Data Loading...
First India Gujarat For Gujarat Samachar Epaper-20 January 2020 edition Flipbook PDF
Welcome to the Official Website of First India Gujarat. We are India’s own INDIAN NEWSPAPERS IN ENGLISH. We cover most e
143 Views
55 Downloads
FLIP PDF 21.33MB
AHMEDABAD l MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00
RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 56
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with students. —FILE PHOTO
The third edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha is being organised at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in Delhi. A total of 2,000 students and teachers will attend the event, of which 1,050 students have been selected through an essay competition
PARIKSHA PE CHARCHA 2020: PM MODI TO INTERACT WITH STUDENTS TODAY
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with students, teachers and parents on Monday and share “valuable tips” with them to ensure they take the upcoming board and entrance exams in a relaxed manner. The third edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha is being organized at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in Delhi. A total of 2,000 students and teachers will attend the event, of which 1,050 students have been selected through an essay competition. Officials said the event will start
FLASHBACK
around 11.00 am and will also be broadcast on YouTube. The students who will get to ask questions to the prime minister have been short-listed on the basis of essays submitted by them on five subjects Gratitude is Great, Your Future Depends on Your As-
pirations, Examining Exams, Our Duties, Your Take, and Balance is Beneficial. “A lot of excitement and enthusiasm is being seen among the students, teachers and parents to not only participate in the unique event but also to receive valuable tips from the prime minister who is keen to
ensure that the students take exams in a relaxed atmosphere and do not come under stress, to ensure better results in the long run,” the HRD Ministry said in a statement. A senior official said the ministry received around 2.6 lakh entries from students for the event this year. Last year, it was around 1.4 lakh entries. PM Modi took 10 questions in the 2018 edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha and 16 in last year’s. This year’s event was initially scheduled for January 16 but was rescheduled due to festivals across the country. —PTI
—FILE PHOTO
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with students during ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ event Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.
CM kicks off polio vaccination drive, wishes all kids are covered Haresh Jhala Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Sunday kicked off Pulse Polio vaccination programme by administering drops to children at the community hall in the Ministers’ Enclave. Rupani said the government has set a target to ensure that not a single child remains without vaccination with paramedical teams fanning out across the State to cover each and every household. “The vaccination will not only be conducted on Sundays, but on Monday and following days these para-medical teams will conduct
house-to-house survey to ensure each and every child is covered,” the Chief Minister said. Rupani said for healthy childhood, the Government of India has launched Mission Indradhanush and under this programme vaccination is given for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Influenza. “The government wants to make it sure all children get complete protection from these diseases and they remain healthy,” he added. To make the nation polio free, a nationwide campaign round was kicked off on Sunday. There are 80 lakh infants from 0 to 5 years of age and the
WALKING ON THE PATH OF RELIGION: CM RUPANI
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani administering polio drop to a child in Gandhinagar on the occasion of Pulse Polio Day on Sunday.
State targets covering all children during this round of the programme. As many as 1.52 lakh para-medical personnel will be working at 33,641 booths, the Chief Minister informed. Rupani also appealed
parents to see that their children are given polio vaccination. Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi and Health Commissioner Jayprakash Shivhare were present at the event. Meanwhile, at Kudasna primary health centre, Deputy Chief
Minister Nitin Patel also gave polio drops to children. He told reporters that since 2007, Gujarat has been declared a poliofree State and health team are religiously working to see that “we maintain this good track record.”
TALKING POINT AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
02
#HumWapasAayenge To mark the 30th anniversary of the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, members of the community took to social media to post videos of themselves by narrating the “Hum Aayenge Apne Watan” dialogue from an upcoming flick, Shikara, with the hope that they would return to their homeland one day
T
hirty years ago on this day, the land of Jammu and Kashmir saw the beginning of the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits following a genocidal campaign launched by the terrorists. As the slogans of “Ralive, Tsalive ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish)” reverberated from the mosques and streets, the Kashmir Pandits were forced to flee their homeland. Some local newspapers also published advertisements by terrorist organisations warning Pandits to leave the Valley. Lakhs of Pandits left the Valley, after January 19, 1990, as they were targeted by extremists, virtually turning them into refugees in their own country. January 19, is remembered as the 'Exodus Day' by the Kashmiri Pandits as it marks the exodus of the members of the community from Kashmir. As columnist Sunanda Vashisht would recall during a US Congressional hearing on human rights that Kashmir has witnessed “ISIS level of horror and brutality”, some 30 years before the West was even introduced to the “brutalities of radical Islamic terror.” She would further note how on the night of January 19, 1990, there were voice blaring from all mosques in Kashmir that they wanted Kashmir with Hindu women but without Hindu men. “Where were they (advocates of
human rights) on the night of January 19, 1990, when there were voices blaring from all mosques in Kashmir that they wanted Kashmir with Hindu women but without Hindu men? Where was the saviour of humanity when my feeble old grandfather stood with kitchen knives and an old rusted axe ready to kill my mother and I in order to save us from the much worse fate that awaited us?” she had asked. Journalist Rahul Pandita's book Our Moon has Blood Clots - mentions the killing of political activist, Tika Lal Taploo in September 1989 and several other such incidents. In 2010, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir noted that 808 Pandit families, comprising 3,445 people, were still living in the Valley and that financial and other incentives put in place to encourage others to return there had been unsuccessful. According to a J-K government report, 219 members of the community had been killed in the region between 1989 and 2004 but none thereafter. To mark the 30th anniversary of the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, members of the community took to social media to post videos of themselves by narrating the “Hum Aayenge Apne Watan” dialogue from an upcoming flick, 'Shikara', with the hope that they would return to their homeland one day.
TIMELINE
‘SEPTEMBER 1989 Pandit political activist, Tika Lal Taploo is shot dead by armed men outside his residence.
JANUARY 1990 Massive crowds assemble in mosques across valley, shouting anti-india, anti-pandit slogans. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits begins. In the next few months, hundreds of innocent Pandits are tortured, killed and raped. By the year-end, about 350,000 Pandits have escaped from the Valley and taken refuge in Jammy and elsewhere. Only a handful of them stay back.
NETIZENS CHANGE DPS ON 30 YRS OF KASHMIRI PANDIT EXODUS Rahul Pandita @rahulpandita A rare family photograph that survived exodus. Taken at my Kashmir home in 1982. Mother in blue (left), me in red on the floor with a toy pistol. 8 years later, on 19 January 1990, Ma would hold a knife in her hand all night as mobs outside bayed for blood #HumWapasAayenge Sunanda Vashisht @sunandavashisht I don’t have many pictures left of my childhood. Choosing between life and family albums is really no choice at all. When lives were rescued, family albums got left behind. 30 years have passed. Resolve to go back home has only strengthened. #HumWapasAayenge Aditya Raj Kaul @AdityaRajKaul My first photograph in exile from home on 19th/20th January, 1990 at Jammu. Today we complete three decades in exile. Thirty years of longing to return to Kashmir.
New Delhi: Netizens on Sunday changed their display pictures (DPs) to mark the 30th anniversary of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley. #KashmiriPandits along with #TheKashmirFiles,A#HumWapasAay enge trended, where Twitterati have showered their support by changing their displays to ''I AM KASHMIRI PANDIT'' painted in saffron colour. On January 19, 1990, over five lakh Kashmiri Pandits were forced almost overnight to leave the Valley following a genocidal campaign unleashed by the militants. Taking to Twitter, filmmaker Vivek
Ranjan Agnihotri, changing his display picture giving a message, said “For one day, change your DP. Small gestures help heal our Kashmiri brothers and sisters faster. #TheKashmirFiles”. In another tweet, he wrote, “We bow to the moral and cultural strength of each Kashmiri Hindu brother and sister. For us yours is not a story of only pain and suffering. Struggle and survival. For us it''s a story of success. Salute. #TheKashmirFiles.” “We have been away from home for THIRTY years now! Time to go back HOME!” posted a user. —IANS
MARCH 1997 Terrorists drag out seven Kashmiri Pandits from their houses in Sangrampora village and gun them down.
JANUARY 1998 23 Kashmiri Pandits, including women and children, shot in cold blood in Wandhama Village.
Pandits protest outside J&K LG’s residence Jammu: Kashmiri Pandits marked 30 years of exodus from the Valley with a protest, led by the All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference, at the residence of Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu on Sunday. The govt should make it conducive for their return to the Valley, they demanded. “We want to return to our roots, to the land of Lalleshwari and Sheikh ul-Alam,” said Kuldeep
Pandit, a protestor. A memorandum was also presented to the L-G. Sunil Pandit, originally from Handwara,
said his family had shifted to different locations in Jammu since the migration. In 1990 after migration, his
family was staying at Geeta Bhawan, here. Later, they shifted to Chadha and stayed at the Purkhu migrants’’ camp. Now he is living at the Jagti township. Sunil said political parties were just playing politics on the issue of return of Pandits. “We demand one-time settlement for Pandits and punishment for those who committed crimes causing their migration,” he said.
MARCH 2003 24 Kashmiri Pandits, including infants, brutally shot dead in Nadimarg Village.
2012 Thousands of Pandits still languish in refugee settlements of 8x8. After more than two decades, the Kashmiri Pandit community has still not been able to return to their ancestral land. They are dispersed all over from Jammu to Johannesburg.”
AHMEDABAD l MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00
CONG RESOLUTION
AGAINST CAA
NO MORE
RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 56
Congress is planning to bring resolutions against CAA in the legislative assemblies of states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, said veteran leader Ahmed Patel said on Sunday.
“It would be a clear message to the Central government to reconsider the Act,” Patel told ANI.
Nationwide protests had broken out after the bill was passed in parliament last month. Several people were killed in Karnataka, Assam and UP after protests turned violent.
KERALA GUV SEEKS REPORT FROM
ROYALS! VIJAYAN GOVT OVER CAA SUIT IN SC
From spring 2020
Prince Harry and wife, Meghan, will no longer use the titles “royal highness” or receive public funds under a deal struck Saturday for them to step aside as senior royals, said Buckingham Palace.
The Buckingham
Palace also said in the statement that the couple will repay 2.4 million pounds ($3.1 million) of taxpayers’ money that was spent renovating their home near Windsor Castle.
T h i r u v a n a n thapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Sunday sought a report from the state government for filing a petition in the Supreme Court against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state without informing him. Khan, who has been at loggerheads with the Left Front government in the state ever since it passed a resolution in the state Assembly against the CAA, made it clear he would not remain a “mute spectator” and would ensure the law of the land is upheld. “The Constitution has to be upheld and this is not a personal fight,” Khan was quoted as saying by PTI. Last week, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had filed a petition under Article 131 and sought the law to be declared unconstitutional and in violation of Article 14 (Equality before law), 21 (Protection of life Turn on P5
2,838 Pakis, 914 Afghans, 172 B’deshis given Indian citizenship in 6 yrs: Fin Min
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan addressing media at Kerala Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday.
Unnecessary CAA India’s ‘internal affair’: Hasina Abu Dhabi: The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is an “internal matter” of India according to Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina who in her firstever response to the passage of the controversial legislation enacted last year in In-
70% refugees are Dalits: Shah
blames Cong for instigating riots Hubballi: Mounting a strong defence of the Citizenship Amendment Act, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to prove that the new law would take away citizenship from Indian Muslims, as he advised him to read the act completely. Terming those against CAA as “anti-Dalits”, the BJP national President, accused the Congress of dividing the country on the basis of religion and creating confusion among the minority community. Turn on P5
Shah meets workers at Joshi’s house
Home Minister Amit Shah administering polio drop to a child in Hubballi on the occasion of Pulse Polio Day on Sunday.
—PHOTO BY PTI
Hubballi: After administering polio drops to a child at Union parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi’s House in Hubballi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday met BJP party workers. Shah interacted with the party workers for a couple of minutes and was presented with a stole by the BJP workers.
dia also said that it was “not necessary”. “We don’t understand why [the Indian government] did it. It was not necessary,” the prime minister said in an interview to Gulf News. The CAA was passed by the Parliament of India last December, and provides a path Turn on P5
CRUCIAL READ
NITI MEMBER SORRY FOR DIRTY REMARK ON J&K
Chennai: Amid ongoing nationwide protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that as many as 2838 people from Pakistan were given citizenship during the last six years. “In the last six years, as many as 2838 Pakistani refugees, 914 Afghanistani refugees, 172 Bangladeshi refugees including Muslims have been given Indian citizenship. From 1964 to 2008, more than 4,00,000 Tamils (from Sri Lanka) have been given Indian citizenship,” Sitharaman said at ‘Programme on Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019’ event here. She added, “Till 2014, over 566 Muslims from Pakistan, Turn on P5
TWO TO TANGO TO TAKE SERIES
N
ITI Aayog member VK Saraswat claimed that the suspension of internet services in J&K since the abrogation of Article 370 more than five months ago did not have a “significant effect” on the economy because it was used to only watch “dirty films”. “Why do politicians want to go to Kashmir? They want to re-create the protests happening on the roads of Delhi in Kashmir. They use social media to fuel protests.” Saraswat later apologised and said his remarks on the internet ban in J&K were taken out of context.
Heroics by vice captain Rohit Sharma (119) and skipper Virat Kohli (89) helped India beat Australia by 7 wickets in Bengaluru on Sunday to clinch one-day series 2-1. —PHOTO BY PTI
Is Rupani govt still apprehensive of combative Hardik? Darshan Desai Ahmedabad: A ‘quick and immediate’ arrest of a defiant Hardik Patel by the Gujarat police from a state highway on Saturday has raised the hackles among the Congress circles and also given an opportunity to the anti-BJP forces to launch a fresh offensive on the issue. At the same time, the entire incident brings an appreciation to the Gujarat police and CMO’s core group lead by K Kailashnathan for carry-
ing out such an effective action, which they say, is perfectly in tune with the court order. In Gujarat, the story often lies quietly in the detail, and the sequence. It was at 5.25 pm when Hardik Patel put out a social media message that the “BJP Government is conspiring to create legal tangles to stop Hardik Patel in his tracks to strengthen the Congress in Gujarat.” Exactly three hours later, at 8.25 pm, no less than the Gujarat Crime
Branch police swooped down on him on a highway near Ahmedabad, produced him at a magistrate’s residence and procured a “non-bailable arrest warrant” that pushed him into judicial custody till January 24. The reason: He did not appear for a court hearing on Saturday. There were hearings at the Ahmedabad Sessions Court for two consecutive days and Patel appeared in court on Friday, while he was not present the next day. This is a 2015 sedition case
CM Vijay Rupani
Hardik Patel
that was slapped on him during the peak of his Patidar agitation.
Reacting sharply, a close associate of Hardik Patel and a NSUI leader Nikhil Savani said, “I
have not heard of a nonbailable arrest warrant for missing a court hearing one day after being present on the previous day. Our advocates were present, though. The State Government may say it is a legal matter and it has no role in it, but the point is that the court will not produce orders without the government pleaders forcefully arguing for it.” Now a question is being asked: Why is the all-powerful Bharatiya Janata Party still exercised by a 25-year-old
lad in its own fiefdom? There may be one immediate reason for this, while there is also a deeper story. He was to be a key speaker, along with Congress veteran Shashi Tharoor, at a youth parliament at the reputed Hindu College in New Delhi on January 23. He was also going to be at the Shaheen Bagh, the 24/7 protest site against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). These have been derailed with Patel in judicial cus-
tody till January 24. One more Hardik Patel admirer says that Hardik Patel is young, born on July 20, 1993, he is a maverick, he is rustic, but he reads and he travels across the nook and cranny of Gujarat almost on a daily basis meeting youngsters, farmers, labourers, women, et al. He is more seen in the villages and towns than the Congress Headquarters, Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, and a man to watch in the only Opposition party in Gujarat. Turn on P5
GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
04
Neighbour rapes and murders 6-year-old boy in Dahej Police have registered a criminal complaint against the accused under IPC sections 377 (unnatural offences) and 302 (punishment for murder)
First India News Bharuch: A man allegedly kidnapped a sixyear-old boy, raped him and then killed him, police say. The body of the victim has been sent for a post-mortem. Personnel at the Dahej police station informed First India that, on Saturday afternoon, Virendra Prajapati had filed a missing complaint with police
about his son Krishna. Krishna had gone missing from their residential colony in Vadadla village. In his complaint, he also alleged that his family had last seen his son with their neighbour Mithun Kevat. While searching Kevat’s house, police found the boy’s dead body in the bathroom. Police suspect that the accused raped the child and, to
cover up the crime, strangled him to death. A police officer also said that only an autopsy report will confirm whether the child was sodomized. Police have already traced the accused and he will soon be sent for a medical examination. Both Prajapati and Kevat are from Uttar Pradesh and have been working in a private factory in Dahej for some
time. Police believe that since the accused is a neighbour of the victim, he may have lured the child to commit the offence. The body will be handed over to the family after the post-mortem is finished. Police have registered a complaint against the accused under IPC sections 377 (unnatural offences) and 302 (punishment for murder).
ACCUSED LURED THE CHILD
T
BLOODY SUNDAY: 8 KILLED, 5 HURT IN TWO SEPARATE ROAD ACCIDENTS First accident took place on Ahmedabad-Limdi highway in Surendranagar, second, in Mithapur First India News Ahmedabad: Eight people died and five others were injured in two separate road accidents in the state on Sunday. In the first incident, five people lost their lives at the AhmedabadLimdi highway in Surendranagar on Saturday night after an SUV collided with a truck, sources say. The deceased have been identified as Nagendra, Subramaniyam Tambarao, Rajshree Subramaniyam, Ganesh Subramaniyam and Akil Prasad, all residents of Ahmedabad. The five injured – Nagendra Prasad, Madhuri Shrinivas, Kuchlita, Ruchita and Sohan Kevlaji – were taken to a hospital in Limdi. The mishap took place near Devpara village in Limbdi taluka when 10 people were travelling in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) from Somnath to Ahmedabad.
The SUV driver apparently lost control over the wheels following which the vehicle jumped the divider and hit a truck approaching from the opposite direction, an official at Limbdi police station said. In another incident, also involving a collision between a truck and a car, three people died in Mithapur on Sunday morning. Bagodara police say NRI Ketan Hariya, a Kenyan resident, and his wife Kundanben Hariya were travelling in a car from Jamnagar to Ahmedabad when the vehicle rammed into a truck. Both lost their lives while the driver Hiren Doshi, a resident of Jamnagar, was also killed in the accident. Bagodara police have filed a case and have started a probe. Sources say that ongoing wielding work on the six-lane road of the Gandhinagar-Rajkot highway has resulted in many accidents in the area in the last few months.
First India News
Ahmedabad: A Veraval resident allegedly killer his 16-year-old girl because he did not want to pay for her to study further, police said. Veraval police arrested Malde Solanki on Sunday, a resident of Rampara village of the Talala Taluka in Veraval. According to sources, Solanki assaulted his wife as she wanted to
send her daughter, who was studying in Class 11, for further studies. He then allegedly tied up his daughter’s hands and feet with wire and beat her as well, before forcing her to consume poison. Sources say the victim’s mother and siblings were too scared to approach the police until now. However, when Solanki assaulted his wife again last week, she filed a police complaint.
GUP SHUP BUGGED? Or is it the grapevine... . First India begins a column that brings to you gossips or tete-e-tete from the corridors of power
The students were in the city on Sunday. —PHOTO BY NANDAN DAVE
First India News Ahmedabad: Two students from Jamia Milia Islamia University were in town on Sunday as part of their all-India tour to mobilize people against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). One of them, Ayesh Renna alleged that Jamia university authorities have not taken cognizance of the police brutality that occurred on campus last month. “Our case and complaint against the police have not been filed even after a month of the incident. We, students, were protesting against CAA when police beat us badly. I became the face of Jamia because a video of mine went viral but others were severely injured during
—M P Chauhan,
Police Inspector, Bagodara
Crushed car after the accident at Ahmedabad-Limdi highway.
—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
66 people killed in road accidents each day in 2018 First India News Ahmedabad: As many as 66 persons were killed in road accidents each day in the state in the year 2018, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report says. What is more startling is that 55 people died each month in vehicle collisions. According to the 2018 NCRB report, a total of 24,174 people lost their lives in road
Fake forest officer caught in Surat First India News Surat: Police apprehended a fake “forest officer” on Saturday after local residents informed them about a person who had been roaming near Jantanagar area near Tapi riverbank wearing a forest officer’s uniform. While police found the “forest officer”, he was unable to give them any satisfactory answers. He has been identified as Jenis Shah (30), a resident of Kanten.
accidents in the state in 2018. The state recorded 18,414 road accidents during the year. In fact, most of
the road accidents reported in the state took place between 6pm and 9pm. Truck collisions accounted for the most traffic-related deaths in 2018, with 1,009 people losing their lives, while 205 died from bus accidents, 940 from car accidents, and 405 from auto-rickshaw collisions. NCRB also reports that twowheeler operators account for the most deaths in road acci-
dent in Gujarat. In addition, road accidents were the highest in the age group of 30 to 45. According to the report, 8,015 people who died in road accidents in 2018 were between the ages of 30 and 45 years. A total of 5,784 people who lost their lives in road accidents were between the ages of 45 to 60 while 2,321 persons who lost their lives were above 60 years.
the protest. We want all people to gather against CAA,” said Renna. Wasif Hussain of Gujarat Alliance Against CAA said the Act was reminiscent of the twonation theory. “We have formed this alliance to oppose CAA-related and other agitations in the state. At present, there is a dire need to improve education but the government is busy trying to damage the soul of the constitution,” he said. Meanwhile, Dariyapur Congress leder Gulamfarid Shaikh wrote more than 3000 postcards to Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde asking him to quash CAA. “We launched this campaign on Sunday. In the coming days we will reach out to more people,” he said.
Crime Branch takes custody of Vishal First India News
Ahmedabad: The Crime Branch of the city police has arrested the gangster Vishal Goswami and both of his accomplices in the ransom racket on a transfer warrant from Sabarmati Central Jail on Sunday. All three accused were taken to the Crime Branch on Sunday morning for further investigation. This is the first case under the Gujarat Con-
WORD WAR Z AT AMC OFFICE
hen politicians from W opposing sides are in the same room, civility sometimes
goes out the window. That’s exactly what happened on Saturday when elected MPs and MLAs met officers of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The argument began over a borewell and a community hall, but swiftly became one about corruption and even escalated to hanging! Each of them seemed bent on landing the others in jail. While their audience was initially amused, it didn’t last long. One AMC official eventually decided to channel his inner referee and calm everyone down. The killjoy!
—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
Man kills daughter, wife informs police
It was early morning near Mithapur when the car rammed into a truck ahead. All three deceased were travelling in an Innova car.
Students of Jamia ask to support anti-CAA protest
trol of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Act, which came into effect last Novem-
DID THE CM SNUB DALITS?
enior BJP leaders, MPs and S MLAs were turned back by the Chief Minister’s office, when the
CM came to know that the Dalit delegation had previously had a heated argument with police officers in connection with the unnatural death of a 19-year-old woman in Modasa. We hear that they were asked to get organized and come back for meeting. However, before the meeting with the CM took place, two BJP MPs got into a very public argument featuring decidedly unparliamentary language at the Gandhinagar circuit house. It started with being left out and because of whom, who has got MP ticket.
ber. Crime Branch will demand a 30-day remand by presenting the accused in court, crime
‘HIGH’ JINKS IN THE HOSPITAL
ith the health department W taking a scam by outsourcing agencies in a civil
hospital very seriously, one agency is working very hard to ensure it is not named in the scandal. It decided to throw a party at the resident’s quarters on the hospital campus last Friday. Employees from the hospital and the agency were present. Much alcohol was imbibed, leading to a “dispute” between the two sets of employees. Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and the matter has been hushed up. Now, we’re not saying this agency is pretty pally with some ministers, but we’re not not saying that either.
branch officials said. Special Commissioner of Crime Branch Ajay Tomar said, “We have arrested all the accused under GCTOC and are conducting an in-depth investigation.” He added: “Today, Vishal and his accomplices, Ajay Goswami and Rinku Goswami, were brought to the Crime Branch. We will present them in court under GCTOC, and ask for a 30-day remand period. As per our infor-
mation, Goswami has been running his racket from inside jail for the past five to six months.” The racket came to light after a businessman who Vishal had tried to extort filed an application against Goswami and his accomplice. The Crime Branch raided the Sabarmati jail, where the gangster and two accomplices were imprisoned, and recovered three mobile phones from the trio.
Online friendship club cons man of `44,000 First India News Ahmedabad: A resident of Navrangpura says he was allegedly conned by two unknown persons into paying Rs44,000 in the name of registration at online “friendship clubs”. The complainant, Vaibhav Shah, who is a charted accountant student at Navkar Institute, found a number of an online friendship club. In his complaint filed with Navaranpura police, he al-
leges that he was made to pay Rs1000 to register with the club for a threemonth period. Later, he says, he was lured into paying Rs16,500 to meet and make friends with a woman named Neha. In all, he says he was cheated of Rs44,000. He says he was also given the contact details and address of the woman but realized he was conned when he got no response from that number. The police have begun an investigation.
GUJARAT
CM RUPANI ASSURES JUSTICE TO EVERYONE ON QUOTA ISSUE —FILE PHOTO
Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Sunday came out for the first time with his position on LRD recruitment and reservation issue, holding out a firm assurance that interests of all communities of the State will be taken care of and no one will be done injustice. The Chief Minister, simultaneously, took potshots at the opposition Congress party asserting that it was misleading some sections of the society and was trying to create instability. “All for political mileage,” he said. Rupani told reporters in Gandhinagar that, “My government is concerned about all sections of society, we will see that no single individual or any section of society is done any injustice.” He added that the government had sought legal advice on
the issue and is also discussing the issue with the social justice and home department, “we will see that justice is done to all.” On the other side, in less than 24 hours, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel has taken a U-turn on his Saturday’s statement. On Saturday, Patel had ad-
vised MLAs and MPs to calm down and not take sides with a single community. According to sources, MPs and MLAs have conveyed their disappointment toward Patel’s statement. This compelled Patel to change his position on Sunday. Patel said, “My party’s MPs and MLAs are
concerned about people’s problem of the state and so they have written letters to the government over the issue and they can never have any intention to create problems for the society or the state.” He also alleged that it is the Congress party and their leaders, who are spreading misinfor-
Danilimda Cong councillor faces disqualification from AMC Ahmedabad: Congress councillor from Danilimda Shehzad Khan Pathan, arrested by Ahmedabad Police, is likely to be disqualified from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) if he fails to remain present in the House for the next meeting. Pathan is in jail facing a case of rioting against him after violence broke out in Shahe-Alam area in December during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. In November 2019, Pathan took paternity leave, while in December he was in jail. Pathan’s lawyer has asked for 10 days parole from the Sessions Court. The Congress party has written a letter to the municipal secre-
—FILE PHOTO
First India News
MORE WORRIES
tary, Arun Pandya, seeking permission for Pathan’s absence as he is in jail. “We’ve written to the secretary in advance regarding his absence,” Leader of Opposition Dinesh Sharma said. “Generally, any councillor takes leave from the house writing in advance. This is a normal process.” However, Pathan can remain in the House if
he is granted permission from the court said veteran BJP leader Amit Shah. “In the past Abdul Wahab Abdul Latif attended the house with handcuffs. He was in jail and police used to bring him,” Shah said. Latif was an AMC councillor from 1987 to 1992. However, according to sources, in case of Pathan it is less likely because a charge sheet has
not been framed against him. Without a charge sheet the court may not grant him permission. “Also, a land dispute is going on between the family of Pathan and BJP veteran Surendra Patel. Looking at the vendetta politics of BJP, Mayor Bijal Patel will not approve the letter of leave and it is most likely that Pathan will be disqualified,” said a source.
farmers,” Patel told a crowd of around 3,000 people, citing the NCRB data. On January 12, in the adjoining Kheda district, he was “felicitated for the success of the Patidar agitation,” that forced the State Government to announce 10 per cent quota for non-reserved classes, the Chief Minister’s Rs 1,000 crore Yuva Svavlamban scheme and the setting up of a Non-reserved Classes Commission.” According to Congress sources, only two persons got the maximum ovation at a State Congress rally in Ahmedabad in December. One was the dynamic Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, 68, and another was
Hardik Patel, all of 25. But all said and done, though Hardik Patel may still be a point of concern and under close watch of Modi-Shah and Rupani in Gujarat, but is no more a threat to BJP’s State leadership. The next assembly elections are too far, only in 2022.
against the CAA. Other non-BJP ruled states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra have voiced their dissent with the controversial law and said that they won’t implement it.
State GST team tough on evaders, but needs balance First India News
mation about some laws and norms and thus creating confusion in the minds of some sections of the society. “They want to create the same situation as it had happened in 2015, trying to bring one community against the other. People should be careful about this conspiracy,” Nitin Patel said.
Ahmedabad: Unlike the State GST team which is going heavy on tax evaders, the Central GST team has to abide by strict rules and regulations before taking action against tax evaders. Recently the state GST chief commissioner J P Gupta proudly claimed that in a slew of bogus billing cases state GST team arrested 35 persons and the department is also tracking those traders and manufacturers who are not filing returns. Department is also assessing data filed before it and there is a mismatch. Last month state GST team unearthed a scam run from one location where proprietor was running 36 firms from the same location and creating fake bills and taking credit. Total transactions were to the tune of Rs 900 crore and 100 crore credit was enjoyed by the alleged scamster. Before GST was introduced and imple-
KDCC accused brought to Ahmedabad
Man scams people of `1.34 crore
2 arrested in Bapunagar diamond loot
First India News
First India News
First India News
Ahmedabad: The 26 people accused carrying out a scam involving bogus loans worth crores of rupees in the Kutch District Central Cooperative Bank Limited at Bhuj have been brought to Ahmedabad on five-day remand by the Crime Investigation Department. Sources have revealed that the investigation points to involvement by officials of the bank’s loan department as well. It is worth mentioning that all these accused will be kept in the guesthouse of the Railways. So far, there have been eight more cases filed in this regard, in addition to two older cases. The authorities have learned that the scam may be worth more than the Rs40-50 crore they had originally announced.
Ahmedabad: A complaint has been lodged at Sola police station against a man for allegedly cheating many people by promising them jobs abroad, police sources said. Rohit Sharma, a resident of Ghatlodia, filed a complaint against Niraj Gupta for cheating him and his friends of Rs1.34 crore. Sharma, who works in a transport company, says he contacted Gupta on the Internet about job opportunities abroad. Sharma said he shared the plan with his friend Sanjay Khatri and 24 other persons. In all, they transferred Rs98.33 lakh to the accused between February and October 2019. Sharma said he also took Rs15 lakh and Rs21 lakh in two separate instalments.
internal matters of India. The Government of India, on their part, has also repeatedly maintained that the NRC is an internal exercise of India and Prime Minister Modi has in person assured me of the same during my visit to New Delhi in October 2019,” she added. Bangladesh, where 10.7 per cent of the 161 million-strong population is Hindu and 0.6 per cent Buddhist, has denied any migration to India because of religious persecution. India, since the enactment of the CAA last month, along with declarations by the Indian government that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be carried out nationwide soon, has been witness-
ing a continuous stream of protests and violence nationwide. The National Register of Citizens or NRC, on the other hand, aims to identify illegal immigrants settled in the country. Analysts in Bangladesh have expressed fear that Indian Muslims who are unable to prove their citizenship claims will seek shelter in Bangladesh. The prime minister, however, remarked that there has been no recorded reverse migration from India.
Congress wants to create a 2015 type of caste divide in the society: DyCM First India News
05
AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
STRIKING BALANCE
—FILE PHOTO
CENTRAL GST TEAM HAS TO FOLLOW GUIDELINES
mented, the state government’s VAT (Value Added Tax) collection growth rate was 14 per cent. But that is not achieved in the last two years says the state data. In the year 201718 the state tax collection was of Rs 31,534 crore and in the year 2018-19 collection was
MODUS OPERANDI
He further alleged that Gupta identified himself as a recruitment agent of the website. Gupta allegedly promised them jobs in Canada and kept telling them they would receive calls in a few days. They provided copies of the passports and other government documents. The filed a complaint with Sola police station after learning that the visa company and the website are both scams.
of Rs 35,544 crore with a growth rate of 12.7%, against the expectation of Rs 42,751 crore. Running short of collection targets, the Central GST has set a national target to collect Rs 3.55 lakh crore in a three month period from January to March 2020.
Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Crime Branch arrested two persons in the Bapunagar Rs6.71 lakh diamond loot case. One of them is an engineer, who wanted fast money. Yogesh Rawal, an employee of an angadia firm, was looted on January 16 while he was going to Bhavnagar. Two unknown came to Yogesh while he was waiting for his bus to Bhavnagar and fired in their revolvers into the air. They made off with diamonds worth Rs 6.71 lakh. Yogesh filed a complaint with the Bapunagar police station. The Crime Branch later took over the case and have arrested Chhtrapalsinh Solanki of Anjar Kutch and Yashpalsinh Rana of Subhashnagar in Bhavnagar for their involvement in this case.
FROM PG 1 Is Rupani... Patel’s two latest engagements are adequate to understand his direction, and why is he a thorn in the flesh for the ruling BJP. On January 11, he was in Anklav village in Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda’s assembly constituency. Here, he addressed a motley crowd of youth, farmers, women and even elders, explaining them that there are more cases of suicide by jobless youth than those of farmers. Patel was quoting statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau to make his point. “During 2018, 12,936 persons committed suicide because of unemployment while the number was 10,349 of
Kerala Guv... and personal liberty) and 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion) of the Constitution. The petition was filed two weeks after the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution demanding that the new citizenship law be scrapped. Besides Kerala, the Punjab Assembly has passed a resolution
Unnecessary CAA... to citizenship for members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious minorities who have allegedly fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. “[Still], it is an internal affair,” Hasina said during a visit to the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. “Bangladesh has always maintained that the CAA and NRC are
2,838 Pakis... Bangladesh and Afghanistan were given Indian citizenship. During 2016-18 under Modi government, around 1595 Pakistani migrants and 391 Af-
ghanistani Muslims were given Indian citizenship.” The minister, further, said, “It was also during the same period in 2016, that Adnan Sami was given Indian citizenship, this is an example. Giving citizenship to Taslima Nasreen is another example.”
70% refugees... He attacked the Congress on its opposition to scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and said both Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan sought evidence on surgical strikes and are opposed to abrogation of Article 370 besides saying CAA should not be implemented. The BJP national
president also accused the Congress and other opposition parties of indulging in vote bank politics on CAA. Addressing a public meeting here on the new Act as part of the BJP’s nationwide ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan,’ he said: “Rahul baba, I have come to challenge you from this stageread the CAA completely. If there is any clause that takes away citizenship of anyone, decide on the place and time our Pralhad Joshi (Parliamentary Affairs Minister) is ready to debate with you.” “They are trying to spread lies..I want to tell Muslim brothers of the country that no one can take away your citizenship, no one wants to take away also.
PERSPECTIVE AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
IN-DEPTH
EFFECTS OF DIGITAL MEDIA ARE INCOMPLETE
THE HEARTLAND STORIES: BOOKS & CONVERSATIONS!
‘It is best to treat the ‘novel – writing’ as a project, & all the characters, with their characteristics’ DR SANJEEV CHOPRA
T
The author is an IAS & Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Mussoorie and Honorary Curator, Valley of Words: Literature and Arts Festival, Dehradun
here’s a lot of talk about digital media. Increasing screen time has created worries about media’s impacts on democracy, addiction, depression, relationships, learning, health, privacy and much more. The effects are frequently assumed to be huge, even apocalyptic. Scientific data, however, often fail to confirm what seems true based on everyday experiences. In study after study, screen time is often not correlated with important effects at a magnitude that matches the concerns and expectations of media consumers, critics, teachers, parents, pediatricians and even the researchers themselves. For example, a recent review of over 200 studies about social media concluded there was almost no effect of greater screen time on psychological wellbeing. A comprehensive study of adolescents reported small effects of screen time on brain development, and no relationship between media use and cognitive performance. A review of 20 studies about the effects of multitasking with media – that is, using two or more screens at the same time – showed small declines in cognitive performance because of multitasking but also pointed out new studies that showed the opposite. As communication, psychological and medical researchers interested in media effects, we are interested in how individuals’ engagement with digital technology influences peoples’ thoughts, emotions, behaviors, health and well-being.
MOVING BEYOND ‘SCREEN TIME’ Has the power of media over modern life been overstated? Probably not, but no one knows, because there is a severe lack of knowledge about what people are actually seeing and doing on their screens. Individuals all around the world are now all looking at pretty much the same screens and spending a lot of time with them. However, the similarities between us end there. Many different kinds of applications, games and messages flow across people’s screens. And, because it is so easy to create customized personal threads of experiences, each person ends up viewing very different material at different times. No two people share the same media experiences. To determine the effects of media on people’s lives, whether beneficial or harmful, requires knowledge of what people are actually seeing and doing on those screens. But researchers often mistakenly depend on a rather blunt metric – screen time. Reports of screen time, the most common way to assess media use, are known to be terribly inaccurate and describe only total viewing time. FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM
06
M
Your columnist was a discussant in the session on the Future of the IAS based on Deepak Gupta’s book ‘The Steel Frame: History of the IAS’. The consensus was that while nothing can be certain in an uncertain world, the challenge for organizations and institutions was to be ‘future ready’
urder at Moonlight Café ‘by Ishavasyam Das, ‘Bhopal Nama: writing a city’ by Vertul Singh, ‘When I Met Myself ’ by Shreyans Dixit, ‘Pre Independence India: memories’ edited by Subodh and Sfoorti Mathur, ’3S and Our Health’ by Raghuraj Rajendran, and ‘Millennial Tales’ by the twelve year old twins Bhavya and Navya Singh were launched by the Doon educated youngest Minister in India, Jaywardan Singh in the Valedictory session of the three day festival of literature and the Arts which saw intense discussions on books, conversations on issues as varied as the future of work to the census of tigers, lec -dems on Yoga and Madhubani paintings, and yes, poetry recitation which threw light on the dilemma of existence, besides an exhibition of Photographs from the Wild by India’s best lens -men, the Bedi brothers, Rajesh and Naresh. Let me share with my readers snippets from the sessions that I was able to attend - for as in the case of most festivals, one has to pick and chose from parallel offerings. What it also teaches you is that a good life is one in which you have to make conscious choice from a variety of options: all almost equally tempting. Well, the first was a session on the North East by Gill, an extremely sensitive account of a very intricate story of the interplay of ethnicity, identity, development, migration and the quest for survival. Those of us who are well ensconced in their zones of comfort will perhaps find it difficult to understand or appreciate what it means to live in a place you do not/cannot belong. And the sense of be-
Brigadier Sanjay Agarwal, Sanjeev Chopra, Jaivardhan Singh— Minister of Urban Development GoMP, twin authors Navya and Bhavya Singh, Raghav Chandra IAS (retd) Director of the Bhopal Literature Festival, Abhilash Khandekar Senior Journalist.
The next was a conversation with Ashwin Sanghi, who shared the ‘technique of writing best seller.’ It is best to treat the ‘novel – writing’ as a project, & if all the characters, with their characteristics, interface and events are marked out clearly on an excel spread sheet, it becomes easier to put the ideas in words’, he said. Explaining the difference between mythology & history in terms of Purana and Itihasa, he also pointed out that history is ‘a version of events’
longing is not the same thing as a legal entitlement. It’s about being accepted and offering acceptance. The next was a conversation with India’s best-selling fiction writer Ashwin Sanghi, who shared the ‘technique of writing best seller. ‘It is best to treat the ‘novel – writing’ as a project, and all the characters, with their characteristics, interface and events are marked out clearly on an excel spread sheet with clear timelines , it becomes easier to put the ideas in words’, he said. Explaining the difference between mythology and history in terms of Purana and Itihasa, he also pointed out that
history is ‘a version of events’. A ‘thriller’ involved both ‘surprise’ and ‘suspense’, and one of the best loved short stories ‘the Little Red Riding Hood’ had both. While discussing the Rozabal Line (based on the belief that Christ lay buried in Kashmir), he made the point that Abrahamic and Indic religions are not inseparable poles: Abraham and Sara from the Old Testament are phonetically not very apart from the Puranic legends of Brahma and Saraswati! Your columnist was a discussant in the session on the Future of the IAS based on Deepak Gupta’s book ‘The Steel Frame: History of the IAS’. The consensus was
that while nothing can be certain in an uncertain world, the challenge for organizations and institutions was to be ‘future ready’, and in this context, the focus of training was more on building positive attitudes, teamwork, communication skills, negotiations and leadership, plus of course, empathy for those at the margins. Gupta was forthright and categorical in his view that the age and number of attempts should be reduced and induction from the State service to the IAS should be on the basis of a competitive exam conducted by the UPSC. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
Jeff Bezos plays the cowboy with the Indians
F
orbes has followed Jeff Bezos on his pilgrimage to India this week. On January 15, the journal reported on Amazon’s declared ambition to help boost the Indian economy. The magazine reports: “Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said on Wednesday that his e-commerce behemoth will invest $1 billion to bring small and medium businesses in India online. He also pledged that his company will export $10 billion worth of ‘Made In India’ goods by 2025.” At that point, Forbes assumed that Bezos would seek a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seal the deal.
CONTEXTUAL NOTE The population of India
finds itself in a familiar situation as a privatelyowned overseas benefactor generously proposes to take over its economy and eventually — with the help of the company’s home nation — its political organization. The British ran India (and their other colonies) for three centuries by pledging to stimulate the local economy while personally rewarding cooperative local leaders and offering a range of services to reinforce their authority. The Indian people appear to be aware of the historical pattern and have massively expressed their defiance. Bezos appeared to be counting on the support of Modi, whom he hoped to meet on his trip to India. The prime minis-
The Indian people appear to be aware of the historical pattern and have massively expressed their defiance
ter is clearly the one person with the power to make his ambitious project work. Modi might even have an interest in making it work, since, without outside help, he may find it challenging to realize his own electoral pledge to his people to nearly double the GDP of India in his second term. Forbes comments that
“the goodwill from Bezos toward India is necessary,” citing the atmosphere of defiance in India and possible revolt against everything Amazon represents. Among other evidence of popular resistance, which includes restrictive laws on foreign commerce, Forbes mentions the fact that “a trade organization representing millions of small and medium-sized business owners organized protests in 300 cities across the country against Amazon to coincide with the billionaire’s visit.” The Forbes article was published on Wednesday and sounded upbeat. Thursday offered a surprise, however, as the Indian journal Swarajya reported: “In what appears to be a sensational turn of events, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi seems to have given a cold shoulder to the world’s richest man.” Bezos’ projected meeting with Modi has been canceled. It may sound as if the popular will is having its effect. But in a further twist that tells us a lot about Modi’s often hyperreal politics, we learn that “this cold shouldering has little to do with the ongoing probe on Amazon by the Competition Commission of India and more to do with the critical stand of the Washington Post – owned by Bezos – against the Indian government.” Swarajya noted that The Post’s “editorial stand has been extremely critical” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO WWW.FAIROBSERVER.COM
TOP TWEET Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal India Takes Lead in Clean Energy: World’s largest solar park at Pavagada in Karnataka is now operational. Generating 2050 MW of clean energy, the park is located on land leased from farmers, utilising the drought-hit area & adding to farmers’ income.
Vol 1 Issue No. 56 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, Resident Editor : Darshan Desai, Managing Editor: Robin Roy, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
INDIA AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
07
SALMAN KHURSHID BACKS SIBAL’S CAA REMARK
‘YOU HAVE TO OBEY THE LAW’ Kapil Sibal during the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) in Kozhikode had said, “a state cannot say no to a law cleared by the Parliament”
New Delhi: If something is on the statute book, you have to obey law, else there are consequences, says former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, while responding to Kapil Sibal’s statement that the state cannot say ‘no’ to a law passed by Parliament. “If the SC doesn’t interfere, it’ll remain on the statute book. If something is on the statute book, you have to obey the law, else there are consequences,” Khurshid. Adding further the Cong leader said: “It is a matter where the state governments have a very serious difference of opinion with the Centre as far as this (CAA) law is concerned. So, we would wait for the final pronouncement made by the SC. Ultimately, the SC will decide and till then everything said, done, not done is provisional and tentative.” Participating in the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) at Kozhikode on Saturday, Sibal had said that no state could say that it will not implement the CAA, as doing so will be unconstitutional. “When you come to national politics, I think we all must stand together because this is national legislation. So, we should not be scoring political points. You must know that if the CAA is passed, no state can say ‘I will not implement it’. That is not possible. That is unconstitutional. You can oppose it. You can pass a resolution in the Assembly and ask the Central government to withdraw it (to say please withdraw it),” said Sibal. “But constitutionally to say that I will not implement it is going to be problematic and it is going to create more difficulty. So, what we need to do is politically get together, fight this battle and let the Congress party nationally lead the charge,” he added. CAA grants citizenship to the non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. —ANI
‘Oppn putting women in anti-CAA protests to vitiate atmosphere’
There is fire spread at several places across the country. This started with your pain. Around the globe, wherever the name of India is taken, the name of Jamia and Shaheen Bagh is taken along with it. —Salman Khurshid, Senior Congress leader
We would wait for final pronouncement made by the SC. It will decide till then everything said, done, not done is provisional, said Cong leader Salman Khurshid.
‘STATES BOUND TO IMPLEMENT LAWS’ New Delhi: In view of some states resisting the recently enacted Citizenship Act, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that they are “bound to implement any law pertaining to citizenship”. Alluding to the decisions made by several states to challenge the CAA, Naqvi said, “When any law related to citizenship is made by Central government or Parliament, the states are bound to implement it. Unfortunately, some people are trying to put forth their political propaganda by taking steps which are contra-
New Delhi: Allaying fears of those protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act claiming the law to be ‘anti-religion’, former Mizoram Governor Swaraj Kaushal said that the law does not concern those living in India but only those who are “from a foreign country.” In an exclusive interview to ANI, Kaushal said: “Frankly, I really do not find one good reason to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. It does not concern people who are already here. It concerns those who have come from a foreign country.”
The act by opposition is like “cheer haran” of the nation as the country’s image is being maligned by rioters involved in loot, arson and vandalising public property. The atmosphere is being vitiated by pushing women into protests. —Yogi Adityanath, UP Chief Minister
tion is like “cheer haran” of the nation as the country’s image is being maligned by rioters involved in loot, arson and vandalising public property. The atmosphere is being vitiated by pushing women into protests,” he said referring number of anti-CAA protests.
WOMEN CONTINUE PROTEST AGAINST CAA, NRC IN LUCKNOW Lucknow: Scores of agitated women continue to sit near the Clock Tower here to protest against the CAA and NRC. Along with sloganeering, a couple of Muslim women were also seen holding placards with the tagline ‘NO CAA NO NRC’ and ‘REJECT CAA, BOYCOTT NRC’. On
ACTOR SUSHANT JOINS PROTESTS AT SHAHEEN BAGH New Delhi: It is time for the youths and students to come forward and lead the way for everyone to follow, has said actor Sushant Singh, adding that the time for ‘white-haired people’ was over. “Unless our voices are heard, and no solution is figured out, I and my family will continue to support you,” said Singh, with wife Molina Singh, while expressing solidarity with protesting students at Shaheen Bagh.
WB GUV REBUKES MIN WHO QUESTIONED WIFE’S PRESENCE AT EVENTS Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar asked state minister &TMC leader Partha Chatterjee to publicly apologise after he questioned his wife’s presence at public meetings. Chatterjee, who is Bengal’s education minister, had said that the presence of Jagdeep Dhankhar’s wife Sudesh
dictory to their constitutional commitments.” His remarks came after Kerala & Punjab Assembly passed a resolution seeking Centre to withdraw the citizenship law. —ANI
‘CAA CONCERNS THOSE FROM FOREIGN’
Gorakhpur: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday lashed out at the Opposition for “misleading people over Citizenship Amended Act (CAA)” and triggering unrest in the country. He drew a metamorphic parallel to the disrobing of Draupadi in the Mahabharata saying that the act by opposition parties is like “cheer haran” (disrobing) the country and asked people not be mute spectators and instead support the law that fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. “When cheer haran of Draupadi was done, nobody including Bhishma, Dronacharya spoke against atrocities on her. As they all watched the cheer haran silently, they were termed as equal sinners. Today the similar cheer haran of nation is being done,” he said at a pro-CAA rally in Gorakhpur. “The act by opposi-
at government meetings was ‘unconstitutional.’ “Is it not unconstitutional to bring a third person to official functions? Did you ever ask the Governor if he thinks he is on a PR exercise with his wife?” Chatterjee said. The Guv hit back at the Trinamool leader, saying that his wife goes to events only when she is invited.
the other hand, in Aligarh, an FIR has been filed against more
than 60 women for protesting against CAA despite the imposition
3 ARRESTED MADRASSA STUDENTS RELEASED ON BAIL
FIR AGAINST OVER 60 WOMEN FOR PROTESTING
Muzaffarnagar: Three madrassa students held in connection with violence that took place during anti-citizenship law protests in the city last month have been granted bail. A SIT that was formed to look into the cases has withdrawn serious charges against them on Saturday. During probe, the SIT had earlier charged the protesters under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 143 (punishment) of the IPC. Several people were arrested after violence erupted during protests against the CAA in Muzaffarnagar on December 20.
Aligarh: An first information report (FIR) has been filed on Saturday against 60-70 women in Aligarh for allegedly staging the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Population Register (NPR).Police said that the protest organised by the agitated women was in violation of Section 144. “Some women tried to stage a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Population Register, which is a violation of Section 144. So, an FIR has been registered against 60-70 unknown women,” said Anil Samania, Circle Officer (CO) of Aligarh Civil Lines.
NRIPENDRA MISHRA TO HEAD NEHRU MEMORIAL MUSEUM New Delhi: As part of a full revamp of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library’s executive council, Nripendra Misra, former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, has been appointed as the new chairperson. This comes at a time when the institution is finalising plans to set up a Museum of PMs. However, former Union Minister MJ Akbar, who resigned from his position after allegations of rape & sexual harassment by multiple women, has been removed from his position as vice chairman of NMML executive council.
KAILASH VIJAYVARGIYA FLAGS OFF CYCLE PARADE IN INDORE Indore: BJP National Gen Secy Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday flagged off the cycle parade held in Indore. The cycle parade event held in a view to create world record was joined by over five thousand people including BSF jawans and other organisations in the city. “Bike riding in a disciplined manner is
called the cycle parade event. Earlier, India had recorded 14 hundred people taking part in this event. Bangladesh then cracked the record by 17 hundred people cycling. We have organised the event to crack our own record of 4,000 people riding cycle in a disciplined manner,” Kailash Vijayvargiya told ANI.
of Section 144 in the region. Protests broke out in different parts of the country, against CAA which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, & Christians facing religious persecution from Pak, Afghanistan & Bangladesh & who came to India on or before Dec 31, 2014. —ANI
COPS ACCUSED OF SNATCHING BLANKETS, DENY CHARGE Lucknow: A group of women continued their protest against CAA at Ghantaghar Park with alleging that police took away their blankets, a charge dismissed by cops. “During the illegal protest going at Lucknow’s Ghantaghar Park, some people tried to make a ‘gheraa’ and tried to put sheets. They were not allowed to do so. Some organisations were distributing blankets in premises. People living in the vicinity, who were not a part of protests, were coming to take blankets. Police removed them & action is being initiated against them,” the Police said and urged people not to spread rumours.
UDHAMPUR GETS ITS FIRST ‘CHILD-FRIENDLY’ POLICE STATION Udhampur: With an aim to provide an atmosphere free of fear to the children, Udhampur division of J&K has opened a ‘child-friendly’ police station.Special Juvenile Police Unit was inaugurated on Jan 19. “The people who will interrogate the children will not wear uniforms, they will be in plain clothes. The main idea of opening this child-friendly police station is to make children admit the crime they have committed or narrate their ordeal to us without any fear,” said Yasmin, Member of Juvenile Justice Board, Udhampur.
INDIA AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
08
NITI AAYOG MEMBER’S BIZZARE J&K CLAIM
‘NET USED TO WATCH DIRTY FILMS’
New Delhi: NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat on Saturday claimed that the suspension of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 more than five months ago did not have a “significant effect” on the economy because it was used to only watch “dirty films”. “Why do politicians want to go to Kashmir? They want to re-create the protests happening on the roads of Delhi in Kashmir. They use social media to fuel protests. What difference does it make if there’s no internet in Kashmir? What do you watch on internet there? What e-tailing is happening there? Besides watching dirty films, you do nothing there,” he said according to ANI. Saraswat was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual convocation at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology in Gandhinagar, where he was the chief guest. His response came on a question on why internet services had been suspended in Jammu and Kashmir when he thought telecom was
Kashmiri students protest at Hyd Univ
What difference does it make if there’s no internet in Kashmir? What do you watch on internet there? What e-tailing is happening there? Besides watching dirty films, you do nothing there. —VK Saraswat, Niti Ayog Member
vital for India’s growth. Internet has been suspended since August 5 2019, when Centre scrapped Article 370 of the Constitution that had conferred special status to J&K and bifurcated the state into two Union territories. J&K administration restored 2G mobile data serves but that was only conditional for access to a set of 153 “whitelisted” websites, in all districts of Jammu & 2 districts of Kashmir.
Saraswat tenders apology NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat said, “I have been quoted out of context. If this misquotation has hurt the feelings of the people of Kashmir, I apologise and would not like them to carry this impression that I am against the rights of the Kashmiris to have internet access,” said Saraswat, clarifying his earlier comments.
Ramchandra Guha explains his remarks on Gandhi scion The Historian, while speaking on Rahul had said, “Young India does not want a fifth-generation dynast” New Delhi: Noted historian Ramchandra Guha, in a series of tweets, attempted to put to rest what he called “kerfuffle” over his remarks on Rahul Gandhi’s presence in Congress “aiding” BJP, saying it was made in broader context of “Modi, Hindutva & India.” The tweet thread also included an admission that it was “patronising” of him to “chastise the Malayalis” for electing Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad. Guha’s comment made at Kerala Literature Festival has been enthusiastically up-voted by right wing supporters, pushing him to explain his remarks further. His series of tweets came after an arch comment from Congress’s Shashi Tharoor. “Thanks for the clarifi-
cation, @Ram_Guha. I’m sure you aren’t elevating PM’s capacity for hard work above its actual divisive consequences for the nation! Whatever you think about @RahulGandhi, he embodies an alternative vision of India that many millions support in resisting BJP,” read Tharoor’s tweet. “In view of the kerfuffle (to use a Tharoorian term) caused by the slanted and selective PTI
SANSKRIT TO REPLACE URDU ON RAILWAY SIGNBOARDS IN U’KHAND Dehradun: Names of railway stations written in Urdu on platform signboards in Uttarakhand will now be written in Sanskrit, the second official language of the hill state. The move is in keeping with the Railway Manual which says the name of a railway station on platform signboards should be written in the
second official language of the state concerned after Hindi and English, Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railway, Deepak Kumar said. “Instead of Hindi, English and Urdu, the names of railway stations on platform signboards across Uttarakhand will now be written in Hindi, English and Sanskrit,” he said.
report on my #KLF speech, a thread stating/ restating my views on Rahul, Modi, Hindutva and India,” Ramchandra Guha responded. He then proceeded to explain that in a USstyle Presidential form of election, voters would always prefer Narendra Modi to Rahul Gandhi “because the former is more experienced and in political terms self-made. ” —PTI
IAS officer who quit over Centre’s Kashmir move detained in Prayagraj Prayagraj: Kannan Gopinathan, a former IAS officer from Kerala, was detained by city police soon after he arrived at the airport in Prayagraj, officials said on Sunday. Mr Gopinathan had arrived in Prayagraj from Delhi on Saturday to address a two-hour symposium organised by the All India People’s
Forum on the issue of ‘Nagrikta Bachao, Samvidhan Bachao, Loktantra Bachao’ (save citizenship, save constitution and save democracy).
The former IAS office posted about his detention at the airport in a series of tweets. “As soon as I came out of the flight & was going towards exit, around ten policemen approached me, asked my identity & when I told them my name, they escorted me to some VIP lounge & thereafter to some security room.”
Hyderabad: Kashmiri students of the University of Hyderabad staged a protest against the continued clampdown in Kashmir valley and “state repression” against Kashmiris even as the Centre launched its outreach programme with the first group of Union ministers visiting Jammu to highlight awareness about central schemes implemented after the removal of Article 370 in J& K. The protest which went on for about two hours in the late afternoon, was organised by Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association in the name of “Sada-e-Mazloom” (Voice of oppressed) outside the university campus. “It was meant for reflecting the plight of grieving widows and star-crossed orphans, of nameless graves and dark caves,” JKSA president Hadif Nissar said. “The protest was in the form of creative expressions, poetry reading and singing songs of revolution,” he said.
Remove Saraswat: Kashmir’s trade body The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry, an apex trade body condemned V K Saraswat’s remarks that internet suspension & data service was only used to watch “dirty films” & demanded his immediate removal. “We condemn these remarks. They are spreading venom against the people of Kashmir. Nobody gives him the right to speak like this about the people of Jammu and Kashmir and utter this nonsense against us,” KCCI president Sheikh Ashiq said.
CM Uddhav to hold meeting on Saibaba birthplace row today Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the indefinite shutdown in Shirdi town over his alleged comments on Sai Baba’s birthplace. “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the controversy which is going on regarding the birthplace of Shri Sai Baba,” Chief Minister Office (CMO) tweeted on Saturday. The ‘bandh’ has been called by locals upset with Thackeray’s decision to allocate funds to develop Pathri town in Parbhani district for religious tourism, calling it the birthplace of Baba, who is a 19th-century spiritual figure. The Chief Minister had also taken a review
BAPU WANTED TO SPEND AUG 15, 1947 IN PAK, CLAIMS BOOK New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi wanted to spend August 15, 1947, the first day of freedom, in breakaway Pakistan rather than in India, says a new book by former Union minister MJ Akbar. This was, however, neither tokenism nor a gesture of support for a country carved out of multi-faith India in the name of one religion, Islam, the author writes in “Gandhi’s Hinduism: The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam”.”The book analyses both the ideology and the personality of those who shaped the fate of the region.
Shirdi bandh to be called off: Sena MP
meeting of the development plans in Parbhani district. Shirdi in Ahmednagar district and Pathri in Parbhani district are 281 kilometres apart. Shirdi temple is one of the most popular religious destinations in the country. Over a lakh devotees visit it every year. While the rest of the
town remained shut, the temple remained open for darshan today. Sai Baba devotees were however allowed to visit the temple amidst shut down today. “Devotees will not face any difficulty if they come to Shirdi,” B Wakchaure, member of Saibaba Sansthan Trust, had said. —ANI
BIHAR CM NITISH, DY CM SUSHIL MODI PARTICIPATE IN HUMAN CHAIN EVENT Patna: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Dy CM Sushil Modi along with other ministers gathered at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna to participate in the human chain event.The human chain is being formed under the ‘Jal, Jeevan, Hariyali’ programme, which is a flagship programme launched by Nitish Kumar to fight climate change,
among other objectives. RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav said, “So many trees were cut by Nitish for making highways and for the other so-called development works. Water is being wasted every day from the faulty taps in the government offices while the CM keeps talking about Jal, Jeevan and Hariyali.”
Shirdi: A day-long bandh observed on Sunday in Shirdi following a row over the birthplace of Saibaba, will be called off after midnight, said Shiv Sena MP from Shirdi, Sadashiv Lokhande, after a meeting with locals. He said CM Uddhav Thackeray has convened a meeting in Mumbai on Monday to discuss the issue. The bandh was observed to protest against Thackeray’s announcement of grant of Rs 100 crore for development of facilities at “Sai janmasthan” (birthplace) at Pathri in Parbhani district, nearly 273 kms away from Shirdi in Ahmednagar
district. Saibaba, a prominent spiritual figure of the 19th Century, is equally revered by Hindus and Muslims. Representatives from Pathri and Shirdi, BJP MLA Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Lokhade & Shirdi temple trust CEO will attend the meeting.
BJP TRAINS GUN ON JAISING FOR ‘PARDON LIKE SONIA’ COMMENT New Delhi: The BJP lashed out at prominent lawyer Indira Jaising after she urged Nirbhaya’’s parents to forgive the four death row convicts for brutally raping and murdering her daughter. BJP leader Saroj Pandey condemned the statement of Jaising as something that was made “at the culmination of politics”. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari alleged, “The convicts of Nirbhaya were punished in the month of July, 2017 and in the next two years till 2019, the Delhi government did not inform the culprits of the punishment.”
SPORTS AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
09
in
BRIEF India win against Netherlands Bhubaneswar: The Indian men’s hockey team made a late comeback to level the scores before emerging 3-1 victorious in the shoot-out in their second FIH Pro League match against the Netherlands.
Nabi help J&K dismiss Odisha Cuttack: Right-arm pacer Aquib Nabi grabbed five wickets to help Jammu and Kashmir dismiss Odisha for 161 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match.
Indian team pose with trophy after winning the third and final ODI cricket match against Australia at Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru.
INDIA WRAP SERIES 2-1
Pavel Ponkratov posts easy win Chennai: Top-seeded Russian Grand Master Pavel Ponkratov defeated local boy R Rathneesh in the second round of the 12th Chennai Open International Grand Master Chess tournament.
Zimbabwe make steady start Harare: Zimbabwe made sedate progress and reached lunch at 62 without loss against Sri Lanka after winning the toss in Harare on Sunday in their first home Test since 2017.
Lahiri makes cut for Golf tour New Delhi: India’s Anirban Lahiri assured himself of the final round action with four birdies on the back nine to card a six-under 66 and make the cut for the American Express Golf tournament.
Figy scores ‘dream’ century Dubai: Jonathan Figy scored the first Under-19 WC century by a UAE batsman. The Abu Dhabi-raised left-hander made an unbeaten 102 to guide the national team to an eight-wicket win over Canada.
Mohammed Shami continued his fine run with the ball in the final ODI against Australia as he picked up a four-wicket haul.
Bengaluru: Chasing 287, India got off to a steady start as openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul saw off the first ten overs and scored 61 runs. In the process, Rohit became the thirdfastest batsman to register 9,000 ODI runs. Australia finally got the breakthrough in the 13th over as Ashton Agar had Rahul (19) adjudged leg-before wicket, reducing India to 69/1. Sharma looked in good form and he brought up his half-century in the 15th over of the innings. Kohli then joined Rohit in the middle and the duo did not let mo-
mentum slide for the home team. Rohit brought up his eighth-century against Australia in the 30th over of the innings.
New Delhi: Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon lifted the Indonesia Masters 2020 women’s singles title after defeating Carolina Marin & Local boy Anthony Sinisuka Ginting won the men’s singles title on Sunday.
Rome: Bajrang Punia was far from his fluent best but still claimed gold while Ravi Kumar Dahiya showed sparkling form in his gold-winning effort as the two Indians kicked off the Olympic year in style at the Rome Ranking Series. B a j r a n g staged a comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA’s Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category on Saturday night. Ravi, who competed in the 61kg
Strikers beat Hobart by 10 runs New Delhi: Adelaide Strikers secured a 10run win over Hobart Hurricanes in the ongoing BBL. Chasing a target of 187 runs, Hurricanes witnessed a poor start as Michael Neser took the wicket of Matthew Wade first over.
Sindhu to clash with Gayatri Chennai: P.V. Sindhu will take on Gayatri Gopichand as the fifth season of Star Sports Premier Badminton League kicks off at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium today.
In the end, Shreyas Iyer (44*) and Manish Pandey (8*) took India over the line by seven wickets and with 15 balls to spare.
India vs Australia Toss: Australia, bat first
Australia
R B 4 6 SR
DA Warner c Rahul b Shami 3 7 0 0 42.85 AJ Finch run out 19 26 1 1 73.07 SPD Smith c Iyer b Shami 131 132 14 1 99.24 M Labuschagne c Kohli b Jadeja 54 64 5 0 84.37 MA Starc c Chahal b Jadeja 0 3 0 0 0.00 AT Carey c Iyer b Kuldeep Yadav 35 36 6 0 97.22 AJ Turner c Rahul b Saini 4 10 0 0 40.00 AC Agar not out 11 13 0 0 84.61 PJ Cummins b Shami 0 1 0 0 0.00 A Zampa b Shami 1 6 0 0 16.66 JR Hazlewood not out 1 2 0 0 50.00 Extras: 27 (lb 14, w 13) Total: 286/9 (50 Overs, RR: 5.72) Fall of wickets: 1-18 (David Warner, 3.2 ov), 2-46 (Aaron Finch, 8.5 ov), 3-173 (Marnus Labuschagne, 31.3 ov), 4-173 (Mitchell Starc, 31.6 ov), 5-231 (Alex Carey, 41.4 ov), 6-238
category instead of his regular 57kg, bagged the gold after getting the better of Kazakhstan’s Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2 in his final bout late on Saturday night. Sonepat had made the final round after securing impressive wins over Moldova’s Alexaandru Chirtoaca and Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev in the four-wrestler draw. India, thus, returned with seven medals from the tournament. Vinesh Phogat and Anhsu Malik won a gold and a silver in their women’s competition.
(Ashton Turner, 43.6 ov), 7-273 (Steven Smith, 47.1 ov), 8-276 (Pat Cummins, 47.4 ov), 9-282 (Adam Zampa, 49.2 ov) Bowling: JJ Bumrah 10-0-38-0, Mohammed Shami 10-0-63-4, NA Saini 10-0-65-1, Kuldeep Yadav 10-0-62-1, RA Jadeja 10-1-44-2.
India
R B 4 6 SR
RG Sharma c Starc b Zampa 119 128 8 6 92.96 KL Rahul lbw b Agar 19 27 2 0 70.37 V Kohli b Hazlewood 89 91 8 0 97.80 SS Iyer not out 44 35 6 1 125.71 MK Pandey not out 8 4 2 0 200.00 Extras: 10 (lb 2, w 8) Total: 289/3 (47.3 Overs, RR: 6.08) Fall of wickets: 1-69 (KL Rahul, 12.3 ov), 2-206 (Rohit Sharma, 36.4 ov), 3-274 (Virat Kohli, 45.5 ov) Bowling: PJ Cummins 7-0-64-0, MA Starc 9-0-66-0, JR Hazlewood 9.3-1-55-1, AC Agar 10-0-38-1, A Zampa 10-0-44-1, M Labuschagne 1-0-11-0, AJ Finch 1-0-9-0.
India win by 7 wickets
India beat Sri Lanka in U-19 WC opener Bloemfontein: The captain Priyam Garg (56), opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (59) and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel (52 not out) struck half centuries as defending champions India beat Sri Lanka by 90 runs in the opening encounter of the ICC U-19 World Cup on Sunday. Batting first India scored 297 for four and then bowled out Sri Lanka for 207 runs with spinners Siddhesh Veer and Ravi Bishnoi getting two wickets apiece. The Indians produced a team effort after being sent in to bat with all the top and middle order batsmen making useful contributions to post a big score at the Mangaung Oval.
SIGH OF RELIEF
‘Dhoni will be retained by CSK in IPL 2021’ MS Dhoni looks all set to be retained by Chennai Super Kings for the 2021 edition of the IPL, as it was confirmed by N Srinivasan recently
New Delhi: MS Dhoni will be retained by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings when they head into the mega auction prior to IPL 2021. Whether he plays for India again or not, according to N Srinivasan, the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, owners of the franchise, Dhoni will certainly wear the yellow jersey in 2021. “People keep saying when
will he… how long will he play, etc. He will play. I can assure you. He will play this year. Next year he will go the auc-
tion; he will be retained. So there is no doubt in anybody’s mind,” Srinivasan was quoted as saying by ES-
S
teve Smith finally managed to score a hundred after missing out by 2 runs in the previous ODI against India. Smith brought up his 9th hundred in the 50-over format in the 44th over in Bengaluru. Smith was dismissed for 98 in the second ODI in Rajkot but he made sure not to repeat the same mistake to get to triple figures. It was his first century in the format after exactly 3 years and also the first in India. He joined Geoff Marsh & Shane Watson in 7th position on the most hundreds list for Australia.
SCOREBOARD
Bajrang, Ravi claim gold in Rome Ranking Series
Ratchanok lifts Indonesia title
Smith hits 1st hundred after 3 years
Men In Blue find a way to win the three-match ODI series against Australia despite losing all three tosses
PNcricinfo at a recent India Cements event. Dhoni has been the captain of the Chennai Super Kings from the start of the IPL in 2008 – barring the two years, in 2016 and 2017, when the franchise was suspended. Earlier, certain media reports said that Dhoni has asked CSK to not retain him ahead of the big IPL auction scheduled in 2021. The report said that Dhoni had suggested that CSK use their ‘Right to
Match’ option to buy him back for a lower price than what they had bought him for in the inaugural season of the cash-rich league. This would give CSK increased financial power to buy players in the 2021 auction, after which the teams are set to be majorly rejigged. All eyes will be on Dhoni’s performance in the upcoming IPL 2020 as his chances of making a return to the Indian T20 team depend on it.
Gujarat’s Bhargav Merai celebrates century.
Ranji: Bhargav Merai holds Gujarat together against Punjab on Day 1 Valsad: Gujarat‘s Bhargav Merai smashed 130 runs against Punjab to steer his side to a total of 277 runs. Merai endured formidable bowling of Punjab comprising the likes of Siddharth Kaul and Baltej Singh, who picked four wickets each. Bhargav Merai scored 130 in 216 balls
to help Gujarat to recover versus Punjab in Valsad. Gujarat were 277/9 at stumps on Day 1. Incidentally, the number three batsman was the only one to pass the 50-run mark for Gujarat. Piyush Chawla provided Merai support, with the duo stitching a stand of 95 for the sixth wicket.
Khelo India: Gujarat finishes at third spot Guwahati: The boys from Maharashtra defeated Gujarat by 19-11. Earlier in the boys’ finals Maharashtra started strong as they clinched 10 points in the first innings in the game. The boys from Gujarat could only manage 5 points during their chase. Overcoming the margin of 5 points, Gujarat
added 6 points on the board in the 3rd inning. While in the boys’’ category Kerala and Telangana had to settle for Bronze, in the girls’’ U-17 Punjab and Gujarat finished at the 3rd spot. With today’’s wins Maharashtra became the ultimate champion in Kho Kho winning 4 gold medals for the state.
Give yourself what you want someone else to give you. Motivation or flower or even love. —Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
2ND FRONT AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
Only Constitution, no other power centre: Bhagwat ‘Unemployment, not Muslim population is India’s real problem’
Bareilly (UP): Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said that they neither want to change any one's religion nor any power centre other than the Constitution because they “believe” in it. “When workers of RSS say that this country belongs to Hindus and 130 crore people are Hindu, it does not mean that we want to change anyone's religion, language or caste ... We do not want any power centre other
When workers of RSS say that this country belongs to Hindus and 130 crore people are Hindu, it does not mean that we want to change anyone’s religion, language or caste —Mohan Bhagwat, RSS Chief than the Constitution because we believe in it,” said Bhagwat while addressing 'Bhavishya Ka Bharat' here. Bhagwat also stressed the fact of unity in diversity and said the true meaning of Hindutva is to live together. “The Constitution
says we should try to bring emotional integration. But what is the emotion? That emotion is -- this country belongs to us. We are descendants of our great ancestors and we have to live together despite our diversity. This is what we call Hindutva,” he said. —ANI
Nizamabad: Hitting back at RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat over his “two children policy” demand, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said the real problem in this country is unemployment, not population. “Shame on you! I have more than two children and several BJP leaders have more than 2 children. RSS has always maintained that Muslim population has to be controlled. This country’s real problem is unemployment, not the population,” said Owaisi while addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad ahead of the Telangana Municipal polls. He asked Bhagwat about the number of youths who have been given jobs in country. —ANI
CORNERING PM
Can’t say Vande Mataram, can’t live in India: Sarangi Surat: Accusing Congress of spreading misinformation about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), MoS Animal Husbandry Pratap Chandra Sarangi on Saturday said that those who do not accept India's freedom, unity, and Vande Mataram, have no right to stay in the country. “Those who set the country on fire are not patriots. Those who do not accept India's freedom, unity, Vande Mataram, have no right to stay in the country,” said Sarangi here in a press conference. Sarangi said people should be thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring the CAA, the act which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians facing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. Continuing his tirade against the Congress, the Union Minister further said that the CAA was a way to “atone for
MoS Pratap Chandra Sarangi.
the sin of Partition” committed by the Congress. “The CAA should have implemented 70 years ago. The act is a way to atone for a sin committed by our forefathers. Congress committed the sin, and we are atoning,” he said. Last year in September, Sarangi gave a similar remark in wake of the protests erupted against the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir by the central government.
First India News
From left: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, State BJP President Jitubhai Vaghani and BJP Leader Bhikhu Dalsaniya leave from Ahmedabad Airport for New Delhi on Sunday to attend a high-leval BJP meeting called by Home Minister and National BJP President Amit Shah. According to sources, during the one-hour long meeting, the role of Gujarat leaders in ongoing Delhi election campaign, mainly in Gujarati dominated areas, was discussed along with few other crucial matters. —PHOTOS BY HANIF SINDHI
Ahmedabad: UKbased Electric Vehicle charging solutions provider company EO Charging on Sunday launched its first free electric vehicle charging point in Ahmedabad and said that it has planned to set up around 300 such points across the western state by March 2022. The company which has so far started around 20 charging points across the country since the launch of its distribution network in India in Nov last year, has planned to set up more than 4000 such
Slowdown in Dolomite industry rendered tribals jobless Gandhinagar: Hundreds of tribal labourers engaged in the Dolomite mineral industry located in the remote tribal district of Chhota Udaipur in Central Gujarat have been rendered jobless in the face of the unprecedented crisis gripping the industry. About 50 percent of over 100 Dolomite stone crushing and processing units in and around Chhota Udaipur have been shut down, while the remaining ones are facing a threat of closure. The industry circles strongly feel that the Dolomite industry, the only source of economy pro-
viding livelihood to over 5,000 unskilled tribal workforce and transporters in this tribal region, will die an unnatural death if the Rupani Government fails to make timely intervention. Nearly 2,000 tribal workforce has been rendered jobless due to the closure of half of these units, forcing many of the labourers to migrate to urban areas in search of livelihood. The current spell of crisis has compelled even the surviving units to reduce the work shifts from three to one in their factories. “Besides stiff competition from the neighbouring States
HIGH ROYALTY RATES
T
of Rajasthan and MP, the current wave of economic crisis and a lethargy on the part of the State Govt have dealt a severe blow to our Dolomite industry”, says Vithalbhai Patel of Chhota Udaipur Minerals
Merchants’ Association. Patel told First India that the Geology and Mining Department rules in the neighbouring Rajasthan and MP are more liberal and pragmatic than the ones formulated by the Guja-
“When the staunch opposition parties of BJP have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision of scrapping Article 370, the Congress objected it. Amit Shah has made it clear to Congress leaders that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Siachen are also part of India. Those who do not accept Vande Mataram have no right to live in India,” he had said at the Jan Jagran Sabha in Odisha. —ANI
British company opens free electric vehicle charging point in A’bad
GUJARAT BJP TOP BRASS OFF TO DELHI...
Bashir Pathan
10
rat Government, making the “competition tougher for us”. What has added to the woes of the owners of Dolomite crushing and processing units is that the govt is demanding additional security deposit from them for
their existing power connections for units. The financial burden on each of the crisisridden units due to the additional security deposit would be anything between Rs 2 L to Rs 3 L, with the original security deposit of Rs 20,000 already paid to MGVCL, informs the Association leader, adding,” the mineral merchants’ body has written to CM Rupani to review this decision keeping in view the current crisis facing the industry”. Till recently, the Chhota Udaipur-based units were suppling a major chunk of their Dolomite powder and chips to the ceramic industry of Morbi in Sau-
rashtra alone. “Now that the Morbi ceramic industry itself is in the doldrums, the supply from our factories has almost come to a standstill “, Patel said. The surviving Morbi ceramic units purchase marble slurry at much cheaper rates. The Dolomite mineral being mined in the tribal-dominated Chhota Udaipur region is popular for its purity and high quality, and is used as additive in chemical, iron steel, glass, ceramic, rubber and plastic industries. Powder is supplied to different States like Maharashtra, AP and Karnataka, besides various parts of Gujarat.
points by March 2023. The 1st charging point in Ahmedabad situated besides SP Ring road in the parking lot of a well known restaurant in the outskirts of the city will initially be free of cost for awareness about the benefits of electric vehicles and promotion of company. CEO of Yahhvi Enterprises, the distribution partner of EO Charging in India, Sandeep Yadav said that the company has planned to launch around 300 such free charging points across Gujarat including the major cities of Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot.
Fishermen hit jackpot! Catch 450-kg rare fish
Gujarat: A fish weighing 450 kg was caught by Jaffarabad fishermen on the Gujarat coast on Sunday. When the fishermen reached the harbour they had to hire a crane to lift the heavyweight fish from the boat.
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
11
AHMEDABAD, MONDAY JANUARY 20, 2020
A DIFFERENT
DISHA
Disha Patani
I AM PREGNANT!
K
...her Instagram post
D
isha Patani shares a bikini clad picture of herself from the sets of ‘Malang’ as she poses on the beach. Disha Patani shared a picture of herself from the sets of ‘Malang’ a while ago on Instagram and now we know how the temperature in the city has gone up by a few degrees all of a sudden despite the Winter season! The sweet and simple Disha has shown a remarkable transformation into a sizzling one. We all remember her simplicity in Sushant Singh Rajput starrer ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’ after which her stunning bikini-clad pictures that the actress posted on Instagram for a brand advertisement, came as a surprise for her fans. The actress will
soon be seen romancing Aditya Roy Kapur on the screen in Mohit Suri’s upcoming film ‘Malang’ which is slated for February 7, 2020 release. The film highlights the passionate love story between the characters of Aditya and Disha amidst the chase between Aditya Roy Kapur, Anil Kapoor, and Kunal Kemmu. While the plot of the romantic action drama looks intriguing, Disha and Aditya add oomph to the film. As seen in the trailer, their chemistry makes it difficult for one to look away. Disha looks incredible in the film. Be it the songs or the trailer, she manages to wow the viewers with her over the top good looks. In her picture, the actress is wearing a red bikini as she stands in the sun enjoying the fresh air. —Agency
alki Koechlin shared her experience about her family’s reaction when they found out her pregnancy. Kalki is soon going to be a mother. She is expecting her first child with boyfriend Guy Hershberg. On Kareena Kapoor’s radio programme, she revealed how her family reacted about a child out of wedlock. She also opened up about how her boyfriend’s reaction when they found out about her pregnancy. When asked about the response of her family, Kalki said, “Thankfully, both our families are quite unconventional in terms of...they are not too traditional in the sense of having to be married and all of that. My mother is like, Look, next time you marry, just make sure it’s for life.’ Because I have already been divorced once. So she wasn’t in a big hurry.” The ‘DevD’ actress said that her initial reaction to her pregnancy was that of disbelief. However, she revealed that Guy was quite excited and happy about everything. She said, “I didn’t believe it. I went and got another test im-
Kalki flaunting her baby bump
mediately. But I told my partner Guy and he was thrilled. I think I took a little while, like 2-3 days to just sort of take it in.” Kalki was married to filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. The marriage didn’t work out so well and the couple announced their separation in 2013. They formally got divorced in 2015. —Agency
Kalki Koechlin
PROUD OF BEING TAGGED
AS SAIF’S DAUGHTER
A Sara Ali Khan
ctress Sara Ali Khan says she feels proud to be Saif Ali Khan’s daughter, and hopes she will get the opportunity to prove herself in the film industry. “Honestly, I am still Saif ’s child and that will never change. It (being Saif ’s daughter) is a tag I am proud of, so if it (the tag) exists, it is fine. If people like my work then
it is a good thing. I hope that I get the opportunity to prove myself,” said Sara. While on Bollywood bloodlines, the budding actress is constantly being compared with contemporary newcomers Janhvi Kapoor, daughter of the late Sridevi and Ananya Panday, daughter of Chunky Pandey. “I feel all three of us are very young girls. I understand why comparisons happen but it just doesn’t make any sense. I think three of us
are very different as people, as actors and in general. So, I don’t see the point in comparing. I wish them the best and I hope they wish me the best for my next film, too,” she said. The budding Bollywood star will soon be seen in Imtiaz Ali’s film ‘Love Aaj Kal’. She was recently spotted at the trailer launch of the film, which was also attended by her co-actor Kartik Aaryan, director Imtiaz Ali and producer Dinesh Vijan. —IANS
LISTING
EMMA’S STONE
12
FA CE OF TH ED AY
AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
IS CHANGING
THE GAME! E
mma Stone recently announced her engagement to Dave McCary. The couple posted a congratulatory news on Instagram with a cute selfie. Stone and McCary met in 2016 after Stone hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ and have since kept a low profile relationship. Stone debuted the new ring attending a ‘Saturday Night Live’, pairing the ring with a navy coat, a black turtleneck and a white mini skirt. Although the unexpected beautiful pearl ring McCary proposed with is making the big news! The stunning sparkler was designed in Japan, instead of a traditional diamond it features an 8mm Akoya pearl. The beautiful untreated pearl ring is surrounded by small diamonds and set on a solid 18k gold band. The large pearl engagement ring may come to no surprise to those following ring trends. Diamond and pearl engagement rings are some of the latest trends. Many people are turning towards nontraditional engagement rings. While a classic diamond sparkler will always be in favor, unexpected rings like pearl accents have been on the rise. Celebrities like Kate Middleton, Penelope Cruz, and Jessica Simpson have all been on board for non-traditional rings, each choosing rings featuring gemstones. There are a couple of reasons why millennial buyers have been gravitating towards gems. Simply put, pearls, sapphires, and other gemstones have been popular in fashion trends lately. Brides want that uniqueness factor, both in fashion and in engagement ring choices, which leads to the rise of nontraditional engagement rings. Couples are turning not only to an alternative to diamonds but also to art decor-inspired cuts, two-tone styles, multiple gem rings, and eclectic combinations of all the above. This allows the wearer to put a little bit more personality into their ring. Millennial are also one of the most Ecoconscious generations when it comes to buying patterns. With the controversy of blood diamonds, it’s not surprising buyers are discounting practices that don’t align with their values. As a result, millennial are turning away from massproduced rings and labgrown diamonds in favor of something that is a little more unique and ethical.
Emma Stone
—Agency
PRATIBHA ATTAL, Blogger
YOUR DAY
Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva
IF IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY ARIES
TAURUS
Goddess of wealth is smiling at you, you may add to your wealth from various resources. Real estate businessmen will have a neutral day today, no profit no loss. You will successfully persuade your client to agree with the required terms and conditions.
You will observe some serious positive results with the change in lifestyle and new health fad. You will strengthen your financial capabilities as you keep moving forward. At workplace, you may get some cold looks from your colleagues and seniors.
MAR 21 - APR 20
CITY POLICE FIRE AMBULANCE DIAL 100 101 102/108
CHILD HELPLINE HELP IN SUFFERING
1098
26305080
Do you want to add your establishment here? Email your details to www.firstindia.co.in
JAI MUMMY DI CAST : Cast- Sunny Singh, Sonnalli Seyall, Poonam Dhillon and Supriya Pathak DIRECTOR: Navjyot Gulati AB Miniplex: 10:50, 11:35, 1:15, 3:35, 5:10, 5:50, 7:30, 8:20, 10:40 Carnival: 1:30 Cinemax Dev Arc: 9:15, 12:00, 5:35, 10:55 Cinemax Shiv: 9:00, 2:20, 7:45, 10:10 Cinepolis: 10:00, 3:15, 8:10, 10:40 City Gold Satellite: 9:15, 12:00, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30, 10:30 City Gold Ashram: 9:00, 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30 Miraj Cinemas: 11:00, 4:30, 10:00 Miraj Cinemas Vitthal Plaza: 10:00, 1:00, 4:00, 10:00 Miraj City Pulse: 10:00, 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30 Mukta A2 Cinemas: 10:00, 3:00, 5:15, 10:45 PVR Acropolis: 9:45, 8:15 PVR Arved Transcube: 9:30, 3:15, 5:50, 8:15, 10:50 PVR Motera: 9:30, 12:05, 5:00, 10:30 Rajhans Cinemas: 10:10, 3:00, 10:30 SB Multiplex: 11:45, 5:00 Time Cinema: 10:00, 12:45, 5:30, 10:45 Wide Angle: 9:30, 12:00, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 19 Cinema: 10:10, 12:35, 2:05, 3:00, 4:30, 5:30, 8:00, 10:20 Carnival Himalaya: 5:40 Chhotu Maharaj Cine: 7:30, 10:00 City Gold Bapunagar: 9:30, 11:00, 12:00, 1:15, 2:30, 5:15, 8:00, 9:30, 10:30 City Gold Bopal: 9:00, 11:30, 2:45,
4:45, 6:30, 8:00, 9:30, 10:30 City Gold Motera: 12:15, 8:00 Devi Multiplex: 10:00, 2:30, 5:00, 10:00 Newfangled Miniplex; 9:01, 11:15, 3:31, 6:01, 10:31 Revolution Multiplex: 12:45, 3:35, 6:45, 9:35 SB Multiplex Elite Class: 10:15
CHHAPAK AB Miniplex: 11:10, 10:20 Carnival Himalaya:10:40, 3:40 Cinemax Dev: 8:10 Cinemax: Shiv:11:35 Cinepolis: 9:00, 2:05, 7:40, 10:20 City Gold Satellite: 9:15, 2:45, 7:15, 10:00 City Gold Ashram: 12:00, 5:00, 10:00 Miraj Cinemas Cine: 4:10 Miraj Cinemas Vitthal Plaza: 7:00 Miraj City Pulse: 11:45, 4:50, 10:05 Mukta A2 Cinemas: 9:00, 2:45, 10:55 PVR Acropolis: 5:00 PVR Arved Transcube: 12:00, 10:05 PVR Motera: 7:45 Rajhans Cinemas: 12:30, 7:45 SB Multiplex: 7:30 Time Cinema: 10:30, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30 19 Cinema: 12:25, 4:30 19 Cinema South Bopal: 9:55, 2:45, 7:45, 10:00 Carnival Himalaya Ebony:1:15 Cine Square Cinemas: 2:30 Cineworld Naroda:11:30, 2:10, 10:00 City Gold Bapunagar: 11:30, 5:45 City Gold Bopal: 1:00 City Gold Motera : 2:45 Devi Multiplex Naroda: 12:45, 9:45 K Sera Sera: 9:30, 5:30, 10:45 Newfangled Miniplex: 8:01, 1:45 SB Multiplex : 1:15
CARS & SHOWROOMS Audi ............................ 0787 878 8136 BMW ........................... 090992 34567 Mercedes-Benz (CG Road) ................. .................................... 078787 33555 Ford ............................. 099306 08586 Honda .......................... 086575 88792 Maruti Suzuki (Kataria Automobiles) .. ................................... 079 6134 3781 Planet Hyundai (Maninagar) ............... .................................... 098250 05590 BLOOD BANKS Cross World Bank and Sankalp .......... ...................................... 91521 23660 Red Cross Blood Service .................... .................................... 097222 69610 Indian Blood Service .... 098980 30960 Green Cross Voluntary Blood Bank ..................................... 07926408820 White Cross Blood Bank and Path. Lab ............................... 07922815227 DIAL-UP-A-DISH Domino’s .............................. 6888688 Pizza Hut (CG Road) ....... 0794019480 Pizza Hut (Ashram Rd) .. 07923988398 Subway (Navrangpura) . 07940049990 Subway (Paldi) ............. 07940040002 McDonald’s (Himalaya Mall) ............... ................................... 022 6600 0666 Java+ Mariott (Ramdev Nagar) ........... ..................................... 07966185000 EYE BANK C.S.Samarya Red Cross International Eye Bank ....................... 07927413333 HOSPITALS Bodyline Hospital .......... 07698003120 Stavya Spine Hospital . 079 2656 5657
Sadhna Orthopaedic Hospital ............. ................................... 079 2657 6470 Shalby Hospital ........... 079 4020 3000 Avron Hospital ............. 090818 30100 CIMS Hospital .............. 098250 66664 FOREX Polo Forex Pvt. Ltd. Currency Exchange ..................... 090998 04461 Sambhav Forex Pvt. Ltd. ...... 079 2646 9909 Thomas Cook (Lal Bungalow, Ahmedabad) ................ 086575 35806 INTERNET SERVICES UN Internet Service Provider (CG Road, Navrangpura) .... 079 4050 7676 AHMEDABAD BY SIGHT Sidi Saiyyed Mosque ... 079 2550 7147 Dada Harir Stepwell .... 079 2550 7147 Sabarmati Riverfront ... 079 2658 0430 Gujarat Science City .... 079 2970 3122 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport ........................ 079 2286 9211 Tourism Corporation of Gujarat .......... ................................... 079 2657 8046 GAS COMPANIES Jay Jyoti Gas Agency ... 085090 88306 Adani Gas ................... 079 2754 2988 Bharat Gas Office ........ 1800 233 3555 Reliance Gas - Sheth Gas Service ..................................... 07926584544 MEDICINES 24×7 Tapan Medical Stores .. 079 2545 1918 Karnavati Medical Store ....... 079 2657 5799 Akshar Medical Store ... 098982 24888 ORDER A CAKE...& MORE
Dangee Dums (Narangpura) ............... ................................... 079 6615 3044 Dangee Dums (Ambavadi) .................. .................................... 098980 88885 Cakes N Bakes (University Road) .................................... 094265 18499 Kabhi B Bake Studio (Ambavadi) ........ .................................... 099988 14719 PAMPER THYSELF O2 Spa (Raddisson Blu Hotel) ............ .................................... 099980 61211 The Thai Spa (Ahmedabad One Mall) .................................... 075672 25441 Hummingbirds Spa (CG Road) ........... ................................... 079 4037 3377 Enrich Salon (University Area) ........... .................................... 090995 73000 B&B Salon & Nails (Navrangpura) .................................... 099794 24891 Shades of Blackk Spalon (Vastrapur) .................................... 076000 98000 Lakme Salon (Navrangpura) ............... ................................... 079 4007 6019 FLORISTS Aristo Florist (Ambavadi) ................... .................................... 099093 33322 Rami Brothers (Navrangpura) ............ ................................... 079 2656 5080 Orchid Florist (Navrangpura) .............. .................................... 098797 78891 Ferns N Petals (Satellite) .................... .................................... 093761 15848 UTILITIES AMC (Danapith Rd.) - 079 2539 1811 WHEELCHAIR/OXYGEN/WALKERS Torchit Pvt. Ltd. ........... 073836 35420 Silverline Meditech Ltd... 91521 68755
APR 21 - MAY 20
GEMINI
CANCER
Today is your lucky day, you will have gains as far as property is concerned. Your efforts to quit junk food will pay. You will see a positive changed in your health. Don’t worry if you land up spending extra, it may prove beneficial later. Your love life will blossom with happiness.
You have a good health because you are not only serious about what you eat but also a fitness freak. Somethings are beyond one’s control so don’t get disappointed if there is a delay in payment or salary. You may experience someone over ruling your efforts in office.
MAY 21 - JUNE 21
JUNE 22 - JULY 23
LEO
VIRGO
Today you will enjoy the perks of being fit and healthy. You will surely become wealthy but it will take some time.At work front, you will bounce back with double strength and will conquer it all. Wooing your partner is your thing and keep it up as it works great for you.
You are finally healthy, fit and sound with the full support of your family and the doctor. Keep your expectations straight, you may not receive the financial help from someone you expect. At work place you will get the opportunity to occupy the center stage.
JULY 24 - AUGUST 23
THEATRE
An outstanding opportunity is waiting for you. You may spend some time sharing some goodness with the underprivileged. Your parents may buy you a vehicle as a surprise gift.
AUG 24 - SEP 23
LIBRA
SCORPIO
Keep up the spirit and do not go astray from the fitness regime. You may crack a big deal and will make huge profits. In professional life, you will get a lot of appreciation which will motivate you to further outstand. Some of you may go through a tough time with your lover.
You remain in perfect shape as always. You will have many gains from various resources. At professional front, your practical approach to problem solving may not help you so try different ways to fetch desired results. You will find yourself much closer to your love.
SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22
OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22
SAGITTARIUS
CAPRICORN
You may have cold today, so be careful of what you eat. Work on your finances and search for your strength. At workplace, give your best today and leave no stone unturned to prove how hard working you are. Do not get deviated from the path of loyalty, your partner won’t take it easy.
You must take actions on time as far as your health is concerned please keep your health on priority. You will see an improvement in flow of money in your life but may not meet your expectations. Your lover may not feel very happy in general, so don’t disappoint.
NOV 23 - DEC 22
DEC 23 - JAN 20
AQUARIUS
PISCES
Keep up with your efforts in trying hard to maintain a balance between healthy diet and exercise routine. Go ahead and give your all, in search of greener pastures as far as your finances are concerned because you are one of those who are contend in little.
Because of your determination to be in good condition, your health remains in good shape. You may make money from an unexpected source so get ready to fill your pocket. You may go on an outstation trip with your working partner. You can expect a good news today.
JAN 21 - FEB 19
FEB20 - MARCH 20
ETC AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
13
SHRADDHA
reveals her next S
hraddha said that Ranbir is one of the best actors of their generation. Nothing was offered to her earlier with Ranbir and she is looking forward to this film. Shraddha Kapoor is all geared up for the release of her upcoming dance drama ‘Street Dancer 3D’ with Varun Dhawan, The actress, who is currently busy promoting her film is all set to star opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Luv Ranjan’s next. On working in this project, Shraddha said that she is doing Luv Ranjan’s film with Ranbir Kapoor. She has loved Luv’s films - ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’, ‘Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety’ and is super excited to be working
with Ranbir. Shraddha further said that Ranbir is one of the best actors of their generation. They have loved his work. Nothing was offered to her earlier with Ranbir and she is looking forward to this film. Shraddha said that she will start shooting for the project in March and will begin some prep after the release of ‘Street Dancer 3D’. Speaking about ‘Baaghi 3’ and ‘Stree 2’, the actress said, “I am excited to do Baaghi 3. I don’t know what is happening with Stree 2. I hope I am i n
SHIVANGI TO
it. With franchise films you can never be at ease. I did Rock On 2 and it did not do well, you never know which way it goes. With franchises, you know people are excited to see the film but again you don’t have how it will do, no one knows the outcome.” Produced by Bhushan Kumar, the film is slated to release on January 24, 2020. —Agency
Shraddha Kapoor
SHORTLISTED!
PR SANG PYAR!
—PHOTO FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY
WALK THE RAMP
S
hivangi Joshi aka Naira from ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’ is all set to walk the ramp in ‘Cannes Film Festival 2020’. Last year, Hina Khan made history as the popular actress became the first TV celebrity to make her debut at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Now, looks like her co-star has taken some serious inspiration from her and is following her footsteps. We’re talking about Hina’s onscreen daughter Naira aka Shivangi Joshi. According to latest reports, Shivangi is all set to make her debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Yes, you read that right! The beautiful actress will walk down the red carpet at Cannes 2020. Reportedly, Shivangi will be marking her debut at the global event with her first film titled, ‘Our Own Sky’. It also features south actors Asifa Haque and Aditya. —Agency
CITY FIRST
T
...her Instagram post
I
n the year 2016, in the month of July around her birthday, Priyanka Chopra Jonas had introduced her team #TeamPCIndia to her fans. Priyanka Chopra Jonas recently became the talk of the town when she announced about collaborating with ‘Game of Thrones’ star Richard Madden and Russo Brothers of ‘Avengers’ fame for a brand new series on her Instagram account. Priyanka wrote, “Can-
not wait to work alongside the super talented @maddenrichard and incredible @therussobrothers on this new series. Get ready! CITADEL will be a multi-layered global franchise with interconnected local language productions from India, Italy and Mexico. It will truly be global content. More details soon. @ amazonstudios @agbofilms #CITADEL.” On the work front, Priyanka will be seen in Netflix’s ‘The White Tiger’ with Rajkummar Rao. —Agency
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
he JCB Prize for Literature presents its 2019 shortlisted authors and jury members at the ‘Jaipur Literature Festival 2020’. The series of discussions comprises of 4 sessions. In Samvad, ‘There’s Gunpowder in the Air’ on January 23, Manoranjan Byapari in conversation with Anu Singh Choudhary will discuss the power of words and silence. In Baithak, ‘How to Judge a Book?’ on January 24, Jury member Pradip Krishen, KR Meera, and Parvati Sharma will discuss what cuts a piece of literature. In Samvad, ‘Literature for All: The JCB Prize Shortlist
in Braille’ on January 25, Ananth Padmanabhan, Dipendra Manocha, and Siddhant Shah in conversation with Mita Kapur to discuss accessibility of literature and literary fiction for the visually impaired. In Baithak, ‘Negotiating the Male Space in Contemporary Fiction’ on January 26, Roshan Ali, Perumal Murugan, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar and Arunava Sinha in conversation with Manasi Subramaniam will explore the contemporary conceptualizations of masculinity in Indian writing, discussing leading men featured in searing works of fiction seeking answers in settings at once unconventional and disturbing. [email protected]
THE WORLD OF FILMS KIRTI CHAUHAN
[email protected]
T
Shivangi Joshi
he sixth edition of the Rajasthan International Film Festival 2020, organised by RIFF Film Club, was inaugurated on Saturday at the Open Theatre of Jawahar Kala Kendra. A Ghoomar dance performance was given by the artists of ICCR, which was followed by a Korean love song performance by the students of Angels Music Academy. On the second day at RIFF, the conversation between JIFF Director Anshu Harsh and the filmmaker Manish Mundra on the topic ‘Jack of All Trades’ was the key highlight of the day. During the session, he talked about the journey from his early days to the movies. A film made by Manish’s
From Left: Namita Lal, Anshuman Jha, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Ajit Ray, Kim Kum Pyoung and Deepak Mahan
Kashvi Kanchan with Tanmay Singh
daughter Disha Mundra was also screened during the event. Another session, moderated by Ajit Ray, with Tannishtha Chatterjee, Anshuman Jha, Namita Lal, Deepak Mahan and Kim was on the topic ‘Content will be the Star of Indian Cinema.’ The films started with the screening of South Korean film ‘My Turn’ in the presence of Director of Korean Culture Center Kim Kum Pyoung and Korean
Film Director Moyoung Jin at Cinepolis, World Trade Park. Apart from this, various short and feature films like ‘Kalamkhush’ by Himanshu Vyas, #JaipurActivists by Eshan Harsh, Dhanak and Oxygen among others were screened during the event. Short film ‘Main Vrinda’, directed by Tanmay Singh was also screened and was highly appreciated by the audience and the critics.
CITY BUZZ AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
14
ARANGETRAM
Harmony Chawda made her debut as a classical dancer at her arangetram at the Bhavan’s College Auditorium in Ahmedabad on Saturday. MP Kirit Solanki was the Chief Guest at the event, and Swami Adhyatma Nandji of the Shivanand Ashram and Yumi Masumura, Japanese Faculty of the Ahmedabad Management Association were guests of honour. Harmony studies at Mount Carmel High School. Her guru is Binal Wala. —City First
AFFRAA TAFFRI
CYCLOTHON
TRAILER RELEASED Gujarati cinema’s first comic-horror film will release on Valentine’s Day
Around 6,000 people and 2500 children participated in Cyclokids and Cyclothon on Sunday, in the run-up to this year’s Republic Day celebrations at Rajkot. Gujarat Municipal Finance Board Chairman Dhansukh Bhanderi flagged off the programme, which began at 6am.
ONE FOR THE BOOKS! Khushi Shah’s Instagram post
First look of the movie ‘Affraa Taffri’
CITY FIRST
P
repare for a spooky Valentine’s Day. The Gujarati film industry is going beyond just comedy to try new things. You’ve watched horror films, and you’ve guffawed at comedy films. But have you ever watched a “Comedy of Horrors”? That’s precisely what Affraa Taffri has in
Harshil
store for you, at least based on the trailer that dropped on Friday. The film, produced by Kwality Productions
and Eva Productions, and directed by Viral Rao, was originally slated to be launched this Friday, but will now hit
DREAMING OF WINGS
theatres on February 14. This is the story of a village named Vishrampur, where the leader Trikamdas just wants to see his granddaughter married before he dies. However, the girl has no intention of getting married any time soon. As director Viral Rao puts it, “This is one of those films that just get done effortlessly. This is the first time Gujarati cinema is entering the horror genre. But it’s
also very funny.” The film stars Khushi Shah in a central role, as well as Mitra Gadhvi, Smit Pandya, Shekhar Shukla and popular Radio Jockey Harshil Shah, among others. As the promotional material says, “This twists the film into a complete entertainment package full of situational, slapstick, farce and dark humour.” [email protected]
[email protected]
S
tudents of Nav Sarjan Higher Secondary School, Ranip, Ahmedabad visited the campus of Western India Institute of Aeronautics (WIIA) on Friday as part of WIIA’s annual Aviation Awareness Program. In addition to getting theoretical in-
formation about the aviation industry, and the various courses available at WIIA—viz. aircraft maintenance engineering, cabin crew, aviation hospitality and travel management—the students got to check out a Boeing 737-200, Learjet and Zenith aircraft and visit the institute’s avionics and mechanical labs for a hands-on experi-
ence of the aviation industry. Jay Prakash Patel, principal, Nav Sarjan School, thanked WIIA for organizing such Awareness Programs on behalf of his students. WIIA’s general manager Premasish Priyambad and director Radhika Bhandari also spent time with the visiting students. [email protected]
D
ewan-Balubhai Secondary School, English Medium, Kankaria recently organized the eighth meeting of its reading camp at Sidi Syed’s jali. Author Urvi Amin was invited as a guest at the camp. The
workshop was attended by teacher Mrigash Pandya, librarian Dhritika Bhatt and school students. Urvi Amin guided the children on how to be a good reader. She told them about the first book he ever read and the story of Angad’s foot from the Ramayana. She also
asked the children to describe their experience after reading three books in three months and encouraged them to gift a book from their personal collection. The programme aims to get as many students and parents involved in reading as possible. [email protected]
Tortillas and tostadas by the river PRACHI KUMAR
CITY FIRST
CITY FIRST
A
s we entered Mexicano by the Bay, my friend and I were enveloped by the warmth and spice in the air. Rich, creamy desserts welcome you from the display and the decor is clearly Mexico-inspired. When the restaurant’s signature By the Bay tortilla pizza arrived, we were a little disappointed by the size, but not for long. The deceptively filling little pizza is stuffed with beans, veggies and a rich tomato sauce. We were full halfway through our second slice, and we hadn’t even begun on
the loaded nachos my friend had ordered. That did not disappoint either. The sour cream and guacamole toppings were a refreshing touch to the cheesy nachos and it made for a stunning dish. The berry smoothie we’d ordered on the suggestion of the friendly waiter was a welcome addition to the meal, especially since I had sprinkled too much Tabasco sauce on the pizza. The desserts looked too good to pass up, so decided to split a walnut brownie, and got the nachos to-go. Dessert was deliciously intense, and we ate it focused
silence, timing the last bite to coincide with the last sip of the smoothie. The bottom line: definitely worth a trip for a hearty meal or high tea.