First India News Paper-Gujarat-English News Paper Today-14 March 2020 edition

1. AHMEDABAD l SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 107 BHUTAN, NEPAL, THE MALDIVES AND SRI LANKA HAVE ACCEPTED INDIA'S OFFER PM MODI URGES SAARC LEADERS TO CHALK OUT JOINT STRATEGY TO FIGHT CORONAVIRUS n a move that can see a re- vival of S A A R C g r o u p i n g , Prime Minister Nar- endra Modi on Friday urged the south Asian member state to chalk out a joint strategy to fight novel coronavi- rus pandemic. As positive cases in India rose to 75, PM Modi proposed that the leadership of SAARC nations chalk out a strong strategy to fight Coronavirus.” SAARC stands for South Asian Associa- tion for Regional Co- operation with eight members including Afghanistan, Bangla- desh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. to combat it. South pose that the leader- November 2014, the —FILE PHOTO Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I ‘Namami Gange’ improved water quality of Ganga: Shah only leaders of the member states since Modi came to power that year. The scheduled summit of 2016 in Pak was cancelled after Uri at- tack in Sept that year. Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka have accepted India’s offer with their respec- tive governments giv- ing their assent on Twitter. While the re- sponse from Afghani- stan and Bangladesh is awaited, it will be inter- esting to see if Paki- stan’s government of Prime Minister Imran Khan accepted the pro- posal. On Thursday, Paki- stani Foreign Ministry had said it was ready to “provide assistance to our neighbouring countries.” gathering of PM’S GUJARAT VISIT POSTPONED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS SCARE P scare, it was announced here on Friday. Making the announcement about deferment of the PM’s visit, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said new dates will be fi nalised later. “In view of the current situation which has arisen due to the coronavirus and a recent central government advisory asking states to avoid organising any large gatherings or seminars, Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Gujarat on March 21 and 22 has been postponed,” he said. Notably, no positive case of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has been reported so far in the home state of Modi. Patel said the state government is taking all necessary steps to avoid the spread of the virus in view of positive cases reported from neigbhouring Maharashtra and some other states. Earlier, authorities had announced that Modi will be in Gujarat for two days to inaugurate a host of projects. rime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Gujarat from March 21 has been put off due to the coronavirus Narendra Modi @ narendramodi I would like to propose that the leadership of SAARC nations chalk out a strong strategy to fi ght Coronavirus. We could discuss, via video conferencing, ways to keep our citizens healthy. Together, we can set an example to the world, and contribute to a healthier planet. New Delhi: The cen- tral government’s ‘Namami Gange’ mis- sion has improved the water quality of Gan- ga river, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Friday. Shah said the project to clean Ganga, one of the important rivers of the country, has been a success and the govt will launch similar ini- tiatives to clean other rivers in the country in coordination with the respective state govts. Shah was speaking at a ceremony to receive the participants of the ‘Ganga Aamantran Ab- hiyan’, a month-long ex- Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks during Flag-In Ganga Amantran Abhiyan Event in New Delhi on Friday. Asia, which is home to a significant number of the global population should leave no stone unturned to ensure our people are healthy .” I would like to pro- In a series of tweets, Modi wrote, “Our plan- et is battling the COV- ID-19 Novel Coronavi- rus. At various levels, governments and peo- ple are trying their best ship of SAARC na- tions chalk out a strong strategy to fight Coronavirus, he said. The last Summit was held in ploratory rafting and kayaking ex- pedition, covering 2,510 kms from Devprayag to Ganga Sagar in WB. The event was held from Oct 10 to Nov 12 last year and personnel open-water of the 3 armed forces participated in the raft- ing and boating aware- ness drive that aimed to spread awareness about the importance and his- tory of the river among the people. SAARC —PTI —PTI Rupani Govt first to introduce performance grading in schools Haresh Jhala the Maths and Science subject textbooks of secondary schools have been made available on- line. From current fi- nancial year, Class VI to VIII’s six textbooks are carrying QR code and because of this the students have access to e-books and don’t need to carry textbooks eve- ry time with them. From next academic year, the state govern- ment is planning to put all text books of class III to VIII online. sent teachers and has terminated services of 115 teachers.” The gov- ernment plans to tight- en the present online attendance system and is planning to intro- duce biometric or face recognition system. In Performance Grading Index, Guja- rat is at number two in the country after the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The State has scored 870 out of 1,000. He added that now It is because of the government’s focus on improving standards in its schools that as many as three lakh students from private institu- tions have joined the State’s schools during the last five years. Edu- cation Minister Bhu- pendrasinh Chudasama said it is a reflection of the government’s com- mitment that the grad- ing system is made in real time. A budget of Rs 31,975 crore has been earmarked for educa- tion for this year and this would be used for the holistic develop- ment of primary, sec- ondary and higher secondary education. Chudasama with a view to curb ab- senteeism schools, daily attend- ance has been made on- line for 1.14 crore stu- dents and nearly four lakh teachers. He added that the State Govern- ment “is very strict with irregular and ab- Gandhinagar: Vijay Rupani Govern- ment is the first in the country to have introduced mance Grading Index in primary schools with an aim to see that all school-going children learn to flu- ently read, write and speak and there is an overall improvement in the quality of edu- cation in state-run schools. The Perfor- said in the —FILE PHOTO Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

2. TALKING POINT 02 AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia THE CLOSURE ORDER WILL COME INTO EFFECT FROM FRIDAY MIDNIGHT, CM THACKERAY SAID, ANNOUNCING THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS INVOKED THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT OF 1897 TO TACKLE THE VIRUS OUTBREAK C R NAVIRUS Mumbai: In a drastic step to curb the spread of coronavirus, the Ma- harashtra government ordered closure of cin- ema halls, gyms and swimming Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri Chinch- wad and Nagpur cities from Friday midnight. Making nouncement in the state Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the gov- ernment was invoking the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 from mid- night. Wherever possible, companies should allow employees to work from home in view of corona- virus threat, he said. Thackeray nounced that schools in Pune and Chinchwad areas will remain shut till further orders. However, the SSC ex- ams in those schools will continue as per schedule, he said. He also informed the House that so far, 17 per- sons have tested posi- tive for coronavirus in the state- three each in Mumbai and Nagpur, 10 in Pune and one in Thane. The chief minister also appealed to the peo- ple to avoid visiting malls. pools in Theaters, gyms ordered closed in 6 Maha cities the an- Workers clean entry gates at Rajeev Chowk metro station in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, in New Delhi. Indian greeting namaste gains wide acceptability New Delhi: “Na- maste”, the Indian way of greeting peo- ple is gaining wide acceptability in the wake of the corona- virus outbreak. Be it US President Trump or the French Presi- dent Emmanuel Ma- cron or British Roy- alty Prince Charles. Coronovirus, as per the experts is highly contagious and is spread by physical contact, one of which is the hand- shake. So, be it a com- mon man or the pres- ident or prime minis- ter, it is the same for everyone. Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varad- kar in the Oval office at the White House on Thursday said, “We didn’’t shake hands today and we looked at each other and said what are we going to do? Sort of a weird feeling. We did this (joined hands). I just got back from In- dia and I didn’’t shake any hands there. It was easy .” Last week Israel PM Benjamin Netan- yahu too advocated for Namaste way of greeting. He asked his fellow country- men to greet each other by hands and saying Na- maste as opposed to shaking hands as fears over the corona- virus outbreak grow. an- Pimpri folding A priest wearing protective masks as a precautionary measure against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), offers prasad to a devotee at Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai. 3 more test positive for COVID-19 in Maharashtra, number rises to 5 44 Indians evacuated from Iran shifted to Naval quarantine facility in Mumbai Mumbai: The Indian Navy on Fri- day said that 44 Indian citizens who have been evacuated from Iran, have been shifted to the Naval quar- antine facility at Mumbai. Satellite images show Iran has built mass graves amid coronavirus outbreak the friend,” he had informed. There are now ten confirmed coronavirus patients in Pune, three each in Mumbai and Nagpur, and one in Thane. Indian Navy spokesperson tweet- ed that “44 Indian citizens have been evacuated from Iran and shift- ed to Indian Navy quarantine facil- ity at Ghatkopar in Mumbai.” External Affairs Minister of In- dia, S Jaishankar, tweeted, “Second batch of 44 Indian pilgrims has ar- rived today from Iran. Our efforts to bring back the others continue. @ India_in_Iran and our medical team - keep up the good work. Appreciate the support of Iranian authorities and their airlines.” On Thursday, Jaishankar had said that a very detailed tracking procedure was in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus and un- tested people cannot be brought back to the country in a very severe epidemic situation as the nation’s health security has to be ensured. Pune/Nagpur: One more person was confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus in Pune on Friday, taking the number of COVID-19 cases in the city to 10 and that in Maharashtra to 17. The person who tested positive for the virus in Pune on Friday had travel history to the United States, said divisional commissioner Deep- ak Mhaisekar. Earlier in the morning, two more persons tested positive for the dis- ease in Nagpur. Two days after a 45-year-old man was found to be infected with coro- navirus in Nagpur, his wife and friend also tested positive, Division- al Commissioner Sanjiv Kumar had said. “The man had returned from the US last week along with his wife and Iran: Satellite images of mass graves in the city of Qom suggest Iran’s coronavi- rus epidemic is even more serious than the authorities are admitting. The picture show the excavation of a new section in a cemetery on the north- ern fringe of Iran’s holy city in late Feb- ruary, and two long trenches dug, of a total length of 100 yards, by the end of the month. They confirm the worst fears about the extent of the epidemic and the gov- ernment’s subsequent cover-up. The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, held a press conference to “categorically deny” the allegations, but he was clearly sweating and coughing as he did so. The next day , Harirchi confirmed that he had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. Kamal Nath holds meeting, reviews preparedness Indian citizens evacuated from Iran being shifted to a quarantine facility at Ghatkopar in Mumbai. Indian Embassy in US sets up helplines to address queries on COVID-19 Govt makes sanitizers, masks essential commodities New Delhi: The govern- ment on Friday declared masks, including N95, and hand sanitizers as ‘es- sential commodities’ in the wake of the coronavirus scare leading to shortages and black marketing of these items. These items will remain under essential commodi- ties segment till June-end, a move aimed at ensuring availability at reasonable prices. The govt has noti- fied an order under the Es- sential Commodities Act to declare masks (2 ply and 3 ply surgical masks, N95 masks) and hand santizers as essential commodities up to June 30, 2020. The decision has empowered the Centre as well states to regu- late production, quality, distributions of masks and hand sanitiziers, and also to smoothen sale and availability of these items, and carry out operations against speculators. ‘Animals can’t transmit COVID-19, stop creating panic’ New Delhi: Dispelling rumours that animals spread novel coronovirus (COVID-19), former Union Minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi on Friday made it clear that animals cannot transmit the infectious disease and many government and private departments were creating panic by dissemi- nating false information. The Lok Sabha member said that such informa- tion is totally “wrong and misleading” and is being spread by some government departments, insurance companies and private companies. She made the an- nouncement at a time when rumours are spreading faster than the disease itself. The BJP leader said: “The health department of this country has clearly said that animals do not have coronavirus and they can- not transmit coronavirus.” suspended all visas, ex- cept a few categories such as diplomatic and employment, till April 15 in view of the coro- navirus which has been de- clared a pandemic by the World Health Or- ganisation (WHO). The suspension came into effect from 1200 GMT on March 13 at the port of departure. “All existing visas, except diplomatic, offi- cial, UN/International organisations, employ- ment and project visas, stand suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure,” an offi- cial statement said is- sued on Wednesday . Visa-free travel facil- ity granted to Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card holders is also kept in abeyance till April 15, it said. regarding the recent travel advisory issued by the government of India for travel to India in view of the spread of coronavirus”. Helpline are being operated at the embassy in Wash- ington DC and consu- lates at Atlanta, Chica- go, New York, Houston and San Francisco. India on Wednesday cases soared to 74. The deadly virus that origi- nated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in De- cember last year has claimed over 4,600 lives and infected more than 124,330 people world- wide. In a statement the embassy said it has set up round-the-clock hel- pline numbers “for que- ries and clarifications Washington: The In- dian Embassy in the US has set up 24-hour hel- plines to address ques- tions on the recent trav- el restrictions imple- mented by New Delhi in a bid to contain the spread of the novel cor- onavirus. India reported its first death due to coro- navirus on Thursday as the number of positive outbreak, numbers Bhopal: In the wake of coronavirus out- break, Pradesh CM Kamal Nath on chaired a meeting to review the situation. Several officials, including the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police and Principal Secretary (Health Department), attended the meeting. The WHO on Wednes- day declared corona- virus outbreak a pan- demic and expressed deep concern both by the alarming levels of spread and severi- ty and by the alarm- Madhya Friday ing levels of inaction. The total number of confirmed COV- ID-19 cases across India has risen to 75. The country has also reported its first cor- onavirus death in Karnataka, health ministry had stated earlier. the Foreign tourists wear masks to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. Content: Divya Hemnani, Design: Shyam Shonkiya

3. AHMEDABAD l SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJ ENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 107 15°C - 31°C OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia With many countries going into quarantine, major sports events including IPL have been cancelled; Centre declares masks, hand sanitisers as ‘essential commodities’ CORO-NATIONS FREEZE GLOBAL LOCKDOWN OVER VIRUS SCARE C O R O N A V I R U S E F F E C T wake of coronavirus scare leading to shortages and black marketing of these items. These items will re- main under essential com- modities segment till June- end, a move aimed at ensur- ing availability at reasonable prices and cracking down on hoarders/black marketeers. Centre also decided to al- low international traffic only through 19 border checkposts out of 37 and de- cided to continue suspension of Indo-Bangladesh cross border passenger trains and buses till April 15, or earlier, if so decided. Meanwhile, a person who returned from Italy was tested positive for coronavirus at Army’s quar- antine facility in Manesar. New Delhi: The concern around COVID-19 outbreak reached its zenith world- wide, with many countries going into quarantine, major sports tournaments being cancelled. In India, the total number of confirmed cases across the country is 81, which include 16 Italians and one Canadian, Health Ministry officials said. India has so far reported one death in Karnataka’s Kalaburgi. On Friday, global toll from the pandemic crossed 4,600, with more than 125,000 peo- ple in 118 countries infected world-wide. India on Friday declared that masks, including N95, and hand sanitisers as ‘es- sential commodities’ in the SCHOOLS, COLLEGES SHUT IN 11 STATES All schools, colleges, techni- cal and vocational education institutes have been closed in 11 states of Uttarakhand, Odisha, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhat- tisgarh in view of the possibility of infection. JNU has suspended all lectures, examinations and events on its campus till March 31. SC TO ONLY HEAR URGENT CASES SC on Friday took note of global pandemic and decided that only urgent matters shall be taken up for hearing and no persons except concerned lawyers will be al- lowed inside its courtrooms. The decision was taken in a meeting presided over by CJI SA Bobde after taking note of the Centre’s March 5 advisory cautioning against mass gatherings. The Union Ministry of Health & Fam- ily Welfare under the central govern- ment has launched a helpline number: +91-11-23978046 for coronavirus-related inquiry and support. There are also sepa- rate helpline numbers for the different states and union territories. IPL POSTPONED TILL APRIL 15 The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday decided to postpone the Indian Premier League (IPL) to April 15, 2020, as a precautionary measure against the ongoing COVID-19 situation.There was speculation as to what the board will decide amidst the ongo- ing coronavirus scare, and fi nally postponing the tournament came up as the solution. P9 VIRUS SCARE @ ATTARI BORDER Foreign nationals will not be allowed to enter In- dia from Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border from Friday evening onwards, a senior BSF offi - cial said. Indian nationals who had gone across border would be allowed to come back before their visas expire. Pilgrims from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur through Kartarpur Corridor to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib will continue. NEPAL SHUTS ACCESS TO MT EVEREST CANADA PM’s WIFE TESTS POSITIVE AUSSIE HOME MINISTER TESTS POSITIVE Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has tested positive on Friday. Earlier on Friday, Dutton did not attend his usual Today Show interview due to a “stomach bug”. Dutton had recently returned from a tour of the United States. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophia Gregoire, has tested positive for Covid-19 after she showed fl u- like symptoms upon return from the UK.Trudeau himself, who has been in voluntary self-quarantine, is said to be “in good health,” say reports. Nepal government has cancelled all expeditions to Mount Everest, until further notice, due to novel coronavirus outbreak. The decision effectively ends all expedition attempts on the Everest for the year. A child who tested negative for coronavirus rides on a hoverboard scooter, at the ITBP quarantine facility, in Chhawla, New Delhi on Friday. —PTI MP Guv expels 6 rebel mins, BJP seeks floor test Can’t believe I’m free: Farooq after release from detention CRUCIAL READ REJECTED MERCY PLEA: NIRBHAYA CONVICT MOVES HC New Delhi: One of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Vinay Shar- ma, on Friday approached Delhi HC claiming that there were procedural lapses and “constitutional irregularities” in the rejection of his mercy plea by President Ram Nath Kovind.The petition on Sharma’s behalf was moved by his lawyer AP Singh who said matter has been fi led in HC registry.Plea claims that the recommendation sent to the President to reject the mercy plea did not contain the signature of Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain. Srinagar: Senior Na- tional Conference lead- er Farooq Abdullah on Friday promised to be in the Parliament in the next two weeks as he re- covers from an eye sur- gery , the former Jammu and Kashmir Minister told the media as he walked out free af- ter being in detention for seven months ever since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year. “I can’t believe I’m free. I hope everybody else is released too. I will attend Parliament if al- lowed. And once I am there, I will raise prob- lems being faced by peo- ple of Kashmir,” he said. Madhya Bhopal: Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon has expelled six rebel cabinet ministers from the council of ministers as per the suggestion of Chief Minister Kamal Nath. The six ministers have rebelled against the Kamal Nath gov- ernment and have been camping at a Bengaluru along with the other 13 rebel MLAs. The rebel MLAs had sent in their resignation to MP Assembly Speaker, but they have been asked to come in person to ex- plain reasons for their quitting. Much at stake for Congress than BJP in Rajya Sabha elections Chief P7 KULDEEP SENGAR, 6 OTHERS SENTENCED TO 10-YR JAIL Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court on Friday sentenced expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and six others to 10 years imprisonment for the death of Unnao rape survi- vor’s father. Sengar is already serving life imprisonment for raping the minor. While sentencing them, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said, “There can be no deny- ing that rule of law was broken. Sengar and his brother Atul has been directed to give 10 lakh compensation to family of the victim for loss of their father. resort Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath meets Governor Lalji Tandon, in Bhopal on Friday. —ANI Farooq Abdullah fl anked by his wife Molly Abdullah and daughter Safi a Abdullah at at his residence in Gupkar Road on Friday. Vijayalaxmi Sadho. Go- vind Singh has got De- partment of Food Civil Supplies and Consumer protection, earlier led by Pradhuman Tomar. The portfolios taken away from the expelled ministers have been re- distributed. Imarti De- vi’s Women and Child Development Deperta- ment has been given Sachin Pilot @SachinPilot Glad to hear the news of the release of Former CM #FarooqAbdullah ji. I hope that other former Chief Ministers detained in J&K are also released soon. P7 Turn on P5 Haresh Jhala on the eve of elections making it difficult to get adequate number of votes for its two candidates. BJP has fielded old Congressman Narhari Amin with the calcula- tion that his personal equations with some Congress MLAs may fetch adequate votes to meet the shortfall. The BJP has 103 MLAs and it needs at least eight more votes to touch the magic figure of 111. Even if BTP and NCP MLAs vote for BJP’s third candidate, there will be a shortfall of five votes. party and as an MLA and contested against Ahmed Patel, whose victory was consid- ered nothing short of a miracle. And then, it was Rajput who lost and was not consid- ered BJP’s loss. In 2020, the situation has not changed much. This time the political careers of its two State- level leaders are at stake while it may also rub on the image of Ahmed Patel. The numbers are not in favour of BJP’s third candidate and Congress party’s second candi- date. The ruling party’s PULLS AND PRESSURES The BJP on Friday established contacts with NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja and requested him to vote for its candidate Narhari Amin. Sources claimed that Kandhal has conveyed his helplessness as he has already received a whip from his party. On the other hand, Congress leader Ahmed Patel has approached Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) leader Chhotubhai Vasava requesting him and his son Mahesh to vote for the Congress candidate. Gandhinagar: The Ra- jya Sabha tussle in Guja- rat has much more at stake for the Congress candidates and their mentors than the BJP. The March 26 election will see a straight fight between the Opposition party and a turncoat Congressman for the second time after 2017 when party veteran Ahmed Patel had to huff and puff for every vote. In 2017, on the eve of Rajya Sabha elec- tions, Congress whip Balvantsinh Rajput resigned from the two candidates can eas- ily scrape through but the third would need at least three votes either from the Congress or two of Bharatiya Tribal Par- ty’s MLAs and one from the NCP. On the other hand, though claims it has 74 votes, including an Inde- pendent Jinesh Me- vani, but it faces the prospects of cross- voting. Alternatively, a few may even resign Congress nominee CM Vijay Rupani with the BJP candidates for Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat Assembly on Friday. —PHOTO BY NANDAN DAVE Turn on P5

4. GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 04 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia BJP nominees to canvas among Oppn After days of intense speculations of horse-trading and pulls and pressures, especially in the Opposition Congress, the March 26 Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat have only become curiouser with the BJP tossing a third candidate, Narhari Amin, in the ring on the last date of filing nominations on Friday. Both the parties have only as many members to win two seats each, but the BJP has made things tough for the Opposition by fielding a third candidate. BJP confident all its 3 candidates will win First India News 103 182 TOTAL SEATS Cong veterans in fray sans dummy support First India News IT IS GOING TO BE TOUGH NUMBERS GAME BJP INC BTP NCP IND VACANT 73 2 1 Expressing confidence of a sureshot victory, Bharatiya Janata Par- ty’s three candidates for the Rajya Sabha elec- tions filed their nomi- nations Friday . Abhay Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin were all smiles and beamed with confidence. They were to file their papers the Vijay Muharat at 12.39 pm, they did so only at 2 pm because of the legis- lative party meeting. They were accompa- nied by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja and State BJP President Jitu Vaghani. Hundreds of supporters of BJP candidates from Sabarkantha, and Ahmedabad turned up in Gandhinagar. Rupani told reporters that the party has ade- quate number of MLAs to ensure the victory of all three candidates. He called out the fence-sit- ters in the Congress and other parties and said, “Those who wish to par- ticipate in the develop- ment of the State are welcome to join (the BJP).” He denied that the BJP is indulging in Gandhinagar: Hoping to win two seats accord- ing to its numbers, the Congress has fielded two veterans against four vacant seats in Ra- jya Sabha for Gujarat, with former State chief Bharatsinh Solanki and national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil filing their nominations on Friday . They filed their pa- pers in the presence of State Congress Presi- dent Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition in the State Paresh Dhanani. Both the candidates, along with other MLAs and supporters, expressed their confidence of vic- tory in an apparently unequal battle. However, amid in- tense speculations of horse-trading and pos- sible cross-voting the body language of the Congress leaders, in- cluding that of the can- didates, did not ooze much confidence of a sure victory . Their nom- ination papers were pre- pared on night in presence of Dhanani but they have no back-up in terms of dummy candidates. Three sets of papers were prepared for the 1 2 Bhardwaj, MLAs to be taken to Udaipur Though the Congress sees an opportunity to win both the seats given that it has the numbers, its challenge is to keep the party’s fl ock together. Soon after the nominations were fi led, the legisla- tors were locked in closed-door confabulations for more than an hour. But three MLAs, Pratap Dudhat, Mangal Gavit and Bhikha Joshi, were ab- sent. Highly placed sources said the party is plan- ning to pack off its MLAs to Udaipur in Congress- ruled Rajasthan to ensure they are not infl uenced by the rival BJP. Earlier in 2017, they were taken to Karnataka. The party MLAs promised the lead- ers to go wherever they take them. BJP NOMINEES AND THEIR DUMMY CANDIDATES Abhay Bhardwaj Ramilaben Bara Narhari Amin Narhari’s wild card entry as BJP’s candidate First India News Kiritsinh Rana Dinesh Makwana Amit Shah (ex-Mayor) Assembly As candi- dates, we have the I will try to fulfil Dr. Babasa- Party under Chi- manbhai Patel. When the Janata Party and the BJP took power together in Gujarat, first he was minister of state for home and later, in Chhabilbhai Mehta’s government, deputy chief minister. After Janata Dal Gujarat merged with the Congress, he con- tested elections from Sa- barmati and Matar, but lost. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2012, on the eve of the Assembly elections. Gandhinagar: Stu- dent leader of 1974 and seasoned politi- cian Narhari Amin’s nomination came as a shock to many within the party, but most of all to the two Congress candidates. Born in June 1955 in Ahmedabad, Amin was one of the faces that led the Navnirman tion in 1973-74, which forced then chief minister Chimanb- hai Patel out of of- fice. However, he lat- er joined the Janata right to campaign among all the MLAs and so I and my two col- leagues will approach the Congress MLAs. –Narhari Amin, candidate heb’s dream to im- plement Uniform Civil Code by con- vincing the gov- ernment to bring a bill in this regard. –Abhay Bhardwaj, candidate Rajkot Let there be rumours, but they are not true. I have faith in my par- ty’s MLAs and both the candi- dates will win the Rajya Sab- ha seats. —Shaktisinh Gohil Assembly Thursday Agita- members are unhappy with their candidates and could defy the par- ty’s whip to vote against the official nominees. ing the name of Solanki along with Gohil, the Congress seems to have assuaged the tempers. any horse-trading. He said all these are appre- hensions of the Con- gress spawning from the fact that its party nomination, in which according to the advice of their lawyer, ten MLAs supported each candidate By announc- leadership CLAIMS AND COUNTER-CLAIMS Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and State BJP President Jitubhai Vaghani with party’s candidates, while State Congress chief Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani with their nominees for Rajya Sabha elections. GUP SHUP THAT CLASSROOM FEELING Y right? If anything, the current Assembly session shows that age has nothing to do with growing up. Just like in school, there are Lords of the Last Bench in the House as well. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. MLAs like Lalit Kathagra and Pratap Dudhat keep the House alive by passing comments frequently. Even the questions are decidedly less than super serious. For instance, on Friday, the ruling party MLA actually asked the agriculture minister whether farmers are trained in the classroom or in the fi eld. See, it’ just like school. All that’s missing is the giggling and chalk throwing! ALL ABOUT THE NAME I Sabha nominations at exactly 12.39 pm. However, on Friday, not only did they miss their “Vijay Muhurat”of 12.39, they did so with an unexpected amount of laissez faire. One BJP supporter was heard saying, “We have ‘Vijay’ Rupani with us, so we don’t need Vijay Muhurat. Vijay means victory, he is with us and will remain with us forever.” Does this mean Shakespeare’s query, “What’s a name?” fi nally has fi nally been answered? NO DUMMIES NEEDED U for the Rajya Sabha election. This might seem like an amazing show of confi dence, but it’s likelier that it’s the result of insecurity. Not of the party, per se, but certainly of the candidates in the fray. We hear they are afraid that the dummies may win the election and the serious candidates may be left out. By declaring Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki as their candidates, the high command has managed to calm down agitators within the party at the last minute. Now, it is up to the MLAs to make sure they send their candidates to the Rajya Sabha, despite the rift between the two. n case you didn’t know, the BJP is quite superstitious, at least when it comes to fi ling nomination papers. There’s a well-established tradition of fi ling Rajya ou’d think our elected MLAs would be serious grown-ups, nusually, the Congress party has not fi led a dummy candidate BUGGED? Or is it the grapevine... . First India begins a column that brings to you gossips or tete-e-tete from the corridors of power BE POSITIVE C answering a question regarding state health facilities in the House. The State Health Minister quipped that the incumbent health minister thirty years ago had the same reply to that question as him. He said that time has changed but not the answers to questions. He also commented that a shortfall of doctors in the rural areas was seen back then and the situation today has not changed. Then, he appealed to everyone to remain optimistic and hope that things change for the better soon. hange is a certainty in life. We all know that. But, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had a dry take on learning to be hopeful for a good future while

5. GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 05 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia UNMASKED BY SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEOS Amid panic, principal secretary for health orders crackdown on illegal and unsanitary mask ‘manufacturers’ Vipul Rajput We have seen videos (on so- cial media) of High Court instructs state to minimize gatherings Ahmedabad: In a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) regis- tered on Friday in view of the panic surround- ing COVID-19, the Gu- jarat High Court has instructed the state to ensure minimal public gatherings. A two-per- son bench comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice to Ashutosh Shastri is- sued notice to the chief secretary , princi- pal secretary , depart- ment of medical health and family welfare, and the principal sec- retary of the legal de- partment. It pointed out that the advisory issued by the Union Ministry of Health and on a daily basis. Ahmedabad: Even as Gujarat continues to dodge the COVID-19 bullet, the state’s health department has ordered raids on unhygienic and illegal factories that have cropped up to cash in on the mask shortage reported in Monday’s edition of this newspaper. Sources say the move came after principal secretary for health Jayanti Ravi came across videos on social media in which masks can be seen be- ing manufactured in less than ideal condi- tions. As of 7pm on Friday, none of the 68 people tested for the Novel Cor- onavirus in the state have been found to be infected. Yet, the few available masks flying off the shelves despite a 400-500% mark-up. “Many people seem State recovered `340 cr as penalty people making masks in small, unclean places. These people appear to be speaking Gujarati. So we have launched an investi- gation. However, as of late Friday, we have not found any such factories. For now, we are being vigilant. Other directions is- sued include avoiding public gatherings, dis- couraging from attending court hearings, and making sure that any absence of parties would not entail adverse orders. The high court also directed, “Handshake greetings avoided and greetings may be with folded hands only .” The state has been directed to file an affi- davit within a week stating details of per- sons affected by COV- ID-19 in the state, and the steps taken by the government with re- gards to their treat- ment. litigants —HG Koshiya, Food and Drug Commissioner may be Family Welfare, was to be strictly adhered to, and issued additional directions including providing temperature guns at the security check in the court premises, taking nec- essary steps in case any person is found to be having fever, and sanitizing the court building and premises An authorized mask manufacturing unit in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. —PHOTO BY NANDAN DAVE Superintendent of the Ahmedabad Civil Hos- pital, says, “While COV- ID-19 spreads through physical contact with the mucous and spit of an infected patient, only those suspected of having the disease need to wear masks. Healthy people do not need to wear them.” Gujarati. So we have launched an investiga- tion into this. Some of our teams have inspect- ed some Ahmedabad but, as of late Friday, we have not found any such facto- ries. For now, we are be- ing vigilant.” As reported previ- ously, Dr GH Rathod, Food and Drug Com- missioner HG Koshiya told First India, “Manu- facturing units need to comply with strict regu- lations in terms of hy- giene, but we have seen videos of people mak- ing masks in small un- clean places. The people in the videos appear to be communicating in Weights and Measures dept notes 691 offences, files 0 complaints to have started small, unhygienic factories to make a quick buck by taking advantage of people’s panic,” one source in the health de- partment told First In- dia. “The health secre- tary has asked the rele- vant department to crack down on such mask manufacturers.” areas of 2 thefts reported in state capital First India News First India News First India News The opposition al- leged that this practice promotes corruption. “By not filing police complaints, and only levying nominal fines rather than hefty ones, the BJP government is encouraging malprac- tice among dishonest merchants. They do not want to punish the cul- prits,” said Doshi, chief spokesper- son of the Gujarat Con- gress. “Basically , by not implementing the rules, the BJP government en- courages dishonest mer- chants and is doing in- justice to the honest ones.” 2019. When asked specifi- cally about the Mehsana district, Faldu replied, “In 2019, recovery of Rs4 crore was made and the number stood at Rs1.71 crore in 2018. Therefore, in the last two years alone, the RTO has Rs5.71 crore for viola- tions of the Motor Vehi- cles Act in Mehsana district alone.” In Bardoli, the state RTO department de- tained 157 vehicles and recovered a total fine amount of Rs43 lakh from transport vehicles last year. worked there the whole day. But when Sumati- ben opened the safe on Thursday, she discov- ered the cash missing. The Kann family found that one gold necklace worth Rs45,000 was no- where to be found. A theft complaint has been lodged at Satellite police station who have launched an investiga- tion. In a separate inci- dent, jeweller Yashwant Kumar Patel has ac- cused jewellery worker Babulal Dangi of rob- bing him of Rs8.39 lakh worth of silver. The complaint was filed at Khadia police station. By not filing police complaints, and only levying nominal fines rather than hefty ones, the BJP govern- ment is encouraging malpractice among dishonest merchants. They do not want to punish the culprits. —Manish Doshi, Chief spokesperson, GPCC Gandhinagar: state government’s Re- gional Transport Office (RTO) recovered Rs340 crore for the violation of the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) in 2019. In the last two years, it col- lected penalties to the tune of Rs686 crore from transportation ve- hicles. Transport Minister RC Faldu in response to MLA Shailesh mar’s question in the House stated that the RTO collected fines to- talling Rs346 crore in 2018, and Rs340 crore in The Ahmedabad: Over the past two years, officials from the Weights and Measures (W&M) de- partment has caught 691 merchants red-handed in 31 districts. However, they have not filed a sin- gle police case against any of these offenders, according to informa- tion revealed in the House during Friday’s Assembly session. Congress MLAs had raised the question of ir- regularities found dur- ing W&M raids. The House admitted that many merchants Ahmedabad: A theft of Rs9.5 lakh was reported in the home of Addi- tional Commissioner with the State Revenue Department Padmavati Kann on Thursday. A resident of Satellite, she lives with her broth- er Ramkumar Kann, 37, and mother Sumatiben at Vasu Pujya Row House in Ramdevnagar. The family did not notice anything amiss when an air-condition- er repairman named Bhurabhai visited their home for AC repair ser- vice on March 10 and recovered number of these cas- es–82–and fines amount- ing to Rs2.16 lakh in the last two years. Jayesh Radadiya, minister for food, civil supplies & consumer affairs minis- ter, informed the House that the fees levied by the department were taken as settlement fees. found charging prices that were higher than the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on the packing of a number of goods. In all, a total of 691 units were fined a total of Rs16.85 lakh for charging more than the MRP. Ahmedabad ac- counted for the highest Manish Par- 50% drop in foreign tourists First India News sav in 2018. This num- ber fell to 4,457 in 2019. In 2018, domestic tour- ists were 5,08,358; this figure fell to 4,33,668 in 2019. In 2018, the Kutch Rann Utsav netted the state government Rs2.9 crore in revenue, a fig- ure that fell to Rs2.1 crore the next year. The numbers imply that tourists are not buying the tagline, ‘Kuchh to Din Gujaro Gujarat Me’. Moreover, the domestic tourist flow has also re- duced by 1.25 lakh, meaning revenue too has declined by Rs80 lakh, said tourism min- ister Jawahar Chavda while answering question raised by Con- gress MLA Shailesh Parmar during the As- sembly session on Fri- day . According to data shared in the House, 8,186 foreign tourists had attended Rann Ut- Gandhinagar: state government has spent hundreds crore rupees on adver- tising to draw tourists to Gujarat, and espe- cially Rann Utsav. How- ever, ‘Khusboo Gujarat Ki’ seems to be losing its shine. The number of foreign visitors to the Rann Utsav in Kutch has fallen by half over the past two years. The of a FROM PG 1 MP Guv... Govind Singh Rajput’s Transport department has gone to Brijendra Singh Rathore and trea- sury department has been given to Jitu Pat- wari. School education department, handled by Prabhuram Choudhary , has gone to Kamleshwar Patel. Ma- hendra Singh Sisodia’s Labour department will not be taken over by Sukhdev Health department will be taken over by Tulsi Silawat. Meanwhile, leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan and newly-in- ducted Jyotiraditya Scindia also met with the governor. As per the sources, the BJP lead- ers told the governor that the Kamal Nath government was in mi- nority and sought a floor test. Congress MLAs be- ing held hostage by BJP , says Kamal Nath in a letter to MP Governor Earlier in the day , Chief Minister Kamal Nath met Governor Lalji Tandon and ac- cused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging “horse-trading” of Con- gress MLAs to unseat the state’s Congress government. have a soft corner for Amin and could bail him out. Again like in 2017, if Amin loses it will be more his loss than that of the BJP. But if he wins, it will remain to be seen who cross-vot- ed from the Congress and which camp they belong to. In such a scenario, if Bharatsinh Solanki loses the election it will be a big blow to not only his career but also that of his cousin and GPCC President Amit Chavda. Similar- ly, if Shaktisinh Gohil loses it will also have a rub-off effect on his mentor Ahmed Patel’s image. earlier Panse. in BJP Much at... But there are a few Congress MLAs who

6. PERSPECTIVE 06 AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia Story is not Jyotiraditya, it is Congress’ existential crisis IN-DEPTH PEOPLE’S HEALTH PREVAILS OVER CRICKET MANIA fter days of speculation on will BCCI, or will it not, postpone the 13th edition of Indian Premier League over Covid-19 fears, it has been finally decided to reschedule the cricketing extravaganza. Instead of March 29, it will now be played from April 15 provid- ed the novel Coronavirus dies out or is con- tained. The first match was due to be played at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium. The Board for Control of Cricket in India had earlier said that postponement was not on the cards. Considering that public health is more important, postponement is definitely a better option than the league being played to empty stands as has been planned for the India-South Africa one-day matches at Lucknow and Kolkata, or without foreign players. Sans spectators the franchises would have lost a huge amount of gate money, the chances of which were high as Delhi govern- ment restricted the maximum number of spec- tators at a sporting event to 200, Maharashtra government banned the sale of IPL tickets and Karnataka also thinking of doing the same. With a host of foreign cricketers play- ing for different franchises, IPL without them would have been lackluster and re- duced to the level of Ranji Trophy match- es. With the Ministry of External Affairs rejecting Australian player David Warner’s visa application and the government’s visa ban on several countries already in place, in- dications were that many foreign players’ participation would be in doubt. “The BCCI is concerned and sensitive about all its stake-holders and public health in general and it is taking all neces- sary steps to ensure that all people related to IPL including fans have a safe cricketing experience,” the BCCI said in a statement. The IPL is not the only sporting event to have been rescheduled in view of health haz- ards posed by the Coronavirus which has made people paranoid despite the World Health Organisation’s appeal for calm and precautions. India Open Badminton from March 24-29 and India Super League final on March 14 will be played in empty sta- dia. Organisers have already started the process of refunding ticket money. Globally also various sporting events have been disrupted by the virus. America’s National Basketball Association suspended games until further notice after a player tested positive, soc- cer world cup qualifiers in Brazil and English Premier League matches have been postponed. The biggest of them all, the 2020 Olym- pics, is also under a cloud. The Olympic flame was lit in Greece amidst lockdown and if the dreaded virus continues to spread Tokyo may have to take a call on whether to postpone the event or keep spectators out of the venue incurring heavy losses. If that happens, Covid-19 would come to be described as the biggest disrupter of normal life in recent memory . RK MISRA A The author is a veteran journalist T here is this tale about the wise man and the fool. The wise man does at once what the fool does finally, said Niccolo Machiavel- li, the father of modern politi- cal philosophy and science. Whether Jyotiraditya Scind- ia is the wise man and Congress a fool is best left for posterity to decipher but current facts bode a different political script. This is not about Jyotira- ditya Scindia who took 18 benefit-filled years to realise that the grass on the BJP side was greener. Nor is it about the fall of Kamal Nath- led Congress government or the consequential rise of a possible BJP equivalent in Madhya Pradesh. Again, it is also not about the political en- gineering genius of Prime Min- ister Narendra Modi and his party chief turned home min- ister Amit Shah. This is about the Indian National Congress. In a canvass that spans centu- ries many ‘Jyotis’ lighted up and extinguished. Even father Madhavrao left Congress and returned to the fold for explora- tion is the birthright of humans so this too. The list is long. The fact is that the Jan Sangh- BJP-like most other parties - is born out of the Congress gene pool, Shyama Mukherjee and all. But the rise of the Narendra Modi -Amit Shah led BJP to na- tional domination -2014 seeks a one point RSS agenda. Congress must die for the extreme right to build a new national narrative. If it involves denuding the Con- gress of its bark and branch- es so be it. Jyotiraditya is one of many , poached nationwide as part of this strategy . Congress, in whatever form it may be, is central to India. It is the liberal-centrist forma- tion that must lock horns with the rightist BJP. It can bank on the emerging left for grudging support even as regional forces prevaricate. These may be the NCP-Shiv Sena in Maharash- tra or the JMM in Jharkhand who has chosen to go along with the Congress. But if it off, every time there was a set- back, she came riding back to power after decimating her op- ponents with a youthful team. The loss of power in 2014 was a classic opportunity for the Congress to rebuild its organi- zation. Rahul’s earnestness paid dividends in Gujarat Assembly elections in 2017 when the Congress scared the daylights out of the rul- ing BJP bringing it’s tally down to less than 100 in a 182 member house but the advantage was subsequently frittered away after Rahul relinquished charge. Decisive youth-led leadership is the need of the hour for Con- gress. It is still not too late to rebuild the party from scratch, whatever time it takes, more in keeping with the aspirations of a young India. Take a leaf out of Indira Gandhi’s political book and get to work. It can’t get any worse, so no harm in clear- ing all the old obstructions and going back to the drawing board with a new team to fashion a new party . If you don’t, you per- ish. India needs a strong and vibrant Congress with its old value system as a counterfoil to the BJP . And for those who left- and there were many- they are best forgotten. Those who go out journeying on an ass, cannot come back riding a horse! perse all Rahul Gandhi favour- ites. This same model played out in other states of the country . Jyotiraditya is just one example. Modi is a clear-headed, calculating foe. He wants and works to take the Con- gress apart brick by brick. And India’s sole stakeholder of the independence struggle is steadily sinking into a Modi muddied quagmire, yet reluc- tant to even raise its head and even look around. Congress needs to go no further than Indira Gandhi in lessons of revitalizing their party. In fact, Rahul began in right earnest, when he started rebuilding the moribund youth congress through membership drives and grassroots elections. The impact was clearly visible but the experiment fell by the wayside when the old guard by- passed the youth in ticket allot- ment during the ensuing lok sabha elections. This was unlike Indira Gan- dhi. Her leadership was deci- sive. On numerous occasions, Indira walked straight into for- midable resistance by the old guards led by the likes of Morarji Desai, Nijalingappa, Atulya Ghosh( the Congresso or Syndicate Congress) as it came to be known. Every time she took on the old guard, she created a new team. Written fails in this task the Con- gress will be wiped out. The Congress, seems lost in the political woods. It is teetering on the brink because of its prolonged indecisiveness caused by differ- ences. Not within the party but within the Nehru-Gandhi fam- ily . An electoral debacle in 2019 saw Rahul Gandhi quit as party chief but sister Priyanka seen as a successor kept playing wing-side but avoided centre- play , creating confusion, the ag- ing, and not-to-well Sonia Gan- dhi took charge only to accentu- ate the slide. Why? There is a tussle going the Congress between the old guards who want to safe- guard their citadels and the young who would like to forge a new path and take on the Modi establishment head-on. The day Rahul quit, this young guard was orphaned and the oldies ensured a clear playing field for their ilk- Kamal Nath in MP and Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan to the detriment of Jyotiraditya and Sachin Pilot. As in individuals so in po- litical parties age must give way to youth but the old guard surrounding Sonia Gandhi is a coterie out to scuttle what she most wants - a place for Rahul under the sun. This coterie has worked overtime to disband, even dis- however, on within post Congress, however, seems lost in the political woods. It is teetering on the brink because of its prolonged indecisiveness caused by differences. Not within the party but within the Nehru-Gandhi family Will Corona break the financial market’s Hubris? A thanks to the duration sensitivity of bond prices, as long as they treat bonds as a short-term upside play. Meanwhile, Trump administration has had three months’ notice to order tens of millions of test kits, educate the public and put mechanisms place to address the in- evitable spread of COV- ID-19 on shores. Since the out- break began in China in December last year, the Trump administration has mostly just sat on its hands in collective denial. This would be unforgiv- able in most other coun- tries and would cause ex- isting governments to col- lapse. In America, it mere- ly serves to enhance the political divide. FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO WWW.FAIROBSERVER.COM ue to tell their clients to hold their portfolios in place and ride the roller coaster down, beating the drum to continue invest- ing in stocks that have a long way to go before they hit bottom. Greed and hubris are alive and well as the investment industry proves, yet again, that learned nothing from the Great Recession or the series of other glob- al financial catastro- phes that took place in the 20th century. The trajectory toward negative interest rates merely inspires the in- vestment community to identify new ways to keep the plates spinning. For fast money traders, nega- tive interest rates will be another sure-fire winner. They can make a lot on money in a negative inter- est rate environment merica been living on hubris and bor- rowed mired in an has Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen or Powell “put.” In short, their actions have comprised the belief that the Fed will come to the rescue during times of extreme market stress. For stock traders, the trope has been: No need to worry, the Fed will al- ways be there to take the buck, so load up on risk because there is a floor to any downside. More to the point, the Fed will keep the bull market in stocks on its perpetual and seem- ingly never-ending upward trajectory . time, the orgy of debt, delusion and dogma. Its stock traders have, for a decade now, cho- sen to believe that events which ordinarily would have resulted in losses are in fact causes for celebra- tion in a marketplace that has defied logic and gravi- ty . The optical illusion is in the process of ending. Along the way, underly- ing totems of bullish faith have kept the party rolling. These include the assump- tion that the Federal Re- serve will always do what it takes to alleviate pro- found market stress by cut- ting interest rates and, in the post-Great Recession years, providing mone- tary stimulus by means of quantitative easing, referred to as either the in it has America’s icans up-side the head with a two-by-four. As the world’s financial ba- rometer, will even that be enough to inspire America’s market-mak- ing stock traders and algorithms to change their ways? As the global stock mar- kets now endure their in- evitable fall from grace, irresponsible and amoral money managers contin- THE FED WILL KEEP THE BULL MARKET IN STOCKS ON ITS PERPETUAL AND SEEMINGLY NEVER-ENDING UPWARD TRAJECTORY TOP TWEET Shashi Tharoor @ShashiTharoor Welcome the belated release of Dr Farooq Abdullah. I hope he will soon resume his rightful place on the front bench of the Lok Sabha, where he can address with his usual compelling vigour the issues facing his state & the state of the nation. His detention was a disgrace. FALL FROM GRACE Nothing could interrupt the perpetual bull market, stock investors apparent- ly believed, until a conflu- ence of events — a global pandemic, an oil price war, a delusional presi- dent and idiocy run amok combined to smack Amer- G Vol 1 G Issue No. 107 GRNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, Resident Editor : Darshan Desai, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

7. INDIA AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 07 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia BJP-CONG CLASH AT BHOPAL AIRPORT Twenty two MLAs resigned from Congress soon after Scindia quit the party. Out of these, 19 were in Bengaluru MP POLITICS DRAMA ‘MP govt stable, nothing to worry’ Bhopal: Just days af- ter 22 MLAs resigned pushing Congress gov- ernment into crisis, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Friday confidently stated that his govern- ment is "stable" and there is nothing to "worry" about. The statement from the CM came just hours after meeting Gover- nor Lalji Tandon. Nath also accused BJP of horse-trading. "I have told the Governor how MLAs are being kept in captivity in Bengaluru and how their resigna- tions are being given to Speaker by a BJP lead- Congress wants MLAs’s resignations rejected Bhopal: BJP and Con- gress MLAs gathered at Raja Bhoj airport on Friday after they got to know that MLAs sup- porting Jyotiraditya Scindia were returning from Bengaluru. MLAs of both the parties shouted slogans and even a scrimmage was reported. Twenty two MLAs re- signed from Congress soon after Scindia quit the party. Out of these, 19 were in Bengaluru. The resignation letters of all the MLAs were submitted to Assembly speaker N.P. Prajapati by a BJP delegation. Thirteen of these MLAs were returning to Bhopal after Praja- pati asked them to re- port. Ministers Tulsi Silawat, Govind Singh Rajput, Prabhuram Choudhry, Imarti Devi, Pradyumna Tomar and Mahendra Singh Sisodia along with MLAs Hardeep Singh Dang, Rajyavard- han Singh, Brajendra Singh Yadav, Jaspal Jajji, Suresh Dhakad, Jaswant Jatav, Santram Sironia, Munnalal Goy- al, Ranveer Singh Jatav, OPS Bhadoria, Kam- lesh Jatav, Giriraj Dan- dotiya, Kansana, Aidalsingh Kansana, Singh and Chaudhary have quit after Scindia resigned. ‘No ‘brain drain’, young leaders will be given positions’ Madhya Bhopal: Pradesh Parliamenta- ry Affairs Minister Govind Singh handed a letter to the Speaker requesting him not to accept the resignations of the MLAs for now. There was also a suggestion that the Budget ses- sion be deferred in view of the threat of coronavirus. The Chhattisgarh as- sembly session has al- ready been deferred till March 23. There have been no positive cases of the virus in Madhya Pradesh so far. —Agencies MP EOW reopens forgery case against Jyotiraditya Scindia has er. This is a joke. This is a conspiracy by BJP. My government is sta- ble and there is nothing to worry out," he said. When asked to com- ment on Jyotiraditya Scindia exiting Con- gress and joining the rival BJP, he said, " Only he can say why he has gone." —Agencies Of the 22 rebel MLAs, 19 lawmakers, including half a dozen ministers, had e-mailed their resignation letters to Governor Lalji Tandon. MP Cong MLAs to reach Bhopal SEC 144 IMPOSED Singh reach here," a Scindia loyalist told the media reporters. In view of their ex- pected arrival, security at the Bhopal airport has been beefed up. The ruling Congress has alleged that 19 of the rebel MLAs, including minis- ters, have been held "captive" by the BJP in a resort in Bengaluru, a charge denied by the op- position party . —Agencies ers - resigned from the assembly earlier this week, pushing Nath government in major crisis. Of the 22 rebel MLAs, 19 lawmakers, includ- ing half a dozen minis- ters, had e-mailed their resignation letters to Governor Lalji Tandon. "Most of the 19 MLAs have left Bengaluru where they were stay- ing. They will travel by air and are expected to ‘Markets being closely overseen’ Bhopal: Most of the 19 rebel Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, including six ministers, who have been camping in Bengaluru, are ex- pected to reach Bhopal on Friday evening, par- ty sources said. After former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the Con- gress, 22 party MLAs, including six minis- ters - most of them said to be his support- ing a property docu- ment while selling land. Scindia has been ac- cused of falsifying a property while selling land worth 10,000 crores. The Madhya Pradesh EOW has started an in- vestigation. On Wednes- day, Scindia joined BJP in New Delhi in the presence of party Presi- dent Nadda. —Agencies the left the grand old party and joined the BJP on Wednesday . The Madhya Pradesh Economic Wing (EOW) has decid- ed to begin the inquiry afresh by re-verifica- tion of facts in a com- plaint against former Union Minister Jyotira- ditya Scindia and his family, in which they are accused of falsify- ICICI Bank to invest `1kcr in Yes Bank via equity route Bhopal: Hours after Jy- otiraditya joined Bharatiya Jana- ta Party (BJP), the Mad- hya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) re-opened a six-year-old forgery case against him. The development came after Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was a vet- eran of the Congress for almost 2 decades, Scindia document Offences Congress Raghuraj Biasahulal Manoj As coronavirus-led recession fears trig- gered panic selling globally, both Sensex and Nifty over 10 per cent in the opening session, hit- ting their circuit levels. Stock halted trading for 45 minutes. Normal trad- ing resumed at around 1030 hours.The last cir- cuit freeze happened in January 2008. On coronavirus, the finance minister said the Centre is in touch with the states and has been continuously mon- itoring the situation. It has been made sure that effective time- ly steps are taken to safeguard Indian inter- ests and also to ensure that Indians who trav- elled abroad are tested and monitored, she said. Where necessary and wherever possible, they are being brought back to the country, she added. —Agencies New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Si- tharaman on Friday said the government as well as the RBI are "closely monitoring" the domestic and global stock markets, which are facing intense vola- tility amid mounting coronavirus fears. Sitharaman also said different departments of the government are working to provide re- lief to industry, which could be severely im- pacted by the fast- spreading virus. "As it is global mar- kets have all had severe volatility and we are also consciously moni- toring all of them. It is no consolation to say that the stock markets elsewhere have also suffered. I am con- scious of that but glob- ally there is a serious repercussion felt and we are conscious of the developments. Togeth- er with RBI we are closely monitoring," plunged New Delhi: Days after senior Congress lead- er Jyotiraditya Scind- ia joined the BJP, his former party on Fri- day insisted that there no “brain drain” in the party and young leaders will be “at- tended to” and given responsible positions going forward. “I do not think that there is any brain drain happening in the Congress party as Ra- hul Gandhi himself answered vis-a- vis Jy- otiraditya Scindia yes- terday,” said at a party press conference. “Even if a person leaves the Congress party, we are all deeply hurt. However, Jyotira- ditya ji or any other person needs to think whether their core ide- ology is far more im- portant than the tempo- New Delhi: The board of ICICI Bank on Fri- day approved an in- vestment of Rs 1,000 crore in Yes Bank via equity route. ICICI Bank will acquire 100 crore equity shares of Yes Bank at Rs 10 per share, including a pre- mium of Rs 8 per share. “This investment is likely to result in ICICI Bank holding in excess of 5 per cent sharehold- ing in Yes Bank, with the final shareholding to be determined based on the final Scheme of Reconstruction share issuance thereun- der,” ICICI Bank said. The announcement came as the Union Cab- inet approved Bank’s restructuring scheme to safeguard de- positors’ interest and ensure a stable finan- cial banking system. A day earlier, SBI had SBI’S INVESTMENT lower exchanges Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a PI. FM SPEAK announced an invest- ment of Rs 7,250 crore in Yes Bank through the acquisition of 725 crore shares at Rs 10 each. SBI’s shareholding in Yes Bank after recon- struction will be within the 49 per cent limit, it said in a statement. RBI had announced a draft scheme of recon- struction for the coun- try’s fourth-largest lender. The has imposed a month-long moratori- um on the bank and re- stricted withdrawals to Rs 50,000 per depositor till April 3. —Agencies Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. rary allure of a post and a position in pow- er,” he said. Asked about a possi- ble “brain drain” in the party Mr Surjewala said, “The younger lot or the younger leaders whom you are referring to have more than ade- quate place in the party . They will be attended to and given responsible positions. Some of them have already been given so during Rajya Sabha elections.” —Agencies Surjewala and Indian markets saw their biggest intra-day selloff in early session on Friday, wiping off nearly Rs 12 lakh crore of investor wealth in less than 20 minutes of opening trade. she told reporters. After being battered in the early session, the BSE Sensex spurt- ed 1,325.34 points and the NSE Nifty rose 365.05 points to end in the green. Yes ORDINANCE FOR RECOVERY OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES PASSED Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Friday approved “UP Recovery of damage to public properties Ordi- nance-2020” for recovery of losses due to damage to government and private properties during political processions. The decision in this regard was taken by a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister DELHI ASSEMBLY PASSES RESOLUTION AGAINST NCR, NPR New Delhi: The Delhi Assembly passed a resolution against NPR and NRC on Friday. The resolution “earnestly” appealed to the Centre to withdraw and not carry out the whole exercise of NRC and NPR “in the interest of the nation, particularly when the economy is witnessing the worst-ever downslide VISTARA IMPOSES TRAVEL BAN ON KUNAL KAMRA Mumbai: Full service carrier Vistara said it has barred stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra from tak- ing its fl ights till April 27. The decision has been taken after Kamra was found “guilty” for alleged misbehaviour by an internal committee of IndiGo. “Based on the order passed by an internal com- mittee constituted by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd in compliance with the respective CAR and follow- ing due process, we have placed the passenger on our no-fl y list until April 27, 2020,” a Vistara spokesperson said in a statement. NCAP ENVISAGES CITY- SPECIFIC PLANS: JAVADEKAR New Delhi: The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is meant to ensure that the problem of pollution is addressed at the local level and cities have been asked to prepare plans to deal with the issue, Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar said. Javadekar said NCAP envisag- es drawing city-specifi c plans. “Every city has different pollutants and the sources also vary,” Javadekar said. Replying to another question, he said water bodies in the country are polluted because 70 per cent of sewage goes untreated. Yogi Adityanath on Friday evening. “The cabinet has approved UP Recovery of damage to public prop- erties Ordinance-2020 for recovery of losses of government and private properties during polit- ical processions, illegal agitations,” UP Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna told reporters after the cabinet meeting. and unemployment is witnessing a terrifying growth, and with the threat of the corona pandemic looming large”. It also said “should the Government of India in- sist on going ahead” with the exercise, it should be restricted to carrying out the NPR only with its 2010 format and no new fi elds added to it.

8. INDIA AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 08 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia POWERGallery IN THE COURTYARD Nirbhaya convict moves HC over rejected mercy plea Hussain’s brother sent to judicial custody for 14 days DIPLOMATIC RESHUFFLE ON CARDS Whispers are that a key diplomatic reshuffl e is on cards in the next six months with new heads of missions to be appointed in atleast 7 missions. SINGH FOR CHAIRPERSON, SAIL? A K Singh, Executive Director, SAIL, is whispered to be in the race for the post of Chairperson, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) falling vacant on January 1, 2021. New Delhi: A Delhi court sent suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain’s brother, Shah Alam, and three others to judicial custody for 14 days for the violence in New Delhi’s north- east area. Besides Alam, Chief Metropolitan trate Pawan Singh Ra- jawat sent Abid, Rashid and Shadab to the cus- tody till March 27. Hussain’s and others were arrest- ed by Crime Branch of on March 9. “Alam was merely ar- rested because Tahir is his brother. There is no evidence against him,” advocate Sarfaraz Asif, who is representing the four accused, told IANS. Tahir Hussain is in the eye of a major con- troversy for his alleged involvement in the re- cent violence in Delhi’’s northeast area. New Delhi: One of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Vinay Sharma ap- proached claiming that there were procedural lapses and “constitutional ir- regularities” in rejec- tion of his mercy plea by President. The petition on Shar- ma’s behalf was moved by his lawyer A P Singh who said the matter has been filed. The plea claims that recommendation sent to the President to reject the mercy plea did not contain the signature of Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain. Vinay’s mercy plea was rejected on February 1. Accord- ing to the petition, when the issue was raised be- fore SC, the Centre had Parliament passes Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill 2020 COURT SENTENCES SENGAR, 6 OTHERS TO 10-YEAR JAIL New Delhi: Tis Hazari Court on Friday sentenced expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and six others to 10 years imprisonment for the death of Unnao rape survivor’s father. Sengar is already serving life imprisonment for raping the minor. District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said, “There can be no denying that rule of law was broken. Sengar was a public functionary and had to maintain the rule of law. The way the crime has been committed, it does not call for leniency.” Sengar and his brother Atul has been directed to give 10 lakh compensation to family of the victim for loss of their father. “There are four minor children involved, three girls and one boy. They have also been uprooted from native place,” the judge said. Seven people, including Sengar, his brother and two police personnel, were held guilty for culpable homicide and criminal con- spiracy, earlier this month. The case pertains to the death of rape survivor’s father in custody on April 9, 2018. It was alleged that he was assaulted following a quarrel with some of the accused in the case. He was taken to the police station and then framed for allegedly possessing an illegal fi rearm. He was sent to custodial remand, during which he died. ASTHANA STILL HOLDS ADDL CHARGE Rakesh Asthana, DG, BCAS, will continue holding an additional charge of Director General, Narcot- ics Control Bureau (NCB) till the appointment of a regular incumbent. He is a 1984 batch IPS offi cer of Gujarat cadre. Delhi HC Magis- CEO BHARATHI MAY GET EXTENSION While rumours are still fl oating around that Mrs P V Bharati, MD & CEO of Corporation Bank could be moved to Union Bank of India Board, whispers are that she may be offered an extension as MD & CEO of Corporation Bank beyond March 31, 2020 as a special case as the Bank would be in the midst of the merger with Union Bank of In- dia—the date she is retiring. However, the tenure of extension in not known. brother Convict Vinay Sharma’s mercy plea was rejected on February 1. fore, he could not have exercised the power of Home Minister. “To reject the mercy petition, the powers used are illegal, uncon- stitutional, a miscar- riage of justice and also miscarriage of consti- tutional values of Elec- tion Commission of In- dia,” petition said. contended Jain’s signature was ob- tained on Whatsapp. It further claims when the mercy plea was moved the model code of conduct (MCC) was in force and Jain was only a MLA candi- date at that point of time as polls had been announced and there- that Mr that SETTY AS NOMINEE ON YES BANK? Whispers are that SBI Managing Director C S Setty could be sent to YES Bank as SBI’s Nominee because as DMD with SBI, he was In-charge of Stressed Assets Group and has sizeable experience. WILL RBI MOVE MAHAPATRA TO YES BANK? There is a curious case of Syndicate Bank MD & CEO Mritunjoy Mahapatra whose name was in circulation previously as ‘being moved to RBI’ but whispers are that the RBI may move him as Additional Director in YES Bank. Maharashtra: 7 RS candidates set to be elected unopposed SHIVALLI MAY RETURN TO PARENT CADRE IN APRIL Dr Shivalli M Chauhan presently on deputation as Director in the Expenditure is expected to return to parent cadre in the fi rst week of April. Dr Chau- han is a 1997 batch IDAS offi cer. New Delhi: Parlia- ment on Friday passed Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020 with an aim to settle pend- ing direct tax disputes in the country. The Bill, which will provide taxpayers a lu- crative opportunity to settle direct tax dis- putes within the cur- rent financial year by waiving interest and penalty on their pend- ing taxes, was passed by voice vote and returned by Rajya Sabha as it was a money bill. On March 4, Lok Sab- ha had passed the Vivad se Vishwas Bill with certain amendments. Moving the Bill, Fi- nance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, large number of appeals re- lated to tax disputes are pending at the various level which are putting pressure on the tax pay- ers. She said, this bill has been brought up with the objective to set- tle the tax dispute in an efficient manner. Congress member M V Rajeev Gowda said that bill has been brought up in haste and it provides the op- portunity of one time settlement. He said, unrealistic target of tax collection is putting pressure on the tax payers in the BJP ISSUES WHIP Mumbai: With seven candidates, including two women, in the fray for the seven Rajya Sab- ha seats in Maharash- tra, the stage is set for all getting elected unop- posed, on the last day of filing nominations, on Friday . Among the promi- nent leaders who have filed their nominations are NCP Sharad Pawar, RPI (A) President and Union Minister Ramdas Atha- wale and BJP’s Chhatra- pati Udayan Raje Bho- sale. The others include Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, who had quit the Congress last year, AICC General Sec- retary and Congress leader Rajiv BJP’s Bhagwat Karad and NCP’s Fauzia Khan. On the final day of fil- ing nominations, only seven candidates re- mained the fray, the scrutiny will take place on March 16 and the last date for withdrawals is March 18, paving the way for all the nomi- nees getting elected without a contest. The retiring mem- bers are NCP’s Pawar and Majeed Memon, Congress’ Dalwai, Sena’s Rajku- mar Dhoot, Amar Sable and BJP- SAXENA TO BE POSTED IN IROAF Sudhir Kumar Saxena on his return from depu- tation to RITES is being posted as CAO (Energy Management) at Indian Railway Organization for Alternate Fuels. He is an IRSEE offi cer. SCINDIA IN RACE KUNDU MADE ADDL CS, FISHERIES, Varinder Singh Kundu, Additional Chief Secretary, Printing and Stationery, Haryana has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Fisheries Depart- ment, Govt of Haryana.He is an IAS offi cer of Haryana cadre of 1986 batch. President GULATI MADE ADDL CS, PRINTING & STATIONERY, HARYANA Sunil Kumar Gulati, Chairman , Haryana Minerals Ltd has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Printing and Stationery, Govt of Haryana.He is an IAS offi cer of Haryana cadre of 1984 batch. DA for Central govt workers hiked four per cent DA to Central Government employees and Dear- ness Relief (DR) to pen- sioners with effect from January 1, 2020. This is over the exist- ing rate of 17% of the Basic Pay/Pension. net has approved four per cent hike in dear- ness allowance for central government employees,” I&b Min- ister Javadekar said. The Cabinet proved an increase of The New Union chaired by PM Modi on Friday approved a four per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for central gov- ernment employees. “The Union Cabi- Delhi: Cabinet QAMAR RELIEVED TO JOIN MOSPI Tanweer Qamar Mohammad has been relieved to join as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. He is a 1994 batch offi cer of Indian Postal Service. Satav, supported independ- ent Sanjay Kakade. Both the ruling MVA of Sena-NCP-Congress and Opposition BJP are contesting as per their strength 288-member assembly. The requisite num- ber for a RS seat is 37 votes and with the cur- rent party positions in the state, Sena and Con- gress will get one each, NCP two and the BJP will get three, including Athawale who is sup- ported by the party . Prakash ap- 3 IAS OFFICERS SHIFTED IN MAHA Ranjit Kumar has been posted as Project Direc- tor, Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society, Mumbai, while Mrs Shweta Singhal was posted as Deputy Secretary to the Governor, Rajbhawan, Mumbai and A W Kakade is Managing Director, SARATHI, Pune in Maharashtra. ruary 12. The Vivad se Vishwas Bill aims to resolve 4.83 lakh direct tax cases worth Rs 9.32 lakh crore that are cur- rently locked up in vari- ous appellate forums such as Commissioner (Appeals), Income Tax Appellate High Courts, Supreme Court and Debt Recov- ery Tribunals. said that the Bill will give an option to tax payers for settling dis- putes. She also said that the government would send a circular to states in all languages for pro- viding detailed infor- mation about the bill. First proposed in Un- ion Budget 2020, the Bill was approved by the Union Cabinet on Feb- respective in form of tax terrorism. Replying to the some members raised issues on the bill asking how can the Central Board of Di- rect Taxes issue a cir- cular on the scheme before passage of the bill in Parliament, she said, “There is no breach of privilege.” The Minister also the who had KUMAR RECOMMENDED FOR CEO State Bank of India has recommended Prashant Kumar as new CEO of YES Bank. Tribunal, Hussain RAGHAVENDRA VATSA PROMOTED Raghavendra Vatsa, SP, CBI, has been promoted as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He is a 2005 batch IPS offi cer of Gujarat cadre. BJP’s RAUT PROMOTED AS DIG, CBI Sharda Raut, SP, CBI, has been promoted as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He is a 2005 batch IPS offi cer of Maharashtra cadre. 4G INTERNET WILL BE RESTORED IN J&K TONIGHT: OFFICIALS Srinagar: The J&K Union Territory administration on Friday said the high speed 4G Internet ser- vices would be restored by later in the day evening so that people of the Valley can sit inside their homes, thereby effectively containing the global pandemic COVID-19. Talking to Radio Kashmir government spokesper- NOT CONG, MODI GOVT GAVE TRUE MEANING TO SECULARISM: BJP New Delhi: BJP General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav has said not the Congress, but the Naren- dra Modi government has given a true meaning to the concept of secularism in the country. Taking a dig at Congress in RS, Yadav said: “Congress has always misinterpreted secularism. Congress is trying to become the YOGI TO OVERSEE SHIFTING OF RAM IDOL IN AYODHYA Ayodhya: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Ad- ityanath will participate in the rituals for shifting of the Ram Lalla statue to the new makeshift structure on March 25, which will also mark the beginning of “Navratri’’. The Ram Lalla statue will be shifted to a specially constructed structure in Manas Bhavan to pave the way for the con- struction of the grand Ram temple. According to sources, Adityanath will reach Ayodhya on the evening of March 24 and will offer prayers as soon as the deity is installed in the new structure. MOHD SUVEZ HAQUE PROMOTED Mohd Suvez Haque, SP, CBI, has been promoted as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He is a 2005 batch IPS offi cer of Maharashtra cadre. son Rohit Kansal said the decision was taken in a high level meeting on late on Thursday chaired by Lieutenant Governor GM Murmu in Jammu. “We thought of imposing curfew but that won’t keep people at home in this part of the world. Best is to give them 4G speed internet,” Murmu informed the reporters. champion of secularism by standing with the Shiv Sena and the Muslim League But Narendra Modi’s government has given true meaning to the concept of secularism in the country. Our secu- larism is “Sabka Saath’’ Everybody’’s development and everyone’’s faith. We will move forward with this brand of secularism”. PREM KUMAR GAUTAM PROMOTED Prem Kumar Gautam, SP, CBI, has been promot- ed as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He is a 2005 batch IPS offi cer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

9. SPORTS AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 09 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia in IPL POSTPONED TO APRIL 15 DUE TO CORONA THREAT BRIEF Kane tests negative for COVID-19 Sydney: Australian fast bowler Kane Richard- son was on Friday cleared of coronavirus after his tests returned negative, Cricket Aus- tralia said. The right- arm pacer, who re- turned with the Aus- tralian team from South Africa earlier this week, had informed the medical staff of a sore throat on Thursday and was then sent for a pre- cautionary COVID-19 testing. However, Rich- ardson’s coronavirus test returned negative and he was on his way to the Sydney cricket ground where the first ODI against New Zea- land is taking place. 29, with Mumbai Indi- ans and Chennai Super Kings meeting at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai for the first match. World Health Organi- sation (WHO) Wednesday clared the coronavirus outbreak a ‘pandemic’ and expressed deep con- cern. The coronavirus dis- ease was first detected in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, in late December, since spread worldwide. fears, the cricketing board had mainly two options-- either post- pone IPL or play it be- hind closed doors. The Central govern- ment has suspended all visas to India till April 15 as part of measures to contain the spread of the pandemic. If the board decided to go on with the tournament as planned, then the avail- ability of foreign play- ers would have been in doubt. The 13th edition of IPL was scheduled to commence from March have amidst the coronavirus outbreak. “Sports seminars, conferences, we have decided to shut them. No sports event including IPL would be allowed in Delhi until the next order. Corona- virus is spreading, we have decided to main- tain social distance, IPL is a big event, many peo- ple come from various corners, I would also like to appeal to the peo- ple,” Deputy CM Delhi, Sisodia, told. Amidst coronavirus been banned is taking all necessary steps to ensure that, all people related to IPL in- cluding fans have a safe cricketing experience,” the BCCI said in an of- ficial statement. The board has also assured that it will work in unison with the Sports Ministry and will adhere to the guide- lines issued. Earlier in the day, Delhi’s Deputy Manish Sisodia an- nounced that all sport- ing activities, including the IPL, attracting a large crowd turnout Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday decided to postpone the IPL to April 15, 2020, as a precautionary meas- ure against the ongoing COVID-19 situation. There was specula- tion as to what the board will amidst the ongoing cor- onavirus scare, and fi- nally postponing the tournament came up as the solution. “The BCCI is concerned and sensi- tive about all its stake- holders, and public health in general, and it ‘BWF putting players at risk, taking things too lightly’ activities, on de- had decide CM and has —ANI Man Utd beat LASK in Europa League Paris: Manchester United won 5-0 at LASK Linz behind closed doors in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie, in a competi- tion thrown into chaos as a result of the coro- navirus pandemic. Odi- on Ighalo slammed home the opener via the underside of the bar from 20 yards just be- fore the half-hour, and Daniel James added a second with a sharp run and finish just be- fore the hour mark. Juan Mata bagged a third eight minutes from the end and Mason Greenwood and Andre- as Pereira struck in in- jury time, as United ex- tended their unbeaten run to 11 matches, with nine clean sheets in that time. BWF has continued hosting tournaments around the world despite the coronavirus outbreak that has affected world sports New Delhi: Top shut- tlers from across the world have hit out at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for taking the novel coro- navirus outbreak ‘too lightly’ and putting them at ‘risk’ by going ahead with its interna- tional tournaments. The coronavirus out- break, declared a pan- demic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday, has led to nearly 5000 deaths globally . It has also badly af- fected the sporting cal- ender with events across the world being either postponed or cancelled. International stars, including Olympics bronze med- allist Saina Nehwal, former World No 1 Kid- ambi Srikanth and ex- top 10 players Hans- Kristian Vittinghus, Paruapalli and Jan O Jorgensen expressed their con- cerns and asked the Unadkat fires Saurashtra to maiden Ranji Trophy title Jaydev Unadkat rose to the occasion yet again to script a historic victory Paruapalli Kashyap First India News wickets with Bengal all out for 381, giving Sau- rashtra a 44-run first innings lead. Bengal needed 72 runs with four wickets in hands. In the second in- nings, all Saurashtra had to do was to bat out the remaining time be- fore both captains de- cided to call off the game and shake hands. They eventually did that after Saurashtra sauntered 105 for three in 34 overs. With the win, Sau- rashtra ended their Ranji title while a fighting Bengal will have to wait longer for their first crown since the 1989-90 season. Aus defeat NZ by 71 runs in 1st ODI Sydney: A spirited per- formance guided Aus- tralia to defeat New Zealand by 71 runs in the first ODI at Sydney Cricket Ground here on Friday . Chasing a mod- erate target of 259, the hosts bundled out the Kiwis at 187 in 41 overs. The match was played at an empty stadium as a precautionary meas- ure amidst coronavirus outbreak. Pacer Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh bagged three wickets each while Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa scalped two wickets each. Rajkot: Skipper Jaydev Unadkat on Friday pro- duced a lion-hearted spell when it mattered the most against Ben- gal, leading Saurashtra to their maiden Ranji Trophy triumph a year after stumbling at the last hurdle. The win was achieved on the ba- sis of first-innings lead. Bengal had the upper hand going into day five after Anustup Majum- dar (63) and Arnab Nan- di (40 not out) shared an unbeaten 91-run stand in the final session Thursday . But Unadkat rose to the occasion yet again Kidambi Srikanth BWF to suspend all its upcoming ments. “I honestly don’t get it! We should not be travelling the world playing badminton,” Denmark’s Vittinghus, a former World No. 8, said in a post which he has shared on his social media accounts. He urged the BWF to follow other sporting federations in suspend- ing the events. several tourna- to script a historic vic- tory . The left-arm pacer had the in-form Majum- dar LBW and Akash Deep run out in a space of three balls to turn the game on its head. Unadkat ended as the season’s leading wicket- taker with 67 scalps at a staggering average of 13.23, one short of an all-time record. The morning session yielded 27 runs and four London drought Kashyap Mudit off to flying start at Oman Open Muscat: Indian pad- dler Mudit Dani regis- tered a 4-0 win to begin his campaign on a high note at the 2020 ITTF Challenger Plus Oman Open here on Friday. Mudit Dani looked dominating during his convincing 11-6, 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 victory against Oman’s Asad Alraisi in the men’s singles round-of-64 match. He will now face Portugal’s Marcos Freitas in the round- of-32. Another Indian player Manush Shah also made his way into the round-of-32 with a 4-1 win. Saina Nehwal —PTI India-SA series called off due to COVID-19 New Delhi: The two re- maining ODIs between India and South Africa in Lucknow and Kolka- ta were on Friday called off owing to the COV- ID-19 threat as the coun- try’s sports calendar continued to go haywire because of the global pandemic. “With the Indian Pre- mier League being post- poned, it only made team will come to Delhi the earliest available Guj Super League Table Tennis’s 5 teams announced earlier planned to be held behind doors due to the govern- ment directive, which asked for events to be shut for fans in view of the pan- demic. India has recorded more than 80 positive cases so far with the global infected count standing at over 100,000 patients. sense that at this point of time, this series is also called off. The country is facing a seri- ous pandemic,” a top BCCI official said. The first ODI be- tween the two sides in Dharamsala washed out. Both the sides had reached Luc- know on Friday . “The South African closed sporting was and leave by taking at flight,” he added. The matches were —ANI DESPITE TRUMP’S SUGGESTION TO POSTPONE Ketan Joshi Bhayani Star, Ka- taria Kings, Multi- met Marvels, Shamal Squad and Tapti Ti- gers. The League has official sanction of GSTTA and TTFI and was borne out by the dignitaries on the dais – GSTTA presi- dent Vipul Mittra, GSTTA secretary and TTFI v i c e - p r e s i d e n t Haresh GSTTA Amit Choksi, GSTTA selector Pathik Me- hta and chairman committee Sangtani. Japan says Tokyo Olympics 2020 stays on track Ahmedabad: Table Tennis in Gujarat en- tered a new para- digm when Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) launched it’s GSL on Friday at Mahatma Gandhi Labour Insti- tute Ahmedabad. GSTTA president Vi- pul Mittra, IAS an- nounced franchises, date and venue of GSL Season 1. The Season 1 will be a four-day event scheduled in Surat in May will feature five teams. The teams are ernment Naoki Okada said. “The prime minister said firmly that he wanted to win the battle with cor- onavirus and make this summer’s Olympics a success,” Okada told a media briefing follow- ing the phone talks. “President Trump said he thought highly of the effort.” The two leaders did not talk about travel re- strictions between Ja- pan and the US, Okada said. spokesman Suga told reporters. Trump said on Thurs- day that officials should consider delaying the Games for a year amid the coronavirus pan- demic, saying the sum- mer event would not be the same without spec- tators. In a Friday phone call between Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, the two leaders did not discuss postponing the Tokyo Games or holding them without spectators, senior gov- Tokyo: Japan is on track to hold the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as planned, top govern- ment spokesman Yoshi- hide Suga said on Fri- day, after US President Donald Trump suggest- ed a possible delay of a year. “I am aware of Presi- dent Trump’s ments, but we are work- ing closely with the IOC, the organising committee, and Tokyo in preparing for the Games as planned,” honorary Sangtani, treasurer com- GSTTA media Kushal —Agencies

10. Have your own peaceful place! It doesn’t have to be a concrete physical place, it can be your parents photo, a chant or a memory which stabilises you. —Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India 2ND FRONT 10 AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia ‘HELPLESS’ RAHUL FAILS TO PLAY GODFATHER TO SCINDIA body. This followed an uneasy relationship be- tween a sitting CM and a CM contender! Realis- ing that becoming CM was still a distant dream, Scindia pitched in for the post of MPP- CC chief citing ‘One Person, One post’ as Ka- malnath was holding both CM and PCC posts. But he was refused and this again was a setback for Scindia. Meanwhile whenever he visited his traditional constituen- cies like Guna, Bhind & Gwalior there wasn’t any welcoming sponse from the minis- ters or the govt officials nor did he have a say in political appointments. All this led to sense of humiliation, sense of defeat and finally sense of revenge against Ka- malnath and Digvijay. Matters reached a cre- scendo when he was re- fused first preference candidature for Rajya Sabha by Kamalnath and Digvijay. Result was Scindia meeting Amit Shah. Initially Modi and Shah were re- luctant considering his history of hardcore loy- alty to Congress and closeness to Rahul. But ultimately the duo was convinced with Shivraj Chohan, Mishra and Kailash Vi- jayvargiya in loop. Scin- dia gave them a list of 22 MLAs supporting him with additional five from other parties to make his case strong- er because all he want- ed was downfall of Ka- malnath govt and his supporters in power in the state. Both Scindia and Pilot loyalists claim that certain promises made by high command remained unfulfilled. It is high time Rahul should come forward and clarify the story . zJyotiraditya Scind- ia, who was close to Gandhi family and particularly to Rahul himself, has surprised everybody by his res- ignation. Why did he take this extreme step after 18 years of loy- alty to the family and the party. What’s the ‘inside story’ of this ‘political drama’? Jagdeesh Chandra: The entire crisis is very unfortunate for both Congress as well as the Indian democracy. The inside story of this cri- sis has three aspects. First Kamalnath has become victim of 20 year old political rival- ry between Scindia and Digvijai Singh. Second this is the outcome of Scindia’s political re- venge and third it is the fallout of broken prom- ises made to Scindia by the Congress High Com- mand. All this started with announcement of Assembly polls in Mad- hya Pradesh and Ra- jasthan. Both Scindia in MP and Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan were close to Rahul Gandhi, the then party President. Both either assumed or were made to believe that even they stand a chance to become Chief Ministers of their re- spective states. Nobody bothered to clear the air on this important issue then and there and therefore it persisted. Speaking about MP, in particular, Scindia had demanded a CM face for MP polls. This was re- fused by High Com- mand. When ticket dis- tribution for MP was being done, Scindia saw himself being sidelined and he called up Rahul and informed of the situation. Rahul, in his distinct style, told him to not worry as he him- self would take final ‘Kamal Nath a victim of Scindia-Digvijay rivalry’ re- Jagdeesh Chandra taking questions from Divya, Aditi, Shweta, Megha, Deepa, Sushma, Khushbu, Mahesh during The New JC Show. —PHOTO BY MUKESH KIRADOO zHow do you see the future of Congress? Will RaGa take the party’s reign in April and why isn’t there a normal dialogue be- tween him and party leaders & workers? A senior Congress lead- er confided in me and said that Congress was in a grave situation. He also philosophically called the Gandhi fam- ily both an asset and a liability. Now, it is high time that Sonia Gandhi takes a decision on Ra- hul Gandhi in clear terms, where he isn’t a reluctant bride, but a 24x7 politician who is much more organised than he is at present. RaGa, Sonia and Pri- yanka should decide in no uncertain terms about who will lead the party from a particular date, for the new presi- dent will have to take member that in politics when somebody falls from his stature than there is no limit to the fall so that might have been the case with Scin- dia. RaGa will be the best person to answer this question. Coordination between these two is among one of the biggest challeng- es in Indian politics to- day, specifically for Congress. Pande’s job was like scaling Mt Ev- erest and he excelled by reaching just below the peak. Now, it is up Ge- hlot and Pilot to cover the remaining the dis- tance. Although, very often, Pande is said to be supporting Gehlot, but what I feel is that he doesn’t take Gehlot as a person or a simple par- ty leader. He himself told me how he was lis- tening to speeches on issues like water conservation, women empowerment and weaker sections of the society around ten years ago. Pande told me that he found profound vision and message in his speeches and so I can Editor-In-Chief of First India, Jagdeesh Chandra, in The New JC Show, gives a perfect analysis of current political scene unfolding in Madhya Pradesh, which is sure to have far reaching repercussions on the political scene as a whole. Narottam zSo, Scindia’s friends and members of so called ‘Rahul Brigade’ like Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasad, RPN Singh and Kuldeep Vishnoi follow suite? Well, the likes of Jyoti- raditya and Milind have been considering their options for a while now. Two months ago Scind- ia is said to have dis- cussed the issue of switching sides in pres- ence of Milind and BJP’s Zafar Islam. It is said that a deal, final- ised by late Arun Jait- ley , was almost final but Scindia episode? CM Ashok Gehlot is leader of stature in Congress and whatever he said on Scindia’s exit, he was speaking his heart out which was pained due to dirty politics. I support his statement in totto. zHow do you per- ceive Scindia’s future in BJP? Right now everything numbers and maybe he could not gather the courage or have inten- tion to take such a step. Now there seems no possibility of destabilis- ing Gehlot led govt with 120 MLAs firmly be- hind. had MP in mind and then this Scindia op- portunity came along whom Shivraj termed as Vibhishan, in myth- ological context, in a good spirit. national Gehlot zWhat would be the side effect of Scindia episode on Rajasthan considering similari- ties between the two? One major similarity between the two is that made zDo you think Rahul, at any stage, promised Scindia and Pilot the post of CM in their respec- call on the tickets. This style of pacification has put many at political loss both in MP and Ra- jasthan, as ultimately Sonia Congress pre- vailed over Rahul Con- gress as she along with her followers of old guard held 90% of the party leadership. Thus Scindia was ignored and he apprise RaGa of the same but he reas- sured him of his com- mand. So, Scindia still feeling empowered be- haved like one in MP politics. When he put up his CM candidature af- ter poll results, he was offered the post of Dep- uty CM, on the lines of Rajasthan, as Kamal- nath being PCC chief was the natural con- tender very much on the lines of Punjab and Chattisgarh. Scindia, who is called Maharaj fondly by his followers, refused to be the second in command to any- zIt alleged in Con- gress circles that in spite of seeking ap- pointment, time and again both Sonia and Rahul did not give time to Scindia. How much of this is true? Although Rahul has clarified on record that Scindia was close to him and had access to him at any hour but considering RaGa’s in- teraction and accessi- bility with party lead- ers it might be true by and large. Recently a senior Congressman quoted RaGa from an interview where he said that he hasn’t given time to Haryana PCC chief Sailja Kumari for last four months. Com- pare this with leaders like Sonia & Indira Gan- dhi who were accessi- ble. Indira is said to have met party leaders even during meetings with foreign delega- tions. One should re- tive states? While I interacted with both the camps during election campaigning, my personal observa- tion was that nobody can go public with such a blatant lie, so I believe there must have been some sort of signalling from the High Com- mand to camps, which is now be- ing construed as com- munication gap. May be it was done to unite the party for the elections but we will have to wait for RaGa himself to come forward and clear the air by either reject- ing the claim or accept- ing that he did commit but could not fulfill due some exigency at that time. say that he considers Gehlot a synonym of Congress ideology. All said and done Pande has done his best and despite attempts to re- place him he is still there alive, kicking and performing. forward his agenda with majority party fol- lowing him including both the old guard and the youth. Above all, party high command should take lesson from the new emerging trend of ‘No High Command Politics’ as was evident in Haryana, Maharash- tra and Jharkhand. Gandhis didn’t campaign under a strategy while Modi- Shah couldn’t deliver. Regional aspiration are reacting differently on local and national is- sues. So considering this combination of challenges, the Con- gress party is going through a severe crisis irrespective of the fact whether it is in power or not. Congress has not even been able to act as a responsible Op- position. See the repeat of The New JC Show at 4.25 pm on Saturday. didn’t materialise in the event of his death. But the case of Pilot is to- tally different as he stands to gain margin- ally from Scindia epi- sode. Firstly the at- tempts to replace him as PCC chief will subside at least for coming months and secondly now he might have more formidable say in up- coming political ap- pointments and Cabinet reshuffle in state. But Neeraj Dangi’s candida- ture for RS berth from Rajasthan could nullify this gain theory for Pi- lot. As this signifies the high command favour- ing maintenance of ‘sta- tus quo’. But one can be sure of Pilot not leaving Congress irrespective of whether he remains PCC chief/Deputy CM or not. both are disappointed in RaGa. Both allege unful- filled promises. Scindia converted his despair into revenge and Pilot camp will contest my analysis but one gets a fair idea by watching the whole around. Further, Gehlot camp, from day one, has refuted any such prom- ises made. Scindia’s meeting with Pilot just before leaving the party had speculations that Pilot might have been acting as Sonia’s emis- sary to dissuade Scindia but I think that was sim- ply old and like-minded friends getting together. Pilot is far more politi- cally mature to take step like this especially so when he is firmly saddled as Deputy CM and PCC chief. There were rumours of BJP offering him CM chair while this govt was still in making but then Pilot didn’t have the required is hunky dory. Soon Scindia will be Central minister with impor- tant portfolio like pow- er, railway or com- merce. BJP too is all set to come to power in MP so as of now everything seems picture perfect in near future. scenario zAfter whatever transpired in MP , Karnataka and Goa what according to you is the future of democracy in India? Democracy has a bleak future if malpractices like mass horse trading are made a routine. The motto of forming gov- ernments at maximum possible places brought ideological dif- ferences in the BJP it- self. Some want the party to follow the old traditions of the party based on RSS values but this is unfortunate cur- rent trend which should be discouraged to maxi- mum extent possible. zWhy has the fall of Kamalnath govt be- came a prestige issue for Amit Shah and Scindia? Congress v/s BJP has been there for a good time now but someone told me that Amit Shah was particularly miffed at the whole fight being turned into Shah v/s Kamalnath. In today’s scenario it is almost impossible for any CM to confront Amit Shah and come out victorious. Second- ly, Shah had the feed- back that MP was main source of Congress po- litical funding so he both the virtually has zAvinash Pande has been trusted with co- ordination between Gehlot and Pilot. How do you rate his performance? zHow do you see re- action given by CM Ashok Gehlot on

11. www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 11 AHMEDABAD, SATURDAY MARCH 14, 2020 For me, sex is not just about physicality; there are emo- tions involved. I have never cheated or strayed when I’m in a relationship. If I’m going to be fooling around, why would I be in a relationship? It’s better to be single and have fun. But not everyone thinks like that. BE STEADY DO NOT STRAY D why I’ve been hurt in the past. I was foolish enough to give him a second chance because he begged and pleaded, despite the fact that everyone around me said he was still straying.” The actress said infidelity is a deal breaker for her. “The first time he cheated on me, I thought there was something wrong with the re- lationship, or me. But when some- one makes a habit of it, you know the problem lies with him. I give a lot in relationships, and don’t re- ally expect much in return. But, infidelity is the deal breaker. Once it comes in, respect goes away , trust goes away,” she said, about a rela- tionship gone wrong. eepika Padukone is mar- ried to Ranveer Singh now but there was a time when she went through a lot of stress in her per- sonal life, in a series of early relationships that included Ranbir Kapoor. In an interview, Deepika said, “For me, sex is not just about phys- icality; there are emotions in- volved. I have never cheated or strayed when I’m in a relationship. If I’m going to be fooling around, why would I be in a relationship? It’s better to be single and have fun. But not everyone thinks like that.” Without mentioning anyone’s name, she added: “Maybe that’s —IANS Deepika Padukone B’TOWN QUICKIE! Connecting to the audience I in myriad genres of films and also donned the producer’s hat at the age of 25. She says as an artiste, she has always backed “dis- ruptive content” throughout her career. Anushka’s maiden production ‘NH10’ has completed 5 years of its release and the ac- tress has talked about her journey as a pro- ducer and what it took to be the first A-list actress of her time to take the plunge. “The decision to produce ‘NH10’ was very instinctive for me. It appealed to my core of doing some- thing different and entertaining audienc- es. I wanted to give them something that they had not seen be- fore and I was sure we could push the enter- tainment with this cinema,” Anushka said. She said that as a producer her aim is to give the country brilliant con- tent and that she is always on the look- out for the best scripts. n over a decade- long journey in Bol- lywood, Anushka Sharma has worked Expressing love for her daughter Nysa Devgn, actor Kajol shared adorable images of the former and termed her a ‘happy pill’ of the actor. Nysa’s resemblance to Kajol stunned a lot of people too. envelope Katrina Kaif AKSHAY IS ‘WELCOME’ —IANS K action drama ‘Sooryavan- shi’, and she thanks the ac- tor for being a constant source of support in the initial phase of her career. “I would like to thank Ak- shay, as during my initial days he was of immense support to me as a co-star. London’, ‘Welcome’, ‘Singh Is Kinng’, ‘De Dana Dan’ and ‘Blue’. They were last seen together in the 2010 dud ‘Tees Maar which is primari- ly recalled till date for Katrina’s dance number, ‘Sheila Ki Jawaani’. He used to stand in front of me every time when I used to give a shot and encourage me. His feedback helped me to improve my acting skills and I can surely say that he was one of the few actors who believed in me,” said Katrina. Katrina and Akshay have earlier worked together in films such as ‘Humko Dee- wana Kar Gaye’, ‘Namastey atrina Kaif stars op- posite Akshay Ku- mar after a decade in the upcoming cop Madhuri Dixit Nene shared an elegant throwback picture of herself on Instagram. It seems like the vintage picture is one of her stills from her past movies. “There’s no one like YOU, and that’s your biggest power,” she captioned the image. Khan’, —IANS F tions. “There will be many things you recognise if you are from India. Right from the care, attention and detail taken to focus on costume, food, conversa- tion about food and words that are being used,” said Freida. “This is an international show, but the crea- tors of the show have been so mindful as to not isolate those watching it in India who are actually growing up in this culture. So it feels like there is a convergence of international appeal and the Indian story .” MIRA, ROYAL reida Pinto says her show ‘Mira, Royal Detec- tive’ is a convergence of international appeal and the Indian story. The show is weaved around with the Indian culture and tradi- DETECTIVE After sharing three cryptic posts, singer- songwriter Armaan Malik announced his fi rst English single, ‘Control’, in collaboration with New York-based Arista Records. “I’ve waited for this day for as long as I can remember. 16-year-old Armaan would be losing it with excitement right now,” he tweeted. Freida Pinto —IANS Anushka Sharma

12. HOLLYWOOD AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 12 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia KATE’S #MeToo she had to face with Harvey back in 2001, during the New York premiere of Seren- dipity . Kate started off by talking about how the cast of Serendipity was wary of the premiere taking place as it was after the 9/11 attack. Sharing photos from the pre- miere, Beckinsale started, “These photos were taken at the premiere of Serendip- ity on October 5, 2001. We all refused to go because holding a premiere mere weeks after 9/11 with the city still smok- ing felt like the most insensitive, tone- deaf, disrespectful idea possible. But Harvey insisted. We flew into New York and somehow got through it. The next morning Harvey called me and asked if I would like to bring my less than two- year-old daughter to his house for a play- date with his similar aged daughter. I turned up and he immediately called for his nanny to take the babies to another room to play . I went to go with them and he said: ‘No, you wait here,’” Kate shared. Things took a drastic turn right after as she continued, “The minute the door closed he started screaming ‘You stupid C**T, you ruined my premiere.’ Kate added. —Agency A fter Harvey Weinstein was given a 23-year prison sentence, Kate Beck- insale took to her Instagram page to commend the decision while recall- ing a horrific incident post 9/11, where she was shunned by the dis- graced Hollywood mogul for her fashion sense at the 2001 New York pre- miere of Serendipity . Harvey Weinstein is formally being registered as a sex offender and will be put behind bars for 23 years, as sentenced by Judge James Burke on March 11, 2020. Kate Beckinsale celebrated the win for women, through an Instagram post, the actress also recalled a horrific incident Kate Beckinsale Jen should be killed? Postponing MULAN D End of Days! J Weinstein, on which he sug- gested that global icon Jennifer Aniston “should be killed”. Weinstein made the state- ment about the ‘Friends’ star in 2017, during the start of the #MeToo movement. which was created in response to the sexu- al misconduct allegations made against him and he was appar- ently furious when he learned that the National Enquirer was planning to report that he also sexually assaulted Aniston. The Enquirer’s email read: “Jennifer confided to a friend that during the production of the 2005 movie ‘Derailed’, Wein- stein sexually assaulted her by pressing up against her back in, grabbing her buttocks. He would stare at her cleavage and move his mouth around mak- ing Jennifer uncomfortable.” After 45 minutes, Weinstein replied to the Hofmeister’s email. “Jen Aniston should be killed,” he wrote. ennifer Aniston report- ed a sexual misconduct against disgraced Holly- wood producer Harvey K ‘End of Days’ that predicted Coronavirus out- break in 2020. Kim Kardashian recently shared a post on Twitter that reads psychic Sylvia Browne’s prediction for 2020. Before she passed away in 2013, the famous psychic predicted Coronavi- rus hitting the globe in 2020. Kim Kardashian posted a screenshot of her theory on Twitter on 11 March, after Kourtney Kardashian sent it to their sisters’ group chat. “In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like ill- ness will spread throughout the globe, attack- ing the lungs and the bronchial tubes and re- sisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it ar- rived, attack again ten years later, and then dis- appear completely” reads the prediction taken from the psychic’s 2008 book titled ‘End of Days’. Browne’s prediction for an epidemic in 2020 sounds similar to that Coronaviras has led in the present times. It has affected 126,664 people world- wide and resulted in 4,640 deaths. im Kardashian shares a popular screenshot of Psychic Sylvia Browne’s excerpt from her 2008 book isney has p o s t - p o n e d the the- atrical release of ‘Mulan’ amid growing cerns over coro- navirus. live-action re- make, starring Liu Yifei and con- The Liu Yifei directed by Niki Caro, was slated to release in North American thea- tres on March 27. There’s no offi- cial word on the postponement of the film in India. As of now, it is scheduled to release on March 27. The studio has also removed ‘The New Mutants’ and ‘Antlers’ from its slate. All three movies have been delayed indefinitely as Disney looks for new release dates. ‘The New Mutants’, the beleaguered superhero adventure from Fox, was scheduled for 3 April. —IANS Kim Kardashian —Agency Jennifer Aniston —IANS FACE OF THE DAY YOUR DAY Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva ARIES MAR 21 - APR 20 TAURUS APR 21 - MA Y 20 GEMINI MA Y 21 - JUNE 21 CANCER JUNE 22 - JUL Y 23 You will be fi nancially independent soon. Overseas travel is on the cards for the sole purpose of business. You must do whatever it takes to reach your destination as you are not one of those who gives up easily. Don’t get in any controversial relationship. You will spend good time with your partner. Money fl ows and money fl ows out, its a cycle so you should never worry. You will solve a critical problem in offi ce. You will go and meet your parents today after long time. Love life keeps you satisfi ed and your partner plays a big role in taking away your stress. New fi nancial prospects will come for you. You love to do shopping and sometimes your obsession exceeds your necessity, please work on it. Adventure lovers will have some good time. Don’t be high headed in the matters of love. You are working on your temperament and its a good sign. You will quit your major old bad habit today. Don’t be hasty in the matter of love, give time and take time. You can expect some guests at home today. Some of you will enjoy the new phase of your life. A school or college picnic is on the cards for some. You may like to be on your own today. LEO JUL Y 24 - AUGUST 23 You must save to buy a new vehicle. On professional front, you must look for the right opportunity at the right time. Your family is trying their best to help you in fulfi lling your dream. You will start with a new business soon and don’t worry funds will be taken care of. You will marry your lover. VIRGO AUG 24 - SEP 23 LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22 You will come up with many new ideas today, on professional front. Your payment that has been stuck for a long time will get released today. Don’t worry too much about your sibling’s future, everything will be just fi ne. Your friends are really precious for you and you will do anything for them. SCORPIO OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22 You will excel in anything that will devote time to. Make sure to use soft, humble words with your lover today. Remember to go to the gym if you have enrolled. Your prior commitments will keep you busy. Your efforts in academics will be appreciated by your parents and teachers. You can say goodbye to all your worries as a new phase of life will start soon. You can expect a baby, so congratulations is on the cards. An outing with the family is on the cards. Keep away from evil eyes, don’t reveal your plans to anyone except someone close. Enjoy your new love life. SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22 You will derive immense satisfaction in helping someone in need. Try and maintain healthy relationship with your colleagues for the sake of peace of mind. Possession of property is on the cards. On academic front, avoid being overconfi dent and make sure to go through the whole thing again. CAPRICORN DEC 23 - JAN 20 You will get promotion in your current job but you may be in dilemma, if you want to continue or not. A new source of income will help those who are in state of taking caring of the parents. Avoid any legal complications with your sibling for property. You must start thinking positive to be happy. AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 19 PISCES FEB20 - MARCH 20 On professional front, you may spoon feed a junior in offi ce today. Your fi nances are at place and you are doing what you must in your best capacity to build a life that you want. You may travel with your near and dear ones to a far distance place. Romance is in the air for you so enjoy the feeling. Good work in project will be really admired by your boss who may recommend your name for something big in future. Money comes from inheritance for you. You will your inner strength today and remember anything is possible if you decide on it. Don’t hesitate from helping your friends in studies. AANCHAL ROY, Model

13. ETC AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 202013 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia RAISING AWARENESS! A coronavirus a global pan- demic, actor Sonam Kapoor Ahuja on Thursday raised awareness about the COV- ID-19. The actor who is quite active on her social media took to Twitter to share the ways to battle the munity (vit c and d, zinc),” Ahuja’s tweet further read. Other celebrities including Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Varun Dha- wan, Kartik Aaryan, Sonak- shi Sinha, Riteish Desh- mukh, Genelia and more are also taking to social media to ask fans to stay safe from the deadly virus which has claimed at least 3000 lives globally . pandemic. “Hygiene is the best way to avoid the Coronavirus. Washing hands thoroughly , avoid touching your face and stay away from crowded ar- eas,” the ‘Raanjhanaa’ actor tweeted. “A healthy lifestyle (good sleep, food and exer- cise) is important. Also have supplements that boost im- day after World Health Organisa- tion (WHO) clared the novel de- As the world bat- tles #coronavirus, let’s ensure we do not add to the pandemic by circu- lating unverifi ed in- formation. Be safe, take necessary precautions and also be responsi- ble. Don’t add to the panic. Last but not the least, try and make the most of the compulsory ‘me’ time! —SONAKSHI SINHA —ANI Sonam K Ahuja ACHIEVING THE DREAM Actor Sonu Randeep Choudhary from Rajasthan shares his web debut experience with City First Accused of being a ‘fake feminist’ N ‘Roadies Revolution’, Neha, who is a gang leader on the show, reprimanded a male con- testant for slapping a girl, during the audition. The guy told the story of how he slapped his girlfriend and narrated the story by say- ing that she had 5 more boyfriends thus in the rage he slapped her for her fault of cheating. To this Neha Dhupia said that it’s the woman’s choice of how many guys she wants to do and thus wants to be with and her statement had led into the meme game and everyone is making memes and are thrashing her for the state- ment. eha Dhupia is being trolled severely, after her comment on cheating did not go down well with social media users. In an episode of the ongoing season of KIRTI CHAUHAN kirti.chauhan@firstindia.co.in T heatre has gifted many fine actors to the Bollywood in- dustry , and while adding his name to fame, actor Sonu Randeep hary from Rajasthan is going to share the digital screen space with actors like Arjan Bajwa, Arjun Bijlani, Vivek Dahiya and Mukul Dev with the upcoming web-series ‘State Of Siege 26/11’, based on 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai. Hailing from a small village called Kolinda in Jhunjhunu, Ra- jasthan, Sonu said that he dreamt of making his career in acting since his school days during a conversa- tion with City First. Opportu- nity knocked on his door when he was offered to play a pivotal Neha’s however, has not gone down well with netizens, with users calling her a ‘fake feminist’. “@NehaD- hupia who are you to abuse a person this in your show... playing this woman card e v e r y - where,” user tweet- ed. —Agency stand, many Choud- Poster of the web-series explore more as an actor.” Sonu further said that play- ing a dark character was fun- filled yet challenging but he managed well to get into his skin. He added, “Ismail is tough, smart, cunning and a dark shaded character. It wasn’t easy playing him be- cause of the violent nature that he has, which is opposite to me. I went through a good amount of research on him, saw some films, read some books and that’s how I man- aged to get into his skin.” Directed by Leutwyler, the series will stream on digital platform from 20 March. character in the series, pro- duced by Contiloe Pictures while working as an associate casting director (ACD) for the same project in the produc- tion house. Speaking about it, he said, “ Acting has always been my first love since my childhood days. In the series, I will be seen depicting the charac- ter of terrorist Ismail, was the leader like Malaika Arora TOUCHED! M dance contestant Rutuja on the ongoing reality TV show ‘Indias Best Dancer’. Touched by the gesture, Malaika said: “I loved the pink colour of the Paithani sari, and also the nathni. I Stop a have never tried this typical traditional outfit before be- cause I dont have any ... but I would definitely love to. I re- ally want to thank Rutuja and her parents for this love- ly gift.” ‘India’s Best Dancer’ airs on Sony TV . It is being judged by Malaika, Terence Lewis and Geeta Kapoor. alaika Arora has been gifted paithani saree and a nathni by the a Neha Dhupia who of Ajmal Kas- ab. I am quite happy my journey and wish to Matthews with —IANS Sonu Randeep Choudhary Power-packed and emotional film ANGREZI MEDIUM plays the sometimes-rebel- lious-sometimes-innocent teen convincingly and wins hearts with her simplicity . Dobriyal is no surprise package in this film. He has a pivotal role as Irrfan’s brother and will make you laugh whenever he is in the frame. Overall the film is a great entertainer and will want you to go back and give a big hug to your parents. being there for your family when needed and how. However, all the actors in the film have done a brilliant job and have captured all the emotions very positively . A power-packed and emotional performance by the actors. Khan delivers yet another beautiful piece of emotions and a great act as a father. Radhika has done a great job as Irrfan’s daughter. She takes to ensure that his daugh- ter’s dream is fulfilled. With this, begins an excit- ing ride as we laugh, cry along with Champak, his brother Gopi (Deepak Dobriyal) and Tarika. Apart from showing a father’s unconditional love for his daughter, the film also lightly touches upon other themes. The current genera- tion’s fascination with going abroad for higher studies, the KAVITA CHAUHAN cityfirst@firstindia.co.in T plays Champak’s daughter and has one dream since she was a kid - to study in a univer- sity abroad. When she finally gets a chance to go to London, her father does whatever it DIRECTOR Homi Adajania CAST & CREW Irrfan Khan, Deepak Dobriyal, Radhika Madan, Kareena Kapoor RATING: he story of the film re- volves around Cham- pak (Irrfan) and Tarika (Radhika Madan) who misunderstandings that often crop up between parents and children, the importance of

14. CITY BUZZ AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020 14 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia Women Bolstering Women T CITY FIRST he Women Wing (BWW) Com- mittee under the Gujarat Chambers of Commerce and Business Industry (GCCI) organ- ized a two-day event ti- tled ‘We Udaan’ to mark Women’s Day. Held at Montecristo Ahmedabad’s Sindhu Bhavan Road, the event also saw the launch of a line of products by Vraj Jewellers, a talk on health awareness by Dr Priyanka Chiripal and Manjri Joshi Shuk- la, one on finance and investment by EDII’s Kavita Saxena and en- trepreneur Rusin Bhatt, a fashion show, panel discussions and work- shops in candle-making and cooking. BWW chairperson Archana Gupta said, “The conclave will pro- vide a platform for women entrepreneurs, especially those from rural backgrounds and those who run home businesses. It will give them the space to show- case their products and gain contacts for their businesses.” cityfirstgujarat@gmail.com Make something BEAUTIFUL on Fight against CORONAVIRUS measures, she elaborated, “Peo- ple need to inculcate the habit of cleaning their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. She also advised maintaining a dis- tance of one metre from any person coughing or sneezing and to avoid crowded places.” Dr Madan also urged people to remain alert and immedi- ately get screened for COV- ID-19 if they think that they may be showing correspond- ing symptoms. She asked peo- ple to approach government hospitals for screening since they are the ones authorized to perform COVID-19 check- ups. cityfirstgujarat@gmail.com CITY FIRST A Ahmedabad Council of Science and Tech- nology (GUJCOST) jointly as part of their Science Matters - Popular Science Lecture se- ries on Thursday. Dr Surabhi Madan, MD (Infectious Dis- eases Consultant) conducted an interactive session with around 200 participants. Expressing concern about the panic created over COV- ID-19, Dr Madan said, “People are panicking and stocking masks. It is very essential that lecture on ‘Under- standing Corona Vi- rus’ was organized by Science and City, Gujarat you wear a mask if you are down with COVID-19 symp- toms (especially coughing) or caring for someone who may have COVID-19.” Talking about precautionary CITY FIRST A learnt how to upcycle old bottles into usable art. “Decoupage is the art of deco- rating objects with paper cut outs. In threaded decoupage, the object is first covered with one or more layer of thread before the decora- tive paper is stuck on. This gives the final product more volume and can also be used to make minor changes to the final shape of the product,” explains pH Designs’ Hardika Patoliya. The participants at the work- shop wound a single layer of cot- ton cord on a bottle before pretty- ing it up with delicate floral de- signs to create a stunning 3D ef- hmedabad-based pH de- signs recently held a threaded decoupage work- shop, where participants fect. The final bottle was then fin- ished with a coat of varnish. Inter- estingly , the event’s organizer says she is committed to giving people the chance to work with their hands. “It’s a great way to de- stress, and you have some interest- ing knick-knacks for the house as well,” she says. cityfirstgujarat@gmail.com STARRY NIGHT Filmmaker Divya Khosla Kumar was adjudged the Iconic National Sensation of the Year at a glittering ceremony in Mumbai recently. The event was also attended by actor Ameesha Patel, who can be seen with entrepreneur and Dada Saheb Phalke International Film Festi- val Award 2019 winner Piyuus Jaiswal, Ajay Jaiswal, Veekas Doshi and Vikas Gade.