The NEWS you like - June 2019

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PAGES: 68 VOL.7 | ISSUE: 5, JUNE, 2019

VOL:7 I SSUE:5 I JUNE, 2019 `30 Editor A Rammohan Rao

Special Correspondent D. Bal Reddy Correspondents Mallesh Babu Mandha Ravi Kumar G.P. Nagaraju

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EDITORIAL

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hate BJP. I hate BJP. I hate BJP,” says West Bengal states Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Parliament Member Assaduddin Owasi not only hates BJP but also the democratically elected Prime Minster of this country, Narendra Modi. The Ram Navami violence in both Bihar and Bengal saw BJP leaders make incendiary speeches.

Like other emotions, with hate too one experiences surge of energy.

But it’s negative. Destructive. Hatred not only works against the people it is directed at but causes damage to every individual who harbored it.

In a country like India with vast diversity, it is a major concern. During this Lok Sabha elections, the country had witnessed violence caused by hate talks. West Bengal has become center for this. Politicians even hatred their opponents at the personal level. This election season has seen unprecedented personal attacks and insulting verbal attacks on women politicians. They exchanged filthy fusillades, unparliamentary comments during the Lok Sabha election campaign. Karnataka minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appearance and said his wife left him because “his face was not good”.

Last month, Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said PM Modi “sounds like a blonde”. “He has white hair. But he sounds more like a blonde,” he had said.

As many as 58 MPs and MLAs and other politicians in the country have cases of hate speech against them. These include 10 MPs and 17 MLAs from various states. This was revealed in a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), compiled by analyzing candidates’ election affidavits. Some leaders elected to Parliament and Assemblies are talking as if they are representing only the community and caste that they belong to and as if have no responsibility towards others in the constituency that they are representing. This kind of speeches by politicians is dangerous to democracy at various levels. To take a short-cut to victory, they are ready to poison minds and risk loss of lives. Such speeches brainwash people to not care about leaders’ performance and instead choose them for their religious or caste identity.

This trend, worrying in itself, needs to be curtailed. It’s time now for both state and central governments to take stringent action on hate mongers whether they are MPs or MLAs or the ordinary workers of various political parties. It should not matter whether the culprits are from the majority or the minority communities. Get cases registered.

Pursue them with seriousness unlike in the past. If need be special courts should be established for this purpose. The new government at the center should take initiative in this regard.

Note: Focus/Infocus features are marketing initiatives, any legal disputes comes under the jurisdiction of courts in Hyderabad

(A Rammohan Rao) THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

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CONTENT

BJP & Congress won in Telangana 6

Jagan made it finally 9

TRS party in Lok Sabha elections Thumping to tragedy 20

Fertile ground for election violence?

17

Osmania to hold 31 convocation after six years

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

CONTENT

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Balakot air strikes: Foreign Media confirms 170 terrorists death 36

Around 170 Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed in Balakot air strikes. This was confirmed foreign journalist.

TS and AP power utilities hacked: Hit by Rajiv Gandhi International Airport ransomware Among the top 10 in the world 44 ‘Miss India Telangana’ Sanjana Vij. Dream tuned into passion 56

Home is not a good office

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THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

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BJP & Congress won in Telangana

The sudden impact!

T

D.BAL REDDY

he biggest surprises during these Lok Sabha elections in Telangana is Bharatiya Janata Praty( BJP)winning four seats. It is seen as Safran party making inroads into Telangana, taking their tally of MPs from just one to four in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Secunderabad constituencies. Along with this Congress won in three seats sending crucial leaders from TPCC (Telangana Congress Committee) BJP candidates Soyam Bapu Rao from Adilabad, D Arvind from Nizamabad,

G Kishan Reddy from Secunderabad and Bandi Sanjay Kumar from Karimnagar all won margins of over 50,000 votes. Similarly three members of the Congress party who got elected from the Bhongir, Nalgonda, and Malkajgiri constituencies with comfortable majorities.

Nizamabad is one of the BJP’s biggest victory, as the seat was held

by Chief Minister and TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla. It was a location the BJP had focussed on, as national president party Amit Shah had held a public meeting in the THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

constituency. Success at Karimnagar and Adilabad is surprising to many in BJP itself. Party won the seat in spite of little attention BJP state, central leaders have sown.

Public meeting Amit Shah’s scheduled to hold one in Karimnagar was dropped out. Secunderabad was the only constituency held by the BJP in 2014, and the party retained it.

Who are these Telangana BJP MPs? D Arvind(Nizamabad): Entrepreneur and son of TRS Rajya Sabha MP D Srinivas, D Arvind joined the BJP in 2017, but his father continues to be with the

MANDATE-2019 TRS. Arvind also took out a 120km padayatra in 2018 from Jagtial to Bodhan. D Arvind joining the BJP had caused a flutter, and TRS MPs and MLAs led by Nizamabad MP K Kavitha even wrote a letter to TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao to take disciplinary action against Srinivas. TRS MLAs and MPs have in the past accused Srinivas, a former Pradesh Congress Committee(PCC) president, of creating several factions in Nizamabad and sabotaging the party from within.

Calling him an ‘opportunist’ for inducing Arvind into the BJP, they accused him of sabotaging the party to ensure his son’s elevation.

Another point of contention is the Nizam Sugar Factory, which is shut. Demanding that the factory be reopened In a surprise upset, Arvind won by 70,857 votes over incumbent Kavitha Kalvakuntla.

G Kishan Reddy( Secunderabad): Former BJP state President and party floor leader in Assembly G Kishan Reddy contested in the

only seat the party held in the state.

This prestigious Lok Sabha seat was held formerly by former Union Minister of State, veteran BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya. Secunderabad, a seat which the TRS has never won, saw Kishan Reddy, a long-time party worker of the BJP secured 62,114 votes over TRS candidate Talasani Saikiran Yadav, the son of a minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav.

Soyam Bapu Rao (Adilabad): A former MLA from Both, Bapu Rao had been elected in 2004 on a TDP ticket. He is also the president of Thudum Debba, an organization working for Adivasi rights. Bapu Rao led the Adivasi agitation in 2018, demanding the government to decategorize the Lambadas from Scheduled Tribes list. Being at the forefront of the agitation helped him cultivate an image as a mass leader, and Adivasis have also led various struggles under his guidance.

He had unsuccessfully con-

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

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tested as the Congress candidate in the Telangana Assembly polls in 2018. After the Congress refused him the MP ticket, Bapu Rao joined the BJP in March and was offered the MP ticket to contest from Adilabad. Babu Rao has won the seat by 58,650 votes.

Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Karimnagar): A member of the RSS, Sanjay was a president of the ABVP and an executive member. He further rose to the ranks of the BJP and worked as Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha town secretary. Later, he went on to become a state spokesperson of the BJP. He even contested in the recently-held Assembly elections from Karimnagar, and lost. Sanjay won from leading in Karimnagar by a margin of 89,508 votes defeating B.Vinod Kumar, who is a close aide of Chief Minister KCR. What helped the BJP to win more seats?

After Odisha and Karnataka, party president Amit Shah has been

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focussing entirely on Telangana.

We couldn’t, unfortunately, make it for the Assembly Elections but the present mandate shows that in the future we would be the alternative for TRS in Telangana. Compared to Assembly elections held last yearend campaign strategy had been changed for the Lok Sabha Elections.

Political analysts are of the opinion that it’s not new for Telangana voters to choose different paties for Assembly and Parliament. According to them when it comes to national politics, people choose parties that have more chances of forming a stable government and the belief that there is no alternative has surely helped BJP in winning more number of seats this time.

Apart from these BJP has consistently stressed on TRS governments minority, especially Muslims appeasing policies. Some development in recent years like Hindu priest killed in Warangal and leaders challenging given police kept aside fifteen minutes they teach lesion to Hindus a lesion and openly abusing Hindu goddesses has remained the people Razakars atrocities. The BJP which celebrates September 17, the Hyderabad liberation day every year was demanding Telangana government to officially celebrate the day which paves the way to Hyderabad became a part of the Indian Union.

Apart from the government not taking any affirmative action Chief Minister KCR during recent election campaign saying “Hindus…

Bondus” was last straw on camels back.

Congress on revival path?

The Congress party which faired badly and went on losing few elected MLAs joining ruling

TRS has shown revival signs in this elections. The party has captured three Lok Sabha seats, Nalgonda, Bhongir and Malkajgiri. The Congress had made it a point to ensure that some of the stalwarts of the party including Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TSPCC) chief Uttam Kumar Reddy stood for the Lok Sabha elections. A look at the ones who managed to land a victory shows improved congress strength and candidates image.

Uttam Kumar Reddy(Nalgonda):TSPCC President Uttam Kumar Reddy from the beginning had been confident of the party’s win in the state. Went on the record to state that he did not trust the exit polls. While the TRS bagged a landslide victory in the assembly elections Uttam Kumar was one of three Congress party members who have managed to make a mark in their constituencies.The Huzurnagar MLA was earlier had won the Andhra Assembly elections three times in 1999, 2004, and 2009. In this Parliament elections, he had contested from Nalgonda constituency in the Lok Sabha polls took the lead with 5,26,028 votes and eventually garnered a margin of over 25,000 votes.

A.Revanth Reddy(Malkajgiri): Revanth Reddy, working president THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

of the TSPCC. He is a former TDP leader who had switched to Congress in 2017. He has contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time this year. Revanth Reddy was accused in a cash-for-votes scam back in 2015 when Revanth was part of the TDP. He was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau offering a bribe to MLA Elvis Stephenson. In the recent Telangana Assembly elections, Revanth was defeated in the Kodangal constituency. Revanth Reddy won the Lok Sabha seat from Malkajgiri constituency with a margin of 10,919 votes, defeating TRS candidate Marri Rajasekhar Reddy. Rajasekhar Reddy is the son-in-law of C.Malla Reddy, the Telangana minister of Labour, Women and Child Welfare. Malla Reddy had won the Malkajgiri MP seat in 2014 and is presently the MLA from Medchal.

Komatireddy Venkat Reddy(Bhongir): In Bhongir, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is a former MLA from Nalgonda, which had been his stronghold before he lost to the TRS candidate in the 2018 Telangana state polls He had won these Lok Sabha elections with a margin of less than 5,000 votes. He had been contesting against sitting TRS MP Boora Narsaiah Goud.

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Jagan made it finally

Clean sweep!

Y

THE NEWS BUREAU

SR Congress Party (YSRCP) had swept both Assembly and Parliamentary polls in AP. Riding the crest of a strong anti-incumbency wave against the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government.YSRCP president Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy has to lead the party to a landslide victory. After waiting for nine years finally he has realized his dream of becoming Chief Minister of AP(Andhra Pradesh). His party has won in 151 assembly constituencies out of a total of 175 in the state. The YSRCP’s vote share was a phenomenal 49.9%, while the TDP’s 39.2%. YSRCP could also bag 22 Lok Sabha seats out of 25 in AP. The vote shares in Lok Sabha polls were: YSRCP 49.2% and TDP 39.67%. Actor turned politician Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena party could win in one Assembly constituency.

The YSRCP’s win was so comprehensive in all regions and among all sections of people. In almost all the 13 districts, the YSRCP was lead uniformly and bagged all 14 Assembly seats in Kurnool and complete 10 Jagan Mohan Reddy’s native Kadapa district in Rayalaseema and total of 9 seats in Vizianagaram in north coastal Andhra. Most of Chandrababu Naidu’s Cabinet Ministers, includTHE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

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ing his son Lokesh, who held the IT and Panchayat Raj portfolios are defeated by YSRCP candidates putting up an impressive performance.

Chandrababu Naidu’s hopes of returning to power on the plank of development, the Polavaram irrigation project, construction of capital Amaravati and welfare schemes have been shattered. In contrast, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s aggressive campaign against Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘misrule’, turning capital construction into ‘real estate business’, ‘corruption’ in irrigation projects and failure in fulfilling election promises, seemed to have had traction with voters. With YSRCP has shattered the TDP with a knock-out victory. in the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections.

YSRCP chief has dedicated the victory to the people and described the mandate as 'historic'. “Among five crore people, God gave the opportunity to one person to be CM. I sincerely thank people who voted in large numbers. The mandate comes with tremendous responsibility. I will ensure that the country will look up to the State of Andhra Pradesh. I’ll live up to the expectations. Within six months to one year, I will prove that Jagan is a good CM through good administration,” he said.

The YSRCP Legislature Party will meet on May 25 and elected Jagan Mohan Reddy as the leader.

He has sworn -in as new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on May 30 in Vijayawada.

Jagan Reddy's political career, filled with fluctuations, spans well over a decade. His father, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh until his death in a helicopter crash in 2009. Jagan Mohan

Reddy Kadapa parliamentary seat a few months before his YSR's death.

The chief minister's loyalists backed his son to take over, but the Congress picked K Rosiah. Then came Jagan's "odarpu yatra", which he undertook defying the Congress leadership to console the kin of those who died of shock or committed suicide after YS Rajasekhara Reddy's demise.

As Jagan Reddy's rebellion continued to pose a challenge, the Congress replaced K Rosaiah, the chief minister, with N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to deal firmly with dissidence. When Jagan's uncle, YS Vivekananda Reddy, was inducted into the state cabinet, he was angry with what he called "Attempts by the Congress to create division in the family". He left the Congress with his mother YS Vijayamma, and resigned from Parliament. But it wouldn't take long for him to be re-elected -- this happened after he founded the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in 2011.

The alleged dramatic increase in YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's wealth when his father was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh had triggered demands from his Congress and Telugu Desam party rivals for THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

a thorough probe. In 2011, the high court ordered a CBI probe against him and cases were registered against him and his aides. In what's called the 'quid-pro-quo' cases, Jagan Reddy was accused of getting investments in his businesses in return for undue favours shown to the investors by the YSR administration -- in the form of approvals, leases, contracts and government land. But he denied the charges as "witch-hunting". His rivals also targeted his media ventures, alleging that the ill-gotten wealth of YSR had gone into a Telugu newspaper Sakshi and a channel same name(Sakshi TV)owned by him.

Jagan Mohan Reddy was arrested by the CBI and jailed in May 2012.

He was granted bail after sixteen months, in 2013.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy began building the YSRCP after being released from jail. In 2014, the YSRCP replaced the Congress as the second biggest player in Andhra politics, winning 67 seats in the assembly. In November 2017, Jagan undertook a padayatra that lasted 14 months, covering over 3,600 km as he toured each and every district of AP. Now the YSRCP forme the new government with more than a twothirds majority.

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Sumalatha emerges victorious Record in Lok Sabha elections

B

THE NEWS BUREAU

y winning Mandya Sumalatha has become the first independent candidate to win a Lok Sabha seat from Karnataka in 52 years.

Proving that being a party of the Deve Gowda family will not guarantee one a seat in Karnataka, Sumalatha, wife of late Congress leader Ambareesh, defeated Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. What seemed like a neck-and-neck fight in the morning soon turned into a landslide victory for Sumalatha. As an independent candidate backed by BJP, Sumalatha secured 6,98,213 votes while Nikhil Kumaraswamy secured 5,71,777 votes.

By defeating Nikhil Kumaraswamy, Sumalatha is also only the third independent candidate ever to win a seat in Karnataka in the history of Lok Sabha elections so far. In the erstwhile state of Mysore, independent candidate Dubey Rajaram Giridarlal won from the Bijapur North segment.

He became the first independent candidate to win a Lok Sabha seat from the state. Ten years later, Dinakar Desai won as an independent from the Kanara constituency in 1967. Now, 52 years later, Sumalatha has won the segment.“People have shown so much love. It’s not my victory but Ambareesh’s victory. It’s only because of the love people placed in him that I could achieve this. It’s a victory for all the people of Mandya.,” said Sumalatha.

A traditional stronghold of the

JD(S), the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency witnessed a high-power battle between Sumalatha and Nikhil. Seen as a mature, poised and intelligent contestant, Sumalatha also had the sympathy factor going, especially after the death of her husband – the legendary Sandalwood star Ambareesh, who was also a three-time MP from the region. During the election campaign, Nikhil Kumaraswamy was portrayed as the heir apparent to Kumaraswamy.

With the JD(S) currently in power in Karnataka through its coalition with Congress, JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda saw the Lok Sabha elections as an opportunity to introduce his grandsons into politics.

Although Nikhil has no experience in politics or administration, he quickly made headlines and gained popularity during his campaign due to his family’s backing.

However, as Sumalatha was a strong contender, she had to face several misogynistic jibes from members of the JD(S) during the THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

campaign. CM Kumaraswamy’s brother and PWD Minister HD Revanna, for instance, tried to shame Sumalatha, saying that she was showcasing her political ambitions months after Ambareesh’s death when she should be grieving him. She was also branded an opportunist willing to use her husband’s death to her advantage by the JD(S).

However, Sandalwood stars Darshan, Yash and a huge section of the Kannada film industry had offered their support for Sumalatha. In addition, several Dalit, Adivasi and women’s groups in Mandya had pledged their support too. With her growing popularity, CM Kumaraswamy had also made a veiled threat to end the acting careers of Darshan and Yash as they were actively campaigning for Sumalatha.

However, Sumalatha managed to defeat the might of the Deve Gowda-Kumaraswamy might and penetrate a decades-long stronghold of the JD(S).

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INDIA’S MANKI BAAT! Insights & Implications P

BY A.RAMMOHAN RAO

rime Minister Narendra Modi has become the second mostfollowed politician in the world with social media audience of 11 crore people. He has overtaken US President Donald Trump who has 96 million followers globally(see Box). But Modi’s social media follower number was dwarfed by the Indian voters who expressed unwavering support to Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP) he led in Lok Sabha elections. Of the 60.37 crore votes polled in this election, more than 22.6 crores have gone to the BJP. What does this overwhelming support mean? What voters of worlds biggest democracy conveyed through their decision?

Late on the evening on 30th THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

MANDATE-2019 May, Narendra Modi led NDA government was formed. Exactly a week earlier to that BJP had won 303 seats, 21 more than its 2014 tally. The saffron splash across a wrap of northern and western India is similar to 2014. With gains in new areas, the BJP vote share nationally has risen from 31% to approximately 37.5%. Of the 60.37 crore votes polled in this election, more than 22.6 crores have gone to the BJP — a 32% increase over the 17.1 crore votes it got five years ago.

In last five years, Brand Modi has transcended religious, caste and class divisions. That, in a nutshell, is Decision 2019. When the countdown to 2019 began, he was already being seen as a strong and decisive leader, a disruptor seeking change, the poster boy of millions being tapped by the BJP. As in 2014, the BJP’s dramatic victory revolves around Narendra Modi — the party’s renounce was that each vote for the BJP was going into “Modi’s account”. The strategy of contesting a presidential-style election paid off again; the difference being that it turned this election also into a referendum on Modi.

In UP, the BJP has all but repeated its performance of 2014 — a formidable achievement. Despite the gathbandhan of the SP, BSP, and RLD, it is down only nine seats from its tally of 71 the last time.

These losses were more than made up by its gains in new areas. The BJP polled nearly 50% of the votes in Uttar Pradesh, seven per cent more than in 2014. The BJP is no longer a fringe player in West Bengal and Odisha. In Bengal, it has won over 40% of the popular vote and 18 seats, a leap from the 17% vote and two seats it got in 2014. In Odisha, it has won 38% of

P

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Narendra Modi

2nd most followed politician

rime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi has become the second most-followed politician in the world. With a social media audience of 110,912,648 million on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram he stood next to former US President Barack Obama, who has 182,710,777 followers on his Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. A study by online visibility management and content marketing SaaS platform SEMrush revealed this.

With almost 110 million followers worldwide, Modi has overtaken US President Donald Trump who has 96 million followers globally.

However, Trump is the second-most followed politician on Twitter.

"The popularity of our PM Narendra Modi is immense and the study finding depicting him as the 2nd most followed person globally after the former US President Barack Obama is a culmination of this fact," Fernando Angulo, Head of International Partnership, SEMrush, said. Congress party President Rahul Gandhi has accumulated 12 million followers from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Out of all the social media platforms, Twitter serves as the nest of the maximum number of active political audiences, both domestic and global, says the report by SEMrush.

the vote and eight seats, up from the 22% vote and one seat in 2014.

In Telangana, it has made a small but significant gain of four seats.

While the 2014 campaign was a campaign of hope, one in which Modi sold India a vision for the THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

future, the 2019 campaign was in large part negative — the BJP reminded the people of what might happen if it was not voted back.

What has this verdict affirmed, and what has it rejected? The one clear message: Voters who have given

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Modi a second term buy into his argument that the damage and the mess of the last 60 years need undoing, and that process takes time.

By becoming the first non-Congress Prime Minister to return with an increased majority after a full five-year term, Modi has established that 2014 was, in fact, not a ‘black swan’ event. The verdict marks a clear acceptance by the mass of the people of the BJP’s idea of ‘cultural nationalism’ and establishes the importance of ‘national pride’ in determining voting patterns. On the other hand, the verdict suggests a rejection of the ‘politics of dynasty’ that Modi has been stressing at least since the Assembly elections of 2018.

This election results also show that economic factors may not, under certain circumstances, translate into anger against the incumbent regime.

Commentators repeatedly stressed that this election was a normal’ election, devoid of a wave in any direction. They have been proved wrong. The conventional ‘wisdom that Indian elections are, in most cases, the sum of state elections, has been rejected.

This was a single election in most of the country, with Modi being the ‘candidate’ everywhere.

What does the verdict say about the rural-urban divide in votes?

Given the sweep of the BJP’s victory, it would appear that both villages and towns have voted alike. Differences, if any, will perhaps be discernible only in the margins of victory in individual seats. The BJP’s core message seems to have been accepted with mostly equal enthusiasm everywhere. The nationalist fervour that followed the Balakot airstrikes worked to numb of the pain of the

rural economic distress and flatten out the electoral field.

What impact did caste and identity have as a counter to Hindu nationalism? The battle in the key state of UP was between what could be called the caste the arithmetic of the gathbandhan and the chemistry of Modi’s appeal. The results show that the arithmetic of identity needed another, accompanying appeal to be effective.

The results in UP and Bihar signal that the politics of Mandal could be reaching its limit. The fact that the SP appears to be winning only five seats in UP, the JD(S) just one in Karnataka, and the RJD none at all in Bihar, suggests that even core support bases of the Mandal parties could be seriously shaking. Also, the BJP’s successes in Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra seem to have defined the boundaries of the politics of the Jats, Patidars and Marathas, who have led large agitations against THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

BJP governments over the last several years.

How did agrarian distress and jobs, big talking points during the campaign impact the result? The sweeping mandate suggests that the campaign around these two issues was not emphatic enough to influence the result, even though both were genuine concerns. One possible explanation is that many voters while being hurt by the lack of jobs, had enough faith in Modi’s image to believe that he would eventually solve the unemployment problem. In Vidarbha, the area of strong agrarian distress, the BJPShiv Sena have swept the elections.

And while agrarian distress has been at its worst in several years, the fact that inflation has been low has meant that farmers have not felt the pinch as severely as they might have.

How is it that the BJP swept Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh so soon after losing the Assembly

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elections?While the Congress did form governments in MP and Rajasthan, it was neck and neck with the BJP in terms of vote share; in fact, the BJP’s vote share in MP was marginally higher (41% versus Congress’s 40.9%), while in Rajasthan, they were locked at 39.39%. Chhattisgarh was the exception, where the Congress swept the Assembly polls with a 10 percentage point higher vote share.

In MP, the Congress government could not implement the farm loan waiver scheme fully in more than four months, making farmers resentful. Internal bickering in the Congress with the party preferring Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot to Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot led to disgruntlement. In all three states, voters sought to give Modi another five years, given the BJP’s strong communication with beneficiaries about the Centre’s schemes. Voters also seemed to have different choices for the state

and the Centre.

To raise the tally by barely 8 seats after five years is a personal failure for Rahul Gandhi? No doubt it’s a ringing defeat for the party and its president. He chose to turn the narrative into a largely personalised one between himself and Modi. Slogans such as “Chowkidar chor hai” were seen as placing “self above party”, and didn’t work on the ground. Seniors objected to this and his “Gabbar Singh Tax” description of what was, essentially, a reformist measure. In the later stages of the campaign, focus away from these issues somewhat, choosing to harp on the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal.

Which was seen as “lacking sophistication”. Hugging the Prime Minister in Parliament was a joke.

Rahul’s defeat in the family stronghold of Amethi is a stinging indictment in that seat as well as in the national context. Amethi had been won by the Congress 11 times THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

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in 13 elections since 1967, including nine times by a member of the Gandhi family (Rahul had won it the last three times) and on two other occasions by family loyalist Satish Sharma. Although Rahul took over the party reins only in 2017, he had been leading its campaign against Modi. As Congress president, Rahul was credited with last year’s Assembly victories in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Coming so close after those wins, the 52 Lok Sabha seats will be seen as an insignificant improvement on the 44 of 2014. His leadership is seen by party workers as “family entitlement”.

What are the key messages that the voters have given to the Congress? First, that if an alternative has to be presented before them, it should be more credible and tangible than a mere attack, without solid evidence, on an individual.

There was no overarching counternarrative against Modi, and no alternative vision. Whether the family, Rahul and sister Priyanka works for a new generation of voters is a question the party will have to address. Second, Congress has to rebuild and rejuvenate its organisation in key states before it can begin to harbour hopes of becoming a political force again. One reason why the promised NYAY scheme failed to connect with the voter could be that Congress workers and the party organisation failed to convey it effectively enough.

Does this election signal the end of the Left as a political force in India? The Left has got zero in West Bengal and its vote share has plummetted to 8% from 34% in 2014. It has got one seat out of 20 in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, the CPM and CPI have won two seats each.

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Five seats will be the Left’s worst ever performance in the Lok Sabha elections and will make for only a feeble voice in Parliament. The Left organisation in Bengal has weakened drastically, its leadership has had no fresh ideas in years, and it holds very little attraction for the youthful, aspirational India of 2019. The Left will struggle to present a compelling argument for its ideology.

Do the defeats of Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia suggest a rejection of the politics of dynasty?

While Rahul and Scindia have lost, voters have not entirely rejected dynasts. But Modi’s constant flagging of “naamdaars” has put the dynasts on the defensive. All five MPs from the SP in 2014 were indeed, members of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family. This time, only Mulayam and Akhilesh retained their seats. While Modi’s primary target was Rahul, the nar-

rative people seem to have bought into is that no constituency can be treated as a family Jageer, be it Amethi or Guna.

What are the implications for lawmaking given the strong mandate in the BJP’s favour? The new government will find it easy to push through Bills in Lok Sabha.

But it may still have to negotiate in Rajya Sabha, where it is short of a majority. The BJP has 73 members of its own and, along with allies, about 100 in the 250-member Upper House. In Modi’s first term, the government got around this lack of numbers in Rajya Sabha by pushing certain laws as Money Bills. Further, within the Opposition, not all parties may have a common position on all issues. For instance, YSR Congress and BJD which have double-digit strength in the new Lok Sabha, are neither part of the UPA nor the NDA. They will decide their stance based on their

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ability to draw leverage from the government. The government may not be able to push through Constitutional amendments in Rajya Sabha immediately, but with more states coming under the BJP’s fold, it may cross the majority mark along with its allies.

What results of this Lok Sabha election results declare loudly is, though Modi has been under constant attack from the opposition but the mandate indicates that his message and campaign of Good Governance, Nation First, Raising India’s stature, Fighting corruption, Teaching Pakistan a lesson has worked on the ground. If technology has helped him connect with party workers down to the booth level, his Mann Ki Baat addresses have helped him reach the common man.

Today, Brand Modi is big. Yet five years in power have not changed his image of an “outsider” working hard to “set things right”.

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West Bengal

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Fertile ground for elections violence?

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uring this Lok Sabha election West Bengal is in the news for all the wrong reasons. There is violence and more violence. Phase after phase, rally after rally, week after week violence continued. The state sent 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha and election to these was held in seven phases. Every phase has had its own share of headlines for violence that was unleashed on and around the polling day. Murders, clashes, stone-pelting, lathi-charge, firing, arson, you name it and some corner of West Bengal witnessed thorough out this election season.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress(TMC) and the Left parties have accused each other of attacking and murdering their workers and supporters.

This cycle of accusations and counter-accusations did not come up all of a sudden. But in the immediate context, it started in the run-up to the panchayat elections that were held in West Bengal last year. Media reports suggest that nearly 50 people died during these elections.

When the TMC government in West Bengal was accused of having failed to curb election-time violence last year, TMC's Rajya

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Sabha MP Derek O'Brien in a tweet said: "To all 'newborn' experts on Bengal #PanchayatElections in State have a history. 400 killed in poll violence in The 1990s in CPI(M) rule. 2003: 40 dead. Every death is a tragedy. Now closer to normal than earlier times. Yes, a few dozen incidents. Say, 40 out of 58,000 booths. What's the percentage? (sic)."

In the first week of May BJP president, Amit Shah's rally in Kolkata was marred by violence as clashes broke out between TMC and BJP workers. What worsened the situation (by hurting cultural sentiments) was that a bust of

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Bengal icon Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised in the mayhem.

During the second week of February this year, sitting TMC MLA from Krishnaganj, Satyajit Biswas, was shot dead from pointblank range in West Bengal's Nadia district. The TMC held BJP responsible for this murder, while the BJP rubbished it saying Biswas was probably killed due to infighting in TMC. Five weeks after that in last week of March, a BJP leader's brother was allegedly murdered in Malda district. The BJP accused the TMC of this. The past year was witness to such political violence where workers/supporters of TMC, BJP, Congress and the Left were attacked or killed in the state. The victims in these cases were mostly ground-level workers who were students, teachers, labourers, farmers, agricultural workers and small shopkeepers.

But is election-time violence new in West Bengal? Election Commission of India's reports on past Lok Sabha elections and annual reports of the National

Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that West Bengal and pollrelated violence go hand in hand.

During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, a total of 16 political workers were killed across India in pollrelated violence. West Bengal had the highest share of these deaths seven as (i.e. 44 per cent) of them were reported in the state. When it comes to injuries, the Election Commission report shows that 2,008 political workers were injured in the violence during the 2014 general elections. Of those political workers who were injured, 1,298 (i.e. 64 per cent) were in West Bengal. The victims in these cases are mostly ordinary people: students, teachers, labourers, farmers, agricultural workers and small shopkeepers.

Reports of the National, Crime Records Bureau reveal that in the 18 years between 1999 and 2016, on an average West Bengal witnessed 20 political murders every year. The highest was in 2009 when 50 murders were motivated by political reasons. This was followed by 2000, 2010 and 2011, each of

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which saw 38 political murders. In August 2009, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-CPI(M)-released a pamphlet in which it accused the TMC of having murdered 62 of its supporters between March 2 and July 21 that year. Such allegations have routinely been levelled by all major political parties in West Bengal against each other.

But the history of political violence in West Bengal stretches to an era far beyond the past one decade. With the emergence of Mamata Banerjee and more recently of the BJP, it may today appear that the violence in West Bengal is between workers/supporters of TMC and BJP, with occasional instances involving Left parties.

Data also shows that pollrelated violence in West Bengal is not exclusively a product of Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress's eight-year rule in the state. The state has weathered bouts of similar violence in the past too.

For instance, the 2009 Lok Sabha election was held at a time when West Bengal was ruled by a Com-

MANDATE-2019 munist government. In this election, a total of 5,315 poll-time offences were registered in the country. Of these, 18 per cent (i.e.

963) were registered in West Bengal. In 2014, when Mamata Banerjee was the state chief minister, 931 election-time offences were registered in the state. The overall number of such offences in the country was 7,787. Thus, while there wasn't a major change in the number of registered offences in West Bengal between the two regimes, the state's share in the national figure declined.

Taking note of reports of election-time violence in West Bengal, the Election Commission curtailed the campaign time for the last phase of election(May 19) by 20 hours. TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee termed the Commission's decision as "biased". She said it [curtailing campaign time] is a "gift" from the Election Commission to the BJP. "EC's biased actions under the directions of the BJP are a direct attack on democracy. People will give a befitting reply," she said in a tweet. She was not the only one to attack the Election Commission. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury too attacked it saying the first thing that The commission should have done was to act against the "lumpen elements of the BJP and TMC". He said its action stands out to benefit the ruling governments in Bengal and the Centre (TMC and BJP respectively). On the other hand, BJP too was in an all-out aggressive mode. Attacking Mamata Banerjee, BJP president Amit Shah said, "If Mamata Didi thinks she can win the election by creating a quagmire of violence, then I want to tell her that bigger the quagmire you

create, better will lotus [BJP's symbol] bloom."

A feature that is peculiar to polltime offences in West Bengal in the past two Lok Sabha elections (2014 and 2009) is that while most states primarily witness these offences before and on the polling day, in the case of West Bengal it seems these offences increased in the post-poll period. The all-India data on offences recorded during the election period in 2009 and 2014 show that most of the offences (65 per cent in 2009 and 74 per cent in 2014) were recorded in the pre-poll period. This was followed by offences on polling day and the least number of offences recorded were in the post-poll period.

But in the case of West Bengal, at least 61 per cent election-period offences were recorded in the postpoll period (i.e. once voting was THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

19

over) in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the figure was 44.68 per cent for post-poll and 40 per cent for pre-poll offences that were recorded. In 2014, West Bengal had the highest number of polling stations that were classified as 'critical' by the Election Commission.

The state had 77,252 polling stations and nearly half of them (37,553) were termed critical.

While there was no major flareup, tension is prevailing in West Bengal as the State has been witnessing low-intensity violence since election results were declared on May 23. Results have come.

People have given their mandate in a clear, decisive manner. Will this violence end now? It would be sensible if political parties can spare the state with a repeat of such violence in the post-poll period.

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TRS Party head office on counting day

TRS party in Lok Sabha elections

Thumping to tragedy I

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t is a rude awakening. The style governance and development model of Telangana Rashtra Samithi has given rise to anti-incumbency in less than six months of its landslide victory in Assembly elections. When K Chandrashekar Rao(KCR), the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party president and the Telangana Chief Minister and

his party aspired for a role in the national stage, has received a serious set back at home. The TRS which expressed confidence that the party would win 16 of the 17 seats, leaving the Hyderabad seat for MIM and will play a key role at has finally left with 9 seats. According to political analysts, the Telangana electorate has judged the party and its leadership on their working rather than on their words.

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All the seats where TRS candidates lost were perceived to be party strongholds in Telangana state that witnessed Assembly elections barely six months ago. The 2018 December Assembly elections gave the TRS a second term with a huge mandate. The party had won 88 seats out of 117 Assembly seats in the state and managed to increase their tally to 101 Assembly seats by engineering defections

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21

Political analysts are of the view that had the December Assembly elections been held along with the Lok Sabha elections this month, the TRS would have faced a lower mandate in the Assembly or even a loss.

from Congress and Telugu Deam party(TDP).

Political analysts are of the view that had the December Assembly elections been held along with the Lok Sabha elections this month, the TRS would have faced a lower mandate in the Assembly or even a loss. The number of seats that BJP have managed to get this time points at a sort of anti-incumbency wave which the TRS government should be wary of. It was a calculative move by KCR to hold the Assembly elections six months prior to finishing five years of rule in the state. Had the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls been held together, the TRS party wouldn’t have witnessed the hands down victory it enjoyed last December, they say.

They pointed out that the two months time taken by the party to form the government after winning elections in the state had definitely not gone down well with the people. TRS was re-elected on December 11, but the TRS government for 68 days functioned without a cabinet, except a Home Minister.

TRS, that hoped that the opposition, especially BJP would not gain enough seats in the Parliament. But now the party faced with the prospect of representing the state along with four BJP and Congress MPs. Some political observers say with a BJP majority NDA at the centre inside TRS has to fear the BJP giving them a ‘return gift’. “BJP doesn’t need an alliance partner. Wait for a couple of months, and things can get difficult for KCR and his party,” they said.

One of the biggest upsets for the TRS includes the seat of Nizamabad that was held by Kavitha Kalvakuntla, sitting MP and daughter of Telangana CM. Kavitha, being an MP, always had national ambitions and couldn’t realise the pulse of the farmers in the state. Since February, farmers in Nizamabad district have been fighting against the state government to classify turmeric as a food crop, and have demanded Minimum Support Price for turmeric and red jowar. They’ve also held protests for the implementation of a National Turmeric THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

Board, which Kavitha had promised when she got elected to Parliament last time. it was considered a given that the KCR wave would ensure a huge victory for Kavitha. However, just days before the elections, she was faced with a unique challenge in the Parliamentary elections, as she was not only contesting against her rival Arvind from the BJP and senior Congress leader Madhu Yashki, she was also contesting against 174 turmeric farmers who had entered the poll fray to highlight their crisis. Kavitha had promised the setting up of a national turmeric board, but could not deliver on that. Banking on this, BJP’s Ram Madhav was quick to announce that a turmeric board will be set up within 15 days if the party comes to power at the Centre.

Though dismayed that the farmers didn't pull out of the contest despite her requests, Kavitha had said that the agitating farmers were protesting against the Centre, and she was with them. She said that they will not affect her victory. But evidently, they have.

As Nizamabad’s sitting MP Kavitha, has lost the seat to the BJP candidate Arvind Dharmapuri.

While Kavitha polled less than 40% of the votes, Arvind defeated her with more than 45% of the votes. Apart from the BJP, Congress and TRS, about 1 lakh votes were polled for the 182 other candidates, well over her margin of defeat.

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MPs in new Lok Sabha a r T

he 17th Lok Sabha will have a highest-ever number of women members. Out of 542 MPs who will take oath as members of the lower house in the next few days, 78 are women with Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal leading at 11 each.

Of a total of 8,049 candidates were in the fray in the parliamentary polls a total of 724 women candidates contested from across the country.

The Congress fielding the maximum women at 54 followed closely by BJP at 53. Among the other parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielded 24 women candidates, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) 23, the CPI(M) 10, the CPI four, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fielded one woman candidate. As many as 222 women contested the polls independently. The highest number of women candidates were fielded from Uttar Pradesh at 104, followed by Maharashtra. Sixty-four women candidates have been fielded from Tamil Nadu, 55 from Bihar and 54 from West Bengal.

As many as 27 out of 41 sitting women MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini and Kirron Kher, retained their seats in Lok Sabha polls, but the likes of Smriti Irani and Pragya Thakur stole the show with their victories over their more renowned rivals.

Irani emerged as a giant-slayer -- this time scripting a historic win by dethroning Rahul Gandhi in the Congress' home turf Amethi. Controver-

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MANDATE-2019

record number of women sial BJP candidate from Bhopal and terror-accused Thakur won against former chief minister Digvijay Singh. Other prominent names to enter Parliament are DMK candidate from Thoothukkudi Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and BJP's Rita Bahuguna, who won from Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad constituency. Locket Chatterjee, Bengali actress-turned-politician from the BJP, won in Hooghly constituency.

Four transgender candidates contested the elections independently, while the AAP was the only party to field a transgender nominee. But all transgender candidates lost in the polls.

In 14th Lok Sabha 52 women candidates won, in 13th Lok Sabha 52 women candidates won, in 12th Lok Sabha 44 women candidates won, in 11th Lok Sabha 41 women candidates won. In 10th Lok Sabha 42 women candidates won. There were 28 women in 9th Lok Sabha while the 8th Lok Sabha had 45 women MPs. Before that, the maximum of 37 women won in 3rd Lok Sabha. There were 24 women MPs each in the first and the second Lok Sabha.

With over 14 per cent female MPs, the 17th Lok Sabha will have the highest number of women candidates since 1952. In 16th Lok Sabha, 64 women had won, while 52 women were elected to the 15th Lok Sabha. But a Bill for 33 per cent representation for women in legislatures in pending in Parliament.

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30% of MPs in Odisha are women

Naveen Patnaik move pays off

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hile Women's Reservation Bill may still be pending in Parliament 33% of the candidates from Odisha elected to the Lok Sabha are women. They are representing different sections of society.Seven of a total of 21 MPs from Odisha are women. While five women have won the elections on Biju Janata Dal tickets, two belong to the BJP. They include a former IAS officer, a doctor, an engineer, a grassroots-level leader, a member of the erstwhile royal family, and a homemaker.

Ever since Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced that his party, the BJD, would field 33% women candidates, it was expected that the representation of women would go up. Of the seven women candidates fielded by Patnaik, five emerged victorious while two of the three BJP women candidates won.

Pramila Bisoi, the 70-year-old village leader of a Self Help Group (SHG), has been elected from Aska Lok Sabha seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Anita Subahdarshini by a staggering margin of 2,04,707 votes. The SHGs have been playing a crucial role in Patnaik's success.

In return, the Chief Minister has launched several schemes for them under the Mission Shakti programme. Prior to the elections, he had also announced interest-free loans for them.

Pramila Bisoyi has been in news right from her nomination as

a BJD candidate from Aska Lok Sabha seat. For the 68-year-old belonging to a humble farmer family, politics was altogether a different world. But the Chief Minister reposed faith in her because of her involvement in the women’s selfhelp group movement for 18 years.

Aska being the BJD bastion, her victory was never doubted.

Aparajita Sarangi, a former IAS officer who had a reputation of an able administrator, tasted success in her electoral debut. In November 2018, Ms Sarangi, the ex-Odisha cadre officer who last served as a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, had joined the BJP. She won the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat, a bastion of ruling BJD. Aparajita Sarangi (born 8 October 1969) is an Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the incumbent Member of parliament from Bhubaneshwar.

A former Odisha cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1994 batch, Sarangi quit her job and joined the BJP in 27th NoTHE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

vember 2018 to contest the 2019 Indian general election. She was fielded against Biju Janata Dal's Arup Patnaik.

Sarangi was awarded the Shakti Samman in 2012. She had last served as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development and has also worked as Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner and secretary of the state’s mass education department. Her husband, Santosh Sarangi, is also an IAS officer of the same batch.

Chandrani Murmu, the 25-yearold tribal woman who won from Keonjhar on a BJD ticket, has already registered her name in the record book for being the youngest member to be elected to the Lok Sabha. Murmu has earned a BTech degree from a Bhubaneswar-based engineering college.

BJP leader Sangeeta Singh Deo, a royal member of erstwhile Patnagarh estate, is not new to politics.

She had won Balangir thrice before.

Rajashree Mallick, who was an associate professor in the pathology department of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack before joining politics won the coastal Jagatsinghpur seat on a BJD ticket.

Other two BJD leaders who successfully ran in the elections include Sarmistha Sethi, who had taken voluntary retirement from Odisha Financial Services to fight the contest, and Manjulata Mandal, a housewife. Sethi and Mandal won Jajpur and Bhadrak seats respectively

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Tejasvi Surya defeats Congress veteran

Modi’s choice made it big

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JP’s Tejasvi Surya defeats Congress veteran BK Hariprasad in Bengaluru South.

Prime Minster Modi’s choice, young legal professional Tejasvi Surya had defeated veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member BK Hariprasad. Surya has managed to retain the bastion of the BJP in Bengaluru South.

In one of the most closely watched and controversial poll battles in Karnataka, 28-year-old Tejasvi Surya from BJP won in the Bengaluru South constituency by a huge margin of 3,31,192 votes.

Tejasvi Surya secured 7,39,229 votes, while BK Hariprasad won 4,08,037 votes. Handpicked by the national BJP leadership to contest from this crucial constituency, Tejasvi was not the natural choice for the BJP’s state leadership. Initially, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, the wife of late Union Minister Ananth Kumar was the candidate chosen.

However, in an eleventh-hour the decision, due to the backing of the RSS, Tejasvi was chosen to contest from Bengaluru South.

While the state BJP leadership rooted for Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, RSS leaders in the state like BL Santhosh had backed Tejasvi Surya's candidature from the constituency. With a sizable population of Brahmins and upper caste Hindus in the region, Bengaluru South has been the base for RSS operations in the city for over

two decades. The constituency also has a large chunk of Vokkaliga and OBC communities, who have leaned towards the RSS and BJP. In order to maintain the voter base, the BJP had decided that it would give importance to supporting the RSS in the region by fielding Tejasvi Surya. The BJP has retained the Bengaluru South seat since 1991 when its candidate K Venkatagiri Gowda won the elections. In 1996, Ananth Kumar, who passed away last year, won the seat and ensured that he won all subsequent elections ever since.

Tejasvi’s candidature has been mired in controversy, as soon after he was fielded by the BJP, his old tweets surfaced, which many found problematic. For instance, he had THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

openly advocated for making BJP an outright Hindu party and consolidating the Hindu vote, and had said that anyone who didn’t follow PM Modi was anti-national. He also received flak for his opposition to reservation for women in Parliament and was accused by an entrepreneur from Bengaluru of physical harassment, who later deleted her tweets and asked for the matter to be laid to rest.

A former Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Yuva Morcha leader, Tejasvi participated in the ‘Mangalore Chalo’ bike rally ahead of the Karnataka state Assembly elections in 2018. Tejasvi Surya is an alumnus of National College (Jayanagar) and National Law School of India in Bengaluru.

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Chandrababu Naidu Shattered hopes T

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elgugudesham party’s national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu is facing the biggest challenge in his career spread over forty years.

The leader who has begun his public life with Congress had last year he has chosen the same party to align with. The option he chose clearly seems has not helped but left him with no option but walk alone.

Till a day before counting Chandra babu was busy meeting with leaders of various political parties in the country to form an anti – BJP alliance and worked desperately to play a key role in national politics. His goal was to stop Narendra Modi from coming back to power. Chandrababu wanted to repeat what he has achieved 23 years back as convenor United Front, a third alternative (to Congress and BJP). In 1996 he brought together regional parties to form the government. With same zeal In 1999 played a similar role for BJP led National Democratic Alliance(NDA). In those days some many saw him as a shrewd politician and some branded an opportunist.

Whatever said Chandrababu rode on Vajpayee wave and succeeded in retaining power and became Chief Minister for the second time. Started to get a new identity as a man of economic reforms, tech-savvy leader, CEO of the government. He has mastered THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

MANDATE-2019 the technique of getting things done with any government irrespective of the party in power in the centre. As a leader, he always enjoyed the role of kingmaker and extracted his pound of flesh from the governments at the centre. At the same time with his government urban-centric administration rural areas and farmers felt neglected.

He could realize and admit this only after losing power to YS Rajashekara Reddy-led Congress in 2004. During next elections to Assembly in 2009, Chandrababu has promised number freebies but could not succeed in convincing the electorate. Congress led by YSR again came to power.

With the emergence of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister candidate in 2014, Chandrababu found an opportunity to revive his political fortunes. He has joined the NDA once again and succeeded in coming back to power. AP people have preferred him considering his experience and hoped that he will a better leader to develop new AP after bifurcation. But unlike earlier governments in which TDP was part of ruling alliance NDA lead by Modi had an absolute majority.

Chandrababu was uncomfortable with this scenario. Facing challenges like lack of state capital, poor finances he expected generous help from the centre but had to accept whatever given.

But when YSR son and president of YSRCP, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy began targeting him for his ‘compromise’ over Special Category Status to the state Chandrababu started realizing that he was losing the ground to YRSCP. Last year he pulled out of NDA government accusing Modi of ‘betrayal’. But YSRCP still remained aggressive in exposing Chan-

drababu’s flip-flops over Special Category Status. From a great admirer of Modi, he soon turned into the worst critic. Joined hands with the Congress his party’s sworn enemy from the inception of TDP for over 35 years. His rivals targeted him constantly for his ‘opportunism’. Ignoring validity in it he even joined hands with the Congress in the Telangana Assembly elections. That experiment fired back.

Congress-led United People’s Alliance(UPA) in which TDP was part lost in that elections

miserably.

Chandrababu’s flip-flops continue as he decided not to have an alliance with same Congress party in AP, even when he intensified his efforts for an anti-BJP front at the centre led by congress. On the other side Jagan Mohan Reddy’s ‘Padayatra’ and his party’s aggressive campaign promising a wide range of freebies rattled Chandrababu. He has announced some welfare schemes and even implemented some of them. But it was too late to impress voters Now the TDP is routed at the hands of the YSRCP. In one of its worst performances, the TDP won just three parliamentary seats out of 25 and 23 assembly constituencies out of 175. While the new entrant Jana Sena Party, led by actorturned-politician Pawan Kalyan eroded TDP’s vote share by splitting the votes of the Kapu community and a section of the backward THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

27

classes (BC), thought to be the backbone of the TDP. Some TDP leaders are of the opinion that Chandrababu Naidu is unable to understand what went wrong. He was voted to power based on a lot of promises he made in 2014, but failed to fulfil many of those. As last minute step in the months leading up to the elections, Chandrababu initiated a handful of welfare programmes for farmers (input subsidy) and women from self-help groups and spent over ₹15,000 crore. The TDP was expected to reap benefit from that, but clearly the move did not work.

Many in the party and outside say the present defeat is painful to Chandrababu. Because he has now been defeated by a father-son duo.

In the 2004 and 2009 elections, YSRCP chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s father and former Congress chief minister (undivided AP) Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy won 29 and 33 out of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats, leaving the TDP with just five and six seats. Like his father, JaganMohan Reddy also undertook a long ‘padayatra’ across Andhra Pradesh before storming to power.

The development was a big shock for Chandrababu the TDP. All ministers in his cabinet lost. His son Nara Lokesh lost in a constituency (Mangalagiri) which was considered safe for TDP. A second term for Modi with a massive majority also dashed Chandrababu’s hopes of salvaging some pride by playing a role at the centre. With his son suffering defeat his dream of grooming him as his political successor was also shattered. Now at 69 years age the challenge before Chandrababu is to take all this and have to prepare his party for next assembly elections.

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D. BAL REDDY

‘Their victory is not a victory.. Our defeat is not a defeat’

Can TRS leaders learn lessons?

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eneral elections results are out. People gave their clear, decisive mandate. Lok Sabha members will take the oath. But when we look at the responses of Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) whose number is down, whose prominent leaders have lost one get’s sincere doubt whether they respect peoples wisdom in giving this mandate and cam they ever learn lesions from poll experiences? Let’s look at the responses of a few party leaders.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) which swept Assembly elections barely six months back suffered a serious set back by losing almost half of the Lock Sabha seats he has contested. This ruling party in the state of Telangana when to polls in advance in last December and bagged with 88 of 119 seats. It was considered a given that the’ K.Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) wave’ would ensure a huge victory for TRS in Lok Sabha poll too. However, just days before the elections, TRS was faced with a unique challenge in the Parliamentary elections because of party leaders statements of insensitivity and overconfidence.

According to political observers, TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s

insulting comment “Hindu gaallu bondu gallu” during his campaigning at Karimnagar had costed the party. They say this helped BJP gain support in the State to increase it’s tally from one in last elections to four this time, independently.

Hindu bashing has increased the support to Safron party in the state and it could win least expected Lok Sabha seats like Karimnagar and Adilabad. But TRS party’s Working President Mr.KT Rama Rao not only ignores the insult done and argues that “BJP had won across the country and no there were no such comments.”

The biggest upset to TRS among the contests for the Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, Nizamabad’s sitting MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha. The daughter of KCR has lost the seat to the BJP candidate Arvind Dharmapuri with a margin of more than 70,000 votes.

While Kavitha polled less than 40% of the votes, Arvind defeated her with more than 45% of the votes. TRS was confident of winning the seat, seems to have underestimated the impact of the anger of farmers in the constituency. 93 turmeric farmers contested the elections. “It’s is insensitivity, the insincerity of the ruling TRS towards turmeric and THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

jawar farmers which lead to the defeat of Kavitha as sitting MP,” farmer’s leader from Nizamabad Sunketa Avinash Reddy told to ‘The News’. The farmers' agitation in the district has nothing to do political parties and farmers came together to fight for their demands without political considerations, he said.

But the TRS working president blamed the defeat of his younger sister, Kavitha in Nizamabad on the collusion of the BJP and the Congress and not because of 93 turmeric farmers entering the fray and securing about 94,000 votes between them.

History has repeatedly has shown that the party and its leaders who get a landslide victory in elections crushing opposition into a non-entity will soon slip into selfdefeating direction.

Unprecedented absolute majority very soon to intolerable arrogance, undemocratic behaviour and finally uncontrollable corruption.

Party and it’s leader’s ability to learn lessons from experience and history can only help it survive in longtime and win the hearts of the people by serving them. The state of Telangana and it’s hardworking people definitely deserves such a political party.

NATION 29

Modi govt new focus T

Zero tolerance to terrorism

he BJP-led NDA has received a landslide mandate in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections with the saffron party winning 303 of the 542 seats that went to polls this time. Narendra Modi has assumed the charge as prime minister for a second time. The ‘decisive leadership’ of Modi has ‘fundamentally altered’ the national security paradigm of India in the last five years and his the government will look at a zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism in the next five years, according to the BJP manifesto 'Sankalp Patra', released before the general elections.

"Our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest only. This is exemplified by the surgical strikes and the air strikes carried out recently. We will firmly continue our policy of 'Zero Tolerance' against terrorism and extremism and will continue to follow our policy of giving a free hand to our security forces in combating terrorism," the BJP manifesto said. The party is "committed to annulling Article 35A" of the Constitution of India as the provision is "discriminatory against nonpermanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir", according to the BJP manifesto. The article provides special rights and privileges to the natives of Jammu and Kashmir."We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state. We will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state," it said.

"We will make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits and we will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb," the BJP manifesto said.

Article 35A was incorporated in the Constitution in 1954 through a presidential order on recommendations of the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru's cabinet. This provision gives permanent residents of the state special rights and privileges in government jobs, scholarships, aids, and acquisition of property.No the non-state subject can buy land or settle permanently in Jammu and Kashmir due to the article. The BJP also reiterated its position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370, which allows a separate flag and constitution for the state. Referring to illegal immigration from neighbouring countries, the BJP the manifesto said there has been a huge change in the culTHE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

tural and linguistic identity of some areas due to illegal immigration, resulting in an adverse impact on the local people's livelihood and employment.

"We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in these areas on priority. In the future, we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country," it said. Currently, the NRC is being updated in Assam.

When the draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018, there was a huge controversy over the exclusion of 40.7 lakh people from it. The draft NRC included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the total 3.29 crore applications. The final NRC is expected to be published on July 31, 2019.

The Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state that borders Bangladesh, was carried out only in Assam, which faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century.

30 INTERNATIONAL

France backs India Membership of UN Security Council A

THE NEWS BUREAU

fter backing India’s case to list Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist under the UN, France has once again backed India and some other countries for membership of an enlarged UN Security Council.

Countries like India, Germany, Brazil and Japan are "absolutely needed" as permanent members of a reformed and enlarged UN Security Council to better reflect contemporary realities and the addition of these key members to the UN high-table is among France's "strategic" priorities, French envoy to the UN said.

"In terms of the policy, France and Germany have strong policy which is to work together to enlarge the Security Council and to succeed in terms of the negotiations that should lead to the enlargement of the Security Council that we consider absolutely needed to better reflect the world as it is.

There is no question about it," France's Permanent Representative to the UN Francois Delattre told reporters at the UN. Speaking alongside German envoy to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, at the end of Germany's Presidency of the Council for April, Delattre emphasised that France considered that "Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and a fair representation of Africa, in particular, are absolutely needed at the table to get towards fairer representation of the

Security Council. This is for us a matter of priority."

He underlined that Paris believes the enlargement of the Security Council with the addition of a few key members is "one of our strategic priorities." Noting the launch of French-German alliance for multilateralism, he said it signifies that the two nations strongly believe in the UN as the core of today's global governance and that they strongly believe in "multilateralism and means that we are actively working to reform and in some respects to refound, reinvent multilateralism so that it is really efficient for the decades to come."

France’s support for India’s permanent presence in an enlarged UN Security Council is not new but the most recent assertion comes in the wake of France piloting a proposal — backed by the US and UK — at the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee to ban Masood Azhar as a terrorist under UN THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

norms. Azhar was finally declared a terrorist under UN listed rules on 1 May. India has been actively campaigning for a reformed UN Security Council that reflects the realities of the 21st century.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking at the informal meeting of the Plenary on the Intergovernmental negotiations on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council earlier this year, had said that on the issue of 'Categories of Membership'', a total of 113 Member states, out of 122 who submitted their positions in the Framework Document, support expansion in both of the existing categories specified in the Charter. "In short, more than 90% of the written submissions in the document are in favour of expansion in both categories of membership specified in the Charter," he had said.

STATES 31

Osmania to hold convocation after 6 yrs T

THE NEWS BUREAU

he Osmania University (OU) will be holding its 80th convocation on June 17. The convocation is being held for the first time after the formation of Telangana State and it is after six years with the last one conducted in February 2013.

Governor and OU Chancellor ESL Narasimhan, and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Director, S Chandrasekhar are slated to take part in the event which will be held at Tagore Auditorium.

Chandrasekhar who is an alumnus of OU in the Department of Chemistry will deliver the convocation address and confer the degrees.

As many as 2,896 scholars were declared eligible for PhD degrees.

Out of the total, 1,800 have already taken their PhD degrees in absentia. About 300 candidates will

receive gold medals during the convocation ceremony.

Given the huge number of eligible candidates, the OU has decided to confer PhD degrees on scholars in person while the rest will be given in absentia.

“Several PhD holders have already taken their degrees. We are making arrangements for all the eligible PhD holders. As the last convocation was held in February 2013, a huge number of gold medals has piled up. This time, all the gold medals will be presented and from the next year the convocation ceremony will be streamlined,” said Prof S Ramachandram, Vice-Chancellor, OU. Online confirmation is being taken from students to ascertain a number of participants in the convocation, the VC said, adding that seating arrangement will also be

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

provided to students online.“Tagore auditorium has capacity for 1,500 persons and an additional 300 chairs can be arranged.

Students have to sit according to their seat arrangement provided to them online,” the VC said.

Meanwhile, the varsity has invited online applications for conferment of degrees on successful candidates in the examinations from July 2012 to June 2018. The PhD degrees awarded up to June 11, 2019, will also be considered.

Eligible candidates can register through the website www.osmania.ac.in. and pay the fee online. The last date for submission of online applications for PhD candidates is June 11. Gold medals in undergraduate degree courses will be awarded to students at their respective colleges after the convocation.

32

EDU-VOICE

PROF. G. NARSIMULU

Strengthen Palmuru University

M

Support rural youth’s struggle for survival

ahabubnagar in Telangana is known for low literacy, drought prone. From this district and poor farmers, daily wage labourers migrate to entire India for livelihood and they are popularly known as palmuru labour. Under Osmania university jurisdiction there were 123 affiliated ug, pg and professional courses plus PG centre in Mahabubnagar stared in the year 1987.

In undivided AP state it was decided to establish District t wise state universities caters to the educational needs of the local youth.

Palmuru university was established in the year 2008 after local leaders and students gave demanded setting up rural university to provide better education. Prof Gopalreddy was appointed as vicechancellor of the Palmuru university.

Affiliated colleges offering diverse programmes of study-UG, PG and professional courses with the student strength of fifteen a thousand students constitute the academic landscape of Palamuru University.Apartment of the main campus at Mahabubnagar,palmuru

university has three PG centres at Gadwal, Wanparthy and Kollapur under its administrative control.

During the last ten years of the existence of the university has witnessed considerable progress. 150 affiliated colleges are catering to the needs of 48000 students every year.

It is successfully Pursuing the mission of empowering the youth in a predominately the backward tribal area of Telangana state through access to affordable and quality higher education with equal emphasis on equality. In tune with this, it has been offering new programmes relevant to our times at regular intervals. It has started two professional PG programmes Viz.M.Ed and M.Pharmacy during 2013-14to give impetus to Teacher Education and Pharmacy Education in this region. During 2014-15, M.Sc Zoology, MSc physics and MA Economics have been introduced at the main campus.Ph.D programmes are being offered in five subjects namely English, Chemistry, Physics And commerce & Management from the academic year 2016-17 onwards

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Today ,palmuru university offers Academic programmes at its main campus comprising university arts and science college, university college of pharmaceuticals sciences and university college of education and commerce&Management and 3 constitutes PG college centres at Gadwal, Kollapur , and Wanaparthy put together. There are nearly 1800 students on rolls at the university, The university accorded primacy to extension and outreach activities and forged linkages with industry, research institutions and NGOs in furtherance of its mission.

The university has secured recognition of the Pharmacy Council of India for its B.Pharmacy programme. It has also obtained the approval of The National Council of teacher education for the M.Ed programme.

Founder vice chancellor Prof.

Gopal Reddy followed by Professor G Bhagyanarayan who was from Osmania university could able to visualise beautification of campus and enlisted the support of senior professors from Osmania

EDU-VOICE 33

University and could able to get University grants commission recognition and got funds for development of the university . He assigned the administrative responsibilities to the regular faculty as joint directors and Additional controllers of examinations.

During his regime first convocation was held in the year 2014. Keeping in view of need and demand, he could Able To got NCTE approval to start Med course with an intake of 40 students in the year 2013-14 and later it was rescheduled to two years course with four semesters Prof. B. Rajaratnam from Osmania University was appointed as Vice-chancellor of Palmuru university in the year 2016. The newly formed During his tenure Prof. B Rajaratnam conducted the second convocation. In spite of the lack of sufficient qualified teachers and supporting staff the committed vice chancellor could able to get support from all quarters of people and obtain NAAC B grade which enables to get funds from the central agencies. Majority of the students admitted into this university are from weaker and socially disadvantaged groups from remote corners of the state. Even some of

them are first-generation students from illiterate families.

Observers feel that among newly universities in Telangana state, The Palmuru university could able to face all kinds of challenges and excellence in fields. Explaining the vision and mission of the young university, Prof. B Rajaratnam said , Envisions to be the exceptional provider of quality higher ed action in the service of the nation for the advancement of youth, Empowerment of youth and socio-economic development of the region. In his views “ The university with the vision of imparting quality education has been equipping and empowering them young brains to face the challenges kept before them in this competitive world .Apart from regular Academic knowledge, each student is personally encouraged, Screened for special talents and guided in a proper way for his /her better future.�

About the mission he said� To is Disseminate , Generate, and advance the knowledge, To strive for excellence in the sphere of teaching, research and external and outreach. Government should pay special attention to provide necesTHE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

sary physical and infrastructure as well as qualified teaching and nonteaching staff on a permanent basis.

The university should update the courses and curriculum to suitable to the needs of the industry and other sectors. The students are encouraged to acquire appropriate competency in their field and initiated them to start the industry on their own and provide employment.

Soon they can compete with many universities of national and international level. It will definitely show rural-university is no way inferior. Palmuru labour is famous for manual works-in all over the country and more than ten lakhs used to migrate for getting employment in every year. Now Palmer having new irrigation projects majority of them coming back their native places. It is time that the palmuru university should provide the necessary knowledge and information to the youth in the adaptation villages through its students and teaching staff, and provide knowledge from labs to land.

(Authour is Principal, Palamuru University College of education, Mahabubnagar Telangana state)

34

STATES

A CHUNK OF CHARMINAR'S

MINARET FALLS DOWN

A

THE NEWS BUREAU

chunk of lime plaster on one of the four minarets of the iconic Charminar in the city fell down. Archaeological Survey of India officials said that the portion fell off because of the age of the lime. They opined that the lime mortar used during conservation works taken up during the Nizam's time might have been of poor quality. It is being Considered by many as a massive hit to the state's heritage, On 11.30 pm on the first day of May, a part of the ornamental stucco work of the minaret measuring about 2.5m by .80m on the Laad Bazar side of the monument fell down to a resounding clamour.

However Charminar police station officials confirmed that no one was injured in the incident.

Videos available on social

media show lumps of the fallen part lying on the base of the monument, near the stairs leading to the ticket booking counter. It is important to note that the Archaeological Survey of India is responsible for the conservation of the 500-year-old Qutub Shahi monument and works have been going on for years now.

Superintending Archaeologist of ASI-Hyderabad, Milan Kumar Chauley attributed the reason behind the collapse due to the ageing of lime. "The original plaster was replaced by the Nizam in 1924 at a cost of Rs 1 lakh. Originally, lime has a life of 700-800 years. “The mortar used around that time must not have been strong. In my experience, it is very difficult for artisans to work at that height. So, this keeps on happening because at that time there were no reinforcements.

So the people used to use bamboo or wooden sticks to give support," THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

Chauley said.

The ASI had taken up conservation work on the same minaret last year, giving it a tibara coating along with some minor repairs. "After the heavy rain earlier this week, ASI officials had discovered that there was a hairline crack on one of the other minarets. However, this happened on the exactly opposite one," Chauley said adding that they will be putting a mesh around the affected area so that it does not endanger if further parts fall off."

Mohammed Safiullah, a heritage the activist said that in August 2001, a large chunk of lime plaster had fallen from the 500-year-old Qutub Shahi monument, and the reason was attributed to vehicular pollution and movement of large vehicles around the monument -one of the major reasons for implementing the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project.

THE NATION 35

15 jawans killed: Naxals trigger IED blast in Gadchiroli A

THE NEW BUREAU

t least 16 people, including 15 security personnel, were killed in an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Gadchiroli district on Wednesday. Those killed were members of the Quick Response Team (QRT) of Gadchiroli police, which was on way to inspect a fleet of torched vehicles belonging to a road construction contractor, police said. The Naxals triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up the police vehicle on Wednesday on the KurkhedaKorchi road in Gadchiroli.The vehicle, which was targetted by the Naxals was carrying 16 security personnel from the Kurkheda Quick Response Team of Gadchiroli police.

The incident took place when the state was getting ready to celebrate its foundation day, Maharash-

tra Divas; while the Maoists were in the final stages of observing a week-long protest to mark the first anniversary of 40 of their comrades who were gunned down by security forces on April 22 last year. Earlier on April 11, an encounter broke out between CRPF personnel and Naxals in the Naxal affected district of Gadchiroli. In January this year, Naxals set ablaze vehicles in the villages of Kurkheda, Korchi, and Potegaon. This is the biggest attack on security forces in the last two years in Maharashtra This comes around three weeks after an IED blast was reported near a polling booth in Gadchiroli in the second week of April during the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections. However, no one was injured in the incident. On the poll eve too, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were injured in an IED blast in GadchiTHE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

roli.

PM Narendra Modi has Strongly condemned attack on security personnel in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. “I salute all the brave personnel. Their sacrifices will never be forgotten. My thoughts & solidarity are with the bereaved families. The perpetrators of such violence will not be spared,� he said. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has also condemned the Gadchiroli attack. "Anguished to know that our 16 police personnel from Gadchiroli C60 force got martyred in a cowardly attack. My thoughts and prayers are with the martyrs' families. I am in touch with DGP and Gadchiroli SP." Earlier on Wednesday, Naxals allegedly set ablaze 27 machines and vehicles at a road construction site in Kurkheda of Gadchiroli district.

36 THE NATION

A

Balakot air strikes: Foreign Media confirms 170 terrorists death

THE NEWS BUREAU

round 170 Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed in Balakot air strikes. This was confirmed foreign journalist. The news report by Francesca Marino in stringerasia.it has come just days after JeM chief Masood Azhar was listed as a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council’s Sanctions Committee after China lifted its technical hold.

The journalist reports quoting sources that while the Indian Air Force bombed the JeM camp at 3.30 am on February 26, 2019, a unit of Pakistan's army reached the spot at around 6 am. The Pakistan Army unit came from their camp in Shinkiari, located some 20 kilometres away. The IAF air strikes in Balakot came days after the deadly Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were martyred. JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack.

So Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Masood Azhar is finally a UN proscribed terrorist; despite consistent attempts by Pakistan to use 'all weather friend' China to block his listing for 10 long years. While the Indian media has been euphoric in its reporting of the development, I doubt there will be any actual change in Pakistan's policy of using terror groups as strategic assets.

The journalist reports quoting sources that while the Indian Air Force bombed the JeM camp at 3.30 am on February 26, 2019, a unit of Pakistan's army reached the spot at around 6 am. The Pakistan Army unit came from their camp in Shinkiari, located some 20 kilometres away. The IAF air strikes in Balakot came days after the deadly Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were martyred.

JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack.

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

Even though Prime Minister Imran Khan recently went on record to state that Pakistan did not have use for militant Jihadi groups anymore, thereby admitting that the Pakistan military establishment had been using these groups, the indicators from Pakistan tell a different story.

On April 10, i.e. 42 days after the Indian Air Force strike on Balakot, Pakistani authorities organized the visit of foreign media and defence attaches of foreign missions in the country to visit the site of the strike. Pakistani officials briefed that the site, which India had claimed to be a Jaish training camp was actually an Islamic school ( Taleem ul Quran madrassa) for children and this property had faced no damage in

THE NATION 37

There is no doubt, the camp has undergone major civil work in the last few weeks. This would explain why the Pakistani authorities needed more than a month to showcase their children's madrassa to the world. A madrassa, which rather than being located close to inhabited areas, was built on a remote hilltop, requiring its young students to undertake a few hours of uphill trekking.

the so-called strikes by the Indian Air Force. As per media reports, the visitors had to walk for an hour and a half uphill to reach the madrassa. On reaching the site they were shown one large building that showed no signs of damage and around 200 students at the madrassa. A few media reports were accompanied by photographs, showing students attending a class and one of the exteriors of the building were these classes are held. The visit lasted 20 minutes.

Comparison of the few images of the recent Pakistan Army sponsored excursion and photos taken in 2018 of the Jaish camp in Balakot indicates that the visitors were indeed taken to the site of the camp. The building that was shown to the diplomats and journalists is marked as the 'Hall' in the illustration of the terror campsite provided in the article. This hall was being used to provide training in Islamic theology to the younger students, who were still in the initial stages of their training. However, it is unlikely that the visitors were taken to that rear side of the camp that housed the mujahids and were they were trained.

Photos dating to 2018 of the exterior of the 'Hall' that I have in my possession and the latest taken by the visiting journalists clearly show that the building has been spruced up and possibly given a fresh coat of paint. Another addition noticed is a new green board that has been

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

hoisted at the entrance. Further, old photos of the inside of the hall have flags of JeM and posters of the terror group all over the walls. The recent photos show clean walls devoid of any posters or flags.

There is no doubt, the camp has undergone major civil work in the last few weeks. This would explain why the Pakistani authorities needed more than a month to showcase their children's madrassa to the world. A madrassa, which rather than being located close to inhabited areas, was built on a remote hilltop, requiring its young students to undertake a few hours of uphill trekking.

Sources located in the Balakot area have maintained that the Pakistan Army is in control of the hilltop with locals still not being allowed access. If in case the site was indeed of a madrassa, why is the Pakistan Army stationed there and treating it as a restricted area?

One of my sources who travelled to the Blue Pine hotel at the foothill of the campsite sent a photo of the new signboard of the Taleem ul Quran madrassa that had replaced the earlier board that had clearly declared Masood Azhar's links to the madrassa. The new signboard makes no such claims.

As Pakistan continues to try and whitewash its links to terror groups, it exposes its reluctance to take credible steps against this hydra-headed monster of Islamic terror groups that it has created.

38

COPS ‘N’ CROOKS

Businessperson alleges police excesses

After task force sleuths, Bowenpally CI demands bribe A

THE NEWS BUREAU

fter the north zone task force cops, it appears to be the turn of Inspector D Rajesh of Bowenpally police station to try his hand at extortion.

According to businessman Ramesh Gardas, the Bowenpally top cop has demanded Rs 10 lakh as bribe through one of his junior official, for not slapping PD Act against Ramesh and couple of others.

It may be recalled a report published in these columns depicted how the north zone task force sleuths committed to excesses on Ramesh and others. The victims also approached higher authorities

D. Rajesh, Inspector

and the High Court of Telangana seeking thorough probe against north zone task force officials for resorting to excesses.

In view of the complaints and

adverse news reports, it appears the north zone task force teams have started operating through the Bowenpally police in whose area Ramesh lives. The Bowenpally inspector, D Rajesh, allegedly acting at the behest of north zone task force officials, has not only threatened to foist cases against Ramesh and his friends but also registered a case against Ramesh and four others on May 18 after they refused to pay the bribe allegedly demanded by the police officials.

Fearing such action by the Bowenpally inspector, one of the accused persons, N Venkatesh approached the local court seeking probe against the troublesome cop.

The local court directed the assistant commissioner of police to look into the allegations and submit a detailed report.

Despite this, there seems to be no respite for Ramesh and his associates from the alleged harassment of the Bowenpally inspector. As a result, Ramesh is all set to knock the doors of high court of Telangana for justice.

Ramesh says he has all the evidences to prove the guilt of Bowenpally inspector, Rajesh. “I have full faith in judiciary. I will fight against the police excesses and injustice meted out to me and some of my friends,” Ramesh told The News.

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

CRIME 39

Express TV owner’s murder case

T

PD Act Invoked Against prime accused

P VISHNUVARDHAN REDDY

he Jubilee Hills police have invoked the Preventive Detention (PD) Act on K. Rakesh Reddy, the prime accused in the sensational murder case of NRI businessman Chigurupati Jayaram.

Jayaram, who was managing director of the now-defunct Telugu news channel, Express TV, and director of the Coastal Bank, was confined, subjected to extortion and killed by Rakesh Reddy and his close associates at his Jubilee Hills house in January. Jayaram was killed at house in Hyderabad posh residential area, Jubilee Hills and the dead body was found in a car on a highway in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district.

Apart from being the main accused in the murder case, Rakesh Reddy has been involved in several other cases including extortion, land disputes for the last three years, considering which the Police have invoked the PD Act. With the implementation of the PD Act, the accused has to be behind the bars for one year and cannot avail bail to release from the jail. Currently, the accused is in Chenchalguda jail The details of all cases relating to the PD Act, scientific evidence has been incorporated in the proposed report.

Recently, the police filed a charge sheet in the 17th Additional Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in

Recently, the police filed a charge sheet in the 17th Additional Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Nampally against Rakesh Reddy and seven other accused.

Nampally against Rakesh Reddy and seven other accused. A total of 388 pages charge sheet was filed by the police who investigated 70 witnesses. The report collected from the AP forensic lab along with the scientific evidence was included in the charge sheet. The charge sheet has been filed against the others - Srinivas, film actor Surya Prasad, Kishore, Vishal, Nagesh, Anji Reddy and Subhash Reddy who helped Rakesh Reddy to elude the evidence.

According to legal experts, as ACP Mallareddy and Inspector Srinivasulu who had allegedly suggested Rakesh on how to dispose of the body, they are equally liable on charges of screening and/or destroying evidence and will be coaccused even if not charged with murder. Police also found that

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Rakesh had close relations with many other police officials in Hyderabad and also in AP. ACP Ibrahimpatnam Mallareddy was transferred from his post for his alleged links with Rakesh Reddy Another inspector of Nallakunta Police Station I Srinivasulu was transferred on similar charges.

The cops, whose names were mentioned in the charge sheet, and a few in question were very much aware of Jayaram’s murder but intentionally did not inform the local police. Hence they were also made accused in the case,” said a senior police officer. “Rakesh Reddy was in contact with a couple of police officers in question and informed them of the murder. Surprisingly, none of them turned up and informed the local police,” the investigators said.

40

CYBER CRIME

TS and AP power utilities hacked

I

Hit by ransomware

THE NEWS BUREAU

n a major breach, the servers of the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state power utilities went down after an alleged ransomware attack. The TSSPDCL said that its website was hacked on April 29 and its web services like online payments had been affected. Ransomware is a program that can get into your computer and lock you out, not letting you access your data until you make payment to the hackers.

The cyber crime police which has registered a case under sections of the Information Technology (IT) The act is investigating the case and guess that a staff member of the Telangana State Southern

Power Distribution Company (TSSPDCL) received an email with the malicious software and clicked on it, following which the virus took control of the entire system.

The Andhra counterpart of TSSPDCL was also affected.

“Works are on to rectify the glitch. The servers of Telangana Power Distribution Company are strong and there is enough backup of the data stored. The hacker demanded money in the form of bitcoins but there is no need to pay it.

The glitch will be rectified by Friday,” KCS Raghuveer, Additional DCP CCS (Cyber Crime) was quoted as saying.

According to media reports, the southern and northern power distribution companies of Telangana at

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

Hyderabad and Warangal and southern and eastern power distribution companies of Andhra Pradesh at Tirupati and Visakhapatnam took a hit.

“The TSSPDCL website was hacked and affected services like online payments and other miscellaneous operations. This has no bearing on the operations of the company. The data of TSSPDCL is safe and other day-to-day operations like billing, internal activities in TSSPDCL are in operation.

There is no impact on customer services like payment of bills in meeseva, e-seva, departmental counters and spot collection mechanism,” TSSPDCL CMD G. Raghuma Reddy was quoted as saying.

CRIME 41

Cops nab notorious gangster from forest

J

Daring act by Gujarat’s ATS women team

THE NEWS BUREAU

usab, who is wanted in 23 cases of murder, extortion and robbery spread across Junagadh, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, had jumped parole in June last year.

Police sources said the gangster, who is in his fifties, had been hiding deep inside the Botad forest for the past several months.

It’s like a scene from an action film. Four women cops. One most wanted gangster hiding in the thick forest for almost a year. Daring action by cops. End of the gangster’s game. A women team of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Gujarat led by four woman police officers arrested one of the most wanted gangsters, Jusab Allahrakha Sandh, from a forest in Botad district.

Jusab, who is wanted in 23 cases of murder, extortion and robbery spread across Junagadh, Rajkot and Ahmedabad had jumped parole in June last year.

Police sources said the gangster, who is in his fifties, had been hiding deep inside the Botad forest for the past several months. Jusab) was hiding in a jungle in Botad and it was getting difficult for the local police to nab him. His case was handed over to the ATS. A team of police sub-inspectors Santokben Odedara, Arunaben Gameti, Nitamika Gohel, Shakuntala Mal, and

Jignesh Agravat carried out the operation and arrested him.

“We had received a tip-off from an informant regarding the presence of Jusab in Botad forest and a quick response team were immediately set up to nab him. However, Jusab was staying in a makeshift accommodation so deep inside the forest that no vehicles could reach there. We entered the forest on foot in the night before. Since the accused has been infamous for firing at police parties in the past as well, therefore we did not take any chance and waited for the sunrise.

He was then nabbed from his hut,” SI Odedara said.

Last June, Jusab had got parole to attend the last rites of his wife.

But he jumped parole and weeks later he allegedly killed a man identified as Jeevanbhai Sanghani using firearms to take revenge for the THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

murder of his associate. It was then that the Director General of Police asked the ATS to make all efforts to nab him… Jusab has committed four murders and several incidents of assault, including on policemen, and other crimes in the past. His modus operandi is to commit the crime and flee into the forest as he grew up there and is well acquainted with all the jungle routes.

According to Odedara, Jusab lived without phone or power connection, which made it difficult for the police to nab him. “The accused is trained to survive with minimal requirements and had no electricity connection or phone in his makeshift accommodation. Twothree members of his gang used to bring him food in tiffin every day,” said Odedara. Jusab was handed over to the CID-Crime, which is investigating his cases.

42 BUSINESS

IOC Toppled!

RELIANCE THE BIGGEST INDIAN COMPANY O

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il-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has toppled state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to become the country's biggest company by revenue. According to regulatory filings by the two companies the richest Indian Mukesh Ambani's Reliance in the 2018-19 fiscal year that ended 31 March, reported a turnover of Rs. 6.23 lakh crore and in comparison IOC posted a turnover of Rs.6.17 lakh crore for the fiscal.It was also the most profitable company in the country with a net profit of more than double that of IOC in FY2019.

Reliance, which was about half the size of IOC till about a decade back but its bet on burgeoning consumer base and foray into new businesses such as telecom, retail, and digital services vastly ex-

panded its business, clocked a net profit of Rs.39,588 crore in FY19.

IOC, on the other hand, ended the year with a net profit of Rs. 17.274 crore.

IOC till last year was the most profitable PSU but may have lost this position to Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) in 2018-19. ONGC is yet to declare its FY19 earnings but it had clocked a net profit of Rs. 22,671 crore in the first nine months of the fiscal year.

Net profit of IOC, which depends on oil refining, petrochemicals and gas business for its revenue, had in 2018-19 declined by 23.6 per cent over Rs,22,189.45 crore net profit it had earned in 2017-18.

Reliance, on the other hand, posted a 13% rise in profits over Rs.34,988 crore recorded in 201718. ONGC had a net profit of Rs 19,945.26 crore in 2017-18 fiscal, THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

lagging behind IOC. With this milestone, Reliance has achieved the numero uno position in terms of all three parameters — revenue, profit, and market capitalisation. With strong refining margin and robust retail business, Reliance clocked a 44 per cent in revenue in FY19 over the previous year and posted a compounded annual growth rate of over 14 per cent between FY10 and FY19. In contrast, IOC turnover rose 20% in FY19 and 6.3 per cent during FY10 and FY19.Reliance boasts of a market capitalisation of Rs.8.52 lakh crore.

Interestingly, Reliance which boasts of the highest cash reserves of Rs. 1.33 lakh crore on the book, also has the highest gross debt of Rs.2.87 lakh crore at the end of March 2019. In contrast, IOC had short and long term loans totalling Rs.92,700 crore.

BUSINESS 43

Emerging Technologies:

Next wave of IP creation for India in the US

I

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ndia-domiciled companies filed over 4,600 patents in the US between 2015-2018, a majority of which were from the technology domain, a report by industry body NASSCOM said.The report titled 'Emerging Technologies: Leading the Next Wave of IP Creation for India' highlighted how companies in India are creating intellectual property (IP) assets in the US, which is one of the most favoured destinations for filing patents.

Interestingly, Indian start-ups have filed nearly 200 patents in the US during 2015-18, and a majority of these focused on emerging technology areas including image processing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, vehicle technology

and Internet of Things (IoT).

Overall, the share of technology patents from India-domiciled companies have consistently increased to 64.8 per cent in 2017-18 from 51 per cent in 2015, the report said.

Within technology patents, the share of emerging technologies has increased consistently to 56.3 per cent in 2017-18 from 38.3 per cent in 2015, while the share of computer and communication technology patents witnessed a decline. AI led the emerging technologies patent race both in terms of the number of patents (330 patents) as well as growth over the period 2015-18.

Apart from AI, there has been a consistent growth on building IP in other emerging Tech domains with patents being filed in cybersecurity

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(193), IoT (107) and cloud computing (88) accounting for over 50 per cent of the tech patents filed in 2017-18, the report said. Innovation is the key to driving transformation and such patents and trademarks are a testimony to this transformational growth, NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh said. "As a country, India can further strengthen its potential as an innovation hub through more investments in research and strategic collaborations.

We are confident that we will usher in a new wave of innovation and intelligence in the country," she added. The study also highlighted the patent growth story in newer application areas including cybersecurity, digital payments , e-commerce and navigation.

44 BUSINESS

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport

Among the top 10 in the world R

ajiv Gandhi International Airport has been declared as the eighth best airport in the world.

It has been ranked in a survey conducted by AirHelp. In it’s 2019 annual rating report Doha's Hamad International Airport, Tokyo Haneda International Airport, and Athens International Airport has retained its top three positions in the list, since the ratings began in 2015.

According to the data collected, the New Jersey Hub was ranked as the worst airport in the United States

Korean Air, Kuwait Airways, the United Kingdom’s (UK) EasyJet and Thomas Cook Airlines.

The Rajiv Gandhi International airport at Hyderabad is ranked after Singapore's Changi Airport, which has been acknowledged as one of the newest state-of-art airports in the world. The Hyderabad airport attained a rating of 8.27 out of 10, while the first-ranking Hamad International Airport received 8.39 on a scale of 10. In 2017, the Hyderabad airport was also recognised as Asia Pacific's first airport to turn carbon neutral.

(US) in 2019.AirHelp is an organization that specializes in air traveller rights and seeks compensation in cases of delays or cancellations.

AirHelp has also done a survey on airlines. Qatar Airways ranked as the top airline for the second consecutive year, followed by American Airlines, Aeromexico, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, and Qantas in the top five. At the bottom of the list were Ryanair,

Interestingly, no US airport could make it in the top 10 spots.

Among the highest-rated US airports, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport bagged 34th spot out of 132 airports around the world. Newark held the lowest US spot, at 116. The worst airports in the survey were Lisbon's Portela Airport and Kuwait International Airport, ranked at 131 and 132 spots, respectively.

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The survey was conducted based on three factors: on-time performance, service quality, and food and shopping options. The first category, 'on-time performance' accounted for 60 per cent of the score and the other two criteria made up 20 per cent each.

Here are the 10 best airports for the year: 1. Hamad International Airport, Qatar (DOH) 2. Tokyo International Airport, Japan (HND) 3.

Athens International Airport, Greece(ATH) 4. Afonso Pena International Airport, Brazil (CWB) 5.

Gdansk Lech Wasa Airport, Poland (GDN) 6. Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia (SVO) 7. Changi Airport Singapore, Singapore (SIN) 8. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, India (HYD) 9. Tenerife North Airport, Spain (TFN) 10.

Viracopos/Campinas International Airport, Brazil.

AirHelp's data came from multiple commercial vendors, along with its own database. Besides, the survey included interviews of over 40,000 passengers in 40 countries during 2018. In addition to this, the survey found that congestion is the biggest problem that airports are facing as the flight industry is experiencing a rapid increase in global tourism. According to a report by the Worldwide Tourism Organization, globally international tourist arrivals increased by 6 per cent, to 1.4 billion in 2018.

THE NATION 45

In an IPS officer’s house

Country’s biggest drug haul I

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t is the country’s biggest ever narcotics seizure. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in May second week has recovered 1,818kg of pseudoephedrine from a house in Greater Noida and arrested two Nigerian nationals and one South African national. Officers said that the house, which belongs to an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was being used as a drug-manufacturing unit.

The approximate value of the seized drugs is estimated to be more than Rs1,000 crore. Investigations revealed that the house belongs to Devendra PN Pandey, an IPS officer posted with the UP Police’s Economic Offences Wing in Lucknow.

Madhav Singh, the zonal director, NCB, said the seizure is India’s biggest-ever narcotics haul and the world’s largest pseudoephedrine seizure in the past three years. According to NCB officials, following a tip-off the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) intercepted a 31-yearold a woman passenger, Nomsa Lutalo, from South Africa, at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport.

The woman was to board a flight to Johannesburg via Dubai.

On checking her bags, they found 24.7kg pseudoephedrine from her bags. On questioning, the woman said she had been handed the con-

signment in Greater Noida by two people from Nigeria. “She said she was asked to carry the same to Johannesburg and was promised good money in exchange,” Singh said. Based on Lutalo’s interrogation, an NCB team conducted a raid at the identified premise in Sector P4 of Greater Noida the same day.

“A man, Henry Ideofor (35) and a woman, Chimando Okora (30)

were living in the house. Both are from Nigeria. During searches, we found several canisters and boxes in the house, containing 1,818kg of pseudoephedrine. We also recovered 1.9kg cocaine,” Singh said. He said that pseudoephedrine is a precursor used for manufacturing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. The export of pseudoephedrine requires a no-objection certificate from the narcotics commissioner. The UN Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988, identifies 23 THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

precursors that need to be controlled. Pseudoephedrine is one of them.

During questioning, the Nigerian nationals told officials that they bought the chemical from various illicit sources and were storing it to manufacture drugs. “They also used to manufacture fake heroin and transport it out of the country, illegally. They claim to have also distributed the drugs in DelhiNCR. The precursor and manufactured drugs were mostly sent to countries in Africa, the two revealed,” zonal director of NCB said.

Ideofor and Okora told officials they had taken the house on rent and had been living there since 2015. Investigations revealed that the house belongs to Devendra PN Pandey, an IPS officer posted with the UP Police’s Economic Offences Wing in Lucknow. When contacted, Pandey said he had rented out the house through a property dealer and was unaware of the activities going on there. “I had no knowledge of the drug business being run from my house. I have not even received any rent for the past year and had made a complaint to the circle officer against the two Nigerian nationals. The rent agreement also clearly mentions that the residents will be responsible for any illegal activity,” he said. Pandey said he had bought the property for Rs7.2 lakh in 2000.

46 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Gold-coated

Fungi W

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here you get gold from?

Gold mines, where else you may say. But wait a minute, now you have a new source – Fungi.

Yes. Australian scientists have discovered near Boddington in Western Australia. The discovery was made by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, and published in the journal Nature Communications. "Fungi can oxidise tiny particles of gold and precipitate it on their strands – this cycling process may contribute to how gold and other elements are distributed around the Earth's surface," CSIRO lead author Dr Tsing Bohu said.

The thread-like fungi attach the gold to their strands by dissolving and precipitating particles from their surroundings, in a process that could offer clues for finding new gold deposits. There may be a biological advantage in doing so too, as the gold-coated fungi were found to grow larger and spread faster than those that don't interact with gold and play a central role in a biodiverse soil community.

"Fungi are well-known for

playing an essential role in the degradation and recycling of organic material, such as leaves and bark, as well as for the cycling of other metals, including aluminium, iron, manganese and calcium.

"But gold is so chemically inactive that this interaction is both unusual and surprising – it had to be seen to be believed."Dr Bohu is undertaking further analysis and modelling to understand why the fungi is interacting with gold, and whether or not, it's an indication of a larger deposit below the surface.

Australia is the world's secondlargest gold producer, and while gold production hit record peaks in 2018, forecasted estimates show that production will decline in the near future unless new gold deposits are found. New, low-impact exploration tools are needed to make the next generation of discoveries. CSIRO is using innovative science and technology to solve the greatest challenges, like ensuring the world has a sustainable supply of resources.

"The industry is actively using innovative exploration sampling THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

techniques, such as gum leaves and termite mounds, which can store tiny traces of gold and can be linked to bigger deposits below the surface," CSIRO chief research scientist Dr Ravi Anand said.

"We want to understand if the fungi we studied, known as fusarium oxsporum – and their functional genes – can be used in combination with these exploration tools to help the industry to target prospective areas in a way that's less impactful and more cost-effective than drilling."

The researchers also highlight the potential to use fungi as a bioremediation tool to recover gold from waste.

While Fusarium oxsporum is commonly found in soils around the world and produce a pink mycelium or "flower" – it's not something prospectors should go foraging for, as the particles of gold can only be seen under a microscope. The research involved a multi-disciplinary approach harnessing geology, molecular biology, informatics analysis and astrobiologyGold-coated fungi discovered in Western Australia.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 47

Successful experiment

Electricity from the coldness of the universe

Professor Shanhui Fan (center) with graduate students Aaswath Raman (left) and Eden Rephaeli (right).

A

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n international team of scientists have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to generate a measurable amount of electricity in a diode directly from the coldness of the universe. The infrared semiconductor device faces the sky and uses the temperature difference between Earth and space to produce the electricity.

New work, in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, looks to provide a potential path to generating electricity like solar cells but that can power electronics at night.

“The vastness of the universe is a thermodynamic resource,” said Shanhui Fan, an author on the paper. “In terms of optoelectronic physics, there is really this very beautiful symmetry between har-

vesting incoming radiation and harvesting outgoing radiation.”

The obvious drawback of solar panels is that they require sunlight to generate electricity. Some have observed that for a device on Earth facing space, which has a frigid temperature, the chilling outflow of energy from the device can be harvested using the same kind of optoelectronic physics we have used to harness solar energy.

In contrast to leveraging incoming energy as a normal solar cell would, the negative illumination effect allows electrical energy to be harvested as heat leaves a surface.

Today’s technology, though, does not capture energy over these negative temperature differences as efficiently.

By pointing their device toward space, whose temperature approaches mere degrees from ab-

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solute zero, the group was able to find a great enough temperature difference to generate power through an early design.

“The amount of power that we can generate with this experiment, at the moment, is far below what the theoretical the limit is,” said Masashi Ono, another author on the paper. The group found that their negative illumination diode generated about 64 nanowatts per square meter, a tiny amount of electricity, but an important proof of concept, that the authors can improve on by enhancing the quantum optoelectronic properties of the materials they use.

Calculations made after the diode created electricity showed that when atmospheric effects are taken into consideration, the current device can theoretically generate almost 4 watts per square meter, roughly one million times what the group’s device generated and enough to help power machinery that is required to run at night.

By comparison, today’s solar panels generate 100 to 200 watts per square meter.

While the results show promise for ground-based devices directed to the sky, Fan said the same principle could be used to recover waste heat from machines. For now, he and his group are focusing on improving their device’s performance.

48 WORKPLACE

Home is not a good office M

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any organizations and employees are opting for work from home. Information Technology (IT), IT-enabled service sectors stand high on this. But researchers are warning, with working from homes productivity falls over time and also workers become socially isolated. The option to work from home is one of the growing trends of modern professional life around the world but a new UK study warns it may not be as productive in all cases.

The study, by the London School of Economics (LSE), said the benefits of working from home disappeared overtime for employees and companies if it was a full-time arrangement.

“This study provides a glimpse into a future where flexible working could become business as usual. Whereas once people saw it as a favour and felt the need to reciprocate and give back

more to the organisation, in this future they will not, “ Esther Canonico, from the LSE's department of management explained.

Her research discovered that too much home-working means that employees become just as unproductive as those in the office, with staff growing disgruntled about having to pay for extra for bills and missing out on office gossip.

As employees stop regarding working from home as a discretionary benefit or privilege, they start behaving accordingly and revert to “bad habits“.

The study showed that some home working employees feel resentful that employers don't pay utility bills or cover stationery costs, for example. Many complain that organization is saving cost on office accommodation, power, telephone and another cost which home worker has to pay.

On the other side, some managers feel home workers take advantage

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of the situation. Check up weather home worker really working at home, by making calls or sending a mail asking for immediate reply.

This many cases causing resentment among home workers. If the company expects home workers to be a lot more productive or workers expect employers to give them a lot of flexibility and not have to reciprocate in kind, one or both are likely to be disappointed.

Those at home every day also become “socially and professionally isolated“, increasingly feeling out of touch. This leads to losing confidence in their skills and no longer able to “accurately interpret and use information”.Emails can be misinterpreted, whereas the signals are usually clear in a faceto-face meeting, the study found.

Taking a clue from the study organization may have to strike a balance in asking and allowing employees to work from home.

PERSONAL FINANCE 49

To reduce impulsive buying

Focus on the future

A

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re you not able to save money because of an impulsive urge to use credit cards? If yes, you need not necessarily have to cut up your card as new research suggests that focusing more on the future may help you reduce impulsiveness and make better financial decisions.

Simple visualization and writing exercises designed to help people create vivid, detailed mental pictures of their future help them to improve their financial behaviours and ultimately their lives, the study said.

"Our results suggest that by helping people to create vivid, detailed mental pictures of their future, we may be able to help them take better financial decisions," said Sarah Newcomb, Behavioural Economist at Chicago-based investment management firm Morningstar.

"We wanted to better understand the psychological factors that

drive consumer spending and saving with the hope of identifying and targeting those that could potentially motivate more savings and investments among people who have adequate resources but poor financial management skills," she said.

In the study, Newcomb and her colleagues conducted an online survey of over 700 adults in the US. Participants were asked questions designed to measure their financial behaviour, as well as attitudes, are known to be associated with saving or spending, including impulsiveness, materialism, financial literacy and the extent to which they think about the future.

As expected, the researchers found that high levels of impulsiveness and materialism was associated with poor financial decision-making (more spending, less saving).

They also discovered that while financial literacy and the way THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

people think about the future were both associated with good financial decisions, the strongest predictor was not literacy but focus on the future.

Further analysis suggested that the only relationship that could be found among the four attitudes was between impulsiveness and future focus. Individuals who spent more time contemplating events yet to come scored significantly lower in impulsiveness.

These findings offer a starting point for developing behavioural interventions by individuals and families to promote savings, budgeting. Governments and personal finance advisers may also be able to use this information for suggesting to their clients about other positive financial interventions. These interventions can help the use of credit cards for credit and avoid huge debts which are more prevalent among middle-class families both in the west and oriental countries.

50 ENVIRONMENT

C

‘Bengal tigers may not survive climate change’

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limate change and rising sea levels eventually may wipe out one of the world’s last and largest tiger strongholds, scientists warned in a new study. A report released by the United Nations has stated this. The cats are among nearly 500,000 land species whose survival is now in question because of threats to their natural habitats.

“By 2070, there will be no suitable tiger habitats remaining in the Sundarbans,” concluded the study by 10 researchers. The paper, which relies on climate scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for its simulation models, adds to existing studies that offered similarly grim predictions for wildlife in the Sundarbans.

The Sundarbans, four thousand square miles of marshy land in Bangladesh and India, hosts the

world’s largest mangrove forest and a rich ecosystem supporting several hundred animal species, including the endangered Bengal tiger. But 70 per cent of the land is just a few feet above sea level, and grave changes are in store for the region. Changes wrought by a warming planet will be “enough to decimate” the few hundred or so Bengal tigers remaining there.

Sharif A. Mukul, lead author of the new report on the Sundarbans, and his colleagues looked for risks to the tiger beyond sea level rise, which accounted for 5.4 per cent to 11.3 per cent of the projected habitat loss in 2050 and 2070.Climate change has already harmed almost half of the world’s endangered mammals, far more than previously thought, a recent study found.

In the Bangladesh Sundarbans, a spike in extreme weather events and changing vegetation will

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further reduce the population, the study found. And as the Sundarbans flood, confrontations may grow between humans and tigers as the animals stray outside their habitat in search of new land.

“A a lot of things might happen,” said Dr Mukul, an assistant professor of environmental management at Independent University, Bangladesh in Dhaka. “The situation could be even worse if there is a cyclone or if there is some disease outbreak in that area, or if there is a food shortage.”

Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at India’s Jadavpur University, said there may be some loss of land in the Sundarbans, but his research suggested a less dramatic impact on tigers.

Other factors related to climate change were more damaging to the Sundarbans’ tigers, one of the largest remaining populations of wild tigers in the world, the researchers found. Since the early 1900s, habitat loss, hunting and the illegal trade of animal parts have decimated the global population of tigers from around 100,000 to fewer than 4,000. Some steps have already been taken to protect lowlying areas and the tigers living there, said Zahir Uddin Ahmed, an official with Bangladesh’s forest department. Crops that can survive higher levels of water salinity are being introduced. The government has built storm surge walls. Sediment redistribution has also naturally raised the height of some islands, he said.

HEALTH 51

Using AI to predict breast cancer and personalize care D

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espite major advances in genetics and modern imaging, the diagnosis catches most breast cancer patients by surprise. For some, it comes too late. Later diagnosis means aggressive treatments, uncertain outcomes, and more medical expenses. As a result, identifying patients has been a central pillar of breast cancer research and effective early detection.

With that in mind, a team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has created a new deep-learning model that can predict from a mammogram if a patient is likely to develop breast cancer as much as five years in the future. Trained on mammograms and known outcomes from over 60,000 MGH patients, the model learned the subtle patterns in breast tissue that are precursors to malignant tumours.

MIT Professor Regina Barzilay, herself a breast cancer survivor, says that the hope is for systems like these to enable doctors to customize screening and prevention programs at the individual level, making late diagnosis a relic of the past. Although mammography has been shown to reduce breast cancer mortality, there is continued debate on how often to screen and when to start. While the American Cancer Society recommends annual screening starting at age 45, the U.S. Preventative Task Force recommends screening every two years starting at age 50.

“Rather then taking a one-size-fits-all approach, we can personalize screening around a woman’s risk of developing cancer,” says Barzilay, senior author of a new paper about the project out today in Radiology. “For example, a doctor might recommend that one group of women get a mammogram every other year, while another higher-risk group might get supplemental MRI screening.” Barzilay is the Delta Electronics Professor at CSAIL and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

The team’s model was significantly better at predicting risk than existing approaches: It accurately placed 31 per cent of all cancer patients in its highestrisk category, compared to only 18 per cent for traditional models. Harvard Professor Constance Lehman says that there’s previously been minimal support in the medical community for screening strategies that are risk-based rather than age-based.

“This is because before we did not have accurate risk assessment tools that worked for individual women,” says Lehman, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and division chief of breast

imaging at MGH. “Our work is the first to show that it’s possible.”

Barzilay and Lehman co-wrote the paper with lead author Adam Yala, a CSAIL PhD student. Other MIT co-authors include PhD student Tal Schuster and former master’s student Tally Portnoi. “Our goal is to make these advancements a part of the standard of care,” says Yala. “By predicting who will develop cancer in the future, we can hopefully save lives and catch cancer before symptoms ever arise.

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52

HEALTH

Heart failure deaths rising in younger adults D

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eath rates due to heart failure are now increasing, and this increase is most prominent among younger adults under 65, considered premature death, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.The increase in premature death from heart failure was highest among black men under age 65. The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

This study is showing for the first time that death rates due to heart failure have been increasing since 2012. The rise in deaths comes despite significant advances in medical and surgical treatments for heart failure in the past decade.

“The success of the last three decades in improving heart failure death rates is now being reversed, and it is likely due to the obesity and diabetes epidemics,” said Dr Sadiya Khan, assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist. “We focused on patients with heart failure because they have the highest mortality related to cardiovascular death. They have a prognosis similar to metastatic lung cancer.”

An estimated 6 million adults in the U.S. have heart failure. It’s the number one reason older adults are admitted to the hospital, Khan said.

“Given the ageing population and the obesity and diabetes epidemics, which are major risk factors for heart failure, it is likely that this trend will continue to worsen,” she said. Recent data that show the average life expectancy in the U.S. also is declining, which compounds Khan’s concern that cardiovascular death related to heart failure may be a significant contributor to this change.

The study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research data, which includes the underlying THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

and contributing cause of death from all death certificates Simply put, heart failure is when the heart muscle doesn’t function properly in its squeezing or relaxing functions.

It causes symptoms like shortness of breath and swelling. When the heart can’t adequately squeeze to pump blood, it’s called heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; when the heart can’t relax it’s called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

“To combat this disturbing trend, we need to focus on improving the control of risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes,” Khan said. “Healthy lifestyle changes promoting a normal body mass index also can protect from developing heart failure as well as engaging in regular physical activity and consuming a healthy, well-balanced diet.” In future research, Khan said she wants to better understand what causes the disparities in cardiovascular death related to heart failure.

HEALTH 53

International study

Eating rice could protect against obesity A

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n international study has suggested that eating more rice could be protective against obesity.

According to this study, obesity levels are substantially lower in countries that consume high amounts of rice (average 150g/day/person), while counties with lower average rice intake (average 14g/day/person) have higher obesity levels. The study was conducted in 136 countries, being presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Glasgow, UK ended in May first week.

The link between rice intake and obesity persisted even after taking into account other lifestyle and socioeconomic risk factors including total energy consumption, education, smoking, gross domestic product per capita, and health expenditure. The researchers estimate that even a modest increase in average rice consumption (of 50g/day/per person—equivalent to a quarter of a cup), could reduce the worldwide prevalence of obesity by 1% (ie, from 650 million adults aged 18 years or older to 643.5 million).

"The observed associations suggest that the obesity rate is low in countries that eat rice as a staple food," says Professor Tomoko Imai from Doshisha Women's College of

Liberal Arts, Kyoto, Japan who led the research. Therefore, a Japanese food or an Asian-food-style diet based on rice may help prevent obesity. "Given the rising levels of obesity worldwide, eating more rice should be recommended to protect against obesity even in western countries." She opinioned People who eat higher levels of

energy consumption (kcal/day/person) in the diets of 136 countries with populations of more than 1 million, using data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

These data were analysed together with estimates of obesity prevalence, the average number of years spent in education, the per-

dietary fibre and whole grains have lower bodyweight and cholesterol, and lower rates of non-communicable diseases compared with people with lower intakes.

However, the effect of rice consumption on obesity is unclear. To better understand the link between them two, Professor Imai and colleagues examined rice (all rice products including white rice, brown rice, rice flour) relative consumption (g/day/person) and

centage of the population over 65 years old, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and health expenditure. Countries were categorised into low and high consumption groups.

Even after taking into account and adjusting for these known risk factors, an inverse association was observed between rice consumption and rates of obesity—suggesting that higher intakes of rice could provide even greater protection.

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54 HEALTH

Patients kundli is key

Astrological diagnoses D

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octors in Jaipur's Unique Sangeeta Memorial Hospital situated in Vaishali Nagar area are now diagnosing patients with the help of astrology. They say that using astrology in medical science is not only helping them to detect the disease but is also providing required psychological counselling to the patients.

Dr Mahesh Kulkarni, Surgeon said, "Here we are trying to incorporate astrology into medical sciences. It surely helps us to detect the disease among the patients. In Indian culture, astrology holds a lot

of importance. We have one astrologer here Pandit Akhilesh Sharma. When a patient comes, he has subjected to astrological evaluation of an astrological diagnosis.

The medical and astrological diagnoses are then compared. Treatment is done with advanced technology but we take the help of astrology for diagnosis. Patients are satisfied."

"Till now we have attended 70 cases and the astrologer had predicted the diseases exactly same what was detected during the medical diagnosis. Astrology is surely both doctors and patients.

When a patient comes, he is sub-

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jected to astrological evaluation and astrological diagnosis. The medical and astrological diagnoses are then compared. Treatment is done with advanced technology but we take the help of astrology for diagnosis. Patients are satisfied," he added. At present, a total of 22 staff members including five doctors are working in the hospital. Apart from that, Pandit Akhilesh Sharma is also a part of the team. "I see 25-30 kundli every day. We use astrology for diagnosis only, for treatment we use Medical Science. We do it so that diagnosis is correct and no time is wasted," said Pandit Akhilesh Sharma.

WOMEN 55

Priyanka opened up

Sexual harassment had become the norm with women

“

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Sexual harassment had become a norm with women” said, Priyana Chopra. She spoke about what it has been like to watch women in Hollywood and Bollywood in great numbers since the rise of the #MeToo movement.

“Now because of the support we are giving each other, people don’t have the power to shut us down.”

No degree of acquired composure, however, could keep her safe from harassment, which she laments had until recently really become normalised everywhere, excused with a “boys will be boys” mentality.

Priyanka opened up about the

#MeToo movement, her career and gender equality during a conversation with Women in the World founder Tina Brown at the Women in World Summit 2019.

The difference the #MeToo movement has made, Priyanka says, is the strength in numbers that women are newly enjoying. “We always had a voice. Just nobody heard us. Now because of the support we’re giving each other, nobody can shut us down. And that’s an incredibly powerful thing to see. “Now if I have a story I don’t feel I’m alone anymore – and I’m not ashamed of it,” she said.

When asked if she ever faced sexual harassment, she raised her

hand saying everybody in this room has probably faced one because it had become a norm with women. The actress also explained why a lot of Indian actors don’t opt for crossovers in the West.“A lot of actors that I speak to don’t have ambitions to move out of the industry. Bollywood is the biggest, if not the first industry to make films and the demographic is so large, they don’t want to leave that.”

But Priyanka thinks there is a little problem when it comes to the casting of South Asians in Hollywood.

“I played ethnically ambiguous parts,” she said, adding: “It took me all those ethnically ambiguous parts to be where I am today. I did not want to do stereotype roles because then all you will see is what I already know I can do. I am Indian, I can do that.”

Opening up about entering beauty pageants, she said: “I was extremely awkward, but I like winning.”

“It is my greatest friend and greatest joy… I think that the pageant world has a very bad reputation in the US, whereas In India, the pageant world is very cohesive to the entire personality of a woman: What you look like, how you speak, especially how much you know – there was a lot of attention that was placed on the substance, even for Miss World.”

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

IN FOCUS

‘Miss India Telangana’ Sanjana Vij

Dream tuned into passion S

THE NEWS BUREAU

he is highly qualified. Sports enthusiast. Confident. Warrior by heart. Positive to life and people. fbb Colors Femina Miss India Telangana 2019 Sanjana Vij is a versatile young woman.

Winning a prestigious beauty contest does not hide this talented Porst graduate (M.Tech) in Bio technology’s knowledge range and interests of the gorgeous beauty queen. She is a project manager by THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

profession but an artist at heart.

Artist in her finds expression by acting and dancing. She also loves to play games and sports. She has played nationals in the shooting.

“My grandmother has inspired me to be a warrior & independent in life so that I carve my own path and believe in self,” said Sanjana.

Sanjana is always wanted to leave a mark. Since childhood she Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her work. Dancing on her songs and copying her moves made follow

IN FOCUS former Miss Worlds’s journey.

Though Sanjana never said that out loud but had always dreamt of becoming a beauty queen. Soon this dream turned into a passion.

Sanjana’s experience at Campus Princess gave a boost of confidence. After losing, she realized mistakes, tried really hard to be perfect in every task but in that process, and enjoyed the journey.

“I realized not everything will go as per the plan but that’s the beauty of it -“We Self Introspect” and that’s what I did.” said Sanjana.

Usually, it takes a lot of time and strength to overcome failures.

Sanjana says failures have motivated her. Each time she fails she gives herself enough time to accept that failure and think what went wrong. Never rush. ” It’s okay to feel sad and heartbroken but I never let it break me. I accept my weaknesses, find new strengths and work on them.” Sanjana explains.

At the same time, Sanjana has learnt and imbibed different things from different sports. Shooting taught her to be very calm and

focused. Team sports like basketball and handball taught her that the only way to uplift yourself is by uplifting and motivating others.

Running taught to work hard consistently. “The most important quality I have imbibed as a sports person is to never give up,” told Sanjana with a smile.

Winning Miss India 2019 is not easy. Sanjana has a clear understanding of the qualities that are needed. She is of the opinion that it’s time we take beauty on an absolute level rather than just valuing appearance. Miss India 2019 winner should be able to relate to people and their problems. She should be able to empathize rather THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

than sympathize. Sanjana said, “I think Miss India 2019 should possess is she should be strong, confident, and be a keen observer of what the society silently, helplessly whispers and being their voice out loud.”

Admiring a Miss World turned into a leading film star if Sanjana gets an opportunity to act in a will she accepts? which actress does she prefer to work with? “I would love to act with Kangana Ranaut.

She is an extremely talented actor and performer. She looks effortless on screen, adds her own flavour and rawness into the character which makes her unique,” says Sanjana.

58

SCANDAL

(Left to right) Addepalli Saikumar, B Karunakar Reddy, C Sudarshan, R Narasimha Reddy

Apollo Micro Systems, a scandal bigger than Bofors?

A

Regulatory authorities turn blind eye

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mere Rs 60 crore Bofors scandal rocked Indian politics and still haunts Gandhi family. But a group of people from Hyderabad appears to be unleashing a scam bigger than Bofors but without being noticed by the nation or even as the regulatory authorities turn a blind eye for the reasons best known to them.

The man behind the alleged scandal is Karunakar Reddy

Baddam, the promoter of Hyderabad based Apollo Micro Systems, projected as a high-tech defence system company. With dubious track record and a mere Rs 63 crore networth said to have been achieved through fudging records, the company raised funds worth Rs 156 crore through IPO. It is said that the company vilolated the statutory requirements. Committed many irregularities and yet, it managed to go for public issue.

While the issue price was Rs THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

275 a share, some promoters, mostly proxy’s of Karunakar Reddy, were allotted the shares at Rs 200. The actual purpose of fundraising was to develop personal assets and invest in shell companies floated by the Apollo Micro Systems chief. It is due to this reason; the price of Apollo Micro Systems share is consistently falling with the current approximate price of less than Rs 140 a share. Thus, the promoter took people who invested in the shares for a ride,

sources said. Apollo Micro Systems claims it manufactures and assembles electronic hardware and software solutions that find their applications in missiles, electronic warfare, nuclear missiles, submarine, ships and space programmes.

Defence electronics is a huge market considering there are several components that are required for the main assembly. Larger players like BEL and others source these components from small players, which have to go through strict product and technology approvals as per the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) requirements.

However, according to sources, Apollo Micro Systems has no human resources to cater to the growing requirements of the defence industry.

Instead, Karunakar Reddy though his deceitful tactics and influence, sources out the software from individual

scientists and markets the same with the unethical help of insiders in the defence research labs in DRDO. Due to this reason Apollo Micro Systems has failed to meet the timelines and standards and thus the sales is consistently going down.

Added to this, majority of the funds raised through the IPO were diverted to shell companies and unsecured loans were given to promoters instead of using for the growth of Apollo Micro Systems thus violating the prevailing rules and regulations and committing criminal breach of trust with the investors.

Since they knew what is in the offing, Karunakar Reddy and his coterie of promoters sold the shares in the open market in March 2019 and made quick money leaving the common investors in lurch. Since listing, the stock has underperformed the market significantly, as

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

SCANDAL 59

a result investors have lost huge sum of money.

In view of the alleged fraudulent practices, Karunakar Reddy and his Apollo Micro Systems have come under the scanner of Income Tax and Central Bureau of Investigation. It is said both the agencies carried out a preliminary inquiry against the company and its chief but the outcome of the probe has not been made public.

It appears Karunakar Reddy has connections in high places in the administrative circles. And in the government bodies. He has been able to ward off any efforts to bring him to the book.

With the Narendra Modi dispensation coming back to power again, investors hope that the authorities will take cognizance of the alleged irregularities and illegal practices of Apollo Micro Systems and its chief Karunakar Reddy and unearth the fraud that is bigger than Bofors.

60 HERITAGE

Found in Andhra village

2k yr-old Buddhist pillar A

THE NEWS BUREAU

Buddhist pillar, which is believed to be dating back to 1st century AD, was found in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. The pillar is carved on Palnadu limestone, which is typically used in Buddhist structures.

According to E Sivanagi Reddy, a Buddhist Scholar and CEO, Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravati (CCVA) sculptures of Hindu deities found in the region are typically made of red stone, black stone or other materials, whereas the use of Palnadu limestone unequivocally marks the pillar as a Buddhist construction.

“This is an Aryaka pillar, which is considered noble in Buddhism. It is one of the five pillars that are erected in the four cardinal directions of a Buddhist stupa. The five pillars are meant to represent the five phases in Buddha’s life. These are birth, renunciation, attaining enlightenment, giving the first sermon and Mahaparinirvana,” explained Sivanagi Reddy.

He added that this could mean that there might have been a Buddhist stupa in the area dating back to the Satavahana period. A 1stcentury Buddhist site from the same period had been discovered in 2017 on top of a remote hill in Putlagudem village of Guntur district.

Another 3rd-century Buddhist sculpture had been found in Guntur last year. There are many Buddhist sites in Andhra Pradesh, including the Ghantasala village in Krishna

district. Buddhist structures in the area could be from either the Satavahana or the Ikshvaku period.

Structures from the Ikshvaku period are typically smaller in size.

This particular pillar is from the Satavahana age. “The carvings are simple and basic, indicating that it belongs to the Theravada branch of Buddhism,” Sivanagi Reddy said.

Locals of the Chandaluru village of Janakavaram Ponguluru Mandal the village had come across the pillar while carrying out work for building a Shiva temple.

“They had kept it wrapped in an old cloth,” said Reddy, who was informed about the pillar by Dr Jyothi Chandramouli, a historian THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

A couple of copper plate inscriptions had been found in the nearby region in the past, but this was the first time a Buddhist structure had been found. “There was a Shaivite shrine in the middle of a 35-acre tank called Voora Cheruvu in the village. The locals had been constructing a new Shiva temple near that spot, where the pillar had been found. Even earlier, inscriptions that marked donations made by various rulers to the shrine had been found here. A hero stone, commemorating the death of a man in a local battle was also found.

“The the place has a significant history that must be explored,” said Sivanagi Reddy

HERITAGE 61

Nizam’s swords, Gayatri Devi's necklace

N

Indian royal artefacts up for auction

THE NEW BUREAU

early 400 Indian royal artefacts – including a diamondencrusted ceremonial ceremonial sword of the Nizam of Hyderabad. and diamond encrusted sword hilt of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala, natural pearl necklace belonging to Rajmata Gayatri Devi and a jade hilted dagger of Mughal king Shah Jahan would go for auction in June at the US. The auction titled 'Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence' and organised by Christie's will showcase an "unparalleled collection" of stunning jewels, diamonds, finest jewelled objects, gemstones, swords, daggers and decorative objects spanning over 500 years - from the Indian royalty and the Mughal period, the global auction house said.

‘This comprehensive trove’ will be offered in the landmark auction on June 19, it said. "Spanning over 500 years of history and sovereign power on the subcontinent, 'Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence' tells the story of a continuous tradition of patronage from the Mughal Empire to the present day, with provenance including the royal and noble families of India," the Christie's said. Up for auction will be an unparalleled collection of Mughal jewels, European-Indian hybrid designs and 20th-Century creations by leading jewellery

houses, it said.

Among the objects will be the hilt of the state sword of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala. Estimated at between USD 100,000 and USD 150,000, the sword is enamelled and set with diamonds. Its lion-headed pommel is set with ruby eyes. One side of the hilt is set with a raised and moulded crest of Kapurthala and the other side with the words 'Kapurthala State' set in diamonds. Once owned by Shah Jahan, a dagger with an inscription in 'Nasta'liq' script is another prominent object in the collection. It is estimated to fetch between USD 1'5 million and USD 2.5 million.

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

Also on display will be a diamond encrusted ceremonial sword of the Nizam of Hyderabad.

Set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds, the sword is expected to fetch between USD 1 million and USD 1.5 million. Another prominent offering is a natural pearl and diamond Cartier necklace of Rajmata Gayatri Devi, wife of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur. The graduated strand of 37 round to oval natural pearls, old-cut marquise-shaped diamond is estimated to be valued at between USD 1 million and USD 1.5 million.

The collection also includes a Tipu Sultan's pendant, set with rubies and emeralds, and mounted in a gold frame with a pin. A gemset jade-hilted dagger, possibly from Lucknow, is also in the collection. The objects would be on exhibition from June 14-18 before going under the hammer on June 19.

62

SPORTS

GS Lakshmi appointed

The first female ICC match referee

F

THE NEWS SPORTS DESK

ormer India women cricketer GS Lakshmi became the first female to be appointed to the ICC International Panel of Match Referees. The 51-year-old, who first officiated as a match referee in domestic women's cricket in 2008-09, has overseen three women's ODI matches and as many women's T20I games. Lakshmi first officiated in domestic women's cricket in 2008-09, and has overseen three women's ODI matches and three women's T20I matches."To be selected in the international panel by the ICC is a huge honour for me as it opens up new avenues," Lakshmi said. "I have had a long career as a cricketer in India and also as a Match Referee. I hope to put my experience both as a player and as a match official to good use on the international circuit. I hope to live up to their expectations by doing my job to the best of my ability."

Following close on the heels of Claire Polosak, who earlier this month became the first ever woman umpire to stand in a men's ODI, Lakshmi will be eligible to referee international games with immediate effect. Lauren Agenbag, Kim Cotton, Shivani Mishra, Sue Redfern, Mary Waldron, and Jacqueline Williams are the other women officials on the panel. The first woman on the ICC Development Panel of Umpires was Kathy Cross, who retired last year.

Meanwhile, Adrian Griffith,

ICC Senior Manager - Umpires and Referees said, "We welcome Lakshmi and Eloise to our panels, which is an important step forward in our commitment to encouraging women officials. It is heartening to see their progress and I am sure many more women will be inspired to follow their example. I wish them all the best for a long and enjoyable career." "We are committed to ensuring greater gender parity THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

among our officials, but all appointments are made purely on merit. The elevation is as a result of a thorough evaluation process that identifies the most talented match officials breaking through to an international level. It is pleasing that through consistently high performance we are able to add more women to our panels," Griffith added.

Lakshmi was born in Rajah-

mundry, Andhra Pradesh on 23 May 1968. She grew up in Jamshedpur where her father worked for the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (now Tata Motors). Lakshmi began playing cricket in Tata Nagar. She was initially denied admission to the Jamshedpur Women's College in 1986 due to her "terribly poor marks" in 10th board examinations.

However, her father requested her to try out for the college's sports quota. She was able to secure admission to Jamshedpur Women's College who felt that she could be their frontline fast bowler. She moved to Hyderabad in 1989 after securing a job with South Central Railway and subsequently began playing for the Railway cricket team.

Lakshmi played for several domestic teams including Andhra

Women, Bihar Women, Railways Women, East Zone Women and South Zone Women between 1989 and 2004. Lakshmi got married in 1991. She received a call-up to the Rest of India team on her wedding day but chose to take a sabbatical from cricket. She returned to cricket with the South Central Railways team and helped them win the inter-Railways title for the first time. She was selected in the squad for the India women's national cricket team's tour of England in 1999, but did not play a single match.

After her retirement from cricket in 2004, Lakshmi served as coach of the South Central Railways team until 2014. Lakshmi first officiated as a match referee in domestic women's cricket in the 2008-09 season.[6] She was among a group of five female referees who

SPORTS 63

made their debuts during the season after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) allowed female referees for the first time in domestic cricket. Lakshmi was the only one among the group to have not played for the India national team. She was among five female candidates shortlisted through the BCCI's qualification exam for match referees in 2014.

Subsequently, she was permitted to officiate boys' and men's domestic games. Lakshmi issued her first Code-of-Conduct penalty in a match between UP and Bengal in the under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy.

Lakshmi was the match referee for all four matches of the 2019 Women's T20 Challenge Lakshmi became the first woman to be appointed to the ICC International Panel of Match Referees on 14 May 2019.

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64 THE POWER WITH IN

Taking things personally

STOP IT! R

RAMMOHAN APPARASU

amya felt very bad. Her mother-in-law has not greeted her on birthday. Though she was very much with them on the day she was simply eating sweets brought by her son on his wife’s 25th birthday. Ramya felt her mother in law does not like her and insulting by ignoring. The young housewife was angry.

Abhiram, a journalist working for a web magazine. The story he worked for almost a week was spiked by the editor. An awarding winning media man shifted from print to new media felt insulted, ashamed. Angry on himself that his decade odd experience has seemed no value.

Ramya, Abhiram are not

unusual or isolated individuals.

Many of us take things personally.

Taking things personally is a sign of low self-esteem. When we take things personally, we might be sensitive to the words or actions of others or we interpret things in a negative way. Perhaps someone says something which we take as an insult or we assume a person doesn't like us if they ignore an important day in our life or walk past without saying hello. Taking things personally may cause us to feel inadequate, ashamed, or even angry at ourselves or the other person. It's disempowering and can worsen our self-esteem. However, we can build our self-esteem when stop taking things personally.

Why we might take things personally?

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

When we take something personally it’s a reflection of our own insecurity. Deep inside, it may reinforce our negative thoughts about yourself. Remember that if you have a negative view of ourselves, we have a distorted perception of reality. we might automatically interpret something in a negative way or treat it as a personal attack.

Perhaps we feel that it exposes our mistakes or flaws of which we feel ashamed. This can be very problematic, especially if we base our worth on the approval from others or if we are perfectionists. When we take something personally, the chances are we interpret it in a different way to what was intended.

The good news is that we stop taking things personally and build your self-esteem.

THE POWER WITH IN 65

How to Stop Taking Things Personally?

Realise that other people's rudeness is not about us. When someone is rude it’s likely to be a reflection of their own issues.

They might be having a bad day, going through a rough period, or it might just be their personality. It's important to know that rudeness is not okay and it's not our fault. We deserve to be treated with respect, however, people aren't always nice. While we can't control other people, We can stop taking things personally and instead be kind to ourselves.

We can ask ourselves what else the comment or behaviour might mean. For example, if someone doesn't smile or say hello, they might be shy, have something on their mind, or they didn't see us. If someone is critical, they may genuinely want to help and it might not be intended as a personal attack.

Take comments or criticism in a constructive way. If we are criticised, could ask ourselves if there’s any truth to it, and what we can learn. Take the lessons and let the rest go. Even if it wasn’t said in a nice way, we can still learn something.

As well as learning from our own experience, We may learn from the other peoples' mistakes. See the positives in every experience.

Take a different perspective. Could ask ourselves how an unbiased outsider would see the situation.

Are we misinterpreting the reality and is it really as bad, or as negative, as we perceive it to be?

Another perspective is to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes and imagine how they would see it.

Realise that we can’t please everyone. No matter who we are or what we do, there will always be people who dislike or criticise us. We can't change other people and all we can do is be ourselves.

Let go of perfectionism. It’s okay to make mis-

takes and to have flaws, it’s part of being human.

We won’t learn and grow if we don’t make mistakes.

Know that we are not defined by our mistakes or criticism. Our worth is who you are as a whole person despite of them.

Realise that our self-worth depends on us. It does not depend on what others say about us.

Get mental health help. Overcoming personal issues can be challenging and we don't have to do it alone. It's important to know that there is help available and it's okay to seek it.

Yes, it does require effort, persistence and time to stop taking things personally, especially when it's something we are used to doing. However, it's well worth the effort. We will find that our self-esteem and overall quality of life will improve when we stop taking things personally. We are all worth it and we can definitely DO IT!

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

66

T

SPIRITUALITY

Annamayya Jayanti

Soulful sankeertans & graceful dances

THE NEWS BUREAU

here was a festive mood at the Annamacharyapuram.

The two-day festival was held on the occasion Tallapaka Annamacharya 611th Jayanthi in Hyderabad. Annamayya Jayanti was celebrated on May 18 & 19. Sri Chinna Jeer Swami has inaugurated the festival.

There was a concert by Dr Shobha Raju & students at Annamayyapuram campus on the first day. Annamacharya is remembered for his saintly life and is honoured as a great devotee of Vishnu by devotees and saintly singers.

Tallapaka Annamacharya Jayanthi is celebrated every year on Vaishakha Shuddha Pournami as the 15th-century saint was born on Vaishakha Shuddha Pournami in the year Sarwadhari. Annamacharya is the first known composer in Carnatic music. Other composers like Purandaradasa came after him. The musical form of the keertana songs that he composed, which are still popular among Carnatic music concert artists, have strongly influenced the structure of Carnatic music compositions.

While Annamacharya enjoyed popularity in his days, his compositions were forgotten for over three centuries. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams(TTD), has been endeavouring to preserve the rich heritage of his compositions. In the year 1950, The State Government of Andhra Pradesh created a committee and appointed the legendary

musician late Dr M. Balamuralikrishna as its head.

Shobha Raju is the first recipient of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams scholarship in 1976 to study and set a trend for the propagation of Annamacharya's compositions, and was also chosen as the first exclusive artist for the propagation of Tallapaka's compositions in 1978. Her first audio album, ‘Venkatesvara Gita malika’is globally popular among Telugu community and Carnatic music. She is the founder of Annamacharya Bhavana Vahini (ABV).

May 18, there was a concert of Dr Shobha Raju & students at Annamayyapuram. While Speaking after inauguration Sri Chinna Jeer Swami lauded the service of Shobha Raju which made Annamayya song an in thing in every house particularly in Telugu community. He said that he was sur-

THE NEWS YOU LIKE | JUNE 2019

prised as to why there hadn’t been financial support to this project. He inspired one & all to support such genuine service and said that he would start the movement of support by donating Rs. two lakhs. on May 19 morning, ABV conducted Mahanagara Sankeertana.

All the students & devotees walked all the way from Chikkadpally Venkateswara temple to Annamayya statue on the tank bund sing Annamayya songs all along.

Gayatri Narayanan, Pavan Charan & Saandip are a few familiar artists that have participated in Maha Nagara Sankeertana. In the evening that day, there was a concert by the students of ABV followed by a dance recital by Shruthakirthy, for the Annamayya songs, recently composed by Dr Shobha Raju. Pujyasri Athmanandamayi Mataji attended the program & blessed the organisation.

The News You Like June, 2019

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