0. - the pioneer · 23, at puri in odisha cannot be allowed and “lord jagannath won’t forgive...

12
S ignalling a major change in the rules of engagement, the Government has now allowed Indian forces to open fire “under extreme provoca- tion” at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The existing agreements between India and China will not be binding in such situations. China has been informed about the Government’s decision. In the aftermath of the killing of 20 Indian soldiers on June 15 in Ladakh, the local commanders have also been given “complete freedom of action” to handle situation at the tactical level. These significant changes in the Indian policy were dis- cussed extensively during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s review meeting of the Ladakh situation with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and the three Services Chiefs here on Sunday. Giving details of the stock taking with the LAC continu- ing to be tense especially in Eastern Ladakh where the skir- mish took place, sources said here the commanders were also given a free hand to assess the situation on the ground along the LAC and take appro- priate action as required in case of any escalation from the other side. “While we don’t want esca- lation but if it happens by the other side, appropriate action will be taken. Clear cut instruc- tions to this effect were given,” sources said. On change of rules of engagement and standard operating procedure during patrolling at the LAC, they said now the troops can use firearms under extreme provo- cation. Till now, though they car- ried weapons but did not open fire as per an agreement with China in 1996. It stipulates that “neither side shall open fire or conduct blast operations with- in two km of the LAC.” Besides informing the Chinese about this change in the rules of engagement, sources said India also con- veyed that it will counter force- fully any kind of misstep or vio- lence by China. The Indian Army patrols were now equipped with anti- riot gear including body armour, shields and fibre lath- is. The Army commanders will have the full freedom to use any instrument under his com- mand for operations at the LAC, officials said. Meanwhile, Rajnath is also likely to take up this brutal assault issue and the situation on the LAC with his Russian counterpart during his visit to Moscow on June 24. The Indian Defence Minister will attend the Victory Parade there to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War. The Parade is organised to honour the heroism and sacri- fices made by the Russian and other friendly people. Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu had invited Raksha Mantri to the Victory Parade, which was originally scheduled on May 9, 2020 but was post- poned due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Separately, a Tri-Service 75-Member Indian Military Contingent has already reached Moscow to participate in the Victory Parade along with Russian contingent and other invited contingents. The marching contingent tak- ing part in the Victory Day Parade is led by a major rank officer of the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment. T he Supreme Court is sched- uled to hear on Monday the pleas seeking recall of its order staying this year’s historic Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra, attended by lakhs of people from across the world, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The apex court had on June 18 said in the interest of public health and safety of cit- izens, this year’s Rath Yatra, which was scheduled for June 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we allow” it. A day after the order was passed, some applications were filed in the top court seek- ing recall and modification of its order. D eadly coronavirus which has gripped the globe in its tentacles failed to dampen the spirit of the people in India and across the world as they cele- brated International Day of Yoga on Sunday while observ- ing social distancing norms. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation by exhorting the people to per- forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the body fight off the virus threat. “Coronavirus attacks our respiratory system. A breathing exercise called ‘Pranayam’ is something that helps us the most in making our respirato- ry system strong,” said Prime Minister Modi. Similarly, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said yoga can be an effective solution for the high level of stress that the pandemic has created in our lives. The theme of IDY this year was “yoga from home, yoga with family”. “Yoga is a relatively low-risk, high-yield approach to improv- ing overall health and its full potential must be harnessed,” he said addressing an event to mark the D-Day while Union Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Naik said, “Now every country of the world celebrates IDY and the public has embraced this event and adopt- ing it as a celebration of India’s culture and tradition”, he stated. The Minister said this year the D-day comes in the middle of a health emergency so the AYUSH Ministry has been fos- tering and facilitating the trend of practicing Yoga at home through various online and hybrid-online initiatives since the last three months. F our more terrorists, includ- ing those responsible for targeting BSF soldiers on the outskirts of Srinagar on May 20, were among those neu- tralised by the joint teams of security forces in two separate encounters in the last 24 hours in Kashmir Valley. With this operation, the total tally of killed terrorists in the ongoing operation “All Out” has gone up to 114 since January 2020. In both encounters, secu- rity forces suffered no collater- al damage. The operation which was carried out in Zadibal area of Srinagar was conducted very professionally by the security forces in order to ensure zero collateral damage in the dense- ly populated area. According to police, three local terrorists were gunned down by the security forces in the Zadibal area on Sunday while one more terrorist was shot during the ongoing oper- ations in the Likhdipora area of Kulgam. M aharashtra on Sunday clocked 3,870 new cases of Covid-19 and 101 deaths, tak- ing the tally of infected people in the State to 1,32,075 and the total death count to 6,170. While Delhi and Tamil Nadu continued to see huge spike, Telangana recorded biggest sin- gle day rise of 730 cases as coro- navirus now began to rapidly spread beyond the border of TN in Southern India. With this total cases in the country stood at 4,26,473 with 14,721 testing positive on Sunday. Delhi added 3,000 new Covid-19 positive cases to take the tally of infected per- sons in the national Capital to 59,746. As many as 63 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours, taking the tally of fatal- ities to 2,175. Tamil Nadu tested 2,532 positive cases during the last 24 hours, taking the tally of infect- ed persons to 59,377. As many as 53 deaths were reported during the day due to coron- avirus infection in the State where the death count now stands at 757. Gujarat reported 580 cases if infection during the day, stretching the tally of positive cases to 27,317. The State reported 25 deaths due to Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, taking the tally of deceased to 1,664. Uttar Pradesh tested 596 new cases of infection, jacking up the total count of infected persons to 17,731. Twenty one deaths on Sunday led the tally of death count to 550. Rajasthan reported 393 new cases of Covid-19 infec- tion where those hit by the pan- demic stand at 14,930. Twelve deaths on Sunday led the tally of deceased to 349. West Bengal counted 414 new cases of infection, stretch- ing the tally of coronavirus-hit patients to 13,945. Fifteen deaths were reported during the last 24 hours in the State that has total death count of 555. T he annual Kanwar yatra will not take place this year. The Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand have decided to suspend the annual yatra due to spread of coronavirus pan- demic. The yatra takes place dur- ing the auspicious month of “Shravan” and it was scheduled to begin from July 6. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a virtual meeting with his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar and Uttarakhand counterpart Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday night to call off this year’s yatra as the pub- lic health crisis continues to mount alarmingly across the country. Uttarakhand CM Rawat had also spoken to Union Home Minister Amit Shah who advised him to take a deci- sion after thinking over it. Rawat will soon talk to the chief ministers of Punjab, Delhi, and Rajasthan over the issue. According to the UP Government officials, the three Chief Ministers agreed to establish dialogue with the “dharma gurus” (religious lead- ers) of their respective States to inform the people of the deci- sion to suspend the Kanwar Yatra this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the meeting with the Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand and Haryana, Adityanath had a virtual meet- ing with all police heads across Uttar Pradesh in which he asked them to meet the reli- gious leaders, Kanwar Sanghs and Peace Committees in their respective areas. New Delhi: The Government has sought product-wise details of cheap imports, comparison with domestic prices and tax disadvantage, if any, from industry to curb low quality inbound shipments especially from China and boost domestic manufacturing, sources said. They said a high level meeting to discuss ways to promote Atma Nirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India), including cut in import dependence from China, also took place recent- ly in the Prime Minister’s office. Detailed report on P9 A midst the “very tough” standoff at the China- India border, US President Donald Trump has said his administration is talking to both countries to “help them” resolve their ongoing tensions. Trump’s comments came in the backdrop of the violent face-off between the Indian and Chinese Armies in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15 in which 20 Indian military personnel were killed, significantly esca- lating the already volatile sit- uation in the region. According to US Intelligence sources, more than 35 Chinese soldiers were also killed during the skirmish. “It’s a very tough situation. We’re talking to India. We’re talking to China. They’ve got a big problem there,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday before boarding Marine 1 on his way to his first post- Covid-19 election rally in Oklahoma.

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Page 1: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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Signalling a major change inthe rules of engagement,

the Government has nowallowed Indian forces to openfire “under extreme provoca-tion” at the Line of ActualControl (LAC). The existingagreements between India andChina will not be binding insuch situations. China has beeninformed about theGovernment’s decision.

In the aftermath of thekilling of 20 Indian soldiers onJune 15 in Ladakh, the localcommanders have also beengiven “complete freedom ofaction” to handle situation atthe tactical level.

These significant changesin the Indian policy were dis-cussed extensively duringDefence Minister RajnathSingh’s review meeting of theLadakh situation with Chief ofDefence Staff (CDS) GeneralBipin Rawat and the threeServices Chiefs here on Sunday.

Giving details of the stocktaking with the LAC continu-ing to be tense especially inEastern Ladakh where the skir-mish took place, sources saidhere the commanders werealso given a free hand to assessthe situation on the groundalong the LAC and take appro-priate action as required in caseof any escalation from theother side.

“While we don’t want esca-lation but if it happens by theother side, appropriate actionwill be taken. Clear cut instruc-tions to this effect were given,”sources said.

On change of rules ofengagement and standardoperating procedure duringpatrolling at the LAC, they saidnow the troops can usefirearms under extreme provo-cation.

Till now, though they car-ried weapons but did not openfire as per an agreement withChina in 1996. It stipulates that“neither side shall open fire orconduct blast operations with-in two km of the LAC.”

Besides informing theChinese about this change inthe rules of engagement,sources said India also con-veyed that it will counter force-fully any kind of misstep or vio-lence by China.

The Indian Army patrolswere now equipped with anti-riot gear including bodyarmour, shields and fibre lath-is. The Army commanders willhave the full freedom to use anyinstrument under his com-mand for operations at theLAC, officials said.

Meanwhile, Rajnath is alsolikely to take up this brutalassault issue and the situationon the LAC with his Russian

counterpart during his visit toMoscow on June 24. TheIndian Defence Minister willattend the Victory Parade thereto commemorate the 75thanniversary of the victory inthe Second World War.

The Parade is organised tohonour the heroism and sacri-fices made by the Russian andother friendly people. RussianDefence Minister SergeyShoigu had invited Raksha

Mantri to the Victory Parade,which was originally scheduledon May 9, 2020 but was post-poned due to the Covid-19pandemic.

Separately, a Tri-Service75-Member Indian MilitaryContingent has already reachedMoscow to participate in theVictory Parade along withRussian contingent and otherinvited contingents. The marching contingent tak-ing part in the Victory DayParade is led by a major rankofficer of the Sikh LightInfantry Regiment.

���� -./� .0�&

The Supreme Court is sched-uled to hear on Monday the

pleas seeking recall of its orderstaying this year’s historic Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra,attended by lakhs of peoplefrom across the world, due tothe Covid-19 pandemic.

The apex court had onJune 18 said in the interest ofpublic health and safety of cit-izens, this year’s Rath Yatra,which was scheduled for June23, at Puri in Odisha cannot beallowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if weallow” it.

A day after the order waspassed, some applications were filed in the top court seek-ing recall and modification ofits order.

���� -./� .0�&

Deadly coronavirus whichhas gripped the globe in its

tentacles failed to dampen thespirit of the people in India andacross the world as they cele-brated International Day ofYoga on Sunday while observ-ing social distancing norms.

In India, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi led the nationby exhorting the people to per-forming Asanas and Pranayamthat may prove to be a key inhelping the body fight off thevirus threat.

“Coronavirus attacks ourrespiratory system. A breathingexercise called ‘Pranayam’ issomething that helps us themost in making our respirato-ry system strong,” said PrimeMinister Modi.

Similarly, Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu said yoga canbe an effective solution for the

high level of stress that thepandemic has created in ourlives. The theme of IDY thisyear was “yoga from home,yoga with family”.

“Yoga is a relatively low-risk,high-yield approach to improv-ing overall health and its fullpotential must be harnessed,” hesaid addressing an event tomark the D-Day while UnionMinister of State for AYUSH,Shripad Naik said, “Now everycountry of the world celebratesIDY and the public hasembraced this event and adopt-ing it as a celebration of India’sculture and tradition”, he stated.

The Minister said this yearthe D-day comes in the middleof a health emergency so theAYUSH Ministry has been fos-tering and facilitating the trendof practicing Yoga at homethrough various online andhybrid-online initiatives sincethe last three months.

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Four more terrorists, includ-ing those responsible for

targeting BSF soldiers on theoutskirts of Srinagar on May20, were among those neu-tralised by the joint teams ofsecurity forces in two separateencounters in the last 24 hoursin Kashmir Valley.

With this operation, thetotal tally of killed terrorists inthe ongoing operation “All Out”has gone up to 114 since January2020. In both encounters, secu-

rity forces suffered no collater-al damage.

The operation which wascarried out in Zadibal area ofSrinagar was conducted veryprofessionally by the securityforces in order to ensure zerocollateral damage in the dense-ly populated area.

According to police, threelocal terrorists were gunneddown by the security forces inthe Zadibal area on Sundaywhile one more terrorist wasshot during the ongoing oper-ations in the Likhdipora area of Kulgam.

���� -./� .0�&

Maharashtra on Sundayclocked 3,870 new cases of

Covid-19 and 101 deaths, tak-ing the tally of infected peoplein the State to 1,32,075 and thetotal death count to 6,170.While Delhi and Tamil Nadu

continued to see huge spike,Telangana recorded biggest sin-gle day rise of 730 cases as coro-navirus now began to rapidlyspread beyond the border ofTN in Southern India.

With this total cases in thecountry stood at 4,26,473 with14,721 testing positive onSunday. Delhi added 3,000new Covid-19 positive cases totake the tally of infected per-sons in the national Capital to59,746.

As many as 63 deaths werereported during the last 24hours, taking the tally of fatal-ities to 2,175.

Tamil Nadu tested 2,532positive cases during the last 24hours, taking the tally of infect-ed persons to 59,377. As manyas 53 deaths were reportedduring the day due to coron-avirus infection in the Statewhere the death count nowstands at 757.

Gujarat reported 580 casesif infection during the day,stretching the tally of positivecases to 27,317. The Statereported 25 deaths due toCovid-19 during the last 24hours, taking the tally ofdeceased to 1,664.

Uttar Pradesh tested 596

new cases of infection, jackingup the total count of infectedpersons to 17,731. Twenty onedeaths on Sunday led the tallyof death count to 550.

Rajasthan reported 393new cases of Covid-19 infec-tion where those hit by the pan-demic stand at 14,930. Twelvedeaths on Sunday led the tallyof deceased to 349.

West Bengal counted 414new cases of infection, stretch-ing the tally of coronavirus-hitpatients to 13,945. Fifteendeaths were reported during thelast 24 hours in the State thathas total death count of 555.

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The annual Kanwar yatrawill not take place this

year. The Governments ofUttar Pradesh, Haryana andUttarakhand have decided tosuspend the annual yatra dueto spread of coronavirus pan-demic.

The yatra takes place dur-ing the auspicious month of“Shravan” and it was scheduledto begin from July 6.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath helda virtual meeting with hisHaryana counterpart ManoharLal Khattar and Uttarakhandcounterpart Trivendra SinghRawat on Saturday night to calloff this year’s yatra as the pub-lic health crisis continues to

mount alarmingly across thecountry.

Uttarakhand CM Rawathad also spoken to UnionHome Minister Amit Shahwho advised him to take a deci-sion after thinking over it.

Rawat will soon talk to the chiefministers of Punjab, Delhi, andRajasthan over the issue.

According to the UPGovernment officials, the threeChief Ministers agreed toestablish dialogue with the“dharma gurus” (religious lead-ers) of their respective States toinform the people of the deci-sion to suspend the KanwarYatra this year in view of theCovid-19 pandemic.

Following the meeting withthe Chief Ministers ofUttarakhand and Haryana,Adityanath had a virtual meet-ing with all police heads acrossUttar Pradesh in which heasked them to meet the reli-gious leaders, Kanwar Sanghsand Peace Committees in theirrespective areas.

New Delhi: The Governmenthas sought product-wise detailsof cheap imports, comparisonwith domestic prices and taxdisadvantage, if any, fromindustry to curb low quality inbound shipmentsespecially from China andboost domestic manufacturing,sources said.

They said a high levelmeeting to discuss ways topromote Atma Nirbhar Bharat(Self-reliant India), includingcut in import dependence fromChina, also took place recent-ly in the Prime Minister’s office.

Detailed report on P9����/#��&-$�1-

Amidst the “very tough”standoff at the China-

India border, US PresidentDonald Trump has said hisadministration is talking toboth countries to “help them” resolve their ongoingtensions.

Trump’s comments camein the backdrop of the violentface-off between the Indianand Chinese Armies in the

Galwan Valley in easternLadakh on June 15 in which20 Indian military personnelwere killed, significantly esca-lating the already volatile sit-uation in the region.

According to USIntelligence sources, morethan 35 Chinese soldiers were also killed during the skirmish.

“It’s a very tough situation.We’re talking to India. We’retalking to China. They’ve gota big problem there,” Trump told reporters at theWhite House on Saturdaybefore boarding Marine 1 onhis way to his first post-Covid-19 election rally inOklahoma.

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Around 72,000 participantsfrom across Haryana took

part in a Live Yoga Session heldfor the students of universitiesand colleges via HigherEducation Department’s officialFacebook handle.

A competition on thetheme 'Yoga at Home, Yogawith Family' was also organizedfor the students, in which top-20 students will be given a prizeamount of Rs 5,000 each. Thecollege with the maximumparticipation will also be givena cash award of Rs 21,000 tocelebrate their efforts inencouraging their students,said an official spokesman.

He said that theDepartment had started prepa-rations for the InternationalDay of Yoga much earlier and

had started daily Live YogaSessions on its Facebook han-dle since the beginning of themonth of June.

A contest on the line ofthis year’s theme of ‘Yoga atHome and Yoga with Family’was also organized for the col-lege and university students ofthe state. To participate in thecontest, the students had to reg-ister on a toll-free number bygiving a missed and to competeib the contest, student have toupload a picture of doing Yogaat home with their family ontheir social media, he said.

A total of 25,357 missedcalls were received by theDepartment on its toll-freenumber and around 72,000

participants participated in theLive Yoga Session. The 45 min-utes session featured variousYoga Asanas. The social mediahandle of the Department hasreceived more than 7,000 tags,he said.

The spokesman informedthat a five-member committeewould judge the contest andafter thorough scrutiny of eachapplication, top- 20 winnerswould be selected with a drawof lots and awarded a cash prizeof Rs 5,000 each.

The college with the max-imum participation would alsobe given a cash award of Rs.21,000 to celebrate their effortsin encouraging their students,the spokesman added.

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Amid growing anxiety about the globalspread of COVID-19, the threat of mental

illness is looming large on us. People from allwalks of life are experiencing some form ofdeclined mental health, and the need to addressthis is more important during a pandemic.

Without anticipating a coronavirus pan-demic, WHO predicted that by 2020, roughly20 percent of the population will suffer frommental illnesses. That means, today, more than200 million Indians may have mental illnesses,and the situation is likely to worsen.

Are we, as a developing nation and evolv-ing society, capable of dealing with the situation?

Although the world’s fifth largest economy,India has spent only 0.05 percent of its healthbudget annually on mental health over the lastfew years, much lower than even the averagespending of low-income countries, which comesto about 0.5 percent of their healthcare budgets,as per reports.

Suicides are linked to mental health.Shockingly, India also has one of the highest ratesof suicides in the world losing over 220,000 ayear according to WHO ; a student commits sui-cide every hour in India.

It is not surprising that Mental health is nota priority in our country, considering that thebasic amenities of food water sanitation are lack-ing. Our attitudes towards mental illness are nothelping the already grave situation.

There’s a huge stigma and shame attachedaround mental illness that makes it impossiblefor people to come out and seek help. Illiteracyand dogmatic beliefs worsen the scenario evenfurther.

People avoid discussing their mental healthconcerns openly due to the fear of beinglabelled, judged, rejected and differentiated. Alot of Misinformation and wrong beliefs sur-round the subject. It is commonly believed thatmental illness can only happen to people whoare ‘mentally weak’ and people who have ‘too

much money and time.’ For these individuals,seeking support from a mental health profes-sional is considered a ‘weakness’.

It’s important we understand that we as asociety are facing a serious mental health cri-sis. There is a lack of long-term mental healthinfrastructure in our country. The training andhiring of professionals is not adequate.

This is ironic, and self defeating too, con-sidering the growth of our economy is depen-dent on a productive population, which is notpossible in the absence of a healthy workforce.Along with investments in health infrastructureand expert practitioners, promoting holisticpractices like yoga and Ayurveda is needed forthe hour.

“At the community level, there is a need forhuman closeness which is fundamental to ourmental well-being. Loneliness that comes fromlack of human closeness is the cause of manymental disorders including depression”

It is time to shift our attitudes, replace judge-ment with acceptance, to help those who are suf-fering their mental issues silently. It is time webecame aware that our neighbors, colleagues,and our social media friends may not look likethey are struggling because most people do notwear their loneliness and shame on their sleeve.We all have become pretty good at hiding oursuffering. It is time we engaged in vulnerable andauthentic conversations.

When I was in high school, I remember hav-ing promised myself that I would do everythingI could to make sure people I connected withspoke their heart out. That continued well intomy adulthood and work life, and before I knewit, I was helping people merely by reaching out.And listening. My mentors, friends and col-leagues were anchors as I navigated my life, fig-uring out how to live in a way that made senseto me, and was sustainable.

It’s important to remind ourselves that weare not the ‘other’. We all go through it at somepoint in our life.

Either we are struggling or we have comeout of our time of suffering so now we can sup-port those who are in pain.

We need to cultivate a sense of belonging-ness in our communities, a permission to sharestruggles, an acceptance of these, regularly com-municate the message to never stop reaching out,and that showing up when people need help isdeeply important, if not absolutely necessary.

(The writer is a Chandigarh basedStrategist and Writer)

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Karma, which is a Sanskritword, means action, work

or deed and refers to the sumtotal of all deeds one has doneor got done through his mind,speech or body ; either in thislife or in the previous lives.

Karma also refers to thespiritual principle of cause andeffect which states that anaction is always accompaniedby its consequences. Result ofa deed is inherent in the deeditself. No one can escape theeffects of his actions.

Anything good or bad onedoes through his thoughts,words or senses creates anequivalent response whichcomes back to him, sooner orlater, in one form or the other.As one sows, so shall he reap.This doctrine known as thekarmic cycle governs one’s lifeperpetually.

A word of caution here.Karma as the law of cause andeffect is not the same thing askarma yoga, the path of selflessaction. Whereas the formerrefers to the principle thatevery cause has an equal effect,the latter relates to the perfor-mance of one’s duty in adetached manner.

The doctrine of karma isnot optional but mandatory.Everyone has to abide by thislaw. This law of cause and effectcan be said to be a spiritualequivalent of the Newton’s lawof motion which states that forevery action, there is an equaland opposite reaction. Beinguniversal in nature, the doc-trine of karma is impartial. Itis not biased in favour of oragainst anyone.

Not only the outward life,the law of karma applies to theinner being also. Apart fromthe worldly rewards and pun-ishments, any noble or evildeed produces correspondingpleasant or unpleasant vibra-tions inside which cause asense of satisfaction or guilt inthe mind. That is why it is saidthat one is not only punishedfor his evil deeds but also by hisevil deeds.

Every moment of life, oneis doing something or theother. Corresponding good orbad results are, thus, continu-ously being created. Thesefruits accrue to the individualwho is performing the actions.Some of these results areexpended in this very life ; andothers remain pending. Sincethe unconsumed fruits ofactions must eventually beconsumed, the impressions ofsuch pending results are carriedalong by the soul as it passesfrom one life to another. Thepending results, thus, becomethe basis on which the qualityof one’s next life is determined.In that life again, actions pro-duce results and cause yetanother birth. Impelled by thechain of some non-fructifiedactions and unconsumed fruitsof some other actions, onekeeps on moving from birth tobirth. The load of one’s karmais carried by the soul from lifeto life. In other words, manevolves in accordance with hisactions ; and the cycle of causeand effect does not break evenat death.

No one can avoid, evade orcheat on karma. Every deed hasto bear its favourable or

unfavourable fruits. One has toface the consequences of hisdeeds, either in this life or inthe future lives. But it does notimply that doctrine of karma isthe same thing as fatalism.The doctrine of karma does notsubscribe to the view that allevents are decided in advanceby a supernatural power ; andhuman beings have no controlover them. This doctrine doesnot negate the role of person-al efforts in one’s evolution. Onthe contrary it assures thatone’s materialistic growth andspiritual attainment is in hisown hands.

Karma is not a doctrine ofdistress but a harbinger ofhope. Though born with acertain karma which deter-mines one’s ancestory, heredi-ty and circumstances ; one hasthe freedom to liberate himselffrom the past karma by per-forming righteous action in theright spirit. Today’s action istomorrow’s karma. When onegives up his wicked ways andfirmly resolves to abandon evilin future, soon he overcomesgrief.

From the viewpoint of theself, karma is neither good norbad. Every karma binds the soulto the wheel of birth and death.Chains of gold bind as firmly asthe chains of iron. The aim ofany spiritual practice is to freeoneself from the bondage ofworks.

Bhagavad Gita has provid-ed mankind with the science ofspirituality and a way of life bywhich the doctrine of karma,the natural order of cause andeffect, can be transcended. Thestate of transcendence can beachieved not by any arbitraryinterference with the laws ofnature but by breaking thechains of karma through culti-vation of an attitude of detach-ment and an unshakable faithin the Divine. Through suchdevotion, one discovers himselfto be the unchanging self whichis beyond the bondage of works.

To conclude, the law ofcause and effect is impeccable,universal and totally unbiased.Yet, it can be transcended bygaining knowledge of one’strue nature. When one realis-es himself to be the imperish-able soul, he attains that realmof reality which is beyond theburden of karma. He thenreaches that state of beingwhich is beyond any sorrow.

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Page 3: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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Akhtar Khan, in his late 50s,has been struggling to make

ends meet since the nationwidelockdown was announced onMarch 24 to stem the spread ofCovid-19 pandemic. A tailorby profession, Akhtar owns asmall shop in Sector 20 here andis a lone provider for his fami-ly of eight people.

“For almost two months,the shop remained closed.Although it is open now, thereare hardly one or two cus-tomers each day. I have beenhaving sleepless nights as I haveto look after my entire family,pay electricity bills, water billsand also, marry off my twodaughters,” he says.

“Earlier, I had two moreworkers to assist me at the shopbut as my shop remainedclosed due to coronavirus trig-gered lockdown restrictions,they could not earn a singlepenny and headed back homein Uttar Pradesh,” Akhtar adds.

He further says, “I, myselfhave not been able to earnmuch in the past one monthand my family is surviving ona meager income. I am teach-ing my younger son, who is 21,

to sew as I am not able to workalone at this age and we needto earn money to survive.”

The condition of othersmall-scale business ownersand the self-employed personsacross the city is no better asthere are no customers evenafter the lockdown restrictionswere eased last month inChandigarh. Be it apparels,footwear, electronic appliances,decorative pieces, cosmetics, orother items, the pandemic hasvirtually wiped off these prod-ucts from the shopping list ofcustomers and the shopkeepersare feeling the pinch of Covid-19 pandemic.

Rajeev Sahdev, owner of ajewellery store in Sector 35 heretells, “People have postponedweddings and other functions.So there is virtually no footfallin my store. The sale hasdropped by 80 percent due tothe coronavirus. We are usingsavings to run our homes butthen for how long, will we sur-vive… The situation willbecome more difficult in thecoming months due to finan-cial stress.”

“Many shopkeepers whowere tenants in the booth mar-ket here have shut down theirbusinesses as they could not

afford to pay high rents duringlockdown,” he tells. Rajeev,critical of the UnionGovernment as well as thelocal Administration, says noeffort has been made to savesmall businesses. “Who hasbenefitted from the Rs 20 lakhcrore package announced bythe Central Government? Adirect relief in terms of waiv-ing of electricity bills, waiver ofinterest for deferred paymentsof installments for loans duringthe moratorium period andother incentives should begiven to save the small busi-nesses,” he says.

As The Pioneer talked tomore small-scale business own-ers, they echoed the same trou-bles as faced by Rajeev. Theysay that the life during lock-down has been a struggle andit is not likely to end soon dueto change in consumer spend-ing and shopping habits.

President of theChandigarh Beopar Mandal,Chiranjeev Singh says,“Coronavirus had a strongimpact on the demand of manyproducts. While the groceryitems, medical supplies remainthe essential commodities forthe customers, they are yet notwilling to open their wallets to

buy apparels, electronics, homeand kitchen appliances, gifts,footwear, among other prod-ucts.”

“Even as the UTAdministration has allowed theshops to open seven days aweek to recover from the finan-cial crisis, there are only 20-25percent of customers at theshops. Be it Sector 17 market,Sector 22 market, Sector 19 orother sector markets, manyshops are not witnessing evena single customer the entire day.Both small scale and big busi-nesses are affected,” he says.

“The shop owners are fol-lowing all safety protocolsincluding wearing masks andusing sanitizers but we antici-pate that the entire year willremain like this as there is a fearamong people of contractingthe virus while they are out forshopping.

We are dealing with finan-cially tough times and peopleare in no mood to invest inanything except essential com-modities. It will certainly takemany months for the shop-keepers to recover from thisand make profits again,”Chiranjeev further says.

The curfew, which wasimposed on March 24 in the

city to ensure social distancing,was lifted on May 3 midnightby the Administration. Afterthis, the markets across the citygradually reopened to minimalcustomers amid the surge innumber of Coronavirus cases.The shops were allowed toopen from 10 am to 8 pm fromJune 2 onwards in the city.

However, the odd-evenstipulations for shops are inplace in congested marketssuch as Sector 46 Rehri market,Sector 22 Shastri market, Sector15 Patel Market, Sec 41 KrishnaMarket, Sec 19 Sadar Bazar andPalika Bazar, Sec 18 GandhiMarket, Sec 27 Janta Marketand street vendors in varioussectors.

Interestingly, there was toomuch business for grocerystores across the city due to thesurge in grocery demandsparked by lockdown restric-tions. In March and April,panic buying and hoarding bycitizens emerged as a mainafter-effect of coronavirus lock-down. Sale of masks, gloves,and hygiene related productssuch as soaps, sanitizers, handwashes at medical stores alsowitnessed a huge spike.

Apart from this, thedemand for sports goods espe-

cially board games were highwith children stuck indoorsduring curfew and subsequentlockdown in the city.

On the other hand, thedemand of other items such ascosmetics, furniture, electron-ics, home and kitchen appli-ances, apparels among othershas witnessed a sharp fall withthe customers shifting priori-ty to essential products only.

Rajan Verma, who runs asporting goods shop in Sector22 here tells, “While my shopremained closed due to curfew,there was some stock of sportsgoods at my home which peo-ple purchased to keep their kidsbusy indoors. Now that shopsare open, the sale of sportsgoods is dropped by morethan 50 percent but still, betterthan other products in themarket,” he tells.

While the small-timeshopkeepers are desperatelywaiting for customers, the dailywagers are also deprived oftheir livelihoods and pushedinto penury. Many dailywagers, whose earnings werestalled due to Coronavirus,have now turned into veg-etable and fruit vendors.

For instance, Sham Lal,46, who was an auto-rickshaw

driver before the curfew restric-tions, had to become a veg-etable and fruit seller to fulfillthe needs of his family com-prising wife and two children.He says, “The auto-rickshawhad been lying useless eversince the curfew was imposed.After the imposition of lock-down, the Administration hasallowed only one passengerper auto-rickshaw. How muchwe can earn with such restric-tions and how much a singlepassenger would agree to payfor a journey?”

“It has always been a hand-to-mouth situation for us. Ihad no savings and the finan-cial crisis coupled withthoughts of not being able tofeed my children even twotimes a day, troubled me forseveral days. My son is justtwo-and-a–half-years-old andmy daughter is seven years old.As selling fruits and vegetablescame under essential service, Ibought a cart and started sell-ing fruits and vegetables,” hesays.

During the difficult times,everyone from small-timeshopkeepers to daily wagers areapparently exploring options tosurvive while the owners ofmajor showrooms are also

focusing on change in businessmodels and taking their busi-ness to online platforms.

The multi-storey show-rooms are also facing losses andare busy to chalk out newplans for online service inChandigarh.

Diwakar Sahoonja, 76,owner of Dewsun showroom inSector 11 says, “Ours is thecity’s oldest gift shop but due toCoronavirus, our customershave reduced by around 70 per-cent. Many occasions havegone unnoticed in the pastthree months and sale of greet-ing cards and gift items havedropped sharply.” Sahoonjasays he is among the few shop-keepers in the market to haveopened their store in the 1970sand have never seen a situationlike this since then.

“We have installed a sani-tization station outside andare taking all the necessary pre-cautions.

However, the customersare scared to venture out oftheir house to buy items likegifts. We have now planned tolaunch an online platform forselling the gift items so thatthere are no long-term conse-quences on our business due toCoronavirus,” he adds.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Sunday urged people to doYoga every day to remain dis-ease-free, saying the impor-tance of the ancient Indianpractice is being felt more thanever due to the coronaviruspandemic.

Greeting people on thesixth International Yoga Day,Khattar said, “Yoga connectsmind, body and soul and helpsus move forward in a positivedirection”. Khattar, who per-formed various exercises at hisresidence here and posted thepictures on his Twitter handle,urged people to “do Yoga everyday, remain disease-free forentire life”.

He said the StateGovernment had been orga-nizing International Yoga Dayat a grand scale every year since2015 under which district levelprogrammes were also orga-nized apart from the state levelprogramme wherein scores ofpeople collectively performedyoga and also inspired others toadopt Yoga in their life. But thisyear, due to Covid-19, insteadof organizing programmes andevents people have been urged

to practice Yoga at their homesas this is the only effective waythrough which we could defeatthis pandemic, he added.

With the world battling thecoronavirus pandemic, Khattarsaid that yoga can be helpful inboosting immunity, whichincreases the importance of thisancient Indian practice moreduring the present times.

Deputy Chief MinisterDushyant Chautala also greet-ed people on the occasion. He

also performed some yoga'asanas' at his residence in Sirsa.Quoting the Bhagavad Gita, theJannayak Janta Party leaderposted on his Twitter handle,“Yoga is the journey of the self,through the self, to the self ”.

While participating duringthe International Yoga Daytoday in Yamunanagar, theState Education Minister,Kanwar Pal said that yogahelps to attain eternal peaceand keep the human body

healthy amid the situation ofstress and crisis which hasemerged due to Covid-19 pan-demic. He said that yoga playsa prominent role to stayhealthy. Besides this, it makesa person physically as well asmentally strong.

Haryana Vidhan SabhaDeputy Speaker, Ranbir SinghGangwa, who was in Hisar saidthat yoga is the best way to cre-ate balance between mind, bodyand spirit. Yoga which origi-nated in India and spread acrossthe world is more than a 5000years old practice of India. Thishas been the basic lifestyle ofIndian Culture, he added.

Power and Jail MinisterRanjit Singh, while performingyoga at his residence said thatYoga has special significance inIndian culture. CooperationMinister, Banwari Lal urged thepeople of the state to regular-ly perform yoga to build immu-nity and prevent the transmis-sion of corona infection. Yogais the most outstanding exam-ple of India's cultural heritage.It strikes harmony betweenour body, mind and soul. Yogaconnects the mind, soul andbody which lead us in a posi-tive direction, the CooperationMinister said.

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The holy city-Kurukshetra inHaryana on Sunday

became the center of the astro-nomical event i.e. ‘The Ring ofFire eclipse’ that began at 10:20am.

The duration of solareclipse was three hours 26minutes and 21 seconds. From12:1:28 pm to 12:1:55pm, themoon covered the Sun by 98.95percent for 27 seconds formingthe ring of fire.

A special telescope wasinstalled by the Department ofScience and Technology,Government of India andGovernment of Haryana at vil-lage Bhor Saidan in districtKurukshetra which was themain center of the solar eclipse.Along with this, a special tele-scope was also installed on thebank of Brahmasarovar.

The motive of theScientists behind installing thistelescope on the banks ofBrahmasarovar was to researchon the scientific fact behindKurukshetra being the maincenter of the solar eclipse.

The Chief MinisterManohar Lal through digitalmedium, interacted with sagesand saints of Kashi, Braj andKurukshetra and variousAkharas who had come toparticipate in the religious cer-emony held at Kurukshetra.The interaction was held beforethe commencement of ‘VishwaShanti Path’ organized forattaining world peace and win-ning the battle againstCoronavirus Pandemic atGanga ghat on the BrahmaSarovar in Kurukshetra.

He said, “Traditional ritu-als organized for the welfare ofthe nation on the holy bank ofthe Brahma Sarovar atDharmakshetra Kurukshetraduring solar eclipse will cer-tainly help in bringing peaceand prosperity to the entireworld and I am sure that withthese sacred rituals performedtoday, Covid-19 Pandemicwould be eradicated from theState as well as the Nation.”

As per scripture andresearch, Kurukshetraremained the centre of solareclipse, he added.

The eclipse was seen at 30places in Haryana, Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand. The formation ofthe Ring of Fire Solar eclipsestarted from the Gharsana ofRajasthan. In addition toRajasthan, in Haryana, peoplehave seen the Ring of Fire at 12places. Along with this, thesolar eclipse was seen in Behat,Uttar Pradesh, at 12 places inUttarakhand and at five placesin Rajasthan.

Director General Scienceand Technology Department,Praveen Kumar said that theappearance of the Ring of FireSolar eclipse in Haryana start-ed from Amloha, a place adja-cent to the border of Rajasthan.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Sunday shared a photo of hisfather Maharaja YadavindraSingh to mark the Father’sDay.

Capt Amarinder, elder sonof the last maharaja of theprincely state of Patiala, said inhis tweet: “My father, MaharajaYadavindra Singh Ji, alwaysinspired me to put the nationfirst. On Father’s Day, sharinga memory from my weddingreception of a salver presentedby CO of Skinners Horse in thepresence of my father, who wasHony. Colonel of the Regiment,and my father-in-law.”

Maharaja YadavinderSingh was the ninth and lastMaharaja of Patiala from 1938to 1971, and died on June 17,1974. He was also an Indian

cricketer who played in oneTest in 1934.

Yadavindra served as pres-ident of the Indian OlympicAssociation (IOA) from 1938to 1960, and was even instru-mental in organizing the AsianGames.

He founded YadavindraPublic School. Lal Bagh Palace,the building in whichYadavindra Public School ishoused was donated by SirYadavindra Singh.

He was a noted horticul-turist by passion and laterserved as chairman of IndianHorticulture DevelopmentCouncil. He was also the pres-ident of BCCI.

Following his accession tothe throne of Patiala,Yadavindra pursued a politicaland diplomatic career, servingas chancellor of the Chamberof Princes from 1943 to 1944.

1��2�$���� ���&�������� ���3�� �4�5�Chandigarh: Punjab Chief

Minister Capt AmarinderSingh has approved suspensionof Poonam Kangra as the non-official member of Punjab StateCommission for ScheduledCastes, following the registra-tion of an abetment to suicidecase against her. Following theChief Minister’s clearance, theState Government has placedKangra’s membership undersuspension with immediateeffect.

Spokesperson said that theChief Minister had also orderedan inquiry against the Kangra,who was arrested, along with herhusband and son, by the SangrurPolice a few days back. Kangra,her husband Darshan Kangraand one of her sons, Vikasdeep,were arrested on June 14 on thecharges of abetment to suicideand are currently under 14-dayjudicial custody at the district jailin Sangrur.

Police had booked Kangra,her husband and her threesons on June 4, after oneSanjeev Kumar, 50, committedsuicide and died atGovernment Rajindra Hospitalin Patiala under Section 306(abetment to suicide) of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) at theSangrur City Police Station-I.

Kumar allegedly commit-ted suicide after Vikasdeepeloped with his daughter. YouthCongress leader PoonamKangra was appointed the non-official member of the SCCommission on July 4. PNS

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In a tribute to four soldiersfrom Punjab who made

supreme sacrifice during theface-off between Indian Armyand Chinese Army in GalwanValley in Eastern Ladakhregion, the PunjabGovernment has decided torename the Governmentschools in their native villagesafter them.

Punjab EducationDepartment has already sent anorder to district education offi-cers of the respective districts

for the same.Announcing the same

from his official Twitter handle,the state Education MinisterVijay Inder Singla on Sundaytweeted, “Punjab’s sonsMandeep Singh, Satnam Singh,Gurtej Singh and GurbinderSingh fought till their lastbreath and no tribute can com-pare to their supreme sacrifice.As a humble token of respect toour martyrs, Education Deptthas decided to name Govtschools in their villages afterthem.”

20 Indian Army brave-

hearts made supreme sacrificeon June 15. Naib SubedarMandeep Singh, Naib SubedarSatnam Singh, Sepoy GurtejSingh, and Sepoy GurbinderSingh were among the 20 sol-diers who made supreme sac-rifice in Galwan valley.

As per the EducationDepartment’s orders, the pri-mary school at Seel village willbe renamed as Shaheed NaibSubedar Mandeep SinghGovernment Primary School,Middle school at Bhojraj villagein Gurdaspur will be renamedas Shaheed Naib Subedar

Satnam Singh GovernmentSchool, Middle school ofBerowal Dogra Mansa will berenamed as Shaheed GurtejSingh Government MiddleSchool and The High school atTolawal village in Sangrur willbe renamed as Shaheed SepoyGurbinder Singh High School.

Naib Subedar MandeepSingh and Naib SubedarSatnam Singh belonged toMedium regiment of IndianArmy while Sepoy GurtejSingh and Sepoy GurbinderSingh belonged to 3, Punjabregiment of Indian Army.

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Punjab on Sunday crossedthe 4,000-mark with the

State recording 122 fresh casesof novel coronavirus cases,besides a death taking thestate’s Covid-19 death toll to 99.

For the seventh successiveday, the state has recorded newcases in the three-digit figure.The state’s total Covid-19 tallynow stood at 4,074. Since June15, the state has witnessed aspike of 934 cases. Among the new cases, 48are the “new cases” with notravel or contact history, includ-ing 11 police personnel, onehealthcare worker, one cancerpatient, two anganwari workers,and 12 with Influenza-likeIllness (ILI). Besides, 25 posi-tive cases have the source ofinfection from out of Punjab.

Among the districts,

Ludhiana recorded highest 54cases, of which 35 were contactsof positive cases, four police per-sonnels, five ANC (health work-ers), one cancer patient, one preoperative patient, one healthcare worker, four with ILI andthree new cases from OPD.

With this, the district’s tallyhas gone up to 550, just next toAmritsar in the state which hasthe highest 758 cases. As many16 cases were reported fromPathankot including seven withtravel history to Delhi, and twopolice officials.

Hoshiarpur reported sevencases including six with travelhistory of Delhi, Uttar Pradeshand Bihar, while a ASI levelpolice official was also testedpositive for the contagion.

Fazilka and Jalandharreported six cases each while fivecases each surfaced in Ropar andGurdaspur. Amritsar and Mohali

districts recorded four caseseach while three cases each wasfrom Patiala and Kapurthala, twoeach from Sangrur, Muktsarand Nawanshahr. One case eachwas from Tarn Taran, FatehgarhSahib and Faridkot.

Among Patiala’s three cases,one is an inter-state traveler,besides one Steno RH (clerk),and a Staff Nurse at GovernmentRajindra Hospital. With twonew cases, the total number ofHospital’s staff members infect-ed with coronavirus stands at 15.

One death was reportedfrom Ferozepur, taking the

overall death toll to 99.A total of 22 patients were

discharged after they recovered,taking the total number ofpersns recovered to 2700. Thestate now has 1,275 activecases.

Amritsar continued to topthe Covid-19 tally in the Statewith 758 cases, followed by 553in Jalandhar; 550 in Ludhiana;217 in Mohali; 209 in Patiala;206 in Sangrur; 181 each inTarn Taran and Gurdaspur; 182in Pathankot; 162 inHoshiarpur; 123 in SBS Nagar;95 in Faridkot; 89 in Rupnagar;88 in Fatehgarh Sahib; 81 inMuktsar; 75 in Moga; 64 inBathinda; 65 in Kapurthala; 62in Ferozepur; 61 in Fazilka, 43in Barnala; 39 in Mansa.

As per the health bulletin,five patients are critical and onventilator while 21 are on oxy-gen support.

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Haryana recorded 11 deathsand 412 fresh positive

cases of Covid-19 on Sunday.With this, the total number ofCovid-19 (coronavirus) caseshas reached 10635 and a totalof 160 deaths have been report-ed in the state so far.

In the last 24 hours, fivecoronavirus related deaths havebeen reported in Gurugram,four in Faridabad, one each inPalwal and Panipat. A daybefore, the state had crossed10000-mark with 480 positivecases.

With continuous spike incases since unlock 1.0 in June,the case-doubling rate inHaryana on Sunday stood at 10days, Covid positive rateincreased was 5 per cent andrecovery rate was recorded at52.25 percent, according tothe Haryana HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.The fatality rate is recorded at1.50 percent in Haryana.

Till date, 5557 patients(including 429 in the last 24hours) have recovered andhave been discharged from

hospitals. There are a total of4918 active cases in Haryana,the bulletin stated. “Out of 412fresh cases, 147 were report-ed from Faridabad and 120from Gurugram, 40 fromSonepat, 24 from Bhiwani, 20from Mahendragarh, 17 fromHisar, 16 from Panipat amongother cases,” the bulletin said.

The worst-affected districtsof the state with the maximumnumber of positive cases areGurugram with 4427 cases,Faridabad with 2237 cases andSonepat with 866 cases.Gurugram has recorded 64Coronavirus related deathswhile Faridabad has reported56 deaths so far.

Giving details of patients incritical condition in the state,the bulletin stated, “46 patientsare on oxygen support while 21are on ventilators. There are atotal of 4918 active cases inHaryana.” As many as 2.17lakh samples have been testedtill date in Haryana. The reportof 5178 samples is awaited, thestate’s bulletin stated.

TWO FRESH CASES INCHANDIGARH

The cases were reportedfrom Sector 22 and MauliJagran here. The active casesstood at 84 till the evening.

“A 45 years old female res-ident of Sector-22 has beenreported to be positive forCovid-19. She is an employeeof Haryana Government andworking in Chandigarh,” stat-ed the Chandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

“A 25 years old female res-ident of Mauli Jagran is alsoreported to be positive. She ishaving five family contacts andone community contact. All areasymptomatic,” the bulletinstated. A day before, the cityhad reported 24 positive casesrecording the highest single-day spike since unlock 1.0 inJune. 14 fresh cases werereported from Mauli Jagran,raising concerns of an outbreakas seen earlier in Bapu DhamColony.

All patients in Mauli Jagranwere contacts of a 65-year-oldwoman from Mirpur village inMubarakpur, Dera Bassi, whohad visited her daughter’shouse in the Chandigarh local-ity.

Page 4: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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As cases continue to rise andmilder patients get shifted

to home isolation, the UnionHealth Ministry has asked allStates and Union Territories toensure strict implementation ofguidelines on home isolation atthe field level. It cautionedagainst any laxity saying itmight lead to the spread of dis-ease among the family mem-bers and neighbours of thepatient.

The country is already wit-nessing a surge in cases eachpassing day. At least 306 deathsand highest single-day spike of15,413 new Covid-19 positivecases have been reported inIndia in the last 24 hours.Positive cases in India havecrossed 4 Lakh, taking the

total to 4,10,461 cases.Mentioning that certain

States are allowing home iso-lation as a routine practice, asenior official with the UnionHealth Ministry cautioned thatthis might lead to the spread ofdisease among family membersand neighbours, especially indense urban conglomerations.

According to him, the pol-icy of test, trace, track, and iso-late may not be feasible if theguidelines are not implement-ed in letter and spirit.

Though there has been aspike in the covid-19 cases, therising recovery rate has comeas a solace to the Government.

On Sunday, theGovernment said that theCovid-19 recovery rate hasfurther improved and has

reached 55.49 per cent withover 2,27,755 infected patientscured so far.

The Ministry also addedthat concerted efforts werebeing made to expand lab andtesting infrastructure and thatthe total number of govern-

ment labs had increased to 722and private labs had increasedto 259.

“The number of patientsrecovering from Covid-19 con-tinues to increase. So far, a totalof 2,27,755 patients have beencured.

During the last 24 hours, atotal of 13,925 Covid-19 patientshave been cured. The recoveryrate has further improved to55.49 per cent amongst Covid-19 patients," the Ministry said.

It said that there are 547Real-Time RT PCR based test-

ing labs including 354 govern-ment labs and 193 private labs.Apart from these, there areabout 358 TrueNat based test-ing labs while there are 76CBNAAT based testing labs.With the help of these, a large

number of samples are beingtested every day.

According to the statement,in the last 24 hours, 1,90,730samples were tested.

The total number of samples tested thus far is

68,07,226.Currently, there are 1,69,451

active cases in the country. The number of recovered

patients has crossed the num-ber of active patients by 58,305on Sunday.

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Aday after the DCGI gavepermission to domestic

firm GlenmarkPharmaceuticals to manufac-ture and market anti-viral drugFavipiravir, two domestic phar-ma companies—Cipla andHetero—have been grantedmarketing authorisation ofanti-viral drug Remdesivironly for “restricted emergencyuse” on Covid-19 patients withmoderate disease (those onoxygen).

With this development,India is soon to begin thedomestic production of anti-viral drug remdesivir whichwould have efficacy, stability,safety for “restricted emer-

gency use” on COVID-19patients, a senior official fromthe DCGI said.

The DCGI has granted itspermission to US-based GileadSciences for marketing autho-risation of its anti-viral drugRemdesivir in India for“restricted emergency use” onhospitalised COVID-19patients in the wake of viruspandemic.

The Union HealthMinistry had also approved theuse of remdesivir for patientswith mild COVID-19 symp-toms under the 'ClinicalManagement Protocols forCOVID-19' guidelines issuedrecently.

However, it is not recom-mended for those with severe

renal impairment and highlevel of liver enzymes, pregnantand lactating women, andthose below 12 years, the doc-ument on ‘ClinicalManagement Protocols forCOVID-19’ says.

The drug, administered inthe form of injection, should begiven at a dose of 200 mg onday one followed by 100 mgdaily for five days, says theguidelines.

To administer remdesivirin COVID-19 patients, hospi-tals need to take consent fromthem. Results of additionalclinical trials, active post-mar-keting surveillance data andreporting of serious adverseevents also need to be submit-ted, said the official.

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The Dental Council of India(DCI) has asked private

dental colleges across the coun-try to pay full salary andstipend to the faculties, stu-dents and other employeesduring Covid-19 Iockdownperiod or face strict action incase of failing to do so.

The move followed sever-al complaints from the teach-ing and non-teaching staff ofnon-payment and in manycases deduction in salaries andstipend to them by the dentalcolleges.

In a circular issued tothem recently, the top dentalregulator said that they (med-ical colleges) need to extendtheir cooperation by makingpayment of salary of any fac-

ulty or other employees work-ing in their colleges during theCovid-19 pandemic.

They did not attend theoffices or classes due to lock-down imposed by theGovernment to check thespread of Coronavirus.

The Council also remind-ed the colleges about PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andUnion Ministry of Labour andEmployment's advisoriesissued from time to time, ask-ing the private sector to not todeduct or cut the salary of thepeople working with the insti-tutions in the tough timeswhen Covid-19 has swept theworld.

“This Council despite hav-ing issued its advisory in thisregard, has received variousrepresentations from teaching

and non-teaching staff of theself-financed dental colleges toeffect that the colleges are nothonoring the instructionsissued by the DCI and they arenot making the payment oftheir salary on time,” said asenior official from the DCI.

“We have asked the col-leges to ensure strict compli-ance of the order, failing whichthe representations made byteaching and non-teachingstaff shall be considered andnecessary action will be takenagain such defaulting dentalcolleges,” said the official.

Maybe some institutions,which are struggling, areresorting to such tactics. It’scriminal to stop payment orcut salary in the present situ-ation, he said adding this willnot be taken lightly.

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The Works Directorate of theCRPF was disinfected on

Sunday after at least two Covid-19 positive cases were detect-ed at the CRPF headquartershere, officials said.

A dozen primary contactsof the infected persons havebeen quarantined for 14 daysand they will be subjected toCovid test soon, they said.

On Sunday, overall 27 per-sonnel of the CRPF testedpositive across the country.The CRPF has reported 873Covid-19 positive cases tillnow out of which 420 areactive and 447 have recovered

and six have succumbed to thepandemic.

The Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) on Sundayreported 14 positive cases evenas 12other positive cases have

t u r n e dn e g a t i v eduring thelast 24hours andthey havebeen dis-c h a r g e d ,paramili-t a r yspokesper-son VivekP a n d e ysaid.

T h eITBP patients are being man-aged at various Covi-19 desig-nated hospitals including 16 atCAPF Referral Hospital,Greater Noida, two atSafdarjang Hospital, one at

MCD Hospital, New Delhi,two at Tezpur, three atRajnandgaon, one at Madurai,five at Raipur, five at Jagdalpur,one at Jabalpur and 10 atPrayagraj/ Koshambi. Fourpatients at admitted atDehradun, one at Samba, fiveat Katihar and one each atShimla and Jammu.

Besides the ITBP infectedpersonnel, the CAPF ReferralHospital, Greater Noida is alsomanaging five BSF personnel,15 CRPF men, 37 CISF per-sonnel, one NDRF employee,eight SSB men, five from NSG,one of BPR&D, seven fromNIA, three from IntelligenceBureau, one each from CBIand NTRO.

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Taking a jibe at PrimeMinister over the ongoing

border conflict with China inLadakh, Congress leader RahulGandhi on Sunday said thatNarendra Modi “is actuallySurender Modi”.

The former Congress pres-ident referred to an articlepublished in Japan Times,which claimed that India's“policy of appeasement” hasfailed to deter China fromadopting an aggressiveapproach towards India.

“After years of bendingover backward to appeaseChina, Modi has received yetanother Chinese encroachmenton Indian territory. Will this beenough to persuade him tochange his approach?” the arti-cle wrote.

The article further statedthat Narendra Modi's vision isclouded by “naive hope that, byappeasing China, he couldreset the bilateral relationshipand weaken China’s ties withPakistan.”

His party colleague KapilSibal on too slammed thePrime Minister over the state-ment he made at the all-partymeeting and then on the PMO’sclarification on the statement,demanding an explanationfrom him. Sibal The allegedthat the Prime Minister hascontradicted his own ministers.

On Saturday, RahulGandhi had questioned whyand where were the Indian sol-diers killed if the land, wherethe "violent face-off " happened,was Chinese territory.

“PM has surrenderedIndian territory to Chineseaggression. If the land wasChinese: 1. Why were our sol-diers killed? 2. Where were theykilled?" he tweeted. FormerHome Minister PChidambaram too had postedserious Questions to the gov-ernment on the China crisis.

Sibal raised the issue of thePM’s statement in the all-partymeeting that “no one intruded

into our territory” and asked“Why did PMO delete thesewords from the official state-ment?

The Congress leaderasked, despite the statement ofsecurity experts, army gener-als and satellite imagerydepicting Chinese intrusioninto Pangong Tso Lake up tonearly eight km, construc-tion of over 60 permanentstructures, including bunkersand boat pads and occupationup to Finger 4, why is the gov-ernment denying the brazenChinese transgression?

“And if no one intrudedinto our territory, how did our20 soldiers die? How were 85jawans seriously injured and

how were 10 officers andjawans captured by theChinese? Why does the state-ment of the External AffairsMinistry dated June 20, 2020,contradict the PM’s statementon incursions by theChinese?”

“Has not the PM in a wayendorsed the Chinese positionthat they never intruded into our territories?PM must explain,” Sibal saidduring a press conference.

“It is clear that PrimeMinister’s statement of June19, 2020 is in contradiction ofthe statements made by theDefence Minister, ForeignAffairs Minister and ArmyChief,” Sibal said.

“Until the Chinese retreatand status quo is restored, ourGovernment should not let upor appear to cede any part ofthese territories to theChinese,” he further said.

“Why is PM refuting thestatement of Raksha Mantrion “Chinese presence in largenumbers” and EAM’s state-ment that we seek to restore“status quo ante”? Didn’t theArmy Chief clearly state that“disengagement” is under-way? If ‘no one has intrudedinto our territory’ and ‘no oneis occupying our territory’,what was being erected byChina or what status quo anteor disengagement were weseeking?

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New Delhi: The runningsquabble between the rulingBJP and the Congress on theIndia-China border stand-offcontinued on Sunday despitean all-party meet on Fridaywith BJP demanding an apol-ogy from former Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi for hissharp jibe on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and doubtinghis version on the status ofIndian boundary followingborder escalation by theBeijing.

“Congress party and itsleader Rahul Gandhi is cross-ing the line and maligning theimage of the country. Thecountry will not tolerate youcalling Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as “SurenderModi”, said BJP leader andparty spokesperson ShahnawazHussain.

BJP leaders have beendescribing Rahul as Twitter-happy “immature politician”,who according to them, wasmaking “irresponsible com-ments” while the countryshould be speaking in “one

voice”.Congress leader has been

persistently asking the PrimeMinister to come clear on thestatus of India-China bound-ary following clashes andreports of army build-up acrossthe ‘Galwan valley’ ,Pangonglake and other border stretch-es around Doklam.

“The language that he uses,even a leader of the enemycountry will not use such a lan-guage for our Prime Minister.Since the tension betweenIndia and China began, therehas not been a single daywhen Rahul Gandhi has notslandered the country and thePrime Minister”, said Hussain.

He demanded an apologyfrom Rahul “for the languagethat he used for the PrimeMinister. Otherwise, the coun-try will never forgive theCongress party," he said.

Many other BJP leadersreminded Rahul of his party'sblunder leading to the 1962surrender of the countryagainst China. BJP leaderMeenakshi Lekhi and R PSingh slammed Gandhi callinghim a “50-year-old adoles-cent” who is “spoon-fed pro-

paganda” by China againstIndia.

“What do you do with a50-year old man like this?When at a time the country isgoing through a pandemicand enemies at the LAC, he isdividing the country. Earlieralso he used a phrase calledpolitical 'lie'olgy. This is some-thing the Congress is an expertat. Creating misunderstanding.These khaandaanis were theones who surrendered Chinain 1962,” said BJP Delhi MPMeenakshi Lekhi.

Another BJP spokespersonGaurav Bhatia also lashed outat Rahul for his comment onModi and said he is a 'TraitorGandhi'. Rahul wants tostrengthen China and weakenIndia, Bhatia alleged.

The Prime Minister onFriday stated that none hadmade any incursion in theIndian border and a day afterthe Prime Minister’s Officeissued a clarification followingqueries from various politicalparties whether the clashbetween Indian and Chinesesoldiers did not happen on theIndian side of the Line ofActual Control.

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Seeking to restore the lostglory of yesteryears’ famous

pottery of Pokhran inRajasthan, the Khadi andVillage Industries Commission(KVIC) on Sunday launched itsflagship “Kumhar SashaktikaranYojana” in the town. The KVICdistributed 80 electric potterwheels to as many potter fam-ilies in Pokhran which has a richheritage in terracotta products.

The tradition has beendying over several years due tothe Government’s apathytowards these artists. Pokhranhas over 300 potters’ familiesthat are engaged with pottery forseveral decades. The pottersstarted looking for otheravenues due to lack of marketsupport.

Apart from the electricwheels, the KVIC also distrib-uted 8 blunger machines in agroup of 10 potters, used formixing the clay which can pro-

duce 800 kg clay in just 8 hours.Manually it takes 5 days to pre-pare 800 kg mud for potterymaking.

KVIC has created 350 directemployment in the village. All80 potters who were given 15days of training by KVIC cameup with some exquisite pottery.The products ranged fromKulhar to decorative pieces likeflower vase, sculptures andinteresting traditional utensils

like spherical bottles with anarrow mouth, Lotas with longspouts, and other sphericalutensils used for cooking as wellas decorative pieces.

The potters brilliantlydepicted the “Swacch BharatAbhiyan” and “InternationalYoga Day” – the two majorachievements of the CentralGovernment led by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi -through their pottery art.

Incidentally, it also coincidedwith the International YogaDay being celebrated on Sunday.

After distributing the elec-tric chaak and other equipmentthrough video conference,KVIC Chairman Shri VinaiKumar Saxena said the exerciseis aligned with the PrimeMinister’s call for“Aatmanirbhar Bharat” andstrengthening of potters aimedat creating self-employmentwhile also reviving the dying artof pottery.

“Pokhran was till now onlyknown as the site of nucleartests but very soon the exquis-ite pottery will be the newidentity of this place. The mainobjective of KumharSashaktikaran Yojana is to bringback the potters’ community tothe mainstream. By providingpotters with modern equipmentand training, we are trying toreconnect them with the soci-ety and revive their art,” Saxenasaid.

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Multiple pleas have beenfiled in the Supreme

Court by foreign nationals,who are presently in India,challenging the Centre's deci-sions of blacklisting over 3,500citizens of 35 countries fortheir alleged involvement inTablighi Jamaat activities.

Four writ petitions, includ-ing one by a Thai national whois seven months pregnant, havechallenged the Centre's deci-sion of April 2 by which 960foreigners were blacklisted andanother subsequent decision onJune 4 by which over 2,500 for-eign nationals were blacklistedfor 10 years from travelling toIndia.

"The impugned decision,by its very unilateral nature,infringes the principle of nat-ural justice, particularly ‘audialteram partem' by blacklistingthe said foreigners present inIndia without first granting anopportunity of being heard ornotice of any form, and resul-tantly depriving the aggrievedforeign nationals of their rightof locomotion and travellingback to the country of their cit-izenship,” the plea filed by theThai woman said.

The petitions, filed throughadvocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubiand drafted by advocates IbadMushtaq and Ashima Mandla,contended that the en masseblacklisting of over 3,500 for-eigners from 35 nations, whoare currently in India withoutaffording any opportunity toprima facie defend themselves,is an egregious and blatantviolation of Article 21 of theConstitution.

It said that the suddenblacklisting, apart from regis-tration of FIRs against such for-eigners, led to the forfeiture oftheir passports by state author-ities, thereby resulting in acomplete deprivation of theirpersonal liberty sans procedureestablished by law.

The impugned decision,therefore, has been passed arbi-trarily against the aggrievedforeign nationals, being devoidof any documentary proof orevidence to substantiate theallegations of alleged Tablighiactivities.

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The Supreme Court isscheduled to hear today

the pleas seeking recall of itsorder staying this year’s his-toric Lord Jagannath’s RathYatra, attended by lakhs ofpeople from across the world,due to the COVID-19 pan-demic.

The apex court had onJune 18 said that in the inter-est of public health and safe-ty of citizens, this year’s RathYatra, which was scheduledfor June 23, at Puri in Odishacannot be allowed and "LordJagannath won’t forgive us ifwe allow" it.

A day after the order waspassed, some applicationswere filed in the top courtseeking recall and modifica-tion of its order.

A single judge bench ofJustice S Ravindra Bhat isscheduled to hear on Mondaythese applications, includingthe one filed by ‘JagannathSanskruti Jana JagaranaManch’, which have urged thecourt to allow the Rath Yatra.

While the Rath Yatra fes-tival, held over 10-12 dayswith lakhs of people partici-pating, was scheduled forJune 23, the ‘Bahuda Jatra’(return car festival) was fixedfor July 1.

Three heavily-built wood-en chariots of Lord Jagannath,Lord Balabhadra and DeviSubhadra are traditionallypulled by thousands of devo-tees over a distance of threekilometres twice during thenine-day festival of the Trinityat Puri.

The application filed by“Jagannath Sanskruti JanaJagarana Manch” has soughtrecall and modification ofthe June 18 order, saying thefestival is deeply associated tothe religious beliefs of mil-lions of devotees of LordJagannath and it is "notimpossible and impracticable”for the state and districtadministration to conductthe Rath Yatra by maintainingsocial distancing and follow-ing the Centre’s guidelines.

Besides this, a separateapplication seeking modifi-

cation of the June 18 orderhas been filed by one AftabHossen, who has said that “asper the r itual of LordJagannath, the Rath Yatra isperformed in every year andif one year it is not per-formed, same cannot be performed for the next 12years”.

Hossen, while urging theapex court to modify its orderand allow the Rath Yatra, hassaid in his application thatrestraining the

Rath Yatra this year wouldpractically mean restraining itfor the next 12 years and thiscould create "great repercus-sion and chaos” in the LordJagannath culture and rituals.

In its separate application,the “Jagannath Sanskruti JanaJagarana Manch” has said thatas per the earlier direction ofthe Orissa High Court as wellas decision of the state gov-ernment, 372 people wereengaged in the constructionof three raths/chariots formore than one-and-halfmonths and all were isolated,tested and found COVID-19negative.

“Under the above factsand circumstances the appli-cant most humbly prayedthat the order dated June 18,2020 as passed by this courtmay be recalled and modifiedto the extent that the RathYatra r itual may be performed with the help of500-600 ser v itors by following the guidelines,maintaining social distancingand with certain impositionsand conditions," said theapplication, filed throughadvocate Hitendra NathRath.

The application has fur-ther said that Pur i municipality is categorised asa ‘green zone’ and these factswere not placed before theapex court during the hear-ing on June 18. “Under theabove facts and circum-stances, it is not impossibleand impracticable for thestate government and thedistrict administration toconduct the Rath Yatra bymaintaining social distancingand following the guidelinesof the central governmentand the State Government,"it said.

“The Rath Yatra can beperformed with the help of500-600 servitors by main-taining social distance onthe road of three km stretchand by imposing the restric-tions as well as imposingsection 144 of the CrPC," itsaid. The top court’s June 18order had came on a PIL filedby an Odisha-based NGOseeking cancellation or post-ponement of this year’s RathYatra.

Two pleas were filed inthe apex court seeking can-cellation or postponementof the historic ‘Rath Yatra’.

Besides the PIL filed byNGO ‘Odisha VikasParishad’, seeking stay onholding of the annual festival, an appealhas been f i led by oneSurendra Panigrahi of“Bhartiya Bikash Parishad”against the Orissa HighCourt order of June 9, whichhad asked the state govern-ment to decide on holding the ‘Rath Yatra’festival in line with theCOVID-19 guidelines.

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Page 5: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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Were the ancient Indian sages and scholars aware of the possibilities of

contagious diseases like coronavirus pan-demic which prompted them to come outwith the typical way of respecting andgreeting others by sayingNamastay/Namaskaar/Namaskaaram?

In the 21st century when Heads of Statemeet, they greet each other either by shak-ing hands or hugging, in all probability abearhug. But Indian sages pave been provedright by recent events that shaking hands orhugging each other are not actions straightfrom the heart and are shrouded with dubi-ous intentions.

A video featuring the speech of SwamyChinmayananda, the founder of ChinmayaMission, in which the celebrated monkspeaks about the significance of Namaste andtouching the feet of elders has gone viral. TheSwamiji ridicules the system of shaking ofhands and hugging as a means of greetingeach other. With the coronavirus pandemicpeaking and the Government struggling toconvince the people about the need tomaintain social distancing the importance ofNamaste has come back through the videorecording of the speech delivered by SwamiChinmayananada (1916-1993).

He says shaking of hands is part of thewestern culture and it became an acceptednorm because of historicity. “In the days ofAnglo-Saxon and earlier also, in the west-ern world, each one met the other only withan idea of killing. Open friendship wasunknown to them . When someone reallywants to express to the other that the formerhas no intention of killing or harming , hecomes with both the hands open. It was amessage to the other that there were noweapons in his hands,” says the Swami in hischaracteristic witty style.

But the Swami pointed out that the west-ern psyche was moulded by centuries ofdoubts and they still doubted the seriousnessof friendship. “It is to ensure that there wereno weapons in each others hands that theystarted shaking hands. I give my hand tocheck up and at the same time I check upyour hand also,” he says.

Amidst roaring laughter from the gath-ering, Swami Chinmayananda said situationin West Asia (Middle East) was much moreserious. “They have a feeling that weaponsmay be hidden in the robes they wear andthat’s why they hug each other. When theyembrace, haven’t you seen them checkingthree times both the sides of the guest/hostto make sure that there are no hiddenweapons,” he said

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Osho Tapoban, a premiermeditation commune of

international repute nearKathmandu scripted a historyby transmitting Osho’s divineenergy to Osho followers acrossthe world in an online medita-tion workshop conducted onJune 20, night.

Bodhi Sattva Swami AnandArun, Osho’s main discipleand the founder of OshoTapoban International com-mune claims that it was the firstexperiment on this planet totransmit any enlightened mas-ter’s energy to his followers inremote distance through onlinetechnology.

The Osho Tapoban coor-dinated with the osho disciplesacross the world through zoomtv and fixed the workshop to beconducted online.

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Nationwide lockdownimposed during Covid-19

pandemic may have jammedthe wheels of the transportindustry and may have dis-rupted the movement of essen-tial items for some time but itfailed to deter 'bovine smug-glers' from transporting ani-mals inside the Union Territoryof Jammu & Kashmir.

According to policerecords, “between the firstweek of May till June 19,around two dozen incidents ofbovine smuggling were foiledby the police teams in Kathuaand Udhampur districts ofJammu region alone”.

Bovine smugglers use theseroutes to first enter the gatewayof Jammu and Kashmir viaLakhanpur and then take abypass road via Samba to reachUdhampur before hitting thenational highway bypassingJammu.

According to policerecords, “from May 2020 tillJune 19 over 1100 bovine ani-mals have been rescued fromthe clutches of 43 bovine smug-glers in Kathua and Udhampurdistricts”. In all these cases, thebovine animals were loaded ina very cruel manner in all

these vehicles. Interestingly, in the month

of May 2020, when the inter-state borders were sealed andmovement of only essentialgoods were permitted on pri-ority these bovine smugglersmanaged to smuggle bovineanimals via the gateway of

Jammu and Kashmir.Tweets posted by the

Kathua police on its officialtwitter handle clearly give thetimeline of these incidentsbeginning May 3. “Threebovine smuggling bids foiled inthe jurisdiction of police postRamkote and Chadwal. 75

bovine animals rescued ,fourarrested in last two days”,Kathua police tweeted on May3. A total number of 12 inci-dents were reported till June 19in which 225 bovine animalswere rescued in Kathua districtalone while 889 bovines wererescued in Udhampur district

enroute Kashmir valley. On June 18, Udhampur

police rescued 428 bovine ani-mals from Jakhani, SangoorChowk and Mian Bagh area.

According to the state-ment issued by the Udhampurpolice, while patrolling on

National Highway, policepatrolling parties interceptedthree groups of 428 bovineanimals from Jakhani, SangoorChowk and Mian Bagh area ofUdhampur town which wastaken on foot by the smugglerstowards Kashmir valley with-out any valid permission.

Police rescued 428 ani-mals and arrested six bovinesmugglers. Similarly, 148bovines were rescued by theUdhampur police on May 4, 84on May 14, 123 on May 28 and61 on June 3 from differentareas of Udhampur.

Recently when DirectorGeneral of Police, DilbaghSingh was asked to commenton the menace of bovine smug-gling during his visit to Kathuaon June 15, he told reporters ,police has strengthened thesecurity checkpoints along thenational highway and largenumber of smuggling bids havebeen foiled by the alert policeteams.

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With Bengal Assemblypolls barely a year away

the routine exchange of salvosbetween ruling TrinamoolCongress and challenger BJPhave degenerated into “Badla”calls with the senior leaders ofsaffron outfit openly threaten-ing “revenge” and asking peo-ple to torch police stationsthat “act as the TMC partyoffices.”

While BJP on Sundaycalled for “both Badal andBadla” (change of power andrevenge) senior Trinamoolleader and Minister FirhadHakim responded to in equalmeasures equating the outfitwith the “reactionary Talibanisand Jaish e Muhammad whoare experts in the art of revengeand killing.”

The latest slanging match

started when the police lodgedan FIR against senior BJPleader Sayantan Basu whoopenly spewed venom callingupon a crowd to “torch thepolice stations if they act likeTrinamool party offices andvictimize innocent people likethey have been doing now.”

Murder of a BJP worker atDanton in West Midnaporedistrict provided the immedi-ate spark for Basu’s speechwho while mourning the deathof the party activist provokeda huge crowd against men inkhaki saying “Don't attackpolice vans, don't attack thecops but torch the police stationif a BJP worker is killed or tor-tured. Wait for six moremonths, we will teach them alesson.”

Basu and state BJP ChiefDilip Ghosh was attending thefuneral of the slain party work-

er Paban Jana who allegedlydied in an attack mounted byTMC workers even as he wastaking part in a door-to-doorcampaign on Saturday.

Hours later State BJPMahila Morcha chiefAgnimitra Paul too threatenedthe police with physical retal-iation if “you dare touch ourwomen workers while they arein the midst of public pro-grammes.” Paul said so after aband of Morcha supporters

were arrested by the policewhen they were demonstratingin front of CPI(M) mouthpieceGanashakti’s office.

When asked to commenton the way the BJP leaders weretalking Dilip Ghosh saidreminding how the TMC chiefMamata Banerjee had spokenof “Badal (Change) but tookBadla (revenge) when she cameto power… We speak in astraight forward manner. Wewill not only talk about Badalbut we will talk about Badlatoo. No person perpetratingviolence against our men willgo unpunished. Not even thepolice men. We are keeping aclose watch on the situations.”

When asked as to whetherhe was sorry about the way hisparty men were speaking hesaid “those who speak of for-giveness are basically cowards.We do not ask for forgiveness.”

Basu himself remainednon-repentant too saying “whatelse I would have said in suchcircumstances when our menare being killed by the TMCand the police are falsely impli-cating other BJP workers forsuch murders… In Bengal thepolice stations are acting asTMC party offices which iswhy we want to warn them. Wewant to tell them that the BJPis definitely coming to power inBengal and then we will takeaccount of everything.”

Reacting to his statementHakim said “BJP is the IndianTaliban or JeM. Like them thisparty acts like terrorists. Theydo not speak in any other lan-guage. They speak only interms of violence. We willappeal to the people to identi-fy these people and remain onguard against them during thecoming elections.”

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After two close relatives of aCovid19 patient died under

mysterious circumstances beforeperforming the last rites inJammu on June 18, anothercivilian, quarantined in Kathuadistrict, died early Sunday morn-ing triggering protests against thedistrict authorities.

A large number of strandedpassengers, workers and othersquarantined in the centre blamedthe district authorities for illtreating common people.“Today, one patient has died ,tomorrow some one from usmay also die in these inhumanliving conditions. We are not safehere”, claimed others still presentin the quarantine centre .

According to reports, soonafter an ambulance arrived at thequarantine centre to shift thedead body of a passenger, otherscornered the senior officerspresent at the centre. Shouting

slogans, the passengers high-lighted the pathetic state ofaffairs. “The quarantine centre isill equipped, there is no properhygiene and above all the qual-ity of food served to us is verybad”. “We have been demandingthe concerned authorities to seg-regate us to prevent spread of thevirus but despite making tallclaims we have been huddledinside stinking rooms to rot”, theaggrieved passengers allegedseeking better facilities.

According to official sources,a 47 -year-old resident of Kathuadistrict, possibly suffered a heartattack early Sunday morningwhile he was present in theChangran quarantine centre.

He returned via Mumbaion June 15 and had tested neg-ative for Covid-19. He wasexpected to be sent home aftercompleting the necessary for-malities on Sunday.

District Authorities inKathua identified the deceased asKamal Kumar, resident of

Chipaki Kala village inHiranagar.

According to official sources,he had tested negative but had tostay back after three others hadtested positive from the samecentre. As per the guidelines,their samples were taken afreshand the reports were confirmedlate Saturday evening. Localauthorities claimed, on his arrivalin Kathua his family had insist-ed that he should be admitted inthe hospital as he was sufferingfrom Liver ailment.

He was taken for a medicalexamination in the Government

Medical college, Kathua on June17.

Meanwhile, 122 new casesof coronavirus were detected inJammu & Kashmir on Sundayand one more patient died inKashmir valley. According to themedia bulletin, the total numberof coronavirus cases have scaledup to 5,956 and 82 patients havedied so far.

Out of these 5,956 cases,2,492 are active positive while3,382 patients have recoveredfully and sent home after theytested negative. According to themedia bulletin, five districts ofKashmir valley have so farrecorded more than 600 caseswhile Jammu district has so farreported 309 cases.

The highest number of 428cases are active in Srinagar dis-trict alone followed by 318 inBaramulla and 240 in Pulwamadistrict. In Jammu a total num-ber of 109 cases are active fol-lowed by 94 cases in Udhampurand 88 in Kathua.

Lucknow: Former DeputyPrime Minister LK Advani,former UP Chief MinisterKalyan Singh, BJP leader DrMM Joshi and RamJanambhoomi Trust chairmanNritya Gopal Das will deposebefore a special CBI court inLucknow, through video-con-ferencing from Tuesday in theBabri Masjid demolition case of1992.

The special CBI court, onSaturday, sent a directive to thedirector of NationalInformatics Centre (NIC), agovernment of India body, tomake arrangements for video-conferencing from addresses

furnished by these accused, torecord their statements underSection 313 of CrPC.

All accused would have toanswer at least 1,000 ques-tions based on evidence pro-duced by prosecution agencyCBI. “The special courtinforms accused about factsand evidence that came up dur-ing trial and directs them togive their statement,” said CBIcounsel Lalit Singh.

Thirteen accused havedeposed so far and the courtmay follow similar proceedingswith others, said Singh.

While Advani will deposeon June 30, Joshi on July 1,

Singh on July 2, Mahant NrityaGopal Das on June 23, R.N.Srivastava on June 22, JaiBhagwan Das on June 24,Amar Nath Goel on June 25,Sudhir Kakkad on June 26 andAcharya Dharmendra Dev onJune 29.

Earlier, on Saturday, one ofthe accused, Ram ChandraKhatri was produced beforespecial judge S.K. Yadavthrough video-conferencingfrom district jail, Sonipat,where he is lodged in connec-tion with another case.However, his statement couldnot be recorded because ofpoor connectivity. IANS

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Each new day in Tamil Nadubrings with it news of des-

peration and despondency asthe number of persons testedfor coronavirus increasesbeyond expectations. OnSunday, despite the lock downof the four districts includingChennai, the State saw thenumber of persons diagnosedwith covid-19 pandemic reach-ing new heights since the firstcase was reported in January.

The day saw 53 personssuccumbing to the pandemicall over the State while 2,532persons diagnosed with Covid-19 on a single day. The num-ber of deaths as wellas thenumber of coronavirus positivecases are the highest ever sincethe first instance of the pan-demic was reported in TamilNadu. Needless to say, the cap-ital city continued to resemblea ghost city, if the words of longterm residents are to bebelieved.

With 2, 532 persons diag-nosed with Covis-19 onSunday, Tamil Nadu has so farrecorded 59, 377 cases of the

pandemic till date. Accoerdingto the Government of TamilNadu release, 1, 438 patientswere discharged from varioushospitals in the State and thishas brought down the numberof active cases to 25, 863.

But all relief regarding theabatement of the number ofpersons afflicted with the pan-demic were vaporized as 53persons succumbed to the dis-ease on a single day taking thetotal number of fatalities tilldate to 757. Underscoring thewarning issued by epidemiol-ogists and physicians like Dr CV Krishnaswamy and Prof B MHegde, 50 of the dead hadcomorbidity issues while threepersons died only because ofthe pandemic.

Chennai continued to bethe epicenter of Tamil Nadu’scoronavirus as the Metropolisaccounted for 1,493 cases out

of the 2.532 persons diagnosedwith covid-19 on Sunday.Chengalpettu , the nearby dis-trict which had been a prob-lematic region, did not test evena single coronavirus case onSunday.

Kancheepuram (64) andThiruvallur ( 120) proved onceagain that they were problem-atic regions and any kind ofrelief from the pandemic is faraway. The day also saw twomore judges of the MadrasHigh Court testing positivefor the pandemic which tookthe number of judges afflictedwith coronavirus to three.

A doctor working in thePreventive Medicine depart-ment told The Pioneer thatthere was nothing to be scaryabout the increase in the covidcases.

“There are 86 laboratoriesin the State in addition to themobile clinics summoned tothe Chennai city from otherdistricts. As the number of per-sons tested increases, therewill be a correspondingincrease in the number of pos-itive cases,” said the doctorwho did not want his name tobe quoted.

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Agra: Two more deaths due tocoronavirus were reported inAgra in the last 24 hours, tak-ing the total death toll to 75even as eight new cases tookthe tally to 1,132 in the UttarPradesh district on Sunday.

As many as 929 patientshave recovered, while 128active cases remain in the dis-trict. Agra's recovery rate is81.71 per cent. Till Saturday,18,559 samples had been col-lected. The total number of hotspots is 70, district officials said.

In Etah, nine new caseswere reported and Firozabadfive. Two patients had died inMathura. Meanwhile, theMathura district administra-tion announced cancellation ofthe annual Mudiya Poonaufestival in Goverdhan, whichattracts more than one croredevotees during the five-day'parikrama' of the holy hill. IANS

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Amaravati: After the overnight high of 491 cases,Andhra Pradesh reported a lower single-day tallyof 439 corona cases on Sunday. The State nodalofficer also reported 5 deaths in the 24 hours end-ing 9 a.m., Sunday, putting the overall toll in thestate at 106 deaths.

As many as 24,451 samples were tested dur-ing this period, which is the highest number oftests conducted in a day.

On Sunday, the highest tally of 70 cases wasreported from East Godavari, followed by 66 inKrishna, and 58 in Kadapa districts. Of the 13districts in Andhra Pradesh, 12 reported freshCovid-19 cases, with Srikakulam being the soleexception by not reporting any incidence over thepast 24 hours.

The overall tally of positive cases since theoutbreak of corona in the state, now stands at8,929, while the active cases tally is 4,516. So far,4,307 persons have recovered after treatment andbeen discharged from hospitals in the state.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus toll furtherclimbed up with three deaths reported fromKrishna, 1 from Kurnool, and 1 from Chittoordistrict. With the latest update, the death toll inthe state stood at 96 on Sunday morning.

On Saturday, the state had reported the high-est single-day tally ever of 491 cases.

The last 24 hours also saw 34 new casesdetected among people who returned from otherstates to Andhra Pradesh. While 22 samplesbelonging to returnees from Tamil Nadu testedpositive, 7 cases pertained to returnees fromTelangana and 1 sample belonged to a returneefrom Maharashtra. IANS

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With each passing day, the num-ber of Covid-19 cases in

Telangana is reaching a new high andsending the alarm bells ringing in thetop echelons of the state adminis-tration.

The first Covid-19 case in thestate was reported on March 2 andsince then there has been a steadyincrease in numbers.

It was after 57 days, that is onApril 26 that the state crossed 1,000cases mark. It took another monthfor the next 1,000 cases but withina week the state added 1,000.

It was on June 3 that the statecrossed 3,000 mark but such hasbeen the surge since then that thisfigure doubled in a matter of 15 days.

The state added 1,045 cases inthe last two days -- 499 on Fridayand 546 on Saturday. As many as1,859 people tested positive sinceTuesday.

Telangana also crossed 200 fatal-ities on Saturday, making it the ninthstate in the country to pass that fig-ure. It is at 13th position amongstates in total number of Covid-19caes.

While the authorities have beenclaiming that Telangana is in muchbetter position compared to stateslike Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi,Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and others,

the massive surge over the last oneweek and huge jump in daily caseshas sparked apprehensions that itmay overtake some states in thecoming days.

Telangana was one of the firststates to impose the lockdown andkept things largely under controlwith strict enforcement. However,the surge after the relaxation in thelockdown upset all its calculations.

The officials in the healthdepartment point out that every timethe government felt that it had con-tained the spread, a new problemcropped up.

In the initial phase, it was thearrival of people from abroad whichkept the authorities on tenterhooks.By screening the passengers at theairport, testing those with suspect-ed symptoms and by sending othersto quarantine, the authorities wereable to keep things under control.

The next wave came towards theend of March when returnees fromTablighi Jamaat conclave in Delhiwere found infected. Health MinisterEatala Rajender had stated on April16 that 640 out of 700 tested posi-tive so far had Tablighi link.

Even in the beginning of May,the average daily jump was 20-30cases. However, the surge began withrelaxations in the lockdown. Thenumber of infections rose with thereturn of migrant workers from

other states and those who wereevacuated/deported from abroad.

As the cases were largely con-fined to Greater Hyderabad, ChiefMinister K. Chandrashekhar Raowas still confident of containing thespread. However, the intra-state andinter-state movement of people andthe greater mobility with theresumption of some economic activ-ity led to the spread in the districtsas well.

Under attack from the opposi-tion for low testing, TelanganaRashtra Samithi (TRS) governmentblamed the relaxations given by theCentre for the upsurge.

“The BJP leaders, who wereshouting that the state governmenthas failed in containing the spreadof coronavirus, should go and askPrime Minister Narendra Modi whyrelaxations were being given,” saidTelangana minister Srinivas Yadav.

The latest surge began with thelaunch of 50,000 tests in GreaterHyderabad, the biggest hotspot andsurrounding districts from Tuesday.

The government on June 14announced that 50,000 tests will beconducted in 30 Assembly con-stituencies in Greater Hyderabad andsurrounding districts over the nextweek to 10 days. The process beganon Tuesday with authorities collect-ing samples from containment zonesand high risk groups.

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Page 6: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

Democracies across theglobe have seen thesudden rise of the far-Right and the neo-nationalists, who pos-

ture muscular stances in a bid toundo the “weaknesses” of the past.From Washington, DC, to Rio deJaneiro, to Budapest, Ankara andManila, the template is the same:Supposed “strongmen” recklesslypander to the basest instincts. Thecommon playbook for the leader-ship entails “majoritarianism”, “illib-erality” and “discomfort” with con-stitutional restraints. Profundityof patriotism is replaced bysupremacy of unbridled national-ism. The tone and tenor accompa-nying such leadership is decided-ly “unapologetic” and “aggressive.”Another commonality in suchnationalistic fervour and rhetoric isthe dangerous appropriation ofthe apolitical military to buttress thepolitical credentials of the “strong-man.” Herein, the leadership seeksto dovetail, champion and posit themilitary as its natural supporter andambassador. This affords it politi-cal legitimacy in the eyes of the cit-izenry to do many more dangerousunconstitutional acts. The militarywilly-nilly becomes a partisanaccompaniment, a tool and aninadvertent piece of the politicallegitimisation framework.

Ironically, these adopters ofmilitaristic symbolism are usuallynot from military background orsensibilities. Take the example ofPresidents Donald Trump, RodrigoDuterte, Recep Tayyip Erdogan andHungarian Prime Minister ViktorOrbán. Their formula of national-ism entails interventionist, revision-ist and authoritarian agenda thatnecessitate the subliminal endorse-ment and usurpation of the mili-tary imagery. In all such democra-cies, these tendencies unsettle thetraditional rectitude of the armedforces, which unequivocally dis-dains topical politics, societaldivides and reckless liberties. Therequired “distance” between thepolitical leadership and the relative-ly-independent and professionaldomain of the military gets com-promised. The military then standsto assume a partisan slant and pref-erence. Under the garb of “recog-nising” the military, condescendingplatitudes are routinely dished withno material benefit for it. The insti-tution is only milked to serve par-tisan purposes. Given its regi-mented and disciplined ethos of notspeaking up to the national leader-

ship — even when related topersonal and career considera-tions — often, the senior lead-ership in the military does notdo enough to stop the politici-sation of this institution. Thus,the armed forces risk compro-mising their constitutional com-mitments.

Trump has displayed child-like glee for militaristic trappingssuch as parades, weaponry, lan-guage and self-claimed obses-sion with “quick action,” ignor-ing the fact that behind the pow-erful symbols of the institutionresides the purest, noblest andthe most constitutionally adher-ent spirit in action. Combat unitsdo not encourage “divides” as theUS military is disproportionate-ly populated by minorities likethe Hispanics and African-Americans. This political polar-isation would prove to be a nat-ural anathema to the institution.But fragility in the military-polit-ical relationship in the US start-ed brewing after most veteransvoted in favour of Trump whenhe seduced them with his uber-nationalistic bluster and brava-do. But the military was gettingincreasingly restless with theinterferences; with the hallowedchain and command passingthe buck to the “Generals” onoperational failures; and with theinstitution being dragged intothe theatrical politics of Trump.

One defining moment ofthis tenuous military-civil equa-tion in the US came forth whenthe President strolled down to anearby church, accompaniedby a posse of his team, and dra-matically held aloft a Bible. Thephoto-op caught the

Washington police by surprise asthey had to crudely and forciblypush away the peaceful demon-strators. The Bishop of theEpiscopal Diocese ofWashington was “outraged” atthe use of the church as a polit-ical stage. Even worse was thesight of the senior most US mil-itary General Mark A Milley incombat fatigues, forming thebackdrop of that overtly drama-tised “moment” and he beingused as a willing prop.

Yet again, willingly orunwillingly, Trump had drawnthe avowedly apolitical institu-tion into extremely politically-loaded “moment.” The opticsalso inadvertently signalled theinstitution’s alignment on theway security was being handledand worse, it sought to be fur-ther handled by invoking themilitary. What followed next wasan unequivocal and bipartisanroast of the apparent conduct ofthe top General. The military’scherished political abstentionwas visibly compromised — alleyes turned on Gen Milley butnot much was expected asTrump has routinely interfered,fired and bulldozed opposition.

But Gen Milley demon-strated the highest levels of mil-itary courage, uprightness andmorality when he apologised forthe optics, knowingly earnedpresidential ire and risked get-ting fired. Milley unambiguous-ly said, “I should not have beenthere” and that “my presence inthat moment and in that envi-ronment created a perception ofthe military involved in domes-tic politics.” In one sweep, Milleyrestored the larger dignity of the

regrettable situation, the institu-tion and the nation. Gen Milley’sapology does not show him inweak light. On the contrary, bothhe and the institution have beenstrengthened by reiterating thesupremacy of the USConstitution as opposed to thevanity and whims of any indi-vidual — even if he happens tobe the Commander-in-Chief.Gen Milley salvaged the situa-tion from getting dangerouslyand irreparably undermined.This is especially applicable forthe military, which holds thecoercive instruments of sover-eign power. Gen Miley’s extra-ordinary public apology alsoincluded a very telling anddirect comment when he toldhis troops to “defend theConstitution” — the distinctionbetween the President and theConstitution was unmistakable.

Gen Milley may join therevolving door of the WhiteHouse administration that hasseen the fired backs of some ofthe most decorated, valourisedand respected veterans.Ironically, veteran affairs and themilitary were signature Trumpissues in his politics but the treat-ment meted out to the institu-tion, its traditions and values willmake the most Republican Partysupporting veterans think twice.The humility in Mark Milley’swords, “As a commissioned uni-formed officer, it was a mistakethat I have learned from, and Isincerely hope we all can learnfrom it” is both rare and thor-oughly inspirational.

(The writer, a military veter-an, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands)

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Sir — It has been reported thatthe People’s Liberation Army ofChina has returned 10 membersof the Indian Army whom it haddetained after the violent face-off in the Galwan River Valley onJune 15. Details of the 20 soldierskilled during the assault in east-ern Ladakh is scarce. Somemedia reports have said thatmost of the deaths occurred assoldiers fell off the cliff into theriver in the narrow GalwanValley. What should be concern-ing for us is that last week’s brawlsaw the first LAC casualties inmore than four decades. Postthis incident, relations betweenIndia and China are bound toundergo a sea change.

Beijing has been usingcoercive methods to gain hege-mony in the Asian region. Ata time when Chinese PresidentXi Jinping is facing backlash athome and globally over his rolein the Corona outbreak thathas swept the world, he thinks border distraction will servehim well. But China must getthe message clear that such anapproach is untenable.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneshwar

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Sir — At a time when StateGovernments are permittingsome businesses to carry out

their daily activities, TamilNadu is being trolled forextending the lockdown tillJune 30. On the other hand,Delhi’s COVID-19 case num-bers are going up relentlessly

like Mumbai. Why single out aState or two when the entirenation is wilting under a pan-demic? With several phases ofthe lockdown, metro cities areyet to sequester support infra-

structure and equipment.Forget about mofussil

towns, they are not even in thepicture. In sum, the healthcarescenario is poor in both ruraland urban areas. Around 72 percent of India’s health spend isthrough high-priced privatesector care. The working classacquires the malady throughexposure by necessity but hasno money for private care andmunicipal hospitals have noequipment to treat them.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — The inflation figure of3.21 per cent released by theGovernment is less than accu-rate and shocking to say theleast. The Government hasfailed to control the rising pricesof essential goods. Had inflationreally been so low, would it notbe reasonable to expect a fall orstability in the prices of essen-tial items? The Governmentmust stop fooling the people.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

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Page 7: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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The gory events that took place at the Galwanstand-off point (PP 14) on the evening of June15 and carried on late into the night have

exposed the barbaric tendencies of the Chinese army.Throwing all treaties and conventions to the wind,they attacked the unsuspecting CommandingOfficer (CO) of an Indian Army unit with iron rods,chains, baseball bats covered with spikes andbarbed wires and gloves fitted with iron spikes. Thisled to a brawl that resulted in heavy casualties onboth sides.

One thing is certain, that the attack by theChinese was unprovoked, premeditated and had theblessings of senior commanders. It cannot bebrushed off as the work of a local commanderobsessed with the Chinese movie Wolf Warrior. Itwas a clear case of betrayal of faith by the Chineseafter having agreed to certain pullbacks as part ofan overall de-escalation plan that would have led toan end to the stand-off between the two armies ineastern Ladakh. What prompted the Chinese toresort to such a treachery is a matter of conjecturebut it is definitely driven by its “Middle Kingdom”syndrome.

The devious Chinese mindset can be gaugedfrom the contents of an article published in theChinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece,Global Times. “India has been building extensiveinfrastructure facilities along the border and forciblybuilt part of the facilities on the Chinese side of theLine of Actual Control (LAC) regardless of bilater-al divergences over the border disputes. The two sideswent into repeated physical clashes as Chinese sol-diers tried to stop their Indian counterparts.” Thisis a blatant lie since there has never been any dis-pute in the perception of the LAC between the twoarmies in the Galwan Valley sector. The Chinese hadnever crossed the LAC here. The Global Times ver-sion is a cover-up as it is at variance with the earli-er statement issued by the spokesperson of theWestern Theatre Command of PLA. It would be per-tinent to mention here that India is building a roadup to PP14, which is well within its territory.

The article highlights Chinese anxiety and fear.It reads, “The arrogance and recklessness of theIndian side is the main reason for the consistent ten-sions along China-India borders. In recent years,New Delhi has adopted a tough stance on borderissues, which is mainly resulted from two misjudge-ments. It believes that China does not want to sourrelations with India because of increasing strategicpressure from the US, therefore China lacks the willto hit back provocations from the Indian side. Inaddition, some Indian people mistakenly believe theircountry’s military is more powerful than China’s.These misrepresentations affect the rationality ofIndian opinion and add pressure to India’s China pol-icy.” This article is a reinforcement of China’s “neigh-bourhood bully” image. The Chinese leadershipbelieves in, “Who controls the past controls thefuture; who controls the present controls the past.”The global community has not forgotten how Chinabullied its way into the South China Sea (SCS) despitean international tribunal’s verdict to the contrary andhas since declared a SCS District. This is a classicexample of China’s cartographic aggression, a lega-cy of the Middle Kingdom.

China’s attempts in Ladakh are similar, a well-planned and coordinated cartographic invasionbeginning with forcible occupation of Aksai Chinin the late fifties, retention of territories occupiedin 1962, annexing Shaksgam Valley through anagreement with Pakistan and thereafter frequent for-ays into Ladakh to lay claim on the grazing

grounds of local Mons. China is well-known for shifting stances, mixing the pastand present with a motive for the futureand throwing all bilateral agreements to thewind. Putting together various threadsavailable, it appears that as part of theagreement reached during the CorpsCommander level meeting held on June6, the Chinese troops opposite PP14 wererequired to move further eastwards to theirbase called Post 1. It may be recalled thatthe Chinese have built two posts namelyPost 2 and Post 1 along the bank of GalwanRiver after it takes a turn and runs almostparallel to the LAC well within theChinese territory before it enters India atPP14.

They have also built a road up to Post1. The entire process was required to becompleted within 10 days ending onJune 15. The Chinese were to begin thethinning out since they had begun thebuild-up. The Indian CO and his platoonhad gone to oversee the de-escalationprocess, it being the last day for the Chinesepullback. During the talks, the Chinese sol-diers attacked the CO with spiked rods andbaseball bats. Indian troops rushed to thescene and the brawl took an ugly turn.After the initial casualties, there was nobacking down from either side. The sceneof the clash was a narrow ledge with a deepravine. Reinforcements arrived and themayhem continued well into the night atthose icy heights in the open. It was theChinese side which broke all agreements,conventions and treaties in a barbaric man-ner. But as expected of the Chinese, theyshifted the entire blame on the Indian side.

The fact that the Chinese action waspremeditated and had the blessings of thehigher military commanders can be sub-stantiated from the fact that the spokesper-son of the Western Theatre Commandissued a Press note. It reads, “Chinaalways owns sovereignty over the GalwanValley region, and the Indian border

defence troops are inconsistent with theirwords and seriously violated the agree-ments both countries have reached, theconsensus made during the army com-mander-level talks and harmed the rela-tions of the two militaries and the feelingsof the two countries’ peoples. India shouldstop all provocative actions, meet theChinese side halfway and come back to theright path of solving disputes throughtalks.” One only needs to compare thisstatement to the Global Times article tounderstand how China is trying to changethe entire narrative by shifting the blameon India. China was still looking for a face-saving strategy to get out of theCoronavirus mess when it has landed intoanother global embarrassment with afaulty notion of having embarrassed India.

After getting an unexpected responsefrom the Indian soldiers who retaliatedhard, China is now looking for a face-sav-ing exit formula. Its treacherous attemptto shift the blame on Indian troops is find-ing no takers and despite total control onthe Chinese media, Beijing is finding it dif-ficult to hide the large number of fatali-ties it has suffered. China has learnt thehard way that its army is not combat-readyand its soldiers are no match for battle-hardened Indian counterparts. Despite car-rying the improvised lethal equipment, theChinese were no match for the Indians inhand-to-hand combat. Despite starting thealtercation and having suffered humilia-tion, China has started talking peace,which is quite unlike it.

China’s actions in Galwan have onlyreinforced what was always known theworld over since the Korean War, thatBeijing’s word can never be trusted andagreements are only a piece of paper. Theyare past masters in twisting facts throughbluff and blustery. Similarly, the Chineseappeal for restraint and peace should notbe taken at face value. They are always con-scious of their global image of a respon-

sible and peace-loving State and would tryto portray India as the aggressor.

China has yet to see India’s aggression.It will have to pay for the unnecessaryprovocation leading to a bloody conflictand will no more be able to mislead Indiansthrough sweet talk and diplomatically-laced statements.

The Chinese for once have crossed thered line and pushed back the efforts beingmade by the two sides at the political levelto continue good relations despite thepending boundary issue. It has also madea mockery of all the five treaties signed sofar between the two nations to maintainpeace and tranquility on the border.China has been violating them frequent-ly but never crossed the Rubicon. Fatalcasualties have taken place for the first timesince 1975 when a patrol clash took placein Arunachal Pradesh. If China thinks thatit can dictate terms to India on bordermanagement and carry out bilateral tradeon its terms because of a perceived supe-rior military, it is sadly mistaken and haslearnt a lesson the hard way.

China’s land mass today consists of 60per cent forcibly-occupied territories. It hasbeen bullying its neighbours to continuewith its expansionist policies. So far, it hadnot provoked India beyond a point.Though it had off and on been talking ofTibet being its palm and Ladakh, Nepal,Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradeshbeing its fingers, it never dared to enforceits baseless and erratic claim. With therecent treachery, China can forget aboutthe fingers and should prepare to lose thepalm as well. The Galwan incident willbecome a defining moment in Sino-Indian relations. China has lost the plot andthe dominating position it has always beenproud of. The Chinese pride has been shat-tered beyond repair and the same goes forSino-Indian relations.

(The author is a Jammu-basedcolumnist and analyst)

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There is nothing new about the USrace riots. After nearly three cen-turies of slave trade, hundred

years of racial violence, decades of racialtension, numerous incidents of unre-strained police behaviour towards theAfrican Americans, routine protestsand occasional riots, the recent imagesemerging from the US attest to a socialrealism that the world is all too famil-iar with. With the protests growing inspread, strength and vehemence, thedemonstrators have started targettingConfederate landmarks and pullingdown statues of slave traders. Therehave also been calls to rechristenarmy bases named after Confederate

commanders; a move which USPresident Donald Trump has vowed tooppose in order to protect Americanheritage and the history of military tri-umphs. Taking a cue from the US, anti-racism campaigners in England, too,have set out on a defacing spree,unleashing their ire on statues ofWinston Churchill, Queen Victoria andeven Gandhi. However, when weattempt to reset the clock by “killing”the dead and decapitate statues, weoften fail to build something of valuein its stead.

In the BBC documentary, Tearingup History: The Art of Revolution,which deals with the large-scaledestruction of art and architecture dur-ing the French revolution, art histori-an David Clay argues that such acts ofvandalism are well nigh as powerful asacts of creation. Accounts of 1792 cap-ture the zeal with which the revolution-aries went about demolishing statues,memorials and palaces — all symbolsof the ancient regime. So copious wasthe revolutionary zeal to de-

Christianise and rationalise France thatthe seemingly innocuous ways of reg-istering time were also altered. Namesof days and months were changed onthe calendar and days commemorat-ing saints were removed. SylvainMarechal, a notorious atheist, poet andpolitical theorist, went as far as secu-larising the connotation of December25 from the birth of Lord Jesus to thatof Isaac Newton.

In spite of the reign of terror, themonarchical ambition of Napoleon inhis later years and the sheer fact thatwithin a space of 22 years the deposedBourbon dynasty was restored, Frenchexperiments with radical social reengi-neering did yield a few results.However, bulldozing art or attempts atreordering time according to revolu-tionary ethics have only left behind abitter legacy of confusion and pain.

The past never really evaporatesand continues to inform our present.The erasure of the past, however bit-ter, cannot be the basis of a lastingfuture. We know this because Nelson

Mandela carved a rainbow nation inpost-apartheid South Africa throughreconciliation and Germany decidedagainst dismantling the Nazi concen-tration camps, lest the coming gener-ations of Germans forget the crimestheir ancestors had committed.

This is not to suggest that busts ofslave traders should adorn publicsquares in the US or wherever colouredraces have suffered. But how much ofthe world can be really built anew?Statues, institutions and edifices of whatantiquity or which period can be safe-ly removed?

In the context of India, much likeany other country of the world, thesequestions precipitate a set of irre-deemably baffling answers. There areso many overlaps between pre-andpost-Independence India and there isso much that we have borrowed fromour colonial exploiters. OurConstitution draws generously fromthe Government of India Act, 1935, ourParliament is modelled on the BritishWestminster style and the best of our

universities were established duringcolonial times. Must we shut our hal-lowed temples just because of theircolonial past? Should we destroy thebusts and the forts of India’s erstwhileroyals because of the caste and eco-nomic discrimination they representand because democracy by its defini-tion is antithetical to feudalism? Orshould we prohibit the sons anddaughters of former royal families fromholding public offices because some ofthem continue to thrive on account ofthose identities and in those palaces?

Surely, their heritage notwith-standing, no Indian would ever con-template dismantling the aforemen-tioned institutions which have servedour democracy so faithfully. Surely wecannot overlook the monumental con-tributions of the Maharajas ofDarbhanga, Travancore and Bikaner, toname just a few, who have done somuch to modernise India. If we startretracing our steps to arrive at the ori-gin of a crisis, located at some point inthe remote past, we would find our-

selves stranded in the middle ofDarwin’s archipelago. Hardening ofadministrative positions, calling theprotestors “thugs” or making proposi-tions like “no justice, no peace” lendthemselves to the archaic Aristotelianlogic of the “excluded middle” — apremise which leaves no room fornegotiation or a middle ground —planks that we need for lasting truce.Besides, such a position blurs those dis-tinctions that exist between the realoppressors and ideological adversaries.If we allow ourselves to be blinded byrage, however fair it might be, we oftentend to misjudge and even Gandhibecomes a racist class enemy.

It is true that melting pots like theUS leave much to be desired. Equallyvalid is the contention that transfer ofpower, such as the one that took placein India, is at best incomplete. In acountry like the US and for that mat-ter in most European nations, theprocess of integration is far from per-fect. If we keep throwing the momentsof “first contact” or the unfortunate

reality of colonialism into relief, we arebound to regress several steps awayfrom a possible resolution. Mrinal Sen’sfilm Interview offers an interesting takeon this dilemma. The film opens witha newsreel showing the removal ofcolonial statues from Maidan, Kolkata’slargest public park. However, attemptsto sanitise the city of its colonial ves-tiges contrast ironically with the fate ofthe protagonist. Ranjit fails to get alucrative job with a multinationalcompany because he fails to show upfor the interview dressed in immacu-late Western attire.

In a world where our fates are inex-tricably tied, it is difficult to imaginea future based on the erasure of thepast, however traumatic or unjust itmight be. Indeed, it is difficult to imag-ine RK Narayan’s fictional Malgudi,which has over the decades become auniversal metaphor for the “real”India, without the statue of thatunknown British general that standsproudly in its bustling market.

(The writer teaches English at DU)

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Kabul: The United Nations onSunday released a specialreport expressing concernsover what it called recent “deliberate attacks” againsthealthcare workers and facili-ties in Afghanistan during theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The United NationsAssistance Mission inAfghanistan, or UNAMA, saidit documented 12 incidents ofdeliberate acts of violencebetween March 11 to May 23.

The report said eight of theincidents were carried out byTaliban insurgents while threeincidents were attributed toAfghan security forces. Themost horrific attack, on a

maternity ward last month ata Kabul hospital that killed 24people, remains unsolved.

“ At a time when an urgenthumanitarian response wasrequired to protect every life inAfghanistan, both the Talibanand Afghan national securityforces carried out deliberateacts of violence that under-mined healthcare operations,”said Deborah Lyons, theSecretary-General’s SpecialRepresentative forAfghanistan, and head ofUNAMA.

“ There is no excuse forsuch actions; the safety andwell-being of the civilian pop-ulation must be a priority.”

Afghanistan has 28,833 con-firmed coronavirus cases with581 deaths.

Though international aidorganizations monitoring thepandemic’s spread in thecountry say the numbers aremuch higher because of alack of access and testingcapabilities.

Following the attack onthe Kabul maternity hospital,Doctors Without Bordersdecided last week to end itsoperations in Kabul. The inter-national charity, also known byits French acronym MSF, saidit would keep its other pro-grams in Afghanistan running,but did not go into details.

The attack at the materni-ty hospital set off an hours-longshootout with Afghan policeand also left more than a dozenpeople wounded. The hospitalin Dashti Barchi, a mostlyShiite neighborhood, was theGeneva-based group’s only pro-ject in the Afghan capital.

The Taliban promptlydenied involvement in theMay 12 attack, whose victimsincluded two infants, nursesand several young mothers.The United States said it boreall the hallmarks of the IslamicState group’s affiliate inAfghanistan and that the attacktargeted the country’s minor-ity Shiites in a neighborhood

of Kabul that IS militants haverepeatedly attacked in the past.

The UN report empha-sized that deliberate acts of vio-lence against healthcare facil-ities, including hospitals andrelated personnel, are prohib-ited under internationalhumanitarian law and consti-tute war crimes.

“ Perpetrating targetedattacks on healthcare duringthe COVID-19 pandemic, atime when health resources arealready stretched and of criti-cal importance to the civilianpopulation, is particularly rep-rehensible,” said Fiona Frazer,UNAMA Chief of HumanRights. AP

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s nationalcarrier Biman BangladeshAirlines resumed internation-al flights on Sunday after a gapof three months due to thecoronavirus outbreak.

The maiden f light ofBG001 787-8 Dreamliner air-craft departed from HazratShahjalal International Airportfor London with 187 passen-gers on board, airline’s DeputyGeneral Manager (PublicRelations) Tahera Khandakertold The Daily Star.

Passengers from Dhaka toLondon route do not require

health certificates declaringthat they are not infected withCOVID-19, said Air ViceMarshal M Mafidur Rahman,chairman of Civil AviationAuthority of Bangladesh(CAAB).

But they will have to fill-upa health declaration form as perthe International Civil AviationOrganization’s guidelines, headded.

The CAAB chief also saidthat all London-bound passen-gers will have to stay in quar-antine for 14 days as per the pol-icy of that country. PTI

Beijing: Food and beveragegiant PepsiCo has suspendedoperations in Beijing after someof its employees tested positivefor the coronavirus in theChinese capital, where the cityofficials are conductingCOVID-19 tests on millions,especially employees of restau-rants, food delivery servicesand market vendors.

China’s National HealthCommission (NHC) said onSunday that it had reported 32new COVID-19 cases in thecountry.

Of the domestically trans-mitted cases, 22 cases weredetected in Beijing and three inneighbouring Hebei Province,the NHC said.

Also on Saturday, sevennew asymptomatic cases werereported, it said, adding that111 asymptomatic cases,including 58 from overseas,were still under medical obser-vation.

Municipal HealthCommission of Beijing, wherethe new cluster of cases werereported, said that from June 11to 20, the capital had reported227 confirmed domestically

transmitted cases, all of whomwere receiving treatment inhospitals.

There are 18 asymptomaticcases still under medical obser-vation, and one imported casehospitalised in Beijing, thecommission said.

The state-run People’sDaily reported that PepsiCoBeijing has suspended opera-tions after some of its employ-ees tested positive for the coro-navirus.

Till Saturday, Beijing hadsampled a total of 2.29 millionpeople for nucleic acid testsduring its screening forCOVID-19 cases between June11 to 20, local officials said.

The is part of the efforts totest employees of all food-relat-ed services including restau-rants and food delivery firms.

An Indian restaurant ownersaid that tests of all his employ-ees had come as negative.

Beijing is the secondChinese city which resorted tomass testing. Wuhan, where thevirus first emerged inDecember last year, testedalmost all of its 11 million res-idents last month.

Beijing began efforts tocontain coronavirus on warfooting after the new clusters ofcases emerged from May 30from the city’s main Xinfadiwholesale market. PTI

Minneapolis: One man is deadand 11 people suffered non-life-threatening wounds in ashooting in Minneapolis, policethere said early Sunday.

Minneapolis police hadfirst said 10 people had beenshot with “ various severity lev-els of injuries,” but revised theirtotal in a tweet posted just after3 am.

The name and age of thedeceased weren’t immediatelyreleased, and it wasn’t clearwhether anyone was taken intocustody. An initial tweet fromMinneapolis police advised thepublic to avoid the area inUptown Minneapolis. AP

Beijing: China’s top lawmakingbody has announced a three-day session for the end of thismonth, a move that raises thepossibility of the enactment ofa national security law forHong Kong that has stirreddebate and fears in the semi-autonomous territory.

The official Xinhua NewsAgency said on Sunday that theStanding Committee of theNational People’s Congresswould meet from June 28 to 30in Beijing.

The brief report did notmention the Hong Kong secu-rity law among several possiblediscussion items, but it couldstill be on the agenda or addedat the meeting.

China released somedetails of the legislation lateSaturday, heightening fears thatthe central government is tight-ening its grip on Hong Kongafter months of anti-govern-ment protests last year.

Under the draft, the centralgovernment would set up anational security office in HongKong that would collect andanalyze intelligence and dealwith criminal cases related tonational security.

Hong Kong police and

courts would maintain juris-diction over cases, but the lawwould allow an exception forChinese authorities to exercisejurisdiction over “ a tiny num-ber of criminal cases ... Underspecific circumstances,”according to a Xinhua report.

It did not provide anydetails on what those circum-stances might be.

The stationing of Chinesesecurity officials in Hong Kongand their involvement in lawenforcement would arguably bethe most significant erosion todate of Hong Kong’s autonomyin local affairs under the “ onecountry, two systems” princi-ple that has guided the citysince Britain returned the for-mer colony to China in 1997.

The draft says the newsecurity law would prevail iflocal Hong Kong laws areinconsistent with it, Xinhuasaid. It would require the HongKong government to create anational security commissionsupervised by the central gov-ernment. Beijing would alsoappoint a national securityadviser for the city.

The timing of the upcom-ing legislative session is unusu-al, coming just one week after

a three-day meeting that endedSaturday, and suggests thatChina may be aiming to passthe law ahead of a July 1 holi-day that marks Hong Kong’sreturn to China. The StandingCommittee of the NationalPeople’s Congress typicallymeets every two months.

Last year, anti-governmentprotesters smashed their wayinto the locked Hong Kong leg-islative complex on theanniversary, spray painting slo-gans on the walls and damag-ing the electronic voting sys-tem. The months of protests, inwhich Chinese flags were tram-pled on and the Chineseemblem on its Hong Kongoffice defaced, prompted thecentral government’s decisionto enact the law.

Hong Kong’s leader, CarrieLam, called the draft law “ asignificant initiative ... At a crit-ical moment” to ensure thelong-term prosperity and sta-bility of the city of 7.5 millionpeople.

The law will criminalizefour acts: secession, subversionof state power, terrorist activi-ties and colluding with foreignforces to endanger nationalsecurity. AP

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has kicked offhis re-election campaign witha rally in Oklahoma where helaunched a frontal attack on hisDemocratic opponent JoeBiden, describing him as a “helpless puppet” of the radicalleft.

Trump, 74, is pitted againstformer vice president andDemocratic Party’s presidentialnominee Biden, 77, in theNovember 3 presidential elec-tion.

As per the latest opinionpolls, he is trailing behindBiden on an average by eightpercentage points.

Trump, in his address tothe thousands of his support-ers at an indoor stadium inOklahoma’s Tulsa city onSaturday, said: “ Biden is a help-less puppet of the radical left.And he’s not radical left. Idon’t think he knows what heis any more. But he’s con-trolled by the radical left” .

Addressing his first elec-tion rally after the coronaviruspandemic hit the country earlythis year, killing more than119,000 Americans in a matterof few months and bringing theeconomy to a standstill, Trumpalleged that the Biden cam-paign staff even donated a lotof money to bail out rioters,looters and arsonists who rav-aged Minneapolis.

Minneapolis erupted intoviolence following the brutalcustodial death of African-

American George Floyd onMay 25. The protests spreadnationwide and turned violentin many places includingWashington DC, New York,Chicago and Los Angeles. Thepresident has accused radicalleft for the violence.

“ The left is trying to doeverything they can to stop usevery hour of every day includ-ing violence, mayhem, lookwhat happened tonight. But wewill never submit to theirthreats and we will never letthem destroy our nation,”Trump said.

In his speech that lasted formore than 100 minutes, Trumptalked a lot on his favoritethemes: fake news, energydominance, appointing judges,supporting police and con-demning protesters.

“ The unhinged left-wingmob is trying to vandalise ourhistory, desecrating beautifulmonuments, tear down ourstatues and punish, cancel andpersecute anyone who does notconform to their demands forabsolute and total control, we’renot conforming. “ That’s whywe’re here actually. This cruelcampaign of censorship andexclusion violates everythingwe hold dear as Americans.They want to demolish ourheritage so that they can imposetheir new oppressive regime inits place. They want to defundand dissolve our police depart-ments. Think of that,” said thepresident. PTI

Tulsa (US): President DonaldTrump said Saturday he’s askedhis administration to slowdown coronavirus testingbecause robust testing turns uptoo many cases of COVID-19.

Trump told supporters athis campaign rally that the U.S.Has tested 25 million people, farmore than any other country.The “ bad part,” Trump said, isthat widespread testing leads tologging more cases of the virus.

“ When you do testing tothat extent, you’re going to findmore people, you’re going tofind more cases,” Trump said.“ So I said to my people, ‘Slowthe testing down, please.’ Theytest and they test.” Trumpopted to hold his first rally in

110 days despite concerns fromlocal health officials that itcould lead to further spread ofthe virus in Tulsa. Most ofthose in attendance declined towear a mask.

The outbreak has killedabout 120,000 people in the U.S.,and nearly a half-million world-wide, according to a count byJohns Hopkins University,though the real numbers arebelieved to be higher. The num-ber of newly confirmed casesper day has risen from about21,400 two weeks ago to 23,200,according to an AssociatedPress analysis. And in Florida,Georgia, Texas and Arizonadaily deaths have been quietlyrising since early June. AP

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London: UK counter-terror-ism officers on Sunday declareda stabbing rampage by a Libyan-origin man in a park in theEnglish town of Reading that leftthree people dead as a terroristattack.

The local Thames ValleyPolice had initially launched amurder inquiry and said it waskeeping an open mind on themotive behind the knife ram-page in a busy park in the citycentre on Saturday evening.

“Deputy AssistantCommissioner Dean Haydon,Senior National Coordinatorfor the Counter TerrorismPolicing network, has this morn-ing declared the incident a ter-rorist incident, and CTPSE[Counter Terrorism PolicingSouth East] will be taking overthe investigation,” a ThamesValley Police statement said.

A 25-year-old man whowas arrested on suspicion ofmurder Saturday night, remainsin police custody at this time, thestatement added.

The knife attack took placein Forbury Gardens in the cen-

tre of the city in Berkshire.The arrested man is believed

to be a Libyan-origin resident inBritain.

“ This was a truly tragic inci-dent and the thoughts ofThames Valley Police are with allthose who have been affected,”said Chief Constable JohnCampbell of Thames ValleyPolice.

“ Incidents of this nature arevery rare, though I know thatwill be of little comfort to thoseinvolved and understand theconcern that this incident willhave caused amongst our localcommunity. We will be workingclosely with our partners overthe coming days and weeks tosupport the Reading communi-ty during this time, as well as

with CTPSE as they progresstheir investigation,” he said.

“ We have made one arrestand at this stage we are not look-ing for any other people in con-nection with this incident. Thereis no intelligence to suggest thatthere is any further danger to thepublic, however we urge peopleto remain vigilant and reportanything suspicious by callingpolice,” Detective ChiefSuperintendent Ian Hunter,Head of Crime at Thames ValleyPolice had earlier said.

The police force also con-firmed that the attack had noconnection with an anti-racismBlack Lives Matter protest thattook place at the same park ear-lier on Saturday. They also urgemembers of the public to notshare “ incredibly distressing”footage of the knife attack onsocial media.

Ministers said that UKPrime Minister Boris Johnsonand UK Home Secretary PritiPatel will remain in contactwith the police leading theinvestigation through Sunday.They had issued Twitter mes-

sages expressing their shock atthe “ senseless attack” .

“ It’s clearly a terrible crimewhatever the motivation and wewill be making sure the policehave all the support they need,”UK Health Secretary MattHancock told BBC on Sunday.

South Central AmbulanceService said “ multiple ambu-lance resources” were sent to thescene, including five ambulancecrews and a helicopter.

The Reading park was busyat the time with large crowdsgathered outdoors to enjoy thegood weather. Panic set in as theknife-wielding man was spotted,with shouts “ run, run” heard aspeople started dispersing fromthe area.

Images later emerged oflocal police carrying out anarmed operation at a block offlats in Reading, where the sus-pect was apparently held. Abouta dozen armed police officerswith shields were seen enteringthe block and families living inthe building were moved out. Aloud bang was heard from theinside later. PTI

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Belgrade: Serbia’s ruling pop-ulists are set to tighten theirhold on power in a Sunday par-liamentary election held amidconcerns over the spread of thecoronavirus in the Balkancountry and a partial boycottby the opposition.

Nearly 6.6 million votersare eligible to cast ballots for the250-member parliament andlocal authorities.

The election — initiallyplanned in April but postponedbecause of the pandemic —comes as Serbia still reportsdozens of new cases daily aftercompletely relaxing the lock-down rules. PresidentAleksandar Vucic’s SerbianProgressive Party appears set fora landslide victory, facing littlechallenge from the dividedopposition. Opponents say thisis because Vucic has dominat-ed the campaign on the main-stream media which he controls,clamping down on his critics.He has denied this. Citing lackof free and fair conditions anddanger to public health, sever-al main opposition groups areboycotting the vote. A numberof smaller parties have decid-ed to run, saying the boycottwould only sideline an alreadymarginalized opposition. AP

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India is playing the role as the“pharmacy of the world”

during the COVID-19 pan-demic with its vast experienceand deep knowledge in medi-cine, setting the tone for manyregional and global initiatives,Shanghai CooperationOrganisation Secretary-General Vladimir Norov hassaid.

India has so far suppliedmedicines to 133 countries inthe fight against COVID-19,which shows India's generos-ity, despite the fact that thecountry's government hastaken urgent measures to pre-vent and treat the disease on anational scale, Norov told PTIin an interview.

This is a worthy andresponsible example of thebehaviour of a major power,and at the same time demon-strates the complementarityand mutual support of theSCO member states, he said.

India last week over-whelmingly won the electionto the United Nations SecurityCouncil (UNSC) for a non-permanent seat.

Commenting on India's

election to the UNSC, Norov,who visited New Delhi inJanuary this year and heldextensive talks with the topIndian leadership, said that thecountry's entry into the pow-erful UN organ is more thansymbolic.

“This is more than sym-bolic now as India secures itsnon-permanent membershipin the UN Security Council forthe period of 2021-2022.

“I am sure that highly qualified scientists and medical professionals in India will take an active partin the efforts of the worldcommunity to study andresearch the coronavirus pan-demic and develop a vaccine,”Norov said.

“India plays the role of the‘pharmacy of the world' and interms of a pandemic it is cru-cial in a global context,” hesaid.

Beijing-headquarteredSCO is an eight-member eco-nomic and security bloc. Indiaand Pakistan were admittedinto the grouping in 2017. Itsfounding members includeChina, Russia, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan andUzbekistan.

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Page 9: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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Chitranjan: In order to providemore medical facilities to all theworkers of CLW and theirfamily members, KG Hospitalof CLW has provided 14 mod-ernize medical equipments onSunday. Praveen KumarMishra, General Manager ofCLW inaugurated the modernmedical equipments throughvideo conferencing while e -opening from the meetingroom in the administrativebuilding. Senior officers werepresent at the opening cere-mony in administrative build-ing.14 medical equipmentscosting around Rs 1.3 cr,

prominent among them, like,Operating Microscope for Eye,Remote Controlled OT 1.

Table, ICU Ventilator,Automated CPR Machine,

Digital Dental X-ray,Automatic Clinical ChemistryAnalyzer etc are provided inKGH. Doctors in Seminar Hallof KGH also attended the VC.

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Indian apparel export indus-try body AEPC on Sunday

urged the Government to liftthe ban on exports of PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE)kits as its production hasreached 8 lakh units per day.

Apparel Export PromotionCouncil Chairman A Sakthivelsaid huge export opportunitiesexists for domestic players inthe global PPE kit market.

“Domestic exporters are pre-pared to play a key role in theglobal market for PPEs, whichis estimated to be more thanUSD 60 billion over the nextfive years. The AEPC hasrequested the Government tolift the ban on export of PPEkits,” he said in a statement. Theindustry, which was hit hardafter the outbreak of coron-avirus pandemic, had rejiggedlarge production facilities tomanufacture PPEs by re-pur-posing their production linesamidst a nationwide lockdownthat disrupted material, labourand supply chains, he said.

Kolkata: International YogaDay was observed by Metroofficers and staff with theirfamily members and friends bymaintaining social distancingand other guidelines toimprove immunity, the sense ofwell being on Sun. Due to thepresent pandemic situation,mass gathering is not possible.Hence, Metro men participat-ed in programme with rest ofthe country by practicisingdifferent Asanas from home in45-min long drill to stay fitboth mentally, physically aswell as promote Yoga, an inte-gral part of Indian culture.

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Veteran industrialist RatanTata on Sunday called for

stopping online hatred andbullying and instead support-ing each other in what has beena “year full of challenges” foreveryone.

In a post on social mediaplatform Instagram, Tata saidthe online community is beinghurtful to each other and bring-ing each other down.

“This year has been full ofchallenges for everyone, onsome level or the other.

I see online communitybeing hurtful to each other,bringing each other down,harshly and with quick judge-ments,” the ChairmanEmeritus of the Tata groupsaid.

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Diesel price on Sunday hit afresh record high after

rates were hiked by 60 paise perlitre while petrol price was up35 paise, taking the cumulativeincrease in rates in 15 days to�8.88 a litre and �7.97 respec-tively.

Petrol price in Delhi washiked to �79.23 per litre from�78.88, while diesel rates wereincreased to �78.27 a litre from�77.67, according to a pricenotification of state oil mar-keting companies.

Rates have been increasedacross the country and varyfrom state to state dependingon the incidence of local salestax or VAT.

Taxes make up for nearlytwo-thirds of the retail sellingprice.

As much as �50.69 perlitre, or 64 per cent, in petrolprice is due to taxes - �32.98 isthe central excise duty and�17.71 is local sales tax or VAT.

Over 63 per cent of theretail selling price of diesel istaxes. Out of the total tax inci-dence of �49.43 per litre, �31.83 is by way of centralexcise and �17.60 is VAT.

Petrol in Mumbai costs �86.04 per litre and diesel ispriced at �76.69.

The 15th daily increase inrates since oil companies onJune 7 restarted revising pricesin line with costs after endingan 82-day hiatus in rate revi-sion, has taken diesel prices tofresh highs. Petrol price too isat a two-year high.

Prior to the current rally,the peak diesel rates hadtouched was on October 16,

2018 when prices had climbedto �75.69 per litre in Delhi.

The highest-ever petrolprice was on October 4, 2018when rates soared to �84 a litrein Delhi.

When rates had peaked inOctober 2018, the Governmenthad cut excise duty on petroland diesel by �1.50 per litreeach.

State-owned oil compa-nies were asked to absorbanother �1 a litre to help cutretail rates by �2.50 a litre.

Oil companies had quick-ly recouped the �1 and theGovernment in July 2019 raisedexcise duty by �2 a litre.

The 82-day freeze in ratesthis year was imposed in mid-March soon after theGovernment hiked excise dutyon petrol and diesel to shore upadditional finances.

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Steps for bringing furtherease of doing business in the

country will help bring moredomestic and foreign invest-ments, and help India in its aimof becoming self-reliant, aConfederation of IndianIndustry (CII) statement saidon Sunday.

The industry body hasidentified immediate andmedium term measures interms of ease of doing businessto boost the economy.

“While many policies havebeen announced for a facilita-tive investment climate, effec-tive translation into ground-level outcomes will helpinvestor perceptions and fur-ther boost confidence. Webelieve that taking the ease ofdoing business route canunlock huge potential at a timewhen the world is seeking newinvestment opportunities,” saidChandrajit Banerjee, DirectorGeneral, CII.

The statement noted thatcentral and state governmentshave introduced a plethora ofreforms across the variousareas of doing business, whichhelped India leap to the 63rdrank in the latest DoingBusiness Report of the World

Bank.Sustaining this reformmomentum can drive newinvestments including fromoverseas, CII said.

It has sought effectiveimplementation of OnlineSingle Window System as thefirst step towards strengtheningease of doing business. Regularmonitoring by the ChiefSecretary of a state, time boundapprovals and single interfaceshould be implemented in allstates, it said.

Currently, only 21 stateshave implemented this sys-tem.For a business entity, thereshould not be any other pointof interface with the govern-ment, other than the singlewindow system, it added.

CII noted that simplifyingproperty registration andacquisition of land is critical.Industry should be permittedto buy land directly from farm-ers with deemed approval after30 days. Digitisation and inte-gration of land records and sin-gle online portal with inte-grated information can help intitling.Compliances for labourregulations could be speededup at lower costs, according tothe industry body.

As per CII, enforcing con-tracts is a challenge due toinsufficient commercial courts

and infrastructure. It suggestsmajor digital reforms such asvirtual court proceedings, e-fil-ing, and work from home tospeed up court deliberations.

The Alternative DisputeResolution institutions can beexpanded in all parts of thecountry with arbitration andmediation centres, it said,adding that over the mediumterm, judicial capacity must beenhanced with specializedcommercial courts at HighCourts and District Courts.

It also said that MSMEsneed a special helping handand should be exempted fromapprovals and inspections forthree years under state lawswhile following all rules. Selfcertification route can be usedfor renewal and approvals forMSMEs with a good trackrecord.

India’s high logistics costsimpact its competitiveness, saidthe statement. This will requiremedium term action such asincreasing the share of railwaysand waterways in transport,improving first-mile and last-mile connectivity and reducingport dwell time.

Cross-subsidisation offreight should be rationalised,CII said among other sugges-tions.

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Geopolitical developmentsand trend in COVID-19

cases will set the tone for equi-ty markets this week, analystssaid, adding that with no majorevents scheduled, indices mayconsolidate.

“Going ahead, we expectthe market momentum to con-tinue in near term on back ofchanged sentiments andimproved liquidity.

“Apart from global cuesand development around geo-political tensions, the month-ly F&O expiry would be someof the key monitarables,” saidSiddhartha Khemka, Head -Retail Research, Motilal OswalFinancial Services Ltd.According to analysts, besidesstock-specific action, trend inglobal markets and foreignfund movement would alsodictate sentiments.

Rupee-dollar dynamicsand crude oil movement wouldalso be key factors to watch,they added. “Given that thereare no major scheduled eventsboth locally as well as global-ly, indices are expected to con-solidate and move sideways.Across the world, markets aretrying to decode how the eas-

ing of lockdown restrictionswill help revive economicdemand.

“However, the currentresponse seems to be a mixedbag across the world and fore-sight remains blurry as to howquickly the revival ineconomies pan out. It insinu-ates a long drawn journeywhich ultimately will be reflect-ed in the stock prices,” saidJimeet Modi, founder andCEO, SAMCO Securities &StockNote.

During the past week, theSensex rallied 950.85 points or2.81 per cent.

Eight days afterrecording three lakh COVID-19 cases, India went past the4,00,000-mark on Sunday withthe biggest single-day spike of15,413 new infections, whilethe death toll rose to 13,254,according to Union HealthMinistry data.

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In a landmark development,China has lost a dispute to

the European Union at theWorld Trade Organization(WTO) for a market economystatus, as the former allowedthe dispute to lapse.

The development comesafter four years of battle for themarket-economy status byChina. The designation wouldhave put the country in astronger position in respect ofits commercial and trade part-ners.

A note by the WTOSecretariat said China allowedthe dispute to lapse. “At therequest of China, the panel sus-pended its work on 14 June2019 (WT/DS516/13). Sincethe panel has not been request-ed to resume its work, pursuantto Article 12.12 of the DSU, theauthority for establishment of

the panel lapsed as of 15 June2020,” read the Secretariat’snote.

According to the EU,China subsidises its industriesto a great extent, particularlysteel and aluminum, makingtheir sales prices in the inter-national market unfair.

After the latest develop-ment, to protect their indus-tries, the EU and the UnitedStates will be able to apply highanti-dumping tariffs on goodsfrom China.

Similar issues have alsobeen faced by India in terms of“dumping” of low-cost prod-ucts by China. India hasimposed anti-dumping dutieson several occasions on sever-al items.

Further, amid the ongoingborder tussle, India mayimpose higher tariffs on prod-ucts that are mostly importedfrom China.

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Foreign portfolio investors(FPI) have infused a net �

17,985 crore into the Indiancapital markets in June so faramid increasing liquidity andhigher risk appetite.

According to the latestdepositories data, a net sum of�20,527 crore was pumpedinto equities by FPIs betweenJune 1-19, while they withdrewa net �2,569 crore from thedebt segment.

This took the total netinvestment to � 17,985 crore.

Prior to this, overseasinvestors remained net sellersfor three consecutive months.They pulled out a net �7,366crore in May, �15,403 crore inApril and a record �1.1 lakhcrore in March.

“As economies all over theworld are increasing liquidity,the appetite for higher riskinvestments like equities is alsoincreasing considerably.

“This money will find itsway into India as India is wellplaced among emerging mar-kets,” said Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO, Groww.

Household and personalproducts, oil and gas and tele-com stocks have attracted mostof FPIs’ attention over the pastmonth, he added.

As per Rusmik Oza, exec-utive vice president and head offundamental research at KotakSecurities, the market mood isquite supportive due to gradualresumption in business activi-ties and some positive newsflows coming from the bankingand financial services sector.

“Since global markets aresupportive, the Nifty-50 hassmartly moved back above10,000 level. If global marketsdon’t fall sharply in the nextweek, then we can expect somepositive flows from FPI side,”Oza said.

Himanshu Srivastava, asso-ciate director-manager researchat Morningstar India, termedthe investment environment as“dynamic in nature”.

However, he added thatthe Indian economy had beenstruggling to gain pace evenbefore the coronavirus pan-demic.

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The country’s second largestlender Punjab National

Bank is planning to hit capitalmarkets in the fourth quarterthis fiscal to raise funds to helpmeet growth needs and regu-latory requirements.

At the moment, the bankis sufficiently capitalised withthe capital adequacy ratio of14.14 per cent at the end ofMarch 2020, PNB ManagingDirector S S Mallikarjuna Raotold PTI in an interview.

“However, we will finalisethe opening balance sheet ofamalgamated entities in thenext board meeting in July.Probably then the bank will getan actual estimate of the capi-tal ,” he said.”We will be plan-ning (capital raising) some-where around end of thirdquarter or beginning of fourthquarter. By this time we wouldhave declared two quarterlybalance sheet of the amalga-mated entities,” he said.

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The Government has soughtproduct-wise details of

cheap imports, comparisonwith domestic prices and taxdisadvantage, if any, fromindustry to curb low qualityinbound shipments especiallyfrom China and boost domes-tic manufacturing, sources said.

They said a high levelmeeting to discuss ways topromote Atma Nirbhar Bharat(Self-reliant India), includingcut in import dependence fromChina, also took place recent-ly in the Prime Minister’s office.

Industry was asked to sendcomments and suggestions oncertain number of goods andraw materials imported fromChina, which include wristwatches, wall clocks, ampoules,glass rods and tubes, haircream, hair shampoos, facepowder, eye and lip make uppreparations, printing ink,paints and varnishes, and sometobacco items, one of thesources said.

The other details sought

include import surge databetween 2014-15 and 2018-19;domestic prices of similargoods that are made here,domestic capacity, importsunder free trade agreements,and inverted duty issue, if any.

An industry source saidthat they are preparing theirviews on all those products andwould soon send to the com-merce and industry ministry.The exercise to reduce and curbimports from China assumessignificance in the wake ofborder tensions between thetwo countries.

China accounts for about14 per cent of India’s importsand is a major supplier for sec-tors like cell phones, telecom,power, plastic toys and criticalpharma ingredients.

The Government has

recently put import restric-tions on tyres, while also mak-ing its prior approval manda-tory for foreign investments

from countries that shareland border with India to curb“opportunistic

takeovers” of domesticfirms, following COVID-19pandemic, a move which willrestrict FDI from China.

During April 2019-February 2020, India importedgoods worth USD 62.4 billion,while exports to the neigh-bouring country stood at USD15.5 billion in the same period.

The main goods importedfrom China include clocks andwatches, musical instruments,toys, sports goods, furniture,mattresses, plastics, electricalmachinery, electronic equip-ment, chemicals, iron and steelitems, fertilisers, mineral fueland metals.

India has time and againraised concerns over wideningtrade deficit with China whichstood at about USD 47 billionduring April-February 2019-20.

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SBI chairman Rajnish Kumarassured shareholders that

the likely job cuts and salaryreductions in the wake ofCOVID-19 pandemic will leave‘relatively low level’ of stress onthe bank as the proportion ofbusiness from Governmentand quasi-Government sectoris high.

In a letter to the bank’sshareholders, Kumar exudedconfidence that despite eco-nomic headwinds, the robustperformance achieved by thecountry’s largest lender StateBank of India (SBI) in 2019-20will continue in the currentfinancial year.

“…despite the economicheadwinds, the Bank is wellprepared to adjust to the chal-lenges posed by the COVID-19pandemic. I am more thanhopeful that the robust per-formance achieved in FY20will continue in FY21 as well,”the SBI chairman said.

Observing that the fullimpact of COVID-19 outbreak

will be felt in the current finan-cial year, Kumar said from thebank’s point of view, the trueimpact of COVID pandemicmust also consider the behav-ioral impact on bank’s cus-tomers, and composition ofportfolio, among others.

“For instance, likely jobcuts and salary reductions willhave relatively low level ofstress on account of higher pro-portion of Govt/ Quasi Govt.Sector customers,” he said inthe letter, as per SBI’s annualreport.

“As of now, only 21.8 percent of the customers haveavailed the benefit of morato-rium. Furthermore, the Bankwas able to achieve 98 per centbranch operability as well as 91per cent alternate channel oper-ability during the period oflockdown,” Kumar added.

Nevertheless, an elaborateBusiness Continuity Plan(BCP) is in place to managedisruptions, he said.

SBI has traditionally beenthe banker of choice to theGovernment of India (GOI)

and is an accredited banker tomajor Central GovernmentMinistries and Departments,the annual report said.

It said SBI is contributingsignificantly towards e-gover-nance initiatives taken by theGOI, and is instrumental in thedevelopment of e-solutions forboth Central and state govern-ments.

“This has facilitated theirtransition to the online mode,providing greater efficiencyand transparency, resulting inease of doing business andrelaxation of living for the cit-izens,” it said.

SBI’s total governmentbusiness turnover was�52,62,643 crore during fiscal2019-20.

The bank registered itshighest ever yearly net profit in

2019-20 at �14,488 crore. Thenet profit was �862 crore dur-ing 2018-19.

Amidst the COVID-19pandemic outbreak, the out-look of the global economy hasbecome very uncertain andworld is likely to experience adeep rooted recession nextyear, Kumar said.

The RBI expects contrac-tion in the Indian economyduring the current financialyear.

Kumar also said that thepandemic has changed thepreference of customers and itis a big opportunity for thebank as there is now moreacceptability to adopt digitalchannels for doing bankingtransactions.

He said the bank will fur-ther scale up YONO (all-encompassing digital platform)and has set a target of doublinguser registrations in the next sixmonths, and further strength-en platform through new prod-uct offerings like end-to-endhome loans, pre-approved carloan and personal gold loans.

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Manushi Chhillar, who is set to debut in Prithvirajopposite Akshay Kumar, said she is indebted

to yoga for making her stronger physically and men-tally. On International Day of Yoga, she said that she

feels extremely proud that yoga isIndia’s gift to the world and it’s ben-efitting scores of people world-wide.

“Yoga has invaluable and innu-merable health benefits and I’mproud that it is India’s gift to the

world. It has become a sanc-tuary for so many people

across the world andhelped them in so manyways. I recommendeveryone should addyoga to their routinesto understand thebenefits that one can

unlock for themselves,”said the former Miss

World.She credited yoga for her

physique. “Yoga has been a partof my life since school. More thanwhat it does physically, I feel it hasmade me more aware, more con-scious and I can say, in a way, yogahas made me stronger. I’ve enjoyedadding it to my rest days as it helpsme maintain my flexibility,” she said.

The actor also said that yogahas enhanced her sense of focus.“It has taught me patience and todiscard things from my mindthat’s unimportant. It has helpedmy outlook towards life, made myfocus sharper and helped me take

better life decisions,” she added.

Sonu Nigam is back towhat he does best —

singing. He has sang a neworiginal love song, Do KaChaar, for the latest filmChaman Bahaar, producedby Yoodlee Films. The filmhas an eclectic music score,matching its theme andsemi-urban milieu, andspanning a varied musicscape.

Set in Raipur, the filmfollows Billu (JitendraKumar), a young ambi-tious boy who sets up apaan shop and gets smittenby the young girl — Rinku,who lives in the bungalowopposite his shop. But thisgirl is fancied by otheryoung men of the town.They all come and hang infront of Billu’s shop just toget a glimpse of her. Hisbusiness flourishes tremen-dously but Billu has tocarefully navigate throughthis bunch of lovers andfind a chance to express hisfeelings to this girl.

The situation in thesong is Billu’s reverie as heimagines Rinku and him-self united forever, dancingaway into sunsets andmeadows, a stark contrast

to his real life situation,where he hasn’t even spo-ken to the girl once.

Sonu said he loved thetrack when he heard it forthe first time. “I absolute-ly loved the song. I hadrequested for a copy of thesong right after I sang it.This is not generally mypractice. There are somesongs you want the worldto listen to in your voice. Iam in love with the compo-sition, lyrics and arrange-ment of the song. Lookingforward to the film,” he

said.Siddharth Anand

Kumar, Vice President,Films and Events,Saregama said, “Sonu wasapproached for he seemedthe obvious and easychoice for this cracker of alove song. It’s quirky, sen-sitive, exudes the freshfeeling of first love, andSonu’s impeccable voicecaptures the dreams anddesires of this lovelorncharacter. I am happy at theway the entire soundtrackhas turned out.”

The photograph that slides downfrom your father’s old album, inwhich he and your mother were

sharing an ice cream while sitting on acar’s bumper under the night sky, watch-ing Maine Pyaar Kiya in the town’s opentheatre, is something millennials cannever imagine. The idea seems fascinat-ing but equally strange to a generationwhich sits on comfy couches in a movietheatre with a tub of popcorn in hand. Butlooks like history is going to repeat itselfand a live indoor concert beamed on ascreen at a drive-through is going to bethe order of the day. When we spoke tosome musicians about the scope ofmusic and live concerts post COVID-19,they came up with innovative ideas.

���� �������@�������JTouring musicians and singers have

been contemplating the future in the wakeof Coronavirus as concerts have eitherbeen postponed or called off. Attendinglive concerts with ear-jeering speakersaround the stadium and laser lights hasbecome a rare sight. The music scene hasnever been in such peril. So what’s the wayout?

Singer and composer Kailash Khersays, “During this time, many new tech-nologies and ways have evolved to con-nect people from various parts of theworld through one platform. And hence,a few musicians are trying to get into vir-tual concerts. That way, we can see somepositivity in this route. However, there’s

a glitch in the process. First, the way thatphysical concerts happened with thoselights and music effects, that extra ener-gy and an adrenaline rush — all of thatis missing online. Second, all the musi-cians cannot actually present it in thesame framework the way they would inperson, vibing off each other. So slowly,this technological aspect will also have toevolve so that every musician fromwherever he/she is can join in and investthe performance with some energy.”

Of course, witnessing live perfor-mances and virtual concerts are two dif-ferent experiences. Says singer AmitMishra, “Online streaming does nothave that much impact. I think we needmore technical advancements along witha team of editors who can make virtualconcerts more interesting. We can also useVR kits for a more personalised experi-ence. But the physical energy cannot berecreated. I am still happy though that theefforts are being made to keep up thegood spirit of music.”

Singer Mrinalini Somani, founder ofWE - Concert with a Cause, makes asimilar observation and says that eventhough a lot of concerts have shiftedonline, they fail to replicate the realdeal. “But still, I don’t think peo-

ple will ever stopwanting to

feel and

experience live music. The only bigadvantage of this is that people from allaround the world can attend such showswhich they otherwise wouldn’t havebeen able to.”

Singer Jonita Gandhi says that musi-cians will certainly have to rely on theinternet for a foreseeable future. However,“bringing variations such as turning toonline teaching and conducting master-classes is a great way to connect since theyare not on the road as much. Because Idon’t think there is much that can be doneuntil more technical advancements takeplace. Then, we can even jam with otherartistes with more spontaneity.”

Singer Neeti Mohan still feels discon-nected. Says she, “Putting it togetheronline is easy. But it is a different segmentof work, which is not even close to an

actual concert. To recreatethat, we need better tech-nology and moreresources, which arealso cost-effective andaffordable for artistes aswell as the audience.

We need a technolo-gy where there is no

lagging or a tech-nical glitch;

where I cansing frommy homeand myb a n dmem-

bers can join in from their homes andsimultaneously people can watch it liveand in real time. It is possible even nowbut there is always a lag or a buffer andwe are not able to perform absolutely live!A lot of times we have to pre-recordbecause we don’t want to give out some-thing to the audience that does not soundgood.”

Singer Jankee Mehta shares her chal-lenges of conducting an online session.“It has been very challenging for me. Myband, Jankee & Friends, comprises eightmembers. We have toured a lot for wed-ding gigs and corporate events and everyband member is extremely integral tobringing a wholesome performancetogether. It is heartbreaking now to gosolo from Jankee & friends to Jankee. Ihave been introspecting a lot on how I canmake my virtual offering different andalso researching on how I could involvemy team to perform virtually together. It’sstill some work in progress.”

��������When last week Denmark

announced its first physically live concertin the city of Aarhus, there were appre-hensions and worries among people as tohow will such a large event ensure theirsafety? But it turned out to be a drive-inconcert where the audience could watchlive music from the comfort of their cars.A set of safety guidelines to be followedwere provided to the citizens. A stage wasset up on the city’s outskirts for the singerto perform solo. From inside their social-ly-distanced cars, attendees could tune into the designated FM channel and enjoythe live concert — exactly like the

famous drive-in movie of the 90s.Jonita suggests that this concept, if

implemented and followed wisely, couldbe a hit in India too. She says, “I thinkdrive-in concerts could totally create anew normal. This is happening in manycities in the US and other parts of theworld. It would be physically live and inperson and at the same time, be very cooland safe. But yes, proper guidelines willhave to be carried out for maintaining dis-tance.”

��������������The recent music scene has seen a

range of remixes and item numbers. Withmore musicians at home in their spaces,would song-writing quality improve?Would we see more independent talentrelease their albums?

Kher says he has turned more inwardand deep: “I am counting on myself towork and create something new that Icouldn’t while on the go.” During the lock-down, he has written and composedalmost 15 songs and he is now “ready torelease two to three albums” wheneverthings get better or normal. He says,“During this time, I have so manythoughts coming about everything. Theseweren’t something I’d have paid attentionto in the normal routine days. Now, I havethe time to pen them down. I think musi-cians should really see this as a chance tocreate something original. Over the past10 years, I don’t think I have heard anysong which I can listen to over and overagain or go back to. Only repetition hasbeen there.”

Jonita agrees and adds, “A lot of musi-cians, who were hesitating to put theirtime into writing, are finding their waywith words. So we’ll see a surge of inde-pendent music now that they are not tieddown by film assignments.”

Will distancing be factored in thelyrics of most love songs of the future?Will music made for awareness evolve asa whole new genre? Singer Neeti Mohan,who has been engaged with a lot of liveconcerts via Instagram and Facebook Livethroughout the lockdown, doing chari-ty concerts for awareness and positivity,was also a part of the MTV and MTVBeats’ musical, Music Beyond Borders, onWorld Music Day. She says, “Recently, Iworked on a song with AR Rahman forraising money on Corona awareness.Various artistes joined us to spread themessage of safety and how music wouldnever forsake us or let us be in solitude.I think bringing awareness throughmusic is here to stay, messaging will finda way in lyrics.”

Many music companies have alreadyreleased special playlists on their respec-tive apps like ‘Lockdown tune-in,’‘Quarantine playlist,’ ‘At home specials,’etc. These include songs like CodyFrancis’ We’re Gonna Be Okay, which alsotopped the charts during the first fewweeks of the shutdown. May we add,“We’re going to make it okay!”

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Recent news of a powerful Asian country’sinvasion on a neighbouring country’s ter-

ritory to merge it into its own territory, clear-ly shows that how military or political powercorrupts men and also the nations they lead.It’s a fact that when power goes into a person’shead, he gets so intoxicated that he does notmind the consequences of his misadventures.In his quest of gaining new countries, he maylose even his own or may be judged as a crim-inal in the eyes of the international communi-ty. Thus, lose prestige and even power, yet hetakes all these risks because his judgement isshadowed by his ego generated by his militarymight. Not only does his ego and his power-to-strike lead such a person to his own doombut it drags to a definite decline of the wholenation. The whole country then suffers fromthe war psychosis or war hysteria and loses itsgood relations with its neighbours and the sym-pathisers.

If werewind ourmemory a littlebit, we wouldrecollect manysuch misadven-tures that tookplace out of oneperson’s ego.Thus, any vice isnot only harm-ful to the per-son who isafflicted with itbut it a lsospreads like aninfection or anepidemic andaffects the moral and spiritual health of thewhole nation very badly. Same is the result ofgreed and selfishness. The motive to captureneighbouring country forms an axis with thepower to kill and both together blindfold theman and lead him astray from the path of san-ity. The chronicles of mankind bear witness tothe truth that property worth inestimableamount and millions of men have been lost inthe slaughter house of intolerance during thelast 2,000 years. It’s because of the intolerancethat ensued from a hurt ego, an unfulfilled self-ish motive or narrow-mindedness that couldnot stand the existence of different views, life-styles, cultures and self-interests.

Can anyone calculate or imagine howmany families lost their peace and harmony andhow many cities and civilisations were ruinedbecause of intolerance? If only this virtue called‘tolerance’ had been sustained, all or many othervirtues also would have survived becausewhen tolerance is lost, man loses his patience.One would be wise to note that no vice or evilgoes alone. Evils have powerful links amongthemselves. They help sustain and promote eachother. Thus, the ego, activised by military power,goads lust for territory. Both together lead tohate, anger and violence in the form of war andattempt to annex another country’s territory.

Another important negative developmentthat usually takes place as a result of aggrava-tion of vices in the leaders is that, it attracts anegative response from other nations or theirleaders. Thus, show of military strength pro-vokes other nations and the latter also try tomeet the challenge by military might. So evilgenerates evil. Not only are many evils allies ofone major evil but they generate their own ene-mies which also are nothing but evil. All thisforms a vicious circle and destroys peace andhappiness. Therefore, it is not too late for peo-ple, who are mercilessly killing innocents, beginto observe the virtues of tolerance, respect, com-passion and mercy. All of which are greater thanvalour. And if put together, mankind can besaved from wars, communal riots, conflict onthe basis of difference in religious beliefs andextinction through a nuclear catastrophe.

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The pandemic has impacted theworldly affairs at different, unfath-omable dimensions. The immedi-

ate impacts were visible to everyone asboth — the people and the governments— were caught off-guard by this novelvirus. As months have passed and gapsin our basic infrastructure continue to hithard the ‘poorest of the poor’, the pan-demic is unfolding a world where someare looking at going back to the conven-tional ways of living closer to the naturewhile some are not too hopeful of thereturn.

Remote villages of the hilly Indianstate, Himachal Pradesh, are faced witha similar dilemma where on one hand,COVID-19 has forced people to look atmore ‘communal’ ways of surviving andon the contrary, has distanced peoplefrom one another. In the earlier days, mostvillages religiously followed a tradition —Buari, which was based on the ‘spirit ofcooperation’. Unfortunately, this traditionhas been disappearing from the socialmilieu of the villages until the spread ofthe virus.

WHAT IS BUARI?If on a particular day a villager had

to harvest the crop, everyone in the vil-lage would lend their hand to finish thejob. That applied to other farmers as well.Together, they would spend days in thefields cultivating the crop, conversingthrough traditional folk songs and shar-ing lunch. The cooperation was not justlimited to agriculture field but extendedto construction of each other’s houses too.No one hired labourers, as villagerstogether laid the foundation of an indi-vidual’s house. Slowly, people startedmigrating to towns in search of bettercareer opportunities. This led to transfor-mation in the agriculture traditionswherein they would give their orchardsor cultivable fields on contracts or hiredmigrant workers mostly for harvestingvegetables, fruits and other crops. Thesemigrant workers came from states like UP,Bihar, Jharkhand or the Ghurkhas ofNepal and were mostly hired by applegrowers.

RETURN OF BUARI IN THE POST-COVID WORLD

The tradition that was on the vergeof getting extinct has made a surprisecomeback in the situation arising out ofthe spread of the virus, feels Layakram ofShill village in the Gram PanchayatMajhiwar of Shimla district. “As Ireturned to my village due to the nation-wide lockdown, I decided to cultivate part

of my land where bushes and wild plantshad grown in abundance rendering ituncultivable. Yes, the villagers helped meremove all that unwanted growth andmake it cultivable again. Lands lying bar-ren for years are now being tilled by thereturnees,” shared Layakram.

Meenakshi, his spouse shared how atime-consuming and labourious task ofextracting anardaana from pomegranatewas made easier because of the sharedworkload. The couple is hopeful that thetradition will help those who have comeback to village reconnect with theirroots.

THE FORGOTTEN FRUIT OF PHYS-ICAL LABOUR

Yashpaul Sharma, however, is skep-tical. After having worked as a generalmanager at a hotel in the not so far touristtown of Shimla, he was forced to returnto his native village Allana as the hotelswere closed following the lockdownorders. Yashpaul feels that working inagriculture fields even with the cooper-ation of others is a lot of hard work. Histwo brothers who were also in the hotelindustry in Solan and Chandigarh andwere forced to return, shared their sen-timents. After losing their lucrative and

rather cushy jobs, they are now growingcash-crops on their land. “No doubt weare enjoying the benefits of a joint fam-ily with all the members working in thefield together and taking responsibility ofhousehold chores. But for how long?”they ask.

For them, there is a feeling of uncer-tainty about how long the hotel industrywill remain shut, whether they will getback their jobs. Moreover, with thespread of virus, they are not even sure thatthe vegetables they are growing willfetch good prices.

CORONA AND THE MISTRUSTHe says that while it is good to talk

about the Buari spirit, the villagers

become quite wary if one goes to the mar-ket even to buy some basic commodity.“Villagers look at you suspiciously. Thereis an environment of fear and doubt withregard to the returnees.” “Yes, this is true,”says Sachin Sharma who was working fora yarn and fabric making unit in Baddi,one of the industrial towns of HimachalPradesh. In the beginning people wereeven scared to greet him fearing he mayhave been infected by the virus.

But unlike Yashpaul, he wants to stayin his village permanently now. “I havecome here for good and am not goingback to my job. I have learnt all theprocesses required for yarn, fabric mak-ing and marketing of the products,”shared Sachin who is hopeful of establish-ing a unit in his own village with the helpof other returnees.

He seemed well aware of the chal-lenges that this task will face him with,but he is determined of making it one day.Corona has impacted lives of people likeYashpaul, his brothers, Sachin and rest ofthe Himchali people in a drastic manner.Everyone is thinking of ways to ensurethat they take the next steps in the rightdirection to keep their families safe towhich there are no right answers yet.

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In life, there are more things out-side of our control than we care

to admit. We face uncertain situ-ations in many aspects. The lat-est example being the unprece-dented yet a tremendous chal-lenge that was the COVID-19outbreak. However, most of usfind it difficult to be comfortablewith not knowing the eventualoutcome of our decisions. Thislow tolerance for ambiguity oftenmakes things harder for us.Training ourselves to be comfort-able with uncertainty will bene-fit both us and also those aroundus.

In workplaces, conflicts canarise when there is uncertainty,which can be about areas ofresponsibility or business out-comes. Uncertain situations areunavoidable, and so are conflicts.However, we often shy away fromresolving conflicts because we failto accept the need for resolutionor we don’t know how to go aboutit.

� RESOLVE CONFLICTSTHROUGH ACTIVEPRACTICE OF COMPASSION

Though unavoidable, con-flicts can be prevented or resolvedbefore it becomes disruptive tobusinesses. Quick and effectiveresolution of conflicts allowsorganisations to work productive-ly. The most effective tool for con-flict management is the activepractice of compassion. In mostcases, conflicts stem from a mis-understanding, and they can beresolved through gleaning under-standing. Compassion is nothingbut our willingness to understandthe perspective of another personand the desire to help.

� HOW TO PUT COMPASSIONINTO PRACTICE?

Identify the problemConstructively resolving and

preventing further conflictbegins with seeing things asthey are. Our views are oftenclouded by prejudices and deep-rooted perceptions. Compassionis practicable when there isawareness and acceptance ofsubjective experience. We mustseparate the real situation andour perception of it while resolv-ing conflicts.

Become self-awareThrough understanding our-

selves we can understand others.Practice self-awareness. Whenconflict arises, what is yourimmediate reaction? Can younotice certain patterns ofthought which stem from yourcognitive biases towards a per-son or situation? When youacknowledge this in yourselfand accept it, it becomes easierfor you to accept this in othersas well.

Communicate even whenit’s uncomfortable

We need to communicate togain understanding of other’sperspective and emotional reac-tion to a certain situation.However, people often find it dif-ficult to communicate, especial-ly when their views are in con-flict with another’s. It is easier toshut down but it doesn’t solve

anything and often leads to fur-ther conflicts.

Learn to listenListening is the key to effec-

tive communication. Let theother person explain the situa-tion from their perspective.Create a space for them to bevulnerable and acknowledgetheir issues. You can get uncom-fortable and be tempted toexplain, give advice, justify anddefend yourself and even divertthe conversation to your ownexperience. Avoid this while lis-tening to someone else.

It is easier said than done.Compassion takes practice anda constant eye on our own reac-

tions and responses. However,it’s worth the effort. By doingthis, we encourage others todecode their own responses con-ditioned by their perceptionsand build successful work rela-tionships.

Importance of positive outlook

As we discussed earlier,uncertainty is inescapable. Weshouldn’t ask — ‘Will I experi-ence uncertainty?’ but rather —‘How do I foster the right mind-set to deal with uncertainty?’There is nothing wrong withexperiencing fear, anxiety orpanic when it hits us. These areour common responses when we

face uncertain situations. Butwe can take a step back and lookat things differently. Negativity isquick to affect our thoughts,what we hear, speak and how weinteract with people around us.We start blaming ourselves orothers. In those moments, prob-lems give birth to more issues.Though we can’t control certainthings, we can gain control ofhow we approach an issue. If weare to strive for the best possibleoutcome then we need to adopta solution-oriented mindset.

� HOW TO BECOMESOLUTION-ORIENTED

A solution-oriented personadapts and shows resilience in theface of challenges. Not manypeople are inherently solution-ori-ented. However, this can be prac-ticed and developed over time.

Recognise problem-orientedthinking

Understand what problemand solution-oriented thinkingsounds like.� Problem-oriented thinking: Iwant to do ‘A’ but can’t because of‘B’.� Solution-oriented thinking:How can I work my way around‘B’ so that I can do ‘A?’

It’s important to recogniseand catch ourselves when we areslipping into the problem-orient-ed mindset.

Understand the issueTry to look back to a situation

where you blamed yourself, otherpeople or circumstances. It ledyou to nowhere and probably cre-ated more problems. It is essen-tial to see the uselessness ofproblem mindset to adopt a newmindset. J Krishnamurti said,“Freedom from the desire for ananswer is essential to the under-standing of a problem.” Our needto find an answer can become anobstacle. We need to understandthe problem fully from its rootsto the surface. Breaking it downcan help us approach problemswithout getting overwhelmed.

Commit to thinking to outof the box

We tend to lament over a sit-uation rather than being solution-oriented and it’s not hard to seewhy. Albert Einstein once said,“We are boxed in by the bound-ary condition of our thinking.”Being solution-oriented requiresthinking out of the box, whichmost of us don’t do readily.However, this too is practicable.We can make a conscious deci-sion to think differently, uncon-ventionally and from a new per-spective whenever we face prob-lems.

It’s important to practiceuntil it becomes our secondnature. We must commit to chan-neling our attitude, time andenergy to find solutions to prob-lems and conflicts. Through com-passion and a solution-orientedmindset, we can have greater con-trol over how we manage conflicteven in uncertain times andthere is nothing more empower-ing.

(The author is the executiveleadership coach and the founderof White Ray Coaching.)

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Page 12: 0. - The Pioneer · 23, at Puri in Odisha cannot be allowed and “Lord Jagannath won’t forgive us if we ... forming Asanas and Pranayam that may prove to be a key in helping the

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Atlético Madrid honored theclub’s victims of the coron-avirus pandemic and earned

a hard-fought victory in its firsthome game since the Spanish leagueresumed.

Substitute Victor “Vitolo”Machín scored the winner in the 81stminute of a 1-0 win over Valladolidon Saturday.

The victory lifted DiegoSimeone’s team past Sevilla andinto third place on head-to-head goaldifference.

Barcelona leads theleague by three pointsover Real Madrid,which can pull level ifit wins at RealSociedad on Sunday.

Madrid holds thetiebreaker between thetwo in case of a tie. Atlético andSevilla trail Barcelona by 13 pointswith eight games left.

Atlético used the occasion of itsfirst match at the WandaMetropolitano Stadium in morethan three months to pay tribute toits former coach Radomir Antic,three former players, and a 14-year-old youth player who diedduring the pandemic.

A jersey with Antic’s name was

placed on a seat next to Simeone onthe bench, while the four players hadshirts with their names draped onseats in the empty stands.

A violinist played the club’santhem to honor all of Spain’s over28,000 virus victims before kickoff.

Vitolo went on in the 73rd andbroke the deadlock when he head-ed in after goalkeeper José Carofailed to punch a corner away, leav-ing his goal undefended. The ball fellto Vitolo at the far post and he guid-ed his header home.

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Opener David Warner is "very sure andpositive" that he and other Australian

players will be able to play the IPL if theT20 World Cup is postponed in the wakeof COVID-19 pandemic.

Though Cricket Australia chairmanEarl Eddings has said that it is a bit “unre-alistic” to host the 16-team tournament inOctober-November, the ICC is yet todecide the fate of the event and is expect-ed to do so next month.

“...And if it is unlikely if the World Cupcan’t go ahead, then I am very sure and pos-itive that we will be able to come and playin the IPL if that replaces the World Cupschedule,” Warner was quoted as saying by'India Today’.

“If that permits us from CricketAustralia giving the go-ahead to go overthere, I am sure we will put our hands upand come and play cricket which at the endof the day is what we love.”

The southpaw himself had said earli-er that hosting the T20 World Cup wouldbe a tough ask considering the the num-ber of teams involved.

He said everybody is waiting for ICC'sdecision on the matter.

“Look, there has been a lot of talk aboutthe T20 World Cup being postponed, thechallenges around getting every singlenation that participates in the World Cupinto Australia, given the fact that we havethe quarantine for 14 days.

“Nevertheless, making sure we arerestricting the chances of a Covid-19 out-break back into Australia. Those restric-tions are in place with the Australian gov-ernment at the moment. We have to obvi-ously abide by those rules and obviouslywe await the decision from the ICC,” saidWarner.

He said most Australian players wouldwant to play the IPL, which can be held inSeptember-October if T20 World Cup andAsia Cup are postponed.

“Look, most definitely all the playerswho have been selected and picked in theauction will put their hand up if we are per-mitted. One we have to get governmentclearance as well to travel.

“If Cricket Australia allows us to goover there and participate, I am sure theguys will definitely be on board with thatto be back up and running and playingcricket again,” said Warner.

Having missed the previous homeseries against India in 2018-2019 due theball-tampering ban, Warner is looking for-ward to the next one in Australia this sum-mer when two teams play four Tests.

However, he would not want to pro-voke India captain Virat Kohli during thehigh-profile series.

“Virat Kohli is not a person to be pokedand no point poking the bear,” he said.

On the upcoming series, he added: "Itwould be very surreal playing against Indiawithout the crowd. I want to be selectedand be part of that series. Last time we werenot bad but we were beaten by a good teamand their bowling was relentless.

“Now, India has got the best battingline up and our bowlers will like to targetand the Indian crowd will be eager to seethat.”

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Indian shuttler H S Prannoy has beenrecommended for the Arjuna award

by chief national badminton coachPullela Gopichand after the BadmintonAssociation of India ignored him for asecond successive year due to discipli-nary issues.

On June 2, BAI had recommendedSatwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shettyand Sameer Verma for Arjuna award,leaving out Prannoy which prompted theshuttler to express his displeasure ontwitter.

“Same old story. Guy who hasmedals in CWG and AsianChampionships not even recommend-ed by the association. And guy who wasnot there on any of these major eventsrecommended. #waah #thiscountry-isajoke,” Prannoy had said in his now-deleted tweet.

It has emerged now that Prannoy’sname was recommended by Gopichandon June 3 in his capacity as a Khel RatnaAward recipient.

“Gopichand recommended Prannoyfor Arjuna on June 3 after BAI decidednot to send his name. He did it as a win-ner of Khel Ratna and not as the chiefIndia coach. He was not aware of the dis-ciplinary issues,” a source close to thedevelopment told PTI.

Gopichand, however, refused tocomment on the issue, while Prannoy

didn’t respond despite repeated calls.On Friday, Prannoy was served a

showcause notice asking him to respondfor his outburst against BAI within 15days.

“There are several instances of dis-ciplinary issues with Prannoy. TheFederation had been very tolerant all thiswhile but in the recent past, his attitudehas forced BAI to take action and alsorelook at the disciplinary policies,” AjaySinghania had said.

“A show-cause letter has been issuedfor the remarks made. If the player failsto respond in the allotted time, BAI willbe taking stern action.”

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West Indies all-rounderRoston Chase wants to be

taken more seriously as a bats-man and says personally it wouldbe a big disappointment if he failsto score at least a century in thethree-Test series against England,starting July 8 in Southampton.

The 28-year-old, who hasscored 1,695 runs including fivehundreds in 32 Tests, said hewants to be rated higher as a bats-men and was looking forward topile up some runs in England.

“I’ve always wanted to scorea century in England. I scored acentury against England in theCaribbean, but I would love to get

one in England,” he told media viavideo conference.

“As I said, when you scorehundreds in England, I think, asa batsman people take you moreserious and rate you a bit higher.I'm looking to have a good serieswith the bat, score as many runsas possible. I will not be happy ifI don’t get at least one century."

While opening duo of KraiggBrathwaite and Shai Hope willlook to provide starts, Chase willhave to share more responsibili-ty in the middle order in theabsence of Darren Bravo andShimron Hetmyer, who hadrefused to tour England amid theCOVID-19 pandemic due to fam-ily concerns.

"It's fair to say that we haven'thad the best time as a top order.But I think some of the guys haveplayed 30 or more Test matches,so the guys are experienced andknow how to get runs at thatlevel - so we are ever improving,”said Chase, who averages 24.75in away Tests.

“It’s just for us to get thatconfidence and belief back in ourbatting in the top order and Ithink that will be fine becausethe guys know they have theability.”

The West Indies team willalso face the challenge of takingon fellow Barbadian, JofraArcher, who is one of the vitalcog in England's bowling attack.

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Veteran Pakistan batsmanShoaib Malik feels that the

team stands a very good chance ofwinning the 2020 T20 World Cup,if it goes ahead as per plans. Thefate of the showpiece event, whichis scheduled to be played inAustralia later this year, hangs inbalance due to implications put for-ward by the coronavirus pandem-ic.

Shoaib, who won the trophyonce in 2009, stated Pakistan havea very good bowling attack andthat is why they will be one of thetop contenders at the tournament.

“I believe our chances are verygood,” Shoaib told PakPassion."In order to win these kinds ofevents, you have to have a verystrong bowling attack and I thinkwe have that box ticked. In addi-tion, we also have a good battingline-up to complement that strongbowling attack.”

“Not only that, but our field-ing has also developed andimproved over the years, which is

important on big grounds.“Our fitness is much improved

and better than it was in previousyears, so overall, I think we will beright up there as a team thatstands a very good chance of win-ning this tournament if it goesahead,” he added.

Shoaib, in July, will join the 29-man Pakistan squad that leaves forEngland on June 28. The tour is setto consist of three Tests and asmany T20Is and will all be playedin empty stadiums due to thecoronavirus pandemic.

“Of course, we all like to seepacked stadiums and matches thathave a buzz from the crowd, whichall adds to the spectacle. But rightnow, the situation around theworld is very concerning and wemust do what is right for everyone’shealth and safety,” he said.

“Hopefully one day and nottoo far into the future crowds willbe back. But for now, cricket needsto be played and if this is whatneeds to be done to get cricket backon then we must support it andaccept it.”

���� -./� .0�&

Former India batsmanSandeep Patil on

Sunday advised players toremain mentally strongand ensure an injury-freereturn to cricket when thegame resumes amid theCOVID-19 pandemic.

After a halt in thecricket calendar due to thecoronavirus pandemic, thefirst international matchbegins next monthbetween England and theWest Indies in bio-securevenues. There is no crick-et match lined up for theIndians immediately.

“These are prettyuncertain times and thechallenge to bounce backwithout any injuries will bea real task for any player.But they need to rememberthat all these challengeswill first have to be dealtstrongly in the mind,” Patilwas quoted as saying by‘Star Sports’.

“You need to beginslowly and ensure that youtune your focus firmly onmaking an injury-freecomeback. Even duringmy tenure as coach ofKenya, I used to alwaysfocus on players being

mentally strong before anytournament.”

The 63-year-old, whoplayed 29 Tests between1980 and 1984, cited theexample of India’s 1983World Cup final triumphagainst the mighty WestIndies, saying the matchproved how mentalstrength can win games.

“During 1983 WorldCup final, after we wererestricted to 183, wethought we were down andout. But before steppingonto the field for second

innings, we all made avery fervent resolution inour minds and as a team.The rest they say is histo-ry!

“Bowling to likes ofGreenidge, Viv Richardswas no easy task butbecause we were focussedon laying our hands on thattrophy, we were able to doit. So, being mentallymature is very importantfor any sportsperson, notjust cricketers,” said Patilwho was a member of thatWorld Cup-winning team.

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World No.1 Novak Djokovic reached thefinal of his exhibition tournament in

Zadar, Croatia, after easing through theround-robin group stage on the first day. Thisis the second stage of the Adria Tour withAustrian Dominic Thiem winning the first legin Belgrade, Serbia.

Djokovic started by saving three setpoints in his 4-3, 4-1 win over fellow SerbPedja Krstin. He then beat home favouriteBorna Coric 4-1, 4-3 in front of several thou-sand fans at the Visnjik tennis complex.

The tournament in Zadar is being playedon red clay over two days. In the other group,Russian Andrey Rublev is in pole position toadvance into the final after wins over 2014 USOpen champion Marin Cilic and Serb DaniloPetrovic. He faces German star AlexanderZverev in the final round robin match onSunday who stayed in contention after beat-ing Cilic 4-3, 0-4, 4-3.

Djokovic’s own inconsequential finalgroup match is against Croatian DinoSerdarusic who replaced Grigor Dimitrov afterthe Bulgarian pulled out of the tournamentwith sickness following his opening 4-1, 4-1loss to Coric.

“I hope we gave the crowd a good show,”Djokovic said in a courtside interview.

“A few points here and there swung the tiemy way. Many thanks to the fans who turnedup and stayed late. The last few months havebeen difficult (because of the pandemic) andI hope you will come in numbers tomorrowtoo.”

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Manchester City’s BernardoSilva has improved a lot under

manager Pep Guardiola, feels hisPortuguese compatriot NunoGomes.

Silva moved to Man City threeyears ago and has since blossomedat the English Premier League clubunder Guardiola.

“Bernardo is, for me at themoment, one of the best players thatwe have in Portugal,” Gomes saidon Manchester City’s official web-site.

“With Pep he’s improved a lot.I believe that Guardiola has said alot of times that he is a massive fanof Bernardo Silva.

“And I believe Bernardo Silva,knowing that he has the trust andthe confidence of the coach, he goesonto the field and he plays natural-

ly, because he has a talent that is nat-ural.”

“The way that he pushes theopponent, the way he can compro-mise defensive situations, becausewith the ball he is one of the best.

“I believe with Pep Guardiola,he has already improved a lot in hisstyle of play, and I’m a big fan ofBernardo Silva.”

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Newcastle beat 10-man SheffieldUnited 3-0 in the Premier League

on Sunday to virtually guarantee itstop-flight status for another year andmake the club an even more attractiveoption for its controversial potentialbuyers.

Newcastle capitalized on the 50th-minute sending-off of Sheffield Unitedcenter back John Egan for a second yel-low card to score through Allan Saint-Maximin five minutes later, MattRitchie in the 69th and Joelinton in the78th.

The win at an empty St. James’Park lifted Newcastle to 38 points, 11clear of the relegation zone with eightmatches remaining.

The future of Newcastle has beenone of the big talking points duringFootball’s three-month shutdown,with Premier League officials cur-rently deciding whether toapprove a takeover of the north-east club by Saudi Arabia’s sover-eign fund.

The deal is complicated by arecent ruling by the World TradeOrganization that the Saudis facilitat-ed sports broadcasting piracy of rightsowned by Qatar’s beIN Sports - one ofthe Premier League’s broadcastingpartners - while others have expressedconcerns about the kingdom’s humanrights record.

A decision on the takeover isexpected in the coming weeks, bywhich time Newcastle might havemathematically ensured their survivaland secured a fourth straight season inthe lucrative top division.

Sheffield United was lookingfor a win that would have lifted theteam into fifth place, currently aChampions League qualificationspot pending Manchester City’sappeal against a two-year

European ban for a serious breach offinancial fair play rules.

This was the visitors’ second gamesince the restart, after drawing 0-0 atAston Villa on Wednesday, and thegame turned on the decision to handEgan a second booking for pulling backJoelinton as they fought to reach theball after a long clearance by Newcastle.

Five minutes later, Ritchie playeda ball across the area, Sheffield Unitedleft back Enda Stevens completelymissed his kick, and Saint-Maximinapplied a finish at the far post past goal-keeper Dean Henderson.

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Barcelona confirmed theyhave detected an issue in thesoleus muscle in Frenkie deJong's calf after missing the drawwith Sevilla.

The Netherlands interna-tional had to miss Friday's trip tothe Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan,where Barca were frustrated in agoalless stalemate.

It was confirmed a day ear-lier that De Jong had been ruledout through injury, though theclub did not reveal what the issuewas.

Following further medicaltests, Barca were able to deter-mine the former Ajax talent issuffering with a problem in hissoleus muscle in the right calf.

However, the club have notcommented on how long hecould be out for, saying the “evo-lution of the injury will conditionthe player’s availability.”

De Jong is in his first seasonat Camp Nou and has made 38appearances across all competi-tions.

Barca are next in action athome to Athletic Bilbao onTuesday.

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Magpies hurt Blades European hopes

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Being mature is crucial: Patil

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