30012022 first india new delhi

CORONA
CATASTROPHE
NEW DELHI
4,483
NEW
CASES
8,807
RECOVERED
28
NEW DEATHS
IS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT THE SPY?
WAR OF WORDS BREAKS
BETWEEN CENTRE, OPPN
This is an act of
treason: Congress
SC panel monitoring matter,
report awaited: Govt source
India bought Pegasus from Israel in 2017 as part of
defence deal: The New York Times report claimed
2
AUS QUEEN BARTY
l Ashleigh Barty, world
no. 1, won her first
Australian Open title after
beating Danielle Collins in
the women’s singles final
at the Rod Laver Arena in
Melbourne on Saturday.
l After taking the first set
6-3, Barty was trailing 1-5
in the second set at one
stage. However, the top-
seed broke Collins twice
before eventually taking
the second set 7-6 (7-2).
Today, India mourns the loss of Mahatma Gandhi on his 74th death anniversary.
Every year on January 30, India observes Martyrs’ Day also known as Shaheed Di-
was as the Father of the Nation was assassinated at Gandhi Smriti in the Birla House.
Gandhi also referred as Bapu taught the non-violence to the people of the country in
their fight for freedom from colonial British rule. On this day in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi
was shot by Nathuram Godse during evening prayers.
Union Budget expected to focus
on increase in limits for basic tax
exemption, standard deduction
New Delhi: The Union
Budget is expected to fo-
cus on employment gen-
eration, increase in lim-
its for basic tax exemp-
tion, standard deduc-
tion, medical expenses,
rationalisation of tax
rates and certain social
security investments.
Currently, Section
16(1A) of the IT Act pro-
vides for a standard de-
duction of Rs 50,000
from the salary income
of a taxpayer. This de-
duction was enhanced
from Rs 40,000 to 50,000
by the Finance Act 2019
and has not been in-
creased since then.
However, considering
the rising inflation and
cost of living, there is a
need to increase such
standard deduction for
the salaried personnel
from Rs 50,000 to Rs
60,000 in case there is no
increase in the basic ex-
emption limit, said
Suresh Surana, Found-
er - RSM India.
Currently, section
80TTA provides deduc-
tion up to Rs 10,000 p.a.
only with respect to the
interest from savings
bank accounts with
banks/co-operative so-
ciety/post office.
More on P5 & 6
NEW DELHI l SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI TITLE NO.DELENG/2021/19840 l Vol 1 l Issue No.151
OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD, LUCKNOW & NEW DELHI www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Facing criticism, State Bank of India on Saturday announced that it has de-
cided to put in abeyance its circular on recruitment of pregnant women. The
bank had earlier come out with revised instructions under which it had said
that a woman who is over three months pregnant will be considered “tempo-
rarily unfit” and she may be allowed to join within four months after delivery.
Night curfew will be withdrawn in Karnataka from Monday and schools and
colleges in Bengaluru will reopen as well, the state government said today,
with hospitalisation due to Covid now at 2 per cent and the recovery rate
going up. As part of revised guidelines, government offices, hotels, restau-
rants, clubs, pubs and bars will run at full capacity, instead of 50 per cent.
SBI WITHDRAWS
PREGNANT WOMEN
‘UNFIT’ FOR WORK
NORM AMID ROW
KARNATAKA TO
WITHDRAW NIGHT
CURFEW, BENGALURU
SCHOOLS TO OPEN
Azam will replace Jayant if
SP-RLD form govt: Shah
Aditi Nagar
Muzaffarnagar: Tak-
ing a jibe at the alli-
ance formed by Sama-
jwadi Party and Rash-
triya Lok Dal (RLD),
Union Home Minister
and a senior BJP lead-
er Amit Shah said that
SP-led alliance forms
the government, then
Azam Khan will re-
place Jayant Chaud-
hary in the govern-
ment.
“YesterdayAkhilesh
ji and Jayant ji held a
press conference. They
say that we are togeth-
er. But how long is this
together? If their gov-
ernment is formed,
thenJayantjiwillleave
the government and
Azam Khan will come
back. The people of Ut-
tar Pradesh have un-
derstood from the dis-
tribution of tickets
whatisgoingtohappen
next,” Shah said while
addressing an effective
voter interaction pro-
gramme.
Mohd Fahad
New Delhi: A new in-
vestigative piece by The
New York Times has re-
ignited the controversy
over the spyware
Pegasus, made by Israeli
security firm NSO. The
Congress has renewed
their attack on the gov-
ernment over the spy-
ware’sallegedillegaluse
in India.
“Modi Govt bought
Pegasus to spy on our
primary democratic in-
stitutions, politicians
and public. Govt func-
tionaries, opposition
leaders, armed forces,
judiciary all were tar-
getedbythesephonetap-
pings. This is treason,”
tweeted Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi.
“Centre lied to the Su-
premeCourtwhenitwas
directly questioned
about the purchase and
deploymentof Pegasus,”
Congress’sRandeepSin-
gh Surjewala said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah holds a door to door
campaign in Deoband, Saharanpur on Saturday.
Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala addresses the press
conference on the Pegasus issue in the presence of LoP in Rajya Sabha
Mallikarjun Kharge at AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday.
SHAH ASSURES SUGARCANE
FARMERS OF COMPENSATION
CONG ACCUSES
MODI-GOVT OF
DUPING PARL,
MISLEADING SC
GOVT VERSION
BUDGET ANALYSIS
REAL SHOCK
WILL BE IN GUJ,
SAYS AKHILESH
FEB 10 TO MARCH 7: EC
BANS EXIT POLLS IN UP
‘LAW AGAINST
RELIGIOUS
CONVERSIONS’
Union Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that
the party will take action if payment for sugar-
cane produce gets delayed. “Some farmers told me
that sugarcane payment gets delayed. We have de-
cided that in the manifesto of the BJP, we are going
to announce that the interest for the delay will be
recovered from that mill, and sugarcane produced
along with interest will be paid to the farmers,”
Shah said in Muzaffarnagar.
Congress on Saturday
once again put up strong
allegations on the Central
government on the is-
sue of Pegasus Software
Purchase stating that the
Modi government deployed
it for snooping and spying
upon Rahul Gandhi and his
staff members. It duped and
deceived Parliament and
mislead the Supreme Court,
claimed party spokesperson.
A government source on Satur-
day said that the matter related
to Pegasus software is being
monitored by a committee under
the Supreme Court and its report
is awaited. The source said that
the inquiry committee — set
up under the supervision of
retired Supreme Court judge R V
Raveendran — has also published
a newspaper advertisement on
January 2 calling for submission
of phones by people who claim
their devices were infected.
Exuding confidence that
his party will form the
government in Uttar
Pradesh, Samajwadi
Party (SP) president
Akhilesh Yadav on
Saturday said that
forthcoming elections
will not throw a surprise
result, but claimed that
the “real surprise” will
be in Gujarat assembly
polls due later this year.
The Election Commission
banned exit polls pertain-
ing to the Assembly elec-
tion in Uttar Pradesh from
7 am on February 10 to
6.30 pm on March 7.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
national convenor and
Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal on
Saturday said a law
should be made against
religious conversions,
but added that nobody
should be harassed by
misusing the law. in
Jalandhar on Saturday,
he said one should not
be forced to convert.
NO BETTER TIME THAN
TODAY TO TAKE INDIA-ISRAEL
RELATIONS FORWARD: PM
In a special video message released on
Saturday to commemorate thirty years
of full diplomatic relations between In-
dia and Israel, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi emphasised that there could not
be a better time to set new goals to take
forward relations between the two coun-
tries. “There could be no better oppor-
tunity to set new goals for India-Israel
cooperation than when India is celebrat-
ing 75 years of Independence, Israel
is about to do the same next year and
the two nations are commemorating 30
years of full diplomatic relations,” he
said. He congratulated both nations and
said he has full faith that the friendship
between India and Israel will strengthen
over the next few years.
‘NYT IS SUPARI MEDIA’
Amid attacks from the op-
position, Union Minister
General VK Singh on Saturday
slammed the New York Times.
“Can you trust NYT?? They are
known “Supari Media”,” he tweeted.
74TH
DEATH
ANNIV
OF BAPU
TODAY
1
3
Akhilesh’s cycle is punctured, he is worried about chopper
not been able to take off: Union Minister Smriti Irani
First India Bureau
Meerut: Union Minis-
ter and senior BJP lead-
er Smriti Irani on Sat-
urday refuted the alle-
gations leveled by Akh-
ilesh Yadav of it being a
BJP’s conspiracy when
hischopperwasstopped
on Friday, she said that
SP leader’s cycle (elec-
tion symbol of Sama-
jwadi Party) was punc-
tured and he was wor-
ried about his chopper
not been able to take off.
Irani lashed out at
Akhilesh over “crimi-
nalisation of politics”
in the state. She said
that Akhilesh’s party
was synonymous to
“lawlessness and
goondaraj.”
She said this while
interacting with media
during her door-to-door
campaign for party can-
didate Amit Agrawal in
theMeerutCantonment
assembly constituency
.
Citing the alleged
threats made by SP can-
didate from Meerut
(South) Adil Chaud-
hary, Irani said that
Akhilesh’s party could
never change as it was
the foundation of their
party
.
She said the politics
of Samajwadi Party
was evident from the
Meerut incident where
an SP candidate literal-
ly threatened the people
to vote for them or be
ready to face the conse-
quences. She said it was
the manifestation of
how criminalisation of
politics was the very
foundation of their par-
ty, she added.
She said that the poli-
tics of Samajwadi Party
was evident from the
Meerut incident where
a candidate of their
party literally threat-
ened the people to vote
for them or be ready to
face the consequences.
She said that it was the
manifestation of how
criminalisation of poli-
tics was the very foun-
dation of their party,
she added.
Irani took a dig at the
Samajwadi Party chief
for his silence on videos
being circulated, of the
SP candidates issuing
threats to those who do
not support them. She
said that Akhilesh was
tight-lipped on this is-
sue and was not com-
menting on it.
Ahmedabad: Union Home
Minister Amit Shah will in-
augurate a grand wall mural
of Mahatma Gandhi made
from 2,975 clay kulhads
(earthen cups) at there
Sabarmati Riverfront here
on Sunday, the Khadi and
Village Industries Commis-
sion (KVIC) said.
The mural, commissioned by
the KVIC, was put together
by 75 potters brought here
from across the country, the
official said on Saturday.
The event, which will mark
the 74th Martyrs' Day, will
also be attended by Union
MSME Minister Narayan
Rane and Gujarat Chief
Minister Bhupendra Patel.
The KVIC has undertaken
Kumbhar Sashaktikaran
Programme for empowering
potters, he said.
Shah will also distribute
electric pottery wheels to
potters from his Gandhina-
gar Lok Sabha constituency.
The 100 sq. m mural—cre-
ated by arranging kulhads
on an aluminium sheet to
form the Mahatma’s vis-
age—will be only the second
of its kind in the country,
after one installed at Palika
Kendra in New Delhi.
AMIT SHAH TO UNVEIL MURAL OF
MAHATMA MADE FROM ‘KULHADS’
Union Minister Smriti Irani during a door-to-door campaign for BJP
candidate at Fazalpur, in Meerut on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI
Union Minister
lashes out at
Akhilesh over
‘criminalisation
of politics in UP

CAPITOL
NEW DELHI | SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022
02
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
LIFE LIMPING BACK TO NORMALCY
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Amid a
continuous decline in
the Covid-19 cases, the
Delhi Disaster Manage-
ment Authority
(DDMA) decided to re-
lax several Covid-relat-
ed curbs including the
weekend curfew in the
national capital. How-
ever, the night curfew
will continue in the city
as of now.
DDMA took the deci-
sion in a meeting
chaired by Lieutenant
Governor Anil Baijal to
review the Covid-19 sit-
uation in Delhi on
Thursday
. Chief Minis-
ter Arvind Kejriwal vir-
tually participated in
the meeting.
Meanwhile, DDMA
officials also informed
that the total number of
calls received on the
Covid helpline, enquir-
ing about availability
of beds, vaccination
programme, e-passes
and other details, fell
from 2,041 on January
12 to 983 on January 25.
These figures were
shared during the meet-
ing of the DDMA on
containing COVID-19,
held earlier this week..
According to Delhi
Government data, the
‘1031’ Covid helpline
specials number have
180 channels active
which is sufficient to
handle 8,000 to 10,000
calls a day
. In case of an
increase in call volume,
the call centre can en-
hance the number of
lines within two days
time, officials said.
SooninDelhi, NoPUCmeansNoFuel?
New Delhi: Having a
valid pollution-under-
check certificate will
soon be made manda-
tory for refueling vehi-
cles at fuel pumps in the
national capital. The
city govt will put a draft
policy in this regard in
the public domain for
inviting suggestions
and objections.
Environment Minis-
ter Gopal Rai said the
policy will help ensure
that polluting vehicles
do not ply in Delhi and
residents enjoy cleaner
air. Reena Gupta, advi-
sor to the minister, said
the policy affirms the
commitment of the Ke-
jriwal government to-
wards ensuring clean
air for all Delhites.
“Vehicle owners will
have to carry their
PUCC to the fuel pump.
In case the PUCC is
found invalid, they will
have to get it reissued at
the pump,” a statement
said. “This is a very am-
bitious policy. North
India including Delhi
face grave air pollution
particularly in winter.
With this policy, vehi-
cles will be mandated to
have their PUC certifi-
cate with them at the
fuelling station. Thus,
pollution levels of vehi-
cles in the state will be
kept in check,” the
statement quoted Rai.
While the exact
mechanisms are being
worked out, these meth-
ods can also include
technologies like radio-
frequency identifiers.
Earlier this month,
the Delhi govt had is-
sued a draft Motor Vehi-
cleAggregatorsScheme
2021, calling on online
passenger and commer-
cial vehicle operators to
increasingly adopt elec-
tric vehicles. —PTI
Children play at a park near AIIMS flyover on a sunny winter morning in New Delhi on Saturday.
First India Bureau
New Delhi: With RDC-
2022 culminated on Jan
29, the centuries-old
military tradition of
troops retreating, from
the battleground at sun-
set was alive at Vijay
Chowk but the visitors
to Beating the Retreat
ceremony were dazzled
with something ultra-
modern. For the first
time ever, the sky above
RashtrapatiBhavanwas
filled by an eight minute
long light show, which
was created using 1,000
drones developed by a
homegrown start-up by
two 31-year-old alumni
of Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi.
Incubated at the IIT-
Delhi, the startup
named Botlab Dynam-
ics is helmed by Tanmay
Bunkar and Anuj Barn-
wal. Earlier, While be-
ing busy preparing for
the show, Bunkar, the
2014 batch graduate of
the institute shared,
“We’d be celebrating all
aspects of what India
has achieved in the last
75 years, and how it will
progress. We’ve been
creating this technology
since 2016, and it will
definitely be a big boost
to technology in India.
By seeing the hard
work we’ve put in, I’m
sure people will take it
seriously that if we in-
vest in technology
, there
arereturns,andcertain-
ly some light at the end
of the tunnel.” Barnwal
informed how the team
haspracticedrigorously
for the big day since a
monthnow.“It’sthefirst
time something like this
is happening. We have
been testing our drones
every day for the last
one year,” he said while
explaining. “The drones
areprogrammedtohave
16 million colours, as
manyasthemodernlap-
tops have. They will
change colours during
the show, to form artis-
tic patterns in the sky
.
There will be very en-
gaging music during the
formations, which will
surely make it an audio-
visual delight.”
The two have largely
worked with defence
forces in the past. And
recalling this one time
when the drones com-
pletelyshutdownduring
ashowcase,Bunkarsays
he decided to make the
droneswithhomegrown
parts. They made the
flightcontrollerandGPS
modulesinIIT-Delhiand
fabricated at Manesar.
Meet IIT Delhi alumni, creators of 1,000 drones for light show
BEATING THE RETREAT
Drones dazzle the sky with a formation of the ‘Make in India logo’
during the Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk on Saturday.
The Drone were made with homegrown parts. —PHOTO BY ANI
3 Gogi gang
members shot
18 bullets
New Delhi: Three
armed men, suspected
associates of slain
gangster Jitender Gogi,
rained 18 bullets on a
man, who was likely
Gogi’s arch rival Neeraj
Bawania’s henchman,
in outer Delhi’s Alipur
on Thursday night. Po-
lice, however, said in-
vestigation was under
way to establish if the
killing was fallout of a
gang rivalry or person-
al enmity
.
CCTV footage was
widely shared on social
media on Friday in
which the three assail-
ants could be seen at-
tacking the man. As
soon as the man col-
lapsed, the attackers
fled the spot.
DCP (Outer-North) B
K Yadav said, “The fo-
rensics team found nine
empty cartridges at the
crime scene. The body
has been sent for autop-
sy. We will know if it
was gang rivalry or per-
sonal enmity only after
the investigation is
complete.” —ANI
New Delhi: Opposing
the bail plea of Umar
Khalid, an accused in
Northeast Delhi vio-
lence case, a Special
Public Prosecutor on
Friday brought the ex-
ample of the 9/11 attack
in the US.
Special Public Prose-
cutor Amit Prasad be-
fore the Additional Ses-
sions Judge Amitabh
Rawat, cited the 9/11
example to counter
Umar Khalid’s claim
that he only sent five
messages on a What-
sApp group and was not
present at the site.
Referring to the
chargesheet, Prasad ar-
gued that these people
were remotely super-
vising the protest sites
just like the conspira-
tors of the 9/11 attack
who were not in the US.
Prasad said that on Feb
17, there were indica-
tions of the protest
turning violent. Such
messages were sent in
the group. Khalid was
in the group, but he re-
mained silent.
During the argu-
ments, SPP said there
was a nexus between
Umar Khalid and Shar-
jeel Imam and Khalid
was the mentor of Shar-
jeel Imam. He argued
when they say that
there was no connec-
tion between them, it is
wrong as they held a
meeting together. —PTI
Delhi: Two take cue from film
to kidnap,kill teen,arrested
New Delhi: Two men
have been arrested for
allegedly kidnapping
and strangulating an
18-year-old youth in Bu-
rari. The accused want-
ed to extort Rs 10 lakh
from the youth’s family
.
The arrested men,
Gopal (19), a cleaner in
a clothes showroom,
and Sushil (19) are
school dropouts. Police
have seized the victim’s
mobile phone and a
rope used by the ac-
cused to strangle him.
On Jan 23, police got a
call reporting that Ro-
han, student of Class XI
was missing.
DCP (North) Sagar
Singh Kalsi said, “Dur-
ing the probe, footage of
around 200 CCTV cam-
eras was checked and
locations of the missing
youth’s friends ob-
tained. After analysing
phone numbers of the
suspects, Gopal was ap-
prehended on Jan 25
from Burari and inter-
rogated. When con-
fronted with strong evi-
dence, he disclosed that
his friends and he killed
Rohan. And youth’s
body was finally recov-
ered from a plot in Harit
Vihar, Burari”
Based on Gopal’s dis-
closure, Sushil was also
arrested. “Gopal
claimed that he got in-
spiration from Bolly-
wood movie Apaharan
to plan and execute the
kidnapping. He started
interacting with Rohan
a year ago and soon be-
came friends with him.
Later, he roped in his
two friends, who used to
consume drugs with
him, to carry out the
plan. Raids are being
conducted to arrest
their third associate,”
added the DCP. —ANI
9/11 Example cited to oppose Umar
Khalid bail plea in Delhi Riots Case
Prosecutor said Khalid was mentor of Sharjeel Imam. —FILE PIC
STREETSCAPING OF SAMPLE ROAD
NEAR MODEL TOWN AFFIRMED: GOVT
New Delhi: The Delhi
govt has provided
administrative approval
and estimate sanction
for the streetscaping
of a 900-metre sample
stretch of road near
Mukund Pur Chowk in
north Delhi, accord-
ing to a circular. The
stretch near Mukund
Pur is one of the nine
sample stretches that
are to be redeveloped
and beautified across
the city as part of
Delhi government’s
streetscaping project
that aims to decongest,
redesign and beautify
540 km roads across
Delhi. —PTI
With Proposed policy vehicles will be mandated to have their PUC
certificate with them at the fuelling station. —FILE PIC
Fight for Fitness: Gym
owners take out protest
New Delhi: Hun-
dreds of gym owners
on Saturday took out
a protest march to
chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal’s
residence here to op-
pose the DDMA’s de-
cision to keep fitness
centresclosedevenas
the number of Covid
cases have come
down in the city
.
Demanding that
gyms and spas be al-
lowed to reopen, and
raising slogans
againstthegovt,dem-
onstrators started
their march from the
Chandgi Ram Akha-
ra to Flagstaff Road
in the Civil Lines.
However, they were
stopped by police a
fewmetresawayfrom
the CMR. Though the
DDMA on Thursday
lifted the weekend
curfew and also al-
lowed restaurants,
barsandcinemahalls
to operate with 50%
capacity, gyms and
schools in the city are
still shut. —PTI
Amidcurbsnoweekendcurfew;
CallsdroppedonCovidhelpline
DelhiMetroresumes
regularservices
DDMA
GUIDELINES:
z There shall be no
“Weekend Curfew”
on the movement of
persons in NCT of
Delhi.
z Night Curfew from
10 pm to 5 am of
every day on move-
ment individuals in
NCT of Delhi, shall
remain in force, till
further orders.
z Delhi government
offices will oper-
ate with 50 per cent
capacity.
z All the essential
services shall function
without any restric-
tions, i.e. at 100 per
cent strength.
z Restaurants shall
be allowed upto 50
per cent of the seating
capacity from 8 AM to
10 PM.
z Bars shall be
allowed upto 50 per
cent of the seating
capacity from 12 Noon
to 10 PM.
New Delhi: Delhi Met-
ro services on weekends
have resumed as per
regular timetable from
Saturday in view of the
ease in restrictions due
to improvement in Cov-
id situation in the city,
officials said. Weekend
curfew was imposed in
Delhi since Jan 8, fol-
lowing which services
had been curtailed.
However, minor
change in services were
there on Yellow Line,
owing to Beating Re-
treat Ceremony yester-
day
.Duringtheoccasion
metro services at Cen-
tral Secretariat and Ud-
yog Bhawan Metro sta-
tions of Line 2 was not
available from 2 pm to
6:30 pm, the DMRC in-
formed said. —FIB
DDMA have lifted Weekend Curfew but keeping other curbs in place. DDMA implies running of metro on weekends.
Gym owners during protest march in Delhi on Saturday.
PLAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES
—PHOTO
BY
ANI

INDIA
03
Sharat K Verma
New Delhi: It seems
that the central govern-
ment will decide on
changing the law of dep-
utation of All India Ser-
vice officers on the basis
of areferendumbetween
the states. So far, nine
states have opposed this
proposal of the central
government and eight
states have supported
the proposal of the gov-
ernment. Two states-
Meghalaya and Karna-
taka - had earlier op-
posedbutnowboththese
states are reconsidering
their proposal. The Cen-
tral Government wants
toretaintherightof cen-
tral deputation to all the
officers of the All India
Services, including the
IAS. The states are op-
posing it by calling it
against federalism.
In fact, even on this
proposal challenging
the concept of federal-
ism, the states are di-
vided on partisan lines.
The governments of
BJP and its allies are
supporting it and the
governments of opposi-
tion parties are oppos-
ing it. So, naturally the
Congress Governments
of Rajasthan, Chhattis-
garh and Punjab have
opposed it. The govern-
ments of Tamil Nadu,
Maharashtra and
Jharkhandsupportedby
the Congress have also
opposed it and the gov-
ernments of West Ben-
gal, Kerala and Telan-
gana are also against it.
IAS officers’ Central deputation to
be decided by the vote of states!
FEDERAL CONFLICT
Mahesh Sharma
New Delhi: Senior
Congress leader Kapil
Sibal congratulated
Ghulam Nabi Azad for
getting the Padma
Bhushan award, term-
ing him 'bhaijaan' and
even went to the
length of taking a jibe
at Congress stressing
that the country ap-
preciates the contri-
bution of Ghulam
Nabi Azad, but the
Congress does not
need his services.
Think, is Kapil Sibal
so naive that he does
not know that the cen-
tral government has
not given Ghulam
Nabi Azad the Padma
award for any contri-
bution by him. If Pad-
ma awards are given
for such contributions
and social service,
then at least one hun-
dred Congress leaders
will become contend-
ers. Why didn't the
government itself
give Padma Bhushan
to Kapil Sibal for his
contribution? Kapil
Sibal, a capable law-
yer, would know the
real reason why the
government has given
the award to Ghulam
Nabi Azad.
Despite this, if
Sibal took a jibe at the
Congress leadership
using this as an ex-
cuse, then on thing
can be said for sure,
there is deep rooted
meaning behind all
this. It means Sibal
knows the plan ahead
and he is a part of it.
Kapil Sibal gets angry
whenever the leaders
who have written let-
ters to the high com-
mand regarding the
Congress organiza-
tion elections are
called BJP men. But
when the BJP govern-
ment gave Azad the
Padma Bhushan, he
became elated. On the
other hand Jairam
Ramesh and many
other leaders taunted
Azad. On one hand,
there are those who
are targeting Azad
and then on the other
hand are those who
are targeting the Con-
gress high command.
It is thus believed that
in days to come,
this conflict between
the two will increase
and the Congress
leadership should
be prepared for a ma-
jor exodus.
Sibal, his ‘Bhaijaan’ could spark yet another exodus from Congress?
Panaji: Utpal Parrikar,
sonof formerGoaChief
Minister Late Manohar
Parrikar on Saturday
said that cir-
cumstances
forced him
totakeade-
cision of
contestingas
a n independent can-
didatefromPanajiinthe
ensuing Goa Assembly
polls.
Utpal also said that he
will try to meet each
person in Panaji and
know about their prob-
lems. Speaking to ANI
ahead of the Goa As-
sembly elections, he
said, "I will try to meet
each person in Panaji.
The circumstances
forced me to take this
decision (of contesting
an independent candi-
date)fromPanaji.Iwant
to give people a good op-
tion in candidates."
Utpal Parrikar, son of
former Goa chief min-
ister Manohar Parri-
kar, filed his nomina-
tion papers from the
Panaji Assembly con-
stituency on Thursday
.
Last week, he re-
signed from the prima-
ry membership of BJP
after the party denied
him a ticket from the
Panaji constituency and
fielded Congress party
turncoat Atanasio "Ba-
bush" Monserrate.
Meanwhile,GoaChief
Minister Pramod
Sawant had said that the
central leaders of BJP
were in conversation
with Utpal and had of-
fered him two constitu-
enciestocontesttheelec-
tionintheupcomingGoa
Assembly polls. —ANI
CONGRESS-GFP
ACCUSE TMC-IPAC
OF DUBIOUSLY
COLLECTING DATA
Panaji: The Congress
and Goa Forward Party
on Saturday alleged the
Trinamool Congress
and poll strategy firm
IPAC were collecting
voter data in a “dubious
manner” in the run up to
the Goa Assembly polls
scheduled for Febru-
ary 14. Goa Congress
general secretary
Sunil Kawthankar and
GFP general secretary
(organisation) Durgadas
Kamat told reporters the
two parties had jointly
submitted a complaint
with the Chief Election
Commission in New
Delhi against the TMC
and IPAC. Kawthankar
claimed “The TMC claims
some three lakh women
and over two lakh youth
have enrolled for these
schemes. It is not an
awareness drive for their
2022 election campaign,
but in fact a massive
data collection drive in a
dubious manner, which
will be used for other
purposes,” he alleged.
New Delhi: Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi
will hit battleground Ut-
tar Pradesh by holding a
virtual rally on January
31, ahead of Assembly
elections in the state.
ThisrallybythePrime
Minister will cover five
districtsof UttarPradesh
namely Shamli, Muzza-
farnagar, Baghpat, Saha-
ranpur, Gautambuddh
Nagar (Dadri/Jewar)
And it will cover 21 Vid-
han Sabhas.
Keeping the direc-
tions of the election
commission in mind
the total physical mobi-
lization arrangements
have been made to lis-
ten to the Prime Minis-
ter's address at 100 loca-
tions cutting across 98
mandals and covering
21 Vidhan Sabhas.
The total physical
presence will be 50,000
covering 500 people per
location. There will be
LED screens and cam-
paign vans that will be
dispatched to these lo-
cations for people to lis-
ten to the Prime Minis-
ter's address.
The BJP which has a
massivedigitalfootprint
is likely to use all its
platforms including Fa-
cebook, Twitter, Insta-
gram, YouTube, etc, and
is hoping to reach over
10 lakh people across
these 21 assembly con-
stituencies. —PTI
Battleground UP: PM to hold
first virtual rally on Jan 31
Bagpat: Taking a jibe at
oppositionpartiesahead
of the assembly elec-
tions, Uttar Pradesh
Chief MinisterYogiAdi-
tyanath on
Saturday
said there
is competi-
tion be-
tween the
S a - majwadi Party
(SP)andtheBahujanSa-
maj Party (BSP) over
giving tickets to the big-
gest criminals.
Addressing a public
meeting here, the chief
minister said, "There is
a competition between
SP and BSP to give tick-
ets to the biggest crimi-
nals. If these criminals
become MLA, they will
produce guns and
would not bring devel-
opment. There is only
one way to treat them
— JCB and bulldozer.
SP used to set up facto-
ries of firearms and we
are establishing de-
fence corridors in Uttar
Pradesh. Now the can-
non made here will run
on Pakistan." "SP is giv-
ing tickets to criminals.
Look at their candi-
dates from Moradabad.
One of them had said
that it is good to see the
Taliban in Afghanistan.
Taliban is against hu-
manity. They are sup-
porting it shamelessly
and giving tickets," said
Adityanath. —ANI
SP,BSPincompetitiontogivetickets
to biggest criminals in UP:Adityanath
CIRCUMSTANCES FORCED
METOFIGHTSOLO:UTPAL
‘I want to give people a good option; will try to meet each person’
587 NOMINATIONS FILED
Panaji: As many as 587 candidates have filed
their nominations for the 40 assembly seats, said
an official statement by the Chief Electoral Officer
on Friday. The filing of nominations for the polls
had begun on January 21 and ended on Friday
afternoon. The scrutiny of the nominations would
be done today and the last date of withdrawal of
candidature would be on January 31, 2022.
said that cir-
cumstances
forced him
totakeade-
cision of
contestingas
GOA
GOA
tyanath on
Saturday
said there
is competi-
tion be-
tween the
UP
UP
HIGHLIGHTS
l AAP's Bhagwant
Mann files
nomination from
Dhuri
l AAP releases 5th
list of candidates for
40 assembly seats
in UP, fields Vijay
Kumar Srivastava
against CM Yogi
Adityanath from
Gorakhpur Urban
seat constituency
l Congress MP
Partap Bajwa files
his nomination
papers from Qadian
constituency
l Congress appoints
4 region-wise
observers for Punjab
polls
l Uttarakhand: Total of
755 candidates have
filed nominations
Bareilly: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National
president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Saturday
conducted a door-to-door campaign in Uttar
Pradesh's Bareilly, ahead of Assembly elections
in the State. "Did a door-to-door campaign in
Bhojipura Vidhan Sabha, Bareilly today.
Meanwhile, Union Defence Minister
Rajnath Singh, who is one of the
BJP's star campaigners for Uttar
Pradesh Assembly elections, will
campaign in Kasganj and Amritpur
constituencies of Farrukhabad
city in the state on Sunday.
JP NADDA HOLDS DOOR-TO-DOOR
CAMPAIGN IN BAREILLY
Amritsar: Filing
nomination from the
Amritsar East seat,
Punjab Congress
chief Navjot Singh
Sidhu on Saturday
dared his bete noir
Amarinder
Singh to
l e a v e
Patiala
andtake
on him.
He also
challenged Shiroma-
ni Akali Dal's
Bikram Singh Ma-
jithia to fight only
from the Amritsar
East seat and leave
the Majitha assem-
bly constituency
.
Apart from the Ma-
jitha seat, Majithia, a
former Punjab min-
ister, has also entered
the fray from Amrit-
sar East from where
Sidhu is seeking re-
election.
"If you have so
much guts and have
faith in people then
leave Majitha and
fight from one seat
here. Do you have the
guts?" Sidhu dared
while interacting
with reporters after
filinghisnomination.
Sidhu also dared
Captain Amarinder
Singh to contest from
Amritsar East. —ANI
Panaji: The Goa Tri-
namool Congress on
Saturday released its
manifesto promising
to restart mining in
the state within 250
days of coming to
power, to double the
spending on health
and education as well
as to reserve 33% of
all jobs in the govern-
ment and the private
sector for women.
The manifesto that
was released by the
TMC’s state leader-
ship led by leaders
like Luizinho Faleiro,
Churchill Alemao
and state party presi-
dentKiranKandolkar
alongside Goa state
in-charge and Lok
Sabha MP Mahua
Moitra, however saw
the main leaders of
the alliance partner--
theMaharashtrawadi
Gomantak Party give
the manifesto release
ceremony a miss.
The TMC has said
that the manifesto is
the result of an exten-
sive consultative pro-
cess done over the
last three months in
the state. The mani-
festo also reiterated
the TMC’s previously
promisesof Rs5Kper
monthforonewoman
per household. —PTI
Navjot Sidhu files
nomination from
Amritsar East
Alliance releases
manifesto, vows
to restart mining
PUNJAB POLLS 2022
TMC-MGP IN GOA
Navjot Sidhu files nomination papers from Amritsar East.
10-point manifesto for the upcoming Goa Assembly polls.
SIDHU DARES
MISSING!
Amarinder
Singh to
l e a v e
Patiala
andtake
on him.
PUNJAB
Utpal Parrikar, son of former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Ghulam Nabi Azad with Kapil Sibal.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath during an election rally.
GOA ASSEMBLY POLLS

PERSPECTIVE
04
Vol 1 Issue No. 151
RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840
Printed and published by
Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of
First Express Publishers. Printed at
Impressions Printing and Packaging
Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59,
Noida-201301. Published at G-20,
3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New
Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474.
Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra.
Editor: Sharat K Verma
responsible for selection of news
under the PRB Act
Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
Namaste, Shalom to Friendship. As
we mark 30 years of establishment
of full diplomatic ties, my friend @
yairlapid and I write on the special
India-Israel relationship.
Smriti Z Irani
@smritiirani
During a webinar hosted by @
phdchamber on ‘Stories of Unsung
Women Heroes’, interacted with
distinguished women from varied
backgrounds who have carved a niche
for themselves and empowered others.
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
Elevate yourself through
your own efforts, and not
degrade yourself. For, the
mind can be the friend and
also the enemy of the self.
—Bhagavad Gita
IN-DEPTH
MINNIE MOUSE
DOES NOT DESERVE
THIS CHANGE IN
HER WARDROBE
f humans have a fad
for designer wear,
why should the ador-
able Minnie Mouse
be denied the privi-
lege? One of the most loved ani-
mated characters in the world,
Minnie Mouse, is getting an im-
age makeover, though temporar-
ily
. Her wardrobe will be without
her iconic red polka dot dress as
she will be sporting a designer
pantsuit. She will now be seen in
a “bespoke blue tuxedo with
black polka dots”. The makeover
is to mark the International
Women’s Day and the 30th anni-
versary of Disneyland Paris.
The girlfriend of Mickey
Mouse, Minnie is fun loving,
sweet in nature and very beauti-
ful. She has often been seen los-
ing her cool at Mickey’s forget-
fulness. British designer Stella
McCartney, who has given Min-
nie the new look, likes the fa-
mous Walt Disney character
because “personifies happiness,
self-expression, authenticity…
plus she has such great style”.
Pink or red polka dot dress
matched Minnie’s vivacity. She
doesn’t need the new outfit.
Thankfully, the change is tem-
porary.
TOP TWEETS
I
egasus is back on
the front burner
with a New York
Times report
claiming that In-
dia bought Pegasus spyware
for $2 billion as part of a de-
fence deal with Israel in 2017.
The use of NSO-made spy-
ware by several countries,
including India, to remotely
track smartphones came to
light in 2021 after an expose
by the Washington Post and
the Paris-based Forbidden
Stories. In India 10 cases of
Pegasus usage to keep an eye
on journalists, social activ-
ists and others were detected.
The government has re-
fused to admit that it ordered
the use of spyware for illegal
surveillance as the disclosure
will be against national inter-
est. After a hue and cry was
raisedoverthespywareusage
to silence critics and nearly a
dozen petitions were filed in
the Supreme Court, an inves-
tigation by an Independent
committee was ordered in Oc-
tober last year. Those who
suspected that the spyware
was installed in their smart-
phones were to report to the
committee by January 7, 2022.
Chief Justice NV Rama-
na’s observation during
Pegasus hearing that the
state cannot “get a free pass”
each time it raised the issue
of “national security” gave
people hope that the govern-
ment would come clean on
the issue. The latest revela-
tion by the NYT should be
found useful by the court-
appointed inquiry panel.
The newspaper report has
given Congress Leader Rahul
Gandhi another opportunity
to hit out at the government.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted that
the government’s use of
Pegasus amounted to treason
as it was bought by the “Modi
government to spy on our pri-
mary democratic institu-
tions”.
PEGASUS IS BACK TO
HAUNT GOVERNMENT
Chief Justice NV Ramana’s
observation during
Pegasus hearing that
the state cannot “get a
free pass” each time
it raised the issue of
“national security”
gave people hope that the
government would come
clean on the issue
P
‘Writing award title after name
shows lack of self-confidence’
Remembering Ahmed Ali: A novelist, Urdu poet, scholar and diplomat
hmed Ali belonged to the gen-
eration of Mulk Raj Anand,
RK Narayan and Raja Rao.
All 4 were born in the first
decade of the 20th century.
Ahmed Ali was a novelist,
Urdu poet, scholar and diplo-
mat. He was born in Delhi in
1910. He had a brilliant aca-
demic career at the Universi-
ties of Aligarh and Lucknow.
In 1932 he published in
Urdu ‘Angarey’. It made him
famous in the Urdu-speaking
world. He taught English for
a brief period at Nanking
University in China. When
the war ended, he naturally
wanted to return to Delhi and
look for a job. In his introduc-
tion to the Rupa edition of his
famous novel, “Twilight in
Delhi”, he narrates the rea-
son why he could not return
to Delhi. “I was prohibited by
the overnight turned Hindu
Indian authorities in 1948 to
come back to India, and for no
other reason than because I
was a Muslim. As the ambas-
sador in China, KPS Menon,
ICS told me, “It is a question
of Hindu and Muslim”, when
I protested he added, “All that
I can do is to write to New
Delhi, but I can tell you noth-
ing will come of it!” (I find
this incredible) demonstrat-
ing a living repetition of his-
tory 90 years after the banish-
ment of my grandparents
and the Muslim citizens from
the vanquished city by the
British…..”
Ironically, initially, the
novel was not welcomed in
Pakistan, because it was
about a “forbidden city”.
Ahmed left for England in
August 1939, carrying the
manuscript of “Twilight in
Delhi”, with him. He showed
it to EM Forster who liked it.
Thenproblemsemerged.Hav-
ing agreed to publish the nov-
el, the Hogarth Press had sec-
ond thoughts. The Second
World War had started. The
printers said they could not
print the book for it being,
“Subversive of law and or-
der”. Ahmed was asked to de-
letethe“subversive”portions.
This he refused to do. Eventu-
ally, Forster’s intervention
prevailed- no changes.
“Twilight in Delhi” was
published in London in 1940 to
much acclaim. Ahmed Ali
came into my life in the sum-
mer of 1963. I was living in
NewYork.Iwaseditingabook
of Tributes; a gift to EM For-
ster on his 85th birthday
,
1.1.1964. Raja Rao said to me
that a Muslim friend of Forst-
er should be asked to contrib-
ute to the “Tribute” book. He
suggested the name of Ahmed
Ali. I wrote to Ahmed at his
Karachiaddress.Hisresponse
was prompt and positive.
I did not meet Ahmed Ali
for more than a decade after
the Forster book was pub-
lished. But we corresponded
regularly. We finally met in
London in 1975. We liked
each other.
From 1980 to 1982 I was am-
bassador to Pakistan. I flew
to Karachi to meet Ahmed.
By then he had made up with
the Pakistan Establishment.
President Zia-ul-Haq award-
ed him the Sitara-i-Imtiaz.
Ahmed Ali died in Karachi
on 14th January 1994. The
Government of Pakistan is-
sued a Rs 5 postage stamp in
his honour in January 2005.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
A
As the ambassador in China,
KPS Menon, ICS told me, “It
is a question of Hindu and
Muslim”, when I protested he
added, “All that I can do is to
write to New Delhi, but I can
tell you nothing will come of
it!” (I find this incredible)
demonstrating a living
repetition of history 90 years
after the banishment of my
grandparents and the
Muslim citizens from the
vanquished city by the
British…..”
The Bharat Ratna and the 3
Padma awards were
introduced in the mid-
fifties. Rajaji,
Jawaharlal Nehru and
Dr S Radhakrishnan
were among the first to
be awarded the Bharat
Ratnas. These awards are
national awards, given for
services rendered to the
nation and society
T
he Bharat Ratna and
the 3 Padma awards
were introduced in
the mid-fifties. Rajaji,
Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr
S Radhakrishnan were
among the first to be
awarded the Bharat Rat-
nas. These awards are na-
tional awards, given for
services rendered to the
nation and society. Civil
Servants and members of
the armed forces are also
eligible for the awards.
I was awarded the Padma
Bhushan in 1984. The awar-
dees cannot affix these hon-
ours, either before or after
their name. Some awardees
have flouted the practice. I
know several people who
write Padma Vibhushan,
Padma Bhushan and Pad-
ma Shri before or after
their name. This is cheap,
unseemly and shows lack
of self-confidence.
My close friend of near-
ly 40 years, Ghulam Nabi
Azad was awarded the Pad-
ma Bhushan on 26th Janu-
ary. The Congress party
should have congratulated
Shri Azad. The Gandhis
whom Ghulam Nabi Azad
has worked for with devo-
tion and loyalty for many
years has maintained a
stony silence. This is the
gracelessness of a high or-
der. One member of the
Congress party even made
fun of Ghulam.
O
n the front page of a
widely read newspa-
per, Shri Yogi Adity-
anath is quoted as, “They
worship Jinnah. We are
worshippers of Sardar Pa-
tel….”
Sardar Patel was a Con-
gressman from 1918-1950.
After Gandhiji’s assassina-
tion, he banned the RSS
Has the learned Shri Yogi
read Rajmohan Gandhi’s
masterly biography of
Sardar Patel. I doubt if he
has. I humbly suggest that
he will be a wiser man af-
ter reading the book.
K Natwar Singh with Ahmed Ali author of
‘Twilight in Delhi’ , Karchi 1980.
K NATWAR SINGH
The author is Former Minister
of External Affairs of India

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INDIA
05
New Delhi: After close
to 60 per cent of the
population in the 15-18
age group have received
the first dose of a Cov-
id-19 vaccine, the pace
of vaccination in this
group has slowed down
considerably
.
In the last one week,
just about 6.25 lakh peo-
ple in this age group
were vaccinated every
day on average, a frac-
tion of the over 40 lakh
per day who got jabbed
during the first week of
this month after vacci-
nation for adolescents
below the age of 18
years was opened up.
So far, more than 4.5
crore individuals in
this age group have re-
ceived their first doses.
India is estimated to
have between 7.5 crore
to 8 crore adolescents in
the 15-18 age group.
The slowing down of
the vaccination is not
entirely unexpected. It
is largely in keeping
with the trends ob-
served for the vaccina-
tion for adults as well.
New Delhi: The seven
Indian sailors on board
a United Arab Emir-
ates-flagged cargo ves-
sel that was seized by
the Houthis off the port
of Hodeidah in Yemen
are in good health and
the government is in
touch with multiple
sources to reinforce its
message to the Houthis
that they be released at
the earliest, the Minis-
try of External Affairs
(MEA) said Friday
.
Responding to a ques-
tion at an online media
briefing, MEA Spokes-
person Arindam Bagchi
said that as per the in-
formation received
from the shipping com-
pany based in the UAE
as well as from other
sources, the seven Indi-
an sailors are safe, in
good health and are be-
ing provided regular
meals.
However,theircaptors
havenotallowedthemto
communicate with their
families, he said.
Thegovernmentof In-
dia is in touch with mul-
tiple sources to enquire
aboutthesafetyandwell-
being of the sailors,
Bagchi said. —PTI
Focus likely on increasing
limits for tax exemption
New Delhi: The Union
Budget is expected to
focus on employment
generation, increase in
limits for basic tax ex-
emption, standard de-
duction, medical ex-
penses, rationalisation
of tax rates and certain
social security invest-
ments.
Currently, Section
16(1A) of the IT Act pro-
vides for a standard de-
duction of Rs 50,000
from the salary income
of a taxpayer. This de-
duction was enhanced
from Rs 40,000 to 50,000
by the Finance Act 2019
and has not been in-
creased since then.
However, considering
the rising inflation and
cost of living, there is a
need to increase such
standard deduction for
the salaried personnel
from Rs 50,000 to Rs
60,000 in case there is no
increase in the basic ex-
emption limit, said
Suresh Surana, Found-
er - RSM India.
Currently, section
80TTA provides deduc-
tion up to Rs 10,000 p.a.
only with respect to the
interest from savings
bank accounts with
banks/co-operative so-
ciety/post office.
However, for the pur-
pose of enabling major-
ity of taxpayers to avail
this tax benefit, the ex-
isting scope of the said
section needs to be ex-
panded in order to cov-
er other types of inter-
est such as interest on
bank/post office term
deposits, recurring de-
posit etc. Moreover,
such threshold limit of
Rs 10,000 also needs to
be enhanced to Rs 20,000
as there was no change
in the limit since its in-
troduction by Finance
Act 2012, Surana added.
There are numerous
exemptions available
with negligible upper
limits such as Children
Education Allowance
(Rs.100 pm per child),
ChildrenHostelExpend-
iture Allowance (Rs 300
pm per child). —Agencies
BEATING
RETREAT
CEREMONY
CONCLUDES
Band performing at
the ‘Beating Retreat’
ceremony at Vijay
Chowk, in New Delhi
on Saturday. Laser
projection, drones
show narrating India’s
freedom struggle
also formed part of
the ‘Beating Retreat’
ceremony.
—PHOTO BY ANI
Other areas are employment generation,
medical, and social security investments
MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi
CODE OF CONDUCT FOR RS MEMBERS
RAJ STATE SCHOOL BOARD CHAIRMAN
SACKED IN REET PAPER LEAK CASE
New Delhi: Days ahead
of the Budget Session
of the Parliament, the
Rajya Sabha Secre-
tariat has released a
Code of Conduct for its
members. The direc-
tion for the 'Code of
Conduct' came from
Chairman of the Upper
House M Venkaiah
Naidu, informing that
Committee on Ethics
in its Fourth Report
presented to the
Council on the March
14, 2005 and adopted
by it on April 20, 2005
had inter alia con-
sidered the Code of
Conduct for Members
enumerated by the
Committee in its First
Report which was also
adopted by the Council.
The Committee felt that
the Code was quite
comprehensive and
endorsed the same. It
recommended that the
Code of Conduct may
be published in Bulletin
Part II on the eve of
each Session for infor-
mation of and compli-
ance by the Members.
NO ZERO AND
QUESTION HOURS
IN PARLIAMENT
ON JAN 31, FEB 1
Cop shot dead in JK's
Anantnag by terrorists
New Delhi: A Jammu
Kashmir police offic-
er was killed in the line
of duty when he was
fired upon by terrorists
in Anantnag, said the
police.
Head constable Ali
Mohammad was shot at
around 5.35 pm near his
residence at Hasanpora
in the Bijbehara area of
Anantnag, a police offi-
cial said.
The constable was
shifted to a hospital in
criticalconditionwhere
he succumbed.
The area has been
cordoned off and a hunt
launched to find the ter-
rorists, the official said.
Jammu and Kashmir
Police has registered a
case against the terror-
ists who fired upon a
policeman in the Anant-
nag district. —PTI
First India Bureau
Jaipur: The Ashok Ge-
hlot government on Sat-
urday sacked the chair-
man of Rajasthan
Board of Secondary
Education, Ajmer, DP
Jaroli, and suspended
the Board secretary
Arvind Kumar Sengwa
and two others in con-
nection with the paper
leak during the teach-
ers’ recruitment exam
(REET) in September.
The state govern-
ment also decided to
introduce a bill in the
upcoming budget ses-
sion of the assembly
with strict provisions to
check paper leaks and
cheating in exams.
The development
came after a high-level
meeting chaired by
Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot on Friday night.
Apart from the board
secretaryArvindKumar
Sengwa, the state gov-
ernment also suspended
Directorate of College
Education’s Dr Subhash
Yadav, assistant director
(HRD) and assistant pro-
fessor (maths), and B S
Bairwa,assistantprofes-
sor (chemistry), admin-
istrative branch.
THREE TERRORISTS AFFILIATED WITH
LeT, TRF HELD IN JK’S GANDERBAL
Ganderbal: Ganderbal
Police along with the
teams of 24 Rash-
triya Rifles and 115
Batallion of CRPF on
Friday arrested three
terrorists who are
allegedly affiliated
with proscribed outfits
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),
the Resistance Front
(TRF), said a statement
by the Indian army on
Saturday. Two pistols,
three magazines, and
two Chinese grenades
were recovered from
the accused persons.
Sailors on vessel seized
by Houthis safe: MEA
Vaccination in 15-18 age group slows down
New Delhi: With the first freight train reaching Manipur,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said this will
enhance the state’s com-
merce and connectivity as
goods from there will reach
all parts of the country.
The freight train arrived at
the Rani Gaidinliu station
in the north-eastern state
on January 27, days after a
passenger train from Silchar
in Assam reached the Bongaichungpao railway station in
Manipur, where assembly polls will be held in two phases
on February 27 and March 3.
MANIPUR GETS FREIGHT TRAIN CONNECTIVITY;
PM SAYS IT WILL ENHANCE STATE’S COMMERCE
DHANBAD JUDGE
DEATH: CBI CHANGES
ENTIRE PROBE TEAM
Ranchi: Two weeks
after the Jharkhand
High Court repri-
manded the Central
Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) for not conduct-
ing the investigation
properly into the death
of Dhanbad Judge Ut-
tam Anand, the central
agency has changed
the entire probe
team in the case. A
20-member SIT team
has been investigating
the case since August
last year.
PUNE SCHOOLS TO
REOPEN FROM FEB 1,
WITH CONDITIONS
Pune: Schools and
colleges in Pune will
reopen from February 1,
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar
announced today. It will
be four hours (half-day)
classes for Classes 1 to
8 while classes 9 to 10
will have school as per
the regular schedule.
“Schools and col-
leges will reopen in Pune
district from February
1. Earlier in the month,
the govt announced the
closure of schools amid
rising COVID cases.
CRUCIAL READ
BUDGET 2022
Anita Hada
Mumbai:Governance
Now, a platform for
analysis of public poli-
cy and governance from
the house of Sri Adhi-
kari Brothers, hon-
oured achievers with
Visionary Awards of
2021 in a virtual webi-
nar attended by thou-
sands of followers. Un-
ion Minister of Law
and Justice Kiren Rijiju
presented the awards to
seven exclusive digni-
taries in different cat-
egories at a virtual cer-
emony organised by
Kailashnath Adhikari,
MD, Governance Now .
The Awardees have
been chosen after rigor-
ous screening by an ex-
pert panel after multi-
ple rounds of experts’
meetings.
The Governance
Now Visionary Awards
2021 aims to celebrate
stalwarts and thought
leaders across indus-
tries. It recognises vi-
sionary leaders for
their ideas, concepts,
and exceptional fore-
sight on the future
roadmaps of their re-
spective industries.
Governance Now is a
public policy and anal-
ysis platform. It is also
a multi-media initia-
tive for participatory
reportage and analysis
related to the govern-
ance of all institutions
and processes that are
fundamental and indis-
pensable to public life
in India. The platform
has gained immense
respect and apprecia-
tion globally and hosts
more than one million
visitors on its website
and more than 400K
subscribers on its You-
Tube channel. It is
owned by Sri Adhikari
Brothers Group.
Kailashnath Adhikari,
MD, Governance Now,
said: “Governance Now
Visionary Awards is an
attempt to honour the
stellar work of vision-
aries across sectors
who by their sheer
commitment and vi-
sion have changed the
course of the domain
they operate in. These
are challenging times
that we are witnessing
and our awardees who
are selected after a rig-
orous process of
screening by our ex-
pert jury have pushed
the envelope time and
again and proved their
mettle.”
MEN WITH VISION AWARDED!
Iqbal Singh Chahal Ashish Chauhan Anil Kapoor
I convey my deepest gratitude to Governance Now for this
award which I dedicate to the people of Mumbai. This will
spur me to work harder than ever for my beloved city, state
and nation. —Iqbal Chahal, BMC Commissioner
z Outstanding Contribu-
tion to Entertainment
Industry – Anil Kapoor.
z Most Popular Face
News (English) – Raj-
deep Sardesai, Consult-
ing Editor, India Today
Group
z Media Personality of
the Year – NP Singh, MD
CEO, Sony Entertain-
ment Pictures Networks,
India Ltd
z Best Administra-
tor, Handling COVID-19
Situation – Iqbal Chahal,
Commissioner, BMC
z Regulator, Financial Sector
– Ashish Chauhan, MD, BSE
z Political Spokesperson
of the Year – Shehzad
Poonawala
z Most Popular Face News
(Hindi) – Sudhir Chaudhary,
Editor, Zee News
LIST OF AWARDEES
New Delhi:
There will be no
Zero Hour and
Question Hour in
both Houses of
Parliament dur-
ing the first two
days of the Budg-
et Session.
The Budget Ses-
sion of Parliament
shall begin on Jan-
uary 31 with the
address by Presi-
dent Ram Nath Ko-
vind to both Hous-
es in the Central
Hall. On February
1, Finance Minis-
ter Nirmala Si-
tharaman will pre-
sent the Union
budget for the year
2022-23. —PTI

BIZ BUZZ
06
Mumbai: India’s for-
eign exchange (forex)
reserves fell by $678
million to $634.28 bil-
lion in the week end-
ed January 21 due to
a sharp decline in
foreign currency as-
sets, the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI)
data showed.
The foreign cur-
rency assets, which
is the biggest compo-
nent of the forex re-
serves, dipped by
$1.115 billion to
$569.582 billion dur-
ing the week under
review, according to
the RBI’s weekly sta-
tistical supplement.
Expressed in US
dollar terms, the for-
eign currency assets
include the effect of
appreciation or de-
preciation of non-
dollar currencies
like Euro, UK’s
Pound Sterling, and
Japanese Yen held in
the foreign exchange
reserves.
The value of In-
dia’s Special Draw-
ing Rights (SDRs)
with the Internation-
al Monetary Fund
(IMF) declined by $68
lion, while India’s re-
serve position in the
IMF dropped by $22
lion.
However, there was
a sharp increase in
the value of gold re-
serves. The value of
gold reserves rose by
$567 million to $40.337
billion in the week
ended January 21,
2022. —ANI
India’s Forex reserves decline by $678 mn to $634.28 bn
The demand for gold in India rose sharply
in the 4th quarter Oct to Dec 2021 by close
to 85% with demand for gold jewellery
increasing by 93%. India also imported
924.6 tonnes of gold in 2021 as compared
to 349.5 tonnes in 2020 — an increase of
165%. The predictions for 2022 see even
more of an increase with demand for gold
likely to touch around 800 tonnes as per
the World Gold
Council. WGC has reported that a remark-
able recovery was seen in the last quarter
with many retailers showing record sales
even higher than the pre-pandemic levels,
and imports and exports rising in tandem.
More weddings with muted celebrations,
higher savings and pent-up demand
boosted jewellery market.
DEMAND FOR GOLD RISES
New Delhi : While Fi-
nance Minister Nirma-
la Sitharaman and her
team are busy giving
the final touch to the
Union Budget 2022, the
Federation of Indian
Exporters Organisa-
tion has said that this
year focus of the Budg-
et will be on Micro,
Small and Medium En-
terprises (MSME) and
Export oriented.
In an interview with
ANI, FIEO President A
Sakthivel said that In-
dian exports are on the
upswing and we are
within the range of
reaching the milestone
of $400 billion during
the current fiscal year.
Theorderbookingposi-
tionof exportersacross
sectors is extremely en-
couraging, assuring us
of continuing on the
growth trajectory next
fiscal as well. However,
the logistics and a few
challenges are of grave
concerntothem.Short-
age of containers, ab-
normal increase in
freight, and space con-
straints on ships are
impacting our exports.
Sakthivel suggested
that container manu-
facturing should be en-
couragedmoresoaswe
are also pushing coast-
alshippinginourcoun-
try
. A Production
Linked Incentive (PLI)
kind of scheme for con-
tainer manufacturing
can come in handy to
encourage domestic
manufacturing of con-
tainers addressing
some cost disadvantag-
es. We also need to de-
velop an Indian ship-
ping line of global re-
pute. We may be remit-
ting over $75 billion or
moreas freight charges
this year. An Indian
shipping line, which
gets 25 per cent of this
business can save $17-
20 billion on a recur-
ring basis annually, he
said.
Sakthivel urged Fi-
nance Minister to en-
courageMSMEsbypro-
viding a double tax de-
duction for overseas
marketing so that for
exampleforevery$1000
spent on global market-
ing, $2000 may be pro-
vided as tax deductions
under the income tax
for specified kinds of
overseas marketing for
market exploration,
market penetration,
and market promotion.
FIEO also suggested to
extend The Emergency
Credit Linked Guaran-
tee Scheme (ECLGS)
for one more year and
InterestEqualisation
Scheme (IES) requires
extension with effect
from1stOctober2021at
least for 3 years. FIEO
President highlighted
the urgent need for
RDandproductdevel-
opment to sustained
exports. 200-300 per
cent tax deductions
may be provided on in-
vestment in RD and
product development
for a long-term exports
strategy to increase
value addition and di-
versifytheexportsbase
as well.
Shakthivel said that
in Budget we need to
provide a higher budg-
etforagriexportsmore
so for the Transport
and Marketing Assis-
tance (TMA) Scheme
and backward and for-
ward linkages in the
agri sector.
Sakthivel said that
another sector is Ser-
vices where govt needs
to focus. The services
sectorisnotgettingany
support as SEIS bene-
fits are also no longer
available. The travel
tourism sector has
been hit heavily due to
pandemic and needs to
be given encourage-
ment. Mode-2 of ser-
vices (service provided
to a Foreign national in
India paid in free for-
eign currency) have
neither been provided
exemption from IGST
nor refund of the accu-
mulated input tax cred-
it.
“While we appreci-
ate the new provision
incorporated under
Section 15 of IGST Act
providingtherefundof
IGST
on
the supply of goods to
tourists leaving India
attheInternationalair-
ports, it is equally nec-
essary that no taxes are
imposed on the servic-
es being provided to
them during their stay
in India. The travel
tourism sector includ-
ing hotel and hospital-
ity is already burdened
with high taxation and
tourists are preferring
South East Asian coun-
tries,” he added.
Tourism has one of
the highest capital em-
ploymentratios
and there-
fore, refund of IGST/
ITCfacilitytoMode-2of
services will go a long
wayinprovidingcom-
petitiveness to the
sector and helping
the country to take
its tourism earning
to $100 billion in the
next 5 years, he said.
—ANI
Union Budget 2022 will be
MSME and Export
Oriented: FIEO
FINANCIAL INCLUSION
The fintech industry has stressed
that fiscal and non-fiscal incen-
tives are needed to promote
financial inclusion and move
towards a less-cash economy.
Also, there is a need to focus on
incentives for financially empow-
ering women. Digital financial
inclusion of women is the need of
the hour if we really wish to make
India Aatmnirbhar. There is also a
demand to lower TDS rates
and incentivise
smaller NB-
FCs led by
women en-
trepreneurs
through tax
rebates.
INDUSTRY EXPECTATIONS
The healthcare industry has urged for sup-
port for new technologies and there are new
expectations also from this sector with the
ongoing pandemic making it the foremost
priority. Stakeholders are demanding an
increase in the healthcare budget which
from the present 2.5 % of the GDP to 3%.
Last year’s budget had announced a 137 per
cent increase in healthcare spending to ad-
dress gaps that had emerged after the pandemic outbreak.
Healthcare accounted for about 1.8 per cent of the GDP in
2021, but the industry would like it to increase further with
this budget. Secondly the Ayushman Bharat scheme has
to be managed properly and the rates reviewed, ration-
alised and revised. More private hospitals need to adopt
the scheme for it to be truly successful and reach one
and all. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities need hospitals and land
has to be allocated to them after which the PPP model
may be adopted.
HOSPITALITY HOPES
The hospitality industry is
hoping for revival with even
more government support and
proactively with interest-free
loans, more subsidies, tax
cuts, technology advance-
ments, and a measure to
increase domestic travel. In FY
2021, the hotel industry has
lost almost 1.3 trillion revenue
and this year’s budget will be
highly crucial for the hotel
industry, which can benefit
from the concrete initiatives
and regulations. The industry
hopes for a reduction in GST
and interest free loans. They
are looking for Subsidies to
revive the business with clear
measures to boost domestic
tourism.
REAL STATE OF REAL ESTATE
Having suffered for long years on account of a cyclical downturn, a host of
structural factors, and more recently the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the
real estate sector has started showing nascent signs of recovery
which are needed to be nurtured by the government and the banking
institutions to enable it to play the required role in nation-building.
The industry has expectations of higher tax exemption limit on
home loan interest, incentives to encourage rental for housing
and co-working, extending infrastructure status to real estate
and additional sops for affordable housing. Also, stamp duty
should be brought under the ambit of GST so that there can
be ‘one nation, one stamp duty’.
HEALTH INSURANCE
More people need to buy health insurance and giving
tax benefits for health cover can motivate the common
man. The sector has proposed that the GST on the
premium paid towards health insurance plans needs to
be reduced and income tax benefit on the premium paid
may be increased. Cost of hospitalization and treatment
is constantly going up leading to a huge impact on one’s
personal finances. A health insurance plan is the need of
the hour. At present, there is 18 % GST levied on the
health insurance premium calculated after factoring in the
age and sum insured (coverage amount) of the plan and
the industry has a demand of 5%
GST to encourage more
people to buy health insur-
ance. Also, tax benefits
on health insurance
should be increased
from the current
limits.
HEALTHCARE – A PRIORITY
With the ongoing pandemic, a number of
government policy initiatives have been initi-
ated recently, including notifications of the
retail sale of drugs at doorsteps, telemedicine
guidelines, and Production Incentive Pro-
grams (PIPs) for domestic manufacture of
essential Drug Intermediaries (DIs), Key Start-
ing Materials (KSMs), Active Pharmaceutical
Ingredients (APIs), and Medical Devices. An
initiative to develop four Medical Device Parks
was also announced to increase competition
and improve the accessibility and afford-
ability of medical
devices. The
National Digital
Health Mission
(NDHM) was also
launched by the
government.
PHARMA AND RESEARCH
The government needs to boost the pharma-
ceutical industry especially in relation to clinical
research and innovations. The industry has fur-
thered a desire for Nil or No GST or CRO offering
clinical trials and allied services to pharmaceutical
companies. Some have also proposed weighted
deduction on Research and Development under
Section 35(2AB) to increase to 200% to incentiv-
ize pharmaceutical companies to undertake more
research and development work so that spend-
ing for new drug discovery and innovation can
increase. Also scope of 35(2AB) to include FMCG
and other companies in the research and develop-
ment of products of medicinal use as well as food
supplement and nutrition and cosmetics.
GO GREEN IN 2022
With India aiming for Net Zero emission goals it
is expected that the budget will offer incentives to
environment- friendly practices. Industry experts
expect that attractive incentives will be introduced
across industries, especially construction and real
estate, to achieve India’s Net Zero goals. Experts
and stakeholders across various industries are
expecting tax rebates for meeting set en-
vironmental standards and certifications, a
policy for taxes on harm-
ful environmental
activities, like a
green tax. There
are expectations
of subsidies on
use of green
products and
services like
solar panels,
electric vehicles
e tc.
DIGITAL LEARNING PUSH
Pandemic has changed education and learning forever with
online classes and digital has become the new norm. All
those concerned are eagerly looking forward to concrete
financial support from the government in the form of tax
exemptions and funding. In 2021, the education sector
was allotted a total of Rs 93,224 crore. Out of which, Rs
54,873 was allotted for school education, and the rest for
the higher education space. For this year it is hoped that the
govt will provide a clearer breakdown of the budget and give
due diligence to enhance internet connectivity and modern
amenities. The quality of education cannot be compromised
and hence classes should be accessible on 5G
internet to all students. Electronic devices
(PCs, laptops, smart phones)
play a critical role, naturally in
digital learning. A relaxation
on GST for EdTech plat-
forms and developments
in the digital infrastructure
are a must for the effective
implementation of NEP 20.
FINMIN URGED TO ENCOURAGE MSMES
Sakthivel urged Finance Minister to encourage MSMEs by
providing a double tax deduction for overseas marketing
so that for example for every $1000 spent on global mar-
keting, $2000 may be provided as tax deductions under
the income tax for specified kinds of overseas marketing
MERE WALA
BUDGET!
—Inputs from First India Bureau

07
NEWS
Kumar Pramod
Patna: The Bihar gov-
ernment has directed
the teachers of govern-
ment schools to keep an
eye on the consumption
of liquor, manufactur-
ing units, smuggling,
and provide informa-
tion to the officials on
the toll free numbers. A
directive in this regard
has been issued to offi-
cials, teachers and prin-
cipals by the State Edu-
cation Department.
This directive man-
dates the government
school teachers and
principals in the state
to keep an eye on people
consuming and in-
volved in the illegal
trade of liquor, which
has been banned in the
State since April 2016.
Additional Chief Sec-
retary (Education De-
partment) Sanjay Ku-
mar has written a letter
on Friday to deputy di-
rectors of all zones, dis-
trict education officers,
and district education
officers of primary,
middle and higher sec-
ondary schools of Bi-
har to implement the
same in their respective
jurisdictions. As per
the directive, the princi-
pals, teachers, contract
teachers and teachers
of Madrasas to collect
the information about
consumption of liquor,
manufacturing units,
smuggling, transporta-
tion and other opera-
tions of mafias and in-
formed on toll free num-
bers.
“We have issued two
cell phone numbers
9473400378 and
947300606 and toll free
numbers 18003456268 /
15545 for them. We will
keep the identity of
teachers completely se-
cret,” Sanjay Kumar
said.
“We have also direct-
ed the teachers to not
allow any person to use
school premises for con-
suming liquor,” he said.
In the last 15 days,
three major liquor-re-
lated incidents have
taken place in Nalanda,
Saran and Buxar dis-
tricts.
A stringent Bihar
Prohibition and Excise
(Amendment) Act, 2016
was enforced in Bihar
on April 5, 2016, declar-
ing it a dry State.
—With agency inputs
Tipplers under the watch of govt schoolteachers in Bihar
KEEP CHECK

The directive
mandates the
govt school
teachers to keep
an eye on
people
consuming and
involved in the
illegal trade of
liquor
Govt officials destroying illicit liquor bottles in Patna. —FILE PHOTO
AI, Digital Medicine critical to future healthcare: Jitendra Singh
First India Bureau
Jammu: Union minis-
ter Dr Jitendra Singh
on Saturday said that
Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and Digital Medi-
cine are critical to fu-
ture healthcare.
During a visit to the
upcoming All India In-
stitute of Medical Sci-
ences (AIIMS) Jammu
for the inspection of
the upcoming new
blocks and inaugura-
tion of recently devel-
oped facilities, Singh
suggested that in order
to develop an exclusive
identity for the institu-
tion, the focus should
be on these futuristic
areas.
Tele-Medicine and
Robotic Surgery have
already taken over in a
big way and the indis-
pensable utility of
these new options was
realised during the
pandemic times, he
added.
The Minister an-
nounced that AIIMS
Jammu will function
in close collaboration
with CSIR-IIIM Jam-
mu. An MoU was
signed in the presence
of the minister, be-
tween Director AIIMS
Jammu Dr Shakti Gup-
ta and Director CSIR-
IIIM Jammu Dr D Srin-
ivasa Reddy, on behalf
of the two institutions.
Singh noted that
IIIM Jammu is one of
the oldest CSIR labora-
tories in the country
and even today it is
conducting pioneering
research in Cannabis
Medicinal Products
and host of other
drugs, which makes
the institute a natural
ally of the AIIMS
which has also the
mandate of research
and medical education.
Singh suggested that
in order to develop an
exclusive identity for
the institution, the fo-
cus should be on futur-
istic areas like Digital
Health and Artificial
Intelligence(AI) and
AIIMS could be a pio-
neer in North India in
developing AI based
healthcare infrastruc-
ture.
The Minister said it
is because of the per-
sonal indulgence of
PM Modi that Jammu
has, in the recent years,
developed major cen-
trally funded academic
institutions in close
vicinity of each other,
thus making it an im-
portant educational
hub in the region.
Dr Jitendra Singh during an inspection-cum-inauguration visit to AIIMS Jammu, on Saturday.
AIIMS Jammu-CSIR-IIIM
Jammu sign MoU for close
scientific collaboration
IIM JAMMU NATURAL ALLY OF AIIMS
Delhi Police arrests 3 from Noida for duping
people on pretext of providing jobs
New Delhi: Three men
were arrested from Ut-
tar Pradesh’s Noida for
allegedly duping people
on the pretext of pro-
viding jobs, police said
on Saturday. The ac-
cused have been identi-
fied as Rahul Singh (38),
Ajay Pal Singh (32) and
Krishna Mohan Singh
(33), all residents of UP,
they said.
Police received a
complaint in which a
woman claimed she had
applied for a job on a
website. She then re-
ceived a call from a per-
son claiming to be
working for the portal
who offered her a job
with Byju‘s as a yoga
teacher, a senior police
officer said.
They asked for a se-
curity deposit and she
was made to pay
`1,72,500 through multi-
ple online transactions,
but she never got the
promised job, the offic-
er said.
During investigation,
police managed to trace
the call centre running
in Noida’s sector 62. A
raid was conducted and
three people were ar-
rested. Mobile phones
and computers used in
the crime were seied
from the premises, DCP
(east) said.
The accused paid
around `20,000 to 22,000
per month to the web-
site for registration in
order to access data of
job seekers, police said.
They then used to
shortlist the applicants
depending on their pro-
files. They used to tar-
get people seeking
teaching or nursing job,
preferably residing in
remote areas of the
country, police said.
They initially de-
manded a nominal
amount for registration
from their target, but
would gradually seek
more money in the
name of creating job ID
and bond process, the
DCP said. —PTI
School, intercity buses to
have fire alarm system
First India Bureau
New Delhi: India and
ASEAN nations have
jointly approved a work
plan under which they
will develop a system to
combat use of stolen
and counterfeit mobile
handsets, among other
things, an official state-
ment said on Saturday
.
“The work plan in-
cludes system for com-
bating the use of stolen
and counterfeit mobile
handsets, wifi access
network interface for
nationwide public in-
ternet, the capacity
building and knowledge
sharing in emerging ar-
eas in the field of infor-
mation and communi-
cation such as IoT, 5G,
advanced satellite com-
munication, etc.” said
MoS Communication
Devusinh Chauhan.
First India Bureau
New Delhi: The Road
Transport and High-
ways Ministry has is-
sued a notification to
introduce fire alarm
and suppression sys-
tems in intercity pas-
senger buses and school
buses. Fire protection
systems would be in-
stalled in the passenger
compartment of buses
designed and construct-
ed for long distance
transport and in school
buses, an official press
release said.
“The Ministry of
Road Transport and
Highways, vide notifi-
cation dated January
27, 2022, has introduced
the fire alarm system
and fire protection sys-
tem in the passenger
compartment in buses
through an amendment
to the AIS (Automotive
Industry Standard)-135
for Type III buses,” the
release said.
It pointed out that
studies on fire incidents
indicated that injuries
to passengers were
mainly due to heat and
smoke in the passenger
compartment.
Accused Shabbir Chopda was allegedly radicalised by Pak-based Maulana Khadim
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The Gu-
jarat government has
directed the Anti-Ter-
rorist Squad (ATS) has
to look into a theory
that a Pakistan-based
maulvi may have been
behind the murder of
Kishan Boliya in
Dhandhuka earlier this
week.
“Shabbir is quite rad-
icalized and was in
touch with a Mumbai-
based maulvi, who
asked him to be in touch
with maulvi Javrawa-
la,” Ahmedabad SP
Virendra Singh Yadav
had said on Friday,
when Shabbir Chopda
(25), Imtiyaz Pathan (27)
and maulvi Mohammad
Ayyub Javrawala (51)
were arrested for the
murder. Now, investiga-
tors say that Shabbir
was influenced by the
hate speeches of Paki-
stan-based Maulana
Khadim Hussain Rizvi,
which he listened to
regularly. Javrawala,
who supplied Shabbir
with the pistol that used
to fatally shoot Boliya,
was also in touch with
Rizvi through social
media, Minister of
State for Home Harsh
Sanghavi told the me-
dia. After two ATS
teams joined the inves-
tigation, the investigat-
ing team took Chopda
and Pathan to recon-
struct the crime scene
and found a pistol aban-
doned in an open field
where the duo had dis-
posed of the weapon. A
raid was also conducted
at the Dhandhuka
mosque.
Teams from the ATS
and Ahmedabad Rural
police have been dis-
patched to New Delhi
and Mumbai to search
for Maulana Kamar
Ghani Usmani, who is
said to have asked Ja-
varwala to supply the
weapon to murder Boli-
ya over a social media
post that angered the
Muslim community
.
Dholera First Class
Judicial Magistrate
Court has granted po-
lice remand of Maulana
Javarwala till Feb 5.
Guj Congress prez expresses
fear of pre-poll poaching
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The elec-
tions might be months
away
,buttheCongressin
Gujaratisalreadyjittery
thattherulingBJPisnot
above “underhanded
tricks”—including wel-
coming opposition party
leaders into the fold—to
ensure a win. Express-
ing fears of poaching
ahead of the Assembly
elections slated for lat-
er this year, Gujarat
Pradesh Congress
Committee president
Jagdish Thakor told
reporters, “We are
aware that BJP is do-
ing underhanded
tricks to lure some of
our leaders to join
them, but we are trying
our best to see that
BJP does minimum
damage to the party.
The (Congress) party
will give due impor-
tance to all leaders so
that no one gets feel-
ing of being sidelined.”
Thakor’s fears may
not be unfounded given
rumours that at least 10
to 12 Congress leaders
are in touch with the
BJP
, and are reportedly
willing to switch alle-
giancesif theyareprom-
isedticketstocontestthe
Assembly elections.
Thakor and his party
are not even ready to say
if a list of potential
nominees is even being
discussed, let
a l o n e
p r o m i s -
ing tick-
ets to in-
cumbent
M L A s .
Instead,
h e
has stated that the party
will choose its contend-
ers based on their loy-
alty to the party ideolo-
gy and performance.
He said, right now,
party state leaders and
Gujarat Congress in-
charge are busy assess-
ing the ground situa-
tion and forming dis-
trict committees and
other cells.
Rubbishing allega-
tions of poaching, for-
mer CM Nitin Patel
said, “These allega-
tions are unfounded.
But then, some lead-
ers feel that the na-
tion is achieving new
milestones under PM
Modi’s leadership, or
that they are not in the
right party. They
see better pros-
pects in the BJP
and want to
join. They will,
of course, be
welcomed
to join
BJP.”
India-ASEAN Digital
Work Plan 2022 approved
DHANDHUKA MURDER
ATSTOPROBEPAKANGLE
WHO IS
MAULANA
KHADIM?
Pakistani Maulana
Khadim Hussain
Rizvi is from At-
tock District of
Pakistan, he is a
follower of Islamic
philosopher Ahmed
Raza Khan Barelvi.
Barelvi Muslims
constitute 50%
of the population
of Pakistan. He
had formed the
Tehreek-e-Labaik-
Ya Rasool Allah
political party in
2016, which won
two seats in the
Pakistan parlia-
ment. The asso-
ciated arms are
Tehreek-Tahaffuz-
Namoos-e-Risalat
and other organi-
sations.
The accused in police custody.
Jagdish Thakor

COVID-19
UPDATE
WORLD
56,69,840
TOTAL DEATHS
29,28,63,360
TOTAL RECOVERED
7,24,46,420
ACTIVE CASES
37,09,79,620
TOTAL CASES
INDIA
4,93,218
TOTAL DEATHS
3,83,60,710
TOTAL RECOVERED
20,04,313
ACTIVE CASES
4,08,58,241
TOTAL CASES
08
First India Bureau
Jaipur: Political mas-
terstrokes are played at
times when there is an
urgent need to counter
the opposition to ensure
victoryandholdoverthe
narrative. Late on Fri-
day night, Rajasthan
Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot played one such
masterstrokeandinthat
one stroke he effectively
andcompletelyuprooted
the opposition’s politics.
Rajasthan CM Ashok
Gehlot chaired a high
level meet on Friday
Night following which
he gave orders to sus-
pend DP Jaroli, chair-
manof Boardof Second-
ary Education, in the
REET examination.
With this one pragmatic
and timely move of Ge-
hlot’s, opposition’s en-
tire politics has been
routed.
Theoppositionwason
the front foot in the
REET recruitment and
the BJP had tried to cor-
ner the state govern-
ment, but with Raj CM’s
one decision, the mo-
mentum has shifted sud-
denly in state govern-
ment’s favour since it is
for the first time that
suchastringentdecision
has been taken prior to
investigation.
Furthermore, this de-
cision also gives a mes-
sage and the Gehlot gov-
ernmentwillcontinueto
upholditszerotolerance
policy in corruption. In-
terestingly
, now the op-
position is also, in a di-
rectandindrectmanner,
also lauding the govern-
ment’s decision as even
LoP Gulab Chand Ka-
taria has also welcomed
the decision.
Perhaps that is why
,
Gehlot is also called as
the ‘Chanakya of Poli-
tics’! Meanwhile, after
taking a major decision
to sack the chairman of
Board of Secondary Ed-
ucation in the REET pa-
per leak, Raj CM Gehlot
onSaturdaysaidthatthe
state govt will introduce
a bill in the upcoming
budget session to curb
cheating in exams and
paper leaks.
Mahesh Kumar
Jalandhar: Aam Aad-
mi Party (AAP) national
convener Arvind Kejri-
wal presented 10 agen-
dastoimproveandbeau-
tify the cities of Punjab
and to burgeon trades
and business here.
On Saturday
, Kejriwal
along with party’s CM
candidate Bhagwant
Mann made this an-
nouncement at a press
conference.Kejriwalsaid
that currently there are
only two types of politics
going on in Punjab. One
filled with corruption
and mafia involvements.
And on the other side
there is the Aam Aadmi
Party which is present-
ing the agenda for the
development and prog-
ressof Punjabinfrontof
the people and making
plans for the same.
Addressingthemedia,
Kejriwal presented 10
agendas to beautify the
cities of Punjab and said
that they don’t indulge
into corruption and abu-
sivewordexchange.But,
AAPknowshowtowork.
“We have shown by
workingforthepeoplein
Delhi. We have provided
good education, medical
andotherfacilitiestothe
people of Delhi. In order
to solve the problems of
Punjab,BhagwantMann
and I, met people of all
sections, traders, busi-
nessmen, farmers and
employees to know their
problems and an-
nounced different guar-
antees accordingly
. All
our guarantees were
highly appreciated and
supported by the people
of Punjab.Buttheurban
people said that you
made promises for ev-
eryone,gaveguarantees,
but did not announce
any guarantees for the
cities.”
Nirmal Tiwari
Jaipur: TheDelhi-Mum-
bai Expressway is going
to write a new chapter of
development. The work
of this expressway from
Delhi to Dausa has al-
most been completed,
leavingsomepartof Har-
yana. NHAI is consider-
ing to start traffic from
Delhi to Dausa on the
expressway from March.
A target has been set to
start traffic on this pro-
ject from Delhi to Mum-
bai from January 2023.
With the construction
of this expressway, the
distance and time of 10
km will be reduced to 2
hours and 10 minutes.
That is, about 3 hours
willbereduced.Withthe
construction of this ex-
pressway
, 32 crore liters
of fuel will be saved eve-
ry year. The distance be-
tween the country’s na-
tional capital Delhi and
the country’s commer-
cial capital Mumbai will
be reduced by 150 km.
One lakh vehicles ply-
ing on this daily will
shift on this expressway
.
There will be Delhi-Me-
wat, Kota, Ratlam, Da-
hod, Godhra, Vadodara,
Surat, Mumbai routes.
“32 crore liters of fuel
will be saved every year.
Survey of other develop-
ment works is going on.
On this expressway
, 3 in-
terchange points have
been made in Dausa dis-
trict,” said Pawan Ku-
mar, Regional Officer
and Chief General Man-
ager of NHAI.
First India Bureau
Mathura: There was
panic in the area after
Bharatiya Janata Par-
ty (BJP) leader and
close aide of Chaud-
hary Lakshmi Naray-
an, BJP MLA and can-
didate from Ramveer
Chhata assembly con-
stituency
, was shot
dead at Shani temple
inKokilavanDhamun-
der Kosikalan police
station area.
Police said Ramveer
Singh, Paigaon village
head was shot dead
when he was in Shani
Dham temple to offer
his prayers. He was
close aide and propos-
er for BJP MLA candi-
date Chaudhary Lak-
shmi Narayan.
It was reported that
armed assailants were
hiding near the temple
and opened fire on
Ramveer Singh. He re-
ceived at least three
bulletinjuriesanddied
on the spot. Mean-
while, the criminals
managed to flee after
the incident.
Agitated supporters
of deceased village
Pradhan blocked
Nandgaon road and
Delhi-Agra national
highway and created
ruckus. Chaudhary
rushed to the spot and
pacified the situation.
He demanded swift
actionsagainstthecul-
prits and ordered that
stern actions must be
taken. Initial investi-
gations indicated that
political rivalry could
be motive behind the
murder. Police have
formed several teams
to nab the criminals.
SP Gaurav Grover
said stringent actions
would be taken against
the culprits.
Raj CM Gehlot’s masterstroke makes BJP fall flat!
Kejriwal’s 10-point
agenda to beautify
all cities of Punjab
Arvind Kejriwal with Bhagwant Mann addressing media in Jalandhar, on Saturday.
Jaipur Delhi Expressway
may be operational soon BJPleadershotdeadinMathura
08
2NDFRONT
On Martyr’s Day, we remember and
pay homage to Bapu - Mahatma
Gandhi - Let us also strive to live our
life by the principle of non-violence.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO Editor-in-Chief, First India
NO NEW TAXES
WHY IS VARUN
ASKING SO MUCH
OUTSIDE THE BJP?
Varun Gandhi, who
wants to awaken
the spirit of a new opti-
mistic politics, may have
been dropped by the par-
ty from its list of star
campaigners, but he has
the power to turn the ta-
bles on many seats in
Rohilkhand. Even
though his own party
has sidelined him, TMC,
SP and Congress are
seenwelcominghim.Ini-
tially
,therewerespecula-
tions of him joining
TMC, then it was specu-
lated that he talked with
Rahul and Priyanka
Gandhi, now specula-
tions are rife in the po-
litical circles that Varun
is in constant touch with
SP supremo Akhilesh.
The current BJP leader-
ship may dislike Varun,
but there was a time
when the same Sangh
andBJPaskedhimtomi-
grate to UP
. This was in
2014 when Varun was
busy with reading and
writing and came across
sensational economic
data,inwhichafrighten-
ing fact was hidden. In
this data, 14,800 such
farmer families of UP
were included who were
deeplydebt-ridden;their
financial condition was
so bad that the helpless
head of family could go
to the extent of commit-
tingsuicide.Varunalong
with his team identified
all these families and
went out to meet them.
But top BJP leadership
did not like this idea be-
cause they were seeing a
flurry of challenges for
the leadership in the ex-
perimental and optimis-
tic politics of Varun.
MIST OVER CONG
INTENTIONS
Last week in Con-
gress office in New
Delhi, when the Con-
gress youth manifes-
to for UP was to be
released, Rahul
Gandhi, Priyanka Gan-
dhi, KC Venugopal, Ran-
deep Surjewala and
Aradhana Misra were
seated on the stage, and
leaders like Salman
Khurshid and Pawan
Kumar Bansal were also
sitting the chairs below
the stage. Everyone was
waiting for UP Congress
President Ajay Kumar
Lallu, but he did not
reach and the pro-
gramme started without
him. The reason for his
inability to reach was
said to be the ‘smog’ that
got him stuck as he was
reaching Delhi by road
from Lucknow. General-
ly
, such programmes of
Congress have the pres-
ence of veteran leaders
butthistime,notasingle
member of the G-23, a
factionof theparty’s
disgruntled leaders,
was visible in this
program even re-
motely
. With this,
now the face of a
new Congress
under the
leader-
ship of
Rahul
isclearlyvisible.Awom-
an journo asked a ques-
tion to Rahul and Pri-
yanka about slogan
‘Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti
Hoon’. She asked why
Congress is not fielding
40% women in polls in 4
states other than UP --
Punjab, U’khand, Goa,
and Manipur. Rahul and
Priyanka did not con-
sider it appropriate to
answer the question.
SOREN IS HAPPY
WITH RPN SINGH
MOVING TO BJP’S
FOLD
Jharkhand CM He-
mant Soren’s joy is
quite visible with RPN
Singh leaving Congress
and joining BJP. RPN
was Congress’s
Jharkhand
in charge for
the past sev-
eral years
because of
his close-
ness to the
G a n d h i
f a m i l y.
T here
h av e
been
allegations against RPN
in the past that he has
given all the ‘posts’ of
Jharkhand Congress to
his loyalists. Chief Min-
ister and JMM supremo
Hemant Soren felt that
RPN was playing in the
handsof BJPevenwhile
being in Congress.
Sources said that Soren
had directly spoken to
Rahul told him that
RPN wanted to topple
his govt in Jharkhand
under the pressure of
the BJP but Rahul never
took Soren’s complaints
seriously
.WhenAvinash
Pande, who belongs to
Maharashtra, was sent
to Ranchi as the in-
charge of Jharkhand
Congress, Rahul also at-
tached Umang Sindhar,
atriballeaderfromMad-
hya Pradesh, as co-in-
charge with Pande. Ra-
hul has instructed both
these leaders to change
the face of the entire
Jharkhand Congress;
especially people ap-
pointed by RPN should
be removed. Pande has
started working on the
directions.
IS NITISH ANNOYED
WITH RCP?
Nitish Kumar’s spe-
cial friend Rajiv
Ranjan alias Lalan Sin-
gh has issued the first
list of 26 JDU candi-
dates for UP elections.
There are indications
that JDU may field its
candidates in almost all
the seats of UP. While
RCP Singh is the Union
Steel Minister from the
JDU quota in the BJP-
led central govt, JDU-
BJP coalition govt is
also running in Bihar.
Then why is Nitish’s at-
titude so rigid regard-
ing UP? Sources said
that Nitish had en-
trusted RCP
with the task
of finalising
the seat for
J D U ’ s
share in
UP with
the BJP’s central lead-
ership. It is said that
RCP was also in con-
stant touch with Shah,
Nadda and Dharmen-
dra Pradhan but there
was no consensus on
coordination of seats,
or rather, the BJP kept
RCP entangled till end.
WHY ARE
CONGRESSMEN
APPROACHING
LALU?
In Bihar, the MLC
elections are round
the corner. A broad con-
sensus has also been
reached between the
BJP and JDU in the
state regarding the can-
didates. At the same
time, the confusion of
Congress is coming out
openly in Bihar. By go-
ing alone in UP and Goa
elections, the Congress
has in a way declared in
front of its alliance
partners that the party
will fight on its own in
the coming assembly
elections. Rahul Gan-
dhi wants the same for-
mula for Bihar as well.
But the Congress lead-
ers of Bihar
have now
got used
to reach-
ing out to
Nitish or
L a l u .
Now in
the MLC elections, sen-
ior leaders of Congress
are approaching Lalu,
Tejashwi and even
Manoj Jha. Bihar Con-
gress president Madan
Mohan Jha had an-
nounced that the Con-
gress leaders who want
to claim for the post of
MLC should come to the
Congress office and get
a slip of Rs 5,000 cut.
But look at the condi-
tion of Congress in Bi-
har, not a single slip
was cut.
SP BENEFITS FROM
BHIM ARMY
SP chief Akhilesh
Yadav is now feeling
that it was a profitable
deal for him not to forge
an electoral alliance
with Chandrashekhar
Azad’s Bhim Army par-
ty. Earlier, Chan-
drashekhar Azad was
demanding 10 seats
from Akhilesh for his
party, but Akhilesh was
ready to give only two
seats to Bhim Army.
Akhilesh had offered to
bear the election ex-
penses of these two
seats. But the deal did
not work out.
FIRST INDIA SUNDAY SPECIAL
BY TRIDIB
RAMAN
The author is a journalist
and political commentator
and views expressed are
his personal
VARUN GANDHI HEMANT SOREN LALU PRASAD YADAV
RCP SINGH NITISH KUMAR
AKHILESH YADAV
‘Ashokniti’ in sacking Jaroli deprives
Oppn from ‘weaponising’ REET exam!
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot
SSP Gaurav Grover addressing the media.

aterfall by de-
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