Two Cong MLAs in Gujarat resign ahead of RS polls

Two Cong MLAs resign fortnight before Rajya Sabha election
Gargi Raval
Gandhinagar: In yet
another major set-
back for the Gujarat
Congress, two of its
MLAs (Members of
the Legislative Assem-
bly) tendered their
resignation to Speak-
er Rajendra Trivedi
on Wednesday night, a
mere fortnight before
the Rajya Sabha elec-
tion scheduled to be
held on June 19.
Lawmakers Jitu
Chaudhary (Kaprada)
and Akshay Patel
(Karjan) have left the
Congress and re-
signed as MLAs,
Speaker Trivedi con-
firmed on Thursday.
Together, the Con-
gress and the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) have
fielded five candidates
for the four available
seatsintheUpperHouse
of Parliament. While
the former nominated
Shaktisinh Gohil and
Baratsinh Solanki, the
latter put forth Abhay
Bhardwaj, Ramila Bara,
and Congress turncoat
Narhari Amin.
The Congress is al-
ready in a disarray
with five MLAs having
quit in March. This
had brought the par-
ty’s presence in the As-
sembly to 68 seats.
With the latest resig-
nations, the Congress
has just 66 seats in the
Assembly, and will
now have to depend on
non-Congress MLAs
including Independent
MLA Jignesh Mevani
to garner the votes re-
quired to have both of
its candidates elected
to the Rajya Sabha.
Neither Chaudhary
nor Patel have been in
contact with party
members since Wednes-
day. Sources say anoth-
er Congress MLA is
also likely to abandon
ship in the near future.
“Thepartyleadership
should have focused
more on its MLAs dur-
ingthelockdown.Every-
oneisawareof theBJP’s
intentions, and that it
commonly practises
horse-tradinginorderto
win more seats,” said a
senior Congress leader.
Turn on P6, More on P2Karjan MLA Akshay Patel submitting his resignation to Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi.
JITU CHAUDHARY (KAPRADA)
AND AKSHAY PATEL (KARJAN)
HAVE LEFT THE CONGRESS
AND RESIGNED AS MLAS
CORONA
ALERT
AHMEDABAD l FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 190
25°C - 39°C
OUR EDITIONS:
JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD
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COVID-19
UPDATE
GUJARAT
1,155
DEATHS
18,609
CONFIRMED CASES
INDIA
2,26,588
CONFIRMED CASES
6,362
DEATHS
WORLD
3,89,816
DEATHS
66,38,912
CONFIRMED CASES
World Environment Day, which is observed today,
celebrates biodiversity, at a time, when the world is
plagued by global Coronavirus pandemic and locust
infestations that demonstrate the interdependence of
humans and nature. This mesmerising photograph by
German photographer Dieter Klein depicts transformative
power of nature that has staked claim on this row of once
gleaming 1941 Ford Trucks in Florida!
W RLD
ENVIRONMENT
DAY
SC to Centre: Call meeting to ease
inter-state movement in NCR
New Delhi: The Su-
preme Court Thursday
asked the Centre to con-
vene a meeting of Delhi,
Uttar Pradesh and Har-
yana for easing inter-
state movement at all
borders in the National
Capital Region (NCR)
amid certain restric-
tions imposed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
A bench headed by
Justice Ashok Bhush-
an, hearing a plea on
restriction for permis-
sible activities in the
NCR, said the states
should have a common
programme and a com-
mon portal for inter-
state movement.
“We are of the view
that in the facts of the
present case, the Gov-
ernment of India shall
convene a meeting of
concerned State offi-
cials/UTs and endeav-
our to find out a com-
mon programme, com-
mon portal for easing
the inter-state move-
mentonallstateborders
in the National Capital
Region,” Turn on P6
New Delhi: The govern-
ment on Thursday an-
nounced new rules for
allowingshoppingmalls,
restaurants and places
of worship to open grad-
ually following the na-
tionwide COVID-19 lock-
down. The guidelines,
which will come into ef-
fect from June 8, include
measures like stagger-
ing visitors to malls and
no touching of idols at
religious places. All es-
tablishments that come
under containment
zones, however, will re-
main closed as an-
nounced earlier.
In fresh guidelines for
restaurants, takeaways
to be encouraged, in-
stead of Dine-In. Food
delivery personnel
should leave the packet
at customer’s door and
not handover the food
packetdirectlytothecus-
tomer,onlyasymptomat-
ic staff and patrons shall
be allowed. Turn on P6
New Delhi: In a major
development, India and
Australia on Thursday
inked a landmark deal
on allowing access to
military bases for logis-
tics support. The Minis-
try of External Affairs
said this deal was part
of the total seven agree-
ments that have been
signed between the two
countries following the
first-ever virtual sum-
mit between the leaders
of the two countries.
Both elevated their
bilateral ties to a Com-
prehensive Strategic
Partnership (CSP) and
signed seven agree-
ments including on de-
fence and mining dur-
ing a virtual summit
between Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi and
his Aussie counterpart
Scott Morrison.
Referring to the vir-
tual summit, Modi
termed it “a new model
of India-Australia part-
nership, a new model of
conducting business”.
It was the first time that
Modi held a “bilateral”
virtual summit with a
foreign leader.
PM described his
talks with PM Morrison
as “an outstanding dis-
cussion”, covering the
entire expanse of ties
between the two strate-
gic partners. Turn on P6
INDIA, OZ INK DEAL TO
USE MILITARY BASES
No touching of idols
in temples; no ‘dine
in’ in restaurants
New Delhi: The Government of India has
‘banned’ over 2,200 blacklisted foreign
nationals for 10 years from travelling to
India for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat
activities, said the government sources on
Thursday. It means that none of them would
be allowed in any circumstances to travel to
India as a visa will not be issued to them. In
April this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA) had blacklisted 960 foreigners for
violating visa rules after they were found
involved in Tablighi activities.
2K TABLIGHI FOREIGN NATIONALS
BANNED FROM ENTERING INDIA
New Delhi: Fugitive
businessman Vijay Mallya
is unlikely to be extradited
anytime soon with the UK
government saying that there
is a legal issue that needs
to be resolved before his
extradition can be arranged.
Last month, Mallya lost his
appeals in UK SC against his
extradition to India. P6
DELAYED: MALLYA’S
EXTRADITION
It is seen as part of security cooperation to balance China’s
growing economic and military weight in the region
UNLOCK 1.0 FRESH RULES
PM Narendra Modi during ‘India-Australia Virtual Summit’ with
Australia PM Scott Morrison via a video conference in New Delhi
on Thursday. —ANI PHOTO

NEWSAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
02
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: The
state unit president of
the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) Jitu Vagha-
ni has hinted that more
MLAs may quit Con-
gress in the near future.
He also claimed that
MLAs were leaving the
opposition party be-
cause they were unhap-
py with the leadership
and that the party had
failed to win the trust of
its own MLAs.
Talking to the me-
dia, Vaghani stated
that Congress MLAs
were abandoning a
sinking ship because
they were disappoint-
ed with the state lead-
ership and the inter-
nal fights and
groupism which ex-
isted in the party.
He has also alleged
that Congress interim
president Sonia Gandhi,
Rahul and Priyanka
Gandhi had all failed as
leaders. He attributed
poor leadership on their
part to the exit of party
workers and MLAs.
Refuting all allega-
tions of horse trading
made by Congress, Va-
ghani termed them
‘baseless and a sign of
Congress losing the elec-
tion’. He added, “Con-
gress talks big about de-
mocracy, then their par-
ty MLAs have the right
to join whomever they
wish to. Why is it that
there is so much brou-
haha over it?”
He attributed the op-
position party’s past
political manoeuvers
as ‘dirty politics’ and
cited the revolt of
1996, when Congress
supported Shankers-
inh Vaghela to over-
throw a democratical-
ly elected BJP govern-
ment.
“If all seven MLAs of
the Congress party, who
haveresignedtheirposts
as members of the legis-
lative assembly, want to
join BJP, they are wel-
come to do so. But, there
has been no such move
made by any of them up
till now,” he clarified.
MoreCongMLAswillquit,leadershiphasfailedthem:Vaghani
Cong may move to safeguard MLAs from horse-trading
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: Inwakeof
the resignation of two
MLAs, senior Congress
leaders and MLAs con-
vened for a meeting at
theRajivGandhiBhavan
on Thursday. The meet
was also attended by
Patidar leader Hardik
Patelandtookplaceafter
Assembly speaker Ra-
jendra Trivedi con-
firmed the resignations
of Jitu Chaudhary (Ka-
prada) and Akshay Patel
(Karjan). After losing
twoMLas,itislikelythat
Congress will safeguard
the remaining MLAs
from horse-trading by
taking them to other
states,mostprobablyRa-
jasthan. Also, it could
also mean that senior
leaders of the party will
be roped in to mentor
state MLAs.
Around 68 MLAs
stayed at Jaipur’s Shiv
Villa resort in March
but, returned to the
state due to the COV-
ID-19 outbreak. After
an announcement re-
garding the two MLAs’
resignationwasmadeby
Assembly Speaker Ra-
jendra Trivedi, Gujarat
Pradesh Congress Com-
mittee president Amit
Chavda alleged that of-
ficersintheChief Minis-
ter’s Office (CMO) were
threatening lawmakers
and pressuring them to
resign from Congress.
“Rather than focusing
ontheongoingCOVID-19
pandemic, a few officers
arebusywastingthetax-
payers’ money to buy
people. On the other
hand, the state claims
that it does not have
moneytobuyventilators
for COVID-19 patients,”
he stated.
Further, LoP Paresh
Dhanani said, “The
ruling party has
earned money from
the ‘fake’ Dhaman-1
ventilators. That is the
money they are using
to buy MLAs. There
are a few officers in
the CMO who are play-
ing this dirty game.”
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: With
two more Congress
party MLAs (Mem-
bers of the Legisla-
tive Assembly) re-
signing on Thursday,
the upcoming elec-
tion to the four Rajya
Sabha seats is more
or less a formality.
The maths now fa-
vours the Bharatiya
Janata Party’s three
candidates, who
might all get elected
in the first round of
voting. On the other
hand, this is politics,
where anything can
happen, including
cross-voting and BJP
MLAs being absent
or abstaining from
voting.
There are five candi-
dates in the fray for the
four available Rajya
Sabha seats: three from
the BJP and two from
the Congress. To win
the election in the first
round, each candidate
will require 35 votes.
The state Assembly
has a total of 182 seats,
of which 173 are occu-
pied since six seats are
vacant and one elec-
tion has been can-
celled. Breaking this
down along party lines,
BJP has 103 MLAs,
Congress has 66, the
Bharatiya Tribal Party
(BTP) has two, the Na-
tionalist Congress Par-
ty (NCP) has one and
there is one independ-
ent MLA.
Congress stalwart
Ahmed Patel will
have to chip in again,
like he did last time,
to convince BTP lead-
er Chhotubhai Vasa-
va to vote for his par-
ty’s candidates. It is
almost certain that
the NCP’s sole MLA,
gangster Kandhal
Jadeja, will vote for a
BJP candidate. Simi-
larly, independent
MLA Jignesh Mevani
will almost certainly
vote for a Congress
candidate. Mean-
while, the BTP is
keeping its cards
close to its chest, but
knows its two votes
will be very crucial
for both the BJP as
well as the Congress.
The incumbent BJP
will not be happy with
the resignation of just
two Congress MLAs,
since it will take an-
other three Congress
resignations for the
BJP’s three candidates
to sail to a smooth vic-
tory.
If three more Con-
gress MLAs resign,
the party’s strength
falls to 63, while the
Assembly strength
drops to 170, mean-
ing each candidate in
the fray will have to
get a minimum of 34
votes to win. Given
that the BJP has 103
seats in the House,
this development
would mean the par-
ty can elect all three
of its candidates to
the Rajya Sabha even
without votes from
the BTP and NCP
MLAs.
On the other hand,
in this scenario, the
Congress will need
68 votes, with only 63
seats. So, even if all
four non-BJP MLAs--
BTP (2), NCP (1) and
Independent (1)--vote
for Congress candi-
dates, the party will
still be short of ne
vote in the first
round of the election
that is scheduled for
June 19.
BJP State President feels the
seven MLAs resigned from the
party due to internal conflict
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A senior officer at the
CMO is the brain be-
hind the horse-trading.
We have enough evi-
dence to prove our alle-
gations and at appro-
priate time will make
it public.
—Amit Chavda,President,GPCC
It seems that the mon-
ey made from Dha-
man-1 is now being
used to bribe and lure
Congress MLAs.
—Paresh Dhanani, LoP
Congress has not
learnt from its part
mistakes. Only a few
leaders in the party
hold the reins and
those with grassroots
networks are being ig-
nored. The result is vis-
ible now.
—Narhari Amin,
BJP Rajya Sabha candidate
State leaders of the
Congress are egotistical
and have little respect
for their team mem-
bers. So, MLAs feel
ill-treated or ignored
and so they resign. But
the attitude of the Con-
gress party’s leader-
ship remains the same.
—Alpesh Thakor, BJP leader
MLAs have got fed up
with the groupism in
the Congress. Even
Karjan MLA Akshay
Patel told me so when
he spoke to me before
resigning.
—JV Kakadia,
former Congress MLA
I am a Congressman
and will remain a
Congressman. All spec-
ulation about me re-
signing from the party
are baseless.
—Lalit Kagathara,
Congress MLA Tankara
If all seven MLAs of
the Congress party,
who have resigned
their posts as mem-
bers of the legisla-
tive assembly, want
to join BJP, they are
welcome to do so.
But, there has been
no such move made
by any of them up
till now.
—Jitu Vaghani,
State unit president, BJP
ASSEMBLY MLA STRENGTH
BJP 103
NCP 01 IND 01
Cong 66 BTP 02
Somabhai Patel (Limbdi)
Pravin Maru (Gadhda)
Pradyumansinh Jadeja (Abdasa)
JV Kakadia (Dhari)
Mangal Gavit (Dang)
Jitubhai Chaudhary (Kaprada)
Akshaykumar Patel (Karjan)
CONGRESS MLAS WHO HAVE RESIGNED
IN THE RUN-UP TO THE RS ELECTION
RAJYA SABHA ELECTION
BJP already a step closer to victory for its three candidates; three more
Congress resignations before D-Day will cement opposition party’s loss
CONGRESS LIKELY TO LOSE FACE
SAMPLE RECEIVED
SAMPLE NEGATIVE
0
UNDER EXAMINATION
2,33,921
2,15,312
IN GUJARAT
DISTRICT TOTAL TOTAL NEW
CASES DEATHS DEATHS
AHMEDABAD 13354 938 28
VADODARA 1179 42 0
SURAT 1875 80 0
RAJKOT 119 3 0
BHAVNAGAR 132 9 0
ANAND 104 10 0
BHARUCH 46 3 0
GANDHINAGAR 360 14 1
PATAN 86 7 1
PANCHMAHAL 95 10 0
BANASKANTHA 131 5 0
NARMADA 23 0 0
CHOTA UDEPUR 33 0 0
KUTCH 83 4 1
MEHSANA 138 6 0
BOTAD 60 2 1
DAHOD 45 0 0
PORBANDAR 12 2 0
JAMNAGAR 55 3 0
MORBI 4 0 0
SABARKANTHA 111 3 0
ARAVALLI 117 7 0
MAHISAGAR 116 2 0
KHEDA 81 4 0
GIR SOMNATH 45 0 0
VALSAD 41 2 1
TAPI 6 0 0
NAVSARI 28 1 0
DANG 2 0 0
SURENDRANAGAR 41 1 0
DWARKA 14 0 0
JUNAGADH 30 2 0
AMRELI 10 1 0
OTHER STATES 24 0 0
TOTAL 18609 1155 33
USA 1,911,717 109,620 +478
BRAZIL 590,485 32,688 +141
RUSSIA 441,108 5,384 +169
SPAIN 287,406 27,128 —
UK 281,661 39,904 +176
ITALY 234,013 33,689 +88
GERMANY 184,597 8,705 +6
TURKEY 167,410 4,630 +21
IRAN 164,270 8,071 +59
FRANCE 151,677 29,021 —
CHILE 118,292 1,356 +81
MEXICO 101,238 11,729 +1,092
CANADA 93,700 7,636 +138
S ARABIA 93,157 611 +32
PAKISTAN 85,264 1,770 +82
COUNTRY TOTAL TOTAL NEW
CASES DEATHS DEATHS
GLOBAL STATE
OF AFFAIRS
WWW.WORLDOMETERS.INFO
LAST UPDATED: JUNE 4, 2020, 11:30 PM

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | FIRDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
03www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Gargi Raval
Ahmedabad: The Con-
gress party had not
even recovered after
the resignation of five
MLAs back in March,
and now, it has lost
two more MLAs, just
a few days ahead of
the upcoming Rajya
Sabha election. Inter-
estingly, this is not the
first time Congress
MLAs have resigned
from the party. A sim-
ilar thing had hap-
pened during elec-
tions in 2017 too. Co-
incidently, both times,
the party was under
the charge of two
cousins—Bharatsinh
Solanki and current
Gujarat Pradesh Con-
gress Committee pres-
ident Amit Chavda.
According to party
insiders, the cousins
have failed to resolve
internal conflicts in
the party and created
many enemies within
various groups.
Back in 2017, six Con-
gress MLAs had re-
signed just before the
Rajya Sabha elections.
They attributed dissat-
isfaction with the party
as their reason for quit-
ting. Similarly, a total
of seven MLAs have
resigned just before the
election this time and
stated that they were
not satisfied with party
leaders.
According to sourc-
es, conflict within
groups is the main rea-
son why Congress
couldn’t keep its flock
together. “There is in-
fighting in the party
with as many as five
different groups in ex-
istence. Moreover,
there is no direct moni-
toring from New Delhi
which has turned a few
into opportunists in
this time of crisis.
They are aware that the
rival party will always
be ready to offer them
what they want,” said a
senior Congress leader.
City-based political
observer Dilip
Kshatriya said, “The
party couldn’t keep a
watch on the disgrun-
tled MLAs. In March,
both the names—Jitu
Chaudhary and Ak-
shay Patel—were ru-
moured to be plan-
ning to ditch the par-
ty. And, within two
days of the announce-
ment of RS election
dates, they tendered
their resignations.
This means that par-
ty leaders were not in
contact with them for
two months.”
Cong cousins falter ahead of RS polls
20Gujdistsreport484 newcasesovernight
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: More
cases of COVID-19 are
emerging from rural
areas, even as
Ahmedabad, Va-
dodara and Surat con-
tinue to remain hot-
spots of Sars-CoV-2
infection in the state.
Vadodara reported 39
new cases, Surat report-
ed 81, and Ahmedabad
topped the list with 291
new cases. However, dis-
tricts in the tribal belt
also witnessed a spate of
new cases with Dahod,
Narmada, Sabarkantha
andAravallieachreport-
ing four cases in the past
24 hours, while Panch-
mahal reported three.
In the past 24 hours,
the state has tested 6,023
samples.
Gujarat now has a to-
tal of 4,779 active cases,
of which 68 are critical
and on ventilators.
Surprisingly, there
is still a mismatch be-
tween the data from
the state health de-
partment and the local
bodies. For example,
the Surat civic body
stated 83 cases, but the
state health bulletin
shows only 81.
Of the 83, Surat city
accounted for 76, while
seven came from rural
areas. On Wednesday,
14 jail inmates tested
positive in Surat city.
On Thursday, Katar-
gam zone was the worst
hit with 25 cases, while
the Central zone had
11, Udhna zone had 18
and Limbayat, 11.
Three front-line
warriors from the New
Civil Hospital and
SMIMER Hospital
have been infected, as
has an SRP jawan.
In Ahmedabad, a
nurse and doctor
have tested positive
at the Gujarat Cancer
and Research Insti-
tute. With this, 108
medical and other
staff of the institute
have been infected.
Vejalpur’s BJP MLA
Kishore Chauhan
tested positive on
Thursday. Since he is
asymptomatic, he
has been asked to
self-isolate. He is the
third BJP MLA to get
infected.
Twenty-nine fresh
caseshaveemergedfrom
Ahmedabad’sruralarea,
of which 22 were from
Bavla taluka, four from
Viramgam and three
from Sanand. The rural
areas have reported 19
fatalities so far, with a
total tally of 273.
Meanwhile, in Va-
dodara, 148 samples
were tested, of which 39
came back positive. The
rest were negative.The COVID-19 ward at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO
CM Rupani extends validity of
Disturbed Area Act to June 2023
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: Chief
Minister Vijay Rupa-
ni has taken a call to
extend the enforce-
ment of the Disturbed
Area Act in Narol and
Vatva police station
area to June 2023.
The decision has been
taken to ensure the
safety of people liv-
ing in these areas.
In a press release, the
government has stated
that in order to prevent
anti-social elements
from compelling or
forcing people to sell
their property falling
under the jurisdiction
of the Narol and Vatva
police stations, the Act
will be effective for
three more years, until
June 30, 2023.
It means that if any
person wishes to sell
or buy property in
these two areas, they
will need prior per-
mission from the dis-
trict collector’s office.
Meanwhile, looking
out for the interest of
farmers, the state gov-
ernment has decided to
release water from the
Narmada main canal to
help with the irrigation
of the summer crop.
Water will be released
from the Narmada ca-
nal from June 7, and
will benefit an estimat-
ed 14 lakh hectares of
agricultural land in the
state. As of Thursday,
the water level at the
Sardar Sarovar Dam
was 123.61m and total
amount of water con-
served was 1.51 million
acre feet. This is likely
to be enough to meet the
state’s drinking water
and irrigation require-
ments this summer.
The state government
has also decided to hand
over the Sola village
lake to local civic body
Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation (AMC) for
beautification and fur-
ther use. Other lakes
which have been passed
on to AMC include Vat-
va Lake, Chharodi Lake
and Gota Lake.
24 hours: 492 cases, 33 deaths
Total: 18,609 cases, 1,155 deaths
Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani. —FILE PHOTO
WHAT THIS MEANS
FAMILY BUSINESS
First India Bureau
Surat: After a spike in
COVID-19 cases in the
last 28 hours, Surat
Municipal Corpora-
tion (SMC) on Thurs-
day ordered more
than 1.5 lakh people
living in 43,000 hous-
es to remain under
home quarantine.
As many as 85 Sars
CoV-2 positive cases
were reported in Surat
in the last 28 hours,
which prompted the lo-
cal civic body to take
the decision to direct
the residents to stay
home quarantined. The
five zones of Limbayat,
Katargam, Central,
Udhna and Varachha,
that have reported the
city’s major chunk of
cases, have been under
constant surveillance
of the municipal corpo-
ration. The municipal
commissioner Banch-
hanidhi Pani has ap-
pealed to citizens to
wear masks at all times
when venturing outside
and practice social dis-
tancing. He also urged
people to report to a
COVID hospital or care
centre immediately if
they show any visible
COVID-19 symptoms
and avoid delay in re-
ceiving suitable medi-
cal assistance.
Meanwhile, 96 cases
were reported in a sin-
gle day for the first time
in the city district on
Wednesday. Of these, 85
were from the city while
11 were from other plac-
es in the district. The
district death toll is 76.
1.5 lakh people
quarantined at
home in Surat
with COVID-19
Cops arrest mobile-phone
thieves in Gandhigram
AMC to plant tulsi on
World Environment Day
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The
Ahmedabad Munici-
pal Corporation
(AMC) is set to mark
World Environment
Day by planting tul-
si (holy basil) and
distributing them
free in Naranpura
area on Thursday.
However, the area in
which the occasion
will be celebrated was
declared a micro-con-
tainment zone by the
civic body on May 31.
The programme,
which is to be inaugu-
rated via video confer-
ence by Chief Minis-
ter Vijay Rupani, will
also be graced by may-
or Bijal Patel.
The area has 590
houses and over
3,000 people under
containment. Area
residents say, anoth-
er COVID-19 patient
was taken to hospital
on Thursday.
“VIPs must be im-
mune to the Sars-CoV-2
virus,”saidalocal,who
witnessed the prepara-
tions in progress.
First India Bureau
Rajkot: A trio of rob-
bers involved in steal-
ing at least 39 mobile
phone devices was ar-
rested by Gandhi-
gram police on
Wednesday. The gang,
comprising two male
and one female mem-
ber, used to target
men in crowded pub-
lic places.
The accused have
been identified as
Dharmendra Muknath
(32), Paresh alias Pario
Goswami (26) and
Laxmiben Bharat Mak-
wana (36). Dharmen-
dra and Paresh are
residents of Gondal
while, Laxmiben is a
resident of Babra.
Speaking to First
India about the trio,
Gandhigram police
inspector AK Vala
said, “All phones were
stolen from the shirt
pockets of their vic-
tims by Laxmiben.
She used to place a
handkerchief or a
bag near the pocket
and in the fraction of
a second push out the
phone from the pock-
et. Then she used to
pass it on to her part-
ner Paresh who would
be on guard nearby.
The trio would then
flee in the autorick-
shaw of the third ac-
cused, Dharmendra.”
The three thieves
were caught after the
location of a phone was
traced when they tried
to sell one of the phones
by changing the phone’s
SIM card. The police
seized 39 mobile phones
worth Rs2,40,000 along
with the autorickshaw
from the three accused.
Police personnel and the arrested gang of thieves.
Amit Chavda, Paresh Dhanani, Bharatsinh Solanki and Arjun
Modhwadia at a party meeting on Thursday.
—PHOTOBYNANDANDAVE
LIFE IN A METRO
With Unlock 1.0 in effect, construction work in the city has begun. This includes work on
the metro line, which had ground to a halt when the lockdown came into effect in March.
—PHOTO BY NANDAN DAVE

G Vol 1 G Issue No. 190 G RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad.
Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
The whole secret of existence
is to have no fear. Never fear
what will become of you,
depend on no one. Only the
moment you reject all help
are you freed. —Buddha
Spiritual
SPEAK
Top
TWEET
Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp
Harnessing the full potential of
#biofuels, including GOIs initiative
of seting up 5000 CBG plants
across India in a phased manner,
will kick start a circular economy
in the biofuel sector, create jobs,
promote development and further
the goal of #AatmaNirbharBharat.
Piyush Goyal
@PiyushGoyal
PM @NarendraModi ji’s
dynamic leadership has created
#Opportunities4Youth in line
with aspirational New India. By
creating a sustainable and thriving
startup ecosystem, our Govt has
empowered youth & propelled India
towards rapid economic growth.
A PACHYDERM’S
MURDER EVOKES
GRIEF, DISBELIEF
n a devastating incident, a preg-
nant cow elephant died after it fed
on a pineapple stuffed with explo-
sives kept by poachers. The explo-
sion in the animal’s mouth left her
in excruciating pain and she could not eat
for about a week after feeding on the explo-
sive. She died on May 27. The heart-wrench-
ing image of the pachyderm lying in water
after long-suffering moved hearts. The sav-
age murder, which Kerala forest officials
said was unintentional, caused an outrage
in the country with a strong outpouring of
grief, disbelief, and shock.
Union Minister for Environment Prakash Ja-
vadekarsaidthattheCentrehastakentheincident
seriously and promised a proper investigation.
K. Sunil Kumar, district forest officer of
Mannarkad, reportedly said, “The animal
had sustained injuries because of explosives
in its mouth. This was an act done by some
people living in forest fringes to keep the
animals away from his or her cultivated
land. But this was not done intentionally to
kill the pregnant elephant.” Elephants are
venerated and worshipped by Hindus.
An FIR has been lodged against unknown per-
sons under different sections of the Wildlife Pro-
tection Act. Two persons are said to have been
arrested.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Maneka
Gandhi, who is a known animal rights activist
slammed the Kerala government and also the
Centre for the pregnant cow elephant’s tragic
death in Palakkam and not taking cruelty
against animals seriously. Taking to micro-
blogging site the former Union minister
wrote, “It’s murder. Mallapuram is famous
for such incidents, it’s India’s most violent
districts. For instance, they throw poison on
roads so that 300-400 birds and dogs die at one
time.” As the incident did not happen in Mal-
lapuram, a predominantly Muslim district, as
claimed by Maneka Gandhi Kerala said she
was “unleashing hate” foiling her attempt to
give the tragedy a communal colour.
The BJP MP said that the government takes no
action against poachers or wildlife killers so that
they keep doing it. She dismissed the claim that
pineapplebombswereusedtokillwildboarsargu-
ingthatnowildboargoesanywherenearitasthey
are capable of sniffing the explosive.
In 1918 the Supreme Court delivered a his-
toric judgment directing the Tamil Nadu gov-
ernment to seal or close down 39 hotels and
resorts constructed on an elephant corridor
in the Nilgiri Hills in violation of the law. A
Bench of Justice Madan Lokur, Justice S.
Abdul Nazeer, and Justice Deepak Gupta said
that elephants were the country’s “national
heritage”. They play an important role as “a
Keystone Species in the forest ecosystem”.
Even the Union forest ministry describes the
pachyderm as the “National Heritage Ani-
mal of India”. But the plight of elephants
whether in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, or Uttara-
khand is best exemplified by the despicable
bombing of the 15-year-old animal in Kerala.
IN-DEPTH
I
f you are neu-
tral in situa-
tions of injus-
tice, you have
chosen the side
of the oppressor. If an el-
ephant has its foot on the
tail of a mouse and you
say that you are neutral,
the mouse will not appre-
ciate your neutrality.
This quote, or part of it,
has been circulating on so-
cial media this week.
It is attributed to
South African Anglican
bishop Desmond Tutu in
the 1984 book Unexpect-
ed News: Reading the Bi-
ble with Third World
Eyes. So it dates from
Tutu’s time as a leading
opponent of the apart-
heid system in South Af-
rica, in which only white
people were afforded the
full rights of citizens.
But in recent days Tutu’s
quote has encapsulated
many people’s feelings
about what’s going on in
the United States today.
The killing by Minne-
sota police of George
Floyd, arrested on suspi-
cion of passing a counter-
feit $20 bill, has become
the latest ignition point
for grievances about the
systemic overpolicing
and extrajudicial killing
of African Americans.
But the protests involv-
ing millions of people
across the US and outside
of it are fuelled by more
than that. These protests
are also about the systemic
inequities that have recent-
ly seen America’s poorest
communities take the
brunt of both health and
economic impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
So given the Black
Lives Matter protests are
in part about the failings
of American capitalism,
how the corporate world
is responding is worth
talking about.
BRANDS SUPPORTING
BLACK LIVES MATTER
A bevy of the world’s best-
known brands have used
their marketing channels
to offer support.
“To be silent is to be
complicit. Black lives
matter,” said Netflix on
Twitter. “We have a plat-
form, and we have a duty
to our Black members,
employees, creators and
talent to speak up.”
Similar tweets have
come from Disney-owned
Fox and Hulu. Apple Music
joined the “Black Out Tues-
day” campaign to raise
awareness about issues of
systemic ethnic inequity.
Nike has repurposed
its famous slogan with
its “For once, Don’t Do
It” advert:
Corporations taking a
stand on social issues is a
relativelynewphenomenon.
As Australian academ-
ic-turned-popular TV
presenter Waleed Aly
noted on his program
The Project:
Normally when there’s
something this divisive and
controversial, you know, if
you are running a big com-
pany, you stay out of it. You
don’t want to be involved.
What I’m interested in
here is, is this just an
evolution in marketing
and the way that compa-
nies do this, or does it
signal – is it a kind of
leadership?
Even if these companies
are just protecting their
commercial base (as his co-
host Steve Price suggest-
ed), Aly said: “That’s still
significant.”
As a researcher in the
field of corporate social
responsibility, I agree.
It’s easy to dismiss these
statements as low-cost to-
kenism or politically cor-
rect wokism. It may be
there’s a hard-headed busi-
ness decision behind each
message, weighing the
costs and benefits to the
bottom line.
But my research (and
that of others) suggests
there’s a growing need
for what business aca-
demics call “political
corporate social respon-
sibility” (or PCSR).
The challenge for those
embracing it is both talk
the talk and walk the walk.
FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO
WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM
Brands backing Black Lives Matter
I
A BEVY OF THE
WORLD’S BEST-
KNOWN BRANDS
HAVE USED THEIR
MARKETING
CHANNELS TO
OFFER SUPPORT
n popular perception, Cov-
id-19 is a universal threat ir-
respective of economic, so-
cial, or ethnic background.
However, if we analyse the
hard facts, a definite pattern
emerges. The first cases of
infection outside China were
upper-class white-collar ex-
ecutives and globetrotting
businessmen. They alone
had the need and the means
to travel overseas. Once the
stage of community trans-
mission of infections started
(let us not fool ourselves that
it hasn’t), there has been a
clear trend of the less privi-
leged sections of the popula-
tion being more prone to get-
ting infected and, unfortu-
nately, also dying.
Globally, the worst sufferer
of the outbreak of this pandem-
ic has been, by far, the USA.
Figures of Covid-19 deaths
across that country, for exam-
ple, show that thirty-four per-
cent of the deaths were those of
African Americans or blacks,
whereas they constitute barely
13 percent of the total national
population. In the worst affect-
ed New York City, the black
community had 92.3 cases of
hospitalisation for every one
lakh population, while those of
Hispanic or Latin American
ethnicity was close behind with
74.3 cases. White Americans
saw far fewer cases at 45.2 per
lakh. The primary explanation
for the over-representation of
blacks and Hispanics, among
those getting infected, lies in
their poverty. Their cramped
houses typically have a greater
number of persons sharing it,
enabling infections to spread
quickly. Most are multi-genera-
tion households wherein pro-
tecting the vulnerable elderly
from disease becomes a chal-
lenge. Economic and ethnic
segregation of residential are-
as forces these minorities to
live in congested neighbour-
hoods with hygienically poor
surroundings.
Professionally, as the un-
derprivileged ethnic groups
generally lack a college edu-
cation, they are engaged
mainly in low paying blue-
collar jobs and often use
public transport to com-
mute. As security staff, bus
drivers, and nursing attend-
ants, they tend to be more
exposed to potential infec-
tions. Frequently engaged in
essential services, their typ-
ical jobs are less amenable
to the work from home op-
tion. A part of the unorgan-
ised sector usually, many of
them may not be entitled to
paid sick leave and face the
financial compulsion to con-
tinue working even while
sick, increasing the likeli-
hood of transmission of in-
fection to their co-workers.
Most are not covered under
medical insurance schemes,
making access to adequate
health care financially chal-
lenging. Lack of proper nu-
trition and the mental stress
of poverty and racial dis-
crimination results in the
prevalence of obesity, diabe-
tes, hypertension, and asth-
ma among them. The usual
cause of death through a
Covid-19 infection are com-
plications caused by co-mor-
bidities and they are com-
mon amongst the disadvan-
taged ethnic minorities.
Coronavirus is an invisible
enemy, difficult to protest
against. America has chosen to
blame the closest identifiable
proxy for the virus – China.
American blacks have been pa-
tiently enduring the onslaught
of this deadly virus. Then,
their suffering, mainly on ac-
count of economic inequality,
found a parallel faultline in the
unacceptable high handedness
of the mostly white police offic-
ers against their community.
Police brutality resulting in the
death of George Floyd has led
to a spontaneous uprising
against racial discrimination.
Thepolice,wearingcamouflage
uniforms, moving in armoured
vehicles, carrying lethal weap-
ons, and operating in a culture
of endemic racial profiling
tends to behave like soldiers
and see the black Americans as
their enemy. Soldiers engage
with an enemy in a zero-sum
game. Either they kill, or the
enemy kills them. The primary
role of a police force, in con-
trast, is to assist the people.
As the generally peaceful
demonstrations, marred by
a few incidents of looting,
violence, and arson, sweep
across America, the need of
the hour was to listen and
respond to the legitimate
grievances of the protestors.
Instead, President cynically
tweeted ‘November 3’, the
date for his presumed re-
election. Trump berated the
local authorities for failing
to dominate the streets, omi-
nously predicted that ‘when
the looting starts, the shoot-
ing starts’ and threatened to
call in the army to control
the crowds. In response to
the peaceful protest gather-
ing outside the White House,
the law enforcement officers
used tear gas to clear the
passage for Trump to walk
to the church. The white
backlash against the elec-
tion of Obama as the first
black President had brought
Trump to power. His obses-
sion with his electoral cam-
paign for re-election makes
him focus solely on his sup-
port base by whipping up
polarisation and his offer of
violence as the solution. An
apparent flaw in the work-
ing of the electoral system is
that playing partisan poli-
tics can give the authority to
rule an entire nation.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
BLACK LIVES MATTER
I
Globally, the
worst sufferer of
the outbreak of
this pandemic
has been, by far,
the USA. Figures
of Covid-19
deaths across
that country, for
example, show
that thirty-four
percent of the
deaths were those
of African
Americans or
blacks, whereas
they constitute
barely 13 percent
of the total
national
population. In
the worst affected
New York City,
the black
community had
92.3 cases of
hospitalisation
for every one
lakh population,
while those of
Hispanic or
Latin American
ethnicity was
close behind with
74.3 cases
Coronavirus is an
invisible enemy,
difficult to protest
against. America has
chosen to blame the
closest identifiable
proxy for the virus –
China. American
blacks have been
patiently enduring the
onslaught of this
deadly virus
MAHENDRA
SINGH
DG Income Tax
Investigation, Rajasthan

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INDIAAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
New Delhi: Congress
leader Rahul Gandhi on
Thursday, in a dialogue
with industrialist Rajiv
Bajaj on the economic
fallout of the COVID-19
crisis, criticised the
Central government for
its handling of the dis-
easeandsaidthat“there
was no lockdown even
during the world war”.
“It is quite surreal. I
do not think anyone im-
agined that the world
would be locked down in
this way. I do not think
even during the world
war, the world was
locked down. Even then,
things were open. It is a
unique and devastating
sort of phenomenon,”
Gandhi said. “The econ-
omy slowed down be-
fore COVID-19. Unem-
ployment was becoming
a serious problem be-
fore this virus. Now
COVID-19 pushed it
over the edge,” he said.
Responding to the
Congress leader, Bajaj
criticised the Central
government for impos-
ing the ‘draconian’
lockdown and claimed
that it was only in India
that people were not al-
lowed to move outdoors.
“The way India has
been locked down is a
draconian lockdown. I
am not hearing about
this kind of lockdown
from anywhere else.
All my friends and
family from across the
world have always
been free to step out,”
Bajaj said.
On tacking the hard-
ships of economy, Bajaj
was of the view that In-
dia can tackle it by
adopting “specialisa-
tion” as a strategy.
Agreeing with the in-
dustrialist’sopinion,the
Gandhi scion said, “It
(lockdown) was also im-
posed suddenly. The bit-
ter-sweet thing you said
is shocking to me. See,
richpeoplecandealwith
it as they have a home, a
comfortableatmosphere,
but it is completely dev-
astatingforthepoorpeo-
ple and migrants.”
“A lot of people said
that they have lost con-
fidence and I think this
is a very sad thing, and
dangerous for the coun-
try,” the Congress lead-
er added.
Rajiv Bajaj further
targeted the Centre and
said, “Don’t understand
how despite being an
Asian country, we ought
not to look East, we
looked at Italy, France,
Spain, the UK and the
US. Not right bench-
marks in any sense be it
in terms of inherent
immunity, temperature,
demography etc.”
“Instead of looking to
the west or to the east,
why didn’t we say that
we are actually a confi-
dent country, let’s look
at ourselves and let’s
come out with an Indi-
an solution. Why was
that not the natural im-
pulse?” Gandhi said.
Rahul has been hold-
ing a series of dia-
logues on the status of
India’s economy and
the impact of lock-
down. On April 30, he
first held a conversa-
tion with former RBI
Governor Raghuram
Rajan. —ANI
‘THERE WAS NO LOCKDOWN
EVEN DURING WORLD WAR’
RAGA SLAMS CENTRE OVER COVID-19 CRISIS
New Delhi: CSIR Di-
rector-General Shekhar
Mande said that the
WHO’s decision to halt
hydroxychloroquine
(HCQ) drug trial was
taken in haste and the
global body should have
actually analysed the
data before deciding.
“I believe that WHO
decision was taken in
haste it was a kind of
knee jerk reaction they
should have actually
analyse the data on
their own before tem-
porarily suspend the
trials that is my per-
sonal opinion,” Mande
said.India’s nodal gov-
ernment agency ICMR
(Indian Council of
Medical Research)
wrote to the WHO cit-
ing differences in dos-
age standards between
Indian and interna-
tional trials that could
explain the efficacy is-
sues of HCQ in treating
COVID-19 patients.
In addition, Dr
Sheela Godbole, Na-
tional Coordinator of
the WHO-India Soli-
darity Trial and Head
of the Division of Epi-
demiology, ICMR-Na-
tional AIDS Research
Institute also wrote a
letter via an email to
Dr Soumya Swamina-
than, Chief Scientist
at World Health
Organisation. —ANI
‘WHO decision to stop
HCQ trial was hasty’
New Delhi: Former
physician to the Presi-
dent of India and senior
physician at Ganga
Ram hospital Dr Moh-
sin Wali has welcomed
the move of the Drug
Controller General of
India to give permis-
sion for emergency use
of Remdesivir to treat
COVID-19 patients.
“Remdesivir medicine
can be used to protect
lung cells. It is very for-
tunate that it has been
allowed in India. Those
patients who were tak-
ing 11 days in ICU to
recover they are now
taking 5 days to recover.
This is a big differ-
ence,” Wali said. —ANI
Ex-Prez doc’s
welcomes
remdesivir use
New Delhi: The SC,
while hearing a
batch of petitions
challenging the MHA
notification on pay-
ment of wages, ob-
served that some ne-
gotiations have to
happen between em-
ployers and workers
to iron out what has
to be done for the sal-
ary for these 54 days.
The Centre told Apex
Court that the pay-
ment of wages to
workers during this
lockdown period is a
matter between em-
ployers and employ-
ees. It further said
that it would not in-
terfere.
A bench of the
Apex Court, headed
by Justice Ashok
Bhushan, along with
other justices “On one
hand you (Centre) are
trying to put money
in the pocket of work-
er. So now some nego-
tiation is required for
a solution.” —ANI
New Delhi: The Su-
premeCourtonThurs-
day allowed a Mum-
bai-based practicing
lawyer to deposit Rs 25
lakh in the Apex Court
registry to ensure that
those migrants from
Mumbai can travel to
their respective states,
including Uttar
Pradesh, during the
COVID-19 crisis.
A bench of the Apex
Court, headed by Jus-
tice Ashok Bhushan,
and also comprising
Justices Sanjay Kis-
han Kaul and M R
Shah allowed the peti-
tion filed by Mumbai-
based lawyer Sagheer
Ahmed Khan.
He submitted to the
Apex Court and plead-
ed for donating Rs 25
lakh as train fare to
enable the Mumbai
migrant workers, to
go back to their home
towns in Uttar
Pradesh. The Apex
Court fixed the mat-
ter for further hear-
ing till June 12.
Khanhad sought a
direction from the
Apex Court to the Un-
ion of India (UOI) and
other concerned au-
thorities to ensure
that the migrant work-
ers, particularly those
from from Sant Kabir
Nagar, UP return
home safely. —ANI
Lawyer gets SC nod to help migrants
New Delhi: A PIL
moved in Delhi HC
has sought directions
that PM CARES Fund
be brought under the
ambit RTI. The peti-
tion said that PM
CARES is a ‘public
authority’ within the
ambit of Section 2(h)
of RTI & prayed for a
direction to the
trust to display de-
tails of the fund col-
lected & the purpose
it is being utilised for,
on its website.
The PIL referred to
media reports that the
PM’s Citizen Assis-
tance Fund has re-
fused to divulge infor-
mation under the RTI
Act, 2005 by claiming
that fund is not a “pub-
lic authority” within
ambit of Act. —ANI
Plea in Delhi HC to bring
PM-CARES under RTI
No action against
employers, says SC
New Delhi: Union
Minister Smriti Irani
on Thursday expressed
happiness over the
Central government’s
decision to approve
an amendment to the
Essential Commodi-
ties Act, paving way
for ‘One Nation, One
Agri Market.’
Speaking to ANI, Sm-
riti said, “First time in
history, farmers can
sell their produce in
any state, at a price
they deem fit. This real-
ises the dream of ‘One
Market’ for our farm-
ers. I congratulate all
farmers, especially
from Punjab.”
The Union Cabinet’s
decision on Thursday ,
following up on Cen-
tre’s ‘Atma Nirbhar
Bharat’ economic stim-
ulus measures. —ANI
Kyunki it’s
good: Smriti
praises new
Agri reform
NO RINGING OF BELLS IN TEMPLES
OF UTTAR PRADESH NOW
Lucknow: When temples
across the state reopen
on June 8, devotees will
not be allowed to ring
bells when they enter the
temples and there will
be no community feasts
either. People, can bring
their own bells and ring
them in temples. Entry
into religious places will
be permitted only for
those who wear masks.
Priests will wear gloves
and the norm of social
distancing will have to
be maintained.Mahant
Diya Giri of the famous
Mankameshwar temple
said, “The ‘Jalabhishek’
will now be held through
a pipe so that devotees
can perform the ritu-
alwithout entering the
sanctum sanctorum of the
temple which is small.
GANGAQUEST-2020 ONLINE
QUIZ CROSSES A MN MARK
New Delhi: While the country has been strug-
gling to battle COVID-19, the National Mission
for Clean Ganga has been busy for more than
a month in raising another awakening among
people especially among children about Ganga,
Rivers and Environment-- Gangaquest-2020- an
innovative online quiz that has been live now
for more than a month. The quiz has received
unprecedented response and crossed a million
mark, with more than 11L participants registering
well before its scheduled end on May 30, 2020.
SOP’s TO CONTAIN SPREAD OF
CORONAVIRUS IN OFFICES
New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Thursday, issued a
Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) on preventive
measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in
offices.Persons above 65 years of age, persons
with co-morbidities, and pregnant women have
been advised to stay at home, except for essen-
tial and health purposes. The office management
would facilitate the process, said the Ministry. It
said that offices in containment zones will remain
closed except for medical and essential services.
2 RSS MEMBERS, OTHER STAFF
TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19
New Delhi: It appears that
Corona has entered the
RSS office in New Delhi
as Sangh’s Sahpracharak
Parmukh, Dr Sunil Aam-
bekar and Dr Yogendra
have been tested Corona
positive. Apart from them,
two cooks have also been
tested positive for the
deadly virus. Dr Aam-
bekar has been admitted
to Safdarjung Hospital &
after the matter came to
light, the Delhi office of
Sangh has been sanitized.
India’s tally of coronavirus
cases has crossed two
lakh after a record num-
ber of 9,304 people tested
positive for the deadly
virus infection in last 24
hrs. Total cases in country
stood at 2,16,919 including
6,075 deaths, according to
government data.
IN THE COURTYARD
It is quite surreal. I do not think
anyone imagined that the world
would be locked down in this way.
I do not think even during the world war,
the world was locked down. Even then,
things were open. It is a unique and devas-
tating sort of phenomenon.
—Rahul Gandhi, Cong Leader
MANEKA QUESTIONS
RAHUL’S SILENCE ON
JUMBO’S DEATH
New Delhi: Union Min-
ister for Environment,
Forest and Climate
Change Prakash Ja-
vadekar said on Thurs-
day that senior officers
have been deputed to
probe the killing of an
elephant in Kerala’s
Palakkad district.
“If someone stuffed
firecrackers in pineap-
ple to feed an animal,
and if those firecrack-
ers burst in its mouth,
and if the animal dies
because of that, it is not
our Indian culture. This
is absolutely unaccepta-
ble. The Centre is taking
this case very seriously.
Senior officers have
been deputed to take the
investigation further,
and nab the culprits,”
said the Minister.
“To solve the animal-
human conflict, we are
focussing on fodder
and water augmenta-
tion in forest areas,”
added Javadekar.
The elephant had
died on May 27 after she
ate the pineapple
stuffed with crackers
and forest officials said
that it died standing in
river Velliyar after it
suffered an injury in its
lower jaw. The prelimi-
nary post-mortem re-
port of a female wild
elephant at Mannark-
kad Forest Division
says that the immediate
cause of death of the
animal was drowning
followed by inhalation
of water leading to lung
failure. —ANI
‘Sr officers deputed to
probe killing of elephant’
RRR
INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY: KERALA CM

INDIAAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
LT GEN MANOJ PANDE ASSUMES
CHARGE OF A&N COMMAND
Lt Gen Manoj Pande has assumed charge of
Andaman and Nicobar Command on Thursday.
RAVI KOTA APPOINTED AS MINISTER
(ECO), EMBASSY OF INDIA, WASHINGTON
Ravi Kota has been appointed as Minister (Eco-
nomic) Joint Secretary level, Embassy of India,
Washington DC, USA under the Department of
Economic Affairs. He is a 1993 batch IAS officer
of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
LEKHAN THAKKAR APPOINTED AS
COUNSELLOR (ECON), EMBASSY OF
INDIA, BEIJING
Lekhan Thakkar has been appointed as Coun-
sellor (Economic) at Director level, Embassy of
India, Beijing, China. He is a CSS officer.
H ATHELI APPOINTED AS ADVISOR,
ADB, MANILA
H Atheli has been appointed as Advisor at Direc-
tor level to ED, Asian Development Bank, Manila,
Philippines, under the Department of Economic
Affairs. He is a 2000 batch ICAS officer.
BRAJENDRA NAVNIT APPOINTED AS
AMBASSADOR & PRI, WTO, PMI,
GENEVA
Brajendra Navnit has been appointed as Ambas-
sador & PRI at Joint Secretary level to the WTO,
PMI to WTO, Geneva, Switzerland under the
Department of Commerce. He is a 1999 batch
IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
ANWAR HUSSAIN SHAIK
APPOINTED AS COUNSELLOR,
PMI TO WTO, GENEVA
Anwar Hussain Shaik has been appointed as
Counsellor at Director level, PMI to WTO, Gene-
va, Switzerland. He is a 2000 batch IRTS officer.
N ASHOK KUMAR APPOINTED
AS ADVISOR (IE), EMBASSY OF
INDIA, BRUSSELS
N Ashok Kumar has been appointed as Advisor
(Industry and Engineering) at Director level, Em-
bassy of India, Brussels, Belgium. He is a 2004
batch IAS officer of Manipur cadre.
DOP GETS NEW ESTABLISHMENT
OFFICER IN SRINIVAS R KATIKITHALA
Srinivas R Katikithala has assumed the charge as
Establishment Officer in the Department of Per-
sonnel and Training (DoPT). He is a 1989 batch
IAS officer o Gujarat cadre.
PC MODY UNLIKELY TO GET
ANOTHER EXTENSION
Chairman of the CBDT, PC Mody, is now unlikely
to get second extension in service in August. He
is 1982 batch IRS (IT) officer.
ONE DOZEN 1988 BATCH IAS OFFICERS
STILL WAITING IN GOI?
About one dozen 1988 batch IAS officers are still
waiting in the wings to get posting as Secretary
in the Government of India.
TAMIL NADU CHIEF SECRETARY,
SHANMUGAM GETS THREE
MONTHS’ EXTENSION
In view of Covid K Shanmugam, Chief Secretary
of Tamil Nadu, has been given extension for a
further period of three months beginning Aug
1, informed a few reliable sources. He is a 1985
batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
S K SINGHAL APPOINTED
HIGH COMMISSIONER TO
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Sushil Kumar Singhal, presently posted as
the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External
Affairs, has been appointed as the next High
Commissioner of India to the Independent State
of Papua New Guinea.
POWERGallery
New Delhi: A review
petition filed by the
Central Bureau of In-
vestigation (CBI)
against former union
minister and senior
Congress leader P Chid-
ambaram’s bail in the
INX Media case was dis-
missed by the Supreme
Court on Thursday.
“Application for oral
hearing the review pe-
tition in open court is
rejected. We have pe-
rused the Review Peti-
tion and the connected
papers carefully and
are convinced that the
order, of which review
has been sought, does
not suffer from any er-
ror apparent warrant-
ing its reconsideration.
The Review Petition is,
accordingly, dis-
missed,” the judges
said in their ruling.
Granting him bail in
the CBI case on Octo-
ber 22, the Supreme
Court had dismissed
the investigating agen-
cy’s contention that
Chidambaram, 74, was
a flight risk.
Later in December,
the top court had grant-
ed him bail in a case
filed by the Enforce-
ment Directorate (ED)
against him in the same
INX Media case.
The Supreme Court
observed that Chidam-
baram had participated
in the investigation,
and ordered him to con-
tinue to do so and not to
talk to the press about
the case while on bail.
He was also prohibited
from travelling overseas
and tampering with evi-
dence or contacting wit-
nesses. CBI had charged
Chidambaram and oth-
ers with allegedly re-
ceiving around Rs 10
lakh as bribe for clear-
ing foreign investment
for a private company
INX Media.
In 2007, during his
tenure as finance min-
ister in UPA govt, Chi-
dambaram had facili-
tated a huge transfu-
sion of foreign funds
to the firm, then owned
by former media
baron Peter Mukerjea
and his wife Indrani
Mukerjea. —Agencies
PC bail: SC dismisses CBI’s review pleaCBI had requested Apex Court to review its decision to grant bail to the Congress leader in October
Vaishali
New Delhi: With the
revival of global econ-
omy being the most
sought after goal of
governments the
world over, Petroleum
Minister Dharmendra
Pradhan has congrat-
ulated OPEC for pro-
duction cuts that
helped pull up global
oil rates from a two-
decade low and pitched
for the oil cartel tak-
ing responsible steps
in the coming days to
enable the revival of
the fragile economic
situation globally.
“I also commend you
for the better under-
standing within OPEC
and OPEC+ at a time
when global energy
market is facing serious
challenges, the Minis-
ter said.
In a statement re-
leased by the Petroleum
ministry, Pradhan,
“highlighted the need
for producing and con-
suming countries to
take responsible steps
in the coming days to
enable the revival of
the fragile economic
situation globally.”
He noted that gradual
economic recovery is
expected which will re-
vive oil growth, and
thus care should be
taken not to upset the
fragile balance between
supply and demand
achieved so far.
“Pradhan stressed on
OPEC’’s role in stabilis-
ing oil markets, and
agreed to work in close
collaboration with
OPEC countries for In-
dia’s energy security
and also for global en-
ergy stability in the
current challenging en-
vironment,” the state-
ment added.
Pradhancallsforresponsiblesteps
to revive economy, lauds OPEC
New Delhi: The Union
of India (UOI) today
told the Supreme Court,
during a hearing of a
petition by Dr Arushi
Jain, that the number
of COVID-19 cases is
constantly increasing
and a large number of
make-shift hospitals
will have to be set up to
deal with the pandemic.
The Apex Court was
hearing a petition filed
by Dr Jain, seeking ap-
propriate directions to
the concerned authori-
ties, to provide immedi-
ate temporary accom-
modation to all the
frontline medical
healthcare and other
related professionals
like emergency ambu-
lance operators.
The petitioner, Dr
Jain, also prayed that
there should be imme-
diate directions to the
concerned authorities
to ensure prevention
of eviction of medical
healthcare profession-
al living in rented ac-
commodations till the
pandemic is con-
trolled, or provide al-
ternative accommoda-
tion at no costs to the
medical staff who are
being evicted.
She further sought
from court directions
be made to concerned
authorities to ensure
about safety of health-
care workers. —ANI
Affidavit filed in
SC to increase
makeshift hospitals
TACKLING COVID-19
New Delhi: Fugitive
businessman Vijay
Mallya is unlikely to be
extradited anytime
soon with the UK gov-
ernment saying that
there is a legal issue
that needs to be re-
solved before his extradi-
tion can be arranged.
Last month, Mallya
lost his appeals in UK
SC against his extradi-
tion to India to face
money laundering &
fraudcharges.Aspokes-
person in UK High
Commission said the is-
sue is ‘confidential’ &
added: we cannot esti-
mate how long this is-
sue will take to resolve.”
“Vijay Mallya last
month lost his appeal
against extradition,
and was refused leave to
appeal further to the
UK SC. However, there
is a further legal issue
that needs resolving be-
fore Mallya’s extradi-
tion can be arranged.”
“Under UK law, extradi-
tion cannot take place
until it is resolved. We
are seeking to deal with
it as soon as possible,”
the official added.
New Delhi: Economic
aspect is not higher
than the health of the
people, SC told RBI on
interest waiver during
loan moratorium.
The top court on
Thursday expressed
strong displeasure
over the way the RBI is
treating people who
had taken loans and
wanted a waive off of
their rate of interest
during this moratori-
um period in this pan-
demic times. The RBI
had in its affidavit re-
cently said that lend-
ers may likely lose
around Rs 2 lakh crore
if the interest on their
loans is waived off
during the loan mora-
torium, which has
been extended till Au-
gust 31.
A bench of the apex
court, headed by Jus-
tice Ashok Bhushan
and others, said: “The
economic aspect is not
higher than the health
of people. The RBI is
trying to sensationalise
the issue by leaking to
the media.” —ANI
Resolve legal issue before
repatriation: UK Govt
Economics not
over health: SC
“A“A“A
INX MEDIA CASE : THE RULING
Panchkula: Shri Mata
Mansa Devi Shrine
Board will soon be in-
troducing online regis-
tration for 15-second
“darshan” at the his-
torical temple in
Panchkula, whose
doors have remained
closed for devotees
since the nationwide
lockdown was imposed
in March to contain the
spread of Covid-19.
Now, the board has pre-
pared SOPs for reopen-
ing the shrine. “While
we are awaiting the gov-
ernment guidelines on
reopening temples, we
have prepared the
SOPs,” said MS Yadav,
CEO of the board.
Soon, online
appointments
to visit Mansa
Devi shrine
Two Cong...
All-India Congress
Committee’s state in-
charge Rajiv Satav
tweeted: “India is in
the midst of its big-
gest health economic
and humanitarian cri-
sis in its independent
history. BJP, though,
cannot think beyond
putting all its ener-
gies in poaching legis-
lators for RS polls,
people be damned.”
The BJP has 103 mem-
bers in the House and
canwintwoseatshands-
down, but has fielded
three candidates.
No touching...
In hotels buffet service
should also follow social
distancingnormsamong
patrons,largegatherings
continue to remain pro-
hibitedandhotelsshould
ensure adequate social
distancing between pa-
trons as far as feasible.
All shopping mall en-
trance to have mandato-
ry hand hygiene and
thermal screening pro-
visions, only asymp-
tomatic customers/vis-
itors shall be al-
lowedand all workers/
customers/visitors to
be allowed entry only if
usingfacecover/masks.
India, oz...
In his remarks, Morri-
son complemented PM
Modi for his “construc-
tive and very positive”
role including at the
G-20 role in pushing for
a concerted global ap-
proach in dealing with
the coronavirus crisis.
“The CSP is based on
mutual understanding,
trust, common interests
and the shared values of
democracy and rule of
law. It reflects India and
Australia’s strong com-
mitment to the practical
global cooperation to
address major challeng-
es like COVID-19,” add-
ed the statement.
The two countries
also announced a
shared vision for mari-
time cooperation in the
Indo-Pacific to harness
opportunities and meet
challenges together as
Comprehensive Strate-
gic Partners.
The two countries
signed seven agree-
ments including the
Mutual Logistics Sup-
port Agreement
(MLSA). They agreed to
continue to deepen and
broaden defence cooper-
ation by enhancing the
scope and complexity of
their military exercises
and engagement activi-
ties to develop new ways
to address shared secu-
rity challenges.
New Delhi and Can-
berra also signed frame-
work Arrangement on
Cyber and Cyber-En-
abled Critical Technol-
ogy Cooperation and an
MOU on cooperation in
the field of mining and
processing of Critical
and Strategic Minerals.
Implementing Ar-
rangement concerning
cooperation in Defence
Science and Technolo-
gy to the MoU on De-
fence Cooperation was
also signed during the
first virtual summit.
The two sides also
signed three MoUs on
cooperation in public
administration and gov-
ernance reforms, coop-
eration in vocational
education and training
and water resources
management.
In his opening re-
mark, Prime Minister
Modi focused on the
importance of a com-
prehensive strategic
partnership between
the two nations, espe-
cially during the
COVID-19 period. He
also called for a coordi-
nated and collabora-
tive approach to over-
come the economic and
social side effects of
the pandemic.
“The role of our com-
prehensive strategic
partnership will be more
important in this period
of the global epidemic.
Theworldneedsacoordi-
nated and collaborative
approach to overcome
the economic and social
side effects of this epi-
demic,” added he. —ANI
SC to...
the bench, also compris-
ing Justices S K Kaul
and M R Shah, said in its
order.
The bench, which
heard the matter
through video-confer-
encing, noted the sub-
missions advanced by
the petitioner’s counsel
who said that in the
NCR there should be
“one policy, one portal
and one pass which
shall be recognized by
all the governments”.
The bench further
noted the submissions
of counsel that due to
difference in the deci-
sion taken by different
governments, lot of
confusion and difficulty
are being caused to the
common man.
“Needful be done
within a week,” the
bench said and posted
the matter for hearing
on June 12.
During the hearing,
the bench observed that
there should be a con-
sistent policy in this
regard for the NCR.
The counsel appear-
ing for the Centre re-
ferred to the May 30 or-
der of the Ministry of
Home Affairs. —ANI
FROM PG 1
3804 COVID-19
PATIENTS CURED

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
In the times on the ongoing Corona crisis where uncertainty and fear is leading to a lot of stress, meditation is one of the best ways to calm down and cope on a daily and also long-term basis.

Fromafarasunrisemaylooklikea
sunset,itisonlyaswegocloserandalittle
timepassesweunderstandthedifference.
Inthesamemanner,anopportunitymightlook
likeanobstruction,sokeepfaithatalltimes.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India
AHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
08
2NDFRONT
Dr Anita
New Delhi: After two
persons were taken
into custody for the
death of an elephant
in Kerala, Congress
treasurer Ahmed Pa-
tel h as lashed out to
people who want to
take advantage of the
situation and misrep-
resent facts to divide
the society. Patel
tweeted, “It is sad
that the climate in
our country has be-
come so bitter that
even in the tragic
death of an elephant,
some are trying to
misrepresent the
facts to twist into an
issue of one commu-
nity Vs the other?”
Meanwhile, Kerala
forest department team
probing the killing of
the pregnant elephant
is leant to have taken
two persons into custo-
dy. The local
Manarakadu police sta-
tion on Wednesday reg-
istered a case in the
gruesome incident.
“Forest department
and the police are prob-
ing the incident and we
are confident of finding
the villains behind this
crime,” said Sub In-
spector TK Ramachan-
dran.
According to veteri-
narians who treated
the 15-year-old preg-
nant elephant, some
miscreants while
chasing away the ele-
phants who occasion-
ally stray into the ag-
ricultural land had
kept fire crackers in-
side a pineapple.
When the elephant
started eating it, the
crackers burst, seri-
ously injuring its upper
and lower jaw and
tongue.
The injured ele-
phant, according to
forest officials, was
first spotted by locals
near a water source
on May 23. Two days
later an elephant ex-
pert after a medical
assessment said
things were bad for
the animal.
On May 25, the ele-
phant was found dead
in slushy water.
“Despite our best
efforts to get the ele-
phant out of water, it
did not come out and
died,” said a local vil-
lager.
A post-mortem con-
ducted on the elephant
two days later reveled
that the elephant was
two-month pregnant.
Experts pointed
out that this was the
elephant’’s first preg-
nancy.
People misrepresent facts to divide the society: Ahmed bhai
MILKING TRAGEDY?
Nofinaldecisionyet,DyCMsaysgovtmayhavetohikeVATonpetroleumproducts
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: With
the economy in the dol-
drums and revenues af-
fected after four phases
of corona-enforced
lockdown, the Gujarat
Government is consid-
ering a hike in prices of
petrol and diesel by
“bringing it on par with
the other States.”
Deputy Chief Min-
ister Nitin Patel, who
also holds the Finance
and Health portfolios,
told reporters here
that, “Suggestions
have been received
that the government
should increase its
revenue through vari-
ous ways. One of the
inputs is about petrol
and diesel prices.”
Patel also clarified,
however, that no final
decision had been taken
about this so far. He
pointed out that petrol
and diesel are available
at the “cheapest price in
Gujarat compared to
other states of India.”
He went on, “This is
because we are levying
minimum VAT on pet-
rol and diesel. Sugges-
tions have been re-
ceived that there should
be a hike, in order to
level the prices with
other States to keep rev-
enue flows intact for the
government.”
Patel said this was
also necessary in the
State’s fight against
Covid-1 and to ensure
that the State could
continue its develop-
ment work and imple-
ment the relief
schemes, including
Atmanirbhar Gujarat
scheme, pay salaries,
bear the cost of sub-
sidy such as agricul-
ture power subsidy
worth Rs 4,000 crore
and execute the budg-
et plans.
Besides this, the gov-
ernment is in process to
announce one more re-
lief package, he said.
Meanwhile, the Dep-
uty Chief Minister an-
nounced that Narmada
waters for Kharif sea-
son irrigation will be
released from June 7.
Patel said Sardar Saro-
var dam has huge water
storage compared to
past five years at 1.51
million acre feet and
the water level is at
123.61 metres.
This storage is being
used for drinking water
supply and also for re-
gional water schemes
like Sujalam Sufalam
Yojana and SAUNI.
Now, from June 7, irri-
gation water for the en-
tire Kharif season
would be released.
Patel said Kutch will
also get water for the
entire season after
some ongoing works at
Santalpur are complet-
ed in a fortnight.
Cash-strapped Guj mulling
hike in petrol, diesel prices
Gujarat Government is mulling hike in petrol and diesel prices.
Duty cuts, interest waivers
form Guj’s `14k cr package
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: Chief
Minister Vijay Rupa-
ni and Deputy Chief
Minister Nitin Patel
on Thursday made a
big bang announce-
ment of a Rs
14,000-crore relief
package for every
one, which is more
about slashing of du-
ties and interest waiv-
ers than giving out
anything.
A key announcement
in the package is a 20
per cent rebate in an-
nual property tax to
shops and establish-
ments, restaurants, of-
fices, hospitals, nursing
homes,whichtranslates
into a relief of Rs 600
crore.
The government has
announced a 10 per cent
relief in residential
property tax to the tune
of Rs 144 crore. Residen-
tial electricity consum-
ers, whose two-month
consumption is less
than 200 units, will not
have to pay charges of
first 100 units and the
government will suffer
income loss of Rs 650
crore.
Commercial electric-
ity consumers having
LT connections would
be exempted from fixed
tariff for the month of
May 2020 at a burden of
Rs 200 crore to the ex-
chequer. The State Gov-
ernment will also be
giving Rs 768 crore sub-
sidy to industries for
capital and interest pay-
ment. There is a similar
subsidy of Rs 450 crore
to the textile industry
for capital and interest
payment, while this
amount is Rs 150 crore
for mega industries.
The package, inter-
estingly, has included
announcements made
earlier. This includes
Rs 1,000 financial aid
to poor families,
blind, senior citizens
and widows, which
will cost the State
Government Rs
4,375.68 crore. Even
the payment against
the loss of the Guja-
rat State Road Trans-
port Corporation of
Rs 120 crore has been
considered a part of
the relief package for
the people.
NEED OF THE HOUR!
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, on his right Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, on CM’s left Energy
Minister Saurabh Patel and in second row Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and
Principal Secretary (Industries) and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister M K Das.
Mob ties three
Siddis to bench,
thrashes them
First India Bureau
Rajkot: A group of
more than dozen people
in Veraval of Gir Som-
nathdistrictonWednes-
day evening thrashed
three persons from the
Scheduled Tribe Siddi
community over an old
enmity. A video of the
incident has gone viral
on social media.
Sources said the ac-
cused mob included a
member of Veraval
Boats Association. Po-
lice said the attack was
the result of an old en-
mity between the ac-
cused persons and
Samir Majgul (21) and
Mustaq Bhalaya (20).
The video shows
Majgul and Bhalaya
tied to a bench along
with a third person
and the mob raining
punches and kicks on
them. The victims
were admitted to the
Rajkot Civil Hospital
with severe injuries.
First India Bureau
Surat: Leading dia-
mond-trade organiza-
tions from Surat and
Mumbai called on
members to stop im-
porting rough dia-
monds for at least a
month so the indus-
try can survive in this
painful situation
arise duwwe to Coro-
na pandemic.Cur-
rently the traders
have ready stock, and
if the demanad for it
increase than they
don’t have to suffer
much loss.
Surat diamond indus-
try has just started op-
erations after almost
two months of lock-
down. The traders have
enough stocks but there
is no demand on the
gloabl level as well. Jew-
ellery industry is also
facing the same situa-
tion as there is no buy-
ing since long. As the
markets are being
opened now, to main-
tain the balance be-
tween polished and
rough diamond, leaders
of the diamond indus-
try organised a meeting
in which all the leading
stakeholders including
Surat Diamond Associ-
ation, Surat Heera
BurseandGJEPC made
an appeal to the mem-
bers to not to purchase
rough diamonds for one
month.
It means there will be
no purchase from 1st
june to 30th June. After
the lockdown, work has
been resumed in dia-
mond industry. Small
and big diamond facto-
ries have also been
started in Surat. It is
claimed that more than
1 lakh diamond workers
have got the job.
According to an esti-
mate diamond industry
already has stock of 2.6
billion dollar’s rough
diamond. As there will
be no purchase in June,
the imports of rough
will be at aroung 1 bil-
lion dollar. According to
the sources the market
due to this decision
there will be no unnec-
essary hike in rough
diamond price. On the
other hand the pro-
duction of polished is
lesser than before so
the production will
remain under control.
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The Gu-
jarat BJP will organise
virtual public rallies
this month to highlight
the works carried out
by the Narendra Modi
Government during the
first year of its second
term in office.
State BJP president
Jitu Vaghani on Thurs-
day said the virtual ral-
lies will be addressed by
national party Presi-
dent JP Nadda and oth-
er central leaders.
“Four virtual rallies
will be held in four dif-
ferent zones between
June 8 and June 17. We
will use different digital
and social media tools
as well as cable TV to
reach out to at least one
lakh people in each ral-
ly,” he told reporters.
Prior to these virtual
rallies, party leaders
like Mansukh Mandavi-
ya, I K Jadeja and Gan-
pat Vasava will address
press conferences
across the state.
Between June 15
and 28, party work-
ers will visit booths
to distribute a copy
of PM Modi’s letter
to the countrymen,
Vaghani said, adding
that booth-wise
WhatsApp groups
will be created to
connect around 47
lakh new workers of
the party.
First India Bureau
New Delhi: 1996 batch
IAS officer and Private
Secretary to Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi
since 2014, Rajeev To-
pno has been appointed
as senior advisor to the
World Bank Executive
Director.
Topno’s assignment
was cleared by Naren-
dra Modi-led Appoint-
ments Committee of
the Cabinet on Thurs-
day. The committee
also cleared names of
five other officers for
foreign assignments.
Topno, a Gujarat cad-
re Indian Administra-
tive Service officer, had
joined the Prime Minis-
ter’s Office as a deputy
secretary in 2009 when
Manmohan Singh had
just started his second
term. He handled key
portfolios such as tele-
com and ports at the
PMO in the UPA-2 gov-
ernment.
Modi appointed To-
pno on his personal
staff when he became
the Prime Minister in
2014.
Purchase of rough diamonds
put on hold for a month
BJP to hold rallies to
mark Modi Govt 1st yr
Modi’s PS Topno is
Sr Advisor to WB ED
Isn’t Gujarat government the
only one in the world where:
Government has abandoned
people in the middle of a
global pandemic?
Refused to fund train fare for
poor migrants?
But leaves no stone un-
turned to fund horse-trading
activities for a Rajya Sabha
election ?
@ahmedpatel
—FILE PHOTO
—FILE PHOTO

AHMEDABAD, FRIDAY
JUNE 5, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
The past weeks have been seriously challenging, City First
digs into some surprising benefits that have come out of
lockdown, that we can turn into long-term habits!
LOCKDOWN
TAKE-AWAYS!
he coronavirus hit the
world by surprise and
has had a lot of negative
implications, but while
we endure the discom-
fort and pray that things
get better quickly, there
are valuable life lessons that have
been drawn from this period.
The first and foremost thing
that we have learnt is that doing
nothing is possible. When was
the last time you’ve truly done
nothing without feeling an iota
of guilt? We do not need to feel
guilty for being unproductive
during a literal pandemic.
Secondly, lockdown brought
us plenty of time on our hands,
it’s a nice way to spend time in a
garden, on your balcony, or even
gardening indoors.
Thanks to lockdown being in
place, people are switching off
alarms and letting the body wake
naturally, and gently at the right
time. This lockdown need not
spell the end of your fitness jour-
ney, in fact, fitness enthusiasts
have found their workout places
at terrace, balconies and even
inside the living room, proof that
enthusiasm needs no
boundaries.
Last but not the
least, COVID-19
has left us all in a
state of despair, an-
ger, worry, and un-
certainty; however, it
has also allowed us to
pause, to breathe, and to reflect.
The most essential of all, it has
taught us gratitude, for all
the simple things that
we took for granted.
Sitting together to eat as a family
was one of the most important
things that some of us stopped
doing. However, with the lock-
down and all the family members
at home, the tradition of eating
together is back, that’s the fair
share of advantage from lock-
down, isn’t it?
City First got in touch with a
few of its readers from Jaipur,
JodhpurandAhmedabad,toknow
about the life lessons that they
have learnt during the lockdown.
Nikita Ramchandani from
Jaipur said, “The lesson that I
will keep with myself post lock-
down is to avoid eating outside
food because this lockdown has
drawn a good cook out of me,”
while Swimi Mathur kansara
from Jodhpur shared, “ Apart
from giving time to family, ca-
reer, and children there is one
more important aspect of our
life, which is ‘our own body.’ Dur-
ing this lockdown, the only
thing that helped me fight
corona is my own im-
mune system; hence,
staying fit and
healthy was the im-
portant life lesson
for me,” and
Priyanka Bel-
t a n g a d i
from Ahe-
madabad
s t a t e d ,
“The lockdown has helped me
get into a much more positive
headspace. Another major les-
son that I have learnt during this
time is that I need to stop chasing
after a materialistic life. I want
to spend the time I have with the
special people in my life.”
But the shock is, it took one
invisible being, a virus, just a
lockdown to make us realise all
these truths of life!
KARISHMA GWALANI
karishma.gwalani@firstindia.co.in
T
The lockdown has
helped me get into a
much more positive
headspace. Another
major lesson that I
have learnt during
this time is that I
need to stop chasing
after a materialistic
life. I want to spend
the time I have with
the special people
in my life.
—PRIYANKA BELTANGADI
The lesson that I will
keep with myself post
lockdown is to avoid
eating outside food
because this lock-
down has drawn a
good cook out of me.
—NIKITA RAMCHANDANI

10
ETCAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
FACEOFTHEDAY
RUPAL TOSHNIWAL, Influencer
YOUR
DAYHoroscope by
Saurabbh Sachdeva
LEO
JULY 24 - AUGUST 23
You may come across a lot
of distractions today but
you must at any cost
pretend yourself from
losing focus. There may be people
around you who keeps you update on
what’s happening around, make sure
they are reliable sources. You spend
an easy and calm day in office today.
LIBRA
SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22
You will set an example for
others to follow and this
will make your pretty
famous for a while. Keep
making the good cause. On academic
front, don’t listen to anyone’s advice
expect your guru as you may
otherwise get deviated from your
path.
ARIES
MAR 21 - APR 20
Where ever you will go
today, you will leave a deep
impression on people and
you will be the life of that
party. Today if you facing any
monetary problems than remember
its just a temporary thing and
therefore there is nothing to worry.
Avoid making any mistakes.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV 23 - DEC 22
Your devotion and
dedication in professional
life will pay you today in
form of a promotion or an
increment or both. Your seniors are
very impressed with you and
appreciates you like anything. Be rest
assured you success is not far away.
You may need help.
GEMINI
MAY 21 - JUNE 21
You will get a lot of
recognition on academic
front and you deserve this
considering all your hard
work and efforts. On professional
front, you expertise will help solving
all the complex problem and you will
be rewarded for it. Always stand for
the right.
AQUARIUS
JAN 21 - FEB 19
No matter how much
someone tries to oppose
your opinion, if you think
you are right you must take
a stand for it. You may get inspired
from someone close to you and he/she
may help you move ahead in direction
in which you were hesitating to take
step. You will have a good company.
TAURUS
APR 21 - MAY 20
You may misunderstand
someone taking advantage
of you but that may not be
the case so you must
evaluate every thing before coming
to the conclusions. You may face
some problems on domestic front,
the best advice would be to not loose
your cool.
CAPRICORN
DEC 23 - JAN 20
Not everything that shines
is gold, you may find a
person very friendly from
outside may have evil
motives against you inside so be
careful. You may do some charity
work today or go and donate some
stuff to the people in need. Your elder
one in family needs care and love.
VIRGO
AUG 24 - SEP 23
You good qualification will
help you today to fetch a
wonderful job that will not
only fulfil your monetary
needs but will also make you feel
secure. You will also get the
compensation that has been delayed
for a while. Listen to your intuition
today, it can help you from.
CANCER
JUNE 22 - JULY 23
Sometimes you have to act
extra smart, blindly relying
on promises is a serious
problem, instead you must
get signatures when it comes to any
deal or propositions. It will be better
to procrastinate the construction of a
building as today may not be the best
day to start with anything good.
PISCES
FEB20 - MARCH 20
You will spend a lot of time
with your partner,
compensating for all the
times when you were not
there for them. You may find good
opportunities to build your career, be
quick enough to grab that one great
chance. You will get help from all the
direction in business related matter.
SCORPIO
OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22
Your will heavenly at home
and all because of your
spouse and their
organizing skills. Soe of
you may get the marriage proposal
today. On job front, you will spend a
very busy day, working and attending
meetings. Your outstanding
performance today will help you.
f Tomorrow Never
Comes, an old pop
song by Ronan
Keating, might, to
many people today,
seem like a legiti-
mate question.
With the Coronavirus Pan-
demic, peppered with smat-
terings of other natural
disasters, earthquakes to
super-cyclones, one could
be fooled into thinking, it is
indeed, the end of days!
The truth however, in all
likelihood anyway, is that
the world will heal and
bounce back. What is unde-
niablehowever,isthatitwill
be a different world, a
changed world, a NEW
world. As we inch towards
thisunbeknownst‘novel’so-
ciety&times,mycontention
is that Communication
Skills, will serve an even
higher, more important pur-
pose, both professionally, as
well as, personally!
LIBERTY & SANITY
IN WRITING
As the world becomes more
insular, with less ‘physical’
and ‘human’ interaction,
statues that go against every
natural fiber of the human-
instinct; we will need to find
ways of staying ‘sane’. Of
maintaining a healthy psy-
chological equilibrium. For
that, writing will serve as an
extremely effective tool.
Writing, not necessarily in a
way where each of us tires
to belt out that Pulitzer-win-
ning novel or essay. Writing,
simply by way of Journal-
ing, that for about ten min-
utes each day, we pen-down
our thoughts, hopes,
dreams, fears, desires, wor-
ries, down to the most mun-
dane and seemingly incon-
sequential, banal details of
our day. Why? To release.
Writing is a classic counsel-
ling tool used to alleviate
stress and anxiety, and in
this uncharted way of life
thatweareheadingtowards,
it could well become man’s
new best friend!
WORK EFFECACY IN CLEAR
COMMUNICATION
There will inevitably be a
sharp rise in nuclear-work-
ing. Work-from-home, work-
remotely, reduced travel, be
it office within one’s city-
limits,ortraveloutsidestate
or country. This means that
more and more work, as is
alreadybeingpracticed,will
be ‘online’. Emails, video-
calls, online-pitches, presen-
tations, explanations; life, in
the business and profession-
al realms, will increasingly
be, virtual. Medics will dis-
pense advice online, legal
matters and suits fought in
thecourtroomsonthecloud!
What does this mean? It
means hugely diminished
communication-efficacy, be-
cause without even realiz-
ing it, the physical presence,
and the unmentioned, non-
verbal power of body-lan-
guage that helps us commu-
nicate so emphatically in
regular interactions, will
have vanished. We will
therefore need to hone our
communication skills in ar-
eas of Conversation, Pres-
entation as well as succinct
yet impactful Writing so
that we solicit the same win-
ning results that we did,
whenwephysicallymetpeo-
ple and convinced them.
EDUCATION IMPERATIVE
Even though currently a
fraction of our student pop-
ulation is continuing educa-
tion using Online Learning,
it will be steadily ramped
up. Even modest schools,
colleges, institutes, includ-
ing state-run education,
will go increasingly online.
Both students, and perhaps
more importantly, Educa-
tors, will need to train them-
selves, or be trained, in a
new way of Communicat-
ing. Not only will Teachers
across the board need to im-
bibe Tech-Related Commu-
nication Skills, they will
also need to work hard on
their own traditional Com-
munication Skills, their
way of Speaking, Present-
ing, so that they become ‘en-
gaging’ educators who are
capable of holding the inter-
est and attention of these
physically-removed stu-
dents in a virtual class-
room; furthermore, develop
an extra layer of communi-
cation-savvy that will be
needed to substitute the ‘cu-
riosity’ a teacher generates
in a real-world class, now,
online.
Since I began referencing
a rather morbid song-title,
let me conclude with a more
hopeful one – the famous
Bond theme song, Tomor-
row Never Dies. While of
that, there is little doubt,
what is also certain, is that
we will all, students, par-
ents, citizens, professionals,
need to up our communica-
tionskills,inordertobesuc-
cessful.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN
A POST-COVID WORLD!
I
KARTIK BAJORIA
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

I
n an attempt to bring the nation to-
gether in the fight against COVID-19,
actor Bhumi Pednekar on Thursday
launched an anti-spitting campaign
that aims at educating people.
Posting a video of herself on Instagram,
the ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ actor launched
the spit-free India campaign and urged
others to join. “We have to defeat Corona-
virus and everyone has to join hands!
Leave the habit of spitting. We have to
save the country! Currently, our country
is under the threat of Corona and the
fatal disease spreads even by spitting!”
she said.
Pednekar who is also known for
‘Climate Warrior’ initiative aimed at
the conservation of the environment
further said, “ the way we all have come
together to get associated with the Toi-
let campaign and pledged to make the
country clean! Similarly, let’s pledge to
make the country Corona free, by
avoiding to spit here and there.”
“Do your bit, do not spit.
Let’s come together and join
the spit-free India movement,”
she added.
She further added the link to
the campaign in her caption and
urged her followers to join. “I
have joined the Spit Free India
Movement for a healthier &
cleaner India. You should too...@
pleg4life #spitfreeindia #pledge-
forlife #covid19,” she wrote in
the caption.
Pednekar has been roped in by
an NGO as the face of spit free
India campaign.
—ANI
A
ctor Kareena Ka-
poor Khan treat-
ed her fans with a
cute picture of
her star husband Saif Ali
Khan spending time with
their little munchkin
Taimur.
In the picture that the
‘Jab We Met’ actor posted
on Instagram, Saif is
seen lying down on the
ground with Taimur
lying over him.
“Saif said, “I al-
ways got your
back”... Tim took
it literally. #Fa-
v o u r i t e B o y s
# Q u a r a n -
tineMornings,” Ka-
reena wrote in the
caption explaining
the picture.
As the lockdown
is bringing the Pa-
taudi family closer,
Kareena keeps
sharing pictures
from their lockdown
schedule on Insta-
gram.
—ANI
T
he 53-year-old actress took
to Instagram Stories to
post about Ned Harouni-
an, an 81-year-old immi-
grant, who lost a lot when his
shop on Melrose was destroyed.
She asked her followers to donate
to a fundraiser set up to cover the
costs of restoring the shop.
“An 81 year old immigrant fa-
ther and business owner, Ned
Harounian, had his Melrose
shop looted and burned to the
ground over the weekend,”
she wrote.
“He immigrated in 1985
and for 30 years he put his
life into his business and
community. His recently de-
ceased wife’s jewelry was
also stolen,” she added.
“Los Angeles — I know
things are crazy right
now, but I hope we can all
take a minute to help
this man out!!’ she
added.
—Agency
ETCwww.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia AHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020
11
V
eteran filmmaker Basu Chat-
terjee, who was born in Ajmer,
Rajasthan and is known for
films like ‘Choti Si Baat’ and
‘Rajnigandha’
passed away
earlier today
following age-
related ail-
ments in Mum-
bai.
Filmmaker
and President of
the Indian Film
and TV Direc-
tors’ Association
(IFTDA) Ashoke
Pandit broke the
news on Twitter.
“I am extremely
grieved to in-
form you all the
demise of Leg-
endary Film-
maker Basu
Chatterjee ji,”
he tweeted.
Pandit also
said that the last
rites of the vet-
eran filmmaker
will be per-
formed at 2 pm at
Mumbai’s San-
tacruz crematori-
um.
“His last rites
will be per-
formed today
at Santacruz
creamation at 2
pm. It’s a great
loss to the in-
dustry. Will
miss you Sir.
#RIPBasu-
Chaterjee,” read
Ashoke Pandit’s
tweet. Some of
Basu Chatterjee’s
best films include
‘Chameli Ki Shaadi,’ ‘Manzil’ and
‘Baaton Baaton Mein.’ —ANI
BASU CHATTERJEE
NO MORE
ALWAYS HAS
HIS BACK!
Extending
HELP
ANTI-SPITTING
CAMPAIGN
O
utof themanystarswhostoodinsolidarityfor
the Black Lives Matter movement, Selena
Gomez also extended her support by shutting
down her website to protest police violence
against the black
community. The
27-year-old not
only participated
in ‘Blackout Tues-
day’butalsourged
fans to develop in-
trospective think-
ing and called for
justice for George
Floyd after the former football player’s tragic death at
thehandsof fourpolicemenonMay25inMinneapolis.
“It’s my hope today you are taking the time to do
some introspective thinking about how we can all
come together and listen to one another with an
open heart and mind,” read Selena Gomez’s state-
ment on her website. “The country is long overdue
for meaningful changes to our broken society. Black
lives matter.” —Agency
Blackout Tuesday
Ned Harounian
Selena Gomez
... her post
Kareena Kapoor Khan
... her post
Bhumi Pednekar
Late Basu Chatterjee

orld Environment
Day, celebrated on 5
June every year, is
one of the most im-
portant days to en-
courage people
across the globe
to protect and save the
environment from vari-
ous challenges that the
world is currently facing.
Forafact,itisalsocalledthe
‘People’s Day’, we are the
ones who have to protect the
environment with our ac-
tions. In 2020, the theme
focuses on biodiversity-
‘Celebrate Biodiversity’,
and will be hosted in Co-
lombiainpartnership
with Germany.
For the first
time being held
in 1974, it works
as a flagship cam-
paign in order to raise
awareness on issues
like marine pollution,
human pollution, global
warming, sustainable
consumption, wild-
life crime and lastly,
environmental is-
sues. There is a
participation of
over143countries
annual-
ly.
12
CITY BUZZAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
POWER OF THE
WRITTEN WORDCITY FIRST AHMEDABAD
A
collective public
project by Seren-
dipity Arts Foun-
dation, ‘The Mem-
ory Capsule Project’,
launched on Wednesday,
has invited people to par-
ticipate in the process of
writing their history and
setting milestones for
their future.
As an inspiration, the
project has also shared ex-
cerpts of well-known per-
sonalities, written to their
future and past selves, and
to people near and dear.
The collection includes
passages from letters by Er-
nest Hemmingway, Roald
Dahl, Stan Lee, Frida
Kahlo, to name a few.
The objective of the pro-
ject is to create a public
journal that would have a
locking period and will be
mailed to each contributor
after the completion of two
years. The project is a
chance for people to shape
their personal history and
set aspirations for the fu-
ture. The particulars of the
letterssubmittedwouldnot
be made public, without
permission after the lock-
ing period.
Shedding more light on
this, Smriti Rajgarhia, Di-
rector, Serendipity Arts
Foundation & Festival
said, “Through this public
initiative, we aim to turn
to the power of words, and
their ability to transcend
the confines of time, bor-
ders, generations—and
connect us not just with
each other, but to our-
selves. The transformative
power of putting words to
paper, jotting down our
thoughts is even more rel-
evant today, as we must
create opportunities to
connect within ourselves.”
Tomaketheprojectmore
accessible to the diverse
communities of the region
the language barrier has
been lifted from this pro-
ject. People are free to sub-
mit their letters in any
form and language they are
comfortable in. Further to
keep the secrecy intact,
provisions have been made
for people to submit their
letters by choosing to re-
tain your identity, or sub-
mit anonymously, or even
by using a pen name. The
letter submitted will be
placed on Serendipity’s
digital platforms, and will
be showcased at the Seren-
dipity Arts Festival, with
consent from the writer.
HEAL THE
WORLDCity First gets in touch with a few of its readers from
Rajasthan & Gujarat to see what message they want
to spread on the World Environment Day!
The beauty of life lies
in the beauty of nature
and biodiversity that
surrounds us. As the
world battles with global
pandemic- COVID-19, lo-
cust infestations, cyclone
and other disasters, there
is an urgent need for
responsible conduct of
every individual to con-
serve and preserve the
environment even in the
smallest way possible.
Celebrate and preserve
Biodiversity!
—SHALINI AGARWAL,
Collector, Vadodara
The World Environment
Day to be observed today
will probably be a little
different this year. With
a series of consecutive
lockdowns enforced in
India and other coun-
tries around the world,
it wouldn’t be wrong to
say that the COVID-19
pandemic has made
drastic changes to not
only humankind but the
environment as well.
Be it a cleaner Ganges
and Yamuna rivers or
the improved Air Quality
Index, only time will tell
how much we are able to
sustain in the future or
go back to square one.
—ALLAN CHRISTIAN
NEHAL NAYAR
nehal.nayar@firstindia.co.in
W
The COVID lockdown has shown
very clearly how man affects
the environment. Clear unpol-
luted skies and clean rivers have
prompted many people to reflect
on changing their lifestyle to be
more sustainable. This should
also prompt us to consider two
other important matters - how
can we help the next generation
avoid the mistakes we made
and how can we encourage our
Government to play a proper part
in saving our environment for the
future.
— RASHMI DICKINSON,
Environmentalist
HAPPY B’DAY!
IAS Mugdha
Sinha (left) and
IPS Digant Anand
celebrated their
birthdays on 4
June, Thursday. We
wish them all the
best!
C
M Ashok Gehlot accepted a
cheque of Rs 11 lakh from
Honorary Secretary Ajit
Saxena,Chairman Dr Satish
Bhardawaj and Fmr Chairperson
Ramakant Sharma of the Jaipur
Club. CM thanked them for coming
forward and they reinforced their
commitment to fight against the
COVID-19 scare assured all sup-
port.
—City First
HELPING HAND
FACEBOOK POST!
WHAT’S HAPPENING!
Rajasthan: MLA Rafiq Khan met all the people who came to his residence and
listened to their problems one by one, on Thursday. The MLA instructed the
officials to resolve these problems and complaints with immediate effect.
Rajasthan: As a part of the
ongoing ‘Online Learning –
Children’s Summer Festival,
organised by Jawahar Kala
Kendra (JKK), a performing
arts session on ‘Folk Dance’
was held on Thursday, by
Dancer Anita Pradhan. The
session gave an introduction
to the folk culture and
heritage of Rajasthan. It
also focused on feet and
hand movements, facial
expressions and other basic
techniques of folk dance.
Rajasthan: Amidst the ongoing
lockdown, the ‘Rajasthan
Agriculture Input Dealers
Association’ appealed to the
Rajasthan Government and
sought concession of a few
days for renewal of legal
papers. On behalf of all the
traders association, President
of the association, Purushottam
Khandelwal, has written a letter
to Agriculture Minister, Lalchand
Kataria of Rajasthan Government,
seeking redressal of this issue.
Rajasthan: Shri Bhanwar Lal
Jangid left for his heavenly
abode on 3 June at Phulera.
He was 93 years old and had
worked as a government teacher.
He was a poet and writer and a
renowned Arya Samaj believer
in his community. He is survived
by three daughters and one son
and their families, all who doted
on him.
Vaibhav Gehlot
Stan Lee
Frida Kahlo
CM Ashok Gehlot with the officials of Jaipur Club

Two Cong MLAs in Gujarat resign ahead of RS polls

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