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PM MODI LAUNCHES JOB SCHEME FOR MIGRANT WORKERS
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JUNE 21, 2020
New Delhi/METRO n Vol. XIX No. 25 n Price ₹6.00 /with Hindustan ₹ 10.50 (₹ 8.50 in Faridabad) n 22 Pages. Area specific pages extra.
Order on institutional isolation for all Covid patients scrapped
PMO says PM’s comments interpreted mischievously
CONTROVERSIAL LG Anil Baijal revokes order after experts raise concerns over strain on city’s health infrastructure
NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s
Sweta Goswami n
Delhi govt: Fees at private hospitals will be capped
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Saturday rolled back its controversial order to mandatorily quarantine even asymptomatic and mild coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases at institutional facilities for five days, in a move that was welcomed by the Delhi government and experts, who said the directive would have overwhelmed the Capital’s health care infrastructure. Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, who heads DDMA, issued the order on Saturday, with experts saying that thousands of additional patients at hospitals would strain the Capital’s health infrastructure, result in a shortage of health care workers, militate against people getting tested, and throw Delhi’s long-term strategy out of gear. “Regarding institutional isolation, only those COVID positive cases which do not require hospitalisation on clinical assessment & do not have adequate facilities for home isolation would be required to undergo institutional isolation,” Baijal tweeted on Saturday, about 24 hours after ordering the change in the guidelines. The LG, however, said that all Covid-19 patients will have to be referred to Covid Care Centres (CCCs) for assessment of their clinical conditions, severity of illness and presence of co-morbidities. In another tweet, he said DDMA approved the recommenCONTINUED ON P 15
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government said on Saturday that beds for Covid-19 patients at private hospitals will be subsidised, with treatment charges being reduced by 60-67%. The new rates, to be charged by all private hospitals with immediate effect, will be applicable to all Covid-19 beds at a private hospitals for up to 60% of its total capacity. “100% COVID beds shall be subsidised up to an upper limit of 60% of total hospital capacity,” Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday after the DDMA cleared the move. ››P3
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A banquet hall near LNJP Hospital in Delhi is converted into a Covid-19 isolation ward.
SANJEEV VERMA/HT
Confusion prevails as several patients moved out of homes NEW DELHI: By Saturday evening,
when Delhi LG Anil Baijal revised his Friday’s order to put all Covid-19 patients who were under home isolation in institutional quarantine, officials in many districts had already put many in the quarantine centres while others were scrambling to arrange beds and ambulances needed for such patients. Officials in at least three dis-
tricts — South, Southwest and West — confirmed to HT that they have been sending patients in home isolation to quarantine centres since Friday evening. In the Southwest district, there were cases where asymptomatic persons who tested positive refused to get into an ambulance and threatened to take legal recourse, a senior official said. Throughout the day, several
Covid-19 patients currently under home isolation were moved to Covid care centres even as the government was engaged in a dialogue with the L-G for overturning the decision of five-day mandatory home isolation in such cases. At the same time, districts such as Shahdara and East chose to wait until there was more clarity on the matter. ››P2
City hospitals told to cancel health workers’ leave NEW DELHI: The Delhi govern-
ment’s health department has directed all hospitals and medical institutions under it to recall all their employees on leave and ask them to report for duty immediately. The special secretary of the health department SM Ali issued the order on Friday. A senior health department official has said that leave of any kind would only be granted under the “most compelling circumstances.” ››P3
India now has more than 400,000 26/11 accused a step Covid-19 cases, over 13k fatalities closer to extradition Neeraj Chauhan and Rezaul H Laskar
NEW DELHI: The number of Cov-
id-19 cases in India exceeded 400,000 on Saturday, including at least 13,000 deaths, with the country reporting a record number of daily new cases and becoming only the fourth nation after the US, Brazil and Russia to cross the grim milestone. On Saturday, 15,813 people were diagnosed with Covid-19, in the country’s highest single-day spike so far that took the total tally to 411,500 cases. The latest 100,000 infections in the country have been recorded in just eight days. ››P4
CAPITAL ADDS 3,630 CASES NEW DELHI: The Capital on
Saturday added its highest number of new cases in a single day, recording 3,630 fresh infections that took the city’s total tally to 56,746. The national capital also recorded 77 more fatalities, taking its toll from the disease to 2,112, according to data by the official state
n
health bulletin. With this, the case fatality rate (CFR) -- defined as the proportion of deaths to the total cases -is 3.7%, higher than the country’s rate of 3.2%. Out of the total Covid-19 cases in the city, 23,340 or 41% of those infected are active cases. About 31,294 others have recovered from the viral illness. ››P2
TRACKING THE VIRUS WORLD CASES
INDIA DEATHS
8,835,458 464,294
United States
2,313,847
Rest of the world
6,521,611
CASES
DELHI DEATHS
411,500 (+15,813) 13,278 (+310)
WORST-HIT STATES Maharashtra Tamil Nadu Delhi Gujarat UP
CASES
CASES LAST 5 DAYS 128,205
56,845 56,746 26,737 17,237
44,688
47,102 17
49,979
18
19
Jun 20
NEW DELHI: Tahawwur Rana, a
Pakistani-origin Canadian sent to a US jail for his role in planning the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been arrested after being freed from prison in order to face extradition to India. Rana, 59, a close associate of David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators behind the attacks on India’s financial hub that killed 166 people, was serving a 14-year sentence in a Los Angeles federal prison when he was granted early release last week because of poor health and being infected by the coronavirus. However, he never left the prison as he was arrested to face extradition to India, US prosecutors told The Associated Press. Indian officials said they learnt Rana was rearrested on June 10. Officials familiar with developments said a US attorney informed the district judge in Los Angeles about India’s standing request for the extradition of
Rana, wanted in India for terror charges. A senior NIA officer, who didn’t want to be named, said: “It’s a positive development after over 11 years. This means his extradition hearings will now take place.” Former home secretary GK Pillai, who played a key role in the investigation of the attacks and coordinated with the US, said there was a pending Indian extradition request for Rana. “There is a standing Indian extradition request for Rana and that will still be applicable,” he told HT. A person in the government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US authorities acted as there was a request for Rana’s preliminary arrest. ››P9
BEIJING OUTBREAK
China looks for superspreader link in latest surge Sutirtho Patranobis n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: Delhi health minister
Satyendar Jain’s condition has improved after receiving plasma therapy for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Friday night at Max hospital, Saket. The minister’s fever has subsided and he is off oxygen support, according to hospital sources. He is currently stable and is being monitored by a team of critical care specialists in the hospital’s intensive care unit, the sources said. ››P3
56,746 53,116
India data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’s correspondents and news agencies Jun 16
Satyendar Jain stable after plasma therapy
DEATHS
56,746 (+3,630) 2,112 (+77)
[emailprotected]
TAHAWWUR RANA, AN AIDE OF DAVID COLEMAN HEADLEY, WAS GRANTED EARLY RELEASE FROM A LOS ANGELES PRISON LAST WEEK AFTER HE WAS DETECTED COVID+
BEIJING: A Covid-19 super-
spreader could have contributed in the rapid spread of more than 200 infections linked to a food market in Beijing, experts have said, as the Chinese capital scrambles to contain a fresh outbreak that has raised fears of a second wave of infections in the country, which has largely managed to control the contagion.
New infections linked to the Xinfadi food market in Fengtai district of Beijing indicate the sign of a superspreader, Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at the Wuhan University, told the state media on Friday. Speculation about the presence of a superspreader — or a Covid-19 patient who has infected several others — comes in the backdrop of 22 new cases being reported in
Beijing on Friday. The city has recorded 205 new cases since June 11. A new case related to the outbreak in neighbouring province Hebei was also reported on Friday. Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies chief, said a superspreading event could have amplified the spread of the fresh outbreak in Beijing. “You get a few cases occurring and it then is a superspreading event or something hap-
pening where there’s a large amplification of the disease,” he said in London on Friday. Authorities have scaled up efforts to stem the transmission of the disease in Beijing, testing more than 2 million in the city of 20 million since June 13. “Currently, the city has the ability to sample an average of 500,000 people per day,” Zhang Qiang, a member of Beijing’s epidemic control office, said at a press conference on Saturday.
Smriti Kak Ramachandran n
[emailprotected]
Office (PMO) said on Saturday that PM Narendra Modi’s remarks at an all-party meeting the previous day that no intruder was on Indian territory across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and that no Indian military post had been captured were being given a “mischievous interpretation”. The PMO’s statement was a riposte to a Congress attack that Modi surrendered Indian territory in the face of Chinese aggression across the LAC and that his comments flew in the face of previous claims by defence minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister S Jaishankar. “Attempts are being made in some quarters to give a mischievous interpretation to remarks by the Prime Minister at the allparty meeting yesterday. The Prime Minister was clear that CONTINUED ON P 15 PM SURRENDERED VALLEY: RAHUL; SHAH HITS BACK ››P7
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An army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh.
REUTERS
Freedom of action for commanders at LAC Rahul Singh n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: A significant change in rules of engagement (ROE) by the Indian Army following the Galwan Valley skirmish that left 20 Indian soldiers dead gives “complete freedom of action” to
commanders deployed along the contested LAC to “handle situations at the tactical level,” two senior officers said on Saturday. The commanders will no longer be bound by restrictions on the use of firearms. ››P6 INDIA IS FULLY PREPARED TO RESPOND: IAF CHIEF ››P6
US slams ‘rogue actor’ China for attack on Indian soldiers Yashwant Raj n
[emailprotected]
WASHINGTON: US secretary of
state Michael Pompeo has blamed China for escalating tensions along the border with India and called it a “rogue actor” in the neighbourhood, and indicated he may have raised the dispute and other such flashpoints in his meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, earlier
in the week. “The PLA has escalated border tensions – we see it today in India, the world’s most popular – populous democracy,” Pompeo said, referring to the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military. “And we watch as it militarises the South China Sea and illegally claims more territory there, threatening vital sea lanes, a promise they broke again”. ››P6
INDIA JUNKS CHINA CLAIM ON GALWAN NEW DELHI: India again rejected China’s claim on Galwan Valley and said the clash was triggered by China. ››P7
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hindustantimes
SUN DAY HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
spotlig t htspotlight Efforts on to boost health care DISPATCH infrastructure as cases surge CORONAVIRUS: METRO
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Covid-19: What you need to know today
Anonna Dutt n
THE SPREAD CONTINUES Although our knowledge the Sars-CoV-2 virus is increasing every passing day and doctors are becoming better at saving lives, things are getting worse around the world in terms of the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19)
INDIA NO EXCEPTION India isn’t bucking the trend as the spread of the virus accelerates. The country added 14,677 new cases on June 19, the highest to date in a 24-hour period, and the numbers are certain to increase with more widespread testing
OUTLASTING THE VIRUS Bored, tired, lonely, and physically, mentally, and emotionally weary of the postCovid reality, we let things slip and the virus wins. The really sick and the old may need medical care to beat the virus; the rest of us just need stamina to outlast it
une 20. There’s no breaking it gently; things are getting worse around the world in terms of the spread of the coronavirus disease. Sure, the disease isn’t the mystery it once was; every passing day increases our knowledge of the Sars-CoV-2 virus and the Covid-19 disease, and while we may still not have a cure, we have a fairly good idea of which medicines and lines of treatment work and which don’t (and there’s new information almost every other day). There’s a general agreement around the world that doctors have become better at saving lives. But the disease is raging though the world. Numbers from three different sources tell the same story. According to data on worldometers.info, 42% of the current cases in the world (close to 8.7 million on June 19) have been recorded in the past month (since May 20). According to The New York Times database, 177,225 new cases (a record high) were registered around the world on June 19. According to the dashboard maintained by the Johns Hopkins University, the five-day moving average is trending upward in eight of the 10 countries that are currently seeing the most number of cases. These are: Brazil, US, India, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Pakistan, and Iran. The two where it isn’t are Russia and the UK. Five-day moving averages even out kinks caused by events such as countries suddenly deciding to change the way they report cases or spikes caused by back-dated reporting. (That’s another thing that has changed from the past — we have all taught ourselves how to read scientific papers and renewed our acquaintance with statistics). India isn’t bucking the trend (as clear by its presence among the eight countries whose five-day moving average is trending north). India added 14,677 new cases on June 19, the highest to date (this column is being written on Saturday morning) in a 24-hour period. The country has added 72% of its total cases (till June 19) in the month since May 20. That is almost three of every four cases. With positivity rates continuing to rise, or, at best, staying the same in many states, India’s numbers are certain to increase with more widespread testing (which probably explains why some states are going slow on tests in a display of extremely misplaced priorities). Globally, too, the consensus is that the number of cases will continue to rise as countries open up, or the virus shows up in hitherto uninfected or less-infected parts. The New York Times reports that four American states, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina touched their highest daily counts (of new cases) this week. This can be tiring. For almost 68 days until June 1, India was locked down. While many restrictions have been eased since, suburban trains, metros, and buses (in some states) remain off the roads; many people continue working from home; parks are open only for a few hours; and shopping for most people involves a mask-glovesshower-wipe routine that is as time consuming as it is wearying. Restaurants are open, and going to one poses a definite risk, as does visiting a mall (and these are also open), but people are bored of eating at home (or ordering out). And Zoom parties, once the rage — as a Delhi resident, especially, I can understand why; it’s easier to get people to leave — are now as interesting as the weekly business review. So, bored, tired, lonely perhaps, and physically, mentally, and emotionally weary, we let things slip. And the virus wins. The really sick and the old (and the infirm) may need medical care to beat the virus; the rest of us just need stamina to outlast it. As John L Parker JR wrote in the best book about running that’s ever been written: “You don’t become a runner by winning a morning workout.” That fragment is from a longer paragraph that ends with the phrases: “The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.” That’s how it feels.
SUNDAY Generally cloudy sky with light rain
35°c I 22°c •
MONDAY Generally cloudy sky with light rain or drizzle
TUESDAY Generally cloudy sky with light rain
36°c I 23°c 35°c I 24°c •
Today is 21st June 2020 l 28 Shawwal 1441 l Ashadha, Krishna Paksha, Amavasya l Samvat 2077 Sunset: Sunday at 07:22 p.m. Sunrise: Monday at 05:24 a.m. Moonrise: Monday at 06:06 a.m. Moonset: Monday at 08:30 p.m.
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A health worker collects a child’s swab sample.
occupancy rate is higher. Almost 69% of all beds with ventilators – both in private and government hospitals – are full. Over 71% of the 368 ventilators in private hospitals are already occupied. At present, only those with severe symptoms such as elevated respiratory rate of over 30 breaths per minute (normal is 12 to 20 breaths per minute) or oxygen saturation of less than 90% (normal is 95 to 100%) have to be admitted to hospitals. People with mild symptoms can remain in home isolation if they have no comorbidities, and have a separate room and a bathroom to follow proper isolation protocols. Those with no such facility can stay in Covid care centres. And those with moderate to severe symptoms are admitted
RAJ K RAJ/HT PHOTO
to Covid Health Centres or Covid hospitals as per need. The government estimates 150,000 beds will be required by the end of June. The projection is based on the report of a five-member committee set up in early June, which said the city would record 100,000 cases by the end of the month and need 15,000 beds for those with severe symptoms of the infection. The requirement for beds will go up to over 40,000 by mid-June, according to the committee members. And the number would translate to 80,000 beds by Julyend. The government increased the numbers further when it could not restrict the services of its hospitals for Delhi residents. Makeshift hospitals such as
railway coaches, however, cannot treat those with severe symptoms of the infection. The challenge for the government is to add more ventilator and ICU beds in its hospitals. The city government has received 200 ventilators from the central government and plans to buy 300 more. It will also ensure that all the beds in the hospitals have oxygen support, according to officials from the department. The state government has also sought the help of central hospitals such as AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to increase the number of ICU beds. At Lady Hardinge Medical College, two of the large hospital wards are being converted into Covid-19 beds. Almost all the beds in the hospital have oxygen support. “Around 36 beds in our Covid-19 area have oxygen support along with invasive and non-invasive ventilators. The other beds are also all oxygen supported. The orange zone – where suspected Covid-19 patients are admitted – also have all these facilities as several of the patients are actually testing positive,” said Dr NN Mathur, director of the hospital. At the centrally run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), 100 beds – including 30 ICU beds – have been added in the newly constructed burns ward for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. “We are also planning to increase our bed strength at the Jhajjar centre by about 500 beds. This will also include ICU beds. In
total, AIIMS currently has about 100 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients,” said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent , AIIMS. Another challenge the government faces is increasing the manpower at its hospitals, as well as the makeshift ones. For its own hospitals, the state government has decided to hire final-year MD/MS/ DNB (post-graduation medicine degree) students and final-year UG (undergraduate) and PG nursing students. Another administrator of a Delhi government Covid-19 hospital said, “We have been asked to recruit more staff, but it is not that easy. We do not get a lot of people for the walk-in interviews. So the medical and nursing student would be a great help. They can be trained for a few days and posted anywhere in the hospital.” For the makeshift hospitals in banquet halls and stadiums, the government has tied up with various doctors’ organisations in the city. “The government is in discussion with the doctors and it is likely to be finalised soon. They will have to take responsibility of running a section of the beds, providing manpower etc. As for consumables, the arrangement is being worked out,” said Dr Arun Gupta, the president of Delhi Medical Council who is also a member of the expert committee that gave the projections on the number of cases and beds required. All 40 hotels have been attached to private hospitals, which provide medical staff and consumables.
HOME QUARANTINE ORDER
RWAs laud revision Scramble for beds, ambulances, confusion before order reversed of quarantine order Vatsala Shrangi n
Sweta Goswami n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: By Saturday evening
when Delhi L-G Anil Baijal revised his Friday’s order to put all Covid-19 patients who were under home isolation in institutional quarantine, officials in many districts had already put many in the quarantine centres while others were scrambling to arrange beds and ambulances needed for such patients. On Saturday evening, the L-G issued a fresh order saying only those needing hospitalisation and not having facilities for home isolation would have to undergo institutional quarantine. Officials in at least three districts -- South, Southwest and West -- confirmed to HT sending patients in home isolation to quarantine centres since Friday evening. In the Southwest district, there were even cases where asymptomatic persons who tested positive for Covid refused to get into an ambulance and threatened to take legal recourse, a senior official in the district said. Throughout the day, several Covid-19 patients currently under home isolation were moved to Covid care centres even
as the government was engaged in a dialogue with the L-G for overturning the decision of fiveday mandatory home isolation. “Several ambulances had been kept ready for moving patients from home isolation to the centres. We were getting calls from the district authorities about the transfer. But, the problem was that many of the centres were refusing to admit the patients,” said a CATS (Centralised Accident and Trauma Services) Ambulance employee on condition of anonymity. At the same time districts such as Shahdara and East chose to wait until there is more clarity on the matter. District magistrates, who are responsible to arrange such facilities and requisition them accordingly, said had the L-G’s order not been withdrawn they would have had no option but to compromise on the quality and safety parameters. “If we actually had to continue keeping everyone under institutional isolation, we would have had to take over all stadiums and even the smallest dharamshalas apart from the banquet halls and hotels, some of which are paid facilities. The middle and upper middle class residents complained to us as to why they are
being asked to opt for paid and substandard facilities when they can get cured in their homes,” said a South district official. In Shahdara, the quarantine facility in Mandoli police quarters had gloomy state of affairs. In some flats, the beds were laid out on the floor while only a few had cots. The toilets in these flats were dirty. There was no hot drinking water facility, a basic requirement for Covid patients. Officials in the Shahdara district also said they reached out to the Northern Railways on Saturday after the L-G’s order to ready the railway coaches at Anand Vihar. When it comes to toilets, the ratio was even worse in some of the banquet halls, 77 of which have been identified to create over 11,000 beds. HT visited three banquet halls --- two in Karol Bagh and one opposite Lok Nayak hospital. There were two toilets for 50 persons and no bathrooms. Some had three. Besides, there were no charging points or tables or chairs with the beds. When asked about these problems a government spokesperson said facilities in banquet halls and hotels are still being readied and that the issues highlighted will be addressed.
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: Residents across the national capital on Saturday said they were “relieved” that an order mandating five days of institutional quarantine for all Covid-19 patients was rolled back. Many citizens groups said quarantining all Covid-19 patients, even those with mild symptoms, would discourage people from getting tested for the infectious disease. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal in his capacity as head of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had on Friday issued an order making five days of institutional quarantine compulsory for all Covid-19 patients, a move the Delhi government called “arbitrary”. However, Baijal on Saturday evening tweeted, “Regarding institutional isolation, only those COVID positive cases which do not require hospitalisation on clinical assessment and do not have adequate facilities for home isolation would be required to undergo institutional isolation.” On Saturday, at least 50 resident welfare associations (RWA) in the city wrote to the L-G, asking him reconsider the order, and mandating institutional quarantine for only without adequate
space for isolation at home. Dr Ruby Makhija, secretary, Navjeevan Vihar RWA, Malviya Nagar, welcomed the move and said it was a matter of reassurance for people. “Local authorities can rope in RWAs to help patients under home isolation. For instance, they can follow up on their health and make essentials available to them,” said Makhija, an ophthalmologist, whose RWA, along with 49 others, wrote to the L-G. Later on Saturday, once the order was revoked, the 50 RWAs wrote another letter to the L-G, this time lauding the decision. Suresh Goel (61) a resident of Vasant Vihar, said it was sensible to have withdrawn the order. “There are many who need their family’s support to recover. The government must focus on providing beds to those in need of hospital care, which has been an issue so far,” he said. Members of United Residents Joint Action (URJA), an umbrella body of 2,500 RWAs in the city, said it was a timely move to revoke the order, but added that it should not have been issued in the first place. “Issuing such orders creates confusion and panic among people, who are already battling so many odds,” said Atul Goyal, president, URJA.
City adds 3,630 new Govt thanks Baijal; Oppn cases in highest rise says decision wasn’t wrong Anonna Dutt n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded 3,630
htweather ALMANAC
[emailprotected]
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government is focusing on ramping up hospital beds and ensuring the availability of medical workers in the backdrop of a steady a rise in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, laying stress on two crucial aspects of the city’s health infrastructure that could define the fight against the infection in the coming days. The national capital recorded 3,630 cases on Saturday — the biggest single-day jump — as its tally reached 56,746 infections. As of Saturday, Delhi had over 12,000 hospital beds for Covid-19 patients across government and private hospitals, according to the data on the “Delhi Corona” app. Authorities also plan to use 77 banquet halls and 40 hotels for treatment of Covid-19 patients, a move that is expected to add about 16,000 more beds to Delhi’s health infrastructure. Then, using railway coaches for treatment will translate to 8,000 additional beds. While the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee will provide another 850 beds in eight establishments run by it, the government will also create 450 beds in its upcoming hospital in Burari. Of the 12,647 hospital beds available now, 47% are already occupied. While the occupancy rate at government hospitals ins 43% , the beds in private hospitals are 50% full. When it comes to beds equipped with ventilators, the
R Sukumar
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56K CASES As of Saturday, Delhi had over 12k beds for Covid-19 patients across govt, pvt hospitals
TEMPERATURE IN FOUR METROS Delhi
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new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Saturday, taking the city’s tally to 56,746, according to the daily health bulletin released by the government. The data shows 77 more people died of the infection in the city, taking the cumulative toll of the disease to 2,112. This takes Delhi’s case fatality rate (CFR) to 3.7%. The CFR had shot up to 4.1% on June 16, when Delhi reconciled its death data adding 437 deaths, of which many were backlogs, to the cumulative total in a day. The increase in the number of cases being recorded in the city is down to an increase in testing. There were 17,533 Covid-19 tests conducted in the city, in the 24 hours pertaining to Saturday’s bulletin. This number had been as low as 6,105 just five days ago. It was ramped up to 8,093 on June 17 after which the number shot up because of antigen testing. More than 7,000 samples were tested using the rapid antigen tests on the very first day –
Thursday – when the tests were rolled out. The Delhi government also gave an issued an order on Saturday for all medical directors of its hospitals giving them power for emergency procurement and accounting as per the Disaster Management Act. “In view of surge of Covid-19 cases in Delhi, the health department was authorised to carry out emergency procurement and accounting as per section 50 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005,” the order said. However, in a simultaneous order, the medical directors were asked not to purchase oxygen cylinder and oxygen concentrators as peer previous order as the central procurement agency was doing it. The CPA is in the process of procuring 21,000 oxygen cylinders and 3,000 oxygen concentrators — a device that selectively removes nitrogen from the ambient air to make it 93% concertrated oxygen for a patient. These would then be supplied to the hospitals. The government had directed the hospitals to ensure all their beds provided oxygen support.
HT Correspondent n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: The five-day mandatory institutional quarantine order by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Friday evoked sharp responses from across the political spectrum in Delhi with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) calling it a “dictatorial” decision. The order was, however, withdrawn on Saturday evening after the government held two meetings with Baijal. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia thanked the L-G in a tweet following the announcement. “We have been able to clear all the doubts that the L-G had regarding home isolation. Home isolation will now continue. We thank the L-G for this. Under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, we will not allow any Delhi resident to suffer,” Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi. “In the same order, the L-G had discontinued the services of a private company which had been providing counselling to those under home isolation. For now, the service will continue till Monday. It will be discussed under
We have been able to clear all the doubts that the L-G had... Home isolation will now continue.
›
MANISH SISODIA, Delhi deputy CM
after the health department is ready with alternatives,” the deputy CM tweeted. During the day, senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh addressed a press conference and questioned why the L-G was formulating “different rules” for Delhi. “The ICMR [Indian Council of Medical Research] guidelines being implemented throughout the country state that Covid positive patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms will be allowed to practice home isolation. Why are different rules being formulated for Delhi? This is a dictatorial decision,” he said. Earlier this month, the L-G had disagreed with the state government’s decision allowing only Delhi residents Covid-19 treatment at Delhi government-run hospitals and private ones. Baijal
had overruled the Delhi government’s order and instructed hospitals to accept all patients. Referring to the 503 railway coaches deployed as isolation wards across nine stations in Delhi, Singh said these coaches were not in a good condition. “They are like hot furnaces without any air-conditioning. It is not feasible to live there at 47 degree celsius,” he said. But Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary said the removal of home isolation had been a repeated demand of his party. “We had suggested the government and L-G that home isolation is not possible for marginalised people. But the government has to make sure there are adequate facilities at quarantine centres so that people don’t suffer,” he said. During the day, BJP Delhi President Adesh Gupta said the L-G’s order was necessary because there were many families in Delhi which stay in one or two-room houses. “In such a scenario, home isolation can be dangerous and can put others living in that house at risk. This is why L-G took the decision,” he said.
hindustantimes
SUN DAY H IN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
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CORONAVIRUS: METRO
Covid treatments at pvt hospitals to get cheaper REVISION Rates apply to all Covid beds for up to 60% of total hospital capacity
Satyendar Jain’s health improves after being given plasma therapy
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NEWDELHI: The Delhi government
said on Saturday that beds for Covid-19 patients at private hospitals will be subsidised, with treatment charges being reduced by 60-67%. The new rates, to be charged by all private hospitals with immediate effect, will be applicable to all Covid-19 beds at a private hospital for up to 60% of its total capacity. “100% COVID beds shall be subsidised up to an upper limit of 60% of total hospital capacity,” Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, cleared the move. The rates now have been capped between ₹8,000 (nonNABH accredited hospitals) and ₹10,000 (NABH accredited hospitals including entry level facilities) a day for an isolation bed, ₹13,000-15,000 a day for a bed at an intensive care unit (ICU), and ₹15,000-18,000 a day for an ICU bed with ventilator. Until this order was issued on Saturday evening, the fee for an isolation bed in Delhi was ₹24,000-25,000 a day. For an ICU bed, it was ₹34,000-43,000 a day, while an ICU bed with ventilator was ₹44,000-54,000 a day. A senior government official said the cap of up to 60% of the total beds in private hospitals means that hospitals such as Moolchand, Fortis, etc., which have been declared as 100% Covid-19 hospitals will also have to offer the new subsidised rates to 60% of the beds. A second senior government official said that the health department is also going to issue an order making it mandatory for all private hospitals in Delhi to reserve 40% of their beds for Covid-19. The decision was taken at a meeting of DDMA on Saturday. Like the decision on the five-day
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Medical staff interact with visitors outside the Covid-19 ward at Lok Nayak hospital on Saturday. SANJEEV VERMA/HT PHOTO
mandatory institutional quarantine for all Covid-19 positive cases, this, too, was a point of disagreement between the L-G and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during the DDMA meetings held on Saturday. Kejriwal is the vicechairperson of the DDMA. The Covid treatment rates were recommended by an expert panel headed by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul. “The rates approved by the committee would be applicable to all Covid beds up to the upper limit of 60% of the total bed capacity of the private hospitals. The L-G also directed that the hospitals would follow the National Guidelines on admission of COVID-19 patients… The L-G directed that best quality of clinical care should be provided to all patients. He advised that the health department should ensure adherence to quality of care by the hospitals/ Laboratories as per standards. An efficient system for feedback and grievance redressal should be put in place by the Health Department to strictly ensure implementation of the recommendations of the High Level Expert Committee,” the LG office said in a statement.
Representatives of private hospitals said they have been under stress to maintain staff and infrastructure in view of the increased demand for beds due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “While we fully support the need for transparency of pricing, hospitals are incurring considerably increased expenses on both non-Covid and Covid patient care. It is important to ensure there is no compromise in the quality of care or the safety of health care professionals,” Fortis hospital said in a statement. Another representative of a private hospital, asking not to be named, said: “The hospital now has to invest for at least double the staff. Earlier, if there were 200 nursing staff needed, now we need at least double that because they have to undergo quarantine after duty. Plus, when you ask someone to risk their lives they want a higher salary. How are the hospitals supposed to remain viable if the government imposes such price caps?” An order issued by the health department on Saturday evening read that the rates recommended for private hospitals beds would be inclusive of all charges. The
package rates will include bed, food, and other amenities, monitoring, nursing care, doctor’s visits/consultations, investigations including imaging, treatment as per national protocol for Covid care and standard care for co-morbidities, oxygen, blood transfusion and so on. “Since many of the Covid patients have conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, etc, the charges for medical care of such co-morbidities will be a part of the package. This would include short-term haemodialysis as a part of acute care during the current admissions,” the order read. The rates, the order stated, would not cover experimental therapies (ramdesivir, for example). “The charges will not include the cost of Covid-19 diagnostic test(s) as well as IL-6 levels. The proposed charges wil apply to paediatric patients as well. For pregnant women, cost for delivery (normal/c-section) and care of new born would be charged by the hospital extra as per prevailing PMJAY rates of relevant packages,” the order read. The Delhi government in a statement said the Central government Committee had recommended the rates, but it was limited to 60% of beds reserved for Covid patients in private hospitals. “As the Delhi government has asked private hospitals to reserve 40% of their beds for Covid patients as of now, this capping would have meant that only 24% of beds would have been price capped. CM Kejriwal put forward his views on this and strongly presented a case to price cap all the beds reserved for Covid in private hospitals. After deliberations, it was unanimously decided to price cap all the reserved beds for Covid patients which will benefit the common man and leave no scope for arbitrary overcharging,” the government said.
T O R E P O R T T O W O R K I M M E D I A T E LY
Delhi directs its hospitals to recall all staffers from leave HT Correspondent n
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Anonna Dutt n
Sweta Goswami
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NEW DELHI: Delhi health minister
Satyendar Jain’s condition has improved after receiving plasma therapy for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Friday night at Max hospital, Sa`ket. The minister’s fever has subsided and he is off oxygen support, according to hospital sources. He is currently stable and is being monitored by a team of critical care specialists in the hospital’s intensive care unit, according to sources. Convalescent plasma therapy uses a component of the blood called plasma, which is rich in virus-fighting antibodies, from someone who has recovered from the infection, to boost an infected person’s immunity. Jain, 55, had tested positive for the infection on Wednesday, after testing negative a day before that. He had been admitted to the Delhi-government-run Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Tahirpur on Monday night with a high-grade fever and low oxygen saturation. At the hospital, he had been on intermittent oxygen to manage the symptoms. He had developed pneumonia, a known complication of Covid-19. The minister, who has no comorbidities, started getting breathless and giddy on Friday morning. The infection usually causes severe symptoms in older people and those with comorbid conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, kidney or heart disease. A CT scan on Friday afternoon showed that the pneumonia patch in his lungs had increased. He was moved to the intensive care unit in the morning. As his symptoms worsened, the minister was shifted to Max hospital, Saket. Union home minister Amit Shah had on Friday tweeted, “Praying for the speedy recovery of Shri Satyendra Jain, Health Minister of Delhi who is battling with COVID-19 infection.”
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s health department has directed all hospitals and medical institutions under it to recall all their employees on leave and ask them to report for duty immediately. The special secretary of the health department SM Ali issued the order on Friday. A senior health department official has said that leave of any kind would only be granted under the “most compelling circumstances.” “…Issue directions to all staff who are on leave of any kind to immediately report for their duties in their concerned hospital or medical institution without fail,” the order read. The medical directors of bigger Delhi government hospitals reported the shortage of staff as one of the chief reasons for their
HOSPITALS HAVE SAID STAFF SHORTAGE IS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO EXPAND ICU SERVICES FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS inability to expand intensive care unit services for Covid patients. “We have asked everyone on leave to join back duty immediately and cancelled all leaves. With the rising number of Covid-19 cases, we will need more staff in the coming days,” said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital. To combat the challenges in the hospitals, the government on Thursday ordered that the final-year student pursuing their MD/MS/ DNB (post-graduate medical training) and final-
year students of undergraduate and post-graduate nursing will be hired for the next six months. “The students will help the doctors in various areas of the hospital. This will free up doctors for ICUs and other critical patients,” said Dr Kumar. Earlier this week, the health department had also issued another order that stated that action would be taken against health department staff not reporting to work. Only those who had tested positive for Covid-19 were allowed to remain in home isolation. This came at a time when the city’s health minister tested positive for the infection. Prior to this order, the director general of health services also had to undergo quarantine for fever As of Saturday, the national capital has recorded 56,746 Covid-19 cases, of whom 2,112 have died.
Govt to expand city ambulance fleet: 1,000 vehicles by June 31 Anonna Dutt n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: With the number of cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) rising in the city, the Delhi government plans to expand its ambulance fleet to 1,000 by June-end to meet the increasing demand. To augment the fleet, the government has also requested the police to provide 100 PCR vehicles to be used as ambulance. Four other companies have been asked to provide more ambulances to help the government reach the fleet strength of 1,000. In its communication to the companies and the police, the government has said, “Due to increasing number of calls in view of Covid-19, the fleet of ambulance is required to be augmented to up to 1,000 by June 30. Department of Health and Fam-
ily Welfare is striving to arrange for this additional requirement of ambulances at the earliest.” Currently, the state government through its Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) runs about 200 ambulances. Another 170 ambulances have been added through contracts with private ambulance companies and the Army. Of these, 163 are currently on ‘Corona duty’ ferrying patients from home to hospital, transfer between hospitals, and take people who don’t have personal vehicles to testing centres. As per data provided by the government in the daily health bulletin, there were 243 request calls for Covid-19 ambulances. “The requirement for ambulances has dipped a little after the lockdown. This is because now most people can use their own vehicles to take patients to hospi-
tals. However, the requirement is likely to pick up with the number of Covid-19 patients increasing and several needing hospitalisations,” said a health department official. So far, Delhi has 53,116 cases of Covid-19 and 2,035 people have died of it. The government anticipates that the number of cases is likely to touch 1 lakh by the end of the month and 5.5 lakh by the end of July. The government is also working to increase the number of phone lines for ambulance services. It has contacted WIPRO, the company that helped the government set up the modern control room in Laxmi Nagar to increase the number of telephone line to 60 from the current 30, “to minimise the call-waiting time for a citizen in need of ambulance services.”
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SUN DAY HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
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CORONAVIRUS: NATION
India’s Covid count crosses 4L, deaths reach 13k-mark CRISIS Becomes the 4th nation after the US, Brazil and Russia to cross the grim milestone; 3 states account for 60% cases HT Correspondent n
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NEW DELHI : The number of Cov-
id-19 cases in India exceeded 400,000 on Saturday, including at least 13,000 deaths, with the country reporting a record number of daily new cases and becoming only the fourth nation after the US, Brazil and Russia to cross the grim milestone. On Saturday, 15,813 people were diagnosed with Covid-19, in the country’s highest single-day spike that took the total tally to 411,500 cases. The pandemic appears to be accelerating in India at a time when most lockdown restrictions have been lifted to mitigate the economic impact of the restrictions that brought to a standstill most economic activity in the country. The latest 100,000 infections in the country have been recorded in just eight days – lower than the 10 days it took for the previous 100,000 infections and 15 days for the 100,000 cases before that mark. It took the country 78 days to cross the first 100,000 cases, a development experts attribute to the early imposition of the lockdown in India, when the country had just over 600 confirmed Covid-19 cases. About 75% of the total infections in India have been reported between May 19 and June 20, according to data collated by HT. Additionally, the positivity rate, or the average rate of samples testing positive for Covid-19 across the country, rose from 4.6% for the week ending May 17 to 7.8% for the week ending June 17. In absolute terms, 6.2% of the over 6.6 million samples have tested positive for the disease, according to latest data by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Out of these, 189,869 tests were conducted in the previous 24-hour period, ICMR said on Saturday morning. The increase in the testing capacity, coupled with the rise in the number of patients being diagnosed for Covid-19, is an indication of the virus’ prevalence in India, experts say. “It is only natural that if you test more, more people will test positive... India is currently at the ascending limb of the epidemic. We have not reached the peak [of infections] yet, and in this situation, this is what will happen [more people will test positive],” said Dr Lalit Kant, the former head of epidemiology and communicable disease at ICMR. The spread of the disease,
THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 Total confirmed cases including new cases added on June 20
UT J&K 5,834
New cases
Recovered cases
UT Ladakh 154
836
3,336
92
Arunachal Pradesh
117
135
Himachal Pradesh
Punjab 3,952
120
656
2,678
29
70
Haryana 480
390
5,128
15
56,746
3,630
2,301
31,294
14,537
381
124 1,450
201
43 539
142
4
8,880
1,189
1,368
7,503 2,024
64,153
Telangana 546
29
416
63
1,404
179
8.452
491
4,111
Puducherry
5,391
51
338
131
9
56,845
1,566
2,396
31,316
*Data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’s correspondents and news agencies. 'Cases reassigned to states' is as per data released by the MOHFW. This figure has not been included in the calculation for the daily new cases.
which originated in China late last year, crippled economies world over as countries put in place strict lockdowns and enforced social distancing norms to slow the infection’s rampage. The pathogen, named Sars-CoV-2 for its similarity to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome disease, has infected over 8.8 million people and claimed 464,294 lives globally. Experts say the pandemic is now in its third surge of the outbreak – the first being in China,
second in Europe and the US, and the latest thriving in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Peru and Chile along with India, Mexico and Russia. In India, the three worst-hit states Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu account for nearly 60% of the total infections, with the contagion largely establishing a strong foothold in urban hot spots such as Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. According to figures by state health departments, Maharashtra saw 128,205 Covid-19
13,531 7,865
441
Andaman and Nicobar 0
35
411,500 13,278 Total cases in India*
Deaths due to Covid-19
Tamil Nadu 127
10
3,534
Andhra Pradesh
129
Kerala 3,039
5,367
47
4,856
Karnataka 8,697
213
Odisha
3,506
Goa 754
140
657
Jharkhand
3,874
7,072
3
Bihar
Maharashtra 128,205
96
West Bengal
Chhattisgarh 58
32
Mizoram
Tripura
14
2,076
777 232
I N D I A
Dadar & Nagar Haveli 62
138
Manipur
18,702
Madhya Pradesh 11,724
3
Meghalaya
Gujarat 26,737
102
Nagaland
17,237 635 10,369
11,274
21
5,006 3,203
Uttar Pradesh
Rajasthan
Assam
316
Uttarakhand
DELHI
14
Sikkim
405
Chandigarh
10,223
32
patients in the state and 5,984 deaths till Saturday. At 56,845 cases, Tamil Nadu — the second worst-hit state in the country — has less than half of Maharashtra’s tally, and 704 mortalities. New Delhi reported 56,746 positive patients and 2,112 fatalities linked to the disease. On Saturday, the total fatalities across the country stood at 13,278, reflecting a case fatality rate – defined as the proportion of deaths to the total infected patients – of 3.2%, much lower
9,265
Cases being reassigned to states
than the global rate of around 5.2%. Data also showed that 228,145 patients or 55.4% infected so far have recovered from the respiratory illness in India. According to public health experts, controlling the number of deaths due to the disease – that particularly affects the elderly and those with existing medical ailments — is key to controlling the outbreak and will determine if the health infrastructure in the country will withstand the disease burden or buckle under it.
PM launches ₹50k-cr jobs scheme to help migrants HT Correspondent n
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NEWDELHI: Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi on Saturday launched a ₹50,000 crore rural jobs programme, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan aimed at creating livelihoods for thousands of jobless migrant workers who moved back from the cities to their home villages during the lockdown imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) The make-work scheme, which will utilise existing rural infrastructure programmes, will offer 125 days of employment in 116 districts across six states that have witnessed large-scale reverse migration of workers from the cities, triggering a livelihood crisis. India’s jobless rate rose to over 20% during the lockdown in which period, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring of the Indian Economy. The new scheme will fund 25 categories of public infrastructure facilities, such as laying fibre optic cable for rural internet, railway work, sanitation, waste management, poultry and farm ponds. Krishi Vigyan Kendras will train the workers in horticulture. Twelve ministries or departments—rural development, panchayati raj, transport, mines, drinking water, environment, railways, petroleum, new and renewable energy, border roads, telecom and agriculture— will participate in the scheme. “Today is historic day as a massive campaign has kickstarted for the welfare of the poor, for their employment,” the prime minister said, launching the scheme via video conference. “It is our endeavour that through this campaign, workers are given work near their homes.” The programme launched from Telihar village of Bihar’s
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Migrant workers queue up to board a special train to their homes, at the Old Delhi railway station on May 30. SANJEEV VERMA/HT PHOTO
Khagaria district will cover 116 districts across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said on Thursday that the scheme will not involve new budgetary allocation. The 25 schemes will be “front-loaded” or funded from current budgetary allocations, she had said. Although there is no official data on the reverse migration sparked by the pandemic shutdowns, the finance minister had on May 14 allocated ₹3,500 crore for food aid to an estimated 80 million migrant workers. This is the only official estimate available for the number of workers affected by the pandemic. According to chief minister Nitish Kumar, nearly three million migrant workers have returned to Bihar alone since the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the Centre to order a lockdown with effect from March 25. During the launch, the PM interacted with several people who came back home to Bihar from places including Delhi, Gurugram (Haryana) and Rajasthan. Union minister of rural development Narendra Singh Tomar, Bihar CM and UP chief
S TAT E D E AT H T O L L C R O S S E S 6 K
Maha records 3,874 fresh cases Surendra P Gangan n
[emailprotected]
MUMBAI: For the third consecutive
day, Maharashtra recorded its highest 24-hour jump in coronavirus cases with 3,874 more infections on Saturday, taking the tally to 1,24,331. Mumbai, the worst affected city, recorded its highest single-day spike in deaths with 136 fatalities taking the tally to 3,561. The state’s Covid-19 death toll also rose by 160 pushing the fatality count to 6,053. India’s worst-affected city, Mumbai, reported 1,190 new cases with case count reaching 65,329. Of the deaths reported on Saturday, 10 were in Jalgaon and 6 in Aurangabad, besides 136 in Mumbai.
The state’s recovery rate is 50.04%, as 64,153 patients are reported to have recovered so far, with 1,380 patients discharged on Saturday. The recovery rate in the state stands at 4.67%. The total number of discharged patients in Mumbai was 32,867, with a recovery rate of 50%. Active cases in the city stood at 28,893. The mortality rate in the city as of Saturday was 5.45%, and the doubling rate has reached 34 days. Dharavi, one of the critical hotspots in Mumbai, reported its lowest number of cases since the first week of April. On Saturday, only seven cases were recorded, taking the total count of the area to 2,158, with 80 deaths reported so far. A makeshift 1,000-bed Covid-19 hospital has been set up in
coronadiary
facetoface JAIRAM THAKUR, Himachal Pradesh CM
‘Surge in cases in Himachal but not at the pace as in other states’
H
imachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur is facing the twin challenges of battling the Covid-19 pandemic and bickering within the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In an interview with Chetan Chauhan, Thakur spoke about how the state has kept the Covid-19 numbers low and his plans to revive the economy. Edited excerpts:
How has Himachal dealt with Covid-19? In Himachal, corona has increased but not at the pace as in other states. In Himachal, we continued with curfew to explain to people in simple terms that they don’t have to go out. Strict implementation helped as it did not allow spread of Covid till Tablighi Jamaat attendees returned in April first week. Despite that, management within the state was so good that we didn’t allow the cases to increase. We formed a team of 16,000 personnel, who went to all 70 lakh homes, and took health details of all.
So why has the number of cases increased to about 615? When Himachalis from other states start returning in May, cases increased. On May 1, we had one Covid positive case. When the PM held a video conference with all CMs, he
told all of us to ensure that migrants are able to return home safely. We brought back people from across India and students from Kota{coaching schools} also came back. Now there are 615 cases. We have a mechanism to ensure every returnee is kept in institutional quarantine and is tested.
PM has spoken about unlock norms. In Himachal, tourism and horticulture are two important cogs of the state’s economy. How do you plan to revive them? Tourism in Himachal and the entire world is badly affected. ... Although we are getting calls that people want to come to Himachal, we have not given a relaxation in unlock norms, as Covid cases are still high outside Himachal... Our people have suffered as 55,000 people are directly employed and lakhs are indirectly employed {in tourism}. Home stay is a big income source, which is gone. Horticulture sector has been affected. Cherry season
went well. Apple season, which is ₹4,000 to 4,500 crore economy, has three important components --- packaging material, marketing and labour. We have started factories and are arranging for 2.5 crore apple packaging boxes. For selling, there can be an issue if Azadpur market (in New Delhi) is closed because of Covid. We have raised the issue with the PM and are working on the alternatives. Third is labour, most of which comes from Nepal. Nepalese workers go back to their homes in November-December... This year, many have not come back...
Former BJP state president Rajeev Bindal had to resign because of the alleged scam in purchase of personal protection equipment kits, which is said to be a result of internal bickering. It is not a big scam. We are trying to save every person and people have suffered because of Covid. In this, if someone tries to steal, there cannot be a bigger sin. Party president (Bindal) is not directly involved... The issue was that the director of health, who seemed to be seeking money (for award of PPE kit contracts) is considered close to him. When the opposition raised the issue, he (Bindal) resigned on moral grounds...We have conducted and inquiry and have taken the best possible action.
DAMAN SEALS GUJ BORDER AMID SPIKE
MP MEDICAL TEAM ABUSED, ATTACKED
J&K RECORDS 154 NEW COVID CASES
491 NEW CASES, 5 DEATHS IN ANDHRA
DAMAN: With eight new cases in Daman district of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu has gone up to 27, following which the administration has sealed the district’s border with Gujarat border for a few days, officials said on Saturday. Most of the 27 patients in Daman are factory workers who cross the border to work in industrial units at Vapi in neighbouring Gujarat and vice versa, the officials said.
MHOW (MP): A medical team was attacked on Saturday afternoon in Mhow in Madhya Pradesh when it arrived to collect samples of the family of a coronavirus disease Covid-19 victim, police said. The incident took place in Jafrabad village in Indore’s Mhow tehsil and probe was underway after the medical team filed a complaint, said Manpur police station in charge Hitendra Rathore.
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday recorded 154 fresh COVID-19 cases, including a policeman and 14 CRPF personnel, taking the total number of infected people in the union territory to 5,834, officials said. They said while 40 of the cases were from Jammu, 114 were from the valley. The cases detected on Saturday included 34 people who had returned to the union territory recently. “
AMARAVATI: Coronavirus cases went past the 8,000-mark in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday as 491 were added anew, taking the total to 8,452, even as the death toll rose to 101 with five deaths. The bulletin said 4,111 patients were discharged in the state so far, leaving 4,240 active cases. In the last 24 hours, 390 AP locals tested positive in the 22,371 tests conducted in the state, the bulletin said.
Experts warn against phishing attacks HT Correspondent n
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STAY ALERT
NEW DELHI: Millions of Indians
n Always pay close attention
could be targeted by fake emails, social media posts or texts messages related to Covid-19 in order to steal their credentials or compromise their computers, India’s official cybersecurity agency Cert-IN said in an advisory uploaded on Friday, citing a report from independent researchers who said the attack is being planned by North Koreabased cyber criminals. The alert is the latest in a series of warnings from cybersecurity firms across the world about hackers exploiting interest in the coronavirus disease pandemic to lure people into clicking on fake login pages or downloading malicious files that could create a backdoor in their computers. “The phishing campaign is expected to impersonate government agencies, departments and trade associations tasked to oversee the disbursement of the government fiscal aid,” the advisory by Cert-IN (Indian Computer
to addresses of email. Spelling or URL variations and typos are a red herring n Do not open attachments or click on links sent to you by anyone you do not know or from any service you did not request from n If you must open an attachment, download and scan it through an up-todate antivirus n Do not enter important ID numbers or financial data such as card numbers on unfamiliar or unknown websites
Emergency Response Team) said, citing a report by Singaporebased cybersecurity firm Cyfirma. Such campaigns usually have a financial motive since access to a person’s email account or their computers in entirety could allow the cybercriminals to break into
minister Yogi Adityanath were among those who were present. “It is of great necessity that high speed and cheap internet be provided in every rural household to help the youth and children,” Modi said. “...Hence the laying of fibre optic cable and provision of internet are also made a part of the Abhiyan.” “So far, you were using your talent for the progress of the cities. Now you will help in the development of your villages, your neighbourhoods,” PM said. Sitharaman had said that in 125 days, nearly 25 schemes will be brought together to reach saturation and will include the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Jal Jeevan Yojna and PM Gram Sadak Yojna, among others. Analysts say while an expansion of rural make-work projects is necessary to deal with the crisis, there are challenges in creating avenues for productive work. “I don’t think funding for such projects will be a challenge... However, finding useful projects that are productive enough and add value to the larger rural economy may be a challenge,” said Siraj Hussain, former Union agriculture secretary and a current visiting senior fellow with the think-tank ICRIER
people’s bank accounts. The potential for damage “is immeasurable”, Cyfirma’s CEO Kumar Ritesh said in response to questions over email. “When PII (personally identifiable information) is stolen, impersonation will take place where hackers can use your identity to commit all sort of crimes, or infiltrate corporate systems. For this particular phishing campaign, hackers are looking personal details / PAN no / communication address / health conditions,” he added. According to Cyfirma’s report, the attack is yet to begin and could involve two million email addresses that the cyber actor – identified as the well-known Lazarus group -- seem to have. The hackers, in particular, plan to capitalise on announcements of financial aid “to lure vulnerable individuals and companies into falling for the phishing attacks,” it said. Some of the other emails may pretend to be from authorities and offer people to sign-up for free Covid-19 testing. “As of time of reporting (18 Jun), we have not seen the phish-
ing or impersonated sites defined in the email templates. But our research shows the hackers were planning to set that up in the next 24 hours,” the report said. It was unclear how the email addresses of the Indian targets were compromised. “But it is fairly easy to scrape and steal email address from social media and other platforms...,” Ritesh said. The campaign was also planning to target people in US, UK, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, it added. The analysis carried purported screenshots of some of the phishing emails, which showed the text appeared to be signed by government officials. The mails could be sent through spoofed addresses – one of the addresses it could be from is [emailprotected] – and could include links or files that can deliver malicious code. Some of these attacks involve state-based actors, and cyber threat analysts have highlighted the risks Indian citizens face due to inadequate data protection safeguards.
the premises of engineering company Richardson and Cruddas in Byculla, according to BMC. In a statement on Saturday, the civic body informed that of the 1,000 beds, 300 are ICU beds with oxygen supply and other facilities. The hospital will be ready to use by the end of June. State authorities, however, are wary about the rapid spread of the virus in some parts of the state, mainly because of the weak health infrastructure. “We could contain the spread well in Mumbai, but the curve is disturbed due to the cases in other parts of the state. CMUddhav Thackeray has asked the district collectors and civic chiefs to pull the socks and contain the spread...,”an official said.
Day after RS polls, BJP MLA, wife test Covid +ve in MP Ranjan n
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BHOPAL: A Bharatiya Janata Party
legislator and his wife tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday a day after he cast his vote during the Rajya Sabha polls held at the assembly premises on Friday, according to legislators from Congress and BJP. The MLA had also attended the BJP legislature party meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. The MLA happens to be the second legislator in the state to be infected with Covid-19. Earlier, a Congress MLA tested positive for the virus. He turned up in a personal protective equipment (PPE) kit in the state assembly on Friday afternoon to cast his vote. He, however, had been given the facility of a postal ballot that he didn’t go for, legislators said. The state Congress has accused the BJP MLA of putting in peril the life of other legislators including chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who chaired the BJP legislature party meetings . State Congress spokesperson Ajay Yadav said, “We have learnt that the BJP MLA got samples of his wife and himself tested for coronavirus two days back but still he attended the BJP legislature party meetings. He has committed a grave offence by concealing the information about his health and should be booked.” “When my wife complained about fever, we got our samples tested on Friday. Now we are going to be hospitalised,” the MLA said over phone. As many as 206 MLAs cast their votes on Friday during the Rajya Sabha polls.
hindustantimes
SUN DAY H IN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
HTSPOTLIGHT
CORONAVIRUS: NATION
Int’l flights to depend on demand: Puri Anisha Dutta n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: A decision on the
resumption of international passenger flights will depend on demand and other countries being open to receiving flights amid the Covid-19 pandemic, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday, and overseas operations to North America where demand is higher may be the first to restart, according to a senior official. At the same time, Puri was hopeful that domestic flights would reach full capacity by the end of the year. “Any suggestion that international air traffic has opened up in other countries and we are the only ones not to open up needs a reality check. The exact time we resume international flights depends on other countries being open to receive flights,” Puri said at a press conference on Saturday. India has suspended international passenger flights since March 22 in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19.
T’gana reimposes restrictions in govt offices amid spike
THE MINISTER SAID THAT INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT OPERATIONS ALSO DEPEND ON AIRSPACES BEING OPEN AND ACCEPTANCE BY DESTINATIONS International flight movement in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, China, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates now varies between 3% and 18% of their earlier flight capacity, Puri said.The minister said that international flight operations depend on airspaces being open and acceptance by destinations. “Many countries decided that they were not going to allow nationals from other countries except their own. We also went with the same position,” Puri said. He added that entry to the US, UK, France, China, UAE and Singapore was conditional. “We
cannot have normal civil aviation operations under such conditions. We are left with no option but to continue with evacuation and repatriation flights under controlled conditions. We are constantly trying to expand both domestic and Vande Bharat flights {to bring back Indians stranded abroad} and eventually resuming flights to pre-Covid operational capacities,” he added. The minister added that nearly 275,000 stranded Indians have been brought back so far, adding that 109,000 Indians were brought back via Air India alone. During Phase 3 and Phase 4 of the Vande Bharat mission, private domestic airlines have been mandated to operate 750 international flights along with 300 Air India flights that will be added in the coming days, Puri said. India may resume international flights on routes with relatively higher demand first, other officials said. “Both ends have to be ready and there has to be traffic if international operations are to begin. There is a significant amount of
VA N D E B H A R AT M I S S I O N
2 China-bound flights to bring back Indians
Srinivasa Rao Apparasu n
[emailprotected]
HT Correspondent n
[emailprotected]
HYDERABAD: With the Covid-19 sit-
uation in Telangana turning from bad to worse, affecting state government employees, politicians and even bureaucrats, the state government on Saturday issued fresh guidelines, tightening restrictions in workplaces. According to a circular issued by chief secretary Somesh Kumar, the state secretariat and all the other state-level government offices will function with reduced manpower, comprising those who would attend to their duties on a staggered basis. While 50% of office subordinates, data entry operators and other Class-IV employees will come to work every alternate week, only 50% of the clerical staff and their superiors, including assistant section and section officers, will come to their respective offices on alternate days.
NEW DELHI: India has arranged two flights to bring back Indians stranded in China because of the Covid-19 pandemic in the third phase of Vande Bharat Mission, against the backdrop of heightened tensions between the two sides over a border standoff. There will be close to 600 flights in the third phase of Vande Bharat Mission, the country’s largest operation to repatriate its nationals from around the world. Several hundred Indians were evacuated from China, including Wuhan, in special flights shortly after the Covid-19 outbreak, though China wasn’t included in the first two phases of the repatriation programme. The first flight to China under the third phase was scheduled for 10pm on June 20 from Shang-
05
hai to Delhi and the second for 10.40am on June 29 from Guangzhou to Delhi. The flights are expected to repatriate a total of almost 490 Indian nationals, according to a schedule on the external affair ministry’s website. Tensions between and India and China spiked after a violent face-off between border troops of the two sides at Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on June 15 left 20 Indian soldiers dead. India has said the violence occurred when Indian soldiers foiled attempts by Chinese troops to erect structures after transgressing the LAC. More than 50,000 Indians were living and working in mainland China as of early 2019. The third phase of Vande Bharat Mission, which started on June 11, will cover 41 countries and involve flights operating from 55 international airports.
traffic between India and the North American continent. We may think of opening flights on a case-to-case basis,” civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said. Puri said the government was ready to expand the capacity on domestic routes from 33% (at present) to 45% depending on the states. “At present we have allowed only 33% flights to operate. Flights are not operating with full capacity even now. We will open more routes when there is more demand. We are ready to take it to up to even 40-45% capacity,” Puri added. The limits on airfares imposed on domestic flights may also be extended beyond August 24, officials said. “Depending on how the situation turns out, the fare band may have to adjusted beyond that (August 24) also. But right now, it is only for three months,” Kharola said. The Centre capped airfares of domestic flights that resumed from May 25 with fixed lower and upper limits.
Over 3,000 active cases in K’taka, 416 new infections BENGALURU: The total number of active cases of Covid-19 in Karnataka crossed the 3,000 mark on Saturday, as the state reported 416 new infections and nine related deaths, taking the tally to 8,697 and the death toll to 132. The day also saw 181 patients getting discharged after recovery. After Udupi and Kalaburgi, Bengaluru urban has become the third district to cross the 1,000 cases mark in the number of positive cases. As of June 20 evening, cumulatively 8,697 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 132 deaths and 5,391 discharges, the state health department said in its bulletin. It said that out of 3,170 active cases, 3,096 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 74 are in ICUs. Of the 416 new cases, 116 are returnees from other states.PTI
Glenmark plans Plea in SC against Rath Yatra order to launch antiviral drug for Covid-19 in next few days Murali Krishnan n
[emailprotected]
NEWDELHI: Janardhan Pattajoshi
Rhythma Kaul n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI : Glenmark Pharma-
ceuticals Limited plans to launch its antiviral drug Favipiravir, which produced improvement of up to 88% in mild to moderate coronavirus disease cases during clinical trials, across India by early next week, the company said on Saturday, making it the first oral antiviral available under emergency use authorisation to treat Covid-19 patients in the country. The drug, marketed under the brand name FabiFlu, will be marketed in some north Indian states by Saturday evening. Available in a pack of 34 oral tables of 200mg each for ₹3,500, the cost of the 14-day treatment will be around ₹14,000. The dosage regimen is 3,600 mg on day one, and 1,600 mg from day two onwards for a maximum 14 days. Emergency use means every patient must give his or her informed consent before starting treatment. “The company has already started production of the drug. In some states that are closer to our manufacturing unit in Baddi (Himachal) the drug will be rolled out by this (Saturday) evening, and across India we should be able to supply by early next week,” said Sujesh Vasudevan, president, India formulations, Middle East and Africa, at Glenmark. Experts in the field find the study results promising. “The initial data looks promising, and we will get to see how well it works once we start using it,” said a senior doctor treating Covid-19 patients in a private hospital on condition of anonymity.
EMERGENCY USE MEANS EVERY PATIENT MUST GIVE HIS OR HER INFORMED CONSENT BEFORE STARTING TREATMENT
Mohapatra, the hereditary chief servitor of Lord Jagannatha of the Jagannatha Temple in Puri, moved the Supreme Court on Friday seeking the recall of the top
court’s June 18 order which had barred the holding of the annual Hindu festival of Rath Yatra this year in view of the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Any interruption in the observance of this mandatory religious practice affects the very sanctity of the temple and all its future rituals,
as well as the faith of millions of devotees across the world,” the application stated. Mohapatra, therefore, suggested that instead, they could hold the festival without public participation by imposing a curfew in the city of Puri and closing its borders.
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hindustantimes
SUN DAY HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
HTSPOTLIGHT
LAC STANDOFF
After clash, experiment in engagement will stop
Army amends rules to give soldiers ‘freedom of action’ AT THE LAC The commanders will no longer be bound by restrictions on the use of firearms Rahul Singh n
[emailprotected]
NEWDELHI:A significant change in rules of engagement (ROE) by the Indian Army following the Galwan Valley skirmish that left 20 Indian soldiers dead gives “complete freedom of action” to commanders deployed along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) to “handle situations at the tactical level,” two senior officers said on Saturday on condition of anonymity. The commanders will no longer be bound by restrictions on the use of firearms and will have full authority to respond to “extraordinary situations” using all the resources at their disposal, said an officers cited above. The ROE were amended after Indian and Chinese soldiers engaged in their first deadly conflict in 45 years in Galwan Valley on June 15, resulting in 20 Indian deaths and several Chinese casualties. In his remarks during an allparty meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the army had been given the freedom to take necessary steps along the border and India had conveyed its position (to China) through
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An official at a checkpoint near Ladakh on June 17.
diplomatic means. “With the changes in the ROE, there’s nothing that limits the ability of Indian commanders to take whatever action they deem necessary on the LAC. ROE have been amended to address the brutal tactics being employed by Chinese troops,” said the second officer cited above. Changes in ROE were imminent after a series of violent clashes along the border, with the army finally deciding not to restrict the scope of response of its soldiers after the June 15 clash, the second officer said.
WASEEM ANDRABI/HT
“Two violent clashes took place in Pangong Tso (May 5-6) and Galwan Valley (around midMay) before the June 15 skirmish in eastern Ladakh. On all occasions, they came in huge numbers and assaulted our troops with iron roads and nail-studded clubs. Our troops fought back fearlessly but the ROE had to be revisited,” he said. The government said on Thursday that soldiers involved in the June 15 clash with Chinese troops were carrying weapons and ammunition but did not open fire as they were following border
agreements between the two countries -- a remark that came in response to a question from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on whether the Indian soldiers were sent in “unarmed”. “Let us get the facts straight. All troops on border duty always carry arms, especially when leaving post. Those at Galwan on 15 June did so. [It is a] longstanding practice (as per 1996 & 2005 agreements) not to use firearms during faceoffs,” external affairs minister S Jaishankar tweeted. The border agreements from 1996 and 2005 between India and China disallow the use of firearms during face-offs. Article 6 of the agreement on confidencebuilding measures in the military field along the LAC, signed by India and China in November 1996, states that both sides will not open fire or “conduct blast operations or hunt with guns or explosives within two kilometers from the Line of Actual Control”. “Since soldiers are allowed to carry weapons while patrolling LAC, it is inherent that they can use firearms in unprecedented situations like the attack in Galwan Valley,” said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd).
Pompeo says China ‘rogue actor’ in region Yashwant Raj n
[emailprotected]
WASHINGTON:US Secretary of State
Michael Pompeo has blamed China for escalating tensions along the border with India and called it a “rogue actor” in the neighbourhood, and indicated he may have raised the dispute and other such flashpoints in his meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, earlier in the week. “The PLA has escalated border tensions – we see it today in India, the world’s most popular – populous democracy,” Pompeo said referring to the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military.
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Mike Pompeo
“And we watch as it militarises the South China Sea and illegally claims more territory there, threatening vital sea lanes, a promise they broke again” “But the CCP isn’t just a rogue actor in its own neighbourhood,” he added, referring this time to the Chinese Communist Party.
“If it was, we might think differently about it. It impacts us all. “ The top US diplomat was participating in a virtual conference of the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Friday. Pompeo went on to say, “What I spent a good deal of my time speaking with Yang Jiechi about was the fundamental idea that we’re just watching actions. It’s no longer enough to listen to what the Chinese Communist Party is saying. We can see their actions. I ticked through a few of them: Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, what they’re doing in India, what they’ve done in the economic zones along the Philippines and Malaysia and Indonesia and Viet-
nam, the coercion on Australia – when they had the audacity to demand that there would be an investigation of how this virus got from Wuhan to Milan, how this virus got from Wuhan to Tehran, how this virus got from Wuhan to Oklahoma City, and to Belgium and to Spain, and decimating the global economy.” The readout issued of the meeting by the state department did not have such granular details. But, again, it was not explicit from Pompeo’s remarks at the virtual conference if he did indeed bring up the India-China border clashes specifically or in a general way, covering all of China’s aggressive actions.
Fully prepared for any contingency, says air force chief HT Correspondent n
BEYOND THE NEWS
RKS Bhadauria
[emailprotected]
HYDERABAD: India is not expecting a war with China on the border issue, but it is fully prepared to meet any contingency arising out of the conflict on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria said in Hyderabad on Saturday. The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief said India will always be prepared to defend its territories. His remarks came against the backdrop of the biggest confrontation with China in decades in which 20 soldiers, including a colonel, were killed in the Galwan valley on June 15. “It should be very clear that we are well-prepared and suitably deployed to respond to any contingency. I assure the nation that we are determined to deliver and will never let the sacrifice of our braves of Galwan go in vain,” he said, addressing 123 newly graduated IAF cadets, including 19 women cadets, at the Air Force Academy at Dundigal. He also interacted with reporters after reviewing the combined graduation parade. Bhadauria said the air force, for tactical reasons, cannot disclose where and how the deployments will be made. “We know what their (Chinese) fields are. We know what their air fields are, where they are deployed, what are the operational bases,” he said. Replying to a query on his assessment of the LAC situation, he said the army was in full control of the situation at Galwan valley. Bhadauria said: “You are aware of the talks that are happening at the military level...but we are prepared for any contingency.” At the same time, he said all efforts are being made to resolve the situation peacefully.
PRAMIT PAL CHAUDHURI
O
ver the past seven years, Xi Jinping has repeatedly told Indian leaders he wants a different and better relationship with India. New Delhi was baffled that events on the ground seemed to belie the Chinese leader’s pronouncements. It is assumed Galwan Valley marks the end of any belief Beijing genuinely seeks a “new paradigm” in the bilateral relationship. Xi first signalled his interest in 2013 when he met then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the BRICS summit in South Africa. Next year, he told the incoming Indian ambassador Ashok Kantha, he saw improving ties as a “historic mission” and saw the two working together on global issues. Says Kantha, “Unusually, Xi personally took charge of the India policy. When the foreign minister visited India he was given the additional title of Xi’s special emissary.” The Chinese leader asked to become the first foreign leader to meet the newly elected Narendra Modi. A military confrontation in Ladakh took place the day the visit began. Xi told Modi he had no knowledge of the event. Beijing, through various channels, later sent word rogue elements in the military were to blame. This was not impossible. Xi was in the midst of a brutal purge of the People’s Liberation Army officer corps. The local commander in Ladakh was subsequently removed. The honeymoon of possibility continued through 2015. Even though “relations took a dip in 2016-17” says Kantha, Xi never changed his tune about the relationship. He spoke of changing relations in over a dozen meetings with Modi, ranging from the G-20 summit in Germany to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Kazakhstan. A message of a glorious future together was echoed at diplomatic levels and even at Sino-In-
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´FdV¨F¸FFa¨F»F d½Fôb°F d½F°FSX¯F d³F¦F¸F d»F. A»´FIYF»Fe³F BÊX-d³Fd½FQF AF¸FaÂF¯F ÀFc¨F³FF: d³F¸³F IYF¹FÊ WZX°Fb BÊX-MZaOXdSaX¦F IZY ¸FF²¹F¸F ÀFZ A»´FIYF»Fe³F BÊX-d³Fd½FQF AF¸FadÂF°F W`:- (1) d³Fd½FQF d½FdVFáXeIYSX¯F ÀFa£¹FF: 02/d½F.ªFF.d½F.£F./¦FF.¶FFQ/2020-21; 33/11 IZY.½Fe. CX´FIZÔYýi ÀFbQF¸FF´FbSXe, ¦FFdªF¹FF¶FFQ IZY d³F¹FaÂF¯F IYÃFY·F½F³F IYF d½FÀ°FFSX E½Fa A³¹F ªFF³F´FQe¹F IYF¹FÊÜ A½Fd²F: 2 ¸FFWX, d³Fd½FQF ¸Fc»¹F: ÷Y. 1180.00, ²FSXûWXSX ²F³FSXFdVF: ÷Y. 16,000.00, d³Fd½FQF £Fb»F³FZ IYe dQ³FFaIY 06.07.2020 Ü d³Fd½FQF ·FF¦F-1 (d³Fd½FQF SXFdVF, ²FSXûWXSX SXFdVF), d³Fd½FQF ·FF¦F-2 (MZX¢³Fû IYFG¸FdVFʹF»F VF°FZË E½Fa Credentials) °F±FF d³Fd½FQF ·FF¦F-3 (´FiFBÊXÀF d¶FOX) d³Fd½FQF £Fb»F³FZ IYe d°Fd±F IYû 10.00 ¶FªFZ °FIY BÊX-MZX³OXdSaX¦F ½FZ¶FÀFFBÊXMX www.etender.up.nic.in ´FSX A´F»FûOX IYe ªFF¹FZ¦FeÜ d³Fd½FQF ·FF¦F-1 E½Fa ·FF¦F-2 CXÀFe dQ³F 16.00 ¶FªFZ IZY ¶FFQ AFG³F»FFBX³F £Fû»FZ ªFFEÔ¦FZÜ IÈY´F¹FF ½FZ¶FÀFFBXMX www.pvvnl.org E½Fa www.etender.up.nic.in ´FSX d½FÀ°FFSX ¸FZÔ ÀF·Fe ªFF³FIYFSXe E½Fa d½F½FSX¯F/OXFCX³F»FûOX °F±FF A³¹F dIYÀFe ·Fe ´FiIYFSX IZY ÀFaVFû²F³F/d½FÀ°FFSX IZY d»FE d³Fd½FQF £Fb»F³FZ IYe dQ³FFaIY ÀFZ ´FWX»FZ °FIY »FFG¦F AFG³F IYSmÔXÜ IÈY´F¹FF d½FÀ°FÈ°F ªFF³FIYFSXe WZX°Fb www.pvvnl.org/www.etender.up.nic.in QZ£ûÔÜ Ad²FVFFÀFe Ad·F¹Fa°FF, d½Fôb°F ªFF³F´FQ d½F°FSX¯F £F¯OX, WXFBÊXdOX»F IYF»Fû³Fe, IYd½F³F¦FSX, ¦FFdªF¹FF¶FFQÜ WZX»´F »FFBÊX³F-09412207451 Ü kkSXFáÑX dWX°F ¸FZÔ d¶FªF»Fe ¶F¨FF¹FZÔllÜ ´FÂFFaIY: 325/d½F.ªFF.d½F.£Fa./¦FF.¶FFQ/MXe-2 dQ³FFaIY- 19.06.2020
MINOR FOREST PRODUCE PROCESSING & RESEARCH CENTRE (MFP-PARC)
(An ISO 9001:2015, EMS 14001:2015 & GMP Certified Unit) Van Parisar, Barkheda Pathani, Bhopal - 462021 (M.P.) UNIT OF M.P. STATE MFP CO-OPERATIVE FEDERATION LTD., BHOPAL (An undertaking Govt. of M.P. Co-operative) Tel. : (0755) 2970629, 2970630, Fax : (0755) 2970629 Visit at : www.vindhyaherbals.com, E-mail : [emailprotected] MFP-PARC/NIT/IA/2020/638 Date : 19.06.2020
Municipal Corporation, Kota (North/South) Rajeev Gandhi Bhawan, Dusshera Ground, Kota-324006 Email: [emailprotected], Website: www.kotamc.org Ph: 0744-2500197 S.No.: NNK/2020/GARAGE/588-601 Date: 19.06.2020 CORRIGENDUM-V E-Tender Notice No. 52/2019-20 and e-tender Addendum NNK/ Garage/2020/1743-49 was issued by Municipal Corporation Kota on 03.06.2020 on behalf of Kota Smart City Ltd. Revised E-Tender time Schedule are as follows which can be kindly seen for reference on www.sppp.raj.nic.in, http:// eproc.rajasthan.gov.in, kotamc.org
NOTICE INVITING TENDER FOR APPOINTMENT OF ZONAL INSTITUTIONAL AGENCY (Multiple States) The Minor Forest Produce Processing & Research Centre (MFP-PARC), Barkheda Pathani, Bhopal is a unit of M.P. State MFP Co-operative Federation Ltd. Bhopal, a Govt. of M.P. Co-operative undertaking, engaged in manufacturing and supply of Ayurvedic Medicines & Herbal Products under the brand name of Vindhya Herbals. We invite online tender bid for appointing ZONAL INSTITUTIONAL AGENCY (MULTIPLE STATES & MADHYA PRADESH) for Government/Institutional supply of Ayurvedic Medicines. The tender documents will be available on https:// mptenders.gov.in from 25.06.2020 (1700 hrs.) The Tender Document may also be downloaded from our website : www.vindhyaherbals.com for reference purpose only. The last date of online bid submission is 10.07.2020 up to 1700 hrs. M.P. Madhyam/97686/2020 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
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DISTRICT POLICE HEADQUARTERS KULGAM (J&K) KASHMIR
Phone/Fax No-01931260253 email: [emailprotected] e-Tender No. 02 of 2020 Dated: 17.06.2020
Subject:- e-tendering for supply of defense material, Building material and stores For and on behalf of Lt. Governor of J&K Union Territory, Superintendent of Police Kulgam invites e-tenders from suppliers/authorized dealers, registered firms and manufactures for supply of defense material, building material and stores. 1. The NIT consisting of qualifying information, eligibility criteria, specifications, bill of quantities (B.O.Q), set of terms and conditions of contract and other details can be seen/downloaded from the Govt. website www.jktenders.gov.in from 19.06.2020 (1000 hrs.). 2. The bidders shall deposit their bids in electronic format on the above website from 19.06.2020 (1000 hrs.) to 29.06.2020 (1600 hrs.). 3. The bid uploaded on the web Site up to due date and time will be opened on 30.06.2020 (1100 Hrs.) or any other convenient date in the office of SP Kulgam. 4. The intending bidders should keep a check on bid website for any change in quantity/quality/specifications/terms and conditions, if any. 5. The Tenders should be accompanied with CDR worth Rs. 100000/(Rupees One Lac only), cost of Tender documents worth Rs. 3000/pledged to Accounts officer District Police Kulgam. Sd/No. Acctts/E-tender/2020/23299-304 (Gurinderpal Singh-IPS) Dated: 17.06.2020 Superintendent of Police DIPK-NB-822/20 District Kulgam
S.No. Particular Before 1 Period of on line availability/ 17.03.2020 to receiving of bidding Documents 22.06.2020 (start/End Date) (upto 6.00 PM) 23.06.2020 2 Submission of Original Banker’s Cheque/Demand Draft for Bid (upto 2.00 PM) Document cost, bid security, Bid Processing Fee & Other documents listed herein after 3 Date & Time opening of tender 23.06.2020 Technical bid (4.00 PM) The remaining conditions will remain the same.
After 17.03.2020 to 07.07.2020 (upto 6.00 PM) 08.07.2020 (upto 2.00 PM)
08.07.2020 (4.00 PM) Sd/Commissioner Municipal Corporation, Kota
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Chinese President Xi Jinping with PM Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in China on September 4, 2016. REUTERS FILE
dian track two events. However, evidence of Xi’s rhetoric translating into action on the ground was scanty. China opened the door to SCO membership, but blocked India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The two sparred for influence in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Yet, Xi kept expressing a desire for what another ex-Indian ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, called the “new paradigm” in relations. Whether relations were half full or half empty was not always easy to determine given the underlying rivalry between the two countries. The Doklam border crisis nearly shuttered the attempts at rapprochement. But there was room for interpretation. China’s incursion was into Bhutanese territory and not covered by existing Sino-Indian border agreements. Had they miscalculated? After the incident, the local PLA commander simply disappeared. Why did India persist for so long? New Delhi wanted to build on the “peace and tranquillity” agreements that stretched back to 1993. “We were hoping for a kind of calm in the relationship that would keep the border quiet and allow the rest of it, economics, tourism and so on, to flourish,” says Bambawale. A stable China relationship would have been an enormous diplomatic gain for India, a prize well worth many efforts. False starts and dead ends are common in diplomacy. There was also a concern problems between the two countries were “accumulating”, says Kantha. “Problems were building up,” agrees Bambawale.
And then there was Xi and his repeated assurances. There were elements in the Chinese system, notably the military and intelligence services, known to be deeply hostile to India. Senior Indian officials say New Delhi hypothesized Xi was receiving negative inputs from them. After all, India had led the campaign against the Belt Road Initiative, the Quad had been revived and there was always Pakistan. Seeking an out-of-the-box solution, India came up with the idea of an informal summit. Don’t seek quick fixes for the intractable, like the border and trade issues. Instead, let Modi and Xi meet for several hours and, importantly, without bureaucratic filters. There was no question of being friends, but at least an attempt could be made to build trust at the highest level. “Bonhomie at the top sends signals down the system and things tend to go more smoothly down below,” said Bambawale. The blood shed in Galwan Valley has effectively ended this experiment in engagement. Multiple intrusions ranging across the entire Himalayan frontier would require the PLA’s western theatre command to have been involved. Say Indian officials these are senior officers who would have not moved without Xi’s okay. It may never be known whether Xi was genuine about changing the relationship and changed tack later or whether he simply was spinning a web of illusion from the start. Either way, a new paradigm in Sino-Indian relations has begun but not of the variety New Delhi had hoped for.
‘NO INTRUSIONS’
Soldiers exchanged after melee: Singh Smriti Kak Ramachandran n
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NEW DELHI: Former chief of army staff VK Singh, minister of state for road transport and highways, says the latest transgression by China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has created a trust deficit between the two Asian giants, but cautions that war should be the last resort. Asked what would be an apt response to the Chinese aggression, Singh said in an interview: “If you’re going to tell about the response now, then the response is of no use whatsoever. I am sure the required people have been tasked to think of what can be done, what cannot be done and what measures have to be taken.” “In the melee where there are over 600 people just jostling, scuffling, pushing and hitting each other and in a dark night some people got separated; their people on our side and our people on their side. But in the morning they were exchanged.” Singh added: “The first thing that has been given out is to boycott Chinese goods, let’s start with this. Let’s hurt them economically... War and use of force is the last resort always and every time. When all other means fail then you resort to this. There are
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VK Singh
many means available.” Singh’s comments come in the backdrop of outrage over the June 15 skirmish, in which Chinese troops attacked Indian troops. Singh said the situation was in control of Indian troops. “There are no intrusions. There are transgressions, not intrusions,” he said. On the May confrontation in Pangong Tso, he said: “ ... this is not just a yearly feature, but happens in the summer and sometimes in the winter also...the only difference this time is that the transgression has involved a certain amount of stealth ...they’ve done things which they have never done earlier.” Singh said subsequent negotiations centred on wherever there have been transgressions such as Patrol Point 14 where “they said LAC is not this way but is a different way”.
Chinese app pulls down India’s posts on conflict Sutirtho Patranobis n
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BEIJING:Chinese social media app, WeChat, has removed posts of the Embassy of India (EoI) regarding the India-China border conflict. It has cited “endangering national security” and “divulging state secrets” as the reasons for the removal of the posts. The EoI posts included Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the India-China border situation, details of a phone call between the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers held on Thursday and a statement by the external affairs ministry (MEA) spokesperson. For two of the posts, a pop-up window said that the posts were “deleted by the author”. For the third post, which was a statement
by the MEA spokesperson, the pop-up message read: “Unable to view this content because it violates regulations”. The regulations included: “endangers national security, divulges state secrets, subverts state power, or undermines national unity...”. This has come a day after a similar statement by the MEA spokesperson was deleted from the Embassy’s Weibo account. The Embassy had then issued a clarification saying that the post wasn’t removed by it. Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website. While the statements on WeChat were issued in English and Mandarin, the EoI’s Weibo account uploaded the MEA’s version of the events at the border in eastern Ladakh, in Chinese. WeChat is yet to respond to queries from HT on the issue.
hindustantimes
SUN DAY H IN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
HTSPOTLIGHT
07
LAC STANDOFF
India rejects China’s PLA commander common in standoffs Galwan Valley claim BEYOND THE NEWS
SHISHIR GUPTA
DISPUTE MEA says violent clash was triggered by Chinese actions Rezaul H Laskar
NEW DELHI: Some time after Presi-
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NEWDELHI:India again rejected on
Saturday China’s claim on Galwan Valley in Ladakh and reiterated the violent clash of June 15 was triggered by Chinese efforts to build structures on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control. The external affairs ministry dismissed claims made by China’s foreign ministry in a statement issued late on Friday night regarding both sovereignty over Galwan Valley and the genesis of the clash on Monday night that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the position with regard to Galwan Valley was “historically clear”. He added, “Attempts by the Chinese side to now advance exaggerated and untenable claims with regard to LAC were are not acceptable. They are not in accordance with China’s own position in the past.” Srivastava further said that the brawl of June 15 was the result of “violent actions” by Chinese troops after they were prevented by Indian soldiers from building structures on the Indian side of the LAC. He noted senior military commanders of the two sides had agreed during a meeting on June 6 on a process for de-escalation and disengagement along the LAC that “involved reciprocal actions”. “Both sides had agreed to respect and abide by the LAC and not undertake any activity to alter the status quo. However, the Chinese side departed from these understandings in respect of the LAC in the Galwan Valley area and sought to erect structures just across the LAC. When this attempt was foiled, Chinese troops took violent actions on June 15, 2020 that directly resulted in casualties,” he said. People familiar with developments said the term “just across the LAC” meant an intrusion into the Indian side of the disputed border but not at great depth. During his phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart
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An Army convoy on its way to Ladakh, June 18.
Wang Yi on June 17, external affairs minister S Jaishankar had conveyed India’s strong protest on “the events leading up to and on the violent face-off” on June 15. “He firmly rejected the unfounded allegations made by the Chinese side and the misrepresentation of the understandings reached between the senior [military] commanders. [Jaishankar] also underlined that it was for China to reassess its actions and take corrective steps,” Srivastava said. “We expect that the Chinese side will sincerely follow the understanding reached between the foreign ministers to ensure peace and tranquillity in the border areas, which is so essential for the overall development of our bilateral relations,” he added. The spokesperson reiterated that Indian troops scrupulously abide by the alignment of the LAC in all sectors, including in Galwan Valley, and the Indian side has “never undertaken any actions across the LAC”. He added Indian troops “have been patrolling” Galwan Valley for a long time without any incident. However, Srivastava said that since early May, the Chinese side had hindered India’s normal and traditional patrolling pattern in Galwan Valley and this resulted in a face-off that was addressed by ground commanders in line with bilateral agreements.
WASEEM ANDRABI/HT PHOTO
In mid-May, the Chinese side “attempted to transgress the LAC in other areas of the Western Sector” of border areas and these attempts were “invariably met with an appropriate response” from the Indian side. The two sides then engaged in discussions through diplomatic and military channels to address the situation. Late on Friday, China claimed Galwan Valley was on the Chinese side of the LAC and had been patrolled by its troops for “many years”. The claim was made in what was described as a “step by step account of the Galwan clash” by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. China’s People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) western command had in a statement issued on Tuesday initially claimed the region, saying: “The sovereignty of the Galwan River Valley has always been ours.” On Thursday, Srivastava had dismissed the PLA’s claim as “exaggerated and untenable”. Air Vice Marshal (retired) Manmohan Bahadur, additional director general of the Centre for Air Power Studies said: “There was never any question about the Galwan Valley and China’s claim on this region is untenable. There was no Chinese activity in the area, or we would have been briefed accordingly. It was well inside our side of the LAC.”
dent Xi Jinping landed in Ahmedabad on September 17, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broached the intrusion by Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Chumar. Modi asked President Xi to call back the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers or he would have to assume that the intrusion was with his knowledge. Modi broached the subject again the next day, this time in Delhi. There had been no change in the ground situation in Chumar, a remote corner of the dry desert plateau of the western Himalayas. President Xi said he was “sad” that tensions between the armies had “cast a shadow” on his visit. The PLA backed down after President Xi wrapped up his India visit and reached Beijing. The Doklam stand-off happened three years later, when
Haryana annuls tenders of two Chinese firms
GENERAL BEHIND SKIRMISHES Common fact: Doklam and Ladakh standoffs General Zhao Zongqi is the PLA’s Western Theatre Commander.
Gen Zhao, who has cultivated the reputation of being ruthless, joined the military when he was 15 and has consistently been moved up the ladder.
ments told Hindustan Times. For one, because the standoff was preceded by violent scuffles in two military districts before the bloody face-off on June 15. The first was a violent clash on May 5-6 between Indian and Chinese patrols on the northern bank of Ladakh’s Pangong Tso. Scores of soldiers -- from the Indian side and PLA’s Xinjiang
CHANDIGARH: The BJP-led Haryana government has decided to effect a trade ban on Chinese companies by annulling two tenders for installation of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems, a pollution controlling measure, at its thermal power plants at Hisar and Yamunanagar. The projects carried a financial implication of about ~780 crore. Top officials familiar with the matter said the lowest bidder for both the tenders were Chinese firms for the Hisar plant. The prices quoted by the Chinese bidders were very competitive, they said. “We are going for a fresh tender with changed conditions. Only companies registered in India will be eligible to participate as per terms and conditions of new tender,’’ said a top official.
military district -- were injured in the skirmish involving 250 men. A few days later, a second clash took place on May 9 when a heated confrontation between Indian and PLA soldiers from the Tibet military district in north Sikkim’s Naku La area again led to violence. Four Indian and seven Chinese soldiers were injured during the face-off
Rahul says PM surrendered Galwan Valley HT Correspondent
were our soldiers killed? 2. Where were they killed?” he tweeted. Gandhi also tagged the Prime Minister’s remarks, made at Friday’s all-party meeting called to discuss the situation at the IndiaChina border following violent clashes between troops of the two countries on June 15 in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. It was the first time since 1975 that India suffered combat fatalities in a skirmish with Chinese troops. Ten Indian soldiers detained by the Chinese side during the violent brawl of June 15 were later released after intense negotiations through diplomatic and military channels. Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday hit back at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his statement. Putting a video of the father of an injured army man on his Twitter account, Shah said, “A brave armyman’s father speaks and he has a very clear message for Mr
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Hitender Rao [emailprotected]
The 2016 restructuring of the PLA brought the entire Indian border under one command and not two as before.
The veteran of several wars has served 20 years in the Tibet Military District and is familiar with the Line of Actual Control under this district that includes the trijunction Bhutan-India-Tibet where the Doklam standoff took place.
SHAH HITS BACK
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Gen Zhao, who was stationed as commander of the 52nd Mountain Infantry Brigade, in 1992, focused on strengthening Tibetan border posts. By the time he was out of the Tibet Military Region in 2003, he had moved up as a Major General.
involving 150 soldiers. The third, on June 15, was the bloodiest and led to the first casualties along the LAC in 45 years. It is only at the level of the top commander that PLA soldiers under different military districts -- the Tibet and Xinjiang military districts -- would have responded with such striking similarity, an official said, referring to the skirmishes between soldiers in Sikkim and Ladakh in May. Both military districts report to Gen Zhao, who is believed to be directing much of the action along the Line of Actual Control. Officials, however, indicate that it was unlikely that Gen Zhao, who is not part of the Central Military Commission but has President Xi’s ears, would be acting on his own. This would explain, a diplomat said, why the Chinese army appeared to be taking steps to prolong the standoff even after the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed to implement the understanding reached between top army officers on June 6 on de-escalation of troops from both sides. Or why the June 15 violent scrap still took place.
NEW DELHI: The war of words between the opposition and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the border standoff with China in the Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh escalated on Saturday with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression. Union home minister Amit Shah soon hit back at Gandhi, advising him to rise above “petty politics” and stand in solidarity with national interest at a time when the whole nation is united. Gandhi’s remarks came a day after the Prime Minister stated that no intruder remained in India’s territory nor had any of its posts been captured. “PM has surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression. If the land was Chinese: 1.Why
Government of India Ministry of AYUSH
Gandhi. At a time when the entire nation is united, Mr Rahul Gandhi should also rise above petty politics and stand in solidarity with national interest.” Later in the day, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram asked the government to clarify its position. “The Prime Minister’s remark that no outsider was inside Indian territory in Ladakh had practically left everyone baffled and bewildered,” he said. Addressing a virtual news conference, Chidambaram said the PM’s remarks contradicted the earlier statements of army chief General MM Naravane, defence minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister S Jaishankar. He said even after the PM’s statement on Friday, China had blamed India for the June 15 clashes and re-asserted its claim to the entire Galwan Valley. “What is the government’s
answer to this claim? Now that China is claiming the entire Galwan Valley, will the government of India reject this claim? If it does not reject the Chinese claim today, it can have terrible consequences,” he said. BJP chief JP Nadda also hit out at the Congress, alleging that its leaders were demoralising the Indian army. “When we are fighting in Galwan, a leader is damaging the morale of forces with his tweets...,” he said. Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said while the nation stands with the government the people must be told the truth about the clash. “The nation stands with the govt against Chinese incursions. But was the incident in which our soldiers were martyred an incursion? If not then why did MEA ask for status quo ante? Is the Galwan Valley Indian or not? We do not need clarifications,” he tweeted.
Yoga for Harmony & Peace
“ Yoga is good for community, immunity and unity. In the midst of Corona crisis, Yoga has assumed even greater importance as it helps strengthen the respiratory system.”
21st
Narendra Modi
June 2020
Prime Minister
International Day of Yoga (IDY)
TToday, oday, from your home, join this global pursuit of health and well-being. Stand together in solidarity with the rest of the world at 7am today by joining the harmonious performance of Yoga from your home.
POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL EDUCATION & RESEARCH CHANDIGARH F.4118/Advt./AO/AIIMS/EI(2)-PGI-2020
Dated: 20.06.2020
NOTICE It is proposed to fill up 01 post of Administrative Officer on deputation basis for AIIMS Bathinda (Punjab) & Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) each in the pay scale of Level 10 as per 7th CPC at PGIMER, Chandigarh having following qualification/experience: “Officers under the Central/State Govt./U.T. Administration of the Central Statutory/ Autonomous Bodies holding analogous posts on regular basis or with at least 3/5 years of regular service in the post in the pay scale of Grade Pay of Rs. 4800/-/Rs. 4600 (further revised to “Level-8/Level-7” in the 7th CPC) or equivalent respectively and having a degree and experience in administration and establishment matters and also preferably account matters. Officers having M.B.A or Postgraduate Diploma in Personnel Management shall be given preference.” (The period of deputation shall not ordinarily exceed three years). The application duly filled by the applicant on the prescribed performa may be sent to the Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh through the Head of the Department/Institution/Organization by 21.07.2020 along with their ACR/APARs for the last five years and a certificate that no departmental/disciplinary proceedings are pending/being contemplated against the officer. Incomplete applications and the applications received after due date will be summarily rejected. 000405 DIRECTOR
# MY LIFE MY YOGA
#
JEEVAN
YOGA
For guidance on harmonious performance of Yoga based on Common Yoga Protocol tune into any of the following channels of Doordarshan at 6:15am today: DD National, DD News, DD Bharati, DD India, DD Urdu, DD Sports, DD Kisan, all Regional Languages Satellite Services (RLSS) Channels & all Regional Kendras You may also join live on the Facebook handle of the Ministry of AYUSH- facebook.com/moayush/ For more details about IDY- 2020 and CYP, check out: www.yoga.ayush.gov.in/yoga/ www.ayush.gov.in www.un.org/en/observances/yoga-day https://www.facebook.com/moayush
https://twitter.com/moayush
davp 17201/13/0004/2021
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EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Indian soldiers stopped the Chinese from building a road into the Doklam bowl. This would have allowed the Chinese military to move vehicles in South Doklam towards the Jampheri ridge that overlooks the Siliguri corridor. Quite like Chumar, the Doklam standoff had been initiated by local commanders and was escalated to top military commanders. It ended eventually 73 days later after Modi flagged it to Xi. Both leaders agreed that the standoff was not in the interests of the two nations, setting up the ground for thawing of the freeze in the relationship that led to a withdrawal from both sides. And this is how, by all accounts, the Ladakh standoff is different from the ones in the past. There is one common denominator in the Doklam and Ladakh standoffs, though: General Zhao Zongqi, the PLA’s Western Theatre Command’s big boss. “Our understanding is that the Ladakh standoff was driven from the top, unlike the previous two standoffs,” a senior government official familiar with the develop-
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IAS/ALLIED SERVICES IAS IPS IRS General Category Match for Beautiful Fair Bansal IRS Girl 1988/5'3" Affluent Delhi Business Family 8130399161
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NRI
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REMARRIAGE SECOND MARRIAGE 4 For
Beautiful, Fair, Garg Girl, 20/9/1991, 16:50, 5ft, Veg, Innocent, Mutual Divorcee, Very Short Marriage, Well Settled Family From Delhi, Father Businessman, Brother C.A Own Practice, Wtsp- 09810124304
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MITTALS, DOB 18-11-1991, 12:05
am, ht (5'6") wt 65 kg , Business Income Rs 7 L.a, good looking, fair boy in South Delhi. Contact 9654369752.
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SUITABLE MATCH for Mittal
Handsome Boy 35/5'6"/65kg. NM B.com well settled business family own properties cont.7011049386 email:[emailprotected]
GOYAL, 11.01.1990, 6'3", Lawyer, B.A.LLB, LL.M (USA), managing his own law firm. South Delhi Business Class Family. Looking for a Tall, Beautiful, well educated and affable match. Caste no bar. Dowry Discouraged. Contact: 9811046923; Email: [emailprotected]
NRI LOOKING FOR a girl pref living in
USA. Boy lives with family in Boston, USA. USA Citizen wkg as Electrical Engr. Earning 200 k+ yearly. 26.11.86/5'7". Non-veg, Non smoker/ drinker. Mother in USA- 001-781888-1991, India- 91-99991-88488. Email: [emailprotected]
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5'3"/ Nov 89, B.Tech & MBA from US working on H-1b visa, Virginia. [emailprotected], #9971137999
More Classified Ads on Page 10
hindustantimes
SUN DAY H IN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
09
NEWS shortstories
TERRORIST SHOT DEAD IN J&K GUNFIGHT SRINAGAR: A terrorist was killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of J&K, police said. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation at Likhdipora in the south Kashmir district following specific information about the presence of terrorists in the area. As the forces were searching the area, the hiding terrorists fired upon them. The forces retaliated, killing a terrorist, an official said. He said the identity and group affiliation of the deceased terrorist is being ascertained. The operation was on till the last reports came in.
PINJRA TOD ACTIVIST PETITIONS HC NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has sought response of Tihar Jail on a plea by a woman member of Pinjra Tod group, who was arrested in a case related to the communal violence in North-east Delhi, seeking daily access to her lawyer through video conferencing and to carry books in prison. Justice Vibhu Bakhru issued notice to the Tihar Jail and Delhi government on the plea by JNU student Devangana Kalitha and listed the matter for July 1.
DELHI POLICE CONSTABLE KILLS HIMSELF NEW DELHI : A 34-year-old Delhi Police constable allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver inside a police station in southwest Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area, officials said on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Sandeep Kumar and the incident took place on Friday, they said. “He was posted with the special staff. He shot himself with his service revolver at around 10.30 pm on Friday,” deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Devender Arya said. They have not recovered any suicide note. The family does not know the reason behind the alleged suicide.
TERROR PLOT SUSPECTED
Rana re-arrested, Drone from Pak carrying arms shot down faces extradition HT Correspondent n
[emailprotected]
JAMMU: A China-made drone sent
26/11 CASE Pak-origin Canadian wanted for his role in Mumbai attacks Neeraj Chauhan and Rezaul H Laskar n
[emailprotected]
NEWDELHI:Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian sent to a US jail for his role in planning the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been arrested after being freed from prison in order to face extradition to India. Rana, 59, a close associate of David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators behind the attacks on India’s financial hub that killed 166 people, was serving a 14-year sentence in a Los Angeles federal prison when he was granted early release last week because of poor health and being infected by the coronavirus. However, he never left the prison as he was arrested to face extradition to India, US prosecutors told The Associated Press. Indian officials said they learnt Rana was rearrested on June 10. Officials familiar with developments said a US attorney informed the district judge in Los Angeles about India’s standing request for the extradition of Rana, wanted in India for terror charges. A senior National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer, who didn’t want to be named, said: “It’s a positive development after over 11 years. This means his extradition hearings will now take place.” Former home secretary GK Pillai, who played a key role in the investigation of the Mumbai attacks and coordinated with the US, said there was a pending Indian extradition request for Rana. “There is a standing Indian extradition request for Rana and that will still be applicable,” he told HT. A person in the government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US authorities acted as there was a request for Rana’s preliminary arrest. The person noted that arrest signalled the start of the extradition process. An NIA team that visited the US in late 2018 was informed by the department of justice it was convinced by India’s charges
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A soldier takes cover as a gun battle with terrorists rages at the Taj Mahal hotel, Mumbai, on November 29, 2008. AP FILE
against Rana. Earlier, the “double jeopardy” clause in US law, according to which a person can’t be punished twice for the same crime, was hindering efforts to extradite Rana, but NIA made a fresh request in 2016 . India levelled the charges of forgery and criminal breach of trust as Rana used his firm for making documents for Headley during his surveillance missions in Mumbai. These charges were accepted by US prosecutors and the FBI, and they are inclined to honour India’s request. FBI arrested Rana on October 18, 2009 for providing material support for the conspiracy to commit terrorist acts outside the US. The former Pakistan Army physician-turned-businessman, was convicted in 2011 for providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attacks, and for backing a planned attack on a Danish newspaper that printed caricatures of Prophet Mohammed in 2005. Headley was convicted during the same trial. At the time, US reports had said American prosecutors had failed to prove Rana supported the Mumbai attacks and he was cleared of this more serious charge by the jury at the trial. His legal team claimed he had been misled by Headley, who was a friend from school. Rana had been accused of allowing Headley to open a branch of his Chicago-
based immigration law firm in Mumbai to act as a front for his surveillance activities in Mumbai ahead of the attacks that also injured hundreds. He was accused of allowing Headley to pose as a representative of the same firm when he went to Denmark for surveillance ahead of the planned attack. At the time, US prosecutors had said Rana knew Headley had trained with the LeT and that Headley had shared information of his surveillance activities in Mumbai and of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where LeT members later killed dozens of people. Headley was sentenced to 35 years in prison but can’t be extradited to India under a plea deal. Pakistani authorities had arrested seven men, including LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, for the Mumbai attacks though their trial in an anti-terrorism court never made headway. Lakhvi was released on bail and his current whereabouts aren’t known. In Mumbai, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh said,“Rana’s role had come to the fore during Headley’s testimony after the latter admitted that he was working as an agent for him. We are discussing the developments at top level and the government will take a decision about Rana’s extradition. We will speak to the Centre in this respect,” Deshmukh said.
PRESS NOTE
It is brought to the notice that request for proposal (RFP) has been uploaded on Municipal Corporation Shimla website www.shimlamc.org on dated 20.06.2020 regarding Utilization of the Ground Floor of Town Hall (Municipal Corporation Shimla) for high end restaurant purpose. EE-Cum Project Director hereby publish the RFP with following key dates. Sr. Activity No. 1 Download of RFP 2
3
4 5
0154
Scheduled Dates and Time
From 20.06.2020 to 06.07.2020 Up to 1700 Hrs. Physical Inspection of Proposed Any working Day(s) between 23.06.2020 Premises to be Concessioned to 30.06.2020 Up to 1700 Hrs. by potential bidders with prior intimation to M C Shimla Raising of queries by the bidders By 06.07.2020 upto 1700 hours to M C Shimla through email to [emailprotected] and [emailprotected] Queries submitted through any other mode shall not be entertained. Pre-Bid Meeting of Potential 07.07.2020, 1500 Hrs at Meeting Hall MC Bidders Shimla Reply of queries by Municipal By 08.07.2020 on the Municipal Corporation Shimla Corporation Shimla Website EE-Cum Project Director Municipal Corporation Shimla Phone No.- 0177-2656576
from Pakistan with arms and ammunition was shot down by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on Saturday, officials said. Troops were put on high alert after the BSF intelligence branch received inputs about the possible use of drone for ferrying arms and ammunition from Pakistan into the Indian side, according to officials. “At 5.10am, BSF shot down a China-made drone from Pakistan near Kathua and recovered, among others, M-4 US-made semi-automatic rifle, 60 rounds in two magazines and seven M67 grenades,” said NS Jamwal,
J’khand moves SC against govt’s coal block auction move
n
The Chinese-made drone that was shot down by BSF men.
inspector general, BSF Jammu Frontier. The drone (8 ft × 6.2 ft) having four batteries weighed around 17.5 kilograms and the consignment around five to six kilograms, Jamwal said. “Surely, it was an attempt to deliver the arms and ammunition to some-
n
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[emailprotected]
[emailprotected]
NEWDELHI: Pre-monsoon showers RANCHI: The Jharkhand govern-
ment has moved the Supreme Court challenging the central government’s decision to auction coal blocks for commercial mining, chief minister Hemant Soren said on Saturday. Soren said the state government has moved SC as it is a huge policy decision and the respective state governments needed to be taken into confidence. “Mining has always been a contentious issue in the state. ..This will take us back to the old system which we came out of. I think the Centre took this decision in a rush...There are several issues related to land and displacement in the state,” Soren said. “Several trade unions are out on the street against the decision,” he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the auction of 41 coal blocks under the new regime, under which the private miners would be sharing revenues with the government. The blocks are located in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra.
one here on this side. Who was he, remains a matter of investigation,” he said. He added that the drone came from Thakurpora post in Narowal–Shakargarh sector in Pakistan. A senior police officer who did not want to be named said the
Light rain likely for next 3-4 days: IMD HT Correspondent
HT Correspondent
ANI
brought relief from heat to many parts of Delhi-NCR on Saturday. It is likely to rain intermittently for the next three to four days following which monsoon is likely to arrive around June 24 or 25, India Meteorological Department said. The maximum temperature in Delhi on Saturday was 38 degree C compared to 41 degree C a day ago. Conditions are becoming favourable for advance of southwest monsoon into many parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Uttarakhand during June 22 and 23 and into entire Western Himalayan region, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, most parts of Punjab, remaining parts of Arabian Sea, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Rajasthan during June 24 and 25, IMD said in its Saturday bulletin. The northern limit of monsoon (northern-most boundary up to which monsoon rains have advanced) continues to pass through Kandla, Ahmedabad in Gujarat; Indore, Raisen, Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and
Fatehpur, Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh. There was a pause in monsoon advancement since June 16 but its likely to advance towards west UP now. “There is a western disturbance and there is a trough of low pressure running from central Pakistan to east central Bay of Bengal. There will be rain for the next few days in Delhi due to these two systems,” said K Sathi Devi, head, national weather forecasting centre, adding that monsoon arrival in Delhi can be announced when there is rain in all places (spatial continuity of rain). Widespread rainfall with heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to continue over east and northeast India during next 4-5 days. Rainfall activity over plains of northwest India is likely to increase from June 23, IMD said. “There will be rain and cloudy skies over many parts of Delhi NCR for next 4 to 5 days,” said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre. Monsoon rains over the country are at 28% excess; 7% excess in northeast; 6% excess in northwest India; 74% excess in central India and 11% excess in peninsular India.
delivery was for some “Ali Bhai” as the payload was carrying his name. Jamwal said the payload was for carrying out a big terror attack and “we feel that the contact was probably waiting on Indian side...” “This is the biggest achievement and averted a major incident… We are alert to the situation and keeping an eye on ‘aakash’ (sky), ‘zameen’ (land) and ‘paataal’ (subterranean) activities,” Jamwal, who rushed to the Hiranagar sector, told reporters. “It is a big challenge, but security forces are ready for it. We have had inputs that such hexacopters can be used for dropping arms and ammunition. Our jawans were already on alert and that’s why they shot it down immediately,” he said.
Odisha man beaten to death by 2 sons; wife also attacked Press Trust of India n
[emailprotected]
BERHAMPUR: A 65-year-old man was allegedly beaten to death by his two sons at a village in Odishas Ganjam district, police said on Saturday. The incident happened in Kalamba village in the Polasara police station area on Friday night, said inspector in-charge Jeetendra Kumar Mallick. The deceased was identified as Abhimanyu Pradhan. The sons also attacked their mother when she tried to save her husband. She was admitted to a hospital in Polasara and her condition is stated to be critical, police said. The accused siblings, Sushant Pradhan (30) and Mangulu Pradhan (27), were arrested earlier in the day, Mallick said. Though the exact cause behind the murder was yet to be ascertained, a family feud was suspected to have led to the incident, he said. Police said the body has been sent for autopsy. Mallick said an investigation is underway and the two brothers are being interrogated. They would often pick a fight with their father, he said.
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hindustantimes
SUN DAY HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
HTSPOTLIGHT
CORONAVIRUS: NATION
TOLL REACHES 704
TN records highest 1-day surge of 2,396 Press Trust of India n
[emailprotected]
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu reported a
record single-day spike of 2,396 fresh Covid-19 cases on Saturday, registering over 2,000 infections for a fourth straight day as the overall tally rose to 56,845 in the state, the state health department said. Also, 38 people succumbed to the virus, taking the toll in the state to 704. This is the fourth consecutive day the state has recorded over 2,000 Covid-19 cases, the department said in a bulletin. The government which has been increasing the number of samples tested, said it recorded an all-time high today by testing 33,231 taking the cumulative tally to 8,61,211 till date. Chennai continued to clock a majority of the cases among districts with 1,254 today, pushing the overall tally to 39,641 till date. As many as 1,045 were discharged across the state on Saturday, taking the number of recoveries to 31,316 in the state. The number of active cases currently stands at 24,822, the bulletin said. Among the 2,396 fresh cases, 64 of them were returnees from other states and countries, the bulletin said adding 1,499 were men while 897 women contracted the contagion.
While Chennai continued to top the list of infections among districts, neighbouring Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpet also reported higher number of cases. The number of total cases in Chengalpet stood at 3,620 while Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur have so far reported 1,095 and 2,414 infections respectively. Among the 38 fatalities reported today, five were without comorbidities which include a 26-year-old man from neighbouring Tiruvallur, the bulletin said. He was admitted on June 14 at Vellore Medical College hospital and died on June 19 due to severe acute respiratory illness, it added. A 91-year old man from the city suffering from type-II Diabetes Mellitus was among those who lost their lives due to comorbidities, the department said. The state capital also leads in the number of fatalities at 554 of the total 704. It may be noted that the government has announced a 12-day lockdown which came into effect from Friday as part of its measures to curb the spread of the virus. Of the total 56,845 virus cases reported so far, 47,277 are people in the age group of 13 and 60 years while 2,804 are children below the age of 12 and 6,764 are above the age of 60, the bulletin said.
U’khand, Hry, UP decide to cancel kanwar yatra
Cancer care takes a hit during lockdown HEALTH WISE
Press Trust of India n
[emailprotected]
DEHRADUN:The chief ministers of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana on Saturday arrived at a consensus to cancel the kanwar yatra this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The matter was discussed by Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat with his Uttar Pradesh and Haryana counterparts via video conference. “In a meeting today with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, via video conferencing, it has been decided to postpone Kanwar Yatra in view of #COVID19 pandemic,” ANI quoted the Office of Chief Minister of Uttarakhand as saying. All of them agreed that the annual kanwar yatra, which sees a huge congregation of Shiva devotees in Haridwar, should be cancelled this year. Saints and seers are also in favour of the yatra being cancelled to prevent huge gatherings of kanwariyas in Haridwar. The chief minister said he had also spoken to Home Minister Amit Shah, who advised him to take a decision after thinking over it. Rawat will soon speak to the chief ministers of Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan over the issue.
SANCHITA SHARMA
C
ancer treatment took a massive hit in April and May, when roughly 70% of patients could not access life-saving surgery and treatment, according to data from some of India’s largest super-speciality hospitals. Cancer surgeries in April and May in the aftermath of the lockdown enforced from March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease pandemic were one-fifth the surgeries performed in the corresponding period in 2019. Cancer services declined by 50% in April and May compared to the same period last year, shows data from leading private hospitals for cancer across India. Even after the lockdown was relaxed gradually, the fear of Covid-19 infection is keeping some cancer patients away from hospitals. Those who seek treatment don’t get it because of health systems prioritising coronavirus disease treatment over all else, leading to lifethreatening delays in diagnosis and treatment. In February, a 52-year-old man who requested anonymity
developed a small swelling on the left side of his neck, but it took six hospital visits and twoand-a-half months for him to be diagnosed with cancer. By the time his treatment began at Max Super Specialty Hospital at Saket in New Delhi in June, his tumour was oozing blood and he had lost 10kg, which brought his weight down to 61kg. “Most hospitals turned us away saying they did not have beds free. Two hospitals said no to dressing my wound because by the end of May, I had developed fever before I was diagnosed with lymphoma,” the patient said after undergoing a second round of chemotherapy at the hospital on June 18. At least 51,100 live-saving cancer surgeries were cancelled in India from the end of March to the end of May, estimated CovidSurg Collaborative, a research network of surgeons and anaesthetists in 77 countries, including India, which published its findings in the British Journal of Surgery in May. “Cancer patients are among the most vulnerable as they need early diagnosis and uninterrupted and often hospitalcentric treatment for good outcomes to prevent high morbidity and mortality. He arrived here with a more than 10cm lymphoma, which is cancer in infection-fighting cells of the
immune system. A colleague’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer on March 20, but missed treatment for two-and-a-half months. Now his lung cancer is at an advanced stage,” said Dr Harit Chaturvedi, chairman, cancer care, and director and chief surgical oncologist at Max Healthcare. One out of eight men and one in nine women in India has probability of developing cancer in their lifetime (0-74 years), according to the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (ICMR-NCDIR), Bangaluru, which implements India’s national cancer registry programme through 36 population-based registries and 236 hospital-based registries across states. It estimated there were 1.45 million new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2016, which will double in the next 20 years. Cancer killed 813,000 people in 2016 and accounted for 8.3% of total deaths in India that year, according to the ICMRled India State-level Disease Burden Initiative study on cancer published in the journal The Lancet Oncology in 2018. “There is preliminary evidence that cancer surgeries and treatment have reduced post lockdown, but the national registry will have mature date on the impact of this disruption on cancer outcomes after a
year, where we can analyse data systematically to say whether delays in treatment have increased death,” said Dr Prashant Mathur, director, ICMR-NCDIR. Children with cancer are particularly vulnerable. “Early results suggest that of the 10 children who would normally be expected to be diagnosed and treated for their cancer, six are no longer reaching that stage and hence missing on critical treatment, which will lead to significantly increased loss of life,” said Dr Ramandeep Singh Arora, paedicatric oncologist and principal investigator of an ongoing national study on the effect of Covid-19 on childhood cancers in India. Studies show that if patients get timely treatment, outcomes don’t get affected even in patients who develop cancer and Covid-19. A study published in The Lancet last week that analysed data from patients with Covid-19 and cancer in the UK and the US found the new coronavirus infection does not affect cancer treatment outcomes. The UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project prospectively collected data on 800 patients and found “no interaction between anticancer treatments within four weeks before testing positive for Sars-CoV-2, and Covid-19 morbidity or mortality was found”. The US Covid-19 and
Cancer Consortium analysed prospectively collected data from 928 patients and found no increase in 30-day mortality associated with anti-cancer therapy. “In the beginning of the pandemic, all our resources were understandably directed there, but now there is an urgent need to strategise with a calm head. The government must not just restore all services for urgent treatments, emergency care and cancer, dialysis etc, but must also strengthen policies and communicate its initiatives to restore public confidence. We must deploy 50% of health care resources to Covid, and the rest to non-Covid {cases},” said Dr Chaturvedi. “Delayed treatment is likely to lead to cancer progression to late stages, so we need resume services as much as possible and also scale up remote access healthcare by using digital tools and WhatsApp video-calling to connect the provider and patients to decongest tertiary hospitals,” said Dr Mathur. Creating safe areas with no overcrowding and other safeguards will help reduce patient hesitancy. “To prevent any spread of infection have these buildings, hospitals blocks completely segregated. My fear is that if we do not take steps, we will see many times over loss of lives due to non-Covid reasons,” said Dr Chaturvedi.
ON SUNDAY MATRIMONIALS
EMPLOYMENT
BRIDES WANTED
ACADEMIC
NRI SUITABLE MATCH for 1989 born
6'2" clean shave Parjapat Sikh Boy (caste no bar). Completed B-Tech in India and M.S in Germany. Presently working in Germany (PR available). Ph: 8788095850; +49-17672655959
ARORA BRIDE FOR Punjabi Arora 32y
5'9'' snr sfwr engnr in hyderabad, ed: BITS Pilani send BHP at [emailprotected] Ph: 8318743903
SM4 PUNJABI Arora Boy 5'6"/33/ Delhi Born highly Qualified M.B.A./ M.Com/LLB. Running his own Legal Firm in Delhi. 9811136213
BRAHMIN PUNJABI BRAHMIN Saraswat
boy 5'-11" Fair Hansome Btec, Enterprenure 23feb90. 0905 delhi Well established family Vasant kunj New Delhi originally from Jalandhar seeks alliance from cultured Vegetarian family. Homly girl preferred. 9212666666
PUNJABI SM4 H'SOME NMglk PB boy born
YADAV YADAV BOY, 1989/5'11" B.Tech,
MBA, settled business at Panchkula, origin Rewari seeks, beautiful, educated, employed girl: 8146060675.
KHATRI 42/5'3" 2 House, Income Jagran chowki + Rental. 8th-pass. Cast no Bar. No Dowry. Cont: WAP 8586982982, 8586989000. [emailprotected]
SMART GIRL 4 Pnjb Khatri Grad. 36/
5'8", US Ctzn. Dvrcd. Innocent mrrge. Dealer. T-Mobile Cell Co. NY., High Incm. Own Houses in NY, Delhi. Early mrrge.# 9650492813, +1-631-697-1111 (Whatsapp); [emailprotected]
SM4 B.TECH Mech H.some
Punjabi 31/5'10" Phy Handicap, Divorce Business family 30+LPA 9811093634, 9811047307.
July 88/ 5'5" Non Veg, MBA, Wkg. MNC Noida edu. fmly own hse in S.Del seeks edu, fair slim girl 9811071341, [emailprotected]
MEDICAL RMO, NURSES, matron, Lab,
REQ. PGT (Math, Eco. B.St., Hindi),
T.G.T (Sanskrit, Eng. Math) Drawing Tr. PET & Account Asst.Send E-Mail : school.matashivdevipublic05@gmail. com. Mata Shiv Devi Public School, A-2, Keshav Pur.,D -35. Ph. 27393950.
EXPORT HOUSE JOBS
Mrd/usg/OT Tech/ Sister, HR Hospital Exp day/nt int.v 1-3, SNA Hospital J-293 Saket 9599336679; [emailprotected]
SM4 B.COM (Hon), fair, slim,
handsome divorcee Arora boy 14/01/80/ 5’8’’Delhi, 6am, own interior business, Architecture, constn & renowned furniture showroom good income, seeks fair slim,homely girl 5’2’’– 5’5’’ preferably CA,MBA, Architect or Interior designer,no bar, no dowry, early marriage. Biodata & photo # 9958888966, [emailprotected]
MEDICAL URG. REQD. Dermatologist,ENT
Surgeon or Ophthalmologist,Phelebotomist,Receiptionist,Female nursing staff for running Polyclinic Gr. Noida west.9717972207,9871632207
REQUIRED A fully trained
WIDEST CHOICE, Most Trusted,
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Safe & Secure. Find Your Soulmate at just @ Rs. 499/-. Register now on www.ShaadiMangalam.com. Call / Whatsapp:9153006900,9153007100
MBA PROFESSIONAL
URGENT ANAESTHESTIST /
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LOOKING FOR professionally
Graduate for 89 born, 5'7', B.Tech (CSE), Handsome boy, working in MNC in Noida. Hindu, Arora Mob 9501335987
enced person having knowledge of 2D CAD and 3D Max preferably in office furniture..(2) Req. an person having knowledge of Web Designing his / her job is to develop maintain and coordinate with web developer.(3) Req. an experience person for uploading bids on the gem portal. Should be a good communicator and should have email writing skills. Experience in furniture category will be preferred. Send your resumes on [emailprotected] WhatsApp 9811016544
Order Confirmation in Ecommerce Company-(No Sales or Marketing). Contact: Realike International, Okhla Phase-II # 9999478652.
secretary / addl secretary GOI ) very recently divorced Delhi 1967 born 5'6"(B E MBA software n power expert ) Hindu AdDharmi The bride should working n educated caste no bar Contact 9971448964 or [emailprotected]
HINDU
(1) REQUIRED an experi-
REQUIRED TELECALLER for
AN ALLIANCE for IAS /IES, joint
V.Fair C/sard Ramgarhia boy Second Masters from Canada workpermit W/Setld Edu Delhi Sikh F/mlySend B/H/P first Instance [emailprotected]
GENERAL MULTIPLE VACANCIES
CRESCENT PUBLIC School Pitampura Delhi # 011-47563614, Require Teachers : PGT-Chem., Psychology, TGT- Social Sci. Cont. with Resume at School Reception immediately
JEEVAN PUBLIC School, Pratap
Vihar, Part-2, Delhi-110086. Email: [emailprotected] Req. TGTMaths, Sci., Eng., S.Sc., PRT's and PGT- Eco., Maths, Phy. Edu.
Intensivist/MBBS RMOs for regular or Locum ICU / OT Duties in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida 9871632207, 9717972207
PAEDIATRICIAN, ENT, Eye,
Physician,GEN/LAP Surgeon Skin, Gastro,Cardiologist & other speciality. J-293 saket snah hsptl 9811140145, [emailprotected]
ACCOUNTS/FINANCE WANTED SENIOR Accounts
WANTED FULL time Accountant
for Real Est. Company loc. in Vasant Vihar. Exp. in Tally, I.Tax, VAT, T.D.S & GST. Tel: 9910034566 or Send CV: [emailprotected]
part time Accountant required for Okhla based firm, please send detailed CV to: [emailprotected]
Experienced Assistants with knowledge of GST & Income Tax. Email your CV at : [emailprotected] Cont : 011-47581015.
REQD. ACCOUNT cum Office Asst 1-2 Yrs Exp. Good English, MS Office & Tally for Steel Fab Unit in Kirti Nagar, Delhi Call: 9958226818, Email: [emailprotected]
STENO−TYPIST/ OFFICE ASST FEMALE OFFICE Executive-Smart, Graduate, Good English, below 35 years age. Living in West Delhi. (Own conveyance). Email: [emailprotected]
COMPUTER/IT REQD. EXP. M/F can handle GEM
(Govt. E-Marketplace/Online portal) for physiotherapy equipment at N.S.P. Pitampura # 9810295880 Email : [emailprotected]
FIELD STAFF Required to do
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world
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IT FEELS LIKE WE’VE PASSED A SOCIAL TIPPING POINT. > GRETA THUNBERG, climate activist, on anti-racism protests raging across the world
Brazil becomes second country with 1mn cases RECORD SPIKE Worst-hit South American nation reports over 50,000 Covid-19 infections in 24 hours Agencies n
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SAO PAULO:The Brazilian govern-
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Pope Francis addresses doctors and nurses from Italy’s Lombardy region, at the Vatican on Saturday.
Beijing to set up security office in HK under new law BEIJING: China on Saturday
unveiled details of the controversial new security law for Hong Kong amid international criticism that it will corrode the wideranging freedoms enjoyed by residents of the global financial hub. Details of the new law, as listed by news agency Xinhua, includes setting up of a security office in Hong Kong to handle crimes against national security. The local government must establish new institutions to protect national security and allow mainland agencies to operate in the city “when needed”. Hong Kong’s chief executive, currently the embattled Carrie Lam, will have the power to appoint judges to hear cases related to national security. According to Xinhua, “For Hong Kong laws that are not in line with this (national security) law, this law’s requirements will apply, and the right to interpret this law lies with the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.” National security activities would protect human rights and freedom of speech and assembly, it added, without providing details.
AP
ment on Friday confirmed that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country crossed 1 million, second only to the US. Brazil’s health ministry said that the total stood at 1,032,913, up by more than 50,000 from Thursday. The ministry said the sharp increase was due to corrections of previous days’ underreported numbers. The US has more than 2.2 million coronavirus cases. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro still downplays the risks
of the virus after nearly 50,000 deaths from Covid-19 in three months, saying the impact of social isolation measures on the economy could be worse than the disease itself. Experts say the number of cases could be up to seven times higher than the official data. Johns Hopkins University says Brazil is performing an average of 14 tests per 100,000 people each day, and health experts say that number is up to 20 times less than needed to track the virus. Official data show a downward trend of the virus in Brazil’s north, including the hard-hit
UN to commission report on racism Agencies n
[emailprotected]
GENEVA: The UN’s top human rights body voted unanimously on Friday to commission a UN report on systemic racism and discrimination against black people while stopping short of ordering a more intensive investigation singling out the US after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police sparked worldwide demonstrations. The UN Human Rights Council
approved a consensus resolution following days of grappling over language after African nations backed away from their initial push for a commission of inquiry, the rights council’s most intrusive form of scrutiny, focusing more on the US. Instead, the resolution calls for a simple and more generic report to be written by the UN human rights chief’s office and outside experts. The aim is “to contribute to accountability and redress for victims” in the US and beyond,
the resolution says. Iran and Palestine signed on as co-sponsors for the resolution that condemns “the continuing racially discriminatory and violent practices” by law enforcement against Africans and people of African descent, it says. The approved text asks UN high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet to examine government responses to anti-racism peaceful protests, and calls on her to report back to the council in June 2021.
US: PROTESTERS PULL DOWN, BURN STATUE WASHINGTON: Protesters toppled the statue of a Confederate general in the nation’s capital and set it on fire on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the US, amid anti-racism demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Demonstrators jumped up and down as the 11-foot statue of Albert Pike wobbled on its pedestal before falling backward, landing in a pile of dust.
I M PA C T O F B L M
British parliament to review well-known painting LONDON:A mural painting in the UK parliament depicting a defining moment in early 17th century laying the foundation of British influence in India is being reviewed for its contemporary relevance in the context of the worldwide campaign against colonial legacy. The painting by William Rothenstein, unveiled in 1927, is one of eight depicting key historical events as part of “The Building of Britain” series in St Stephen’s Hall in the parliament. The painting depicts the
first British diplomatic representative, Thomas Roe, in the court of Mughal emperor Jahangir in Ajmer in 1616. The review follows demands as part of the Black Lives Matter campaign to remove statues and symbols with links to racism and slavery from public places. A parliament spokesperson said, “The interpretation of the artworks is constantly under review and we will look at ways to contextualise the lives of those depicted.” PRASUN SONWALKAR
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William Rothenstein’s painting in the UK parliament.
SUTIRTHO PATRANOBIS
HT PHOTO
region of the Amazon, a plateau in cases and deaths in the biggest cities near the Atlantic coast, but a rising curve in the south. US EMBASSY IN KABUL FACING RISING CASES KABUL: The US State Department says Covid-19 infections have been reported at its embassy in the Afghan capital and the staff who are affected include diplomats, contractors and locally employed staff. An official at the embassy in Kabul said as many as 20 people were infected, many of whom are Nepalese Gurkhas, who provide embassy security.
TRUMP CLEARED TO HOLD TULSA RALLY DESPITE FEARS OF COVID WASHINGTON: US President Donald
Trump can go ahead with plans for a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, after the state’s supreme court rejected a plea by residents who said holding the event at a 19,000-seat indoor arena posed a risk of spreading the coronavirus. The court said the residents failed to make a legal argument for the rally to be stopped. The rally is Trump’s first major re-election event following the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered much of the country and comes amid weeks of civil unrest. JUDGE ALLOWS RELEASE OF JOHN BOLTON’S BOOK A US judge refused on Saturday to block the release of a tell-all book in which John Bolton, Trump’s former NSA, describes him as corrupt and incompetent. The book, titled The Room Where it Happened, has been widely shipped to bookstores for publication on Tuesday and many of its most damning allegations against Trump have been reported. AGENCIES
BRISBANE WOMAN SAYS SHE’S BEEN COVID +VE FOR 100 DAYS NEW DELHI:In a bizarre case,
tralia’s home affairs minister Peter Dutton on a flight. Sunrise reported that 100 days on, although she is no longer infectious, she continues to test positive while reeling from the effects of the illness. Kilroy said doctors explained that she’s still testing positive “because of traces of the dead virus” in her body. HTC
Brisbane lawyer Debbie Kilroy, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 in March, claims she has tested positive for the coronavirus more than 100 days since the initial diagnosis, according to media reports. In March, Kilroy was reportedly infected after apparently sitting near Aus-
VIRUS TRACKER
8,835,458 GLOBAL CASES
464,294 GLOBAL DEATHS
WORST-HIT NATIONS COUNTRY 1 US 2 BRAZIL 3 RUSSIA 4 INDIA* 5 UK 6 SPAIN 7 PERU 8 ITALY 9 CHILE 10 IRAN
(BY CASES)
CASES 2,313,847 1,043,168 576,952 411,500 303,110 293,018 247,925 238,275 236,748 202,584 (AS OF 10:45 PM IST)
DEATHS 121,652 49,156 8,002 13,278 42,589 28,322 7,660 34,610 4,295 9,507
SOURCE: WORLDOMETER
* COMPILED BY HT
DELHI CANTONMENT BOARD SADAR BAZAR, DELHI CANTT-10
EMPANELMENT OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS In compliance to Hon’ble High Court order dated 09.06.2020 in WP(C) 4354/2015, in the matter of Arpit Bhargava & Anr U/s North DMC & Ors, for making buildings in Delhi Cantonment seismic compliant, Cantt Board Delhi intends to empanel qualified structural engineers. Interested Structural Engineers may apply for their Empanelment & submit their applications & credentials as per the format provided on the Cantt. Board Delhi website www.cbdelhi.in w.e.f 23.06.2020. Telephone No.: 25695450 No.: DCB/8/C-1/TN/2020-21/3 OFFICE OF THE CANTONMENT BOARD Website: www.cbdelhi.in
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sundaycomment THE CHINA FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS chanakya
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he brutal killing of 20 personnel of the Indian Army, including a colonel-level officer, by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the Galwan Valley on the night of June 15 will reverberate across India for a long time to come. Indian security personnel — from the armed forces, paramilitary forces, and the police — have often given their lives in the quest to defend India’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and the Constitution. And as often, their contribution is forgotten. But Colonel Santosh Babu and the 19 other men killed in the line of duty will stay on in public memory for three reasons. First, this was the first time since 1975 that Indian blood was shed defending the border against China. Two, the nature of the killing was brutal — PLA, in what India has called a “pre-meditated” attack, violated norms of war. And India and China are not even officially at war. And finally, their killing has highlighted the place of Ladakh in general, and Galwan Valley in particular, as essential to India’s territorial imagination. This, then, can make June 15 — or Ladakh 2020 — the moment when, for two generations of Indians, the security threat from China has become tangible and real. It can make it the moment when discussions about the “competitive-cooperative” relationship with China and how to navigate great power politics will move beyond the rarefied seminar circuits of elite analysts and assume a strong place in public consciousness. And it can make it the moment when China becomes an issue in Indian domestic politics, strongly tied to public opinion, parti-
san positions, and the idea of nationalism. The intersection of domestic politics and foreign policy is old. Indeed, a lot of scholarship suggests that foreign policy itself is the extension of domestic politics and is shaped substantially by it. In India’s case too, this has been true. But barring the 1962 war, and the criticism that the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru faced, the most critical foreign policy issue has been Pakistan. This is not surprising. The tragedy of Partition, Pakistan’s support for Khalistan, the Kashmir question, its sponsorship of terrorism in India which has cost thousands of lives, four wars (1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999), and the manner in which the external enemy (Pakistan) is often used in political discourse to demonise an internal constituency (Indian Muslims) lends the India-Pakistan relationship particular political salience. Indeed, as the saying in South Block goes, the real joint secretary in charge of the Pakistan desk at the ministry of external affairs is the Prime Minister of India. And that is because each decision on Pakistan is a political, not a bureaucratic, one. The Indian strategic community has long recognised China as a threat. The border dispute and Beijing’s efforts to change the facts on the ground by its consistent incursions; its claim over Arunachal Pradesh, particularly Tawang; the large trade deficit; China’s firm support to its “all-weather friend”, Pakistan, now buttressed by the China-Pakistan economic corridor; its efforts to box in India by encouraging regimes hostile to New Delhi in the neighbourhood; its moves to thwart India’s legitimate
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The killing of 20 Indian Army personnel on June 15 has made the threat of China real and tangible for two generations of Indians and placed the relationship at the centre of public consciousness. It will shape the politics of nationalism REUTERS
ambitions (such as permanent membership of the Security Council or entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group); and its ambitions to establish new style imperialism through the Belt and Road Initiative have all been closely noted and are a part of the institutional memory of the government of India. But along with this, there is also a recognition of the power asymmetry between the two countries. India’s economy is much weaker; its military and technological capabilities don’t match up to China; its State capacity is more limited; and in the maze that is international politics, China is a more significant player and India cannot rely on partnerships and external bandwagoning. Along with it, India — at this stage of
sundaysentiments KARAN THAPAR
COVID-19 WILL DEEPEN DIVISIONS IN SOCIETY
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hat does learning to live with the virus actually amount to? Until a vaccine protects us, that’s the unavoidable challenge we face. Now that we’ve entered Unlock 1.0, it’s an interesting question primarily because I detect two broad and different answers. Let’s see if you agree. There are those who have the luxury to stay put at home. They sequestered behind closed doors at the end of March and that’s how they’ve continued to remain. Unlock permits them to venture outdoors wearing a mask and maintaining the required two-metre distance but they’ve chosen not to. They’re safe. Of that I have only a niggling doubt. But is this learning to “live” with the virus? Frankly, if you convert your home into your jail, it’s a very different life that you lead. Actually, you could say they’re living with the fear of the world outside their closed front doors. It’s that fear that explains calls by resident welfare associations not to
permit domestic staff. At the very least this is ironic. The well-off, who travel abroad, brought the virus to India but, now that it’s spread, they view the poor and disadvantaged compatriots as threats to their safety. So, for them, it’s become two Indias — the supposedly special one at home, where no one is permitted, and the wider one outdoors, where everyone is feared and the poor are avoided. The other answer to living with the virus is illustrated by those who are attempting a normal life. With masks and even face shields and a conscious attempt to maintain the advised twometre distance, they’re confronting the virus in the hope it won’t attack them. But is that hope realistic? Masks and face shields are relatively easy to enforce but the two-metre distance is not. Once life resumes, keeping a distance, though important, is often impossible. Whether in office or at bus stops, at the grocery or in a taxi, buying vegetables from a street vendor or picking up the newspaper, we’re often just a foot apart.
THE DIPLOMATIC DANCE FOR THE HORSESHOE TABLE MANJEEV SINGH PURI
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ndia will serve a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from January 2021. This will be the nation’s eighth time at UNSC. Other than the Permanent 5 (P-5), UNSC has 10 elected members, five from Asia and Africa, two each from Latin America and Western Europe & Others (WEOG) and one from East Europe. Five of these elected members retire every year. There are five regional groups at UNSC, representing Asia, Africa, Latin America and in a hark-back to the Cold War, Eastern Europe, apart
from WEOG that includes the United States (US), Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. Most regional groups, other than WEOG, usually endorse their candidates ahead of the election. This time, we were the candidate for the Asian seat and obtained 182 out of 193 votes in the UN General Assembly. From WEOG, Norway and Ireland knocked out Canada for the group’s two seats. While the election is hotly contested, the election process is fascinating. The ballot is a blank sheet. You are supposed to know who is running, and write in the name of the country of your choice on the ballot. Of course, you can vote for your own country. India last served on the UNSC during 2011-12. The team was led by ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, now minister in the Narendra Modi government (full disclosure: He is also a cousin). I was his deputy. Then,
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Citizens are torn between paralysing fear and desperate hope. This will only get reinforced BIPLOV BHUYAN/HT
So, to use a beloved colloquial phrase, these people are learning to live Ram bharose or Allah rakha. Now, pause and consider if you’ve spotted the obvious link between the two answers? Fear is the other side of God. They’re two faces of the same coin. In the first case, fear ensures some refuse to venture out. Of course, they can only do this because they can afford to stay home and not suffer a crippling loss of income. Economic good fortune undoubtedly reinforces their sense of fear. The second lot has no alternative but to go back to work. Remaining at home is not an alterna-
too, we were the only candidate from Asia and obtained a record 187 votes from 192 members. We had previously been on UNSC in 1991-1992 and were seeking to return after a gap of 19 years and a bruising defeat at the hands of Japan in 1996. India’s effort was to marshal the maximum number of votes. The widely publicised story after the election was of the Pakistani ambassador, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, having shown around his ballot apparently marked in favour of India. There were others who took photos on their phones and showed them to us, signalling their support. We missed five votes. Obviously, some were political. But strange things also happen. One African country received a vote on the Asian slate. Unbelievable, but the Ambassador wrote his own country’s name on the ballot, thinking that he had signed his support for India. Then, too, Canada was bested in the WEOG by Portugal and a late-entrant Germany. A diplomat from a small country told me that while he was awaiting instruction on his two votes, he was sure one would be Germany; after all,
opposition groups in Parliament returning from the U.S. Embassy after protesting against shipment of American arms to Pakistan.
Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story The views expressed are personal
his president rode in a Mercedes. Elected members head Security Council committees. The P-5 refer to these as “goodies”. For us, obtaining the Chair of the Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) was important. Strangely, the British opposed this saying that we were invested in the matter. But, playing the diplomatic game in New York, Delhi and London, India prevailed. During India’s chairmanship, we established the concept of “zero tolerance” for terrorism. Counter-terrorism will rightly be a focus for India during our forthcoming term on UNSC. With multilateralism under pressure, particularly as a result of Covid19, UNSC, too, has its challenge set. India’s term on UNSC will also coincide with India hosting Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and G-20 summits. India should use the opportunity to push its case on Security Council reform to open up the horseshoe table that seats the UNSC. Manjeev S Puri is a former ambassador and former deputy permanent representative of India to the United Nations The views expressed are personal
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COVID: WHY HOME ISOLATION IS A CRITICAL PILLAR ATISHI AKSHAY MARATHE
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s mildly symptomatic Covid-19 patients under home isolation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government’s initial decision to end home isolation on Friday was puzzling, and its roll back of the order on Saturday is welcome. A mandatory five-day institutional quarantine for all new Covid19 patients, as originally ordered, would have been unprecedented. Nowhere in the world do governments force every coronavirus patient into public isolation facilities. Even the Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines recommend home isolation for most cases, given that 80% of the patients are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. It is important to understand the system in place now. Our experience of home isolation has been beneficial for our health and well-being. Our samples were collected on Tuesday and we tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. Fortunately, we had no severe symptoms and did not need hospitalisation. That same day we received a phone call from a government telemedicine service that offered medical advice. An ASHA worker visited our homes, confirmed we were mildly symptomatic patients and pasted a sticker next to our main doors, giving neighbours fair warning. From the second day onwards, our health and symptoms were being monitored daily through the Delhi government’s tele-monitoring service that also provided guidance on the isolation process. An emergency phone number was also given to us to be called if our symptoms were to escalate. An ambulance would take us to a hospital if we were to report any escalation in symptoms. In one go, on Friday, the Centre shut down the most smoothly functioning piece of the coronavirus puzzle that is home isolation. One of the lessons of
governance the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has learnt is — do not fix something that is not broken. The roll back of the order is good because it would have otherwise created new problems for the city and its government, dealing a deadly blow to containment efforts in Delhi. The thought of being dragged into a railway coach parked at the Anand Vihar station upon testing positive would have driven away people from voluntarily coming forward to test themselves. And if asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients refuse testing and carry on with their lives, they would have ended up infecting others. Compulsory quarantine would have also needed additional resources, diverting medical staff, ambulances, and personal protective equipment kits away from hospitals that are treating critical patients. An already stretched medical system would have been forced to look after thousands of patients who may have never needed medical attention. The cost of providing hygienic quarantine facilities, food, water and sanitation to thousands of patients would have proved debilitating to the cashstrapped state government. Delhi is expected to have hundreds of thousands of cases over the next few weeks. The state should focus its efforts and resources on treating the sick, not providing shelter and food to asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients. The data on Delhi’s home isolation programme shows why it is highly recommended around the world. Only 6% of all positive patients under home isolation have been required to be shifted to a hospital or quarantine facility during their home isolation period. Of more than 27,000 patients who have been under home isolation thus far, only 1,618 reported a deterioration in their symptoms and had to be shifted to hospitals. This is 6% of all home isolation patients. We are happy with the roll back of the order because better sense has prevailed. Otherwise, Delhiites would have paid a huge cost. Atishi is a senior leader and MLA, AAP Akshay Marathe is spokesperson, AAP (They are both Covid-19-positive patients, currently under home isolation) The views expressed are personal
sundayletters INDIA LACKS LEADERS WITH MORAL COURAGE This is with reference to Karan Thapar’s Why India today needs a George Fernandes (Sunday Sentiments, June 14). I enjoyed reading the lovely tribute to the late leader, and I wholeheartedly agree with the argument that India today lacks leaders with moral courage and empathy for the marginalised.
JUNE 21-27, 1971 >>FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
NEWS OF THE WEEK INDIA
JUNE 24: Leaders of
tive. Neither their incomes nor the size of their homes will permit it. They bear the risk they face in the hope it won’t happen to them. That’s another term for God. Unfortunately, epidemiological projections will only reinforce the paralysing fear or the desperate hope that determines the response to the virus. India is already third largest in term of daily increases, fourth largest both in terms of total cases and the number of registered daily deaths, and ninth-largest in terms of total fatalities. There are even experts who say we could have 200 million infections by September and the peak will only be reached in mid-November. So, I ask myself, could we end up divided between those who live with fear and those who live in hope? I know the vast majority is in the latter category — probably over 90% — but, even so, could we end up two different countries? We’re already divided by religion, region, caste, cuisine, ethnicity and colour. Now, will the coronavirus virus divide us by the way we choose to live with it? Between the rich who bolt their doors and keep the rest of the country outside and those who have no choice but to mingle and adjust, praying all the while God will protect them?
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thisweekthatera PICTURE OF THE WEEK
its economic development — needs foreign capital and investment, and deepening economic interdependence with China has been seen as a way to both neutralise the competitive elements and aid Indian development. This measured policy approach worked because China was not an issue that animated public opinion. But it will now face a challenge. This is both because of China’s aggression (not unique to India — just ask Vietnam, Japan, Australia and others in its neighbourhood) and because in Indian democracy, policies cannot be completely out of sync with popular sentiment. The killings of June 15 have suddenly woken a large number of citizens to the fact that Pakistan is an important, but perhaps not the most
important, security challenge India confronts. The Chinese willingness to assert itself abroad under President Xi Jinping, and the power differential with India, makes it a more serious adversary. The calls for boycotting Chinese goods may be populist and rooted in ignorance of economic realities but they reflect the emerging mood about China, which is going beyond suspicion to a degree of loathing. The evolution of public opinion is bound to have an impact on political discourse. And that is why even a prime minister such as Narendra Modi — who has proudly worn the badge of nationalism and presented himself as a security hawk — had to face tough questions, not just from critics but also more independent observers, about his claim on Friday night that there is no external presence in Indian territory. The Prime Minister’s Office, on Saturday, came up with a clarification. But the response to his initial statement is instructive. Indian public opinion is not in the mood to tolerate even the hint of a territorial concession to China anymore. This, then, will have an impact on the politics of nationalism in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — by disengaging with Pakistan till it acts on terror and through the surgical and air strikes under its term in office — has projected itself as a staunchly nationalist force. But now, it will have to be accountable for its actions on China too. The well-meaning advice to the Opposition not to “politicise” the national security issue may go unheeded, for if the ruling dispensation has benefited from weaponising national security for electoral ends, the Opposition will seek to emulate the same. Expect the BJP to talk about Pakistan, and expect the Opposition to counter it with China from now on. Ladakh 2020 has introduced the China factor into Indian politics. Its consequences will be long-lasting.
BENGAL ASSEMBLY DISSOLVED
WORLD
JUNE 26: West Bengal Governor S. Dhavan dissolved the Assembly on the advice of Chief Minister Ajoy Mukherji. The announcement came after Mukherji and the Deputy CM Bijoy Singh Nahar conferred with the Governor at Raj Bhavan.
UK SUSPENDS AID TO PAK JUNE 24: Britain would not resume aid to Pakistan until there was firm evidence of progress towards a political solution in East Bengal, the Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, told Parliament today.
ONLINE VOTING
DON’T STIGMATISE
With reference to Chanakya’s The centrality of the Bihar election (June 14), it will certainly be interesting to see how Covid-19 alters the pre-poll campaigning and the voting process. It is probably time now for the Election Commission to start thinking about an online voting system, along with the traditional one.
This is with reference to Upendra Kaul’s I had Covid-19. And society decided to stigmatise me (June 14). I know people are scared about the coronavirus, but this kind of behaviour is inhuman and unacceptable. SUNITA GUPTA, VIA EMAIL
JAY GUPTA, VIA EMAIL
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htweekend VITAL HOME OFFICE HACKS Most of us will be working from home for a while. Are you doing it right?
The Way We Were
Connectivity
Adequate lighting
POONAM SAXENA
If you’re not using a landline, a Bluetooth or wireless handsfree headset will make things easier. Check your internet connectivity too. There’s nothing more disruptive and stressful than a Net connection that blinks in and out.
Poor lighting will worsen the strain on your eyes, so try and set your workstation up near a window. If that’s not possible, consider a good lamp with softer, yellow tones. A clamp-on lamp can be a good choice for a temporary workspace. Since your laptop also emits light, use a dimmer bulb — in the range of 20 to 30 watts.
The right furniture
Cycling: From freedom to fitness to distancing
Variable desks are popular for at-home workers because they fit on a table, allowing you to sit or stand while you use them. Ideally, keep the computer screen 20 inches away from your wrists, and make sure the centre of the screen is at eye level.
As Atlas shuts its last manufacturing plant, a look at all that bicycles have meant to India, from the Raj era to the pandemic
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oon after Partition, a group of Hindi writers — Bhisham Sahni, Nirmal Verma, Krishna Baldev Vaid, Manohar Shyam Joshi and others — set up the Cultural Forum in Delhi. For four years, writes Sahni in his memoir, Today’s Pasts (2015), they met regularly and read their works out to each other. And then cheerfully went home on their bicycles (or on foot). That many of them cycled back was not a reflection of their finances (or lack thereof). It was proof of the popularity and ubiquitousness of this revolutionary mode of transport, invented in early-19th-century Europe. Earlier this month, Atlas’s last cycle factory (located in Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh) shut down, ending a nostalgic journey dating back to 1951, when the company first started manufacturing bicycles. In his well-researched, illuminating book, Everyday Technology – Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity (2013), the historian David Arnold describes how bicycles, initially the preserve of Europeans in India, gradually percolated down to well-off Indians and then, as they became less expensive, to ordinary citizens as well. The bicycle offered Indians many new freedoms, including the ability to get around (public transport was erratic or non-existent) and to ferry objects, people and occasionally animals (lunchboxes, family, squawking chickens) from place to place. By the 1950s, says Arnold, the nation had entered the ‘cycle age’; by the middle of that decade, Hind Cycles and Atlas were together making 400,000 machines a year (and there were bicycles still being imported). Writer Chitra Mudgal’s moving Hindi
A group of cyclists, masked and distancing,in Chandigarh. More people are turning to cycles around the world, as an alternative to the more risky public transport, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. KESHAV SINGH / HT PHOTO
DESK ESSENTIALS 1 Napkins: A quick fix for the
inevitable spill
Seating plan
2 Pen and paper: You know you
The right chair makes all the difference. The more time you spend at your desk, the more carefully you need to think about the chair. Features to look out for are adjustable height so that your feet can touch the ground firmly; adequate arm width to support the elbows and keep them in line with the desk and keyboard; lumbar and upper-back support; a chair back that is slightly tilted rather than ramrod straight, for better tension control.
need them; keep them handy 3 A bottle of water: Regular hydration is important 4 Coasters: Keep the desk clean and dry 5 Clock: To make sure you’re tracking and using, not losing, time
Powering up Getting the position of your plug points right is essential if you want to avoid tripping all over your wires or spilling coffee on your gear. If one plug point is not enough, invest in a good extension cord.
With Love
Recharge
SIMRAN MANGHARAM
RACHEL LOPEZ
Do you love yourself?
Her, in your ear Women make up barely a third of most best-podcast lists. Don’t miss out. Here are some riveting casts by women on food, science, history, birding and more
Most of us don’t think about our relationship with ourselves, yet that is a defining element in any relationship we set out to have with others
hy a column about women podcasters? Because most coverage of podcasts leaves them out almost entirely. On best-cast roundups, women make up barely a third of the entries. Actively seeking them out is worse — most lists of podcasts by women are focused on fashion, relationships, motherhood or various kinds of agony-aunt advice. Plug into these shows below to find out how women tell it differently.
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GASTROPOD Every two weeks, Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley put together an episode that starts out about food, but ends up weaving in science and history. How come a lemon is related to a grapefruit? What did now-extinct plants taste like? Both hosts draw excellent lines from their guests, taking food journalism a notch above the usual chef-and-menu chatter. Episodes go back to September 2014, so there’s plenty to listen to. OLOGIES Alie Ward’s premise is simple. Find academic disciplines that end with ‘ology’, bring in specialists, and ask them how they do what they do. The result — an archive of close to 150 passionate people revealing the world’s complexities and our attempts to understand them — is available on her website, alieward.com. Yes, penguinology is a legitimate stream, and an expert knows why penguins give pebble gifts. Four experts joined in to explain virology last month. There’s even an episode on genealogy — including why the word is an ‘alogy’ and not an ‘ology’. NATURE’S VOICE The UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of the Birds has its own chirpy podcast, on rspb.org.uk. Host Jane Markham has the kind of tone that sounds trustworthy and interested, even when she’s asking questions to orinthologists, birdwatchers, ecologists and those who track
short story, Dashrath ka Vanvas, conveys a sense of how desirable the bicycle was, and how it could be invested with deep emotion: the protagonist Ramanath has longed for a bicycle since he was a boy. But his stern, unyielding father never offered a sliver of love, forget a bicycle. Estranged from his father for years, Ramanath refuses to visit him on his deathbed and does not perform his last rites. Then, a few days later, a huge package is delivered to Ramanath’s home. It is a brand new bicycle that his father had bought and kept for him. Dharamvir Bharati’s iconic 1949 Hindi novel, Gunahon ka Devta, is a passionate love story and has nothing to do with bicycles. But it shows us how the cycle imparted freedom and mobility. The book’s hero, the brilliant young research scholar Chander, is often found pedalling down Allahabad’s tranquil, tree-lined roads to go to university, to meet his friends or to run important errands. But it is as a means of romance and pleasure that the humble bicycle lives on in the popular imagination, because that’s how it was immortalised on the big screen. The twowheel contraption came to symbolise a new generation of modern young men and women who cycled for recreation. Romance blossomed when cycles collided in a tangle of wheels and handlebars. A familiar trope in Hindi films was the gaggle of stylish young women on their bicycles — Nutan and her ‘haseenon ki toli’ (or group of beauties) in Anari (1959); Asha Parekh and friends in Mere Sanam (1965); Saira Banu with her gang of girls in Padosan (1968). Often, daringly, the cyclists were mixed groups of men and women. In the song Jab Din Haseen Dil Ho Jawan (Adalat, 1958), a bunch of exuberant youngsters in hats and dark glasses head out for a picnic on their bicycles and spend the day dancing and going on boat rides. But the most interesting — and probably one of the earliest — associations of bicycles and fashionable young people is in the splendid 1941 film, Khazanchi, recommended to me by Yasir Abbasi, a devoted chronicler of Hindi film history and trivia. The movie opens with two groups of cyclists (led by the hero and heroine) singing and riding on the streets of Lahore. They end up, yes, colliding with each other; later the hero’s father expresses concern for his son’s safety, as though he were riding a particularly fast, dashing vehicle. But our heroine’s father proudly declares of his daughter, “Yeh toh cycle chalaane mein ustad hai!” Today, the bicycle has probably had its middle-class moment. Perhaps it’s time to celebrate it in its new avatar — as an ecofriendly, cool, fitness machine that is also the best socially distanced means of transport in these coronavirus times.
e crave unconditional love, but do we love ourselves unconditionally? In my coaching sessions on dating, I ask people to name five things they love about themselves. More than half respond by saying, ‘I’ve never really thought about that’. Self-neglect seems to be among the few universal trappings of modern-day living. But the foundation of a strong relationship begins with self-love. Self-love means that you acknowledge and accept the importance of your own happiness and well-being. It implies that you are taking care of your own needs and not sacrificing your well-being in an unhealthy quest to please others. It also means you know yourself, and are comfortable with who you are, warts and all. That you are kind to yourself, and forgiving of mistakes. One of the most iconic expressions of selflove is the line said by Kareena Kapoor as the character Geet, in Jab We Met: “Main apni favourite hoon”. It may seem ditzy, but there’s a reason that line became so popular. Deep down, we all want to feel like that. It isn’t easy. Two things we are exposed to very early in life come in the way of our loving ourselves. The first is comparisons. We’re urged to be the best in class, the best at sports, the best at extracurricular activities. Most parents act like they can’t even see — let alone make peace with — the truth: That there can only be one ‘best’ in each class. Rather than identifying the specific gifts and talents of
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Yes, there are podcasts by women focused on fashion, motherhood and agony-aunt advice. But there are others discussing ISIS, philosophy, future worlds and the nature of truth. ISTOCK
winged migration. There’s music too, songbird tunes, caw studies and much, much clucking over climate change. THE LAST ARCHIVE Historian Jill Lepore — she teaches at Harvard and writes in the New Yorker — explores how truth is shaped by societies, and how we end up ‘knowing’ the things we do. Each episode starts with a mystery, and opens with a re-enactment. From there, it blows up to cover the history of knowledge, the lifecycle of a fact, and what we consider evidence. Fitting for a time when far too many people don’t even believe the pandemic is real. FLASHFORWARD No one knows what tomorrow will bring, but futurist Rose Eveleth knows more than most. Her job covers material that doesn’t make it to your company’s quarterly projections. The podcast uses existing science and real-world
developments to imagine futures in which humans might be able to see in the dark, when satellites might track crime, or we may beat death by continuing as simulations. Through it all, Eveleth talks superfast, almost like she’s racing towards tomorrow. CALIPHATE At just 12 episodes, Rukmini Callimachi’s account of the rise of the Islamic State is riveting, disturbing and complex. Callimachi, who covers terrorism for The New York Times, has none of the bravado or hero complex typical of war journalists. In the podcast available on radiopublic.com, she explains the conditions that allowed ISIS to flourish, weaves in heartbreaking interviews with victims, defectors and community leaders, and offers nuances to the good-Muslim-bad-Muslim binary that dominates so much reportage worldwide. Over the moon about something that’s still under the radar? Tell me at [emailprotected]
SELF-LOVE INDICATES THAT YOU KNOW YOURSELF, AND ARE COMFORTABLE WITH WHO YOU ARE; THAT YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN NEEDS. IT ALSO IMPLIES THAT YOU CAN BE KIND, AND FORGIVING OF MISTAKES
each child, we set them all off on an impossible trajectory right there. The second factor then piles on to the first — the idea of ‘log kya kahenge’. As a society, we continue to be preoccupied by what others think or may think of us. Many major life decisions are made based on what the collective ‘others’ might say. The truth is, no one lives your life on a daily basis. So forget the comparisons. Replace the voice in your head that says you have to ‘be the best’, with one that reminds you to ‘do your best’. Set your own standards for success and happiness. Define what you desire. This is true especially when it comes to finding a partner. The flawed idea that you may only marry a person with a specific resume, limits your own chances at happiness. One way to expand your chances at happiness is to know and love yourself. Set aside time, money and mindspace to take care of yourself. If for some reason you end up feeling selfish, remind yourself of those flight-safety videos that instruct you to “put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others”. Many years ago, I had the fortune of being mentored by the motivational guru Jim Rohn. He famously said that you are the average of the five people you spend most time with. So surround yourself with positive people. It is common for people to seek validation from those least likely to provide it. Break that pattern. Spend time with those who love you and want to be with you. Remember, you cannot be in a loving, lasting relationship unless you’re able to love yourself first. Make a list of the things you love about yourself, and keep adding to it. Look at it every day. Own yourself with pride and let the world see you in that happy state. Simran Mangharam is a dating coach and founder of floh.in. She can be reached at [emailprotected]
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hindustantimes
SUN DAY HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
100 DAYS OF
COVID 19 PARENTING
COVID HAS CLAIMED ABOUT 13,000 LIVES IN INDIA, WITH CASES AND FATALITIES RISING IN RECENT WEEKS. HT EXPLORES HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS SHAPED NATIONAL ISSUES SINCE MARCH 2, SEEN AS THE BEGINNING OF THE INFECTION’S FIRST WAVE IN INDIA, AND CHANGED PERSONAL LIVES AND HABITS
5 changes we hope will stay
5 things we’ll be glad to lose
GREATER GENDER NEUTRALITY
NEAR-CONSTANT ANXIETY OVER WHAT COMES NEXT
For every family without full-time help, the lockdown meant you did something new that needed to be done, and would have been ‘outsourced’ in the past. In many homes, this meant traditional gender roles were dismantled in the first 10 days. “Children who see their parents working together cheerfully become open to performing such tasks themselves,” says psychiatrist Sharita Shah.
Will I keep my job? What will become of the kids’ exams? When do we let the domestic help return? The daily scanning of numbers, assessing of threats, discussing of options and risk is something most families can’t wait to be done with.
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As everyone pitches in to take on new chores, children have benefited from seeing gender roles ease in the household.
DEMOCRACY AND TALKING THINGS THROUGH
Learning to parent through a pandemic
Locked in together turned most families into a kind of United Nations. Not every vote was equal, but everyone got a seat at the table. Resources like laptops and TVs were allocated based on need as well as mood. “Having to consider the other is one of the big changes we’ll see,” says family counsellor Gouri Dange. “In many families, frank talk has brought the unit closer together.”
The contours of parenting have changed: family time is back, but amid heightened anxiety and uncertainty, especially for low-income parents and those having children with special needs Zara Murao n
A HANDPRINTED OWL BY AADRITI KHAN, 3
THE IDEA OF PERSONAL / UNSTRUCTURED TIME In lockdown, in many ways, the day opened up for kids. After chores and school work, there was time left deliciously vacant. Many parents realised the value of allowing their kids to use this personal time to be by themselves, de-stress, doodle or journal or paint. There was less ‘What are you doing!’ ‘When are you going to do xyz’ and a greater sense of easing up.
LESS CONSUMERISM AND MATERIALISM No new things meant you took greater care of what you had. We made chips at home, had the kids make pen stands for our work-athome desks. To replace needless buying with innovation has been a hallmark of the lockdown in middle- and upper-middle-class India. “It’s not a philosophical change, so it may not last,” says Dange.
HT PHOTO
THE SURPRISE ELEMENT Pallavi and Udit Singh (above) created a ‘fairy land’ for daughter Kimaya’s fifth birthday party on Zoom. The lockdown has been marked by all kinds of surprises. Birthday videos with footage sent in from across the globe. Special events marked with personalised Zoom quiz nights. Here’s hoping that kind of effort doesn’t die out.
GETTY IMAGES / ISTOCK
[emailprotected]
ore alcohol’. That was the most succinct response we got to the question, how have you changed as a parent in the lockdown. It was a joke. But humour’s been one of the things that have helped families stay sane through the past 100 days. Much of the humour is dark and / or rooted in the ongoing tragedy. Like the viral tweet about the little boy who wouldn’t stop crying because he’d been promised a treat that hadn’t materialised. When did we promise this, his dad asked. Trying to say ‘in the morning’, but confused by his now-garbled sense of time, all he could manage was ‘A long time ago today’. In Mumbai, the parents of sixyear-old Lyra recently asked what she was building with her Lego blocks and were told, very seriously, that they were hospitals. It’s all she builds now. “That’s when we realised what a toll this was taking,” says her mother. To try and help take her mind off things, they’ve been letting her go to the pet store in their building, to pet the dogs. Innovation, empathy and patience are key tools parents have been deploying in the lockdown, to make it work for the family, amid constraints of space, money, privacy and peer company. “Living the idea that parenting is not just expecting your kids to step up, but also walking a mile in their shoes… that’s been a lesson for me,” says Dhanashri Bhosale, 43, an architect and mother of two teens. “I’ve also realised that I need to upgrade myself if I want to understand their world. So I’m spending a bit more time online. I have let my guard down a lot more. I want them to know they can communicate with me.”
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*** As a byproduct of the lockdown, the performative element of parenting in middle- and upper-middle-class urban India has declined. There’s less pressure on children, because there are just fewer goals available. This means parents are seeing their children differently; seeing them for who they are, as one put it, rather than as an amalgam of the various children they’ve been. “At this point, I feel I need not focus only on career and achievements. The humanitarian aspects have taken precedence,” adds Bhosale. “For instance, I was pleasantly surprised when I was worrying about my son’s school not yet
starting online classes, and he said, ‘Not everyone might have the facility at home. It’s okay to wait, ma’.” There’s a back-to-the-basics clarity about the role of the parent. Keep the child safe, keep them fed, keep them occupied and calm, and talk, talk, talk. In most cases, parents have seen children reciprocate in kind, whether they’re 6 or 16. “We’ve discovered a capacity for working as a team and managing with limited resources — whether for recreation or recipes or company,” says Ekta Pillai, 41, homemaker and mother of Aahiel, 12. *** Family time has made a roaring comeback. All meals are eaten together; chores are done together. In some cases the TV and laptop are shared. This has placed a certain amount of pressure on sibling relationships, but even more on the marriage — as one mother put it, it’s hard to parent, and especially hard to discipline, under the constant watch of someone who would typically take a different approach (and was usually away at work for this bit). “Juggling parenting styles while also having to juggle the roles of teacher, guide, counsellor, friend and parent, plus work and housework, has been a common pain point,” says Kamna Chhibber, head of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Healthcare, Gurugram, which has been offering counselling through the lockdown via voice and video calls. It’s been a double adaptation for some. The generation gap was large to begin with, between some of today’s parents and children. “The way society and community were changing, conversations around gender and sexuality, religion, tech, politics, all of it had been a challenge. There was near-constant adapting. Covid-19 has made this even more daunting,” Chhibber says. The lockdown has also been
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particularly hard on parents of children with special needs, and parents of toddlers. Vaccine cycles have been disrupted, routine checks have become nervewracking, and there’s the added burden of childcare with no help. The loss of the offline social network has been very keenly felt. “These parents are having to work doubly hard in the absence of their network,” says developmental paediatrician Samir Dalwai, founder of the New Horizons Health and Research Foundation. “For certain kinds of special-needs children, online learning can also be harder. For some, outdoor activity is almost a prescription. Here, parents have been resorting to staircase space, a therapy ball, even an old truck tyre. And all these are good ideas, and have been working.” *** In addition to age — teens tend to get restless more easily; younger children are more able to entertain themselves for longer periods, and suffer less anxiety about what comes next — type of schooling has proved pivotal. The more rigidly structured courses have instituted virtual attendance, tests and worksheets. One dad had to rush around trying to buy a printer, the day the lockdown was enforced. Juggling work, housework, classes and homework has pushed others to the brink. One mom was so exhausted by the sheets and sheets of algebra fractions that she said she felt like pulling her hair out, at which point her daughter responded curtly, ‘Keep your hair on, mom’ — which has since become the lockdown anthem in their home. “Younger children are typically more resilient by design. Their lack of knowledge and understanding of the scale of things, helps,” Chhibber says. What happens next is a question that’s plaguing children, and parents too — not just with regard to the courses / exams / jobs situation, but also, what is
Parents say the lockdown has taught them to give their children space. When her day is done, for instance, Rhianna Majumder, 12, from Kolkata retreats to the secret world of her diary. ‘I pour out all my thoughts and feelings there,’ she says. SHORMI ROYCHOUDHURY
the likely long-term impact of this lockdown on my child? Counsellors say they can’t answer that one; it’s too soon to know. But the fact that everyone has been stuck in the same situation should alleviate some of the long-term effects. In terms of being stuck in the same situation, parents say it’s also been helpful to discover that there is no correct number of children for a lockdown. One is too few; any more is an endless roundabout of cooking, washing up, arguing over space / toys / rules / chores, and elaborate disputes redressal systems. *** For some children, this has been the first time in their lives that they’ve gone this long with nothing new, no special outings, parties or vacations. “Parents are learning to spend less money. What was, for many, a cycle of heedless consumerism has been broken. There is no hankering for the next big thing,” says family counsellor Gouri Dange. “Children are being taught to manage with what they have.” Instead of things, innovation and effort have reclaimed their place at the heart of special occasions. Like the ‘flight experience’ that Rachana Adalja created for her six-year-old daughter and a friend, in their living room. She put luggage tags on two suitcases, fixed screens to the backs of chairs and offered an ‘in-flight’ meal of Maggi and soup. Pallavi Singh, 38, a homemaker from Indore, celebrated her daughter Kimaya’s fifth birthday by transforming part of their living room into a ‘fairyland’, with the help of some toys, Barbie props and balloons. “She had a Zoom party with friends and cousins. They played games and laughed a lot,” Pallavi says. Rec time and celebrations have also encompassed joint cooking or baking projects, question hour and quiz games, dress-up and dance parties. *** So, will lockdown change how we parent for good? How much of the old styles of parenting will return — less democracy, less conversation, less quality time, fewer family meals? “The ability to have more conversations will remain, I hope,” says Chhibber. “In the long term, parents will learn to depend on themselves,” Dalwai adds. “They will have greater trust in their child’s ability to cope. And will realise, hopefully, that children don’t need that many things and lists. Sometimes all they need is time and patience and a say in how things are done.” (With input from Vanessa Viegas)
HAVING NO IDEA WHERE THE KIDS ARE A degree of freedom will be lost, especially in the short term, says family counsellor Gouri Dange. Much of the socialising will have to be done online, something parents are already preparing for. “I also feel ‘safety’ will become a different kind of priority,” adds Sasmita Sahani, who works with an NGO and is mother to five-year-old Reyansh. “Hand washing, social distancing, masks are things we will focus on for an awfully long time.”
SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SCREEN TIME “Pulling back from the long hours spent online will likely be a challenge, as will the return to physical activity,” says counsellor Dange. At least the tussle over who gets the laptop can end. “I can’t wait,” says a mom of three boys, 12, 14 and 17, all sharing one laptop while she works on the other. A quick hack in the meanwhile, says Dr Samir Dalwai, is to connect the device to the TV so they know you can see and hear what they’re watching too.
THE COOKING A mother of three boys in Mumbai was tired of her children pining for burgers, so she agreed to make some from scratch if they would help. “After we had made just the buns, they said they wouldn’t be wanting burgers again,” she says, laughing. It has been hard work keeping the family fed with little to no outside help and that is what most families put right on top of the list of ‘things they won’t miss’.
ABSENCE OF ‘ME-TIME’ FOR PARENTS The lockdown has meant juggling home, work, childcare and schooling. “We’ve opted for an alternative school and it’s great, but I never thought I’d be playing coteacher,” says Anupama Vijayaraghavan, mother of nine-year-old Laya. “I am so enjoying our time together as a family. It is a gift to treasure. But I do miss my me time.” (Text by Madhusree Ghosh, Natasha Rego, Darielle Britto, Dipanjan Sinha, Cherylann Mollan and Aishwarya Iyer)
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hindustantimes
SUN DAY H IN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
15
NEWS frompageone
DU admissions begin, over 19k register online on Day 1 Kainat Sarfaraz n
[emailprotected]
NEWDELHI: Over 19,500 applicants
have registered for admissions to Delhi University’s various undergraduate courses in just about four hours as the admissions began on Saturday. While 19,543 applicants had registered online for the undergraduate courses, 5,889 registered for postgraduate courses and 457 registered for PhD, university officials said. DU on Saturday started the online registration process for admission to its various undergraduate, postgraduate, Mphil, and PhD courses. Applicants will get a two-week window ending on July 4 to register for the courses. The Bulletin of Information, which contains guidelines on university’s admission procedure, was uploaded on the DU website at around 5pm and the registration portal was also made operational for applicants. In 2019, applicants got an over three-week window from May 30 to June 22 to register for admissions and the first cut-off list was announced on June 28. This year, however, the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the admission schedule. The dates of the first cut-off are yet to be decided as the Central Board of Secondary Educa-
REGISTRATION FEE STRUCTURE ~250 Merit-based courses for UR/OBC
~100 For SC/ST/PwBD/ EWS
~100 Additional fee for ECA/sports
~750 Additional fee for each entrance-based course for UR/OBC
~300 Additional fee for each entrance-based course for SC/ST/PwBD/EWS
~1,000
Admission cancellation fee
tion (CBSE) is yet to conduct its twelve main class 12 papers. The exams are due to be held between July 1 and 15. Dean (admissions) Shobha Bagai said the admission process will be “contact-less” and completely online. “We have a link with the CBSE portal to verify the marksheets . We have written to all educational boards to share the link where their results will be announced so that colleges can verify the marksheets,” she said at a press conference. “DU had been planning the complete
online admission for some time but the Covid-19 pandemic catalyzed the process,” she added. DU will conduct webinars to clear any doubts applicants have. “We will also have dedicated helpline numbers where students can post in their queries,” Bagai said. This is also the first time that trials for sports and extracurricular activities(ECA) will not be held. While students will get admission under the sports category on the basis of their certificates, for ECA, only NSS and NCC certificates will be considered. While the bulletin mentions that there will be five cut-offs for students, the admissions committee is yet to release the tentative schedule for the first cut-off. Bagai explained that this is due to the uncertainty over CBSE results. The National Testing Agency will be conducting the entrance tests to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in DU in 20 cities. Meanwhile, some students faced issues in accessing the website. “DU is planning on holding its first ever online open book examination after 10 days. But it has failed in making an efficient online infrastructure for filling admission forms,” said Akshay Lakra, president of the Delhi unit of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
School principal arrested in Delhi violence case gets bail HT Correspondent n
[emailprotected]
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Sat-
urday granted bail to Faisal Farooq, principal of Rajdhani Public School, who was earlier charged with hatching a conspiracy to precipitate and aggravate riots in and around his school. The court observed that the CCTV footage did not show his presence at the place where the riots had broken out. Duty Judge Vinod Yadav said that the statement of one of the witnesses, Roop Singh, on March 8 had claimed that he had seen Farooq on the spot . He had also
claimed to have heard Farooq asking the school guard to permit some persons inside the school. However, later in his statement recorded before the magistrate on March 11, he did not say a word about having seen the accused or having heard him speak to the guard. The court, while granting bail, said, “It is clearly apparent that there are contradictions in the various statements of this witness about applicant,” the court said. It also noted that Farooq kept calling the police to report the damage to his school from February 24, but his FIR was
recorded on March 5. The court said “except bald allegation,” there is nothing to substantiate that Farooq had spoken to people connected with the riots. Despite HT’s many calls and test messages, there was no response from police crime branch chief Praveer Ranjan or police spokesperson Mandeep Randhawa. Confirming the order, Farooq’s lawyer Gaurav Kochar said he had contended that there was no material on record about the presence of the applicant at the spot at the time of riots. He said the 11-day delay in filing of the FIR also pointed towards false implication.
LG order rates for Covid-19 treatment at private hospitals of Delhi. Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said 100% Covid-19 beds in private hospitals will be subsidised up to an upper limit of 60% of the total hospital capacity. Asymptomatic and mild Covid-19 cases in Delhi are lodged in home isolation after surveillance officers assess the homes of such patients and institute a monitoring mechanism. As of Saturday night, 12,611 Covid-19 patients were in home isolation, according to the official bulletin. On Saturday morning, Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that a move to scrap home isolation for all cases would mean that the Capital needed 90,000 Covid-19-designated beds by June 30. The previous prediction was that Delhi needed 15,000 beds by June 30, the AAP’s national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said. “People in my assembly called me and told me that we will not get tested now. People are that scared… From where will we get these (additional) beds?” he said, hours before the order was rolled back. Later in the day, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal opposed Baijal’s order, asking why a separate rule was being applied for the city, according to people aware of the developments. A senior government official present at the meeting said the chief minister, through videoconferencing, told the LG that if institutional quarantine was made mandatory for all, there would be chaos in the city and the focus would shift from treating serious Covid-19 patients to finding additional facilities for asymptomatic ones, since they make up a high number. While a meeting of DDMA could not arrive at a consensus on the fate of the order earlier in the day, another round of discussions in the evening resulted in the home isolation strategy being restored. At the second meeting, the LG stated that since the government began intensive community-based rapid antigen testing, it was possible that individuals who were positive may have moderate to severe illness, necessitating hospitalisation, which can be missed if they remain under home isolation. Baijal said that if adequate facility for home isolation is found available with Covid-19 patients, and the people on clinical assessment do not require hospitalisation, then they would
also be offered either a stay at CCCs or at paid isolation facilities such as hotels. “Those who are in home isolation should follow home isolation guidelines laid down by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and should stay in touch with health care providers so that if their condition deteriorates, they can be moved to the COVID hospitals. The earlier orders would be amended accordingly,” the LG office said. “To prevent this from happening, all individuals who are positive will be referred to the Covid Care Centers for assessment of clinical conditions, severity of illness and presence of co-morbidities. Simultaneously, physical assessment will also be done whether adequate facilities for home isolation like minimum two rooms and separate toilet exists so that the family members and neighbors are protected and a cluster of cases does not develop in that locality,” a statement by the LG’s office said. According to the modified home isolation guidelines issued late on Saturday, the houses of Covid-19 patients will be assessed to check whether they have adequate facilities for isolation such as two rooms and separate toilet. After that, if the assessment team finds that the person has no underlying health conditions and does not require hospitalization, the patient can continue to remain in home isolation or move to paid isolation facilities such as hotels. After the evening meeting, Sisodia tweeted: “The reservations of LG over home isolation were resolved in the SDMA meeting and the home isolation system will continue. We thank LG for this. Under the leadership of our Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, we will not let Delhi people have any inconvenience.” In a statement, the Delhi government said: “CM Kejriwal explained the Delhi government’s position to the LG and clarified all the doubts which the LG had about home isolation. We are thankful to the LG for amending his earlier order after considering all our points. A private agency was managing the home isolation programme of the Delhi government via tele-consultation in a professional manner. They were taking care of on-boarding the patient followed by their home-isolation training, medical counselling of patient and family and day-to-day tracking of symptoms. An emergency phone number was given to all patients in
case of any escalation of symptoms. If the patients’ symptoms were severe, they were immediately shifted to a hospital. The LG has now asked the health department to make a detailed presentation and submit a concrete proposal to the DDMA on managing the entire process in-house or any other plans for the same before 12pm on Monday. Till then, the service of the said agency has been restored.” The DDMA order on Friday discontinued the services of the company hired to manage the home quarantine, Portea Medical, which contacted individuals through phone calls. According to the government’s June 20 bulletin, 6,285 of its 12,208 Covid-19 hospital beds were vacant, and 4,965 beds were available (out of 6,249) in Covid care and health centres. While issuing the original order, which was called arbitrary by the Delhi government, DDMA said that it feared “home isolation without physical contact to monitor the patients may be a reason for the increase in the spread of Covid-19 infections in Delhi”. Total infections reached 56,746 on Saturday. Home quarantine for patients has been approved by the Union government as an effective way to preserve health care infrastructure for future challenges, under certain guidelines. The Delhi government’s home isolation management system was launched on May 8. The first 5,000 patients were onboarded in the system on May 26. According to experts, hospital beds should be kept aside only for serious patients needing specialised care. Most countries in the world recommend home isolation for mild cases. Experts also point to the risks of infections from crowded facilities. Experts also said that if all cases were to be admitted to institutional facilities, the authorities would have to find additional doctors, nurses and health workers. HT reported on Wednesday that the plan to add 23,800 beds this month for Covid-19 patients will require roughly 2,000 doctors and 3,000 nursing staff. On Friday, the announcement by the central government was criticised as “arbitrary” by the state government, which pointed out its success in running a home quarantine programme and the challenges that will come with adding “thousands of quarantine rooms and finding additional doctors and nurses and health workers” to manage these facilities. Saturday’s move was wel-
comed by residents and experts. Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said: “A rollback was expected because in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi you need to have solutions that are localised… For the middle and upper middle class people, we give them choices of either opting for paid quarantine or observing home isolation. So, a one-size-fits-all rule cannot be enforced on the ground in reality.” Rajiv Kakria, member of the GK-I Residents’ Welfare Association, said that it was a welcome step. “I would still say that instead of mass open quarantine centres, the government must use facilities like hostels, dharamshalas or state guest houses, which have separate rooms and toilets for people to help them keep safe from exposure to severe infection… We have also written to the government regarding this,” said Kakria, also convener of the Save City Group, a collective of DelhiNCR RWAs.
Modi remarks India would respond firmly to any attempts to transgress the LAC,” the statement said. The PMO said that PM Modi specifically emphasised that in contrast to the past neglect of such challenges, Indian forces now decisively counter any violations of the LAC (“unhe rokte hain, unhe tokte hain”). “Because of the improved patrolling, our vigilance has gone up and the military gets to know what is happening on the borders at the right time,” Modi said at the all-party meeting, pointing out that Indian soldiers were able to intercept the Chinese forces who earlier had a free run. “If you keep on intercepting them, it is obvious that tensions will rise,” he said. The all-party meeting on Friday was called to discuss the situation along the LAC following the brutal June 15 brawl between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh, in which 20 Indian personnel were killed. It was the first time since 1975 that India suffered combat fatalities in a skirmish with Chinese troops. Ten Indian soldiers detained by the Chinese side were later released after intense negotiations through diplomatic and military channels. China has so far not acknowledged any casualties among its troops. Following the PMO’s statements, the Congress termed it “a lame attempt to obfuscate the
truth”. “First of all, PMO and the Government need to clearly state their position on the Galwan Valley. Is Galwan Valley not part of Indian territory? Why is Government not coming forward and strongly rebutting the Chinese claim over Galwan Valley? If Chinese troops are present there, does it not amount to intrusion into and occupation of Indian territory? Also, why is the Government silent on intrusions in the Pangong Tso area?” the Congress party said in a statement. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Prime Minister had surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression. “If the land was Chinese: 1.Why were our soldiers killed? 2. Where were they killed?” he tweeted. The opposition party said that the PM’s statement belittled the gravity of the situation on the LAC.The government rebutted the claims and said that the allparty meeting was informed that this time “Chinese forces have come in much larger strength to the LAC” and that the Indian response was commensurate. “As regards transgression at the LAC, it was clearly stated that the violence in Galwan on June 15 arose because Chinese side was seeking to erect structures just across the LAC and refused to desist from such actions,” the PMO said in the statement. It also went on to add that the PM’s observation that there was no Chinese presence on the Indian side of the LAC pertained to the situation consequent to the bravery of the armed forces. “The sacrifices of the soldiers of the 16 Bihar Regiment foiled the attempt of the Chinese side to erect structures and also cleared the attempted transgression at this point of the LAC on that day,” it said. “Those who tried to transgress our land were taught a befitting lesson by our brave sons of soil,” the PM said. The government said an unnecessary controversy was being created to lower the morale of the soldiers. “What is Indian territory is clear from the map of India. This government is strongly and resolutely committed to that,” it added. Any unilateral change of the LAC will not be allowed, the government added. The government said all parties extended support to the government and the armed forces. “The predominant sentiment... was of unequivocal support to the government and the armed forces at a time of national crisis,” said the government.
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FACULTY APPOINTMENTS The Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow invites applications on prescribed form from Indian citizens for the positions of Professors, Additional Professors, Associate Professors andAssistant Professors in its various departments as follows. Start date of online payment of fees: 30th June, 2020, 10:00 IST. to start the application process. Last date for online payment of fees: 21st July, 2020, 17:00 IST. for the application process. Last date for filling and submitting: 14th August, 2020, 17:00 IST. online application. Last date for receipt of hard : 31st August, 2020, 17:00 IST. copy of application. Web link to see advertisement and fill application online: www.sgpgi.ac.in/ http://5.9.212.47/pgi_faculty_June2020/ Advertisement No. I/09/ER/ACAD/2020-21 DIRECTOR
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Opened E-tender based on two Packet system (Technical & financial bid) (Tender notice No. M/C&W/09/2020-21 dt. 19-06-2020) are invited by Divisional Rail Manager/Mech./ C&W/ Varanasi/N E Railway for and on behalf of President of India for following work: Description of works: Out Sourcing of Comprehensive Housekeeping & Mechanized cleaning at Chhapra Jn.(CPR) Station including platforms, yard, washable aprons, Tracks, office buildings, reservation office, concourse area, circulating area, waiting halls, drains cleaning, Garbage collection & disposal and Rag picking etc. and mechanized cleaning (interior Clg.), watering, Padlocking in platform Return/RBPC trains(M/Exp. & Passenger Trains) at CPR & CI platform along with Rodent Control treatment of Chhapra Jn. Station premises for the period of four years. Approx. Value `: 8,49,70,106.33, EMD Money `: 5,74,900.00, Cost of tender forms ` : 10,000/-, Completion period from the date of commencement of work: 48 months. Validity of offer:180 days. Date and time of closing of E-Tender: 17-07-2020 at 14.30 Hrs. Date and time of opening of E-Tender: 17-07-2020 at 15.00 Hrs. Tenderers may submit their offers online up to 17-07-2020 at 14.30 Hrs. Pl. go to the website www.ireps.gov.in to see the complete details and upload the tender. CPRO/Mech-43 Sr. DME/C&W/BSB About any passenger amenity complain SMS on Mobile No. 09794845955 “Never travel on roof and foot boards”
Government of India, Ministry of Defence
Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) SF Complex, Airport Terminal Building, Jagdalpur-494001 Tel: 07867-289461/62/63/64/65, Fax: 07867-289466 Email: [emailprotected] Notice Inviting Bid (NIB) The General Manager, SF Complex, Jagdalpur- 494001, invites separate sealed bids in the prescribed format from reputed firms for execution of following work at SF Complex, Jagdalpur. SI. No.
Bid Reference No.
Name of the Work
EMD (Rs.)
01
SFC/MMG/INST-1/ D-008/2020-21 SFC/MMG/INST-1/ D-009/2020-21 SFC/MMG/MTD/ D-013/2020-21 SFC/MMG/INST-1/ D-010/2020-21
Desktop Computer for SCADA Console ADAM Al AO MODULES Compressible Woolen Felt Sheet K-Type Thermocouple Connector Set
30,000/-
02. 03. 04.
5,500/6,500/2,500/-
Bid Submission End Date & Time 07.07.2020 12.30 PM 07.07.2020 12.30 PM 07.07.2020 12.30 PM 14.07.2020 12.30 PM
Bid Opening Date & Time 07.07.2020 04.00 PM 07.07.2020 04.00 PM 07.07.2020 04.00 PM 14.07.2020 04.00 PM
The Bid document is to be downloaded from the DRDO website: www.eprocure.gov.in/epublish/app. The cost of EMD in the form of demand draft drawn in favour of General Manager, SF Complex, Jagdalpur-494001 payable at Jagdalpur at the time of submission of the bid, failing which the bid would not be considered. The General Manager, SF Complex reserves the right to reject any or all bid without assigning any reason.
davp 10301/11/0020/2021
E-Tender Notice
DAHOD SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT LIMITED
Sd/General Manager SF Complex Jagdalpur
HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH : JABALPUR NOTICE INVITING E-TENDERS
E-Tenders / online tenders are invited from experienced and reputed firms/ organizations/ Original equipments manufacturer (OEM) for the “Supply, Installation, Commissioning, Maintenance and Rate Contract of the Computer Hardware for the High Court of Madhya Pradesh and Subordinate Courts in the State of Madhya Pradesh” as per the specifications terms and conditions mentioned in the tender document. The last date of online tender submission is 20th July, 2020 before 06:00 P.M. The sealed tender complete in all respect addressed to “Registrar General, High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur” Must be submitted before 05:00 P.M. on 21st July, 2020. The Technical bids of the tender shall be opened on 22nd July, 2020 at 11:00 A.M. The pre-bid meeting is on 26th June, 2020 at 11:30 A.M. The detailed tender document is available on the official website of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh www.mphc.gov.in and Government e-procurement portal www.mptenders.gov.in.
G-12072/20
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REGISTRAR GENERAL
Dahod Smart City Development Limited (DSCDL) invites online E-Tenders for “Development of Navjivan Udhyan and Burhani Society Park including design, horticulture work, civil work, irrigation work, electrical work with operation and maintenance Period of five (5) years.” Tender ID : 413425 Estimated Cost (In Rs.) Rs.3.11Cr/EMD (In Rs.) Rs. 3,10,876/Tender Fee (In Rs.) Rs. 5,000/Last Date for online Submission of Tender 18/07/2020up to 17.30Hrs GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS: (1) The tender document for this work can be downloaded from website www.nprocure.com. (2) Other Details of NIT shall be seen on website. (3) Copy of Technical Bid including all drawings, data sheets and duly filled up formats excluding the Financial Bid along with original Tender Fee and Bid Security to be submitted to the Chief Executive Officer (DSCDL), Jilla Sewa Sadan, Chhapri, Dahod389151, by RPAD/ speed post only on or before Date: 27-07-2020 up to 17.00 Hrs. Email: [emailprotected] Executive Officer, DSCDL reserves the right to accept or reject any or all tenders without assigning any reason thereof. This Tender notice shall form a part of contract document. Contact No.62910 05046 Tender No. 02 of 2019-20 Chief Executive Officer
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SUN DAY HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI J UN E 2 1 , 2 02 0
THEY ARE AN AMAZING SIDE AND CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY THEM WHEN THEY COME OUT TO AUSTRALIA THIS YEAR, WILL BE SOMETHING INCREDIBLY SPECIAL. > STEVE SMITH, on India’s series in Australia scheduled in October and December
‘Most corruptors in fixing cases linked to India’ Rasesh Mandani n
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Leicester and Watford players take a knee ahead of their Premier League match at Vicarage Road in Watford on Saturday. TWITTER
Is taking a knee a sign of change? NO TO RACISM By showing solidarity on Black Lives Matter, federations, leagues have recognised athletes’ right to protest Bhargab Sarmah n
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NEW DELHI: Football resumed in
some of Europe’s biggest leagues in the time of sickness, death and a significant pushback against racism. Deaths from the novel coronavirus reached 4.6 lakh on Saturday which had 16 games across the Premiership, La Liga and Bundesliga. In many of those games health workers were lauded, virus victims remembered along with a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, 26 days after his sudden death in USA from police brutality. Like playing during a pandemic, the widespread call for racial justice across football’s firmament—or at least in its most watched competitions—is a first. Such has been the global solidarity for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement after Floyd’s death that even powerful sports bodies have changed stance. So far, they had said sport and politics don’t mix. It didn’t matter that politicians have long been part of sports administrations—look no further than India’s Praful Patel and Pakistan’s Faisal Saleh Hayat helming national football federations. Political protests by
shortpasses
players though were no-go areas. That changed over the past month. Acknowledging BLM, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said it will soften rules and the United States Soccer Federation has done a U-turn on its three-year rule prohibiting athletes from kneeling during the national anthem. Fifa president Gianni Infantino has even praised the BLM movement. In the Premier League, players took a knee and wore shirts that had ‘Black Lives Matter’ where their names would be. Through campaigns such as ‘Kick It Out’ there have been attempts to deal with racism in football in Britain since 1993 but this was unprecedented. Here was Fifa, UEFA and the Premier League encouraging players supportive of the movement. In the US, gridiron footballer Colin Kaepernick’s career may be revived four years after he took a political stand and leagues are saying they are okay with athletes keen on similar protests. SHIFT IN PERCEPTION So are these steps populist or symbolic? They could be either or both but even then it needs to be noted that public pressure can
BLM PROTESTS BY ATHLETES n Young tennis sensation Coco
Gauff joins protests in Florida. n UFC fighter Israel Adesanya joins protests in New Zealand. n Many NBA and WNBA players, including Malcolm Brogdon, Bradley Beal, John Wall, Rui Hachimura and Natasha Cloud, join nationwide protests in the US. n Tyrone Mings, Memphis Depay among footballers to join
bring meaningful change to the discourse. As Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford showed when he forced an aboutturn on food vouchers for poor children from the Boris Johnson-led Conservative government in the UK, athletes and fans can get together to hold an establishment accountable. For football, and many other sports, this is an opportunity to improve the conversation around racism and bigotry. When Turkish-origin Mesut Oezil said he was a victim of racism in Germany, there was little support from the national federation, current and former
protests across Europe. n Jadon Sancho, Achraf Hakimi,
Marcus Thuram among players in Bundesliga to offer solidarity to BLM after scoring goals. n Real Madrid’s Marcelo kneels in support of BLM during a La Liga game. n Premier League players take a knee before kickoff and wear shirts carrying the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’.
players, or the public. Oezil was targeted ahead of the 2018 World Cup for posing with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan when diplomatic relations between Germany and Turkey had frayed. When Bundesliga resumed last month, Germany embraced public support for BLM by players. In England, Liverpool posted a picture on June 1 where the club’s players were seen taking a knee around the Anfield centrecircle during training. The gesture was soon adopted by other clubs and introduced on matchdays. Even though Liverpool have a different manager and
Klopp’s Liverpool ready to hit the ground running; Barcelona stumble against Sevilla Agencies n
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Leroy Sane
REUTERS
SANE REJECTS CITY CONTRACT MANCHESTER: Manchester City forward Leroy Sane could leave the club after rejecting offers of a contract extension. The 24-year-old Sane, a German international and target for Bayern Munich, has one year left on his contract at City. “Leroy has rejected to extend his contract. Everyone knows. If at the end of the season two clubs agree, he can leave. If not he will leave at the end of his contract,” City coach Pep Guardiola said.
France to allow up to 5,000 fans in stadiums PARIS: Up to 5,000 spectators will be allowed to attend sports events in stadiums in France when they re-open on July 11, the French government announced on Saturday. The limit applies to “big events, stadiums and concert halls”, the government said. “A review of the national epidemiological situation will be carried out in mid-July to decide if it is possible to relax (the rules) in the second half of August,” it added.
US Open’s wheelchair event rethink NEW YORK: The organisers of the US Open said on Friday they could have better communicated with wheelchair athletes before announcing they would not be part of this year’s scaleddown event in New York and are now rethinking their decision. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) held a call on Friday with wheelchair tennis leadership during which they stated they should have worked in a “collaborative manner” with wheelchair athletes.
almost an entirely different first team from 2011-12, it is worth remembering that during that season, the club threw its weight behind Luis Suarez when he was found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. The Liverpool players even wore shirts in support of Suarez at the time. Liverpool have never publicly apologised for that although Evra did reveal that he recently received an email from club chairman Tom Werner who acknowledged the Reds’ mistake and apologised. English football has also seen little progress in terms of black representation in managerial positions or in boardrooms and it is perhaps time to go a few steps ahead of just symbolic support for an anti-racism campaign. As Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling recently said: “There’s something like 500 players in the Premier League and a third of them are black and we have no representation of us in the hierarchy, no representation of us in the coaching staffs. There’s not a lot of faces that we can relate to and have conversations with.” For allegations of racism football bodies in Europe, including UEFA, have been notorious in
while Bournemouth face Crystal Palace. Chelsea play for the first time since the lockdown on Sunday when Frank Lampard’s men head to struggling Aston Villa.
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LONDON: Premier League strugglers Watford rescued a dramatic 1-1 draw against Leicester thanks to Craig Dawson’s last-gasp overhead kick at the start of a weekend which could see Liverpool move within one win of the title. In the first full weekend of English top-flight matches since the Covid-19 shutdown in March, Watford’s hopes of avoiding relegation looked set to be dented by Ben Chilwell’s superb 90th minute strike. But in a remarkable conclusion, Hornets centre-back Dawson launched himself into an acrobatic effort moments later to claim his first goal for the club. On Sunday, Liverpool will play for the first time since the topflight hiatus when the title chasers make the short trip to Merseyside rivals Everton. Jurgen Klopp’s side, 22 points clear of second-placed Manchester City, need two wins from their remaining nine games to end their 30-year wait to be crowned English champions. If the Reds beat Everton, they can wrap up the title with another victory against Palace on Wednesday. Klopp’s men have not been in action for 106 days and the Liverpool boss is relieved to return after talk the season might be declared null and void, which would have deprived his team of the title their superb season deserves. Liverpool had been on
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Lionel Messi is challenged by Sevilla players during their La Liga match in Seville on Friday. Barcelona were held 0-0. GETTY
course to become the first English champions to be crowned in March after recording 27 wins from 29 matches. However, Liverpool’s inevitable title will now come with an asterisk according to some pundits, who claim the Premier League’s new normal of matches behind closed doors with more substitutes allowed has taken the shine off the leaders’ achievements. Klopp doesn’t care about those critics and, on the eve of Liverpool’s return, the German hit back. “Now I have had a lot of time to read. I had to Google the word ‘asterisk’. I only knew the word from a comic!” Klopp said. “This is the most difficult year and season to become champions, 100 percent. It is an interrupted season, like has never happened
before. Whoever will be champions, it will be historic because it is a year that we will never forget. Give us an asterisk, yest. We cannot do a lot of things that we usually can do but in this specific case at least we can say this is really special. That’s why we enjoy the little asterisk there.” Brighton, two points above the bottom three, return to action at the Amex Stadium against Arsenal, who are reeling from their 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Wednesday. Arsenal are eight points adrift of the top four and another loss would effectively extinguish their faint hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. West Ham, level on points with Brighton, host Wolves, who are bidding for an unexpected European berth,
BARCA HELD SEVILLE: Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said his side has everything to do if they are to retain their Spanish title this season after being held to a 0-0 draw at Sevilla, handing Real Madrid the chance to top the standings. “Seeing how the matches have gone so far, it’s going to be very difficult for us to win this league,” Pique said. “The draw leaves us in a position where we no longer depend on ourselves and looking at the fixtures it’s difficult to imagine Real Madrid are going to drop points but we’ll still give everything to try and win it.” Real trail Barca by three points and if they beat Real Sociedad on Sunday they will overtake the Catalans due to their superior head-to-head record. Zinedine Zidane’s side beat Valencia 3-0 on Thursday with a superb secondhalf display and won 3-1 against Eibar in their first game back. Barca coach Quique Setien said he was optimistic Real would also slip up and said Pique had made his downbeat prediction in the heat of the moment. “I think Pique’s words came from frustration. I’m sure he’ll think different tomorrow, I’m certain that Real Madrid are not going to win every game,” he said.
letting many stakeholders get away with a tap on the wrist. Racist chanting from the stands remains prevalent even in top leagues like Italy’s Serie A. Perhaps, this is European football’s chance to course-correct. BLM is changing the rules of the game and the conversation around racism and political protests. It can also be a lesson for countries where dissent by athletes is frowned upon. In India, where nothing stops athletes from jingoism or bigotry –military caps by the India cricket team in an international match, Islamophobic tweets by a famous wrestler or a tweet by an Olympic medalwinning wrestler threatening ‘terrible consequences’ on those consuming beef are but a few examples – there is little tolerance for those speaking out against injustice. When former India cricketer Irfan Pathan recently expressed his views on social injustice in India, it was met with radio silence from colleagues and the cricket fraternity at large. Former West Indies captain Darren Sammy’s allegations of teammates in the Indian Premier League using a racial slur received somewhat similar treatment.
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MUMBAI:Did the wide-ranging fallout of the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal work as a deterrent against corruption in Indian cricket? Not so, say anti-corruption (ACU) officials in the sport. These officials say the corruptors now look to target the state leagues as well as lesser known live competitions—smaller in scale and involving more vulnerable players. “We have 50 investigations that we are undertaking and majority have links to corruptors in India,” Steve Richardson, coordinator of investigations, International Cricket Council ACU said in a webinar on Sports Law and Policy on Saturday. Of late, no high-profile Indian cricketer may have come under the lens, but the player-bookie nexus goes unabated, he said. “Players are the final link in the chain. Problem is with people who organise corruption, who pay the players; who sit outside the sport. I can deliver eight names to Indian governing agencies who are serial offenders and constantly approach the players,” Richardson added. But for Covid 19 applying the brake on all state leagues, many of them would have been on by now. The Karnataka Premier League (KPL) remains suspended and police investigations are on after some players and a team owner were charged with fixing. “The police has filed partial charge-sheets in KPL matter. We are in the process of examination of that evidence,” BCCI ACU head Ajit Singh said. “The entire malice emanates from (illegal) betting. Just to make windfall gains illegally through betting, they approach participants (players, support staff, officials, franchise owners) and the amount of money involved is unimaginable—an annual turnover of ~30,000-40,000 crore; including sports and other activities. In state leagues, we got betting examined on certain matches and we discovered it comes to the tune of more than 2 million pounds per match,” said Singh. ACU officials say nothing will
change until match-fixing is made a criminal offence in India. “Sri Lanka was the first nation that brought a match-fixing law. For that reason, Sri Lanka cricket is better protected now. In Australia’s case, we are very proactive. At the moment, with no legislation in place in India, they are operating with one hand tied up,” said Richardson. A robust law would also help protect ICC events better. “In Australia, they can stop someone coming to their country before the tournament. India too has ICC events coming up with the T20 World Cup (2021) and the 2023 ODI World Cup. Legislation would be a game changer.” Singh said there would be a strong deterrent if the pending Prevention of Sports Fraud bill became law. “Fans put in a huge amount of emotion and this (fixing) happens… It starts at an early stage; those who are in sports betting nurture these players and start using them later for fixing. It needs to be curbed. For that you need a strong law. Currently it is archaic, and some of the conditions are laughable.” MASHRAFE, TWO OTHERS TEST POSITIVE PTI ADDS: Former captain Mashrafe Mortaza and two other Bangladesh cricketers, Nazmul Islam and Nafees Iqbal have tested positive for Covid-19. The 36-year-old Mortaza was unwell for the last couple of days and tested positive on Saturday. He is currently in self-isolation. Mortaza plays only ODIs and had stepped down from captaincy earlier this year. Last week, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi had tested positive. Meanwhile, Cricket Association of Bengal secretary Snehasish Ganguly, Sourav Ganguly’s elder brother said he’s perfectly healthy, rubbishing reports that he was infected. According to the West Bengal health department, the family members of Snehasish -- wife, father-in-law and motherin-law—have tested positive. Snehasish has tested negative. “I am perfectly healthy and am doing office everyday. The news doing the rounds about my illness is baseless and is not expected in these trying times,” Snehasish said in a CAB media statement.
thecrosswords CRYPTIC CLUES
PUZZLE 15635
© Gemini Crosswords 2012 All rights reserved
ACROSS 1 Fifty cubs around, but only thirteen in the pack (5) 4 Meeting to study diplomacy (7) 8 The refuse has been turned into wood (3) 9 Very bad actor gets involved with debts (9) 10 Bearing out what one would be rude to do (5,2) 11 Put in a claim for prize money (5) 13 The sailor goes back to the girl more willingly (6) 15 Bold prosecutor takes on a cartel (6) 18 What could be finer than a riddle? (5) 19 Arrange a star part in a Western (7) 21 Produced, as it proved (6,3) 23 One again shows anger (3) 24 Comes into line for clothes (7) 25 Legend written by northern French writer
DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 14 16 17 18 20 22
Music room (7) She carries the torch for others (9) Alec’s fresh mount (5) Bill comes up to telephone, showing concern (6) Despoiled icon is restored to a city of Cyprus (7) An occasion for trouble (3) Concoct a test to discern flavour (5) An illumination for the landing (9) Teams of seven put out by the Spanish (7) Bitterness associated with an age old craft (7) Raise with some relief (6) Fed up with dates having to be rearranged (5) The pay for judges? (5) One type of corn spirit (3)
FRIDAY’S SOLUTIONS (15634)
QUICK CLUES ACROSS
DOWN
1 4 8 9 10 11 13 15 18 19 21 23 24 25
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 14 16 17 18 20 22
Heavy blow (5) Depose from priesthood (7) Generation (3) Not joking (2,7) To refrain (7) Cornered with no escape (2,3) Stick together (6) Urgent need (6) Bottomless gulf (5) Surround entirely (7) Produce useful result (4,5) Fuss (3) Without exception (7) A cotton fabric (5)
Illegal trading (7) Ghostly (9) Group of lions (5) Cheerless (6) To desert (7) Be indebted for (3) Pool of stakes (5) Listen very attentively (2,3,4) Tranquil (7) Strongly disapprove of (7) Utter poverty (6) Compass (5) Extremely important (5) An exploit (3)
htsudoku
CRYPTIC
Fans will be allowed during T20 World Cup Press Trust of India n
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MELBOURNE: If 15 teams can be
allowed to enter Australia for the T20 World Cup then fans will not be stopped from watching live action in the stadiums, Cricket Australia’s interim CEO Nick Hockley said on Saturday. Hockley replaced under-fire Kevin Roberts, who recently got the boot from Cricket Australia, which is grappling with financial woes. Different possibilities are being worked out for the T20
World Cup to go ahead as scheduled later this year and one of them is to host the tournament before empty stands. However, Hockley said crowds will be allowed, though, hosting 15 teams with players, officials and support staff is “complex” as of now, hinting that probably the ICC event could be pushed back. “The reality is, and we’ve got much more understanding about this in recent weeks, is crowds are most likely to come back before international travel. Our biggest challenge is getting 15
teams into the country,” Hockley said. “If I compare it with the prospect of a bilateral tour, you’re talking about bringing one team in and then playing individual matches. But the prospect of bringing 15 teams in and having six or seven teams in one city at the same time, it’s a much more complex exercise.” When specifically asked whether crowds would be permitted by the time borders have opened to the point that 15 teams will be allowed to travel to Australia, Hockley replied in an affirmative.
“That’s the current thinking, yes.” Hockley said it came as a shock when he was asked by Cricket Australia to replace Roberts. “I’ve had very mixed emotions. I was very shocked to be asked. I didn’t see it coming at all, so I probably haven’t had time yet to process it. I feel very sad for Kev (Roberts). On the other hand, I feel this is a massive privilege to be asked, it’s a massive responsibility and a massive opportunity even if it’s only for the next few months,” he said.
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INTERNATIONAL YOGA DAY: YOGA SE HI HOGA >>P4
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NEW DELHI, SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2020, 6 PAGES I Entertainment & Promotional Features
Ansel Elgort PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ ANSEL
ANSEL ELGORT ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
A FATHER’SIAL DAY SPEC
Ronit Bose Roy; (inset) with wife and kids PHOTOS: PRAMOD THAKUR/HT AND INSTAGRAM/ RONITBOSEROY
ctor Ansel Elgort of The Fault In Our Stars (2014) fame has been accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl in 2014. According to a Dailymail report, a woman claimed on Twitter, on Friday, that she messaged Elgort on social media before her 17th birthday, and he responded. She wrote in her statement that she was “sobbing and in pain” during the alleged assault. “...the only words that came out of his mouth were ‘we need to break you in’. I WASNT there in that moment mentally, (sic)” she wrote.
Ronit Bose Roy says no topic is taboo in his house Kavita Awaasthi eing a father is the core of my existence. I have been through good, bad and worse times in life, but since my kids were born, all my decisions have been taken keeping them in mind,” says actor Ronit Bose Roy, father of two. He believes being a parent is not just about loving, guiding and educating your child but also means “to take the pain and spare them any”. This Father’s Day, Roy tells us that he talks to his children about positivity and being strong amid hardships. “I am teaching my kids to be kind, compassionate and be good humans. I tell them it is okay to fail, and that you may win or lose, but keep on moving. I tell them every fight is not theirs to fight and the
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result isn’t important, but the reason to fight has to be right. It can’t be due to ego or anger... It should be a positive reason instead, such as standing up for someone or correcting something,” the Hostages actor says, adding, “My daughter, Aador, is 15 and my son, Agastya, is 12, and they have impressionable minds. As every stage of life brings a different set of issues, parental guidance is crucial in a child’s life.” Roy also teaches his kids about “entitlement, money, poverty, compassion, anxiety, and being kind”. The 54-yearold reveals that he had a frank chat with them about mental health after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Revealing that a couple of years ago, his daughter “went through anxiety for six
months”, Roy shares, “We discuss issues such as mental health, goodness of the soul, greed, and the fear people feel. Thankfully, they are intelligent and understand the evils of social media. We also talk about money and how much is spent on them. They know that not many are blessed like them. No topic is taboo in our house and we talk about all current events... I need to know what they think as their take might be different from mine. I have learnt a lot in life, but they are in a different space, so we learn from each other.” He adds that there is no pressure on his children to be “a doctor or an engineer”; they will be what they want to be. “They aren’t sure what they want in life, and that’s perfectly fine by me,” Roy says. n
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WORLD Y MUSIC DA
s the spirit to encourage local, home-grown products strengthens, architect and design expert Seetu Kohli, head of Seetu Kohli Home — one of India’s leading design, furniture and lifestyle firms — has extended support to local arts, crafts and artisans to fight back amid the current crisis. The eponymous brand has previously brought to India several international luxury home decor and interior brands, such as Fendi Casa, Roberto Cavalli Home, and Ralph Lauren Home. However, in the current scenario, Kohli feels that one needs to step up and contribute for the country’s benefit. “We will soon launch an affordable made in India label — Mallika’s Edit — on
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an e-commerce platform,” she says, adding, “All craftsmen will be from India — from art and crafts, crockery to bed and baths, fabric, furniture and accessories. We have collaborated with an Italian company for technology, but the products are 100% Indian. And with an e-commerce platform, the reach is limitless.” Kohli feels that Indian art and crafts have immense potential, so, she wants to create a global brand out of them. She says, “While ‘vocal for local’ is a good concept, the next step is to take local to global.” Meanwhile, Kohli recently designed showrooms for designers Manish Malhotra and Falguni and Shane Peacock, featuring metalwork, stonework, wooden panelling and walls, all from products made in
India. From luxurious international homes to celebrating Indian arts and crafts and artisans now, she says, “This is expanding horizons on a different line. I’ve received a phenomenal response from my real estate clients in India. All of them happy to support me in this initiative.” For more information, visit www.seetukohlihome.com or contact on Instagram: @seetukohliconcepts n
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We will soon launch an affordable made in India label for art and crafts, crockery, furniture and more. While ‘vocal for local’ is a good concept, the next step is to take local to global. SEETU KOHLI HEAD OF SEETU KOHLI HOME
From humble beginnings to musical icons There’s quite a long journey for a musician, before one gains the tag of a ‘best-selling’ artiste. Popular musicians share how they struck the right notes in their careers
RAJA KUMARI Indian-American rapper musician Raja Kumari, has her first ever pay cheque fixed right on her “vision board”. However, she did not encash the cheque! “It was for $343 for a song that was meant to be featured on a video game, NBA2k13 but the song was later not used!” she says.
AMIT TRIVEDI PHOTO: AMAL KS/HT
GURU RANDHAWA The popular singer who has given hits such as Lahore, Ban Meri Rani and many more, reveals he was paid ₹500 for his first professional performance as singer, at a “Bengali festival”, in Delhi in 2011. “I recall it was during my college days around 2011. Before that, I used to perform in my village, as a kid, at weddings and small gatherings for fun,” he shares.
It started “some 20 years ago”, when he was picked to play the keyboard, at a 10-day long navratri festival in Mumbai, paid “₹1,500 daily”. By the seventh day, Chandresh Shah, a theatre producer, approached the then 20year-old to compose for a Gujarati play Ek Phool Khilyani Vaat.
ARMAAN MALIK He started singing since he was four and decided by the time he was seven that music was “going to be my career.” And next year, the then eight-yearold got a chance to sing a TV jingle, paid ₹25,000 for it. “I never got a hold of that money as my mom saved it all up,” he laughs.
NEHA KAKKAR She started by singing bhajans in Delhi, as a fouryear-old, going on later to participate in a singing reality TV show and, from there, to a playback career. “It was a Mata ka jagran in Delhi when I was four and I got ₹100 for it. It was a neighbourhood/ community function,” she says, adding her first professional gig was recording the title song of a TV show. “I didn’t get paid for it,” she recalls.
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HINDU STA N T IM ES , NEW DE LHI SUNDAY, J UNE 21, 2020 STAGRAM/ PHOTOS: IN A DATTAATINA
‘Let music heal your soul’ Shreya Mukherjee hen the going gets tough, let music heal your soul,” says singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan, who has been making melodies for over three decades now and has quite a few things up his sleeve on the occasion of World Music Day today. “I’m doing two online concerts. I plan to post a song from my album with John McLaughlin. Then there’s a new song that we’re working on. At home, I have these two wonderful musicians (his children Siddharth and Shivam); all three of us would compose and record a new single,” he says. Calling it a “happy song”, Mahadevan reveals that it’s penned by lyricistpoet Javed Akhtar. “It is about freedom from all worries and spreads positivity. We want to tell people to stay strong,” he adds. Reacting to singer Sonu Nigam’s claims of Bollywood’s music industry ‘functioning in the hands of
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select few’, Mahadevan shares that they have always intended to encourage new talent. “We have given opportunities. But, what Sonu is saying is right. The only solution is to let independent music shine. Promote, respect and encourage independent
creations” he urges. He also feels independent artistes need to reinvent themselves. “Times are changing. There’s a whole lot of artistes who have come along, extremely talented and can change the game,” he asserts.
(Clockwise from left) Shankar Mahadevan with his sons Siddharth and Shivam
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A musical tribute to frontline warriors oday is World Music Day, and there couldn’t be a more opportune time to release Dharm Hindustan, a musical tribute to frontline workers battling Covid-19. A collaborative effort by Arpan, an NGO, and Purani Dilli Walo ki Baatein, a not-forprofit collective, the song has been made possible by individuals across India, including Indore-based musician Gautam Kale. “My father Kishore Kale and a
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student, Prithiviraj Singh Sisodiya, wrote this song last year. My students recorded it from their homes and we a made video using clips,” he shares. Playback singer Ami Mishra, staying at his home in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, has rendered this song with a message of oneness. “When I heard this song, I thought we should rise above the lines that divide us. Inn sabse upar uth ke duniya dekhni chahiye,” says Mishra. Gurugram-based HR
professional Mridula Sharma feels honoured to have sung the song, adding, “It gives the message to love each other. I have huge respect for all frontline workers giving their best to save this world.” Kashmir-based BBA student Nargis Khatoon sees it as a ray of hope which transcends across boundaries. She adds, “Everyone has a different religion, but this song does not stereotype. It appeals to all of humanity.” n
t a time when many are worried about the future, Tinaa Dattaa has found solace in yoga. And on International Yoga Day, the actor admits that it has now become a way of life for her. “Given the kind of profession we are in, staying fit is very important. So, I’d hit the gym daily. But there were days when after a rigourous training, my body would get tired and the soreness would take time to heal,” she recalls, while confessing how reluctant she was to try yoga, until she practised it for the first time in January this year. “My friend Aashka (Goradia Goble; actor) would always tell me to take up yoga, but I never liked this form of fitness. However, I decided to give it a shot,” says the Uttaran actor, who had, in March, visited her friend’s yoga centre in Goa and has been stuck there since due to the lockdown. Dattaa, who spends two to three hours doing yoga every day, says her body has reacted to it well. “I can now do difficult binding postures, too. I never imagined that doing yoga would be so liberating,” she muses. She also confesses to have rediscovered herself through yoga. “I’m often asked what I have gained by doing yoga and meditation. The
My son should be ambitious, but grateful Juhi Chakraborty olding his 18-day-old child in his hands, Sumeet Vyas has all the reasons to be the happiest on Father’s Day today. Celebrating the day with his new born son Ved, the firsttime father seems to be enjoying both perks and challenges of fatherhood. “So far, it has been good and lovely,” he shares, adding, “My wife Ekta (Kaul) and I are discovering something new every day. I’m still quite clueless and so is
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For Tinaa Dattaa, yoga has become a way of life now
Shreya Mukherjee
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/SHANKAR.MAHADEVAN
Etti Bali
YOGA HELPED ME CONTROL ANGER AND ANXIETY, SAYS TINAA
Sumeet Vyas’ son, Ved, was born on June 3
answer is inner peace. I had a lot of stress, anger and anxiety within, which is in control now. Yoga made me happier,” shares Dattaa, 27. n
she. We don’t know what the baby really wants when he cries.” The actor also feels that his father, writer BM Vyas, had ‘balanced’ parenting skills and he would definitely takes cues from him.“My father was very open, he never interfered with what I did. He let me explore a bunch of things I wanted to do. That’s most important— to let people explore their own possibilities and come to their own conclusions,” he shares. Vyas, 36, wants to have an “easy bond” with his son and hopes to be well equipped to help him out with everything he desires for, be it emotional or financial. “Also, one thing that I’d like him to learn from me is to never give up,” he explains. The actor, who experienced fatherhood during the lockdown, feels that it’s going to be an interesting story for his son to know as he grows up. He adds, “I want to give a philosophical point of view. He should have gratitude for what he has. I will teach him that no matter what, never take anything for granted, be it family, success, relationships or money. He should be ambitious but most importantly grateful.”
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PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/MOHANSHAKTI
STAYING APART BROUGHT THESE CELEBS CLOSER TO THEIR DADS Shakti Mohan with her father, Brij Mohan Sharma; (inset) Mannara Chopra with her father, Raman Rai Handa
Prerna Gauba Sibbal arricaded by the lockdown, we’ve learnt to value the things we earlier took for granted. On the occasion of Father’s Day, people share what they missed the most about their dads when they were away. “My father got ill while we were away. He was the one who used to take care of me. Everyday, he would make sure I have almonds, walnuts and juice. He also used to recite everything he read in the paper. I’ll now make sure I take care of his health, like he does for me,” says actor Mannara Chopra, who was in Mumbai with her mother while her father was in Delhi. Dancer Shakti Mohan, who was in Gujarat, far from her
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home in Mumbai, shares, “Every morning, I go up to my dad and bow my head, he kisses me and I say ‘Namaste papa’. This is what I love the most about my day. I missed this daily gesture.” Delhi-based Dr Mahima Bakshi had to isolate herself, given the coronavirus scare. “My father is 74. I had to be away from him as chances of me carrying infection are high. I missed having chai and samosa with him. He makes the best chai in the world!” she adds. Businesswoman Ruchita Bansal, who hadn’t been away from her father for so long, missed his teaching. “He gave me the best business advice. In crisis, he was my source of encouragement,” she says. n
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SCRAMBLE - 3494
CALVIN AND HOBBES
Bill Watterson
Solve the four anagrams and move one letter to each square to form four ordinary words
KWAAE CFU RS EI RTBT CEI LF K Now arrange the letters marked with an asterisk (*) to form the answer to the riddle or to fill in the missing words as indicated.
Only dull people are brilliant at ____. -Oscar Wilde (9)
TAROT POWER
ARIES
(MAR 21 - APR 20)
JUNE 21-27, 2020
Reese Witherspoon
TAURUS
(APR 21 - MAY 21)
MA PREM RITAMBHARA SPIRITUAL MESSAGE To me, only that person is a saint who has accepted himself, and in his acceptance has accepted the whole world. And that is healing, therapeutic. Just being with somebody who accepts you totally is therapeutic. You will be healed, says Osho, the Zen master. Ma Prem Ritambhara has been reading Tarot cards professionally in Mumbai, Pune, Zurich and New Delhi, for the last 15 years and continues to do so from her studio at home in New Delhi. Her clientele is from all over the world, from all walks of life, and she reads cards, predicts, counsels and heals professionals, business people, men, women, children, students and couples. She conducts individual as well as group readings. Contact her at [emailprotected]
Gal Gadot
GEMINI
(MAY 22 - JUN 21)
Nicole Kidman
CANCER
(JUN 22 - JUL 22)
Selena Gomez
SCRAMBLE SOLUTION: Awake, scurf, bitter, fickle ANSWER: Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. -Oscar Wilde
Dharm Hindustan has been sung and recorded by artistes from all across the country, as a tribute to India’s Covid-19 warriors
You are emotionally reflective, dreamy, poetic and tranquil this week as personal relationships are loving and satisfying. You can be laid back and a bit lazy about starting new personal ventures and business projects. You are likely to be the central figure in an important happening or family event. Redecorating home or office space rejuvenates energy and ambiance. You can be deluded about certain situations when viewing them through a curtain of emotions; look with the head as well as the heart to get a true picture. You are socially in demand online, and find it hard to cope with all your commitments and interests. Lucky Number: 5 Good Colour: Turquoise
LEO
This is the start of another cycle in your life as an exciting business venture gets off the ground. You relate in a more caring and supportive manner with family, staff, friends and loved ones, which makes you popular among them all. You connect again with people you haven’t seen for a long time, as life brings you full circle to the same point. It’s a magical time for romantic relationships and feelings. Health needs care. Outer balance and inner centering stabilise work structures and family situations. You are released from restrictions and limitations as old fears don’t get you anymore. Lucky Number: 18 Good Colours: Creams, whites
VIRGO
You realise goals and targets through hard work and concentration. A journey away from the city is in the planning stage! Avoid a selfish person in the family who tends to take advantage of your good nature. Conceit and intellectual pride can be your downfall, so be aware. Centering within and witnessing inner and outer reflection and truth is the best meditation this week. Old friends and close family communicate good news and remain in touch when you need to share views and feelings with them. Personal relationships cannot be resolved through discussion and analysis, but through love, acceptance and freedom. Lucky Number: 6 Good Colour: Pure white
LIBRA
You tend to waste energy in details causing neglect of more important things at work this week. A lack of persistence can be disastrous at this point. Sheer, unforeseen bad luck may look negative at this point, but it leads to fortunate changes at the end of the week. Restrictions at work or limitations in personal relationships may not be acceptable to you, express your feelings. It’s best to get a clear perspective and balance your energy before acting and making decisions in important matters. Don’t allow others to interfere in business or personal partnerships. Yoga or walking is good for you. Lucky Number: 8 Good Colour: Lavender
SCORPIO
(JUL 23 - AUG 23)
Jennifer Lawrence
(AUG 24 - SEP 23)
Ava DuVernay
(SEP 24 - OCT 23)
Lana Headey
(OCT 24 - NOV 22)
Julia Roberts
You have the courage to face personal difficulties and take up professional challenges this week. Your hard work makes victory possible. There might be infighting at work; you will have to be the mediator. Relationships could be strained if you are not clear about intentions. Don’t allow people to take advantage of your good nature, or you find yourself in a depleted state. Health and finances need to be balanced. Some myths are shattered as you look at the truth, realise your true position. You keep up with family and key people at work, despite disagreements outside. Don’t allow old fears to get you. Lucky Number: 7 Good Colour: Lemon yellow
SAGITTARIUS
You invoke power and energy to complete an important professional project. You are a whirling force of activity as you storm through blocks and difficulties in close relationships and work situations. Focus brings success in any area of activity this week. Your social life is limited to close friends and family. You become stronger through trouble and evolve spiritually. A clear, singular approach to an objective takes you towards great success and financial gain. Stick to budgets and plans despite temptations, in order to complete an important assignment. Meditation lifts you to higher levels of consciousness. Lucky Number: 1 Good Colour: Emerald green
CAPRICORN
Earthy or material benefits bring their own responsibility. It’s best to be careful when dealing with finances or legalities this week. It’s best to be prudent, wise and careful in all aspects to gain success and goodwill. Intelligent handling of resources, management of forces can be beneficial. Beware of penny wise and pound foolish attitudes in business. Building a business or professional foundation can be challenging. Don’t expose all your investments and future plans just yet, but work on them in detail. Personal relationships should be treated with tender, loving care. Children bring joy. Lucky Number: 8 Good Colour: Cherry red
AQUARIUS
Inner transformation leads to new values, priorities and attitudes that rejuvenate your energy, outlook. You are able to let past relationships go, accept new feelings and emotions with receptivity. Personal relationships have a tender, loving quality that helps you through difficult changes. Professional opportunities can be multifarious and diverse, adding to your career and reputation. Don’t hesitate to make changes, get rid of dead weight in business partnerships or collaborations. You have drive and dynamism that inspires others to put out their best when working with you. Meditate to get in touch with higher levels of consciousness. Lucky number: 13 Good colour: Deep crimson
PISCES
(NOV 23 - DEC 23)
Janelle Monae
(DEC 24 - JAN 20)
Diane Keaton
(JAN 21 - FEB 19)
Jennifer Aniston
(FEB 20 - MAR 20)
Ellen Page
You can expect teamwork and synergy to move business projects towards success and completion. Your personal charisma and power take you through difficult situations and to important people. You retain a position of authority in a business set up and prove your mettle, despite competition and rivalry. You enjoy love and support in personal relationships as romance is in the air and there is a lightness to your step. A sound investment in land, home or property is likely. You focus on fitness and diet programs. You stand by friends and stick your neck out for justice, values and priorities at this point. Lucky Number: 3 Good Colour: Cherry red
It’s best to go around blocks and keep doing what you want to rather than indulge in direct encounters and confrontations. You may feel frustrated in relationships as there is a lack of communication and it is hard for you to express your true feelings. However, personal partners and close family remain supportive and understanding. End of the week brings a breakthrough in old patterns of behaviour as you drop dead weight and restricting associations. A change of energy, pace, focus and scene is needed and is made possible. Health improves as you change your diet and take to yoga, spiritual healing and happy pastimes. Lucky Number: 10 Good Colours: Reds
You are energetic and enduring in professional ventures that are demanding this week. You manage finances, staff and schedules in a capable and efficient manner. You are ingenious and creative when faced with challenging situations. Your social life is a bit dull for a change as you need time by yourself to rejuvenate your energy. You are slow to anger but if driven, can be implacable. A young man or son is independent, yet counting on your support most of the time. You may find mixed reactions from others as it all depends on their own temperaments, so don’t take things personally. Lucky Number: 17 Good Colours: Sandy browns
You are left with mixed feelings of success and failure as situations change and there is a feeling of uncertainty at work. You may abandon labour in a project as it seems unprofitable at the moment. Some promises are unfulfilled and you feel let down by friends and associates. As the week progresses, things change in a positive direction and financial gain can be expected. There is delay, but growth and success are assured. Honorary work taken up for love or charity is satisfying. Be total and positive in the moment to change focus and energy! Minor health problems need to be attended to. Lucky Number: 7 Good Colour: Silver gray
HIN DU STA N T IM ES , N EW DE LHI SUN DAY, J UN E 21, 2020
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HINDU STA N T IM ES , NEW DE LHI SUNDAY, J UNE 21, 2020
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
YOGA SE HI HOGA T
he spread of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown across the country has affected all aspects of life, with a marked increase in mental health issues. In fact, many people, especially celebs, have
BEAT LOCKDOWN GLOOM
turned to yoga for relief. And if all those celeb pictures, too, haven’t yet inspired you to take up yoga, today’s the day! Not only is yoga widely practised as a form of workout, it also helps keep stress levels in check. “Yoga, meditation and other stress-relieving
practices have long been studied as complementary treatments for mental-health problems. Practising yoga can reduce the impact of stress responses, and can be helpful for both anxiety and mild depression. By reducing the degree of perceived stress and anxiety, yoga helps
Celebrate Yoga Day fervour virtually Ruchika Garg
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ver the last few years, International Yoga Day (June 21) had become a much sought-after affair, with denizens thronging iconic places such as India Gate or Lodhi Gardens to practise an asana or two. Not to lose the charm of this day due to social-distancing norms amid the pandemic, most of the ministries, non-profit organisations and even individuals have decided to celebrate the day virtually. Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, has started a campaign called ‘Yoga at Home, Yoga with Family’ to encourage the practice. Their official handle recently tweeted, “Share your pictures of practising Yoga as per common Yoga Protocol on 21st June with “#IdoYogaAtHome.” The handle also posts useful links to promote yoga. Manoj Shrivastava, a Delhi-based businessman, says, “I used to attend the event at India Gate every year with my family, but this year, we will stay at home. We will wake up at 5am and do Surya Namaskar.”
Public service departments such as Delhi Police are also putting up virtual sessions for their staff. RP Meena, DCP, South, says, “We are planning to do yoga in each of the police stations and the district headquarter. There will be a bigger programme at the district park in Jasola, and all the police stations will be connected through video conferencing.” Practising yoga isn’t just beneficial for the body but has also been proven to help deal with mental stress and anxiety. Constable Omprakash, who tested Covid-19 positive and recovered, shares, “While recuperating, I used to do yoga every day. It didn’t just help me heal from the virus but also helped
SIXSHOTSOFLIFE There’s negativity all around but we will focus on the positivity. Our editor picks shots of life that bring a smile
On International Yoga Day, experts emphasise that yoga is the key to a calm mind and healthy body Srinidhi Gopalakrishnan
SCAN THIS CODE FOR MORE POSITIVE SHOTS OF LIFE
maintain my sanity.” Mumbai-based Gauri Singh, who has been conducting yoga sessions with differently abled kids at NGO Gharkul for over a year now, says, “For these kids, yoga helps coordinate the activities of the mind, body and emotions, and even helps build their focus and concentration.” n
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Turn to virtual yoga to enjoy the collective yoga experience PHOTO: ISTOCK
lower the heart rate, blood pressure, and improves respiration,” says Dr Rajeev Rajesh, chief yoga officer at a Bengalurubased naturopathy institute. When stressed out, we are often advised to take a long, deep breath. This thought originates from the fact that mindful breathing helps tackle stress. “Practising breathing exercises regularly helps stimulate the lymphatic system, improves blood flow and calms down the mind,” says Dr Pankaj Gupta, expert in mindfulness at a university in Jaipur. Prakriti Poddar, a mental health expert, recommends, “Uttanasana or standing forward-bend pose, Anjaneyasana or the high lunge, Garudasana or the eagle pose, Shavasana or corpse pose, Viparita karani or legs up the wall pose, Natarajasana or the dancer pose, and Virabhadrasana or the warrior pose are beneficial to stay calm and positive.” “Start your day with Surya Namaskar. If you feel tired and sluggish during the day, Sarvangasana (shoulder stand), Ustrasana (camel pose), Bhujangasana (snake pose), Ardha Matsyendrasana (half-fish pose) and Natarajasana are ideal for an energy boost. Pranayamas relieve anxiety and build stamina in the lungs. Inverted yoga poses can help circulate fluid through the lymphatic system and filter out the toxins from your body,” suggests Dr Rajesh. n
Ira Trivedi, a yoga acharya, wrote about her personal yoga mantra on Instagram that helped her stay calm in the lockdown. Trivedi swears by Pranayama. She is holding a virtual yogathon today, on the occasion of Yoga Day – a 12-hour yoga workshop that will help calm your body and mind and keep negativity at bay.
A WAY OF LI FE
An ardent bel Shilpa Shet iever in yoga, ty started pra Kundra ctising it 18 years ago to cure cerv ical spondylosi s. But now it become a way of life has for her and helps her stay fi t and look her b est. On Yo ga D she will sh are insights ay, w fans throu gh Instagra ith m on how to maintain psycholog ical with any ill balance, cope ness and enhance o verall well being. Atta girl!
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ IRATRIVEDI
PHOTO: VA
RINDER CH
THE FOOD IF MUSIC BE Y ON! OF LOVE , PLA Day,
WORLD’S SWEETEST SALON Karanvir Bohra had a special appointment at a salon, run by guess who? His daughters, Bella and Vienna! In a video posted on social media by the actor, his daughters are seen combing his hair lovingly and encouraging him to get a braid, which he refuses. Doting father that Bohra is, he carries them for a joyride on his shoulders. No doubt, the father-daughter bond is a precious one!
orld Music Today, on W to nd his voice le Papon will ’s jit yo Soum Sourendro’, e For Bengal initiative ‘B er is ra nd fu a Facebook survivors of concert for phan. “I Cyclone Am al to get ng Be r fo h wis and be et fe s it back on it has e at the joyous st has It . en be s alway nd home,” been my seco Papon says.
L VS/HT
AWLA
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/KARANVIRBOHRA
PHOTO: GOKU
LUCKY LOCKDOWN DAD
A GREAT UNIFIER
Becoming a parent is a special feeling indeed. Our reader, Vaibhav Mittal, an entrepreneur from Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, became a dad a week ago. The pregnancy wasn’t easy, with the Covid-19 scare. “I’m so glad the nightmare is over. I’m learning to change his nappies and feed him,” he says, urging all to be kind towards those in similar situations.
In a first of its kind, Twitter will celebrate World Music Day with voice tweets, featuring singers like Shilpa Rao, Armaan Malik, Jonita Gandhi, Guru Randhawa and Jassie Gill. Rao says, “Music can be the most simple and fundamental way to connect, even in the lockdown. A written text message is always incomplete.”
Send your Six Shots entry to [emailprotected] Compiled by Swati Chaturvedi
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Rishabh Suri
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ne thing that actorcasting director Abhishek Banerjee realised while he was stuck at home for the last three months is that he needs to undertake acting workshops. “I haven’t done any, and that’s something I believe is very important for actors. The problem with the industry, Mumbai and actors
PHOTO: RAAJESSH KASHYAP/HT
is that we start going from one project to another.... And somewhere in between, the entire process takes a back seat. There’s no chance to work on the craft,” he says. “After people started talking about Hathoda Tyagi (my character in web series Paatal Lok), I thought it’s good that I got this time. Otherwise, I’d have moved on to another project immediately. This is exactly the time when I should leave Mumbai, and do my workshops with gurus in Kerala and Assam,” he adds. Ecstatic with the response his web series received, Banerjee, 32, says that the biggest compliment was people loving his negative character. “I think it’s a compliment when the audience comes and tells me how they could understand what’s going on inside me without me having to say a word. That’s what was expected from the character. I’d have failed if people only hated him,” he shares. The times are such that despite several entertainment options at hand, the stress of the uncertainty can get to anyone. Banerjee agrees and says a similar situation arose in his life, too. “If you’re locked down, it’s not just physical, but mental, too. It’s impossible to be cheerful for all this period. What we can do is to look forward to one activity; that can be gardening, cooking food or listening to music. That beats everything,” he says. n
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H INDUSTA N T IMES , N EW D EL H I SUN DAY, J UNE 21, 2 0 2 0
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Help keep you and your family as infection-free as possible by taking appropriate steps to ensure your clothes are clean and free of pathogens. Nitasha Chawla writes
SPECIAL SAFETY MEASURES
G
erms and viruses are everywhere! Today, it is more important than ever to maintain hygiene at home, in offices, and in every personal and public space to keep it virus-free. One of the effective ways to do so is through dry-cleaning. Not just clothes but curtains, carpets, sofas, all these things need regular cleaning to get rid of germs. Kaushal Aggarwal, owner of a dry-cleaning store says, “Laundering and dry-cleaning sector is instrumental in tackling viruses effectively. Especially in the current scenario, one cannot overlook the need to disinfect
everything.” Let’s take a look at how dry-cleaning and laundry assist in killing pathogens in your clothing and household items: HOT WATER: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), temperatures of 60 to 65 degrees Celsius kill most viruses. And drycleaning requires loads treated up to temperatures of 70 degrees Celsius. SOAP AND MECHANICAL ACTION: Just like you kill the virus by washing your hands with soap for 20 seconds, dry-cleaning machines wash your clothes with soap and mechanical action that breaks down viruses. In
THE LAUNDRY AND DRYCLEANING INDUSTRY HAS SIGNIFICANTLY EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS. TODAY, WE HAVE A RANGE OF MACHINES EQUIPPED WITH THE BEST TECHNOLOGY FOR WATER SAVING AND FULLY AUTOMATED DRYCLEANING MACHINES WITH ALMOST 99.9 PER CENT SOLVENT RECOVERY.
addition, the surfactants in the soap remove viruses and bacteria, which then rinse down the drain. Washing your hands and washing your clothes achieve the same goal; to remove germs and pathogens! DISINFECTANTS: For cold water washes, to make up for lack of hot water temperatures, supplementary organic disinfectants like hydrogen peroxide kills viruses and bacteria. A cold wash still means viruses and bacteria are destroyed during the process as long as the right detergents are used. DRYING WITH HIGH TEMPERATURES: Dry cleaning is heat dried and/or heat pressed at temperatures up to 104 degrees Celsius, hot enough to kill any known virus. If the hot water, soap, and disinfectants didn’t get rid of the germs, the final drying process surely will.
HYGIENE IS THE NEW NORM Every day, our body loses around 30,000 to 40,000 dead cells per minute which stay on our garments, beds and upholstery which is why regular cleaning of the same needs to done to ensure basic personal hygiene. Raghav Arora, President, Dry Cleaner’s & Launderers Association of India (DLAI) says, “Over the last three months, our industry focus has been on reinventing
with innovation and preparing for the difficult times ahead. I feel proud in sharing that the new systems set up with international collaborations are so highly efficient in managing the current crisis with viral disinfection and controlling the spread ensuring our community is safe. The chemicals we use are eco-friendly and we can reduce ce the consumption of water by over 30,000 litres per year per family of four with the latest machinery and chemicals available to us, helping the nation address major water crisis in coming years.” The cleaning industry impacts sectors like railways, aviation, healthcare, hospitality, institutions, fashion and retail, and many others. In view of the current situation, the industry has implemented several measures for a better and safe functioning. Dry cleaners and launderers are following a framework to be safe and keep their customers safe while they disinfect their garments. Stores have implemented regular cleaning measures such as sanitising their premises and machines, sanitising ing their employees, pick-up boys to be equipped with gloves, mask and sanitiser, special chemicals to disinfect garments which are hygienically
AUT AUTOMATED MACHINES: The machines are now automated to carry out aut process without variation and pro give the same results every tim time garments are processed. USE OF SOFTWARE : Most of the industry stakeholders hav have used this lockdown per period to innovate and create better systems to ensure customers can use services wit without personal interaction. CON CONTACTLESS FUN FUNCTIONING: There are gui guidelines in place for con contactless operations which ensure minimum social distancing is maintained as no cash transaction or receipt of bill needs to be physically del delivered. DIG DIGITAL PAYMENTS: Most dry cleaners and launderers hav made digital payments have as a primary mode of pay payment. PIC PICK-UP AND DELIVERY SUP SUPPORT: From the comfort of your home, you can use the services with minimum interaction with the outside environment.
washed, packed and delivered. The DLA has partnered with several International associations such as CINET(Netherlands), TSA(UK), multinational companies specialising in biotechnology and chemicals, industry leaders from across the globe and practising doctors from India and abroad to host sessions and help develop a concrete system to operating in these difficult times. It has also been conducting tests to ensure the new SOPs are disinfecting the garments with the use of right chemical and thermal disinfection systems. The industry is also shifting towards eco-friendly substitutes. Zehen Arora, Director – Sales of a company which manufactures industrial laundry machines says, “The laundry and drycleaning industry has significantly evolved over the years. From petroleum-based solvents to silicon to now liquid CO2 coming into picture, the R&D here doesn’t seem to slow down. We focus on improving the ecological footprint when it comes to the discharge of water, solvent, chemicals. Today, we have a range of machines equipped with the best technology for water saving and fully automated dry-cleaning machines with almost 99.9 per cent solvent recovery.”
YEARS OF 2004-2020
TRIBUTE
RISHI KAPOOR’S SUPERHERO AVATAR
+
BY RIDDHIMA KA KAPOOR SAHNI PAGE 9
MEET THE 88-YEAR-OLD ACTRESS WHO OUTSHONE BIG B! PAGE 19
[ HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! ]
KJO & HIS TWO TWOODLES! HOW KARAN JOHAR’S INSTAGRAM VIDEOS STARRING HIS ADORABLE TODDLERS HAVE BECOME THE TOAST OF B-TOWN PLUS! DADDY JO DECODED BY FREDDY BIRDY PAGE 4 AN HT BRUNCH EXCLUSIVE #Twoodles
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS To read Brunch stories online, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch. Follow @HTBrunch on Twitter and Instagram
PUTTING SCREEN TO PAPER Can a movie be turned into a book? Five young writers pick a film and point to a character they’d love to flesh out in words.
YEARS OF
Stuff You Said Last Sunday
2004-2020
By Lubna Salim
THE COOL CRAZY The Departed Bilal Siddiqi “I’d really love to read Martin Scorsese’s The Departed as a book. Each character has the scope to be fleshed out and given their space to breathe if it were to be a novel, because in a film the runtime limits you.” One character I’d like to write out in more detail: “I’d like to read a whole backstory of Jack Nicholson’s character – Frank Costello. This would give us more insight and time to live with the crazy, ruthless character and what made him that way.”
WATCH OUT!
The Truman Show Durjoy Datta “I’d like to see The Truman Show, which is one of my absolute favourite movies. The character lives a life that’s being watched by millions and though the movie came out years ago, it is so contemporary. It would be quite something to go into the psyche of people watching Truman en masse.” One character I’d like to write out in more detail: “I’d like auxiliary characters to be given more space in the novel to truly understand why voyeurism is a big draw.”
AGE OF INNOCENCE Masaan
Participate in the
#BrunchBookChallenge Visit online: read.ht/yrz One character I’d like to write out in more detail: “I would love to see Devi be turned into a fictional character because there is this fearlessness and vulnerability about her that I’d like to see put into words.”
SERIAL WINNER Once Upon a Time in the West
Vivaan Shah “I’d love to see Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West as a novel. As a matter of fact, I’d love to see a series of novels with The Man with No Name played by Clint Eastwood in Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. ” One character I’d like to write out in more detail: “The Man with No Name. To see a novel employ the same anti-economy of storytelling by employing words to stretch out its stylistic legs and create a new form of narrative communication the way Leone did non-verbally with this character would be amazing.”
FUN N FROLIC Khubsoorat
EDITORIAL: Jamal Shaikh (National Editor – Brunch and New Media Initiatives), Lubna Salim
JUNE 21, 2020
DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Amit Malik, Kishore Rawat, Shailesh Sharma, Sunil Kumar Mallik (Art Director – Brunch)
saleemjavd Absolutely Menstrual Health is most important & is simply ignored. Need more awareness on this More Power to you deepthi_ganesula This is something worth every girl’s time...everyone should should should consider these as real issues and talk...get over them... post finding their solutions instead of dodging them over... @shrutzhaasan appreciate it girl snehakashibhatla So relatable and inspirational @shrutzhaasan.. I’m happy to witness this era where women are breaking all boundaries to speak up openly and motivate many like them.. more power to women #girlpower
Andaleeb Wajid “Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khubsoorat would make a fantastic book. It would be challenging to see all that chaos play
Gurmehar Kaur “One movie that I would like to read as a book would be Masaan. out on the pages and to read I’m always curious from the points of view of Dear readers, as to how films the many characters in From your posts and that visually the movie.” tags we are happy to see show with two that you have been reading to One character intertwined I’d like to write your heart’s content. yet completely out in more The challenge this year is to complete 60 books. different detail: “Rekha’s Do not forget to tag us stories would character Manju using the hashtag, be written on paper. Also there is could be more #BrunchBookChallenge a certain innocence about the contemporary. All the best and unscathed young romance between She could be an happy reading! Deepak and Shaalu.” entrepreneur.”
This cover photograph was shot exclusively for this HT Brunch feature by Karan Johar and his house staff at his Mumbai residence on May 25, 2020 Photo imaging: Piyush Garg
Hope, many will carefully study & consider how the message can be explained and they can play a positive role. If I am not wrong, the schoolgoing girls needs to be guided properly regarding the periods and complications. Thought-provoking article & a message. @Drvinodguptavet
DROP US A LINE AT: brunchletters@hindustantimes. com or to 9th Floor, Tower 3, Indiabulls Finance Centre, Senapati Bapat Marg, Elphinstone Road (W), Mumbai 400013
womenwellnessfirst As someone who works in this area, I know the struggle with PCOS and endometriosis can be very lonely and painful. Next time you see someone talk about their mood swings or hormonal issues don't take it casually. Hear it out and approach it with empathy, compassion and love. @jamalshaikh @shrutzhaasan @htbrunch
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Note: Some tweets have been edited to correct spelling and grammar
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THE DAWN CHORUS
Birdsong has been the soundtrack to the quiet days of the pandemic By Rehana Munir ’
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THE CROW CHRONICLES
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CLOUD CUCKOO LAND
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WHAT A HOOT [emailprotected] Follow @rehana_munir on Twitter and Instagram
JUNE 21, 2020
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COVER STORY TWINS ‘R R US! Karan Johaar’s twins are named after his parents: hiss son is called Yash after his late father, and his daughter’ss name is Roohi, which is a reearrangementt of the letters of his mother’s naame, Hiroo
Happy Father’s Day!
THE YASH AND ROOHI SHOW
DECODING DOTING DAD KARAN JOHAR THROUGH THE EYES OF HIS NEWEST LITTLE SUPERSTARS By Freddy Birdy
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obody in modern India, nobody alive, at least, has been untouched by Karan Johar [I speak metaphorically, of course, but then again...]. Will the real Karan Johar please stand up? Is he the 3am confidant to the superstars? Box office mogul? Starmaker? Pop icon? Twilight dancer? Influencer? Fashion iconoclast? iPhone reflection lover? All of the above? Brand Johar is fourth only to Coke, McDonald’s and Haldiram’s in its universality, spreading across Ludhiana to NRI London. His chat shows are so intimate in their references, even the guests look slightly bewildered. What an episode of Koffee With Karan is telling you, dear viewer, is this: I am Karan Johar. I have a lot of money. I am a genius. But I will disguise it all brilliantly in frivolity, meaningless banter and endless names dropping. I will have you glued to your television set, because your best friend is not Gauri Khan, because Katrina Kaif doesn’t ‘consult’ you about her love-life at 2:30am, and just try air-kissing Mrs. Joglekar in your building society B block, the way I do Janhvi Kapoor or Sid Malhotra. We want to wear all those clothes he is wearing, Spanish designers with 10-word names, but on our five-figure incomes. We want to schmooze on WhatsApp with film stars, but only intimately so, with their pet name personas: Kadso and Bebo and Sha [a certain Mr. Khan, but no prizes for guessing]. We want to watch people who earn average yearly incomes about six times the annual
GDP of Poland fight over the hamper like us normal real life folk trying to snatch a seat on the Virar local, next to the lady slicing bhindi for her dinner when she gets home. We want, for one full hour, to be painfully thin, gossip about everyone and everything outside our immediate presence, pretendsip cups of coffee, be asked ‘rapid fire‘ questions and wish we had Zoya Akhtar or Stella McCartney on speed dial [Zo, can you say, “Hello Karan it’s me?”]. To show that he is “one of us’’, that is the average Mumbaikar who travels through two-and-a-half hours of traffic to reach work, Karan will plod to a far-flung suburban studio where he judges ordinary people on superhit reality shows. Now this is a humbler, more ‘regular’ Karan, the clothes get cheaper [Ungaro, prêt-à-porter vs Comme des Garçons, haute couture], one who cries remembering some traumatic childhood incident [My best friends Adi and Duggu got Toblerones in their school tiffin boxes, but my father was a struggling producer, so I only got, [wipes away a tear], KitKats.]. ALL ABOUT LOVING HIS CHILDREN After becoming a father in 2017, Karan Johar gave his first interview to HT Brunch. Since he wasn’t comfortable sharing pictures of his infant babies then, the magazine used an artists’ impression and called the filmmaker ‘Daddy Jo!’”
“[ON KOFFEE WITH KARAN], WE WATCH PEOPLE WHO EARN YEARLY INCOMES SIX TIMES THE GDP OF POLAND, FIGHT OVER A HAMPER!” “[AS A REALTIY SHOW JUDGE], WE SEE A MORE ‘REGULAR’ KARAN. THE CLOTHES GET CHEAPER: UNGARO VS COMME DES GARÇONS. HE MOCK-FLIRTS WITH MALAIKA ARORA AND INTRODUCES US TO NEW WORDS LIKE ‘TOODLES’…” “THIS CALCULATED SILLINESS MAKES US FORGET THAT KARAN JOHAR IS A SHREWD PREDICTOR OF WHAT WE WANT TO SEE ON A HINDI FILM SCREEN” When a contestant will faint mid-way between a dance step, Mr Johar, in the spirit that the show must go on, will rush to the stage and perform his soul-stirring rendition of Dafliwale Dafli Baja. Here Karan could be one of us, baring his insecurities, his private traumas and beautiful vulnerabilities. Of course, that would make perfect sense, if we got paid a crore upwards an episode, pretend-chatted with Barack Obama during off takes, mock-flirted with Malaika Arora, real-ignored Kirron Kher and introduced us to new words like ‘Toodles’ and wondered how we ever said normal goodbyes before this? One gets the sense that Karan will do anything, even sit through one of his own home productions in the cheap rexine seats of a regular movie theatre, if the price were right. This calculated silliness might make us forget that Karan Johar is also one of Bollywood’s mega power brokers. A role in a Dharma Production isn’t just a role, it’s a career on a platter in Bollywood. Karan has gifted Indian film-going audiences with a whole new generation of stars. Start counting. Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Ananya Panday, Varun Dhawan, Sid Malhotra and Ishaan Khatter. And a young new breed of directors like Ayan Mukherjee, Shakun Batra, Tarun Mansukhani and Puneet Malhotra. He is a shrewd predictor of what we want to see on a Hindi film screen, before we even know it ourselves. Perhaps his greatest contribution to cinema might be the reduction of film titles to their crispest, barest essence. S bhi Kh hi Kabhie K bhi So “K “Kabhi Khushi udent of the Year’’ is a Gham’’ is a cooler K3G. And “Stu succinct SOTY. ally a Yellow Pages A Karan Johar film is virtua of the Who’s Who of Bollywood. Very V often there is a script. Often written by Karan himself through large Tom Ford glasses, on cocktail nap pkins, in first class airplane suites on the way to posee with Natasha os. Poonawalla on the slopes of Davo Script or no script, there is a always high drama, grand emotion, a chubby y child aunting actor, superb song numbers, a ha background score and some grea at ns. dancing. There are certain given The locations will be spectacularr. Jaya ncle. aunty will be there. And Amit un Best friend Gauri Khan’s husban nd will have the leading role. Farida Jalal will play the role of the household help. And Kareena Kapoor will play the part of Kareena Kapoor. The background dancers will always be blonde. And there will
TO DAD, WITH LOVE In each of his films, Karan pays tribute to his father, producer Yash Johar
MODERN FAMILY The twins call Karan “Dadda”, but refer to their grandmother Hiroo Johhar as “Mumma””. “I wanted them to feel like any other family,” Johar says on Page 8
always be a song and dance number with one English or Punjabi catchphrase [It’s the time to disco! Say shava shava! That’s the way, mahi ve!]. There will be laughter, tears, great costumes, helicopters, grand mansions and silver thalis. All this always, always ends in big, big bucks at the box office. In that sense he is the Sindhi Zubin Mehta, orchestrating a dream cast to make the kind of film Bollywood dreams about. I know Karan Johar like I know Donald Trump, Yehudi Menuhin, Neil Armstrong or Rekha. Which is to say, not at all. But can anyone truly say that they don’t know Karan Johar? If you have ever been to the movies or owned a television set or a smartphone or have ever trolled someone, chances are you would know of Karan Johar. I got to know him closer during the recent lockdown. And I got to know him through the eyes of his little children on Instagram. One gets the sense that if anyone can walk all over Karan Johar’s heart, and send it into somersaults, back flips, lunges and a few surya namaskars, it’s his kids Roohi and Yash. And so, in between baking banana bread and watching countless Netflix reruns in lockdown, we got to see yet another avatar of Karan Johar. The father. Or dadda. On his Insta stories. Yash and Roohi both have inherited his sense of scale, drama, emotion, nuance, dialogue, spectacle and theatre. But luckily and all fingers crossed, not his dress sense. So we see the kids frolicking through bedrooms and brunches and inside TV cabinets, bouncing off walls and dadda’s bed, performing impromptu dance numbers, jumping into closets and mistaking vaults for washing machines. Few kids have Karan Johar as their cinematographer and Yash and Roohi know this only too well, and they strut their stuff for dadda’s iPhone. And if I were to
“IF ANYONE CAN WALK ALL OVER KARAN JOHAR’S HEART, AND SEND IT INTO SOMERSAULTS, BACK FLIPS AND A FEW SURYA NAMASKARS, IT’S HIS KIDS, ROOHI AND YASH” guess whether Karan enjoys directing Bollywood’s biggest stars on the screen more or his newest superstars Yash and Roohi, I think I know the answer. There is Karan’s mother, the lovely Hiroo Johar eating sevpuri hap ppily with her three loves, diamonds sparkling softly all around herr, almost as dazzling as her smile. There are no London or New York locations or Scottish castles, butt there are romps through Gucci-lined closets and whoopy rides on L LV steamer trunks. There are screen tests and there is dancing d singing, not around trees but piles of the latest Balenciaga and colllections. There are high teas and brunches, khandvi and dhoklas. d family chats over hamburgers. But above all this is the sound And of Karan K Johar laughing contentedly, having a ball. Over the years, if K Karan Johar has been in love, it has been in private, as all love ould be. And one gets the sense that he has squandered all his sho lovee, all his films, on his stars, on his life and on the world around m at large. him But finally, after all these years, Karan Johar, the real KJo, not thee director, not the producer, not the starmaker, not the talk show hosst, not the serial selfie taker, is spoiling himself silly for a change. Happy Father’s Day, Karan Johar. Freddy Birdy is India’s most-awarded Copywriter of the Year, winning the title 13 times. He is also featured in the AD100, a collection of the best interior designers and architects in India. He is also an artist, and a recent Instagram superstar @freddy_birdy, whose witty quotes have found fans amongst millennials and Bollywood superstars alike. The remarks expressed in this column are personal and made in good humour by the author.
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COVER STORY
Happy Father’s Day!
AN HT BRUNCH EXCLUSIVE!
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT!
WHAT’S MADE KARAN JOHAR’S SMARTPHONE-SHOT HOME VIDEOS WITH HIS THREE-YEAR-OLD TWINS ROOHI AND YASH A BIGGER HIT THAN ANY BOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER THIS YEAR? By Ananya Ghosh
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nstagram has a new set of ‘influencers’ in a pair of very sassy and very opinionated three-year-olds. From calling out Gucci for being ‘so shiny’, to appearing utterly unimpressed with Manish Malhotra, to pointing out that tie and dye print is just a fancy name for holi clothes, these golden-haired pint-size fashion police are giving Diet Sabya tough competition these days. But they are kind too. The twins have been trying their best to keep the people around them in shape, even volunteering to eat their fattening birthday cakes on their behalf. So selfless. Meet Yash and Roohi, the Karan Johar creations who are proving to be his biggest hits to date!
CHHOTA PACKET, BADA DHAMAKA!
“We were all locked down and it was rather depressing, so I decided to share some of my cheer with the world,” says Karan. “It started off as a one-off thing, but people loved it and requests for more videos of the twins started pouring in.” The videos that often see the kids hilariously castigating their dad indeed crack the lockdown gloom every morning. But wasn’t Karan afraid they’d get trolled? Especially since he is a favourite trolling target? “These videos have not got a single negative comment so far. I think my children are taking away
the negativity. People had created a notion about me in their heads, but I think that slowly is changing,” Karan says.
TIMES THEY ARE CHANGING
The twins, born to Karan through surrogacy in 2017, have brought significant changes to Karan’s life. The first was being getting used to the idea of being a dad! “Initially it was weird to introduce them as my kids. But I guess that is the case with all new parents. It slowly grows on you and it comes with the realisation that you are really responsible for these tiny humans.” In fact, Karan is now a dreaded ‘paranoid mother.’ “I have never been the hyper kind. But once, both Yash and Roohi had fallen seriously ill and I was not in India. I will never forget that flight back home. I had my heart in my throat. I never thought I had that in me! And I think I have started to understand my mother better now.” He is also the kind of parent who always gushes about his kids. “I always used to find it damn irritating when parents randomly
showered people with baby updates, anecdotes and pictures. Now I do the same thing! I am almost always looking for excuses to talk about my children, and if someone just happens to ask about them, by some reflex action I bring out my phone and start showing them their pictures.” However, one of the most beautiful changes that happened after the arrival of the kids is that friends who Karan always considered as family, have really become family. “From my cousins to the friends in the industry, everyone has rallied behind me and happily become Yash and Roohi’s didi, bua, chachu.” And the toddlers also have friends in Adira (daughter of Rani Mukerji and Aditya Chopra ), Inaaya (daughter of Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu), Mehr (daughter of Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi) and of course, Roohi’s favourite, Taimur (son of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan). “Also there is AbRam, who is a little older, and Yash and Roohi really look up to him as a big brother! Another person they absolutely adore is Alia didi, she has been
“ROOHI AND YASH DON’T KNOW WHAT FILM STARS ARE. THEY KNOW SRK AS ABRAM’S FATHER. BUT HE IS NEVER SHAH RUKH UNCLE, UNLIKE THEIR OTHER FRIENDS’ DADS. HE IS ALWAYS SHAH RUKH KHAN!”
tying rakhis on them so she is extra special.” But they also love Amitabh Bachchan. “Yash recognises Amitabh Bachchan from the Cry advertisement where he is surrounded by kids. So they think he will come and play with them also,” laughs Karan. Another person they seem to be especially fond of is Shah Rukh Khan. “They don’t know what film stars and celebrities are. They just know him as AbRam’s father. But somehow he is never Shah Rukh uncle, unlike their other friends’ dads, but always Shah Rukh Khan! In fact, there is a Mick Jagger poster in my room, and the other day they called him Shah Rukh Khan,” says Karan. “It
THE TWINNING TRIO During lockdown, Karan Johar put up fun, often self-deprecating videos with his kids on Instagram and called it #LockdownWithTheJohars
YEARS OF 2004-2020
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“I’ve made it a point to not associate any games or colours with a particular gender and that’s also a standing instruction to all my house staff”
“I’VE REALISED THAT THE KIDS NEED A MOTHER’S ENERGY AS MUCH AS THEY NEED A FATHER’S, AND I AM LUCKY TO HAVE MY MOM AROUND” is interesting that among all the people they have met, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan have struck a chord with them. That goes on to show the kind of X-factor these people have even outside their screen persona, something that even children recognise.”
SAME SAME, BUT DIFFERENT
Although they are twins, they are very different from each other. “Yash has taken after me and my dad. He is a dilfek, always ready to greet you with a hug. Roohi’s is tough love. You have to earn her affection. She is like my mother,” says the doting dad. Though he consciously attempts to give them a gender neutral upbringing, Roohi is already a very girlie girl who absolutely loves everything pink and Yash is a very boyish boy with his love for everything blue and his Spiderman mask. “But I have made it a point to not associate any games or colours with a particular gender and that is a standing instruction to all my house staff as well.” So far, the twins only squabble, they never actually fight. “They take each other’s toys and run and the other runs behind, and a little bit of bawling happens, but that’s about it!”
‘MUMMA’ IS THE WORD
Karan’s mother Hiroo Johar often makes guest appearances in his
videos with the twins. “My mother is a big part of this. I have realised that the kids need a mother’s energy as much as they need a father’s and I am lucky to have my mom around,” he says. Yash and Roohi call Hiroo ‘mumma’. “I wanted them to feel like any other family. There is a mumma and there is a dadda. Grand is just more mother!” he smiles. When the time is right, he will explain the situation to them, but till then he doesn’t want the kids to feel they are any different from their friends. “I would never lie to them or withhold the truth. I am extremely proud of my decision to have them through surrogacy; in fact I often wonder what took me 45 years to take this decision! Still, every parent like me would have some apprehension about the ramifications.” Is Hiroo as strict with the kids? “Well, once a mother, always a mother! Just like you don’t forget how to ride a bicycle, you don’t forget how to be a mother. It is like the MAMA MIA! Karan’s mother Hiroo is “Mumma” to the twins. “Grand is just more mother,” he says JUNE 21, 2020
DADDY JO ON ROOHI & YASH’S FAVOURITES Joke: “They are not into jokes yet, but if I want to make them laugh, Yash is very ticklish and Roohi gets some evil pleasure when I’m teasing mumma!” Colour: “Roohi’s is pink and Yash’s is blue.” Activity: “Yash is obsessed with his new cycle and for Roohi it is currently making puzzles.” Corner of the house: “They still love their cots and think of them as playhouses!” Toy at this moment: “Yash has a Spiderman mask that he loves. Roohi’s is a doll that has now become all tattered, like someone has mauled it.” Activity with daddy: “They love to be in my room. To them it is kind of a Disneyland! Just tell them, ‘Let’s go to dadda’s room’ and they will run for it with excitement.” Way to cheer them up when they are sulking: “Peppa Pig always comes to the rescue! For Roohi, it is also showing her images of herself. So vanity has already become part of her!” Nursery rhyme: “Old MacDonald had a farm.” Word at present: “‘Wow!’ Both of them have picked up this word in the last week and are now using it indiscriminately!”
mummy returns! My own upbringing happening, 2.0,” Karan laughs.
TOUGH LOVE
Karan is well aware of the fact that his kids are born to privilege and is very conscious about not raising spoilt brats. But he points out that austerity might not always be the key to keep kids grounded. “While growing up, I almost always got what I wanted. But I never took things for granted or disrespected it or used my privilege to leverage my situation. I was always good at studies, a class topper, I was a disciplined kid, bad behaviour was never tolerated in my family, my dad was very particular about being gracious with everyone,” he says. “I truly believe that the upbringing matters more than anything else. You can teach your kids to have a large heart, teach them to be humble and to give and share. As a father, that would be my aim.” His status as a celebrity will have some side-effects on the kids, but it is his duty to neutralise it, he says. “I don’t want them to grow up feeling superior to other kids just because they are photographed by the media unlike their friends. It is my responsibility to combat that,” he says. [emailprotected] Follow @htbrunch on Twitter
Note: The lead photographs were shot exclusively for this HT Brunch feature by Karan Johar at his home in May 2020. A few additional pictures have been taken off Karan Johar’s public Instagram account.
“Growing up in what they call the first family of Indian cinema, my father was just the way any father would be: besides mom, Ranbir and me, it was sacrosanct for him to spend time with my grandparents, uncles and aunts”
TRIBUTE
RISHI KAPOOR 1952-2020
The writer of this tribute, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni with her dad, actor Rishi Kapoor
Happy Father’s Day!
MY FATHER, MY FRIEND, MY SUPERHERO THEY SAY DAUGHTERS SOFTEN THEIR FATHER’S HEART. RISHI KAPOOR HAD THE GENTLEST HEART EVER
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illiam Shakespeare said, “It is a wise father that knows his own child.” Believe me, my father knew his children in and out. Growing up in what they call the first family of Indian cinema, my father, despite being Rishi Kapoor the actor, was just the way any father would be to his kids. In the Kapoor household, I saw my father play myriad roles. He was a dutiful son, a caring brother, a doting husband and above all a selflessly loving and dedicated father.
THE FAMILY MAN
When I was born, the family says he vowed that he would not only be the perfect father to me, but also be a friend to his kids. Owing to his extremely busy schedule and PRECIOUS MOMENTS (Clockwise) Rishi Kapoor’s firstborn, Riddhima, with her parents and brother as a kid, during her wedding and after the demise of her father
By Riddhima Kapoor Sahni back-to-back shoots, my father was never the parent who escorted us from activity to activity, but his spirit, his influence, his character and the value system of our household that he and my mother nurtured in us, were invaluable to my brother Ranbir and me. My father’s world revolved around his family. He shared a fabulous bond with his siblings and he averred that family ties are the most precious ones and should always be cherished. Besides spending time with my mother, Ranbir and myself, it was sacrosanct for him to spend time with my grandparents, uncles and aunts. Whether it was the mandatory family lunches or dinners, the Sunday movie dates or watching the Indiana
Jones film series, we would work our schedules around it and ensure all of us were together for each other.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
People who knew him are well aware of how much he loved his food. My father, like me, was an ardent foodie. We loved Chinese cuisine. Whenever I visited Bombay, dad would ensure there was Chinese food from my favourite restaurant every day. And we would keep up the tradition of playing rapid-fire word games at the dinner table, the way we did when Ranbir and I were children. Dad would keep Ranbir and I on our toes right through the games and then announce the winner in his particular dramatic style.
“[EVEN UNTIL RECENTLY], WE PLAYED RAPID-FIRE WORD GAMES AT THE DINING TABLE. DAD WOULD KEEP RANBIR AND I ON OUR TOES, AND ANNOUNCE THE WINNER IN HIS DRAMATIC STYLE…”
Among the many things we learnt from our superhero, dad taught us to be fair, humble, kind and independent. My father professed that besides being a warm-hearted, caring, loving and nurturing human being, one must know how to express oneself and speak one’s mind fearlessly.
THE SHOW WILL GO ON
He isn’t around anymore, but his spirit and teachings will forever dwell in my heart. We were literally identical people and shared the same sun sign, so my connection with my father was undeniably a very special one for me. Besides being my dad and my superhero, he was my best friend, my greatest mentor, my motivation and my deepest roots. His unshaken and perpetual belief in me and my limitless potential always empowered me. They say daughters soften their father’s heart. Dad, you had the gentlest heart ever. My love and gratitude for you is endless. The knowledge and the experiences you lived with are the irreplaceable life lessons I live by. Chasing my wildest dreams and striving to always make you proud, I promise you, Papa, the show must and will go on. Happy Father’s Day! I love you! [emailprotected] Follow @htbrunch on Twitter
Riddhima Kapoor Sahni is the eldest child of actors Rishi and Neetu Kapoor. She is a jewellery designer and is based in New Delhi with her husband Bharat Sahni and their nine-year old daughter, Samara.
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ir sanghvi
Making Each Dish Count More variety with lockdown eating: the best patties in India, Ghost kitchens, eat-at-home Chicken Milanese and more
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y favourite George W Bush joke is about the time when Bush and few other leaders take a break from a global summit in Paris and retreat to the cafeteria to have a quick snack. Some order sandwiches and some stick to little cakes but when it is Bush’s turn, he looks straight at the waitress and says, “I’ll have a quickie.” The waitress looks shocked and the other leaders are nonplussed. Only Tony Blair who knows that Bush is not much of a globalist understands what’s going on. “It’s pronounced quiche, George,” he tells him. I have been thinking of quiches (though not so much of Bush) as I have been compiling my monthly round up of things to eat at home during the lockdown. Last month I wrote about an outstanding quiche from Sahil Mehta and this month, I have been delighted by the quiches made by Yummies, a home bakery operation run out of Maharani Bagh by two very gifted sisters, Lalita and Geetika. Their specialties are said to be their New York style cheesecake and a wonderful apple crumble. The quiche was also very nice but my favourite were the patties. You don’t actually get great patties anywhere in India these days because a) most people don’t know how to make a tasty filling or are able to work out the right proportion of dough to filling and b) it is really tough to get a pastry that is flaky and yet firm. I certainly have never found anyone who makes them as well as Yummies. A class act. Beyond Designs Bistro is a relatively new restaurant on MG Road on the outskirts of Delhi. It serves casual Oriental food with a stylish bistro type presentation. Unfortunately with the lockdown in effect the restaurant has not had the opportunity to show off its skills. So, like all sensible restaurateurs, they
MADE TO PERFECTION The patties from Yummies, a home bakery run by sisters Lalita and Geetika (right), are a delight
JUNE 21, 2020
FROZEN TREATS You can shallow fry these chicken nuggets straight from the freezer have switched to home delivery for the duration of the lockdown. Not only will they deliver full meals but they are also sending out DIY kits where you can finish the food at home. And of course, they sanitise their kitchen every morning, follow the most stringent hygiene SOPs etc. I ordered a full meal and was quite taken with the way in which the restaurant merges East Asian flavours with healthy/trendy foods. There was a spicy quinoa bowl and the menu includes a Turkish immunity-building bowl (which I did not try) and various healthy options like a curried cauliflower bowl and a roasted pumpkin glory bowl. Of the dishes I did eat, the Thai fish was delicate and outstanding and there was also what looked like an Asian chicken roulade. The noodles were very good and all of it came with excellent sauces. There is something for everyone including a paneer gassi and pasta made to your taste. They delivered (all the way from MG Road) to South Extension on the dot so I guess you can order the food no matter where you live. Many journalists will remember Nicole Juneja from her days in PR. For the last three years, she has worked with her mother in the food space with a venture called MOOD. Before the lockdown, Mood would organise pop-ups and special experiences. But in the present situation, they have had to switch to doing delivery. The food is all home-cooked by Kusuma Juneja who (if I remember correctly) is a Nepali from Darjeeling district. So the food she makes is not typically Nepali (and Nepal boasts of many great cuisines) but captures the flavours of Darjeeling with its mix of people and lack of ethnic
BISTRO BINGE Beyond Designs Bistro offers Oriental cuisine bistro-style and home delivers meals as well as DIY kits. Its noodles (right) are very good. exclusivity. You will find Bhutanese and Tibetan and Lepcha flavours. In normal times, Kusuma and Nicole would host dinners at their home in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar but these days it is all delivery. It is worth trying because even if you were to go to Darjeeling you won’t get this kind of food at local restaurants. Some of you may recall that I have been writing about cloud kitchens and virtual brands long before the lockdown. A cloud kitchen is one that is not attached to a restaurant but makes restaurant-quality food. As nobody actually visits it, the kitchen can be located in any lowrent area. (Restaurant kitchens on the other hand have to be attached to restaurants in relatively expensive areas.) A good cloud kitchen runs on a delivery model and so the food can be one third the price of restaurant food – no air conditioning, no server salaries, no décor, and none of the other expenses that restaurants incur.
People who don’t want to order in and find it tiring to cook food from scratch can try frozen meals
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he one advantage restaurants have over cloud kitchens is branding. Most restaurants have spent years creating their brands. If you order from say Mamagoto you can be sure of getting the sort of high quality food that the brand is associated with. So cloud kitchen operations have been working to create their own brands. I wrote several weeks ago about Biryani by Kilo. And a fortnight ago, I profiled Cross Border Kitchens, which runs many successful brands, all of them dedicated to making their food in different sections of the same cloud kitchen. I have always maintained that this model represents a real threat to the restaurant sector though many restaurateurs used to dismiss my view. Well, the lockdown has changed everything. While cloud kitchen sales are down (contrary to the impression you may get, there is no real post-lockdown boom in delivery – sales are actually down from the pre-lockdown phase), their existence has made it much more difficult for restaurants to enter this space. Cloud kitchen food is as good as restaurant food and it is cheaper. One of the early pioneers of the food business (and later of cloud kitchens) in Gujarat is Karan Tanna. Though he has got all the usual awards that magazines give to people under 30 who show promise, he is not yet as well-known as India’s top restaurateurs are. I reckon that will change. Though his CV sounds impressive (he even had a stint at McKinsey) he is a small town boy from Veraval in Gujarat. His family was, he says, progressive by the standards of Veraval (his father ran a textile business and his mother ran a beauty salon) but they moved to Ahmedabad largely because his father thought there would be more educational opportunities for Karan.
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The views expressed by the columnist are personal
EAST MEETS WEST Karan Tanna (right), a pioneer of the food business in Gujarat, combines Western concepts like New York Waffles and Dinges with others called Biryani Hazir Ho Karan started young, partnering with the owners of a successful bakery business and then linking up with a fast food chain dedicated to the dabeli (the Kutchi ancestor of vada-pav) before deciding that cloud kitchens were the future. His company Ghost Kitchens has a mixture of franchised brands (from abroad) and local creations. Many of his operations are in what used to be called B and C class centres, which is where the growth for the F&B industry will come from in this decade. He manages to combine Western concepts such as New York Waffles and Dinges (no, I don’t know what a dinge is, either) and Starboy Pizza and Shakes with others called Biryani Hazir Ho, Badmash Biryani (great name!) and Arey O Sambhar. There are more launches planned including the tastefully named Indian-Chinese chain Ching Chong. It’s people like Karan who, I suspect, will hold the key to the future of the F&B industry in India because they go beyond set notions of how things work and, coming from small towns themselves, understand the India that lives outside the big cities. In any case, he is also planning a more upmarket operation, along with some of India’s better known chefs. And finally, here’s a little tip for people who don’t want to order in for whatever reason but find it too tiring to cook food from scratch every day. You can do what I do: try some of the new frozen meals that have hit the market. I know ITC Foods because of the high quality of its frozen prawns (which I wrote about a couple of years ago) and their version of Dal Bukhara, which tastes like the real thing once you empty a pint of dairy products into it. What I did not realise is that they have introduced a new range of chicken and vegetarian frozen foods. Some of them work best as cocktail snacks: there are crispy chicken nuggets, little falafels and (my favourite) vada-pav pops. But there are also things you can eat at meal times. They have chicken fingers (like fish fingers), which will be devoured by kids and fried chicken strips which are aimed at a similar market. The one I eat the most of is the one that sounds the worst. Chicken Burger Patties are usually made by breading a chicken keema patty. You are supposed to put it in a bun and pretend it’s a burger. That’s not something I am prepared to do. However, I have taken to having the patties on their own at dinner (two patties is usually enough) with a little lemon sprayed on them. Okay, it is not quite Chicken Milanese. But for a dish that takes only a few minutes, it comes pretty damn close! And finally: if you have a product or a delivery service you want me to try, do get in touch!
JUNE 21, 2020
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rajiv makhni
8 Things About The OnePlus 8 Twins Everything you wanted to know about the much awaited (and delayed) phone launch is here!
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his column is being written purely on demand. And when I say demand, I mean serious stuff (including some threats). The OnePlus 8 phones were announced on April 14, 2020. And after creating quite a sensation with them, lockdowns and Covid 19 made sure that they didn’t show up on Indian shores. Since April 14, I’ve been inundated with more questions about these two phones than anything else. But I decided I wouldn’t write this column until I had both phones physically in my hand. That time is now.
1. So are they finally available in India? Yes. 2. Is the OnePlus 8 Pro actually as good as people say? I don’t know about ‘people,’ but I can tell you what I think. The 8 Pro is the phone that OnePlus has got just right in the flagship market. Great design, a mind bending 6.78-in 120Hz Quad HD+display (3,168 x 1,440 and the only phone where you can go full resolution and keep 120Hz), Corning Gorilla Glass, HDR10+, an in-display fingerprint reader, big 4,510mAh battery with 30 Watt fast charging (and the fast charger comes in the box), 30W wireless charging (very unusual to get 30W wireless) and an official IP Rating IP68, water and dust resistance rating. Now let’s talk about the cameras because I really liked the results. In its quad camera setup (including a 3X telephoto) at the back, it has two 48MP lens. But the one I really like is the Sony IMX689 as its main sensor. The sensor on this is huge at 1/1.43-inches and gives great images, including low light and night mode stuff. Great front camera too. It also has 4K video and optical image stabilisation. Rounds it off with a Snapdragon 865 processor with 5G and up to 12GB RAM. Also, Oxygen OS 10 is pretty clean, minimal with no bloatware. If some of this flew over your head, suffice to say this is a major flagship phone at the top of its game at ~54,999. 3. What about the OnePlus 8? Also a good phone. The predominant differences are in screen (slightly lower resolution and refresh rate), camera (triple
OVER AND ABOVE This is a better phone than more expensive flagships like the Samsung S20 Ultra JUNE 21, 2020
TRUTH BE TOLD The screen resolution and refresh rate of the OnePlus8 is slightly lower
Compared to Pro, the OnePlus 8 has a lower resolution screen and a smaller battery
camera), no IP rating, a slightly smaller battery and a lower price at ~41,999 for the base model. 4. Which one should I buy? How much money do you have? Okay, jokes apart, both phones are great, built like a tank and have serious specs. As you can see from the number of words I’ve dedicated to each, the One Plus 8 Pro is my favourite and is a serious bang for buck machine. At 55K, it’s better than phones almost twice its price. If you have the extra 10K, the Pro is the way to go. 5. What about other flagship phones? Is the OnePlus 8 Pro better than anything else? Two ways to answer this. Is the OP8 Pro better than similarly-priced phones? Short answer, yes it is. But is it better than any other phone right now? That’s a tough one, as so many other things come into play like operating system and other features. I have partly answered that though, by saying the Pro 8 is great and better value for money than more expensive phones. 6. What about the global statement OnePlus made about getting into lower priced categories? Should I wait for an economy OnePlus phone? An economy OnePlus phone would be a bit of stretch as that isn’t the market OnePlus wants. The term OnePlus uses is ‘Premium Accessible.’ Thus there will now be phones from OnePlus that are still premium, but playing in categories that are a little lower priced. The much rumoured OnePlus Z phone is slated for release. Think of it as OnePlus’s answer to the iPhone SE. 7. I’ve also heard that there will be more OnePlus TVs that aren’t as expensive as the previous ones. Is that true? Yes, as you’re reading this, those TVs should be about to be released.
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The views expressed by the columnist are personal
8. Anything else? No, that pretty much sums up almost all the questions I’ve been flooded with since the last two months. So the much-awaited OnePlus 8 twins are here. One Plus has done a good job to bring out two phones, with each aiming to dominate in its price category. The interesting thing to look out for will be how the competition reacts. Maybe I’ll cover that in another column called ‘8 Things the Competition Did to Take on the OnePlus 8.’ Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3 Techilicious appears every fortnight
Celebrating SATYAJIT RAY Centenary Year
CINEMA
2020 Part II
THE FILMMAKER WHO WAS AN ARTIST FIRST
portraits you will realise that he was constantly experimenting and using his pen and pencil in different stylisations. Even his sketches of Feluda are kind of self-portraits. It is amazing how he created a persona of himself and became part of the stories he wrote. Then there were his sci-fi books and their illustrations. I don’t want to get into the controversy surrounding the issue, but some of the scenes of Spielberg’s ET are eerily similar to the sketches Ray had done for his unproduced sci-fi film, The Alien!
A glance at the illustrations done by Satyajit Ray can make it clear how his movies came about By Bose Krishnamachari
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he filmmaker in Satyajit Ray was stronger indebted to the illustrator in him. Ray became a great filmmaker, and made films from 1955 onwards, because he was a great artist first.
THE BEGINNING I will not call him a 100 per cent modernist, but you can see modernist influence in his works, seamlessly blended with the decorative Oriental style of painting. You can also see the influences of the Ajanta and Ellora
opportunity to get acquainted with the process of making printing blocks, block printing and block carving techniques. It is an important and integral part of art making, and you usually get to learn these techniques when you study in an art college.
SEEING THE WORLD In 1940, he joined Rabindranath Tagore’s Vishva Bharati University at Shantiniketan, where he studied art under Nandalal Bose and Binode Behari Mukherjee. This stint also gave Ray the opportunity to
SOME OF THE SCENES OF SPIELBERG’S ET ARE EERILY SIMILAR TO THE SKETCHES RAY HAD DONE FOR HIS UNPRODUCED SCI-FI FILM, THE ALIEN! style. Ray was well informed about the various Indian folk styles and in his drawings you see a lot of traditional day-to-day rangolis, known as the alpana or the patachtira style of painting. His family background also helped. Both his father (Sukumar Ray) and grandfather (Upendrakishore Ray) were pioneers and authors and they even owned a printing press named U Ray and Sons. That must have given the young Satyajit the
experience the rural life of Bengal that would go on to play a major role in his movies. Ray’s life in Shantiniketan and its surroundings find a strong reflection in films like Pather Panchali (1955) and Apur Sansar (1959). In fact, Ray started his career as a junior visualiser at D J Keymer, a British-run advertising agency. Later, he moved to D K Gupta’s newly-opened publishing house, the Signet Press. His stint at Signet Press, which resulted in
some of his best book covers, was the place where seeds of Pather Panchali were sown when he illustrated a children’s version of the classic Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. In fact, when he made the film, he sketched all the sequences, instead of writing them! Reading transforms into words which then transform into imageries which lead to the creation of a movie. As a block printer and sketching artist, he would often first draw those images on paper before turning them into a movie. That made him an illustrator in the truest sense. His daily practices as an artist made him the great filmmaker he was. You can see that also from the way he framed his shots.
THE MAN, HIS ART Then there are his film posters, which have influences of Russian poster making, and are great examples of his mastery over typography and calligraphy. He was a real reader of typography; he created four of his own types which won him awards. And he was an excellent calligrapher. Calligraphy is a kind of real drawing and great painting starts from great drawing. For example, look at the poster of Devi or even the portrait of Karl Marx. Also, if you see his self-
JUNE 21, 2020
ALL FOR ART From illustrating book covers and film posters to creating typography, Ray was an artist in the true sense of the word Ray initiated the first film society in Kolkata in 1948. He was interested in introducing new cinema to the community. More than two decades of Ray’s carved and sculpted exceptionally attractive looks and life have been captured by Nemai Ghosh who visited my studio a decade ago and discussed his photography on Ray. Ray was a naturalist and poetic artist-film maker. (As told to Ananya Ghosh) [emailprotected] Follow @htbrunch on Twitter
Bose Krishnamachari is an artist and founder of the Kochi Biennale This is Part Two of a series of essays celebrating the legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. Next week’s tribute is by Gulzar.
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RELATIONSHIPS
“After two building managements refused me entry, I found a hotel room and married her” -Vijay
THE VIRUS VS. THE BIG, FAT INDIAN WEDDING Meet four couples who got married despite the lockdown By Shruti Nair
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he lockdown has left its mark on relationships: while singles are resorting to virtual dates, separated couples are hooked to different video apps. But still others did the unthinkable – got married during the lockdown! For instance, 27-year-old Payal Pandey, business development manager in Dubai, refused to let a virus get in her way. She scaled down her wedding plans
and got married in an intimate ceremony in a hotel room with her parents in attendance. “Our families had been planning a big destination wedding at Lonavala since January 2020 and when the coronavirus hit, things started looking hazy. Fortunately, my fiancé had returned to India from Australia just before the travel ban came into effect, so our families decided to make it happen!” she recounts.
“CORONAVIRUS HAS BROUGHT THE NEED TO SANITISE INTO OUR LIVES. THUS BRIDAL MAKE-UP GETS A WHOLE OTHER LAYER.” -PARUL GARG, MAKE-UP ARTIST JUNE 21, 2020
MAKESHIFT ARRANGEMENTS Payal Pandey’s mehendi ceremony took place in a car!; (Left) Bridal make-up artists wear face shields and brushes are sanitised
PRATIK DOSHI, 35, ADMAN + PRIYANKA UDASI, 29, BANKER
“There was no mahurat after June, so we saw no point in delaying the wedding” -Pratik
PRERNA MENON, 24 + SAM AYN URETSKY, 27, MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIANS
“When the pandemic happened, we got engaged again instead” -Prerna The groom, Vijay Reddy, who works with Australian government, drove to Mumbai from Hyderabad and was ousted by two building managements before he could find a room at a hotel where he married Payal. The newlyweds went to Australia as soon as they could. Payal’s mehendi ceremony happened in a car in India! Meanwhile, advertising agency owner Pratik Doshi, 35, also insisted on going ahead with his wedding, which was held at home with most guests attending via Zoom. “There was no mahurat (auspicious day) after June so we saw no point in delaying the wedding,” he says. “Our wedding was scheduled for April, so we postponed it for a while, hoping the lockdown would d ease. But finally we decided to just marry.”
THE LEGAL ROUTE Part of the difficulty of holding even a small marriage ceremony during the lockdown was the fact that most government offices were closed. This was tough on 25-year-old Sephra Abraham, a consultant, and her then fiancé, 26-year-old Yash Joshi. The two of them live and work in separate continents and had decided to marry in India this April – but the lockdown tried their patience. “The registrar’s office only opened on May 20, and finally ” Yash and I were legally married,” says Sephra. “Coordinating our
dates of arrival and getting our families together was the main reason why we decided to get married as soon as we got a date.” When the registrar’s office finally opened, Sephra and Yash, who were located in different parts of Mumbai, were given only an hour-and-a-half to get to the court before the senior officer was scheduled to leave for the day. Meanwhile in New York, Prerna Menon, a mental health clinician, and her partner Sam Ayn Uretsky, married in reverse during the pandemic. They had already been married at New York’s City Hall in 2019, but were planning a big Jewish-Indian (J-Indian) wedding in 2020. Then the pandemic happened, so they got engaged again instead.
didn’t want to cut down their guest lists,” she says. “Luckily the vendors and properties have been very accommodating in terms of refunds and the change of date.” Unfortunately, most wedding planners and others involved in the business of weddings are suffering. “Most couples have postponed their weddings, but a lot of them have cancelled outright, either choosing to hold a small ceremony at home or shifting the wedding to another town,” says Neelam. Coronavirus has brought a new discipline into our lives: the need to sanitise. Thus bridal make-up gets a whole other layer, says Parul Garg, a make-up artist. All make-up brushes are sanitised, the artist wears a face shield, the premises are frequently fogged and temperature checks are In the recent Netflix hit Axone, a “longdistance wedding” is shown with the bride in carried out often. “We have some brides Delhi and her sister standing in for her with booked for June and are her groom in her hometown hoping business will pick “We wanted something to celebrate and Sam, my wife, proposed to me AFTER THE COVID wearing a T-shirt that read ‘Will you WEDDING ma arry me again?’” laughs Prerna.
SHAADI BUSINESS Wh hile the lockdown has impacted thee wedding business, Neelam Ma adnani, one of the co-founders of The Vow Weavers by N & N, a wedding planning agency, is hoping for the best. “We were working on a wedding scheduled for April but due to the lockdown it had to be postponed because the families
SEPHRA ABRAHAM, 26, CONSULTANT YASH JOSHI, 27
“When the registrar’s office opened we were given only an hour-and-a-half to get to the court before the officer left for the day!” -Yash
Sephra Abraham: “Yash has gone back to the US, so I honestly feel the same as I did before getting ‘legally married’.” Prerna Menon: “Quarantine forces you to spend every breathing minute with each other. And honestly, I can’t complain.” Payal Pandey: “We were quarantined in a hotel in Melbourne for 14 days, where we couldn’t even open our doors!” up from there, but with positive cases rising every day, no one is quite sure how this will play out,” says Parul. “Our hope is that before the peak season arrives in November, we will have this under control.” [emailprotected] Follow @htbrunch on Twitter
JUNE 21, 2020
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FASHION
HOW FASHION MAGAZINES ARE EMBRACING THE COVID ERA
Glamour magazines have stood up in times of crisis, right from the times of the World War II. Here’s how they are making strong, stylish statements of substance yet again. By Sujata Assomoull
CREATIVE CALL British Grazia paid homage to the National Health System (NHS) in it’s April 2020 issue, with split covers featuring real-life NHS workers JUNE 21, 2020
IN SOLIDARITY Somalian model Iman has shown support for Vogue Arabia’s #stayathome campaign
FASHION
IN TUNE WITH THE TIMES British Vogue’s September 1943 issue, during Word War II, came with a pattern book showing women how to make the most of fabric rationing
W
hen most countries completed their first month of complete lockdown in April, The New York Times asked, “What is the point of a fashion magazine now?” Look at British Vogue’s covers during World War II for the answer. You will see how fashion magazines have always been first responders in time of crisis. With cover lines like Wardrobe Planning: Coupons, Fabrics, Renovations, the September 1943 issue came with a pattern book showing women how to make the most of fabric rationing. Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue go back well over a century; Italy’s Grazia predates World War II and France’s Elle had its first issue just after the war ended. As Nonita Kalra, editor of Harper’s Bazaar India (and former editor-in-chief of Elle India) says, “Magazines have always been chroniclers of how
we feel and think. Fashion is driven by political, economic and social change.” The reader, too, expects this. Aishwarya Nair, hotelier and fashion director of Aligne, is a self-confessed glossy lover. “Through their pages, you connect with what’s contemporary; they fuel the thought of our times,” she says.
DO JUDGE A MAGAZINE BY ITS COVER
The April 2020 issue of Vogue Italia, with its blank white cover, made it clear that covers were about to change. Italy was then reporting more coronavirus cases than most other countries. A colour of hope, surrender and rebirth, white is also the colour of the uniforms of medical staff. Meanwhile, British Grazia
“IN INDIA, 45-60 MILLION PEOPLE ARE EMPLOYED IN THE TEXTILE SECTOR, AND THE FASHION INDUSTRY HAS NURTURED CENTURIES-OLD CRAFTS” —GAYATRI RANGACHARI SHAH, FASHION JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR
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THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE Vanity Fair’s November 2001 issue was themed around the 9/11 terror attacks that shook the US and the world
“WHY DO WE BELIEVE THAT BEAUTIFUL IMAGERY IS NOT IMPACTFUL OR RELEVANT? IN DIFFICULT TIMES, WE NEED ART TO ELEVATE US.” —NONITA KALRA, EDITOR, HARPER’S BAZAAR INDIA paid homage to the National Health System (NHS) with split covers featuring real-life NHS workers. Grazia India’s 21 illustration-based digital covers paid homage to fashion’s community spirit. Both Vogue India and Grazia India were first movers in making digital issues downloadable for free when concerns were raised about print distribution in the time of corona. Every magazine now has seen a surge in digital activity and subscriptions. Mehernaaz Dhondy, editor of Grazia India, says, “Our content goals have constantly been evolving to keep pace with digital media, and now that these unprecedented times have pivoted all attention towards this medium, it’s a matter of keeping all content relevant.” Vogue Arabia reimagined some of their most memorable covers with a digitally-added mask and Vogue Taiwan created a fully computer-driven CGI cover.
JUNE 21, 2020
NO CHILD’S PLAY (Above) The June covers of Vogue Italia’s June issue this year have been drawn by kids aged between two and 10; In 1992, the year of economic crisis Harper’s Bazaar came up with this modern and paired down cover for its September issue
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YEARS OF
FASHION
2004-2020
“NO, I’M NOT BRASH OR IMPULSIVE… MOST OF THE TIME!”
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KANGANA RANAUT GETS PERSONAL PAGE 15
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DIGITAL-EXCLUSIVE FEATURE SCAN BELOW
As far as digital innovations go, the May issue of Vogue India really set the bar with a type and audio cover with words of hope written and voiced by Pulitzer prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri.
Harper’s Bazaar India’s one of the three covers for April-May 2020 featuring Janhvi Kapoor, was shot at home by Janhvi’s sister Khushi, sans make-up and filters
In May, Elle India had Dr Jane Goodall DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, on the cover
Grazia India’s April 2020 digital cover explores the Six Degrees of Separation theme
Vogue India’s June issue features its first-ever illustrated cover by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami
BEING A CONVERSATION STARTER The fashion industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. For instance, J. Crew and Neiman Marcus have declared bankruptcy. A three-billion dollar industry, fashion’s survival is a matter of global economic concern, and nowhere is this more apparent than in India. The textile industry is the country’s second largest employer, and “designer fashion,” a young industry, is vulnerable. As fashion journalist and author Gayatri Rangachari Shah notes, “In India, 45-60 million people are employed in the textile sector and the fashion industry has done so much to nurture and create new markets, both at home and abroad, for our incredibly talented centuries-old crafts tradition. Fashion magazines play a vital role in spreading the message that clothes matter.” Harper’s Bazaar India’s ‘The Runway Project’ is a digital showcase of local talent, while Vogue India asked creative minds to talk about what they are dealing with in their #InThisTogether series on Instagram. As Priya Tanna, editor of Vogue India, says, “The need of the hour is to be sensitive, show our support to local and home-grown talent and keep engaging with readers.” Vogue Arabia’s June issue is themed “Love Letter to Lebanon,” and on the cover is singer and UN Goodwill Ambassador Majida El Roumi, her first cover in a career that has spanned 45 years. Lebanon was in the midst of a political struggle prior to the pandemic. The pandemic seems to have further enabled fashion magazines to address issues through their covers. Judi Dench became British Vogue’s cover girl at 85 this May. Also in May, Elle India had Dr Jane Goodall DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, on the cover. This period has also coincided with the killing of George Floyd
50 WAVES OF GREY
WHEN SUPERMODEL MILIND SOMAN MARRIED ANKITA KONWAR, 26 YEARS HIS JUNIOR, EYES ROLLED. TWO YEARS ON, THEY HAVE THE CHEMISTRY OF A COUPLE THAT MET ON TINDER TWO DAYS AGO. HERE’S HOW [ PICTURES SHOT ON ZOOM EXCLUSIVELY FOR HT BRUNCH ] #Minkita
ZOOMIN’ IN Both, the June cover of Vanity Fair US, and the HT Brunch cover dated May 31, 2020, were shot remotely during lockdown using Zoom igniting anti-racism protests globally. With the United States being the epicentre, many ethical issues within the fashion media have come to light there, including American Vogue’s lack of covers with “Non-White” talent. Of course, a glossy must also provide its readers with an escape. As Kalra says, “Why do we believe that beautiful imagery is not impactful or relevant? In difficult times, we need art; we need inspiration to elevate us.” Her magazine invited 12 global female artists to create digital covers about the need to build connections
regular year, his clothes would be on the cover of a glossy about five times. “As things go back to normal, we would want to see our clothes on covers.”
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST The feeling of fantasy brought by the beautifully-produced shoots for print cannot be brushed aside. As Shah says, “The paper versus digital conversation has been going on ever since the birth of the Internet. Do we need books in the age of the Kindle? Yes, we do. During the lockdown, I was getting
“WE DO ABOUT FIVE MAGAZINE COVERS A YEAR. AS THINGS GO BACK TO NORMAL, WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE OUR CLOTHES ON COVERS.” —GAURAV GUPTA, FASHION DESIGNER while we practice social distancing. Vogue India’s June cover is an animated illustration by Takashi Murakmi; the coverline simple reads, “In This Together.”
THE FUTURE OF FASHION MAGAZINES Digital kept fashion media alive during lockdown. Now will fashion media go back to the way it was? Another reality seems likely. Vanity Fair’s June cover, featuring Janelle Monae, was shot on Zoom while some of the clothes she wore came from her own wardrobe. Harper’s Bazaar India’s Instagram cover featuring Janhvi Kapoor was shot at home by Janhvi’s sister Khushi, sans make-up and filters. But the fact is, magazines will need to go back to supporting the brands that are advertisers; this is a business after all. Fashion designer Gaurav Gupta says in a
my magazines and papers on my phone. It was a drag to read them that way. To feel and touch, is that not human?” But there is no question that digital is the future. Major publishing houses have been aspiring to become more than magazines for a while now, with digital platforms, wedding shows, award-based events and so on. Covid-19 has been, in many ways, a wake-up call for the industry. With all the magazines now working on their biggest issue of the year, the September issue, perhaps the covers will show what the new normal will be for fashion magazines in a post-pandemic world. [emailprotected] Follow @htbrunch on Twitter
Dubai-based fashiion journalist Sujata Assomulll is also an author and an advocatee of mindful fashioon.
CINEMA
MOVIE DATE WITH MA
Writer Mehru Jaffer watches her 88-year-old mum Farrukh Jaffar’s newest movie with her: notes how she lights up when her character appears, and steals a wink or two during scenes that crawl By Mehru Jaffer
“W
hen the camera starts whirring, I forget who the other actors are, who the director is. I talk only to the camera. I love the camera,” says 88-year-old actor Farrukh Jaffar who thoroughly enjoyed watching herself in Gulabo Sitabo, Shoojit Sircar’s latest film premiered online last week.
Her response to the media comments the morning after the release of the film was no less entertaining. She feels that before its release, there was a plan to trick the audience into believing that the film was an Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer. The promos showed the two stars of Indian cinema squabbling on screen like the famous string puppets,
BY PRAISING HER TO THE SKIES, FARRUKH JAFFAR FEELS THE MEDIA MADE HER THE PROVERBIAL KEBAB MEIN HADDI BETWEEN THE PERFORMANCES OF BACHCHAN AND KHURRANA Watching the film at home with the octogenarian actress was a treat. Farrukh lit up every time her character, Fatima Begum, appeared on screen and she did not think twice about stealing a wink or two during scenes that may have crawled a bit.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, FARRUKH Farrukh with Shoojit Sircar, the director of Gulabo Sitabo
Gulabo Sitabo, the competitive sisters-in-law of the popular traditional puppet shows performed on the streets of Lucknow. Now Farrukh is amused that by singling out her performance
COME CLEAN A still from Gulabo Sitabo where Farrukh Jaffar, 88, shares the screen with Amitabh Bachchan and praising it sky high, the media has made her the proverbial kebab mein haddi in the performances of Bachchan and Khurrana.
CINEMA’S PUKAR At no point in her life has Farrukh Jaffar not had fun. At some stage, she realised that looking the camera in the eye was the most fun thing to do in life. So, she went for it and has not looked back since. At first, the thrill was just in watching films. Then when she was offered a role in a film without looking for one, she decided not to turn down that offer just because nobody from her conservative family had ever dared to be so bold. Her affair with films started in 1939 when she saw her first movie, Pukar. She was about seven years old and had travelled with the family elders from her village in Jaunpur district to visit relatives in Lucknow.
JUNE 21, 2020
She watched Pukar with the entire family at a local cinema hall. The silver screen took her breath away. She could not stop dreaming of Naseem Bano who had played the lead in Pukar. Back home, she waited impatiently to get out of the village and visit the cinema halls of Lucknow again. Farrukh did not have to wait too long. At 16 years, she was married. She had no idea what her responsibilities would be as a wife, but she looked forward to living in Lucknow so she could go to the cinema. Every time she heard music playing on the main road, she would abandon her household duties to hurry to the terrace. From there she would look down on the street below, where a loudspeaker fitted to an open jeep announced the release of the latest film. In those days, the film often starred Nargis and Raj Kapoor. Her journalist husband spent most of his time at the newspaper office or at the Coffee House in the company of poets, politicians and writers. He had no time to watch films with her. So she used his indifference as a good excuse to watch even more cinema, and to continue to dream of Dilip Kumar. She was clearly waiting for her time to come.
THE FUN ONE To have shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan in Gulabo Sitabo now is a matter of having arrived. Farrukh feels this is the culmination of her career. She has been working in films for over half a century, in the company of some of the best names in Indian cinema from Rekha to Shah Rukh Khan to Aamir Khan to Salman Khan to Nawazuddin Siddiqui. She did all this without leaving Lucknow for Mumbai and without the promotion of a manager or agent. “Just imagine! Once upon a time I was a fan of Amitabh Bachchan and today I have shared screen space with the actor,” Farrukh says wonderingly. The secret of her routine success on the silver screen is simple. She has so much fun once the lights and camera are focused on her, that action is seldom far behind.
[emailprotected] Follow @htbrunch on Twitter Mehru Jaffer is an accomplished author and Farrukh Jaffer’s daughter
19
20
PERSONAL AGENDA
Singer
Jasleen Royal DATE OF BIRTH SUN SIGN PLACE OF BIRTH Cancer
July 8
Ludhiana
SCHOOL/COLLEGE FIRST BREAK Hindu College, Delhi
Panchi ho javaa and Preet from Khoobsurat
HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE
Winning the MTV VMA for Panchi ho javaa, my debut single
LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE Figuring out everything alone
Describe yourself in a hashtag. #Fall7GetUp8 Name your favourite Hindi word to use in a song. Rooh (soul). And a song’s lyrics that you misheard? Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye, toh “baap” ban jaye instead of “baat”! List three things nobody knows about you. I love munching while creating music, I don’t enter my home studio without having taken a shower, and that I wanted to be a cricketer at one point. What’s the best and the worst thing about being an independent musician today? That you can put your stuff out there on your own without anyone’s approval and the worst is the obsession with the number of views. Fe Feminism according to you is...? Eq ve sense… Equality in every equ roles in profesequal si sional and personal lives, and freedom MOST USED APP: WhatsApp from any gender defining roles. ON SPEED DIAL: My manager
ON MY PHONE
What would the title of your biography be? She Keeps Moving On. Interv Interviewed by ya Ghosh Ananya
LAST APP I CHECK BEFORE GOING TO BED: Instagram MOST USED FILTER ON INSTAGRAM: Paris LEAST USED APP: Reminder to drink water!
Photo: Avinash Jai Singh; Styling and outfit:
Shafiq Khatib; Assisted by: Vruddhi Rachh
JUNE 21, 2020
INDIA’S BIGGEST MUSICAL LEGENDS IN BRUNCH NOVEMBER 18, 2018 Free with your copy of Sunday Hi Hindustan d t Times Ti
APRIL 14, 2019 Free with your copy of Sunday Hindustan Times
TRAVEL FOCUS
“I have been learning from him since I was . I’m now!” —Hariharan
“I took the engine from him, and that is pulling my entire train” —Sonu Nigam
PAGE 18
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“He’s my spiritual guru, but has a wicked sense of humour!” —Shaan
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3 SINGLE GUYS YS S GO PLAYING AND PRAYING IN ISRAEL
AR RAHMAN
TRAVEL FOCUS
PARIS FOR THE -SOMETHING TRAVELLER
AWKWARDNESS
PAGE 18
In an exclusive shoot for HT Brunch, singers Shaan, Hariharan and Sonu Nigam come together to pay a tribute to Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan
TURNING FILMMAKER [ THE MUSIC SPECIAL ]
USTADON KE USTAD!
WHY HE EMBRACED ISLAM
IN A RARE OUTING, USTAD GHULAM MUSTAFA KHAN, GURU TO INDIAN MUSIC’S CURRENT GREATS, TELLS US SOME HEARTWARMING TALES
“A lot of people have come up to me and said, ‘Hey AR, if I convert to Islam will I be successful too? I’m ready!’ I keep quiet. It’s a trick question!”
AN HT BRUNCH EXCLUSIVE!
[ AN HT BRUNCH EXCLUSIVE ]
#ARInTalkMode
#T eLe endMaker
MARCH 17, 2019 Free with your copy of Sunday Hindustan Times
FEBRUARY 11, 2018 Free with your copy of Sunday Hindustan Times
YEARS OF 2004-2019
[ THE MUSIC SPECIAL! ]
BRINGING COOL TO CLASSICAL
LONGE “WE NO LONGER SEE A SWELL OF LISTENERS AT CONCERTS IN INDIA” SELVAGANESH
“BUT THE HE E APPEAL APP AP OF PURE RHYTHM WILL NEVER DIMINISH!” VIKKU VINAYAKRAM
MULTIPLE GRAMMY-WINNING GUITARIST SHARON ISBIN ON HOW HER FIRST BRUSH WITH INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC HAS CHANGED HER LIFE FOREVER! SHOT EXCLUSIVELY FOR HT BRUNCH AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, MUMBAI
“Indian classical music has long pieces, whereas a Bach or a Beethoven has a defined sense of enclosure” — Sharon Isbin
CLASSICAL CONUNDRUM
IN A RARE RARE CHAT, CHAT THE GRAMMY CHAT GRAMMY AWAR AWARD-WINNING WARD D WINN WINN PERCUSSIONIST AND HIS SON VOICE OPINIONS AND STRIKE HIGH NOTES [ AN HT BRUNCH EXCLUSIVE ] #ClassicalConundrum
PLUS! AMAAN AND AYAAN ALI BANGASH ON STRADDLING TRADITION WITH TODAY #ClassicalCool
EVERY SUNDAY WITH HT! For all stories, visit www.hindustantimes.com/brunch
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