggest pop-culture changing albums by Tia B, where we are changing the entire pop sound in India, which will be more internationally available for everyone. It will be free from any constraints and showcase Indian talent globally. So, you can expect a lot of crazy sounds and music, which you won’t be expecting. Which of your unreleased tracks are you most excited about? There are a lot of unreleased tracks I am very excited about, especially from Tia Bajpai’s upcoming album Upgrade. We have worked hard on it, while playing and experimenting with different sounds and genres. Each song has a different story and sound. It’s all fresh and new. What is your musical master plan? To create and give freedom to every artist

OUT OF THE BOX: Arian Romal

can you just unplug and disappear mentally for some time, and relax with your mind and soul when you are the biggest name.

What is the best advice you ever got? It was from a music label executive and became engraved in me. We met at a time when I loved creating big music videos and doing amazing things in them. He said to me, ‘I love your music, but you forgot one thing. Music comes first before music videos. Your music is not as strong as your music videos. Make your music strong first and then focus on your video’. Around 95 per cent of artists do this same mistake, where the music is sidelined in favour of the video. I would like to share the same advice with fellow artists. Focus on the music before you do anything else and make it a strong base. Why do you love music? How can one not love music? Everything around us has music, from opening the door to communicating, expressing yourself and feeling the sounds around us. Even when we praise God, we sing. Music is everywhere around us and within us. You just need to listen carefully and feel it. It’s a part of our life and starts with your heartbeat singing. Twitter, Instagram & YouTube: @ArianRomal

SINGER, songwriter and musician Zaman Khan’s interesting musical journey has included being a founding member of popular act Astitva The Band. The multi-talented artist divides his time between the acclaimed band, solo projects, hosting popular online show ZamCam and creating new music. One of his recent projects included the song Hum Saath Hain, which was recorded during lockdown and features 14 singers, including him. Eastern Eye got Zaman Khan to select 10 songs he loves. Coming Back To Life by Pink Floyd: I love the whole arrangement of this song and how it perfectly blends rock ’n’ roll with amazing poetry. It’s an all-time favourite and Pink Floyd are definitely a big inspiration. Your Body Is A Wonderland by John Mayer: Being a singer-songwriter this song actually motivated me to write something completely out of the box. I love how the song has been written and composed. It’s the perfect song to sing when you are in love and the person is sitting in front of you. Gumshuda by Zaman Khan: I literally wake up every morning to this song. Though it’s been composed by me, I feel as if this song completely defines me and has such a bright feel to it. The more you listen to the song, the more you’ll feel like being with yourself, falling in love with yourself and exploring whatever madness you have. Patience by Guns n Roses: The title of this song, Patience, completes the whole feeling about it and the perfect acoustic vibes will indeed calm you. It gives you a sense of emotion and you’ll definitely love the whole melody of this song. Yes, this band has always been a favourite. Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars: No matter how tired or low I feel, this song always lifts up my soul and just gets me into the groove. It has everything right, from a catchy chorus to mad funk guitar riffs. So, it is a complete package of music and madness. Dil Banjara by Astitva The Band: My playlist is incomplete without this song. A perfect example of how an independent artist, indie musician or band should sound! I love the way the lyrics are blended with alternative Hindi rock music. With a growing trend of independent music, I think all budding artists should definitely get inspired from this song. Tu Bin Bataye by AR Rahman: I have no words to describe this song, but I’ll just say one thing that every time I listen to this, it gives me goose bumps and takes me to another zone. No one can replace the feel of Mr AR Rahman. Ali Maula by Salim Sulaiman: Some songs are not composed, but they are sent from heaven and this actually holds that position in my life. I love the way Sufi music has been arranged in a totally new avatar, but yet it’s full of feeling and divine. The song straightaway connects you with the almighty. Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams: This legendary song is full of nostalgia. I am sure even after a hundred years this song will have the same charm. I remember performing this song for my school friends, and yes, Bryan Adams is one of my biggest inspirations. Afreen Afreen by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: This song is a blessing to the whole world of music by the legend. It has the most beautiful poetry to define the purity and beauty of a woman. The composition itself is a masterpiece. No matter how many times you listen to this, you will still fall in love with it.

Interview

Instagram.com/easterneyenews/ • www.easterneye.biz • July 24, 2020

‘I just turn up on the set and try telling the truth’ AMIT SADH EXPLAINS HIS ACTING APPROACH AND HOW IT HELPS HIM INTERPRET LIFE

Continued from page 23

You have established yourself… We are an outsider when we are unprepared, but the moment we put in work and fix ourselves, start the process, give time to craft, to humanity and feelings, we start becoming an insider. So let’s just end the debate of an insider and an outsider here. Which of your roles has been closest to your heart? I’ve given a part of myself to every role, so it’s tough to say, but if I really had to pick one then it would be Omi in Kai Po Che. Omi was challenging because he was the opposite to my disposition in real life. He showed the flaws of society and was blinded by this mentality of following your own ‘tribe’, despite what is right and wrong. He gets himself into a predicament where he regrettably kills his best friend. I feel that’s so prevalent in today’s society. Rather than stepping back and looking at a situation for what it is, we get so caught up with our ‘tribe’, ‘our people’ that it fogs our judgement, and leads to destruction. Had he empathised and tried understanding, they would have come to a better resolution, rather than be erratic and violent. How much has being able to balance film and TV helped you as an actor? To me acting is acting. The medium doesn’t matter to me much. I try my best to lend parts of myself to every character in the exact same way. I just turn up on the set and try telling the truth.

character struggles with is one of the big victories and attributes for me. Full credit for this should go to the writers. In terms of a scene, there is one where both Avinash (Abhishek Bachchan) and Kabir Sawant talk about their daughters. It just looks like two fascinating minds and complex beings discussing and showing their soft side and how daughters impact that. For me that was special.

use his products, including myself, but no one knows his story or who he was. Also, it’s about time we create

What can we expect from the second series Breathe: Into The Shadows? A lot of excitement, plot twists and surprises. The characters are multi-layered with so much humanity, which people can relate to. We consume art to see ourselves, and with this season, the characters will take you on a journey that you can really relate to, whichever side you’re on. The whole team has done a fantastic job and it’s well worth the wait! How has your character evolved since the first series? Without giving too much away, this season we see a different side of Kabir. He’s had time to deal with the very recent death of his daughter. He is back at his best and this time he is a different animal. It is a new case, so expect an intense chase. What is your own favourite moment in the second season? The kind of involvement and stakes I have with Breathe make it very difficult for me to choose a favourite moment. The whole dimension and crisis every

You must be happy that Breathe opened the door for more thriller web series to be produced by big streaming sites? Breathe was something new in the online streaming domain, when we first released it and I’m glad that its success has brought forward more shows of the same genre. Amazon has a fantastic team that does such a great job of creating content and marketing it. You worked with late actor Sushant Singh Rajput in both of your breakthrough film Kai Po Che. What are your fondest memories of him? He was a great artist, and the memories that I share of the time when we were filming together for Kai Po Che are very private and fond. I will cherish them for life. The amazing work that Sushant did in such a short span is something I will always remember and draw inspiration from. As an outsider, what kept you motivated in your days of struggle? The need to share and prove a point to the world that if you work hard, work on your craft and develop your talent so much that they cannot ignore you, has always kept me going. Do you have a dream role? The story of the founder of Bose, Amar Bose. His story is inspiring and achievements are incredible. What he has done for the world needs to be recognised. People all around the world

have worked with. But if you really need me to drop some names, then most recently I have enjoyed working with Nithya Menen. She is in season two of Breathe. Now, I can’t go into too much detail as to why I loved working with her, otherwise, I would kinda give it away a little. But as a person, she is an incredible human being.

You have worked with great actors, but who have you enjoyed working with the most? I’ve loved working with them all. I have been lucky to be part of projects that have had some incredible talent. I have learned so much from everyone I

What have you done to survive this Covid-19-imposed lockdown? It’s been a blessing. I’ve spent time alone working on myself, slowing down completely and processing life events, which have taught me so much. Sometimes, we are so busy in life that we don’t even get to really think about what is going on around us or to us. It’s important to reflect. It’s allowed me to read a lot more, and I have also taken up writing, which has been very therapeutic. What inspires you? People who work for the betterment of society! I feel everyone (hopefully) now really appreciates key workers. The grocery store workers, bin men, doctors, nurses, cleaners, etc. Each and every single one of them is the real hero in society and without them we won’t survive a day. So I want to thank all of them from the bottom of my heart. Why should we watch the Amazon web series Breathe: Into The Shadows? (Laughs) Hopefully, everyone would have finished every other show on Prime and they’ll wanna watch something new! Just kidding! If you liked Breathe season one, it’s a must watch. If you haven’t seen Breathe season one, then watch it and you will want to watch season two!

Does your approach change between film and a web series? No! Like I said, acting is acting for me, the medium doesn’t matter much.

‘I have taken up writing’

How much did the success of your Amazon Prime series Breathe mean to you? It means a lot when you do something and it is appreciated. I think it’s human nature to want to be loved and build connection. I really appreciate the love I have got from fans globally and the connection I’ve made with them. I am truly humbled by it. And it makes me happy when people not only enjoy it, but it affects them in a positive manner.

movies that show what Asia has done for the world, rather than be depicted as ‘side dishes’ in movies. I want to do a movie where we are the main course.

DETERMINED: Amit Sadh; and (above left) in Breathe: Into The Shadows

Why do you love to be an actor? I love being an actor because it enables me to interpret life and society in such a way that it affects people for the better. It inspires people to do better and become better people. I want to be at one with audiences and be an answer for my viewer. An answer to whatever they are going through, and we can both work together to make the world a better place. Through my work, I want to awaken audiences in the hope they become leaders in changing society for the better. n Breathe: Into The Shadows is on Amazon Prime now & Shakuntala Devi releases on Amazon Prime on July 31

Entertainment

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

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GIGI-ZAYN LYING LOW SUPER model Gigi Hadid (right) has kept a relatively low profile since announcing she is expecting a child with British Asian pop star Zayn Malik, but gave fans an interesting insight recently. Gigi showed off her baby bump for the first time during an Instagram live broadcast to over 55 million

followers and said clever camera angles had been keeping it hidden. A big reason why the popular celebrity couple has kept a low profile is that they didn’t want to take attention away from the coronavirus crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Lootcase

ABHISHEK’S MOVE FROM FILM TO A SERIES FAILS

IT LOOKS like Abhishek Bachchan’s (above) gamble to make a move from cinema to acting in a drama series hasn’t paid off because his digital debut Breathe: Into The Shadows has received terrible reviews. Some of the words used by leading reviewers to describe the series have been ‘pea-brained’, ‘inept’, ‘illogi-

cal’, ‘preposterous’ and ‘bl oated’. What has made matters worse for the ailing act or is that his co-sar Amit Sadh has received much better reviews than him. He will have more shot s at str eaming site success with his films Ludo and The Big Bull, which will premiere online, but my hopes are not high with either release.

Bad Bollywood films flood streaming sites

HOW A LACK OF ONLINE QUALITY CONTROL IS DAMAGING HINDI CINEMA THERE was a time if a film failed badly at the box office it would put Bollywood producers out of business and cut short careers of lead stars, even if they were related to someone famous. The massive money being pumped in by popular streaming sites has changed all of that because most are buying pretty much everything Bollywood has to offer and that lack of quality control is not only badly damaging the industry, but cheating audiences. 2019 release Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas was so bad that it crashed at the box office, got savage reviews, killed the career of debutante Karan Deol and led to his famous father Sunny Deol vowing to take a break from filmmaking, yet streaming sites happily picked it up and it’s currently available on ZEE5. Panipat: The Great Betrayal was another huge 2019 disaster, yet it’s available on Netflix. Laal Kaptaan, Milan Talkies, Prassthanam and Notebook were all 2019 disasters, yet can be seen on Amazon Prime. Meanwhile, Hotstar scooped up 2019 mega-flop India’s Most Wanted. Lootcase was supposed to be released in cinemas last October, but kept getting delayed because of lack of interest and now it will have a streaming site world premiere. These are some recent examples of flop films being dumped on to streaming sites, but it’s a trend that has been happening for a number of years.

Now most producers know they can make bad films, fuel nepotism and produce self-indulgent projects because streaming sites are providing them with a safety net. Being guaranteed money for even the most awful projects is promoting laziness in the subjects and giving repeated chances to talentless stars because they are related to someone famous. This is subsequently closing the door to new talent and fuelling nepotism. When Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Hotstar recently announced their respective slate of Bollywood premieres, most had one thing in common and that is they would have been disasters at the box office had cinemas been open. Now producers of these seeming disasters will have money to make more movies. Perhaps the worst offender is Netflix, which has become a dumping ground for Bollywood garbage. Netflix has gone a step further than buying rubbish content from Hindi cinema by actively financing it. The streaming site gave money to terrible writer-director Shirish Kunder to deliver an original film despite his previous two attempts at featur es being disasters and the result was Mrs Serial Killer, which is a fr ontrunner for worst movie of 2020. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime sponsored the Filmfare Awards earlier this year and all but destroyed

Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas

‘The worst offender is Netflix’

TROLLS TREND ACTRESS FOR WRONG REASONS

SHE may have quit Twitter, but the micro-blogging site hasn’t forgotten about Sonakshi Sinha and users mercilessly troll the actress at every given opportunity. When a first look of the actress was revealed from her new film Bhuj: The Pride Of India, there was

once again a tidal wave of jokes and memes mocking the actress. The Sonakshi Sinha memes have become so popular on Twitter that she regularly trends for all the wrong reasons and one look at hashtags featuring her name will show this.

Mrs Serial Killer the little credibility it had left. The longest running Bollywood award ceremony ended up giving a record-breaking number of trophies to Amazon Prime movie Gully Boy, which was more than any iconic Hindi film had ever received. Although the extra money strea ming sites are providing is a lifeline for producers at a time when cinemas are closed due to Covid-19,

their astonishing lack of quality control is doing long-term damage to Bollywood and can’t be a good business model in the long run. So the next time you are struggling to find something decent to watch it’s likely because the little good content is hidden in the mountain of rubbish streaming sites are happily creating in their race to have the most content.

www.easternInstagram.com/easterneyenews/ • www.easterneye.biz • July 24, 2020

Entertainment

SUSHANT SWAN SONG SCREENS ALL eyes will be on this week’s big Bollywood release Dil Bechara (left), which premieres on Hotstar and is the final film of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The Hindi language remake of Hollywood film The Fault In Our Stars is expected to

clock up record-breaking streaming site figures for a Hindi movie because it is being made available for free. Sadly, I don’t ha ve much confidence in debutante director Muke sh Chhabra and have a fear this final send off wo n’t be worthy of Sushant.

WITH ASJAD NAZIR www.twitter.com/asjadnazir

NADINE WINS WITH NEW ALBUM KITCHEN SINK ONE of the best albums of the year is Kitchen Sink by Nadine Shah (right), which has received rave reviews since it was released on June 26. The half-Pakistani British singer, songwriter and musician’s stunning collection of songs have struck a chord with

their strong subject matter. The album already looks like being a frontrunner at awards ceremonies next year and makes up for Nadine having gigs cancelled due to Covid-19, including a prime slot at the Glastonbury Festival this year. If the response to Kitchen Sink is anything to go by, then she will be much higher on the Glastonbury bill next time around.

HEARTBREAK AND HATE FOR RHEA A MONTH after Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide, his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty took to social media

Sonam Kapoor (left) and Mouni Roy

INDIAN STARS BREAK QUARANTINE LAW

IF NEWS reports of their travel timelines are anything to go by then Mouni Roy and Sonam Kapoor have both broken British quarantine law. The Indian actresses jetted into London from India earlier this month and neither of them seems to have followed the 14-day mandatory quarantine rule. Mouni shared a photo of herself relaxing in a café and exercising in the park. Sonam uploaded an outdoor exercise

n The views in

this column do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.

ordeal. The actress has to cope with the heartbreak of her boyfriend dying, but is also having to live with conspiracy theories and massive negativity directed at her.

video, which she later claimed was her garden when it clearly was a communal space with a man sitting on a bench behind her. With Covid-19 cases surging in India, both potentially put lives in danger and showed travellers are not following quarantine laws designed to keep the British public safe.

BIGG BOSS A BIG NO FOR RESPECTED ACTOR VIVIAN

VEE FOR MUSICAL VICTORY

A BIG British Asian success story of recent years has been the rapid rise of Vee (above), but the ace music producer perhaps doesn’t get the credit he deserves. His dream partnership with Guru Randhawa has resulted in over a billion YouTube views, which includes the singing superstar’s unique duet fea-

demanding a full inquiry into his death. Many believe it is too little too late and she only broke her silence after receiving heavy criticism for her actions throughout this

turing Jay Sean earlier this year. Vee has made an impre ss ive mark in India, at a time the British Asian industry has virtually collapsed, and has more big songs on the way. Look out for my interview with him in coming weeks, and I would urge you to find out more about his amazing talent.

n Murder mystery film Raat Akeli Hai will have a Netflix premiere on July 31. The story of a police officer investigating a murder stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte.

n The Telugu language mystery thriller HIT: The First Case is getting a Bollywood remake with Rajkummar Rao in the lead role as a troubled cop.

Rhea Chakraborty

n Outspoken actress Kangana Ranaut recently made more explosive accusations against big Bollywood names, including saying she was threatened after refusing to star opposite Salman Khan in Sultan.

THE massive success of Bigg Boss 13 means there is added pressure to make the next season even better. Bigg Boss 14 starts in September and stars are already getting linked to the Indian version of Celebrity Big Brother, with Vivian Dse-

n Bollywood queen Deepika Padukone and pan-Indian king Prabhas will star in a big blockbuster together, which fans believe is a big screen match made in royal film heaven.

na (above) being top of Color’s wish list. I am sure the respected actor will say no to the show because for him good work has always been a priority and this reality show definitely doesn’t fall into that category. His fans have all been urging him to stay away from Bigg Boss 14 and hopefully, he will.

n BBC drama series A Suitable Boy premieres on July 26. Look out for my interview with lead star Ishaan Khatter in the coming weeks.

n Bollywood horror comedy Phone Bhoot has been announced. It stars Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter.

Entertainment

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

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Saiyami kind of wonderful EXCITING NEW ACTING STAR KHER ON HER RECENT FILM AND DRAMA SERIAL SUCCESS by ASJAD NAZIR MOST of the world may have been stuck during the Covid-19 crisis, but Saiyami Kher has been moving at top speed and had three high-profile releases during lockdown. The talented young actress followed up thriller series Special Ops with glowing reviews for Netflix film Choked, where she played the central character. Earlier this month, she delivered a terrific turn in newly released Amazon Prime series Breathe: Into The Shadows. With more projects waiting for her after lockdown is over, the rapidly rising star looks set to go interstellar and carry on showing off her increasingly impressive range, which has already included acting in multiple languages. Eastern Eye caught up with Saiyami Kher to talk about her recent success, acclaimed performances, future hopes and plans for when lockdown is fully lifted. After a steady start with interesting films, you have taken your time selecting projects. Has that been a conscious decision? Well, I haven’t been offered roles that have excited me. So with Special Ops and Breathe even though the roles are small, the script really excited me and my parts were also something very different from what I have ever done or been offered. And with Choked, it was a no-brainer because it was such a fantastic character to play. And plus working with (director) Anurag Kashyap. I didn’t want to do things that didn’t excite me, which is why the long wait.

How much do the positive reviews, including from your fellow act ors, mean to you, for your performance in Netflix film Choked? It’s been overwhel ming. The love I have received after Choked, especially from filmmakers whom I admire. I’m someone who doe sn’t take criticism or appreciation very seriously because I feel my job is to keep working on my craft, and carry on aiming to get better. Some work people will like, some people won’t. I just need to be honest and give it my best shot. With Choked, I really learned a lot as an actor and enjoyed the process, and I’m glad that people have liked my work. What was the experience of doing a movie like Choked where you are the centre of the action? I never really thought of it like that. I was just doing my job with the same honesty I did in Special Ops or Mirzya. The excitement was the same. So even if it’s a 20-minute or a two-hour long role, the process is just the same. But I feel very blessed I got to bring Sarita to life. Sarita will always be very special because it was something that was out of my comfort zone. But Anurag (Kashyap) makes its so simple. Even if in my head it was complex he just makes it very simple. That was a big learning because he said actors complicate things when there is no need.

‘I would like to do a sport film’

Is finding good projects the biggest challenge you face? Yes, it is definitely one of the biggest challenges. Because even though as an actor I’m really excited to do different roles and experiment, I need to be offered stuff like that. (Smiles) I have unfortunately still not come to a place where I can produce my own films.

How do you feel about three high-profile projects releasing in quick succession? All the work I have been doing the last year and a half is now coming out. I am glad it is coming out now when people are home and have lots of time to watch content. But it’s a happy and sad feeling. Happy because my work is coming out and people are consuming it, and liking it, but sad because of the situation we are in. In normal circumstances, I would have signed on more exciting stuff and started working. But right now everything is on hold.

What was the experience of acting in web series Special Ops, which has pulled in big audiences? Great fun! Guns, action and travelling to some beautiful locations! Juhi was a ‘don’t mess with me, no nonsense’ character. In the next season, one should expect much more from Juhi. I have really enjoyed (writer-director) Neeraj Pand ey’s work. And working with him was also a big learning experience because he is a man of few words. He is very sure about his script before he goes on the floors. I am hoping and looking forward to collaborating with him more often. Does your approach change between films and acting in a drama serial? The preparation for the role is pretty

Sarita in Choked. I do hope more such characters are written and I get more such opportunities. Is the plan going forward to mix up films and serials? I am happy to do series and films in different languages and different countries. I am also happy to do theatre. I just want to act. Do you have a dream role you would love to play? I would really like to do a sport film where I need to train physically hard to become the part. much same, regardless of the medium. Be it theatre, film or web series, the same effort goes into finding a backstory for the character; the same time is spent physically and emotionally preparing for the role. What changes slightly is the logistics of it. Web shows are shot over a long period of time compared to film. So sometimes, you have to make sure you maintain the look for that amount of time. Also, unlike a film script (where you know how things end), characters and plot lines are fleshed out season to season in a show. So, while I have a rough idea of what happens, it’s very exciting to see what the writers come up with. What was your experience of acting in new Amazon series Breathe: Into The Shadows like? Breathe is a crime thriller and I really enjoyed the first season. This season, the script is very gripping. I am playing a character I can’t reveal too much about, but it’s something I have never done before. I’m really excited for my role in the show. Are you consciously looking to play strong women roles? Well, I would love to. I want to be a part of good scripts. So, even if it’s an ensemble, I want to do good scripts. My character should move the story forward. I have been very lucky to get a role like

Who would you love to work with? Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan, George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. I have been a big fan of all three and would just like to share screen space with them, and learn how they are so effortless on screen. I would also like to chat with them about their films and process. What other confirmed projects do you have on the way soon? I am shooting for a film right now and have 15 days left. But I can’t speak too much about the film. What do you enjoy watching as an audience member? I love watching romantic comedy films and crime thriller series. What inspires you? Sportsmen, sportswomen and people in the army inspire me. What is the first thing you will do when lockdown is over? I will want to meet all my friends who I have been missing a lot. I will do a nice dinner with all my friends and then resume shooting for my film.

RISING STAR: Saiyami Kher; and (above left) in Choked

n Special Ops (Hotstar), Choked (Netflix) and Breathe: Into The Shadows (Amazon Prime) are all available now.

Cinema

Instagram.com/easterneyenews/ • www.easterneye.biz • July 24, 2020

Vidya Balan: An A-to-Z of Bollywood’s versatile star

HOW THE AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS SMASHED GLASS CEILINGS WITH STRONG ROLES

ACCLAIMED actress Vidya Balan has added the much needed girl power to Bollywood with strong performances in films that have smashed glass ceilings and expanded the horizons of the Hindi film heroine. The multi-award winning star continues her remarkable run of really powerful roles with new movie Shakuntala De vi, where she plays the title role of the world famous woman known as the human computer. The Bollywood biopic sees the amazing actress play the woman with the extraordinary mind. This continues an action packed career for one of the most important stars in this generation. Eastern Eye decided to get you a little closer to Vidya Balan by presenting an all you need to know A to Z about her. A is for Awards: The acclaimed actress has earned many accolades and gained a massive number of nominations for her impressive body of work, which includes winning Best Actress honours at all the major Bollywood award ceremonies. Films she has won multiple Best Actress awards for include Kahaani, Paa, Ishqiya and The Dirty Picture. Her other honours includes the Padma Shri, which is India’s fourth highest civilian award.

B is for Biopics: The actress has played a number of characters based on real life people in films, including starring in biopics The Dirty Picture and her first 2020 feature film release Shakuntala Devi. Her other films based on real events include critically acclaimed hits No One Killed Jessica and Mission Mangal. C is for Cannes: Vidya was given the honour of serving as a jury member at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for the main competition. She was part of a very high-profile nine-person jury that included Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman and Ang Lee. D is for Debut directors: The actress has worked with first-time directors a number of times in her career, including for the films Parineeta (Pradeep Sarkar), Ish qiya (Abhishek Chaubey), Bobby Jasoos (Samar Shaikh) and Tumhari Sulu (Suresh Triveni). E is for Extra: The actress has always gone beyond her work commitments to support various charities and social causes. These include ones empowering women, helping impoverished children, supporting environmental causes and raising awareness about sexual abuse. F is for First film: After a number of cancelled projects, Vidya finally made her big screen debut in award-winning 2003 Bengali film Bhalo Theko. G is for Girl power: Vidya’s portrayal of strong protagonists in Paa, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani helped break the stereotypical portrayal of heroines in Bollywood. She earned the title of a ‘female hero’ and in-

spired other leading ladies to take on more powerful roles. H is for Hum Paanch: Vidya was just 16 when she landed a role in legendary Indian sitcom Hum Paanch. However, the talented teenager refused further television offers because she had her heart set on a film career. I is for Indira Gandhi: Although she has acted in various biopics, the real life character Vidya has most wanted to portray is politician Indira Gandhi. She has agreed to star in and produce a web-series based on the late Indian leader. J is for Jayalalitha: The actress has refused a number of high-profile projects and that reportedly includes playing actress turned powerful politician J Jayalalithaa in a big budget biopic, which Kangana Ranaut is now doing.

over 70 auditions, Vidya landed the role in the big screen adaptation of Sarat Chandra’s classic 1914 novella. She won multiple Best Debut awards for her performance in the film. Q is for Quality time: When Vidya is not working her priority is to spend quality time with her husband and sister’s kids. Her other passions away from work include travelling, reading, binge watching a good TV series and listening to old Hindi music.

R is for Radio host: The actress has successfully played a radio host twice on the big screen. The first was for smash hit film Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006) and then 11 years K is for Kahaani: The biggest sleeper hit of 2012 was an unpredictable thriller that won rave reviews and clocked up huge numbers at the box office. One of the decade’s best movies, resulted in Vidya winning Best Actress awards for a fourth year in a row. L is for Languages: The multi-talented actress has appeared in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam and Marathi films. M is for Modelling: Films she had signed getting cancelled in the early days of her career led Vidya to appear in TV commercials and a number of high-profile music videos, including for the band Euphoria. The modelling career finally led to her big Bollywood break in Parineeta. N is for N.T.R: The actress played a key role in big budget Telugu biopic N.T.R. Kathanayakudu and its sequel N.T.R: Mahanayakudu, which were based on the real life and acting career of film legend turned politician NT Rama Rao. They would be the most highprofile films that she has done away from Bollywood. O is for Outer space: In 2019, she played a key character in hit film Mission Mangal, which was based on scientists involved in India’s first interplanetary expedition and arguably delivered the best performance in the multi-starrer.

later with an award-winning performance in Tumhari Sulu (2017). S is for Sari: The actress has popularised the traditional sari globally in a way no other leading lady has done and in the process become a powerful ambassador for Indian women. She has regularly worn a sari at high-profile events around the world and once said, “I could live in a sari”. T is for Turning point: After a rollercoaster start of ups and downs in Bollywood, the big turning point came for the actress was an award-winning performance in Paa (2009), where she played a single mother struggling with her son’s (Amitabh Bachchan) progeria. This led to a golden run and helped create a new kind of commercial Hindi film heroine.

by ASJAD NAZIR

P is for Parineeta: The actress made an award-winning debut in successful 2005 film Parineeta, but it almost didn’t happen. Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra had wanted an established actress, but after six months of tests and

CHANGEMAKER: Vidya Balan

U is for Unlucky: She may be an in-demand star today, but the actress had an unlucky start to her film career. A massive number of films she signed in Malayalam and Tamil cinema were either shelved, didn’t get a release, were cancelled without notice or she was replaced by someone else. V is for Vegetarian: The actress has always been a vegetarian. PETA even named her the hottest vegetarian two years in a row. W is for Wedding: Vidya announced she was dating film producer Sidharth Roy Kapur in May 2012 and then on December 14 of that year married him in a private ceremony in Mumbai.

X is for X-Rated: Vidya won every major acting award for her stunning performance in The Dirty Picture (2011), which included a prestigious National Award for Best Actress. She transformed her physical appearance for the stunning biopic of Silk Smitha, who was famed for her erotic roles and dare to bare attitude. Y is for YouTube: The actress produced and starred in 2020 short film Natkhat, which revolved around a mother teaching her young son about gender equality and premiered on YouTube, as part of We Are One: A Global Film Festival. Z is for Zero: The actress smashed the size zero trend in Bollywood and even put on 12 kilos for her role in The Dirty Pic ture. By reintroducing the real woman into ci nema, she ch anged everything, incl uding redefining what sexy really is, empowering women and in spiring a new gen eration to not follow the crowd. n Shaku ntala Devi is available on Amazon Prime from July 31

Lifestyle

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What we will miss about lockdown life

GOOD THINGS ABOUT SELF-ISOLATION AND KEEPING THEM GOING by ASJAD NAZIR LOCKDOWN has been a terrible time for people around the world and now that it is slowly coming to an end there is a sense of relief. Although everyone is looking forward to resuming normal life again, there are many things about self-isolation most people will miss, including some aspects they will try carry on after being confined at home finally ends. Eastern Eye asked a cross-section of people what they will miss most about lockdown and figured out what can be done to carry these things on when everything opens up again.

Noise pollution also went down significantly and even the ozone layer has benefitted. This has not only made outdoors more pleasant and helped wildlife, but also given different health benefits to everyone, including lowering stress levels. Those daily walks have been made more pleasurable. After lockdown – Go green in different aspects of life and become more environmentally aware. Appreciation: There may have been a lot of things to be angry about during lockdown, but appreciation shown by everyday people increased significantly and this made the world that much nicer. People have been appreciative about their own blessings, but also more thankful about things we

The reconnect IF YOU are in a relationship and have been self-isolating separately, then the lockdown slowly coming to an end will be like a bright shining light at the end of a dark tunnel. It will almost feel like you both have been fighting a war on different battlefronts and will be finally reunited as the conflict comes to an end. It will almost feel like the end of a romantic film when you both reconnect and epic music plays in the background. I fully feel what you have gone through because my partner and I have been self-isolating separately hundreds of miles apart for months. There is no denying that lockdown has likely changed many of us and hopefully, it has been positively. A recent survey revealed that most couples feel lockdown has made their relationship stronger. Perhaps, now we will enter a world where we appreciate one another a little more and forgive each other for small things that don’t matter so much. It may take more time for you to get back to that perfect place from before, but if you have got through this time apart and still have those same feelings, then you will emerge stronger than before. The moments you spend together will be more meaningful, the hug will feel a little better and any moments of silence won’t feel so awkward. You will just be happy being in each other’s company. So if you are self-isolating apart, hold on to whatever you have and keep connected on video or phone call until you are reunited. Both of you will be entering a brand new world with new possibilities together. Apply whatever lockdown has taught you into everyday life. Be more appreciative of your blessings, but more importantly be appreciative of yourself. I had a lifelong dream to write a novel and managed to complete the first draft during lockdown. Whether I find a publisher or not comes secondary to the confidence that I gained from completing a seemingly impossible task and now a little more of me believes that ‘I can’. That self-belief translates into self-love and will only benefit relationships you have with others. It will help in that reconnect with normal life again. If you feel the lockdown was unproductive that is okay as well. We are not in a race and just trying to get through an impossible situation that has suddenly been thrust upon on us, so take as long as you need to get back to normality. If you are single or have broken up with someone during lockdown, that is okay as well. What matters is that you have hope in your heart and know that better days are ahead for all of us, as we reconnect with the world. It all starts with reconnecting with yourself and with that I will leave you with a quote by the Dalai Lama, “With realisation of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.”

mindfulness, languages, dance and various forms of exercise. This inspired many to take up new hobbies and make friends. After lockdown – Make time for new hobbies and courses, including building on knowledge gained in self-isolation. Small pleasures: There were so many small pleasures that sprang up during lockdown that we will all miss. This includes binge-watching box sets, catching up on films, not being under pressure to socialise, having that knowledge there won’t be any surprise visitors and not missing any home deliveries. Also, enjoying more of our homes instead of just having them as a place of shelter was another win. After lockdown – Schedule in breaks from your busy life to carry on enjoying indulges of life. It will make you happier and lower stress.

PRECIOUS TIME: Learning, loving life and connecting Working from home: What is not to like about being able to walk out of your bed and straight into work? Those who have been fortunate enough to work from home have been able to save significant time in the day from commuting and getting ready. Other benefits of getting work done from home include healthier eating, spending more time with family, lowering stress and being able to go at your own pace. Having a clean bathroom and fully stocked kitchen accessible at all times also helps. After lockdown – More people than ever will be working from home and many jobs are being made available in that regard. Family time: The fast moving world meant we had less time to spend with family members, but that all changed during lockdown. While many were locked in with family members, others were using video apps to connect with close family members. With homeschooling and daily walks, parents were able to bond with children, along with teaching them added skills. Although it may have seemed stressful at times, those added moments with family members will remain special. After lockdown – Pause from things like social media and time manage to spend more time with those who matter.

took for granted, from family workers to key health workers who have been risking their lives to look after us. This has created a spirit of togetherness and triggered a nice positive energy that wasn’t there before. After lockdown – It is easy to carry on being appreciative, including saying thank you to workers who help us everyday like shopkeepers, delivery drivers, health workers and close relatives.

Nature: The lack of planes, trains, automobiles and big factories during lockdown has made the air cleaner, skies clearer and rivers less polluted.

Learning: The added time indoors enabled most to learn new skills with cooking and baking topping the list. Others took online classes like yoga,

Comfort zone: Being able to ditch ties, smart clothes, uncomfortable shoes like high heels, suits, make-up, contact lenses and complicated beauty regimes has perhaps been the biggest indulgence during lockdown. This is near the top of what most people will miss after self-isolation is over. Getting all dressed up again may become a challenge and we will all fondly remember rolling out of bed, putting on a tracksuit and getting on with the day without any pressure. After lockdown – When not working, make time to relax and don’t feel pressure to look a certain way. Time: The biggest thing we will all miss when lockdown is lifted is the added time we had to do other things in life away from work. This includes learning, spending time with family, relaxing, exercising, getting healthier and just having more moments to think. When things like commuting, socialising, shopping and travelling kick back in, all that extra time will be gone and we will miss it. After lockdown – Time management will enable us to get some of that lost time back. So perhaps, sp end less time on social media, don’t do unnecessary trips and be with people who don’t uplift you. Human connection: Although it sounds strange, people in lockdown were connecting with others more. Being isolated inspired people to make more video calls, have longer phone chats and reconnect with long lost friends. Others formed new friendships and appreciated the face-to-face contact more when it was allowed. After lockdown – Take time to appreciate your loved ones more, don’t take them for granted and give extra hugs when possible.

Entertainment

Instagram.com/easterneyenews/ • www.easterneye.biz • July 24, 2020

EYE TV

MY TOP 10 By Farah Yasmeen Shaikh

The best of Bhoomika

What was the experience of acting in Krishna Chali London? The experience was mind-blowing as it was my first show. I have experienced such amazing things at the start of my journey that I feel it will be a little tough for me settling on a new set because I have already been part of something amazing. The Star Plus show had an amazing director, producer and creative director. (Producer) Saurabh Tewari is an amazing man. So I have worked with the best people and amazing co-actors. I don’t know what I’m going to do in future, but the show Krishna Chali London will be always close to my heart. What has been the biggest highlight of working on this show? The bond between all the co-actors working on the show was really amazing and a major highlight. What is the biggest thing the show has taught you? The biggest thing this show has taught me is, no matter what role you are playing or how experienced you are, what matters is how grounded you are and what your behaviour on set is. If your behaviour is not good, whether you are playing a lead role or are an experienced artist, things won’t work out well. You have to be very grounded and humble to taste success. What is the acting plan going forward? This lockdown has put a

What would be your dream role? My dream role is to play a bubbly character, who is very energetic and offers up interesting challenges at the same time. How have you coped with lockdown and what is the first thing you will do when it’s over? I’ve really loved this lockdown and enjoyed it to the core of my heart. I am working out, having ama zing food at home and taking care of my diet. I am getting proper sleep and spending time with my mom. Everything is so beautiful. I am sure many people are getting affected because of no work, but it’s ok. Everything will get back to normal with time. I have personally found this lockdown very healing. I do really miss acting, being on set and performing in front of the camera. I want to shoot as soon as possible. I would also like to plan a trip with my family. What kind of shows do you like watching as an audience member? I enjoy very light-hearted movies and series. Currently, I’m watching The Big Bang Theory. I have watched almost all the Disney movies in this lockdown, so am a very girly type of a girl. What inspires you? More than positive stories, I get inspired with negative ones. By seeing negative stories, I feel I would not want to make such mistakes myself, so that inspires me. Why do you love being an actor? This is the only talent I have in me. I entered into this industry not because I had good looks or something like that. I was just very confident about my acting skills, so that’s why I chose this career. I got to know why I love being an actor when I became one after I worked in Krishna Chali London. It’s a fun job and very entertaining. There is something very positive about being an actor. It makes me happy.

10. Meeting my Guruji, Pandit Chitresh Das: As an 18-year-old who took her first Kathak class in San Francisco in 1996, I knew within a few months that this art form would play a significant part in my life. I am certain that it is his guidance and teaching style that attracted me to the dance form. This was the start of almost 20 years of intense training with him, on and off the dance floor. 9. Receiving my ghungroo: About a year into my study and training of Kathak, I achieved a first milestone when my Guruji determined I was ready to receive my bells. I strung them on my own and prepared additional components as part of the ceremony, as tradition my Guruji had partaken in when he began studying. My family and friends were present. My Guruji even asked my father to read something from the Quran as I was the first Muslim student to receive bells from him, and he wanted to acknowledge this in a meaningful way. 8. First India tour with the Chitresh Das Dance Company: A few years into my training, I joined my Guruji as a member of his Chitresh Das Dance Company, on a multi-city tour in India, beginning in Kolkata, his birthplace. Going there to perform and assist him in teaching was an experience that I will never forget – from being in communities of artists, interacting with students of various economic backgrounds to the way audiences received us with such respect, love and enthusiasm. I continued going to India as often as possible, with each experience offering me new lessons, challenges and immense rewards. 7. The proposal: Being connected to Kathak, one becomes a part of a community, which extends to our closest friends and family. When my then boyfriend wanted to ask me to marry him, who did he call to coordinate the proposal with, my Guruji! My husband Salim snuck into my Kathak class and came up behind me while I was immersed in dancing. When I finally realised he was there, he took my hand and pro-

posed in a setting with my two loves – my now husband of 20 years and dance. 6. Debut Kathak solo performance: After about 10 years of deep study, training and systematic practice, I performed my first full-length solo performance. I had live musical accompaniment and worked on much of the content on my own, with initial direction given by Guruji. I had to exemplify each aspect of the form, from strength, awareness of rhythm and melody to grace and expressiveness. I had to be able to recite everything I was dancing and keep an audience captivated for an hour and a half. 5. Aziza Noor enters the dance room: Aziza Noor, my nine-year-old daughter, says she’s been dancing since being in my tummy, which is true. But she officially began her Kathak training with me when she was two-years-old. The dual relationship of being mother and teacher continues to bring me great joy, and challenges me as well. I love dancing with Aziza Noor, and the handful of times we have performed togeth© Ammar Zaidi

THE first show Bhoomika Mirchandani auditioned for was Krishna Chali London and landed a cameo role in the series after a winning turn in front of the camera. That natural ability didn’t go unnoticed beca use she was soon promoted to playing a lead negative role in the hit series. The exciting newcomer has now set herself up for a bright career and is one to watch in the future. Eastern Eye caught up with Bhoomika Mirchandani to talk about her confident start to TV, lockdown and hopes.

stop to any acting plans for now, but as soon it is over I will be looking for the next challenge.

by ASJAD NAZIR

Dance moments

er has made my heart just want to jump out of my chest. I truly hope this becomes a lifetime of shared moments, but only the future will tell. 4. The Empress is remembered: In 2014, an idea was born – to create a dance drama based on the life of Mughal Empress Noor Jahan, exploring her influence on the empire, though she was dismissed in the latter years of her life and in death. Titled The Forgotten Empress, I performed all of the characters through Kathak, accompanied by amazing musicians, an actress, and led by a brilliant playwright-director and production team. We’ve performed throughout the US and Pakistan, and are committed to delivering a spectrum of emotions, relationships and occurrences surrounding this powerful woman. And to tell stories that accurately portray our history. 3. Noorani Dance is born: As I ventured out on my own to perform and teach, I wanted to create a community that wasn’t only tied to me in name, thus Noorani Dance was born. Noorani means bright or luminous, with a dual meaning of enlightenment. US-based non-profit organisation Noorani Dance is committed to enlightening minds and hearts through the arts, offering traditional and innovative Kathak training and performances, and collaborative partnerships across the performing arts. Fun fact: Noorani is my birth name, so a perfect tribute to my parents for all they have done to support and enlighten me. 2. The Partition Project: In 2018, I achieved a long-term goal of mine – to create work on the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan. Noorani Dance, in collaboration with EnActe Arts, premiered the first phase The Partition Project – a multi-layered production of dance, theatre, music and multimedia. With the goal of provoking dialogue to learn from our past, inform our present and change the future, this is a provocative and compelling performance. It weaves true-life accounts through a retrospective lens, into the greatest mass displacement in human history. Phase two will launch in 2021, as we approach 75 years since Partition. 1. Dancing in Pakistan: The most celebrated aspect of my life as a Kathak artist has been the opportunity to fulfil my desire to dance in Pakistan. Since 2015, I’ve been going multiple times each year to teach and perform throughout the country. Consistently welcomed into the beautiful cultural arts landscape of Pakistan, I hope to encourage an openness to dance, and Kathak, specifically, to bridge the divide between India and Pakistan through the arts. Also, to change the perception of Pakistanis in the US and elsewhere, by sharing my wonderful experiences, and continue to bring peace and light through my artistic efforts. n Farah Yasmeen Shaikh is an internationally renowned performer, choreographer, instructor, and founder & artistic director of Noorani Dance. She is also a TEDx speaker, and host of her own podcast Heartistry. Instagram: @farahyasmeenshaikh, Facebook: @ farahyasmeenshaikh & Twitter: @farahyshaikh

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Prithvi ‘sparked Budhwar’s lifelong interest in theatre’

SETTING THE STAGE: Kailash Budhwar (seated, third from right) with his fellow cast members in Shahjahan

BBC PRESENTER WAS PART OF THE COMPANY SET UP BY HINDI FILM ICON PRITHVIRAJ KAPOOR by AMIT ROY EVEN close friends of Kailash Budhwar, who knew the former BBC broadcaster for many decades, will find it difficult to identify him in an evocative photograph of cast members of a play taken 70 years ago. His daughter, the actress Mamta Kaash, reveals her father is “seated in the second row, third from right – he played the lead role of the emperor Aurangzeb in this play called Shahjahan.” In the audience was the legendary actor Prithviraj Kapoor, who was impressed with young Budhwar’s talents, who shortly afterwards joined Prithvi Theatres in Bombay (now Mumbai). Mamta adds: “He obviously learned the craft of play writing at Prithvi Theatres.” Budhwar, who died on July 11, aged 88, was head of Hindi and Tamil at BBC Bush House from 1979 to 1992. However, he had a lifelong interest in theatre, sealed by his experience of acting and writing for the Prithvi Theatres from May 1954 to June 1955. Its origins go back to 1942 when Prithviraj began experimenting with theatre, funding it with money he made from movies. Over nearly eight decades since then, the Prithvi Theatre has served as a

crucible of talent, allowing for an exchange between Hindi language theatre and the Hindi film industry, now known as Bollywood. Initially, Prithvi Theatres, as it was initially called, was a travelling company of 150-200 people set up in 1944. Prithviraj, who made his debut with Kalidasa’s classic Shakuntala, would travel the country with his company, performing in cinemas and available halls. In subsequent years, the company sta ged more than 2,600 plays, among them Deewar, Pathan (a community comprising Hindus and Muslims of north India), Ghaddar, Aahuthi, Kalaakar, Paisa and Kisaan. Prithviraj invariably starred as the lead actor in his productions, which is what his audience expected. It was his dream to have a permanent home for his theatre company and in 1962, he leased some land in Juhu [a western suburb in the city]. But Prithviraj died in 1972 before the land was bought by his son, Shashi Kapoor, through the Shri Prithviraj Kapoor Memorial Trust & Research Foundation. The Prithvi Theatre was finally built in 1978 and run by Shashi and his wife, Jennifer Kendal, who also had a theatrical background. She was the daughter of Laura and Geoffrey Kendal, who ran their

own travelling theatre company called Shakespeareana. The 1965 Merchant Ivory film, Shakespeare Wallah, loosely based on the Kendal family, starred Jennifer’s parents, her sister Felicity Kendal, Shashi, Madhur Jaffrey and Utpal Dutt. The actor-friendly Prithvi Theatre building in Juhu, with an attached bookshop and café, was designed and built by the architect Ved Segan under the supervision of Jennifer. A charity show to raise money for the theatre was supported by the likes of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, Rekha, Sanjeev Kumar, Shabana Azmi, Mohammad Rafi and many others. Jennifer remained the main driving force of the Prithvi Theatre until her death in 1984 when the mantle passed to her son and daughter, Kunal and Sanjna (sometimes written as Sanjana) Kapoor. The Prithvi Theatre was inaugurated on November 5, 1978. Udhwastha Dharma shala, written by GP Deshpande and performed by Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Benjamin Gilani, was its first play. This was followed by a play by the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), a political satire, Bakri, directed by actordirector MS Sathyu. The Indian government issued a commemorative stamp in 1995 to mark 50

years of Prithvi Theatre. In 2006, its annual festival which celebrated the birth centenary of Prithviraj, was titled Kala Desh Ki Sewa Mein (art in service of the nation). It did not close even on September 7, 1984, the day Jennifer died – the “show went on” in true theatre tradition. Talking about how he managed to get into the Prithvi Theatres, Budhwar told Vijay Rana, who records the history of British Asians, that he began taking an active interest in theatre while a history student at Allahabad University in the early 1950s. Even at school he had dabbled in acting, directing and writing. Prithviraj, who had come to Allahabad to attend the Kumbh Mela, was invited by Budhwar to the university where he told the actor it was his ambition to join the Prithvi Theatres. “I had seen his touring plays and I was very excited.” After graduation in 1954, Budhwar’s family gave him permission to go to Bombay, where he persuaded Prithviraj to take him on, initially as an “extra”. “I started going to rehearsals which began at 10am,” Budhwar recalled. The breakthrough came when the theatre announced it was going on tour. Budhwar said: “When the list of people going on tour was published, my name was there. Unsure what this meant, I

asked the deputy director who said, ‘You are now a staff member.’” When Prithviraj asked him about the role he wanted to play, Budhwar said it was that of “Salim”, who chooses to remain behind in India while other family members in the play opt to cross the border into the newly created state of Pakistan. His wish was granted. Budhwar loved Hindi, the language and its literature. Mamta says her father encouraged her, her two sisters and her brother to “speak Hindi at home”. However, for a “vegetarian like me”, Bombay life was not to Budhwar’s taste, he told Rana, “and I left to return home without telling Prithvirajji”. Mamta has a slightly different account: “I think he left to marry Mama.” But the friendship he struck up with a very young Shashi endured, and the actor would never fail to call on him during Budhwar’s days at the BBC in London. Prithvi Theatre continues to flourish as a non-profitmaking organisation. Sanjna, who left in 2012 to set up her own organisation, Junoon, but retains a close working relationship with Prithvi Theatre, remembers: “I was 10 when Prithvi Theatre was being built and I would go there with my mother. It remains dedicated to Hindi theatre.”

Feature

Seth’s novel makes for suitable Sunday prime-time TV drama BIG MOMENT FOR ENTERTAINMENT AS SERIES FEATURES ALL-INDIAN CAST

by AMIT ROY

JUST before A Suitable Boy was published in 1993, I met Vikram Seth in London and spent a long, lazy afternoon talking about his book. He had published The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse and although it had been well received, Seth was then a relatively unknown author. All that was to change with the publication of A Suitable Boy. I remember

MAKING HISTORY: Tanya Maniktala; and (clockwise from top left) with Mahira Kakkar; Gagandeep Singh Riar (as Pran Kapoor) and Rasika Dugal; Ishaan Khatter with Tabu; and Tanya and Danesh Razvi in scenes from A Suitable Boy

asking him: “Do you think there is a film in here?” “I think it will work better as a TV series,” he replied. It has taken 27 years, but at last the BBC has had the courage to do what no one else in this country has tried to do before – put on a drama at prime time in which all the characters are Indian. This is a big moment in British television. All I will say at this stage, as the sixpart adaptation gets underway on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday (26), is that readers who have been following Eastern Eye’s reports on the twists and turns during the filming on location in India, are in for a treat, both visual and cinematic. At one level it is a very Indian story: Mrs Rupa Mehra (Mahira Kakkar), a widow, has just got her elder daughter Savita (Rasika Dugal) married off to a husband of her choice. She is even more determined to find a suitable boy for 19-year-old Lata (Tanya Maniktala), her youngest child who is showing worrying signs of independence. In fact, Lata tells Kabir Durrani (Danesh Razvi), the first of her suitors who wonders if he can walk her: “India is a free country.” But although Seth’s tale is set in India in 1951 four years after independence, the themes are universal. Lata’s budding romance with Kabir quickly gets into trouble after word gets back to her mother that her daughter has been spotted walking along the Ganges with “a boy”. Mrs Mehra soon gets the name out of Lata: “Kabir”. Does he have a surname? “Durrani.” Could he be a Parsi, Mrs Mehra asks desperately. Lata has to come clean. Kabir Durrani is Muslim. For this she gets two tight slaps. This Hindu-Muslim romance is taking place against the background of an India still reeling from the horrors of partition in 1947. Some local Hindus decide to build a temple next to a mosque. In the riots that follow, a number of Muslims are killed when police fire at protestors. However, despite the communal tensions, there are deep friendships that cut across religious lines.

Meanwhile, in the local assembly, moves are under way to bring the zamindari system run by rich landlords to an end. India is also about to hold its first general election. The director Mira Nair has whittled down the countless characters in Seth’s long novel to a cast of 113. There has also been some debate about whether a white man, Andrew Davies, should have been commissioned to write the script. But with plenty of Urdu and Hindi dialogue, the drama does not feel it has been written by a foreigner. When the story begins in Brahmpur, a small town in northern India, English is spoken in the way Indians do. But the accent becomes more clipped as the story moves to the anglicised Chatterji family in Calcutta (now Kolkata). People dress up to go dancing in the evening and have affairs. Maniktala, a fresh face, is very well cast as Lata. But the show is almost stolen by Tabu who plays the courtesan Saeeda Bai. No wonder Maan Kapoor (Ishaan Khatter), a feckless toy boy, becomes besotted with her. Shahana Goswami is excellent as the

flighty Meenakshi Mehra. She is a Chatterji who has married Lata’s elder brother, Arun (Vivek Gomber), who is a bit of a bully. Meenakshi’s brother, Amit Chatterji (Mikhail Sen), is a poet. I remember Seth admitting that he put something of himself into the character of Amit. If memory serves he also told me when his mother, Leila Seth, a senior judge, was expecting him, she was reading a classic Tagore novel, Shesher Kabita (The Last Poem), in which the central character is one Amit Ray. When her son was born she was minded to call him Amit, but the family drew up horoscopes and decided the child would be called Vikram. However, as the author, he had the freedom to create the character he wanted. It remains to be seen how white viewers will receive A Suitable Boy, but for British Asian audiences, it looks like being a rare offering. For maximum enjoyment, those who have not yet read the novel should have a go at reading it. I should also get a proper hardback version because my copy, dated February 7, 1993, consists of “uncorrected bound proofs”.

‘The show’s themes are universal’

Recipes

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

Edible flower ice

Edible flowers EDIBLE flowers have al ways been used as a dec orative feature. But they are not just a pretty ad dition, they actually have many health pro moting benefits. Most edible flowers have the same distinct taste as their mother plant; this helps in de ciding which flowers to add to a certain dish. For example, chive flowers would be a great addition to decorate on quiches and savoury muffins, but not great on sorbets and ice creams. Edible flowers are a rich source of vitamin C. Each variety possesses some of the same quali

Ingredients: n A selection of edi ble flowers (organic or pesticide free) n Water (distilled wa ter is better, but not essential; it gives a clear finish) n Ice cube trays (preferably silicone, it’s easier to get the ice cubes out)

ties and nutrients as the mother plant. Edible flo wers contain a variety of antioxidants. The darker the colour, the more an tioxidants are present. Some of the most popular edible flowers are camomile, lavender, rose, pansies, violets, marigolds, nasturtiums, courgette flowers and chive flowers. There are certain types of flowers that are poisonous such as fox gloves and crocus. It is best to use pesti cide free edible flowers and home-grown is best. Here are some recipes that you can try for yourself. Enjoy.

Method: n Pour some water into the ice cube tray until just half full and freeze until solid. n Meanwhile care

Method: n Gently wash the edible

Rose petals jam Elderflower fritters

Method: n Carefully wash the elder flower heads, making sure

that any insects have been removed. Place them on kitchen paper to dry. Put the frying oil to heat up to about 180C. n Sift the flours into a bowl along with a pinch of salt. Then stir in the caster sugar and the egg. n When the oil is hot enough, whisk in the spar kling water into the flour mixture until you get a coat ing consistency. Dip the el derflower heads into the batter and shake off any ex

fully wash the edible flowers and place them neatly on top of the frozen cubes of ice. Gently pour some more water on top of the half ice cube and edible flower. Place in the freezer until needed. n With this method you will get the edi ble flower in the cen tre of the ice cube. You can substitute the water with any cl ear liquor or juice of your choice and add them to cocktails.

Candied pansy and viola

Ingredients: n Pansies, violas or any edible flowers or petals that are pesticide free n 1 egg white n 1 tsp vodka or water (vodka helps dry the flowers quicker) n caster sugar n small paintbrush

Ingredients: n 12 elderflower heads n 80g self raising flour n 2 tsp cornflour n pinch of salt n 1 tbsp caster sugar n 1 egg n 150ml–160ml sparkling water n Icing sugar for dusting n Rapeseed oil or any neu tral flavoured oil for frying

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cess; carefully put the bat tered flower heads into the hot oil. Using a slotted spoon take out the crisp, golden brown elderflower heads and place them on kitchen paper to drain them. Serve immediately sprinkled with icing sugar. n This recipe can be used to make any edible flower fritters. Ensure that you put the sparkling water into the flours at the last possible minute, so that the bubbles keep the batter airy.

Ingredients: n 2 cups of rose pet als that are pesticide free. Fragrant roses make a lovelier scent ed jam. n 1 cup water n 1½ cups of jam n sugar n 3½ tbsp lemon juice Method: n Prepare the rose petals by making sure that they are insect and debris free and wash gently. Add them to a heavy based pan along with the water. Bring to the boil and then low er to a simmer for about 10 minutes. n Add the jam sugar

(jam sugar already contains pectin so you don’t need to add any) and simmer for a further 10 minutes, then add the fresh lemon juice. n Simmer for a furth er five minutes. You will notice that the colour of the jam ch anges as soon as you add the lemon juice. n Pour into sterile jars. It will still be bit runny, but it will thicken as it cools. n This is a lovely way to preserve your fa vourite roses and en joy eating them. The rose petals jam can be added to yoghurt, spread on toast or in rice pudding.

flowers and place on kitch en paper. Whisk together the egg white and vodka/ water until combined. Keep a plate with the caster sugar and a small spoon ready to one side and a tray/ plate covered with parchment pa per on another. n Using the small paint brush dip into the egg white mixture and paint the whole of the edible flower, includ

ing the back, and then sprinkle the caster sugar over it using a small spoon. Place the prepared flower on to the parchment paper to dry completely. Once dry, carefully put in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator until needed. n They can last up to a month. Use them to deco rate cakes, biscuits, desserts or ice cream.

News

The coronavirus - A poem on misery and loss caused by the pandemic THE coronavirus is a horrible, deadly disease Human beings are worried; when will it cease? Inhabitants are prisoners in their own home Shocked, helpless, annoyed, locked in a room

Deserted, silent streets, no one to meet Human lives seem paralysed as if no feet Panic buying, hoarding, causing havoc in shops Old and sick people unable to move, only stop

Common sense, public order must prevail We must stick to the rules to fight this disease, otherwise we fail The infection in the air is damaging people To be safe and healthy we must control our will

Doctors and nurses are working relentlessly day and night To survive against the virus ‘obey the rules and fight!’ Scientists are busy tracing its symptoms Very vital for the economy and our social system

Thousands of citizens lost loved ones and lives Forever to be sad and mourn relatives and wives This is a world-wide crisis humans are facing Unexpected long lasting misery, all of us are suffering

Closing down educational, cultural and social institutions Is a good measure Life being in peril To pray for the infants, elders and the vulnerable is easier - S Alauddin Ahmed

MYSTIC EYE

How mindless consumption can lead to human suffering SADHGURU: BUY WHAT IS NEEDED, BUT DON’T TRY TO SATISFY OTHER’S OPINION

PIYUSH: Is consumerism actually driven by paranoia? People buy six saris because they are afraid that when they go to a party, someone else there is wearing the same sari. People buy a new mobile phone every three months because someone else also got a new mobile phone. When it comes to children’s products, I think the paranoia is at a phenomenal level. When I was young, no one stopped me from climbing trees, no one gave me extra supplements with my food, and people allowed me to do things that I wanted to do. Today, we are feeding our children all kinds of things, which is paranoia to me. Is consumerism driven by paranoia? Sadhguru: Whether it is consum erism or something else, any kind of “ism” will lead to a certain mindless ness. Mindless consumerism is defi nitely not towards human wellbeing. Consumption (an archaic name for pulmonary tuberculosis) used to be a disease, you know? Even now, it is a kind of ailment. That is, we do not do what is needed in our lives; we do what is expected by others. The peo ple who expect things out of you do not know a thing about their own lives. If you live to fulfil their expec tations, obviously your life will go off the track. So, I feel the advertising in dustry should focus on creating con scious consumption rather than mindless consumerism. Mindlessness means just simply doing something. Once mindlessness sets in, society will go in cycles, not really getting anywhere. There will be nothing profound in that society. Ev erything will become profane. Right now, we are rapidly going in that di rection. India used to be a culture where every aspect of life had a deep er rooting and meaning. Even simple things – how to sit, how to stand, how to eat – always had a deeper connota tion. Because of this, no matter what kind of rigours external situations of fered us in the form of invasions, famines, or whatever else, the spirit of India lived on undisturbed. If you take away this deeper root ing in human beings and make them live out of a mall, they will get shat tered easily. Until about 20 years ago, the number of people who were psy chologically deranged in this country was extremely low. You could say the

number was low because proper re cords were not kept, which is a fact, but still, for so many hundreds of millions of people, the number of those who were psychologically der anged was extremely small because of this deeper rooting, that every sim ple thing had a deeper meaning and a deeper possibility. If you look at the percentage of the US population who are on antidepressants, it is not a healthy society, which in many ways is a result of mindless consumerism. It is very important that human societies function out of their intelli gence, not just out of external ten dencies that come and go. That we are pushing the majority of society into this kind of a mode clearly shows we are not interested in the wellbeing of human beings; we just want to sell something at any cost. And above all, if the more than seven billion people on the planet consume at the same level as an av erage American citizen, statistics say, we will need almost four-and-a-half planets. But we only have half a planet left! This means you have to keep half of the world population in abject poverty so that others can go on a consumerism binge. I think a more sensible way of liv ing is possible. This does not mean you should not enjoy your life, or that you should not have things. Everyone should have what they need. But dig ging up the planet just for the sake of satisfying someone else’s opinion is simply mindless. I am not trying to render an ecological message. My concern is about human beings. This is like the proverbial story of a man cutting the branch that he is sitting on. If he succeeds, he will fall. In many ways, this is already happen ing. Nowadays you see that many of the most successful people have real ly tense and agitated faces. This does not mean success is suffering. It is mindless consumerism that leads to suffering. The ad industry should fo cus on conscious consumption. n Ranked among the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.

PRAGMATIC: Sadhguru

Week in pictures

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

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n Children play on a flooded street after heavy rains in New Delhi on Tuesday (21)

n People suffering from coronavirus perform yoga inside a care centre for Covid-19 patients at an indoor sports complex in New Delhi on Tuesday (21)

n Sri Lankan Buddhist devotees drape a saffron cloth around the stupa at the Kirivehera Buddhist temple in the southern coastal town of Kataragama last week

n A trader wears a face mask as a preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus as he holds his camels while waiting for customers at a cattle market set up for the upcoming Muslim festival Eid al-Adha, in Rawalpindi on Monday (20)

n A man sells protective masks outside a cattle market, as the provincial government restricts the entrance of people without a protective mask, in efforts to stem the spread of Covid-19, in Peshawar, Pakistan, last Wednesday (15)

n A girl uses a handpump amid flood waters in Sreenagar, Bangladesh, on Monday (20)

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‘CULTURE OF RACISM, FEAR AND BULLYING’ THEY administer justice and safeguard the law, and yet they are the powerless victims of racism. South Asian judges have this week blown the whistle on “a culture of racism, fear and bullying” in the British judiciary. After a six-week investigation, Eastern Eye can exclusively reveal a systemic culture of racism in the judiciary, where black or Asian judges who “speak out or do anything which is not considered to be part of the club, face retribution”. One judge said they were put on antidepressants after contemplating suicide because the racist bullying was so bad. “Those who worked with me would brief against me, and they would turn court staff against me,” they said. “When I raised it with the head judge, who was white, they said, ‘I don’t believe you’. “If I formally complained I would have been blacklisted. I was really on the edge, heartbroken. It was just so horrible, and I had suicidal thoughts.” A number of black and Asian judges spoke to Eastern Eye on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from judicial authorities. Some testimonies have been deliberately withheld so as to not identify the judges who spoke out. The paper can, however, reveal that BAME judges have had their career paths blocked because of their colour, been told

20% THAT’S JUST

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that their appointment to the bench was only to fill quotas and have been shunned by white colleagues. “All I can say about this is what my boss says, what happened to me wouldn’t have happened to someone who’s white,” one confided. “They carry on being racist covertly and cleverly now. Privately, they acknowledge my progress has been blocked. They know that because there are so many white people who started at the same time who’ve been promoted.” Labour’s shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, who held a review into the treatment of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff in the criminal justice system, has demanded an independent investigation if the allegations made in this report could not be answered. Barry Gardiner, the former shadow international trade secretary and Labour MP for Brent North, has tabled questions in parliament, with one calling for an independent investigation into racism and harassment in the judiciary. One BAME judge said, “If an Asian or black barrister becomes a silk or a judge, the white colleague will whisper that it’s because the judiciary needs to up numbers, rather than the fact we’ve made it on our own merit. We’ve only got there because of positive discrimination and preferential treatment.” Another explained the toxic culture in the Continued on page 4

WORRY: Three generations of the Bachchan family, including (clockwise from left) Amitabh, his son Abhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya, and grand-daughter Aaradhya are unwell with coronavirus

COVID CONCERN: PRAYERS FOR BACHCHANS AS FOUR TEST POSITIVE

Your Stars 2020

THE VOICE OF BRITISH ASIANS

Asian judges speak out about working in a shocking...

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Sport

July 24, 2020 • Twitter.com/easterneye

BACK IN ACTION: West Indies and England are playing a Test series now

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‘Internet made chess a truly global sport’

THE men’s T20 World Cup due to take place in Australia from October has been postponed until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the International Cricket Council annou nced on Monday (20). Officials said they now hoped to stage the tournament from October to November 2021. There will also be a T20 World Cup in 2022, with the 2023 50-over World Cup in India pushed back until October-November of that year. “We have undertaken a comprehensive and complex contingency planning exercise and through this process, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport,” said ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney. “The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration

of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.” International cricket has resumed behind closed doors in England, with the host nation taking on the West Indies in a three-Test series. Pakistan are also in England preparing for a series of Tests and Twenty20 matches and Australia are making preparations for a potential limited-overs tour of England. Selectors named a preliminary squad last week but Cricket Australia said “several hurdles” had to be overcome before dates could be locked in. Australia were originally scheduled to play three one-day and three T20 internationals this month but the trip was postponed.

Legal setback for BCCI A COURT has ordered India’s cricket board to pay more than $640 million (£504m) to former Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers for their illegal termination. The Chargers, which were owned by the Deccan Chronicle newspaper group, were kicked out of the IPL in 2012 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for financial breaches. The action was taken a day before the team’s deadline to settle mat-

ters. The Bombay high court ruled last Friday (17) the termination was illegal and premature. “They have been directed to pay $640 million plus taxes,” the legal representative said on condition of anonymity. “We haven’t received the judgement copy yet, only after reading we will decide next plan of action,” Hemang Amin, interim chief executive of the BCCI, was quoted as saying by the Economic Times newspaper.

T20 World Cup deferred to 2021 ANAND: HAPPY THAT

PEOPLE DISCOVERED THE GAME DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

CELEBRATING CHESS: Viswanathan Anand

CHESS has attracted many first-timers during the Covid-19 pandemic and the massive reach of the internet has made it a “truly global sport”, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand said to mark the first ever World Chess Day. “Thanks to the internet, (chess) has become a truly global sport. I believe that it is never more widely disseminated as it is now,” Anand said in a virtual commemoration of the World Chess Day at the UN on Monday (20). “And of course, during the pandemic, I’m very happy that so many people have discovered the game of chess. Perhaps, they didn’t have the time or they never got around to it. But this has been a very good chance for chess to spread,” he said. The former world champion said “most Indian parents are right” that chess will help their children do better in school. “I hope that the current positive trajectory of chess that we have experienced recently will continue in the future, without pandemics even,” Anand said. The high-level virtual event ‘Chess for Recover-

ing Better’ bought together chess players, UN and governments officials, representatives of civil society and academia. In December 2019, the UN General Assembly had proclaimed July 20 as World Chess Day to mark the date of the establishment of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Paris in 1924. Over the past few months, the overall interest in chess is reported to have doubled, with more players than ever coming together to participate in chess events that are being increasingly held through online platforms, the UN said. Anand told the virtual session that he had learned chess from his mother and highlighted the history and evolution of the game from India to other parts of the world. He said a lot of families across India played chess with great enthusiasm. “If in fact you mentioned to anyone that you played chess, quite often the head of the family will go out and pull out his own chess set and play a game. “So it was part of our culture, even though it had to be rediscovered in a sporting context,” he said,

adding that while chess spread across Russia and Europe and other parts of the globe, “Asia had to rediscover it and India had to come back to it.” “In fact, when I won the world championship in the year 2000, it felt like my journey mirrored…the ancient paths,” he said adding that he was living in Spain at the time and the venues for the knockout tournaments were Delhi and Tehran. “So, these were the first three countries where chess seems to have spread,” and he brought the chess title back to India, he said. The UN said that with the Covid-19 pandemic impacting most sports worldwide, the first ever World Chess day celebrates the highly-competitive game that can be played safely indoors or online and which also helps in reducing anxiety and improving mental health. “Today is a day of celebration for an intellectual game that for centuries has managed to entertain, stimulate and sometimes even confound millions of us, the world over,” Under-Secretary-General of UN Global Communications Melissa Fleming said.

How Kapil helped Dravid find his calling BATTING great Rahul Dravid says legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev’s advice helped him to explore options after his retirement before eventually taking up the coaching job of India A and Under-19 sides. “After I finished (playing), there were quite a few options and I was not sure what to do. It was Kapil Dev who gave me this advice actually when I was coming to the end of my career,” Dravid told India women’s team coach WV Raman on his Youtube channel Inside Out. “I bumped into him somewhere and he said ‘Rahul, don’t commit to doing anything

straightaway, go out and spend a few years just exploring and doing different things and see what you really like’. I thought it was good advice.” The former captain said initially he liked doing commentary, but later found “a little disconnect” from the game. “The thing that gave me the most satisfaction was really being involved in the game and being connected with the boys. I really liked the coaching side of things and I got sort of involved in that when the opportunity came up to do some coaching with India A and Under-19,” Dravid said.

“I thought it was a good place to start and and took it up and I’ve really enjoyed it since. I just feel a lot more satisfying to be involved in the coaching side of things,” said the legendary batsman, who piled up 13,288 runs from 164 Tests between 1996 and 2012. “Especially the developmental side of coaching, whether India A, Under-19 or the NCA. It’s really given me the opportunity to work with a lot of the players without having to worry about the immediate results which I think is a really nice space for me to work in.” Dravid also revealed that he

doubted himself as an ODI player when he was dropped from the Indian team in 1998 mainly due to his strike rate. “There have been phases in my international career (when I felt insecure). I was dropped from the ODI team in 1998. I had to fight my way back in, was away from the Indian team for a year,” he said. “There were certain insecurities than about whether I’m a good enough one-day player or not because I always wanted to be a Test player, was coached to be a Test player, hit the ball on the ground, don’t hit the ball in the air, coaching like that. You

TALKING CRICKET: Rahul Dravid is now the head of the National Cricket Academy sort of worry whether you had the skills to be able to do it.” Dravid made a comeback to the ODI side ahead of the 1999

World Cup in England and ended up as the highest scorer (461) of the event though India failed to make it to the semi-finals.

Amir set for England tour as Covid takes toll on Pakistan team Test matches and three T20 internationals next month. The left-arm pace bowler surprisingly retired from Test cricket last year. Amir infamously deliberately bowled no-balls as part of a spot-fixing scandal in a Test against England at Lord’s in 2010. He was banned for five years and jailed by a UK court. The PCB also said the arrival of batsman Shoaib Malik had been delayed due to India’s extension of a ban on internation-

FAST bowler Mohammad Amir will join Pakistan’s upcoming tour of England, having originally withdrawn from the squad citing personal reasons, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Monday (20). The 28-year-old pulled out so he could be at the birth of his second child in August, but his daughter was born last week. Amir will have to test negative for the coronavirus twice before travelling to England, where Pakistan will play three

al flights, pushing back his planned family reunion. Malik is married to Indian tennis star Sania Mirza. Amir will replace another fast bowler, Haris Rauf, who has undergone six coronavirus tests, five of which have returned positive. All players need two negative tests before they are eligible to go on the England tour. The PCB was arranging for Rauf to fly to Britain last week, but another test last Sunday

(19) came back positive. The board said the bowler was asymptomatic and has been advised to self-quarantine for another 10 days. Rauf, 26, came into the limelight earlier this year when he performed well in Australia’s Big Bash Twenty20 league. He has so far played two Twenty20 internationals for Pakistan. Pakistan play the first of three Tests in Manchester from August 5. They also play three Twenty 20 internationals on the tour.

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COMEBACK CHALLENGE: Mohammad Amir

Sport

Instagram.com/easterneyenews/ • www.easterneye.biz • July 24, 2020

Pitching in to get park cricket going

GRASSROOTS GROUPS HIGHLIGHT ISSUES FACING ASIAN PLAYERS

CONCERN: Irfan Pathan

Bowlers need time ‘to get up to speed’

FORMER India pacer Irfan Pathan feels that the fast bowlers will take at least four to six weeks to get back into rhythm when they return to action after the coronavirus hiatus. Most of the cricketers in India haven’t been able to practise since March due to the countrywide lockdown imposed to contain the outbreak of Covid. “To be honest, I am really worried about the fast bowlers,” said Pathan, who has played 29 Tests and 120 ODIs for India, on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

“Going forward, they might need four-to-six weeks to get going themselves. It’s a tough job – you are bowling 140-150 kmph, running about 25 yards to bowl one ball at a time and then keep bowling for a few overs,” he added. “Your body gets stiff, so injury management will be key as well because I think for any fast bowler to get back into rhythm, it takes at least four-to-six weeks. “So I think fast bowlers will have to be a little more careful than spinners or the batsmen,” Pathan said.

THE return of recreational cricket in England has been welcomed, but many British Asian park leagues will not bowl their first ball until early August, according to a leading organisation. Grassroots matches were allowed to resume on July 11 for the first time since lockdown, while England won the second Test match to level the three-match series against the West Indies on Monday (20) in a bio-secure environment. The National Asian Cricket Council (NACC) believes that games played in parks cannot resume until next month due to the time needed to get pitches ready. It has highlighted the impact that the coronavirus lockdown has had on the wellbeing of players and spectators, who were unable to play and watch the sport they love. Gulfraz Riaz, chairman of the NACC, told Eastern Eye: “From a participant point of view, it’s had quite a detrimental affect. “The south Asian cricketing community is disadvantaged at the best of times due to [lack of funding], and playing on sub-standard grounds. “Traditional English clubs have the luxury of groundsmen. “Although the green light has been given, recreation cricket will take a further three weeks for pitches to be ready. It will be the early part of August for the south Asian cricket community to get back. “There is a definite divide between the traditional and the south Asian cricketing community.” British Asians account for an estimated one third of grassroots cricketers in England and Wales. There was concern last month over the future of leagues often played among British Asian communities at local authority grounds. A popular format is tape ball cricket, which uses a tennis ball covered in tape. The NACC said the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has been in contact with them on a weekly basis since mid-April, but local authorities are independent and are restricted by resources on when they can maintain pitches. Riaz added that new rules were discussed for the return of park cric ket, including reduced over games. “Generally players come in their whites or get changed under trees as there are no dressing rooms.

GAME PLAN: Cricket plays a vital role in supporting the mental and physical wellbeing of children, charities say “There is talk of getting the umpire to hold a bottle or tub of hand sanitiser; using two balls; and getting the captains to sign a disclaimer that anyone showing signs of the virus is not picked.” On the impact of the sport returning, he added: “A lot of elders from the community do watch cricket. “For adults and younger participants to get out and be in an environment they have passion for, and socialising and mixing with others, it’s a huge positive. “For three to six hours, to be away from life’s stresses and lockdown.” The government had got itself in a spin over when grassroots cricket would resume. Prime minister Boris Johnson had said it was not safe because of issues with “teas and dressing rooms”. However, in a later briefing, he said the government would publish guidelines to help clubs and players prepare for the sport’s return. The Chance to Shine charity runs Street cricket programmes. It said 65

per cent of participants are from south Asian backgrounds and “many of them do very little physical activity outside of the Street sessions.” The charity’s chief executive, Laura Cordingley, told Eastern Eye: “The Covid-19 lockdown has affected cricketers from all backgrounds. For so many of the young people we work with, playing cricket is a crucial part of supporting their physical and mental wellbeing. “We have been keeping in contact with the parents of our participants, many of whom noted that the lockdown has had a significant impact on their children’s physical and mental health. “The children are also missing their friends who they attend the sessions with, and there is an increased risk of social isolation. “We are working to adapt our Street tapeball format to adhere to government and ECB guidelines.” The ECB said alongside the return of the sport, it is vital that local communities in inner-city areas can

by NADEEM BADSHAH

continue to access quality cricket facilities. A spokesman said: “Feedback during the consultation for the South Asian Action Plan showed concern about a lack of cricket facilities being a key barrier to playing. “We have invested significantly, including the installation of 92 nonturf pitches in inner city areas alongside the creation of pilot Urban Centres to provide community hubs for cricket in key areas in core cities. “Last year, we opened our first Urban Centre in Leyton – one of the key promises in the plan. The facility is providing playing opportunity to a range of local communities.” It comes after Vikram Solanki was recently appointed as head coach of Surrey, the first British Asian to take charge of a county side. Recent research from Leeds Beckett University showed that Solanki, who was born in India and raised in Wolverhampton, Midlands, is one of only five coaches of south Asian heritage among the 118 in senior men’s county set-ups.

BCCI PLANNING A SEPTEMBER IPL IN UAE ber until early November. “It will be held in the UAE but first the board will seek permission from the Indian government to stage it there,” IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said. He added that the exact dates would be decided by the IPL’s governing council in a meeting next week. “But we are looking at September-October and a bit of November for the event to take place.” Media reports have said the IPL would run from September 26 to November 7. Patel would not say whether the games would be played behind closed doors. A final decision would

rest with the UAE and Indian authorities. The IPL is the BCCI’s main revenue earner. It has said it would lose more than $500 million (£393m) if this year’s tournament had not gone ahead. The seven-week extravaganza, which normally plays to packed stadiums across the country, is estimated to generate more than $11 billion for the Indian economy. The BCCI had to wait until the International Cricket Council formally postponed the World Cup on Monday (20) before announcing its new plan. The IPL has been held outside India twice before, in years that it clashed

with national elections. South Africa hosted the 2009 event and part of it was held in the UAE in 2014. The 13th IPL should have started on March 29 but it has been repeatedly postponed because of a nationwide lo ckdown enforced over the coronavirus. A host of international stars, including England’s Ben Stokes and Australia’s Steve Smith and David Warner, are signed up for the eight teams. Australia’s Pat Cummins will be the most expensive overseas star this year after Kolkata Knight Riders agreed to a $2.17m fee for him in a December auction last year.

WORLD CHESS DAY OBSERVED

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THE Indian Premier League, the world’s richest cricket tournament, will be held in the United Arab Emirates from September if India’s government gives approval, the IPL chairman said on Tuesday (21). The postponement of the Twenty20 World Cup until 2021 because of the coronavirus has opened the way for the suspended IPL to go ahead after multiple delays as the pandemic spread this year. The Board of Control for Cricket in India now wants to hold the tournament, which draws top cricket stars from around the world, from Septem-

MONEY-SPINNER: The previous edition of the IPL was won by Mumbai Indians

Former cricketer calls for five-year plan to bring change

SPOT ON: Monty Panesar

THE south Asian diaspora in the UK often becomes the victim of “casual racism”, but that can’t be compared to what the black community has to endure in everyday life, says Monty Panesar. Calling for a mindset change, the former England spinner said authorities should initiate a five-year plan to eradicate racial profiling of black people. “If someone is driving a fancy car here with tinted windows and he happens to be black, he is six times more likely to be stopped by the police than others,” said Panesar, who took 167 wickets in 50 Tests. “So, the fear of the cops is in the everyday life of the black community here. “That is what my black friends tell me. They go to a supermarket store, the general mindset is that he could be here for shoplifting. If I keep something in my pocket, there won’t be added attention but they go through constant tension of being ‘caught’ even though they have not done anything.” Like many in the cricketing community, the 38-year-old said he was moved by Michael Holding’s stirring speech against racism on day one of the first

Test at Southampton, adding the West Indies legend “hit the nail on the head”. “There should be a five-year plan for accelerated change,” said Panesar, whose parents migrated to England from India in the 1970s. “If no changes are made after giving speeches, then there is no point. The speech that Michael Holding gave, I have not seen anyone else delivering a message so powerfully like he did.” In his speech, Holding had said: “Education is important unless we want to continue living the life that we are living and want to continue having demonstrations every now and again and a few people saying a few things. “When I say education, I mean going back in history. What people need to understand is that thing stems from a long time ago, hundreds of years ago. “The dehumanisation of the black race is where it started. People will tell you ‘that’s a long time ago, get over it’. “No, you don’t get over things like that and society has not gotten over something like that. Panesar stressed that there was an urgent need to provide better educa-

tion to more members of the black community, and promote them “to have the white collar jobs like others”. “The south Asian community also faces casual racism but nothing like what the black community faces on a daily basis,” he added. “Subconsciously, we are so prejudiced against the black community that we don’t realise it, we don’t accept it. We need to get it out of our system.” He also highlighted that the Sikh community had been doing social work for decades, “spreading the message of love, and that people have appreciated and they love us back”. Panesar, who played for England from 2006 to 2013, said he was never racially discriminated during his time with the national team. “I did not face it to be honest,” he said, quipping he was more worried about doing his “job properly so that I don’t get an earful from the captain”. “If you are in a team, naturally you would have more things in common with the members of your community,” he said. “But you must make the effort of mingling with all your teammates.”

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