15052022_First India_Mumbai.pdf

PRIME MINISTER WILL VISIT KUSHI NAGAR’S DALIT SETTLEMENTS BEFORE LEAVING FOR NEPAL
Renni Abraham
Mumbai: Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi,
scheduled to leave for
Nepal on Sunday, will
drop by Kushi Nagar
in Uttar Pradesh and
interact with the pre-
dominantly Dalit pop-
ulation from the re-
gion to thank them for
overwhelmingly vot-
ing for the BJP in the
recent assembly elec-
tions.
According to highly
placed sources, the
Prime Minister will
return from Nepal on
Monday, also via UP, to
attend a meeting at
CM Yogi Adityanath’s
residence where all
MPs, MLAs and MLCs
from Uttar Pradesh
will be in attendance.
Union Minister for
Heavy Industries, Ma-
hendra Nath Pandey,
who will
also be in at-
t e n d a n c e
along with
other UP MPs, is likely
to be given charge as
UP’s BJP president,
another kind of thank
you for the Brahmin
community in UP, of
which over 99% voted
for the BJP.
The source told
First India, “Accord-
ing to an internal sur-
vey conducted by the
BJP, the Scheduled
Caste (Dalit) commu-
nities in UP had over-
whelmingly supported
the BJP in the recent
state assembly elec-
t i o n s ,
e v e n
m o r e
than the
OBC communities
that voted for BJP in
large numbers. The
PM visit to Kushi Na-
gar is a ‘thank you’
visit.”
The source further
noted that while re-
turning from Nepal on
Monday the PM will
travel via UP again
and attend a crucial
meeting at the CM’s
residence where the
poll strategy for the
2024 Lok Sabha polls
would be discussed.
“Already, UP has man-
dated individual min-
isters for every dis-
trict of the state. The
meeting at Yogi’s resi-
dence will laser-focus
the road map ahead
for all the people’s rep-
resentatives to reach
out to citizens with the
various schemes (like
direct benefit trans-
fer) and programmes
undertaken by the Un-
ion government.”
The emphasis on a
result-oriented out-
reach will be empha-
sized at the meeting to
be held at CM Yogi
Adityanath’s resi-
dence on Monday
.
BJP think-tank
member Mahendra
Jain, also BJP Vyapar
Cell general secretary
of Maharashtra said,
“Modiji is the BJP’s
visionary, who works
like a machine for the
party
. He does not take
rest and won’t allow
Karyakartas to rest ei-
ther. It is not only win-
ning elections but also
winning the hearts of
the people. Ujjwala,
toilets, DBT, free
house will be
made into a
habit for peo-
ple in the
c o m i n g
future.”
ShahsoundspollbugleinTelangana,
confidentofpartytakingreinsin’23
Hyderabad (PTI):
Sounding the poll bugle
in Telangana, Union
Home Minister and
BJP veteran Amit Shah
on Saturday hit out at
the TRS government in
the state for alleged cor-
ruption and unkept
promises and said his
party is ready to face
the polls, due in the
state next year.
Addressing a public
meeting in Thakkugu-
da, which marked the
culmination of state
BJP president Bandi
Sanjay Kumar’s second
phase of ‘padayatra’
(foot march), Shah ap-
pealed to the electorate
to defeat the ruling TRS
and make the saffron
party successful in the
2023 elections.
“Do we need to
change the Nizam of
Telangana or not,” he
asked the gathering, in
an obvious reference to
Chief Minister K Chan-
drasekhar Rao.
Accusing the TRS
government of failing
to fulfil the major
planks of separate Tel-
angana agitation of
“water, funds and jobs”,
Shah said BJP, if elect-
ed to power, would im-
plement them.
He also said his party
would end minority
reservations in the
state and increase the
quota for STs, SCs and
backward classes.
Gyanvapi
Mosque survey
in Varanasi starts
peacefully, will
resume today
Varanasi: The videogra-
phy survey of the Gyan-
vapi Masjid complex in
Varanasi which resumed
on Saturday following
a local court order was
carried out without any
interruption as all parties
cooperated, officials said.
All parties, their advocates,
court commissioners and
videographers were pre-
sent during the survey.
PM MODI’S DALIT-BRAHMIN OUTREACH IN UP
According to an internal survey conducted by
the BJP, the Scheduled Caste (Dalit)
communities in UP had overwhelmingly
supported the BJP in the recent state
assembly elections, even more than the OBC
communities that voted for BJP in large
numbers.The PM visit to Kushi Nagar is a
‘thank you’visit,”a person privy to the
development told First India.
Maha CM takes on Modi, Fadnavis, Raj Thackeray
Renni Abraham
Mumbai: Maharash-
tra Chief Minister Ud-
dhav Thackeray, in his
first major public
speech after over two
years of the COVID-19
pandemic held at the
huge MMRDA grounds
in suburban Bandra on
Saturday evening, hit
out at the BJP national-
and state-level leader-
ship, MNS Chief Raj
Thackeray and other
detractors.
Claiming that the
Shiv Sena was the true
torchbearer of Hindu-
tva, CM Thackeray
said, “It is true we were
in alliance with the
fake proponents of
Hindutva, masquerad-
ing in a burqa that has
been torn to shreds.
Balasaheb always said
that he did not want
those who merely ran
the temple bells, but
those who would drive
off terrorists. I repeat
again what I said earli-
er. We were in an alli-
ance that went rotten
for our party over 25
years. We kicked out
the donkey in our alli-
ance before it could
kick us.”
Launching at politi-
cal detractors CM
Thackeray cited Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi’s recent meeting
with chief ministers of
India on the pandemic
and said that, while five
select CMs were al-
lowed to speak during
the online interaction,
the PM recommended
an intended solution to
curbing COVID-19.
“The PM’s suggestion
was for states to reduce
the cess they levied
upon petrol and petro-
leum products. It was
strange, to say the least,
since we are routinely
being denied our fair
share of the GST devo-
lution, which is con-
stantly delayed. Then
there are plans for the
bullet train as connec-
tivity between
Ahmedabad and Mum-
bai cities although no
one from Maharashtra
wants it. The effort is
only to snatch Mumbai
city away and no Shiv
Sainik in whose veins
the saffron blood has
been transfused by Bal-
asaheb Thackeray
would stand for such
plans.”
CM Thackeray also
accused erstwhile BJP
CM Devendra Fadnavis
of having let the cat out
of the bag at a recent
public function held at
the Jio Centre nearby,
where he allegedly said
that Mumbai city
would get its freedom
soon. “He inadvertent-
ly had a slip of the
tongue and what was in
his heart came out
through his lips when
he said so. If anybody
tries to sever Mumbai
city from Maharashtra,
they will be broken up
into pieces by the Mar-
athi Manoos,” CM
Thackeray said.
Turn to P8
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray addresses the Shivsampark Abhiyan rally at BKC in
Mumbai on Saturday. —PHOTO BY BHUSHAN KOYANDE
Chief Minister says cousin Raj
suffers from chemical imbalance
without naming MNS Chief
Home Minister Amit Shah addresses public meeting held in
Telangana’s Thukkuguda on Saturday.
After Deb resigns, Manik
Saha to be next Tripura CM
Agartala: Rajya Sabha
MP Manik Saha will be
the new chief minister
of Tripura, replacing
Biplab Deb, who re-
signed after four years
in office on Saturday
. In
a sudden move, Deb re-
signed just a year ahead
of 2023 state election.
Deb made the an-
nouncement after meet-
ing with the governor,
SN Arya, at the Raj
Bhavan in Agartala.
Saha is also the in-
cumbent Tripura BJP
chief. As Tripura CM,
he will now lead the
BJP fight to retain the
state in the upcoming
assembly elections.
“We are taken by
surprise. Don’t know
what prompted him.
But obviously, he had
discussions with the
party’s top central
leadership. The party
may have some plans
and we are confident
that it will be good for
the party,” a minister
in Deb’s cabinet report-
edly stated.
Later, during a legis-
lative meeting, Saha
was chosen as the next
CM candidate.
MUMBAI l SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI TITLE NO. MAHENG/2022/14652 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 9
OUR EDITIONS:
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NUKING PAK BETTER
THAN GIVING POWER
TO THIEVES: IMRAN
Issuing a confounding state-
ment, exPM of Pak Imran
Khan said that “dropping an
atomic bomb would have
been better than handing over
the helm to the thieves”.
India takes on
wheat exports
Modi govt prohibits wheat exports with
immediate effect to curb rising prices
THE DECISION COMES
JUST TWO DAYS AFTER
GOVT ANNOUNCED PLANS
FOR BIG EXPORT PUSH
WHAT INDIA TOLD THE
WORLD ON WHEAT?
THE EXEMPTIONS
New Delhi: India has banned
wheat exports with immediate
effect as part of its steps to con-
trol the spike in prices at home.
The notification issued by Di-
rectorate General of Foreign
Trade (DGFT) said that the gov-
ernment had taken the decision
“in order to manage the overall
food security of the country
and to support the needs of the
neighbouring and other vulner-
able countries”.
Global buyers had been bank-
ing on India - the world’s sec-
ond largest wheat producer af-
ter China - for supplies after
exports from the Black Sea re-
gion dropped since Russia’s in-
vasion of Ukraine in late Feb-
ruary.
The move to ban wheat
exports comes after huge crop
loss due to a heatwave in March.
The government is also under
pressure to rein in inflation
that surged to 7.79 per cent
in April.
 “There is no move to curb
wheat exports, as the country has
sufficient stocks of wheat,” Food
Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey
had told Reuters
 Notably, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has also boasted
about India’s ability to feed the
world through wheat exports
 During a recent visit to
Germany, he stated that Indian
farmers have come forward “to
feed the world” despite a global
wheat scarcity
 According to official estimates,
India has reduced its wheat output
expectation by 6.3 tonnes as a
result of heatwave
Only export shipments for
which letters of credit have
been issued on or before the
notification will be allowed. The
government will allow exports on
requests from other countries, the
notification issued by Directorate
General of Foreign Trade said.
CRUCIAL READ
SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ZAYED
AL NAHYAN NEW UAE PRESIDENT
Abu Dhabi: The Supreme
Council of the United Arab
Emirates on Saturday
elected Sheikh Mohamed
bin Zayed Al Nahyan
as the President of the
country. He has replaced
Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed
Al Nahyan, who died at
the age of 73 on Friday.
Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ), the former president’s
half-brother, has been the de facto ruler of the UAE
for years now, particularly after Khalifa suffered a
stroke in 2014. “We congratulate him and pledge
allegiance to him as do our people...and the entire
country will follow his leadership to glory,” Dubai
ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum,
who is also UAE vice-president and premier, said in
a Twitter post.
‘BETTING NETWORK INFLUENCED 2019
IPL RESULTS WITH INPUTS FROM PAK’
New Delhi: The CBI has filed two cases to probe the
betting network in the 2019 IPL on the allegations that,
“a network of individuals involved in cricket betting are
influencing the outcome of Indian Premier League (IPL)
matches based on input received from Pakistan.” The CBI
is conducting searches at four locations in 3 states.
EXCLUSIVE

First India Bureau
Mumbai: Dindori po-
lice on Saturday ar-
rested 23-year-old phar-
macy student Nikhil
Bhamre in Nashik for
allegedly making an
objectionablecomment
against NCP chief
Sharad Pawar on Twit-
ter, an official said.
In his tweet, Bhamre
had said that the time
has come to create
“Baramati’s Nathuram
Godse for the Gandhi
of Baramati”. He had,
however, not men-
tioned the name of any
leader or political par-
ty in the tweet.
Baramati, a town in
Pune district, is the
home turf of Sharad
Pawar, while Godse
was the assassin of Ma-
hatma Gandhi.
Bhamre has been
charged under Indian
Penal Code (IPC) sec-
tions 153 (A) (promot-
ing enmity between
different groups), 500
(defamation), 504 (in-
tentional insult with
intent to provoke
breach of the peace),
506 (criminal intimida-
tion), he added.
Nikhil Bhamre
(23) tweeted that
“the time has
come for the
‘Godse for Gandhi
of Baramati”
NASHIK STUDENT HELD FOR ‘GANDHI OF BARAMATI’ TWEET
NEWS
MUMBAI | SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2022
02
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First India Bureau
Thane: Officials of
Thane police on Satur-
day arrested Marathi
actor Ketaki Chitale
after a case was regis-
tered against her for
allegedly sharing a ‘de-
rogatory’ post about
Nationalist Congress
Party (NCP) President
Sharad Pawar on social
media platforms.
The post—which
was in Marathi—was
shared by Chitale, 29,
on Friday, but purport-
edly written by some-
one else.
The post in Marathi
makes no direct men-
tion of the NCP’s
chief’s full name. But it
mentions the surname
Pawar and the age of
80. The NCP patriarch
is 81-year-old. Com-
ments like “hell is
waiting” and “you hate
Brahmins” are part of
the post that allegedly
criticizes the veteran
leader, whose party
shares power in Maha-
rashtra with the Shiv
Sena and the Congress.
“The offence against
Chitale was registered
at Kalwa police station
in Thane on Saturday
based on a complaint
lodged by Swapnil
Netke, who alleged
that the actress posted
objectionable content
against Pawar, and her
post might strain the
relationship between
the two political par-
ties in the state fur-
ther and create trou-
ble,” a police official
said.
The case against Ch-
itale was registered un-
der Indian Penal Code
(IPC) sections 500 (def-
amation), 501 (printing
or engraving matter
known to be defamato-
ry), 505 (2) (making,
publishing or circulat-
ing any statement, ru-
mour or report promot-
ing enmity, hatred or ill
will between classes),
153 A (spreading dis-
harmony among peo-
ple), he said.
Reacting to the
post,Housing Develop-
ment Minister Jiten-
dra Awhad said the
youths attached to the
NCP will register of-
fences in “at least 100-
200” police stations in
connection with the
post.
First India Bureau
Nashik: Assuring citi-
zens of alleviation of
water shortage, Maha-
rashtra Environment
Minister Aaditya
Thackeray visited parts
of Nashik district on
Saturday
. With summer
heat at its peak in the
state, the water crisis
has plagued local resi-
dents as the govern-
ment meets demand by
sending water tankers
for relief.
Taking to his Twitter
handle, Thackeray
tweeted, “I visited the
hamlets of Khambala,
Metghar & Mahadar-
waja in Nashik district
today to take stock of
acute water shortage.
While our Govt has re-
cently approved piped
water schemes to their
hamlets recently, @
ShivSena karyakartas
have reached out with
temporary water
tanks.”
To solve the water
problem at Mahadar-
waja, Ghoti, and Met-
ghar, water tankers
were sent and pumps
were installed to get wa-
ter from the wells. Work
on the Jal Jeevan Mis-
sion scheme has started
here and it will be com-
pleted soon, he added.
Thackeray inspected
a few sites during his
visit where water sup-
ply projects have been
commissioned by the
state government. Reit-
erating his vow to pro-
vide adequate water to
remote areas in the re-
gion, he said, “Our vis-
its on this ‘Paani Yatra’
(water journey) of
mine, bring the entire
machinery to these re-
mote hamlets in the
hills that face water
shortage in summers
and have never had ac-
cess to roads even after
75 years of independ-
ence. I have asked the
administration to initi-
ate water and road pro-
jects (to remedy that).”
The cabinet minister
also visited the jyotir-
linga dedicated to Lord
Shiva at Trimbakesh-
war on Saturday
.
Aaditya Thackeray visits Nashik dist, vows to end water crisis
TIMELY INTERVENTION
lll
Interacts
with locals in
Khambala,
Metghar,
Mahadarwaja;
assures
support of
Maharashtra
government
CabinetMinisterThackerayinteractswithlocalresidentsofNashikdistrict. Inspects a site for water supply developmental project.
First India Bureau
Baramati: Deputy
Chief Minister Ajit Pa-
war inspected various
development works in
Baramati taluka. He in-
structed the officials to
speed up the develop-
ment work.
Pawar inspected
road works at Mauje
Kanheri, Shiv Srishti
works, fruit planta-
tions, air-conditioned
poly houses, forest de-
partment forest parks,
security cabins, bam-
boo huts, tree planting,
and road works at Gau-
tam Nagar, Nakshatra
Garden and Jalochi.
Pawar said that “Ef-
forts should be made to
ensure that the work of
Shiv Srishti is of good
quality. Farmers along
the Kanheri Forest
Park boundary should
cooperate by providing
space for roads. Attract
road work under fruit
plantation.” He direct-
ed that good trees
should be planted on
both sides of the road.
MSEDCL Chief Ex-
ecutive Engineer Sunil
Pavade, Deputy Forest
Conservator Rahul Pa-
til, Sub-Divisional Of-
ficer Dadasaheb Kam-
ble, Additional Super-
intendent of Police
Milind Mohite, Tehsil-
dar Vijay Patil, Chief
Officer Mahesh
Rokade, Group Devel-
opment Officer Dr. Anil
Bagal as well as offic-
ers of various depart-
ments were present.
Dy CM Pawar inspects devt works,
asks officers to speed up completion
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar inspects an air-conditioned poly
house in Baramati on Saturday.
Officials brief Pawar on a developmental project during his visit.
MARATHIACTRESS ARRESTEDOVER
‘DEROGATORY’ POSTONNCPCHIEF
IT MENTIONS THE PAWAR
LAST NAME,THE AGE,80;
NCP LEADER IS 81 YRS OLD
RELIGIOUS FERVOUR
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya offered prayers and recited the ‘Ghantanad', at Gol Deval Mandir, at Girgaon in Mumbai, on
Saturday. He was accompanied by party workers. —PHOTO BY BHUSHAN KOYANDE
TWO ONLINE ‘ATTACKS’ IN 48 HOURS
Raj Thackeray
condemns post,
calls it ‘wickedness’
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Maharash-
tra Navnirman Sena
(MNS) Chief Raj
Thackeray on Satur-
day condemned an
objectionable Face-
book post allegedly
shared by Marathi
actress Ketaki Chi-
tale targeting Na-
tionalist Congress
Party (NCP) patri-
arch Sharad Pawar
and said, “such writ-
ing does not have a
place in the culture
of Maharashtra.”
The Facebook post
targeting Pawar,
shared on Friday,
was purportedly
written by someone
by the name of advo-
cate Nitin Bhave.
Such writing is not
a tendency, but wick-
edness and it needs
to be controlled
promptly, Thackeray
said in a statement
issued on Twitter
and Facebook.
Thackeray, howev-
er, said it needs to be
examined whether
the post is written by
the persons being
named or someone is
allegedly trying to
trigger a fresh con-
troversy
.
He also said that
the Maharashtra
government should
immediately probe
this episode and deal
with such things
sternly
.
He said the ideol-
ogy has to be fought
with ideology. “We
have differences
with them (Pawar)
and those will be
there. But it is quite
wrong to come to
such a hideous level.
It needs to be told
quite clearly that
this is not Maharash-
tra’s culture. To
write something like
this is not a tendency
,
but wickedness. It
needs to be checked
in time,” he added.
When asked about the post in Nanded by media
persons on Saturday evening, Pawar said he did
not know Chitale and had no idea about what
she had allegedly posted about him on social
media. Meanwhile, black ink and eggs were
thrown at Chitale outside Kalamboli police sta-
tion in Navi Mumbai by women wing workers of
the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
IGNORANT OF IT ALL?
Raj Thackeray
Ketaki Chitale
NCP leader
Sharad Pawar

MAHARASHTRA
03
READ
crucial
crucial
TWO MINORS MOLESTED IN
SEPARATE INCIDENTS IN NAGPUR
Maharashtra
Maharashtra
STATE ANNOUNCES FREE GENDER
REASSIGNMENT SURGERIES
AGGRIEVED NAGPUR VARSITY STUDENTS
MEET VC, DEMAND ONLINE EXAMS
17 PLASTIC SCRAP GODOWNS GUTTED IN
FIRE IN THANE, NONE INJURED
Mumbai: Gender affirming or sex reassignment
surgeries would be carried out free for members of the
transgender community in Maharashtra, state Health
Minister Rajesh Tope has said. He made the announce-
ment at a conference organised by the Public Health
Department and the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre here
on Thursday. NCP MP Supriya Sule shared a video
clip of Tope’s speech. “We will carry out surgeries for
transgenders 100% free,” the minister said. Thanking
Tope, Sule tweeted on Friday, “Rajesh Bhaiyya Tope (@
rajeshtope11) - Minister for Public Health and Family
Welfare, Govt of Maharashtra has declared that gender-
affirming or sex reassignment surgeries (SRS) would be
done free of cost for transgender individuals in the state.”
Nagpur: As Nagpur University failed to clear the confu-
sion on mode of the summer examinations, a group of
aggrieved students met with Vice Chancellor Subhash
Chaudhari and requested him to go ahead with the
online exams. The students, who claimed that they
did not represent any political party, had invited MLA
Vikas Thakre during their meeting with the VC. Thakre
assured them he would extend all the cooperation to
them. “We explained to VC the disastrous effects of
the offline papers, if conducted at this time. We shared
our plight on how the students were being forced into
depression over the online/offline confusion created
by the university. Some of them are also displaying
suicidal tendencies on the possibility of pen and paper
exams,” the students said.
Thane: Seventeen plastic scrap godowns located in a ware-
house complex at Shil Phata in Thane city were gutted in a
major fire that erupted around 4 am on Saturday. However,
there was no report of any injury in the incident, Chief of
the Thane Civic Body’s Regional Disaster Management
Cell (RDMC), Avinash Sawant, said. “The fire completely
destroyed 17 godowns in the complex. A total of four fire
engines - two each from the municipal corporations of Navi
Mumbai and Thane - were rushed to the spot and the blaze
was doused by 9 am,” he said, adding that the cause of the
fire is yet to ascertained.
Nagpur: In two incidents of outraging modesty, three
women including two minors were reportedly molested by
tormentors under Tehsil and Wathoda Police Station here,
on Friday. In the first incident, a 16-year-old girl was mo-
lested by Jahid Ansari wald Istiyaaz Ansari (20), a resident
of Yogi Arvindnagar, Yashodhara Nagar. Following the com-
plaint of the minor girl who approached Tehsil Police Station
along with her mother, cops have booked accused Ansari
under Sections 354(D) of the IPC read with Section 12 of
the POCSO Act. Similarly, Wathoda Police have rounded
up one Manoj Motiram Dange (28) for allegedly outraging
the modesty of a minor girl and also hurling abuses at her
mother when she objected to his misbehaviour. An offence
under Sections 354(A)(D), 294, 506 of the IPC read with
Sections 8,12 under POCSO Act was registered in this con-
nection.
Give job to woman who was
declared ‘male’: HC tells state
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The Bombay
High Court has direct-
ed the Maharashtra
government to final-
ize within two months
the appointment in
the state police de-
partment of a woman,
who had qualified for
the concerned exam,
but lost out on the
post after a medical
test revealed that she
was a “male”.
A bench of Justices
Revati Mohite Dere and
Madhav Jamdar passed
the order last week after
the state’s counsel, Ad-
vocate General Ashu-
tosh Kumbhakoni, told
the court that the state
government had decid-
ed to take a sympathetic
view in the present case
and appoint the woman
in the police depart-
ment, but in a “non-con-
stabulary post”.
“It is an extremely un-
fortunate case. No fault
can be found in the peti-
tioner as, throughout,
she has pursued her ca-
reer as a female,” the
bench said while pass-
ing the order.
Thebenchwaspresid-
ing over the plea of a
23-year-old woman, who
had applied for the Na-
shik Rural Police Re-
cruitment 2018 under
the Scheduled Caste
(SC) category
. She quali-
fied for the written and
physical tests.
However, a subse-
quent medical exam
showed that she did not
have a uterus and ova-
ries. Another test
showed she had both the
male and female chro-
mosomes and it opined
that she was “male”.
The woman then
moved the high court,
saying she had been
unaware of the anatom-
ical anomaly
.
She said she had lived
as a female right from
birth and all her educa-
tional certificates and
personal documents
were registered with a
female name. She can-
not be denied recruit-
ment only because of
the karyotyping chro-
mosome examination
had declared her male.
Kumbhakoni said the
special IG (Nashik) will
submit a recommenda-
tion to the additional
chief secretary of the
state home department
keeping in mind the
woman’s qualifications.
He told the bench that
the terms and benefits
of employment for the
petitioner woman will
be at par with other em-
ployees of her level, who
are recruited through
the standard procedure.
The bench accepted
the state’s submission
andaccordinglygranted
the state government
and the police depart-
ment two months to
complete the process.
THE CASE
The bench was presiding over the plea of a
23-year-old woman, who had applied for the
Nashik Rural Police Recruitment 2018 under the
Scheduled Caste (SC) category. She qualified for
the written and physical tests. However, a sub-
sequent medical exam showed that she did not
have a uterus and ovaries. Another test showed
she had both the male and female chromosomes
and it opined that she was “male”. The woman
then moved the high court, saying she had been
unaware of the anatomical anomaly.
It is an ex-
tremely
unfortu-
nate case. No fault
can be found in the
petitioner as,
throughout, she has
pursued her career
as a female.
—Justices Revati Mohite
Dere Madhav Jamdar
23-yr-old had qualified
in written and physical
police tests but medical
exam showed she lacked
a uterus and ovaries
`1.5cr hydroponic weed
seized at FPO,1 arrested
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The Nar-
cotics Control Bu-
reau (NCB) has
seized 1.770 kg of
hydroponic weed
valued `1.5 crore in
two separate opera-
tions at the Foreign
Post Office (FPO) in
south Mumbai, an
official said on Sat-
urday.
The operations
were conducted on
Friday based on spe-
cific inputs that the
narcotic drug was
couriered from the
USA. The NCB later
also apprehended the
actual receiver of the
drug from Tardeo
area of south Mum-
bai, he said.
In the first case, the
NCB team seized 850
grams of hydroponic
weed (ganja) at the
FPO, he said.
“During the inves-
tigation, the agency’s
team intercepted the
actual receiver of the
seized consignment.
The accused is a his-
tory-sheeter and at
least 10 criminal cas-
es had been registered
against him,” the of-
ficial said, adding
that the accused is
working for a notori-
ous drug trafficker in
Mumbai.
In the second case,
the anti-drug agency
seized 920 grams of
hydroponic weed
from the FPO, he said
adding that this par-
cel was also received
from the USA, he
said.
GANJA WORTH `70 LAKH SEIZED
EN ROUTE TO MUMBAI
Surat: The police have seized 700 kg of ganja
worth `70 lakh from a truck, which was en
route to Mumbai, in Gujarat’s Surat, an official
said on Saturday. Acting on a tip-off, a team
from the special operations group (SOG) of the
Surat police seized a truck with Haryana pass-
ing number parked behind a motel at Kamrej
on a national highway towards Mumbai, the
official said. The truck and the contraband,
worth a total of `80 lakh, were seized after the
vehicle was inspected, he said, adding, “As per
preliminary probe, we believe that the vehicle
was carrying ganja from Odisha.”
During the
investiga-
tion, the
agency’s team inter-
cepted the actual re-
ceiver of the seized
consignment. The
accused is a history-
sheeter and at least
10 criminal cases
had been registered
against him.
—Official
WORLD MIGRATORY BIRD DAY
WORLD MIGRATORY BIRD DAY
People click photos of a flock of flamingos standing in a pond during
the Flamingo Festival on the occasion of World Migratory Bird Day, at
Talawe wetlands in Navi Mumbai on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI
Woman mauled to
death by tiger in
Tadoba reserve
5 women labourers drown while
washing clothes in Latur pond
First India Bureau
Latur: Five women, all
itinerant sugarcane
cutters, drowned in an
irrigation pond in
Ahmedpur tehsil of
Maharashtra’s Latur
district on Saturday
morning, police said.
The incident took
place at Tulshiram Tan-
da village around 8.30
am when the victims
were washing clothes in
the pond, an official
from the Kingao police
station said, adding, one
of the women slipped
into the water and be-
gan to drown. Others
tried to rescue her but
they too drowned.
The deceased were
identified as Radhabai
Dhondiba Aade (45), her
daughters Diksha (20)
and Kajal (19), all resi-
dents of Ramapurtanda
in Palam tehsil of Parb-
hani district, and Su-
shma Sanjay Rathod
(21) and Aruna Gangad-
har Rathod (25) from
Mojmabad Tanda in the
same tehsil.
The women had been
working in sugarcane
fields in Ahmedpur
tehsil for the last five
months, the police offi-
cial said.
First India Bureau
Chandrapur: A
65-year-old woman
was mauled to death
by a tiger in the buffer
zone of Tadoba And-
hari Tiger Reserve
(TATR) in Maharash-
tra’s Chandrapur dis-
trict on Saturday, a
forest official said.
The incident took
place near Sitarampeth
village in Moharli buff-
er range, where the vic-
tim Jaibai Mahadev
Gengthe had ventured
out to collect tendu
leaves in the morning,
said Dr Jitendra Ram-
gaonkar, chief conser-
vator of forest of TATR.
Forest officials
reached the spot for in-
spection and the body
was taken to Bhadrawa-
ti civil hospital. An ini-
tial compensation of Rs
50,000 was given to the
family of the deceased
and the remaining
amount will be paid at
the earliest, he said.
Camera traps have
been set up at the scene
of the attack to monitor
and identify the big cat
involved in the killing,
the official said, appeal-
ing to villagers living in
the close proximity of
the forest to avoid step-
ping out in the early
morning and late even-
ing hours.
The incident comes
barely a day after a leop-
ardess that attacked a
three-year-old girl in the
Durgapur area of Chan-
drapur district on Tues-
day was captured by for-
est department officials.
The incident comes
barely a day after a
leopardess attacked a
three-year-old girl in
the Durgapur area of
Chandrapur district
Child trafficking racket busted in Nagpur; 4 held
Nagpur: The Nagpur
Crime Branch’s Anti-
human Trafficking
(AHT) Unit has ar-
rested four people,
including three wom-
en, for selling and
buying newborns.
The incident has once
again brought to light
the city’s thriving
child trafficking ring.
According to police,
a 58-year-old woman
from Surendragarh
had two sons. Her
younger son committed
suicide some time ago.
Since then, the elder
son is said to have har-
assed her for property.
He once beat her up,
and she reported the
incident to the police.
She desired a second
child.
While looking for a
baby, she met two nurs-
es from a private hospi-
tal. When she shared
her desperation with
them, the nurses alleg-
edly contacted Salamul-
lah Khan, 62, the alleged
mastermind in a child
trafficking case. In Sep-
tember 2019, the man
allegedly sold a baby for
`3 lakh. The woman’s
elder son was not
pleased. He recently in-
formed the police that
his mother had pur-
chased the baby
.
Acting swiftly, the
AHT arrested the
woman, two
nurses, and
Khan.
THE DARK STORY
Charge sheet
filed against
BJP councillor
Pravin Darekar
Mumbai: Over 900-page
charge sheet was filed
against the Leader of Op-
position in the Legislative
Council, Pravin Darekar,
in connection to a cheat-
ing case, by the Mumbai
Police on Friday. Darekar
has been accused of us-
ing bogus membership
of a labour society to get
elected as a Director of
Mumbai District Central
Cooperative Bank though
he was not a labourer.

PERSPECTIVE
04
l Vol 1 l Issue No. 9
l RNI TITLE NO.
MAHENG/2022/14652 Printed
and published by
Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of
First Express Publishers. Printed
at Dangat Media Pvt Ltd, No.22,
Dighe MIDC, Vishnu Nagar,
TTC Industrial Area, Dighe, Navi
Mumbai-400701. Published
at Plot No. 3 Scheme C of
Manglorean Garden Home, CHS
Limited, Survey No. 5, 6C (Part)
Ville Parle East, Mumbai 400057.
Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra
Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan
responsible for selection of news
under the PRB Act
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
Delight in heedfulness!
Guard well your thoughts!
—Buddha
IN-DEPTH
Jagat Prakash Nadda
@JPNadda
Visited Mohalla Naughara, the
birthplace of the great revolutionary
martyr Sukhdev Thapar ji and paid
homage to the great hero of the Indian
freedom struggle for sacrificing his
life for the country. The sacrifice of
Shaheed Sukhdev ji will be a source of
inspiration for every Indian for ages.
Nitin Gadkari
@nitin_gadkari
Facilitate access to large markets
for agricultural produce, local and
other products. Under Prime Minister
Shri Narendra Modi ji’s leadership we
are committed to empowering every
city and every village in Bihar with
better connectivity.
TOP TWEETS
SRI LANKA GETS
NEW PM BUT HAS
NO RESPITE FROM
DEVASTATION
anil Wickremesing-
he has become Sri
Lanka’s prime min-
ister for the fifth
time after his prede-
cessor Mahinda Rajapaksa was
forced to step down and seek
refuge in the naval headquar-
ters. His appointment comes at
a time when the island nation is
in turmoil following economic
devastation. Serpentine queues
outside fuel stations, high unaf-
fordable prices of commodities
have angered the common man
who struggles for survival. For
Prime Minister Ranil Wickrem-
esinghe the road ahead is ardu-
ous. He has to shore up his
country’s foreign exchange re-
serves, seek a bailout package
from international funding
agencies and win the confi-
dence of people.
India has backed Colombo in
seeking the IMF’s bailout pack-
age. Until the package is cleared,
Sri Lanka is looking at India for
bigger financial funding to part-
ly tide over the crisis. Realising
how its proximity with China
and wrong policies led to its eco-
nomic failure, Sri Lanka is now
wooing India. For India there is
an opportunity to wield a great-
er influence on its southern
neighbour.
R
fter Ukraine, the
NATO alliance is
seeking to encir-
cle Russia with
Finland and Swe-
den, both neutral states,
seeking membership of the
transatlantic military bloc.
Russia sees this eastward ex-
pansion of NATO as a pro-
vocative move and has
warned of military action.
Finland and Sweden explain
it as a defensive act against
the threat which President
Vladimir Putin poses. Fin-
land’s President Sauli Niinis-
to and Prime Minister Sanna
Marin want to join the bloc
“without delay”. Sweden’s
foreign minister Ann Linde
said that her country too will
join the alliance “without de-
lay”. Linde said that NATO
membership will have a
“conflict preventing effect”.
A similar move by NATO in
UkraineiswhatledtoRussian
invasion of its neighbour, al-
though Russia had been slow-
ly expanding its footprint. An-
nexation of Crimean Penin-
sulaintheRussianFederation
in 2014 was an example and
Kyiv feared that Ukraine was
thenexttarget.Itwasthisfear
which prompted Ukraine to
seek NATO membership,
though it is yet to fructify
. If
Finland is granted member-
ship, Russia’s land border
with NATO member nations
will stretch 800-miles (1300
km).Moscowviewsthis“radi-
cal change in Finland’s for-
eignpolicy”asa“clearthreat”
to its security and has threat-
ened Helsinki with “retaliato-
ry steps”, including military
.
If Finland and Sweden
move their applications, the
NATO expects them to be
processed quickly
. Moscow’s
military response could pose
a new, graver threat to global
peace. Russian invasion of
Ukraine has lasted longer
than expected. If trains its
guns on the two countries, it
will be truly embroiled in a
long drawn war.
PROVOCATIVE OR
DEFENSIVE MOVE
Finland’s President Sauli
Niinisto and PM Sanna Marin
want to join the bloc
“without delay”. Sweden’s
foreign minister Ann Linde
said that her country too will
join the alliance “without
delay”. Linde said that NATO
membership will have a
“conflict preventing effect”
A
TAJ MAHAL IS AMONG
7 WONDERS OF WORLD!
tallbegan30yearsago.In1989
a self-appointed ‘historian’,
wrote a book, “Taj Mahal: The
True Story”. According to
Oak, the author the “Taj Ma-
hal” was actually a temple of
Shivji and a palace named
Tejo Mahal. No concrete his-
torical evidence was pro-
duced. Nothing sticks like a
falsehood. It took a little time
to dismiss the Oak fiction, but
notbeforeOakapproachedthe
Supreme Court to declare that
the Taj Mahal was built by a
Hindu King. The Supreme
Court rejected his petition.
A few days back, Rajneesh
Singh of the BJP filed a plea
in the Lucknow branch of the
AllahabadHighCourt,asking
it to direct the Archaeological
Survey to probe 22 closed
rooms in the Taj Mahal to as-
certain the existence of idols
of Hindu deities there.
ThecourtrejectedRajneesh
Singh’s plea, giving him a
dressing down and asked him
not to make a ‘mockery’ of the
PIL system. He was told to do
research on the topic. Justices
DK Upadhayay and Subhas
Vidyarthi, said to Rajneeshji,
“Tomorrow you will come to
askustogotothechambersof
honourable judges…..Go and
research. Do a MA, do Ph.D.
Then choose such a topic and
if any institute disallows you
to research on such a topic,
then come to us. Please enrol
yourself inM.Aandif anyuni-
versitydeniesyouresearchon
such a topic then come to us.”
The petitioner’s lawyer
asked the court to allow him
to withdraw the petition and
file a new one. This the judges
did not accept. The court
“pulled up” Rajneesh Singh
for filing the PIL in a “casual”
manner. It further said the
petitioner should point out
which legal or constitutional
rule had been infringed.
There is more to this fairy
tale. A BJP, Member of Par-
liament, Diya Kumari from
Jaipur supported Rajneesh
Singh. She claims that the
land on which the Taj Mahal
was built belonged to her
forefathers. Apparently, the
relevant documents are in
the “Pothikhana” in one of
the Jaipur palaces. Diya Ku-
mari should ask for these to
be made public. This is not a
private matter.
The Taj Mahal is among
the 7 wonders of the World. It
is visited by people from all
parts of the globe. Every de-
tail about its construction is
documented-where did the
marble come from, and the
craftsmen. Yes, it did take a
very long time to build. It was
never a temple.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
I
Justices DK Upadhayay
and Subhas Vidyarthi, said
to Rajneeshji, “Tomorrow
you will come to ask us to go
to the chambers of
honourable judges…..Go and
research. Do a MA, do Ph.D.
Then choose such a topic
and if any institute
disallows you to research on
such a topic, then come to
us. Please enrol yourself in
M.A and if any university
denies you research on such
a topic then come to us
K NATWAR SINGH
The author is Former Minister
of External Affairs of India
A MAN
SAYS QUTUB
MINAR WAS
NOT BUILT BY
QUTUBUDDIN
arlier in this
month, one wise
man announced
that the Qutub
Minar was not built by
Qutubuddin but by a
Hindu King. He even took
a group of people chant-
ing Hanuman Chalisa on
his way to the monument.
If I am not mistaken they
were stopped by the po-
lice. All this was reported
in the newspapers. Some
years ago the 400th an-
niversary of the battle of
Haldighati was observed
with much fanfare. It
was not clear to me and
all genuine historians
whether the defeat of Ma-
harana Pratap was being
observed or the Victory of
Emperor Akbar. Maha-
rana Pratap is among the
great heroes India has
produced. He never bent
or bowed before Emperor
Akbar. But he did not win
the battle of Haldighati.
Akbar did. One of the
commanders in Akbar’s
army was none other than
Raja Man Singh of Jaipur.
Rana Pratap died in 1597.
His son Amar Singh finally
surrendered to Jahangir
in 1615, who treated him
“with great courtesy….
And never made to attend
the Mughal Court or offer
a daughter in marriage”
I have quoted this from
Ira Mukhoty’s superb
book on Akbar.
E
CHINTAN SHIVIR: LITTLE
FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
The Congress Chintan Shivir
held in Udaipur displayed no
signs of austerity. Gastronomi-
cally it must have been a treat.
9 chefs were brought from
various parts of India. Plenty of
food. Little food for thought!
Finland Sweden have more
or less decided to join NATO.
Putin was far from amused said
he would invade Finland. Turkish
Prez Recep has threatened to
exercise his Veto if Finland and
Sweden are to be made members.
FINLAND AND SWEDEN
DECIDES TO JOIN NATO

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06
INDIA
New Delhi (Agencies):
Taking the Himachal
Pradesh government to
task, the National
Green Tribunal (NGT)
has stayed the contro-
versial Shimla Draft
Development Plan
(SDP), 2041, which was
cleared by the state cab-
inet last month, and
also issued a notice to
the chief secretary, ask-
ing him to file a reply
within a month.
An NGT bench, head-
ed by chairperson Jus-
tice Adarsh Kumar
Goel, in its May 12 or-
ders, held the proposals
and observations in the
SDP to be illegal. Re-
buking the state gov-
ernment, the NGT ob-
served that the
Himachal Pradesh gov-
ernment was “trying to
assume jurisdiction of
appellate authority
over the NGT in breach
of rule of law”. “(It’s)
not expected from a law-
ful government which
has to work as per law
and the Constitution,
and not at its fancies as
appear to be the case,”
states the order while
further stating that the
chief secretary will be
“personally held liable
for prosecution for such
patent illegal acts of the
state authorities”.
The SDP, which in
violation of the NGT
orders of 2017, proposes
to allow constructions
in Shimla’s most vul-
nerable areas, includ-
ing the green belts, the
core area and even the
sinking zone, was an-
nounced by the state
government in Febru-
ary this year and then
cleared by the cabinet
on April 27.
The SDP also pro-
poses to allow relaxa-
tions in the building
height and number of
storeys.
The NGT orders have
come on a fresh petition
filed by Yogendra Mo-
han Sengupta, an envi-
ronmentalist and the
original petitioner in
the landmark NGT rul-
ing that had banned all
constructions in Shim-
la in 2017.
Sengupta, in his peti-
tion filed before the tri-
bunalearlierthismonth,
pleaded that the SDP
was contrary to the sus-
tainable development
principle and destruc-
tive of environment and
public safety
.
NGT stays Shimla development plan, 2041
RAMPANT CONSTRUCTION IN HILLS
Ludhiana (Agencies):
BJP national president
JP Nadda on Saturday
predicted that his party
would soon form gov-
ernment in Punjab giv-
en the “current situa-
tion” in the state.
He also lauded the
BJP for becoming the
first party in 37 years
to secure two consecu-
tive terms in Uttar
Pradesh.
While addressing a
public rally in Ludhi-
ana, JP Nadda said,
“We do not have our
government in Punjab,
but looking at the re-
sults of Punjab and the
current situation here,
I can say that in the
coming times, BJP gov-
ernment will be formed
in the state.”
Nadda’s remarks
have come in the wake
of an RPG attack on
Punjab Police’s intelli-
gence unit in Mohali.
Chamba (Agencies):
Union Information and
Broadcasting,YouthPro-
gram, and Sports Minis-
ter Anurag Singh
Thakur chaired a meet-
ing with the officers of
various departments of
the district at Bachat
Bhawan and issued in-
structionstostartaware-
ness activities under the
JanJagaranAbhiyanfor
the eradication of mal-
nutrition in the district.
The Union Minister
also asked officers to
prepare an action plan
within the time-bound
frame under the stand-
ard points of the inspi-
rational district related
to the agriculture sector.
While reviewing the
work being done under
the Pradhan Mantri
Gram Sadak Yojana, he
asked to give priority to
road expansion in the
Scheduled Castes domi-
nated areas and villag-
es having populations
of less than 250.
Chennai (Agencies):
Central intelligence
agencies have issued
warnings against the
possibility of former
cadres of the now-de-
funct Liberation Ti-
gers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) trying to re-
group and carry out at-
tacks during the Tamil
Genocide Remem-
brance Day on May 18,
sources in the Tamil
Nadu Home Depart-
ment said.
The Tamil Genocide
Remembrance Day is
marked annually by the
Sri Lankan Tamils
on May 18, the date
on which the over
25-year-old Civil War in
the island nation ended
in 2009.
With Sri Lanka un-
dergoing the worst-ev-
er economic crisis
since it gained inde-
pendence in 1948 as
well as the recent vio-
lence that erupted in
the island nation, the
possibility of certain
Tamil groups, includ-
ing the former LTTE
cadres, regrouping and
planning attacks is
worrying the Indian in-
telligence agencies, the
sources told media.
The Delhi Police on Sat-
urday arrested Harish
Goel and his brother
Varun Goel, company
owners of the building
that caught on fire on
Friday. 27 people had
lost their lives in the in-
cident. An FIR has been
registered against them
under sections 304, 308,
120 and 34 of the Indian
Penal Code.
Delhi Fire Service
(DFS) officials said that
it is suspected that an
explosion in an AC may
have triggered the fire.
Poonch (Agencies):
Former Jammu and
Kashmir Chief Min-
ister and National
Conference leader
Omar Abdullah on
Saturday slammed
the Centre for abro-
gating Article 370,
while reiterating his
stand that the move
was“unconstitution-
al and unlawful”.
Omar said, the
BJP leaders had
claimed about nor-
malcy in Kashmir
while scrapping Ar-
ticle370,butitdidn’t
happen. “They said
if we remove Arti-
cle 370, there would
be peace. I don’t see
it. Yesterday, our
brother (SPO Riyaz
Ahmad) was killed.
24 hours before that,
our brother (Rahul
Bhat) was shot in
his office.”
JP Nadda arrives to pay floral tributes to martyr Sukhdev Thapar
at his ancestral home, in Ludhiana on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur.
Where is peace
promised after
abrogation of Art
370, asks Omar
Delhi Mundka
fire: Building
owners arrested
Looking at current situation, BJP
will soon form govt in Pb: Nadda
Anurag Thakur orders malnutrition
awareness campaign in Himachal
Intel agencies on high alert ahead of
Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day
Gupkar parties to meet
LG over KPs’ security
Srinagar (PTI): The
People’s Alliance for
Gupkar Declaration
(PAGD) has sought an
appointment with Jam-
mu and Kashmir Lieu-
tenant Governor Manoj
Sinha to raise the issue
of safety and security of
Kashmiri Pandits in the
valley, a spokesperson
said here on Saturday
.
Briefing reporters
outside the residence
of the PAGD president
Farooq Abdullah after
a meeting of the group,
spokesperson M Y Tari-
gami, said the killing
of Kashmiri Pandit
government employee
Rahul Bhat in Budgam
has shaken the Kash-
miri society.
Bhat, who had got the
job of a clerk under the
special employment
package for migrants in
2010-11, was gunned
downbyterroristsinside
the tehsil office in Cha-
doora town on Thursday
.
ED RAIDS IN BENGAL
B’deshi fugitive PK
Halder among six
arrested in Kolkata
Kolkata (ANI): As
many as six persons
including former
managing director of
NRBGlobalBankand
Reliance Finance
Limited Prashanta
Kumar Halder, also
known as PK Halder,
have been arrested
from North 24 Parga-
nas by Enforcement
Directorate, officials
said on Saturday
.
Proshanta Kumar
Halder has been pos-
ing himself as an In-
dian citizen in the
nameof Shibshankar
Halder after having
managed to fraudu-
lently obtain various
government identi-
ties like Ration Card,
Indian Voter ID card,
PAN and Aadhar
card.Thesamecaseis
with other associates
of Halder, the official
added.
“The ED has found
out that these Bangla-
desh nationals have
also managed to float
companiesinIndiaon
the basis of fraudu-
lentlyobtainedidenti-
ties and have even
purchased immova-
ble properties at vari-
ous places including
some posh areas in
Kolkata. Halder and
other associate per-
sons are accused in a
multi-million finan-
cial fraud in Bangla-
desh,” officials said.
PK Halder being escorted by ED officials.
CONGRESS' NAV SANKALP CHINTAN SHIVIR
RAHUL, YET AGAIN, DEMAND
CONGMEN IN UNISON!
Aditi Nagar, Yogesh
Sharma and Naresh
Sharma
Udaipur: In a meeting
convened in the Con-
gress’s Chintan Shivir
(Nav Sankalp Shivir)
going on in Udaipur, on
Saturday, all the lead-
ers raised the demand
to make Rahul Gandhi
the national president
again. According to
sources, after the de-
mand of the leaders,
Sonia Gandhi called a
meeting of state Con-
gress presidents, in-
charges, leaders of op-
position of all the
states on Satur-
day
. The issue
of handing
over the
command to Rahul may
also arise in the CWC
meeting on Sunday
.
In the meeting, all the
leaders raised their
voice that after becom-
ing the President, Ra-
hul should go on a tour
of the country and
stressed that this Jan
Jagran Yatra should be
taken out in all the
states. Through this
visit, Rahul Gandhi
should create an atmos-
phere for the Congress
in all the states regard-
ing the 2024 Lok Sabha
elections.
There was also talk
of preparing a roadmap
to make the journey or-
ganized and effective. It
is noteworthy that elec-
tions for the post of
Congress President are
to be held in August. It
is believed that Rahul
Gandhi will once again
become the President
of the National Con-
gress and after
this, he can start the
Jan Jagran Yatra from
October.
Before the start of
the Nav Sankalp Shivir,
there was speculation
that there would be a
discussion on making
Rahul Gandhi the na-
tional president in the
camp. The Congress
high command was dis-
missing these specula-
tions, but now it has
been decided on the sec-
ond day of the camp
that the party is looking
at Rahul Gandhi as the
national president.
Sources say that this
issue was raised in the
meeting because the in-
fluence of Congress in
North India is decreas-
ing since the last sever-
al elections. It is be-
lieved that Rahul Gan-
dhi’s visit is necessary
to infuse energy back
into the party leaders
and workers. In the last
elections, the Congress
has suffered a lot not
only in Uttar Pradesh,
Punjab, Delhi but also
in North India and oth-
er regions including
West Bengal, Goa.
Notably, although all
the leaders gave their
views regarding the
yatra, however, Sonia
Gandhi has not yet giv-
en her opinion in this
regard. Congress lead-
ers said that such a
travel plan should be
made, in which most of
the major districts can
be touched along with
the states.
Rahul Gandhi should
get a chance to discuss
notonlywiththeleaders
of the state but also with
the leaders of the dis-
trict and understand the
‘grassroot’ atmosphere.
Party leaders admitted
in informal conversa-
tion that BJP national
president JP Nadda is
also touring continu-
ouslyacrossthecountry
.
GEHLOT’S ‘CHAIR PE CHARCHA’
WITH MEDIAPERSONS!
A big change is about
to come in party: Gehlot
Udaipur: Thesecond
day of Congress’ Nav
SankalpChintanShi-
vir brought a sur-
prise with it as Chief
Minister Ashok Ge-
hlot along with na-
tional spokesperson
Randeep Surjewala
and PCC Chief Do-
tasra held an infor-
mal interaction with
the journalists in the
media center over
cup of tea.
During his infor-
mal talks, Gehlot
said, “There is an ex-
tremely dire situa-
tion in the country
today
. The media of
the country is under
pressure From cen-
tral govt as ED, I-T,
CBI raids are carried
out on media centers.
The media of the
country is very
strong,ithasthepow-
er to change the gov-
ernment, like it did
previously on many
issues like 2G and
Coalgate.”
Gehlot said, “The
camp has been kept
after much thought
by Soniaji.”
Rajasthan CM
Rahul Gandhi

BIZ BUZZ
07
AU Small Finance
Bank, Tata Elxsi and
Adani Power soar
on MSCI foray
New Delhi (Agen-
cies): Shares
of AU Small Fi-
nance Bank, Tata
Elxsi and Adani
Power jumped on
Friday after index pro-
vider MSCI included
them in its global in-
dex. From the Asia Pa-
cific region, MSCI has
added 48 stocks and
deleted 76, with the
most changes in
China. India saw four
additions and one
deletion. The additions
were Tata Elxsi (esti-
mated inflows of $170
million), Jindal Steel
and Power, Adani
Power ($135 mn)
and AU Small Finance
Bank ($72 mn).
Delhivery’s IPO
fully subscribed
on final day
New Delhi (Agen-
cies): The IPO of lo-
gistics firm Delhivery
was fully subscribed
on the final day of
bidding, thanks to
demand from institu-
tional investors. The
issue was subscribed
1.6 times, garnering
bids for 101.6 million
shares, against 62
million on offer. The
public offer had been
subscribed only 23%
until the second
day of the offering.
Despite challenging
market conditions,
last-minute bids from
mutual funds and
foreign institutional
investors helped the
issue go through.
Omnichannel
platform Fynd to
hire over 1,200
engineers
New Delhi (Agen-
cies): Reliance
backed Fynd is
India’s largest om-
nichannel platform
that also creates cut-
ting-edge technology
with solutions across
industries., They
have announced their
plan to onboard a
30% workforce from
Ahmedabad as part
of its recruitment
drive. Apart from
being applicable for
all levels with no
age limitations, the
recruitment drive
is in line with the
company’s total re-
quirement of 1200+
engineers.Paving the
way for its upward
growth trajectory,
Fynd aims to conduct
skill-based hiring in
areas like Python,
Full stack.
Radhakishan Damani-
led Avenue Su-
permarts (DMart) on
Saturday reported a 3.14
per cent year-on-year
(YoY) rise in consolidat-
ed net profit at Rs 427
crore compared with Rs
414 crore in the same
quarter last year.
The consolidated
revenue for the food
grocery retailer rose
18.53 per cent YoY to Rs
8,786croreintheMarch
quarter compared with
Rs 7,412 crore in the
corresponding quarter
last year.
Ebitda for the quarter
rose to Rs 739 crore from
Rs 613 crore YoY. Ebitda
margin came in at 8.4
per cent compared with
8.3 per cent in the year-
ago quarter. PAT margin
stood at 4.8 per cent
against 5.5 per cent YoY.
CEO Managing Di-
rector, Neville Noron-
ha said January start-
ed extremely well but
the Omicron wave of
Covid-19 reduced the
momentum in the mid-
dle of the month.
“These waves typi-
cally hurt the high mar-
gin and discretionary
items more. As is the
trend of the past, recov-
ery does take 40-50 days
after restrictions are
removed or anxiety of
a Covid wave recedes.
Omicron was a milder
wave and hence had a
significantly lower neg-
ative impact. March
2022 month again had
robust recovery and
very satisfactory like
for like growth vis-a-vis
March 2021,” he said.
“In general, the quarter
performance and past
two waves of stop-start-
stop give us extreme
confidence on the resil-
ience of the business to
recover in the short
term,” Noronha said.
Avenue Supermarts’ Q4 profit rises 3 per cent
‘THEREAREMOUNTAINSTOCLIMB’
New Delhi (Agen-
ceis): Campbell Wilson
has termed his appoint-
ment as Air India CEO
and MD as a fantastic
opportunity to lead a
historic airline and
mentioned that there
are “mountains to
climb” in his new stint.
Wilson was the Chief
Executive Officer of
the Singapore Airlines’
wholly-owned subsidi-
ary Scoot Air.
Singapore Airlines
(SIA) is a joint venture
partner of Tata Group
in full service carrier
Vistara.
On Thursday, Tata
Sons had announced
the appointment of
Wilson as the Manag-
ing Director and Chief
Executive Officer of
Air India.
In a communique
sent to Scoot employees
on Friday, he said,
“This afternoon I in-
formed the executive
team and your union
leaders of my resigna-
tion from Scoot and the
SIA Group.” He said it
was by no means an
easy decision to leave
and SIA was his first
professional job and
has been his home for
the last 26 years.
Wilson noted that
across three conti-
nents, six countries
and more than 12 roles,
SIA has accorded him
many more opportuni-
ties and experiences
than he could ever have
dreamed of.
“It is especially hard
to leave Scoot which, in
two chapters, I have
had the honour and
pleasure of nurturing
– together with a won-
derful, wonderful
group of people, past
and present – from a
mere spreadsheet to,
amongst many other
things, the World’s Best
Long-Haul, Low-Cost
Airline,”hementioned.
Through the initial
years of start-up and
rapid growth, to the
depths of aviation’s
worst-ever crisis and
now the accelerating
recovery, Scoot has tru-
ly been a labour of love,
he said.
“But there are other
mountains to climb,
and I am humbled to
have been selected by
Air India’s board as
that airline’s new
CEO,” he mentioned.
“It is a fantastic op-
portunity to lead a his-
toricairline,nowowned
by the Tata Group, to
new heights, and I am
grateful to embark on
that exciting challenge
with the full blessings
of the SIA management
team,” he noted.
AIR INDIA CEO-DESIGNATE CAMPBELL WILSON SAYS
Wilson was the Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Airlines’ wholly-owned subsidiary Scoot
Air. Singapore Airlines is a joint venture partner of Tata Group in full service carrier Vistara
Campbell Wilson
Three issues worth
`2,387 crore to hit
primary market
Three initial public of-
ferings (IPOs) will hit
the primary mar-
ket next week to raise a
total of Rs 2,387 crore.
First initial public of-
fering is from a fertiliz-
er company Paradeep
Phosphateswhich will
open on Tuesday, May
17. The IPO of the luxu-
ry watch retailer dis-
tinctive character It
will open on Wednes-
day, May 18. And the
IPO by MudhraIndia’s
largest licensed certifi-
cation authority, will
open on Friday, May 20.
In the case of the Rs
1,502 crore from Pa-
radeep Phosphates, the
company has already
raised Rs 450 crore from
anchor investors, in-
cluding Goldman Sachs.
The issue comprises
a new issue of equity
shares worth Rs 1,004
crore and an offer for
sale (OFS) component
of Rs 11.85 crore of eq-
uity shares. As part of
the OFS.
Maroc Phosphates
will sell 60,18,493 shares
of equity and the Gov-
ernment of India will
sell up to 11,24,89,000
shares of equity. The
government will divest
its entire 19.55 percent
stake in the company.
NEW ROLE
But there are other mountains to climb, and I am humbled
to have been selected by Air India’s board as that airline’s
new CEO —Campbell Wilson
Prepared for all situations:
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal
Twitter CEO Parag
Agrawal said the deal
with Tesla CEO Elon
Musk for the platform’s
buyout was not an ex-
cuse to avoid making
important decisions for
the company’s health.
In a thread on the
platform, Agarwal said
the deal with Musk was
expected to be closed
despite the tech billion-
aire putting the acqui-
sition on hold on a tem-
porary basis while he
awaits data on the pro-
portion of its fake ac-
counts. Agarwal added
that Twitter needed to
be prepared for all sce-
narios and do what was
right for it.
Musk announced his
$44-billion takeover of
the micro-blogging plat-
form last month.
Agrawal said ques-
tions might be raised
about a “lame-duck
CEO” making these
changes ahead of Twit-
ter’s acquisition, but he
needed to take decisions
to be prepared for all
scenarios and do what’s
right for the company.
“We announced
changes to our leader-
ship team and opera-
tions yesterday
. Chang-
es impacting people
are always hard,” the
CEO tweeted.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal
Tata Motors’ `32k cr capex
plan aims to go big on EVs
Homegrown carmaker
Tata Motors has in-
creased its capital ex-
penditure or capex by 30
per cent to Rs 32,000
crore in FY23 as against
Rs 23,000 crore in FY22.
The automaker plans to
use this capex to acceler-
ate its shift toward elec-
tric vehicles (EV) across
all its – commercial vehi-
cle (CV), passenger vehi-
cles (PV) segments and
its subsidiary Jaguar
Land Rover.
The automaker will be
making its highest ever
domestic investment of
up to Rs 6,000 crore for
the expansion of its
portfolio capacity. On
the other hand, Jaguar
Land Rover would be
getting around Rs 26,000
crore or 2.6 billion
pounds.
Tata Motors had also
planned to launch
around ten new EVs
over the next five years.
HIGHEST EVER DOMESTIC INVESTMENT
Legal backing for RoW by
Dec: Ashwini Vaishnaw
New Delhi (Agen-
cies): Telecom Min-
ister Ashwini
Vaishnaw on May 14
said legal backing for
Right of Way (RoW)
will be in place by De-
cemberandlaunched
the GatiShakti San-
char portal that will
centralise and speed
up approvals for lay-
ing of fibre and tow-
er installations, as
the country gears up
for 5G roll-out.
The GatiShakti
Sanchar portal will
facilitate centralised
Right of Way (RoW)
approvals. An online
platform for the in-
dustry to apply for
RoW approvals as
they build telecom
infrastructure, in-
cluding for 5G ser-
vices, the GatiShakti
Sanchar portal offers
a unified, integrated,
centralised approach
covering all States
and UTs and Central
government Minis-
tries.
For players, it
promises to reduce
the days involved in
getting stipulated
permissions, lower
costs and facilitate
ease of doing busi-
ness. Launching the
portal, Vaishnaw as-
serted the need for
legal provisions for
Right of Way and
promised that a
strong legal backing
will be put in place
by December this
year.
At present, RoW
rules are based on
administrative pro-
cess and a strong le-
gal backing is re-
quired to empower
local officials, bring
clarity on the fee
structure and fix ac-
countability, he ex-
plained.
“That will be our
next step. Moreover,
all the portals that
are there, especially
Gati Shakti portal,
railway portal, high-
way portal and oth-
ers...integration of
those...We will be
working on these
two technological
and legal aspects,”
Vaishnaw said.
Work has started
on these two fronts
already and the inte-
gration of portals is
expected in the next
3-4 months while the
timelines for provid-
ing legal backing is
December-end.
Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
WORK IS ON
PMI Electro to
set up EV plant
in Maharashtra
PMI Electro Mobility So-
lutions Private Limited,
one of India’s leading
manufacturers of elec-
tricbuses,hasannounced
that it will set up its larg-
est electric commercial
vehicle manufacturing
plantinPune,Maharash-
tra.The35-acrefacilityis
said to come up in MIDC,
Chakan, and it will em-
ploy 1,500 personnel. The
company says that it will
have an annual produc-
tion capacity of 2,500
units.
‘NFTs will be considered as assets in near future’
New Delhi (Agen-
cies): Belfrics Group,
one of the early adop-
ters of blockchain and
cryptocurrency in In-
dia, recently launched
its own NFT exchange
platform – BelNFT.
The company says it
is a part of a larger
business strategy of
Belfrics Group which
recently announced an
investment of USD 15
million in their block-
chain and crypto opera-
tions in India.
The company says
that BelNFT platform
would help users to to-
kenize their real-world
assets and help them to
buy, sell or trade the
NFTs in a safe and se-
cured manner. In an e-
mail interaction with
an online publication,
Praveen Kumar, Found-
er and CEO of Belfrics
Group, shares what
makes BelNFT differ-
ent from other NFT
marketplaces in India
and more about the
platform.
He said that most
NFT platforms in India
are directly creating
digital NFTs for their
customers, while we at
BelNFT will be tokenis-
ing an existing physi-
cal form to
digital assets and con-
verting them into
NFTs.
Belfrics is also one of
the only platforms in
India with a unique
verification process
that validates every
NFT trade to ensure
that the customers buy
an authentic digital as-
set at the right price.
‘In general, the quarter performance and past two
waves of stop-start-stop give us extreme
confidence on the resilience of the business’

08
2NDFRONT
If you decide that all experiences
are actually arches to build upon,
soon you will have a tall building.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO Editor-in-Chief, First India
Raut bats for‘one
country,one language’
First India Bureau
Mumbai: A day af-
ter the Shiv Sena-
led Brihanmum-
bai Municipal Cor-
poration issued a
notice making it
mandatory for com-
mercial establishments
to have signboards in
Marathi, party leader
Sanjay Raut on Satur-
day pitched the “one
country, one language”
idea on the grounds
that Hindi is spoken
across India and “has
acceptability”.
He added that Union
minister Amit Shah
should accept the chal-
lenge that there should
be one language in all
the states, referring to
Shah’s comments over
a month ago that Hindi
should be accepted as
an alternative to Eng-
lish and not to local lan-
guages. Notably, Shah’s
statement has been vo-
ciferously opposed by
several prominent po-
litical leaders in south-
ern states, who said
foisting Hindi on people
was not acceptable, and
also called it a part of
an agenda to weaken
the
regional lan-
guages.
Raut made the re-
mark in response to a
question about Tamil
Nadu Education Minis-
ter K Ponmudy on Fri-
day earlier decrying
any attempts of alleged
imposition of Hindi
and questioning claims
that learning the lan-
guage would fetch jobs.
Taking a dig at those
who insist jobs will be
available for those who
learn Hindi, the Tamil
Nadu minister had also
asked who are selling
‘pani puri’ in Coim-
batore now, an obvious
reference to the pre-
dominantly Hindi-
speaking vendors in-
volved in the trade.
Mumbai--where civic
body polls are likely to
be held later this year--
has a sizeable number
of people from north-
ern belt of the coun-
try
.
Asked about the
Tamil Nadu minis-
ter’s remark, Raut
said his party has
always respected
Hindi.
“Whenever I get an
opportunity in the
House, I speak in Hindi.
Because the country
should listen what I
want to say, it is a lan-
guage of the country.
Hindi is the only lan-
guage which has ac-
ceptability and is spo-
ken in the entire coun-
try,” he said.
To drive home his
point, the Shiv Sena
leader also said that the
Hindi film industry is
influential in the coun-
try and the world.
So, no language
should be insulted, he
added.
“Union Home Minis-
ter Amit Shah should
accept this challenge
that there should be one
language in all states.
One country, one Con-
stitution, one nishan
(emblem/symbol) and
one language should be
there,” Raut said.
SITmemberPasayatcamouflaged
incomeaspaymentstodaughter
toreducetaxliability
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Should the
bank accounts of for-
mer justice Arijit
Pasayat be subjected to
a special audit under
Section 142 (2A) of the
I-T Act, following his
recourse to the provi-
sions of the customized
Vivaad se Vishwas
scheme launched in
2020 by the Income-Tax
department? The good
judge is after all
m e m b e r
(vice-char-
man) of
the spe-
cial in-
ve s t i -
g a -
tion
team (SIT) appointed
by the Supreme Court
of India and empow-
ered to unearth black
money trails abroad in
coordination with the
Reserve Bank of India
(RBI), Intelligence Bu-
reau (IB), Enforcement
Directorate (ED), Cen-
tral Bureau of Investi-
gation (CBI), Financial
Intelligence Unit, Re-
search and Analysis
Wing (RAW) and Direc-
torate of Revenue Intel-
ligence (DRI).
As First India previ-
ously reported, a sec-
tion of the I-T depart-
ment (from the assess-
ment side) insisted that
considering the fact
that the SIT member
had made full disclo-
sure of all receipts of
income, there was no
case of moral turpitude
or malafide intent made
out against the good
judge. However, another
section feels strongly
that a case is actually
made out against Pasay-
at.
Says an assessing of-
ficer, “The data submit-
ted by the SIT member
indicates that, for one,
there are a lot of hid-
den donations that
were made out by the
former justice to his
own daughter, along
with an attempt to cam-
ouflage income inten-
tionally with the single-
minded purpose of re-
ducing his tax burden.
It is a clear case of
moral impropriety for a
person of his standing.
Having said that, the as-
sessment officer of I-T
is not concerned about
a moralistic assess-
ment.”
He added, “It is clear-
ly noted by the assess-
ing officer that the for-
mer justice indulged in
misappropriation of
funds by showing it as
expenditure or as hav-
ing been given to some
entity here or there, in-
cluding his own family
members, merely to
avoid paying tax on the
same. The fact is that
the effort to show the
income (from arbitra-
tions) as other income
rather than profession-
al income is a clear case
of deliberate avoidance
of tax as the rates of
taxability for the two
income heads is differ-
ent. Categorization as
other income permits
for income exemptions
that are available while
business and profes-
sional income attract
income tax on even one
rupeethatissoearned.”
On the question of
whether a special audit
needs to be conducted
in the case including
for previous assess-
ment years, another
senior I-T officer told
First India, “VsV itself
was a cumulative
scheme. Besides, we do
not have the investiga-
tive powers to look into
the previous years as-
sessments unless the
books of accounts sub-
mitted by the person
being assessed failed to
reflect all the income
received by her or him.
For a special audit, the
assessing officer has to
establish malafide in-
tent to avoid tax was
proved while in the cur-
rent case, a full disclo-
sure of income appears
to have been made.”
Propriety Demands High Moral
Standards From SIT Members
Probing Black Money Trail
Sena
leader says
Hindi is spoken
across India and has
acceptability
WHY IS NITISH A
‘COMPULSION’ FOR
BJP?
The BJP is already
gearing up for the
2024 general elections,
so the Saffron Party’s
effort to somehow ‘per-
suade’ Nitish Kumar is
going on these days.
Many state BJP leaders
were openly engrossed
in peddling a rhetoric
against Nitish Kumar,
due to which, Nitish
was reportedly angry
with the BJP. The party
High Command has en-
trusted the responsibil-
ity of persuading Nit-
ish to Dharmendra
Pradhan. Thus, Prad-
han suddenly reached
Patna to meet Nitish,
and if sources are to be
believed, the two lead-
ers talked for hours in a
‘closed room.’ Nitish
has been assured by the
BJP High Command
that “he will run the
government in Bihar on
his own terms, and
there will be no inter-
ference from the BJP’s
side.” Nitish has de-
manded replacement of
two people, one of them
is from the BJP i.e. State
President Sanjay Jaisw-
al whom Nitish doesn’t
like at all the other
person is the State As-
sembly Speaker Vijay
Kumar Sinha. Nitish
has been assured that
these two will be re-
placed in times to come.
It is said that Pradhan
has told Nitish that
‘Jaiswal will be re-
placed after the Presi-
dential election.’ Sourc-
esrevealthatBJPwants
to place a young leader
from a ‘forward com-
munity’ on the position
of State Chief and
Vivek Thakur, who is
CP Thakur’s son and
hails from Bhumihar
community, could be
the new BJP State Chief
for Bihar. In the recent
past, Tejashwi Yadav
has succeeded in break-
ing the traditional Bhu-
mihar vote bank of BJP
,
and this time in the Leg-
islative Council elec-
tions, three Bhumihar
leaders have won the
election on Tejashwi’s
initiative. The BJP is
also worried that if Nit-
ish is left open, he may
join hands with Lalu
again like in 2015,
which could eclipse the
BJP’s prospects in Bi-
har in the 2024 general
elections.
‘MAHARAJ’ IN A NEW
AVATAR
Several ministers of
the Modi govern-
ment are extremely ac-
tive on social media,
but it seems that Jyoti-
raditya Scindia, who
has shifted to the BJP,
is different. Recently, a
passenger, who was
travelling by a SpiceJet
plane, boarded the
plane and found that
his window was
partially damaged.
He immediately
clicked a photo of
that broken window
and tagged Civil
Aviation Min-
ister i.e.
Scindia on
T w i t t e r
and wrote that ‘this is a
serious security lapse.’
Scindia saw the tweet
and immediately took
the top most SpiceJet
officials on the line.
The Minister gave clear
instructions that ‘till
the time window is not
fixed, the aircraft will
not takeoff ’. The com-
pany officials tried to
make the Minister un-
derstand their point
that the window glass
has a minor damage
and they will get it
fixed. But Scindia
didn’t agree, as a re-
sult, the airline had to
send its engineers on
that runway itself to
get the window re-
paired. The entire pro-
cess took 10-12 hours,
and only then the plane
was allowed to take-
off from there. Af-
ter this, the Min-
ister has instruct-
ed that after
checking all the
aircraft of this
airline, a re-
port should
be sent to
him.
WHO IS POOJA
SINGHAL ?
Jharkhand’s IAS of-
ficer, Pooja Singhal
is a picture of the de-
sired mixture of poli-
tics and bureaucracy,
which tries to tell to
what extent the bureau-
cracy itself is involved
in it, showing the path
of corruption to the
leaders. In Jharkhand,
when the so-called hon-
est Chief Minister of
BJP was ‘in power’,
Pooja Singhal used to
‘have her say’. Although
Pooja has been the mas-
termind behind count-
less scams, but when
there was a massive
MGNREGA scam in
Khunti, an inquiry
committee was set up
regarding the involve-
ment of ‘Madam IAS.’
That committee was
headed by the then CS
of Jharkhand, Rajbala
Verma and Principal
Secretary AP Singh,
who gave a clean chit to
Pooja Singhal in this
matter. While Nidhi
Khare, who was a Secre-
tary in the government,
openly opposed giving a
clean chit to Pooja. To-
day, Nidhi Khare is
posted in New Delhi
and Nidhi’s husband
Amit Khare, who is also
an IAS officer, is a very
powerful officer in the
PMO. It should be noted
that during that period,
there were serious alle-
gations of corruption
on Rajbala Verma and
AP Singh and then the
PMO had asked Raghu-
bar Das to get both Ver-
ma and Singh investi-
gated. But Raghubar
Das, a master in side-
lining ‘trouble’, sup-
pressed the matter
with some clever
moves. Hemant Sor-
en has been a tar-
get of BJP
since the
beginning and Pooja
Singhal had become an
important member of
Hemant’s kitchen cabi-
net, so preparations are
being made to ‘target’
Soren as well, on the
pretext of Singhal. As
for Raghubar Das, he
was thrashing his
hands and feet to come
to the Rajya Sabha, his
eyes were also on the
CM’s chair. It is said
that the ED in its rigor-
ous interrogation, has
uncovered many impor-
tant secrets from Pooja
Singhal. It has also been
revealed that Singhal
had made her relation-
ship a little too sweet
through the ‘baniya
connection’ with
Raghubar Das.
THE REAL CONCERN
OF CHINTAN SHIVIR
Many senior party
leaders were ab-
sent from Congress’s
Chintan Shivir in
Udaipur as they weren’t
even invited to the
camp. Congress has its
own government in Ra-
jasthan and
C h h a t t i s -
garh, be-
sides, it is
involved
in coali-
tion gov-
e r n -
ments in Maharashtra
Jharkhand. None of
the ministers in these
governments were in-
vited to the Chintan
Shivir. Even working
presidents of state
units many party
spokespersons were
also not invited. Every-
one was perplexed as to
who had prepared the
list of invitees? Leaders
like Jignesh Mevani
and Kanhaiya Kumar
may not have got any
post in the party, but
both of them are very
dear to Rahul, so they
were invited to the
camp. Mevani is an in-
dependent MLA from
Gujarat, many Con-
gressmen were sur-
prised to see him at the
camp, however, he is
close to Rahul and
hence, was given an in-
vitation. Sonia Gandhi
was also aware of this
camaraderie, which she
referred to in her inau-
gural address and said,
“Many party leaders
wanted to stay in this
camp, but due to some
reasons, we have had to
limit our participation.
But I am sure that these
leaders will understand
our compulsions. I
want to tell them that
just by not being pre-
sent in Udaipur, their
role or ability in the or-
ganisation has not been
devalued.”
FIRST INDIA SUNDAY SPECIAL
BY TRIDIB
RAMAN
The author is a journalist
and political commentator
and views expressed are
his personal
POOJA SINGHAL
SONIA GANDHI
NITISH KUMAR
JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA
From Page1
Thackeray further not-
ed that the Union gov-
ernment was not even
willing to speak on the
indiscriminate killing
of Kashmiri Pandits
(Rahul Bhat) and was
instead trying to ped-
dle a fake narrative us-
ing its A, B and C teams
to distract people using
issues like the Aurang-
zeb tomb, Hanuman
Chalisa and loudspeak-
ers on mosques.
“The Union govern-
ment should instead
clear our Kanjurmarg
(metro deport) file, and
give us the Railway
land at Dharavi for
which we have already
paid half the money
sought. Modiji has giv-
en free foodgrains but
the prices of gas cylin-
ders and petrol have
crossed the Rs100-bar-
rier and people are un-
able to cook their meals
any more,” the CM
said.
He warned political
detractors against at-
tempting to target Ma-
harasthra on pain of
meeting with a fitting
response in the typi-
cal style of the Shiv
Sena.
CMTAKESONDETRACTORS,PULLSNOPUNCHES
Shiv Sena supporters dressed as Hindu deities during the
Shivsampark Abhiyan rally of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav
Thackeray, at BKC in Mumbai on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

THE SCORCHING SUMMER JUST GOT HOTTER AS FIRST INDIA WELCOMES ALL
THE BEAUTIFUL WOMEN TO REGISTER FOR THE FIRST MISS INDIA SEASON 2,
AN INITIATIVE OF JAGDEESH CHANDRA WHICH HAS CHANGED THE
WORLD OF BEAUTY PAGEANTS, GLAMOUR AND ENTERTAINMENT!
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/
thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
irst Miss India,
an initiative of
J a g d e e s h
C h a n d r a ,
launched its
Season 2 on 27
Aprilinaglam-
orous affair in Mum-
bai. After the huge
success of Season 1
which culminated on
Oct 31, 2021 in Goa
with the crowning of
Pearl Agarwal as
Miss First India’21
and Rayna Sikri as
First Miss India
Teen’21, the 2022
season was much
awaited by young
aspirants across
India. Season 2
promises to be
even more en-
riching,power-
ful, alluring
and fascinat-
ing with its
finale sched-
uled in Mum-
bai in the
first week of
October and auditions
across India, before
that.
Anjali Khandal has
been selected as the
Face of First Miss In-
dia, the young innocent
beauty from Rajasthan
is the symbol of the
lakhs of young girls
who hope to make it big
in the world of enter-
tainment and glamour.
This is the promise of
FirstIndiathroughthis
all-India Beauty Pag-
eant and the vision of
Jagdeesh Chandra to
bring opportunity and
employment to the
doorstep of all deserv-
ing candidates.
The interest antenna
among young beauties
perked up even more
by the two major an-
nouncements by
Jagdeesh Chandra that
the Winners of the
First Miss India will
not be under any exclu-
sive contract and thus
will be free to partici-
pate in any pageant or
event; and the second
that the participants of
Season 1 (except for the
winners Pearl and Ray-
na) are welcome to try
a second time for the
coveted crown.
First Miss India Sea-
son 2 will be curated by
Blanckanvas Media
and the finale will be
choreographed by Pari-
mal Mehhta.
Apart from cash in-
centives, and gorgeous
crowns by SVAR Fine
Jewellery
, the winners
will also win Brand en-
dorsements and SM in-
fluencer contracts, cal-
endar shoots and more.
The First Season wit-
nessed Supermodel
and influencer Hina
Khan, celebrity Fash-
ion Designer Ken
Ferns, Actress, VJ and
supermodel Deepti Gu-
jral, Supermodel and
Miss Universe
India 2015 first
runner up
Natasha As-
sadi as the
jury
.
W i t h i n
two weeks
of online
r e g i s t r a -
tions being
o p e n e d
(https://
www.first-
m i s s i n -
dia.in) en-
tries have
a l r e a d y
crossed
1000 plus
with the
highest
numbers
coming in
from Mum-
bai and Delhi,
though Banga-
lore and Chan-
digarh are fol-
lowing closely
.
Audition in
Mumbai will be
held in the first
week of July
with Jaipur,
Pune, Bangalore,
Chandigarh, Del-
hi, Indore, Kolkata
and Ahmedabad
planned by the end
of August. Keep
watching this
space for the
upcoming
gala event
toannounce
the star-stud-
ded jury for
the auditions.
F
BIENVENUE
BELLES FILLES
ANITA HADA
anita.hada@firstindianews.com
Jagdeesh Chandra with the winners of First Miss India Season 1. From left Rayna Sikri (Winner First Miss India Teen), Mrunmayi Barve (First Miss India Teen 2nd Runner up),
Pearl Agarwal (Winner First Miss India), Lekh Uthaiah (First Miss India 2nd Runner up), Shreya Gupta (First Miss India 1st Runner up) and Shubhi Dhaneta (First Miss India Teen 1st Runner up)
Anjali Khandal and Natasha Assadi Hina Khan and Deepti Gujral
—PHOTOS
BY
MUKESH
KIRADOO
MUMBAI, SUNDAY,
MAY 15, 2022

10
ETC
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
t is amazing and par-
tial to remain a stu-
dent of English litera-
ture and not know
one’sindigenoustradi-
tion and current writ-
ings in Hindi which is
our mother tongue. It’s like
being an anglophile with a
passionwithnoculturalback-
ground to support one as a
scholar or lover of language.
The knowledge equips one to
know one’s strengths. It saves
one from sustaining a coloni-
al mindset. Why does A Ra-
bindraNathTagorestandtall
even today amongst world
literati? It’s because he knew
the Indian historical and cul-
tural strengths and felt sec-
ond to none during the Brit-
ish Raj in terms of being a
poet. In fact Shanti Niketan,
the university has a unique
position in the world of aca-
demics as it was so holistic in
its approach then. It was
grounded in India while nur-
turing a universal out-
look too. It is
with this in
mind that I am
i n t r o d u c i n g
Surya Bala, an
eminent Hindi
writer who be-
lieved in the in-
nate and deep val-
ues a woman gave
to her home and
society
. She started
writing as an adolescent and
was published first in well-
known journal ‘ Dainik Aaj’
as a teenager. She narrates
how as a young reader she
had written a critique of a
story in Sarika, an eminent
literary magazine. Kamlesh-
warwhowastheeditorof the
magazine and later became
the Director-General of
Doordarshanhadappreciated
her writing skills and in a let-
ter written in his hand had
asked her to do creative writ-
ingtoo.Sincethenherfiction-
al pieces, satire and novels
have been published in ‘Sari-
ka’, ‘Hans’ and ‘Dharmyug’
and so many other prestig-
ious publications. Her first
novel ’Mere Sandhipatr’
whichmeansthecompromis-
es,theoliveleavesinone’slife,
was published in 1975. Since
then Her other novels have
been ‘Subah ke Intazar tak
(The Wait till Morning);
Yamini Katha (The Night’s
Story); Deekshant, (The In-
duction); Agni Pankhi (The
Wingsof Fire)havebeenpub-
lishedbyeminentPublication
Houses. As a satirical writer,
she was awarded The Hari
ShankarParsaiAwardforthe
genre. Besides she has re-
ceived iconic awards like
Vagdevi Puruskar, Priya-
darshini Award and Ghan-
shyam Das Saraf Award for
excellence in writing. Many
of her stories have been tele-
vised and made into films.
Shehas150workstohercred-
it and has completed 50 years
asawriter.Shetoldthewriter
rather shyly that she has
completed fifty years of
creative writing and Pa-
khi, a famous literary
magazine has devoted
itsMay2022issuetoher.
Surya Bala’s books are
either women-centric
or talk of the struggle
of the poorer sections
of societywhoforsake
their homes in sub-
urbs and far off villages
to fulfil the dreams of a
brighter future. The migra-
tionof apoorfarmer‘ssonsto
a metro city is so much akin
to the aspirational passage of
a middle class profes-
sional to a foreign
land. Their strug-
gles, alienation and
memories of the
homelandaresimilar.
This alienation some-
where connects with
the shift a woman has
to undergo after her
marriage. Her satirical
work is incisive and of-
fers critical commen-
taryonIndiandemocracyand
society and it gives a sad nar-
rative of the way we take the
human tragedies. With all the
female characters thronging
her writings she is not an
Avant Guard feminist with
sharp divides. Her female
charactersarefree-mindedyet
not ultra-revolutionary
. They
are sensitive to the values of a
home and work around build-
ing an entity for themselves.
Thewriterisaccusedof being
anon-feminist.SuryaBalathe
writer laughs these away as
she does not believe in demol-
ishing social structures to re-
build new ones. A certain si-
lent revolution exists in her
narratives that bring out the
ironiesanddichotomiesof the
male-dominated world. Still
another recurring theme in
herwritingsisthatof shifting
-themigrationof thelabourer
to a sterile metro city
, the mi-
gration of an ambitious pro-
fessional from a humble back-
ground to the land of Dreams,
anAmerica,AustraliaorEng-
land. ‘Venu Ki Diary’ and ‘
Ag-
nipankhi’ exemplify this. It
amazes a reader how Surya
Bala can capture the most
fleeting emotions of a labour-
er, a household help, a house-
wife living with unrealized
aspirations and a widowed
motherwithdreamstoseeher
son becoming a Babuji. She
uses her command over re-
gional language and imagery
most aptly to portray the two
worlds- the shiny
, rich, glossy
world of the affluent and the
world of the regional expatri-
ates existing on the
side in Jhuggi and
jhopad pattis.
Her characters
are deprived yet
not crushed. They
stand as protago-
nistsof therecent
migratory shift
the labourers of
our country did
duringtheCovid
pandemic. The unforget-
table image of the labourers
walking on foot to their vil-
lages thousands of miles
awayisinsyncwithwhatthis
writer had written years ago.
The image stands stark and
dark against Covid borne cir-
cumstances.Evenwhenthou-
sands of labourers perished
onwaytotheirhomesorthey
finally reached their homes,
a comment on the divide be-
tween the rich and the poor
dug itself deep into the na-
tion’s psyche. The ever com-
plaining affluent and the
barely complaining poor, the
reality of keeping the pre-
tence of being respectable
brings to the fore the deep so-
cialcomplexesweallnurture.
A tragic scenario is enacted
silently behind closed doors,
the fake smiles, social fronts
that deny the impoverish-
ment, empty stomachs and a
hopeless future wasted in
making two ends meet. The
comment on the human situ-
ations emerges rather than
stated. The inherent cruelty
of social and political reality
is undeniable in Surya Bala’s
works. The onlooker, the
news watcher, the reader and
the consumer, in short, We
have all come to realize the
tragedy our system causes.
Jai Shankar, the protagonist
of the novel Agnipankhi is
disillusioned, poor and de-
feated yet he keeps claiming
to be a winner in his mind.
JaiShankar’smother’sdeath
is the death of a dream. It is
avividsymbolof arecurring
tragedy enacted in poorer
homes in our country
. Read-
ing and grasping reality
through fiction does make a
reader a more empathetic
person. Surya Bala has
achieved a prime position in
literature today yet she re-
mainscuriouslyunambitious
to put it differently
, she is not
ready to make an effort to be
recognized. She is too proud
toapproachpowersthatbefor
an award. She remains the
messiah of the deprived
though she has a substantial-
lycomfortablelifeinMumbai
where she lives with her hus-
band. Her popularity rests in
thefactthatsheisread,appre-
ciated and published widely
.
(The article is based on an
intimate conversation the
writer had with Surya Bala
when she was in Jaipur re-
centlytoreceiveanawardand
facilitate the function).
I
DR MRIDUL BHASIN
Writer, and social activist
F
A
C
E
O
F
T
H
E
D
A
Y
HARSHIL KALIA, Model
ARIES
MAR 21 - APR 20
Rewards and
recognition
will come your
way for your
involvement in a
social endeavour.
It’s a very good
day to take
calculated risks
in financial matters. Those suffering
from chronic ailments may find
remarkable improvement in their health
with home remedies.
LIBRA
SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22
It is a good
day to confess
your love as the
stars appear
favourable
for a positive
reply. Your sole
dependency on
friends may fail
to bring any respite from loneliness
today. The sound financial health of
businessmen would enable them to give
monetary benefits to employees.
TAURUS
APR 21 - MAY 20
You will succeed
in resolving
disputes with
family members,
and normalizing
ties. You will
remain much
in demand
on the social
front. You need to stand by a romantic
partner during testing times to make the
relationship stronger. Seek the opinion
of an expert.
SCORPIO
OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22
A sound
monetary
position would
enable you to
keep pace with
changing times.
Avoid raising
controversial
issues at
home to maintain harmony. Successful
implementation of new ideas and projects
would add to your prestige on the
professional front.
GEMINI
MAY 21 - JUNE 21
Develop good
adaptability
to handle the
pressurized
situation on a
professional
front. Paying
special attention
to planning your
career would give you immense joy. You
are likely to get clearance or approval for
your construction plans. You find things
moving in the way you want them.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV 23 - DEC 22
Distant relatives
may drop in for
a surprise visit.
Investment in
antiques and
jewellery would
bring handsome
financial
gains. On the
professional front, recognition for good
work would motivate you to work harder.
Those awaiting an affirmation on the
romantic front are to get lucky today.
CANCER
JUNE 22 - JULY 23
Avoid being
indulgent in
your spending
to balance
the budget.
Continue to put
in efforts at work
and you will
see promising
opportunities coming your way. A
matrimonial match for siblings will bring
happiness to the entire family. You will
get a good price for your property.
CAPRICORN
DEC 23 - JAN 20
Chances of
being misled
by competitors
in business are
high, so remain
alert. You may
get a chance to
pursue an old
hobby. Health
tips from an expert will enable you to
get closer to your fitness goals. Your
generous behaviour would enable you to
enjoy lovely moments with your family.
LEO
JULY 24 - AUGUST 23
Don’t give a firm
commitment
in financial
matters before
considering
the viability
of the project.
You succeed
in completing
an important project well before the
deadline. Disagreements on the family
front are foreseen. Be careful about the
legal apprehensions.
AQUARIUS
JAN 21 - FEB 19
Senior
management will
be appreciative
of your creative
input on the
professional
front. Seek
the opinion
of your family
before finalizing a property deal. An
impromptu invitation to a function
from an unexpected friend is likely to
be received.
VIRGO
AUG 24 - SEP 23
Yoga would
help in raising
energy levels
and improving
your metabolism.
Some of you
are going to
experience
emotional
fulfilment on the romantic front.
Emphasize domestic affairs to enhance
domestic tranquillity and harmony.
Associate yourself with social groups.
PISCES
FEB20 - MARCH 20
Your hard work
and dedication
are likely to
be noticed
by seniors,
paving way
for promotion
or increment.
Better to consult
an expert in financial matters before
investing. The family will be supportive of
my career aspirations. A promising day
overall as you stay in limelight.
YOUR
DAY
Horoscope by
Saurabbh Sachdeva
SURYA BALA THE WRITER:
SURYA BALA THE WRITER:
A PERSPECTIVE
A PERSPECTIVE
ON HUMAN
ON HUMAN
CONDITION
CONDITION

ETC
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia MUMBAI | SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2022
11
t’s easy to say, “I
love my family,”
but family love is
about more than
these simple
words. Family
love is a special
type of love that comes
with its unique feel-
ings, behaviors, chal-
lenges, and rewards.
Once you understand
what it truly is, you can
learn how to build fam-
ily relationships by
genuine love and care.
Every year, on May
15, the International
Day of the Family is
celebrated throughout
the World.
Family is the basic
unit of society. This
day provides an oppor-
tunity to raise aware-
ness about the issues
related to the families
and to increase knowl-
edge about the social,
economic and demo-
graphic processes that
affect them. This day
provides an opportu-
nity to promote aware-
ness of issues relating
to families and to in-
crease the knowledge
of the social, econom-
ic and demographic
processes affecting
families.
The importance of
family love for emotion-
al wellbeing cannot be
underestimated. The
quality of family love
experienced by a per-
son affects them all the
way from infancy
through adolescence
into adulthood. Love, as
it occurs in the context
of family, is unlike any
other. Your family mem-
bers are the people you
surround yourself with
the most, who give your
life meaning, and who
you would do anything
for. They're the people
that you can't live with-
out, who you turn to
when something good
or bad happens.
Of course, this is
painting a perfect-
sounding picture when
no family is perfect.
You may have a
strained or negative re-
lationship with your
blood family or not
have any living family
that you know of, but
that does not mean you
can never experience
positive family love.
You may have past ex-
periences where you
received a lot of healthy
family love but don't
right now. If not, re-
member that you can
always choose who
your family is (at least
when you're old enough
to understand and
make that choice).
When one member
of a family experiences
a profound loss, the
other members of the
family are usually af-
fected by that person’s
distress. A family mem-
ber who has lost their
job or a friend typically
expresses their emo-
tion in some way,
whether they intend to
or not. Their behavior
might change, and they
may have less capacity
to manage daily living.
The other family mem-
bers feel the effects di-
rectly or indirectly.
Tedi Hai Par Meri Hai
FAMILY
HAVING SOMEWHERE TO GO
IS HOME. HAVING SOMEONE
TO LOVE IS FAMILY. AND
HAVING BOTH IS A BLESSING.
AS WE CELEBRATE
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF
FAMILIES WITH THE 2022
THEME “FAMILIES AND
URBANIZATION”, CITY FIRST
BRINGS TO YOU SOME
HAPPENING PICTURES FROM
PEOPLE ACROSS RAJASTHAN
, DELHI,LUCKNOW AND
MUMBAI WHO STRONGLY
BELIEVE THAT “FAMILIES ARE
LIKE FUDGE – MOSTLY
SWEET WITH A FEW NUTS.”
MITALI DUSAD
mitalidusad01@gmail.com
I
It all starts with the
family, for better or
for worse. We all
have families, but
we don’t all think of
them in the same
ways, and they have
varying degrees of
influence on what we
become, sometimes
aligned, sometimes
not. I have been
blessed with a huge
loving family. We
make sure to stand
tall by each other’s
side in all the good
and bad times. I still
feel nostalgic each
time I go on a trip
with my family.

—SUSHILA JHALANI
Family means having someone to love you unconditionally in spite of you and your shortcomings. I am
blessed with two loving sons Abhay and Tanishq and my better half Pradeep. I live in a joint family where
we make sure that we celebrate every occasion together. The pandemic hit as a blessing in disguise for us.
We all got more close and could cherish small moments of life. —KAVITA KHANDELWAL

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