Chinese
Ever wondered why Kolkata boasts of having the oldest Chinatown in the world outside South East Asia? The hardworking and enterprising Chinese community has vastly influenced the city of Kolkata since the 18th century. It all started with Atchew who bought a sugar factory near Budge Budge and brought Chinese labourers to the capital of the British Empire in India. The place has come to be known as Achipur after him.

Most of the settlers came from Canton, who were mostly a travelling class, earning their bread through family businesses of carpentry, leather tanning and laundry.
With the increase in number, Chinese gradually settled at the centre of Calcutta near a market place designed by Italian architect Edward Tirreta and hence named Territi Bazar.
Once a thriving community of almost 20,000, the number has now dwindled to around 4000 following the large scale migration in recent times. The Chinese community mostly are tannery-owners, sauce manufacturers, restaurateurs, shoe shop owners and dentists. Needless to mention, the restaurants have given rise to an eclectic fusion of Chinese Hakka cuisine with traditional Indian cuisine and is the most popular mark of Chinese influence in the city.

Territi Bazar is famous to this day for its yummy breakfast stalls starting at 6.30 AM selling a wide variety of momos or dumplings stuffed with beef, pork, chicken, seafood or vegetables along with sausages, stuffed buns, pork rolls and wontons. Close by is another iconic store Hap Hing Co, considered to be the oldest shop in Chinatown and selling a wide variety of items from tea, dried fruits, and rice noodles to medicinal herbs. The store even today uses abacus and not calculator and is run by the grand old dame of Chinatown, Stella Chen.
Around the old Chinatown area, are six active Chinese temples. Of them Nam Soon Church dating back to 1820 is the oldest and is especially impressive with a spacious courtyard and intricate décor.

Sea Ip Church established 1905 is another impressive temple dedicated to Kwan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion and mercy. Later on, a large section of the Chinese has moved to the eastern part in Tangra, to form the New China Town. In January/February, the community celebrates the Chinese New Year in a traditional way complete with dragon and lion dances on the streets of Tangra &Tiretta Bazar. The entire area is brilliantly illuminated contributing to a carnival like atmosphere thus safeguarding a slice of Kolkata’s unique cultural heritage. Kolkata also hosts and celebrates India’s only Dragon boat race on actual dragon boats brought all the way from China.

Despite dwindling of numbers, the Chinese community continues to be an integral part of the city and is destined to play a vital role in “bridging the communication gap” between the businessmen of the two countries.

Parsis
Parsis have amalgamated into the social fabric of Kolkata just as spoon of sugar dissolves into a cup of milk. One of the world’s oldest extant religions, Zoroasterians from Iran fled the country to avoid religious persecution and reached the shores of Diu and chose to settle in Gujarat areaupon being given shelter by the king in 785AD.

The industrious nature of the Parsis coupled with Kolkata’s exponential growth attracted them to this city from the middle of 18th century. Dadabhai Behramji Banaji of Surat regarded as the first Parsi to be in this city was a shipbuilding pioneer and a close friend of Dwarakanath Tagore. His relative Rustomji Cowasjee Banaji came in early 19th century, and founded a Gothic style Pars near Ezra Street in 1839, which is now completely decrepit and widely encroached upon by hawkers.

The only active fire temple was established in 1912 on Metcalfe Street in Bow bazar area of Central Kolkata and is the major binding force of the approx. 700 strong Parsi community in the city. The Parsis are fire worshippers and the holy flame burns eternally in the second floor open only to believers. The ground floor consists of a large hall containing a brass plate of Faravahar, the Primary Symbol of Zoroastrianism and some beautiful frosted glass work.

Parsis become an important component of the trading network between India, East Asia and Europe and their contribution to trading and business continues to be rich over the decades. The community emerged as a Westernized and progressive one with wide range of opportunities even for females.

The Parsis of Calcutta were once synonymous with a popular fizzy drink (Byron , precursor to Cokes and Pepsis), heavily embroidered silk saris of a particular type, pioneer of the Indian cinema (referring to JF Madan’s theatre empire) and the generous contribution to the charitable trust funds especially during the infamous Bengal Famine. Owner of currently the only restaurant serving authentic Parsidhansak, Patranimachi and other delicacies, Meher Hansotia’s love affair with Kolkata began a decade ago as the manager for the ‘Parsis-only’ guest house ordharmashala bang opposite Bow Barracks.

In Meher’s words, “Kolkata Parsis are very active, sweet, helping and fun loving people. We all participate in lots of activities like community get togethers, picnics, sports, fancy dress, debates, elocution and painting competitions held every year”. Despite the sharp demographic decline in recent times, Parsis have continued to preserve a resplendent heritage and are active in all aspects of civic and national life.

One of the most remarkable additions to West Bengal’s cultural and archival cauldron is the recent opening of a beautifully curated and orchestrated digital archive of and on the works of poet-musician-lyricist-actor Kazi Nazrul Islam. The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited the initiative to set up Nazrul Tirtha to provide an institutional set up to promote research and appreciation of life and works of revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. The digitalised archive has been christened Muhafiz.

Popularly known as the Rebel Poet of Bengali literature and the “nightingale” of Bengali music, Kazi Nazrul Islam’s works reached beyond literature to touch political beliefs and ideologies so powerfully that he became an outstanding intellectual and poet between 1920 and 1942. His contribution to liberate modern Bengali poetry from the ‘prison’ of Rabindranath Tagore in the form of imitations is memorable. He was a passionate creator of letters written at different points of time to women he fell in love with. During his tenure as a soldier, he wrote a prose piece called Baunduler Atmakahini (Autobiography of a Vagabond) published in May 1919 and Mukti (Freedom), published in July the same year. He put together his experiences as a soldier in World War II, commencing from April 1920, in the shape of a novel later published in Moslem Bharat. The original documents are now lost.

His rebellious writings through every form of creative expression were vocal against all forms of oppression, bonding, communalism, feudalism and colonialism. This angered the then-British-ruled India so much that they not only banned many of his books but also put him behind bars. His contributions lay scattered, torn, lost and unpreserved so it must have been an extremely challenging task. But HIDCO Chief Debasis Sen with the guidance and support of the curator of Nazrul Tirtha Sri Anup Motilal took up the challenge. A tender was invited to invite willing archivists, collectors and other interested individuals in March 2017.

The Nazrul Digital Archive was inaugurated by urban development minister Firhad Hakim in the presence of members of the poet’s family and researchers on 20 December 2017. Arindam Saha Sardar is the archivist commissioned to research, put together the collection and assimilate the entire available and recoverable works of Nazrul and on Nazrul with the guidance and support of Sri Anup Motilal. All this has been carefully and painstakingly digitalized.

“I was already into field and documentary research on Kazi Nazrul Islam since 2014 because at that time, I was working towards making a documentary on this great poet. The film is on hold for want of funds. I personally visited collectors, family members, friends and Nazrul scholars to collect his music and songs that form the biggest slice of his works. Fortunately, I got hold of the first recorded song penned by Nazrul on 78 r.p.m. record sung by Harendranath Dutta. It was a political satire that went – jaater naamey bojjati shob khelche jua (they are gambling in the name of the nation and committing mischief). That record now is a part of this digital archive,” says Arindam Saha Sardar who is a noted digital archivist who lives in Uttarpara, a few kilometres away from Kolkata.

Saha Sardar says that during his research, he discovered that there were too many discrepancies and contradictions in the documents and books that carried information and education on Nazrul. “This led me to a deeper and more extensive search for his original documents such as manuscripts, song books, cinema booklets, and this went on for four years and it remains ongoing till this day. I can never claim that our research is complete” says Saha Sardar. Jagat Ghatak gave him the original notations of Nazrul’s song compositions. His brother Nitai Ghatak gave me a diary consisting of Nazrul’s songs written in his own hand. Dilip Roy (Junior), now 101, is the only person alive who learnt music directly from Nazrul and was the first publisher of Nazrul’s songs in book form. He gave Sardar that diary. Another person who pitched in to help was Dhiren Das. Sardar also managed to gather the song booklets of three films Nazrul was involved with – Dhruba, Vidyapati and Gora.

All the items were photographed, then digitalized to take the shape of a proper library archive collected from across Bangladesh and West Bengal. The collection includes 13 booklets of films in which Nazrul was directly involved as director, actor, lyricist, and music director such as Dhruba. The archivist also interviewed Arun Kumar Bose who wrote the first biography of Nazrul.
“I was helped in clearing the contradictions that confused by Brahmanand Tagore and old audio interviews were retrieved which helped resolve my confusion. We also restored his hold books and digitalized them. I interviewed the great musician Dipali Nag in 2009 when she was alive, not to forget an audiovisual interview of Juthika Roy in 2011. I also took the help of Nazrul scholar and researcher Rafiqul Islam, based in Bangladesh. I had the good fortune to interview Karunamoy Goswami, a scholar in Nazrul music and songs,” adds Saha Sardar. 800 manuscripts handwritten by Nazrul, 10 cinema booklets in original and three magazines he had edited are a part of the archive. Dipali Nag’s notebook that contains six Nazrul songs handwritten by Nazrul have also been included.

As many as 1200 Nazrul song compositions recorded and/composed by Nazrul between 1925 and 1950 have been restored by this young archivist. Included is an interview with Sudhin Das of Bangladesh taken in 2015 who is a music scholar and trainer in the music of Nazrul and Tagore. As many as 500 photographs collected from different sources, around 100 rare books on Nazrul that are now out-of-print, 35 books of notations published from Kolkata but now out-of-print, 500 songs sung by Nazrul himself have all been restored digitally. “We have digitalized a total of 25,000 pages by taking photographs with a high-end still camera and in some cases, we have used scanners. This resulted from visiting libraries, collectors and homes of people associated with Nazrul have made it possible to realise this dream project of Mamata Banerjee, CM, West Bengal.

An archive is defined as “a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.” Nazrul Tirtha from now on, is a living example of how researchers in music, poetry, lyrics, cinema, songs and drama can sit and home and conduct research from distant places by accessing this digitalized treasure on Nazrul and everything he stands for, for all time.

Governor Acharya Devvrat administered Oath of Office and Secrecy to Protem Speaker of the newly formed Vidhan Sabha, Ramesh Dhwala in the presence of Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur at a simple ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday. Dhwala is a four-time MLA from Jwalamukhi.

The oath ceremony was attended by Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister, Kishan Kapoor, Education minister, Suresh Bhardwaj, Urban Development minister, Sarveen Chaudhary and Health and Family Welfare minister, Vipin Parmar.

Manchester City avoided the ignominy of a FA Cup upset as they struck four second-half goals to beat Burnley 4-1 in an enthralling tie at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

Ashley Barnes’ brilliant volley in the 25th minute had silenced the Sky Blues faithful, who were forced to accept that perhaps their brilliant side’s unbeaten run in domestic competition had come to an end.

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As John Stones skewed a routine clearance, Barnes pounced on the mistake and rifled a shot beyond Ederson to give the Clarets a shock lead and Sean Dyche’s men absorbed the pressure to cling on to their slender lead till half-time.

With 45 minutes left in the tie, Pep Guardiola could have been forgiven into sending on Kevin De Bruyne into forcing a result, but the Catalan tactician stuck to his guns and didn’t make any changes at the interval.

Must read: Manchester United ride late goals to beat Derby County

And the vaunted manager’s faith was rewarded as star striker Sergio Aguero scored a quick fire double (56 and 58) to turn the tie on its head.

Aguero’s second goal, in particular, was spectacular not for the finish but the deft assist by Ilkay Gundogan. The German midfielder, with his back to the goal, cheekily split Burnley’s defence open with a back-heel pass and Aguero calmly rounded Nick Pope before finishing into an empty net.

Leroy Sane would then make sure of the win with a well-worked move in the 71st minute, collecting David Silva’s through ball expertly before beating Pep with a low finish.
Substitute Bernardo Silva tapped-in with eight minutes remaining and the Etihad roared in unison after witnessing a comeback perhaps only one team in England can manage at the moment.

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The Sky Blues, who are running away with the Premier League, remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple, and will now shift their focus to a EFL Cup semi-final with Bristol City on Tuesday before travelling to Anfield to take on Liverpool in a Premier League clash on January 14.

Burnley will hold their heads high, for despite the unflattering scoreline, they gave as good as they got and for almost an hour, looked like they had the better of a side that are simply swatting everyone away.

City join the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United in the fourth round and will know their opponent when the draw takes place on Monday.

Punjab government’s much awaited farm loan waiver scheme will be launched on Sunday with over 46,000 farmers in five districts set to receive first installment of the debt relief scheme.
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh will on Sunday formally launch the farm debt waiver scheme from Mansa district. The other districts being covered under the scheme include Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga.

Each beneficiary farmer, who has taken loan of less than Rs Two lakh, would get about Rs 40,000 as first installment of the waiver scheme. Addressing a Press conference, additional chief secretary (co-operation) DP Reddy and additional chief secretary (development), Viswajeet Khanna said the government had already identified 5.63 lakh farmers, who had taken loan of nearly Rs 2,700.00 Crore from cooperative institutions as on 31 March 2017 as beneficiaries for disbursement of the debt waiver certificates in the first of the four planned phases for completion of the entire process.

Of these, the process of verification had been completed for 3.20 lakh farmers. As many as 1.60 lakh cases with loans to worth Rs 748 crore had been approved pan Punjab. The symbolic launch event at Mansa will witness disbursement of debt relief certificates to the tune of Rs 167.39 Crore to nearly 47000 eligible marginal and small farmers, who had taken loans from 701 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies of the five districts of Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga. Reddy said an extensive plan had been prepared, in association with the departments of agriculture and revenue, for finalisation of the list of eligible farmers.

As per the plan, the entire debt waiver process would be completed in four phases. In the first phase, verified marginal farmers would be handed over the debt relief certificates and the rest in subsequent phases, after proper verification.

hanna said that loans of farmers taken from commercial and private banks would be settled thereafter under the Debt Relief Scheme-2017 already notified by the State, whereby marginal farmers having land holdings less than 2.5 acres and small farmers having land less than FIVE acres, who have taken loan upto Rs Two lakh, would be provided debt relief.

Despite leaving it late to secure a win, Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera felt his side’s performance against Derby County in their FA Cup third round fixture on Friday night was one of the best of their season so far.

“I think we have played one of our best games this season – full of control, good play, good movement of the ball and everyone feeling good on the pitch, participating in the game,” the Spaniard told MUTV after the game.

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“That is why I couldn’t believe we weren’t winning after 30 minutes. I think football was fair with us, we have scored two in the end but we could have scored six or seven, to be honest,” the combative midfielder, who completed 90 minutes against the Championship side on Friday, added.

Jesse Lingard struck a marvellous goal from distance to continue his fine goalscoring run as United broke the deadlock with six minutes left before substitute Romelu Lukaku sealed the deal after a quick breakaway.

And Herrera was effusive in his praise for both goalscorers as he gushed, “The goal (Lingard’s) was amazing, the goal was incredible. He tries always, he moves very well. He has a very good shot with both feet. When you try all the time and you’re optimistic with yourself and you try and try, sooner or later you will get the result. The result was again another fantastic goal”.

Must read: Debutant Virgil van Dijk settles 230th Merseyside Derby as Liverpool progress

Lukaku’s goal was well-deserved after United’s dominance and Herrera was quick to laud not only the burly Belgian but Anthony Martial as well for their involvement in the second goal.

“He (Lukaku) played very well.He held the ball up for us, he gave us that target man in the second half, he played amazing. The second goal was incredible, also the assist of Anthony (Martial) was very good”.

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“I think we cannot say just two or three names today, the whole team played amazingly. We were very good on the pitch, moving the ball, everyone receiving the ball – running, shooting, crossing. I think we did everything good. Of course you always have things to improve on but almost everything was good,” Herrera added.

The Red Devils will know who their fourth round opponents will be on Monday after the draw but will be backing themselves to beat any side at the moment.

Jose Mourinho’s men have a bit of a breather now as they next play a game on January 15, a home Premier League clash with Stoke City.

A high voltage drama took place at the Uttarakhand BJP office, here on Saturday, when a transporter from Haldwani, Prakash Pandey, came to attend the ‘Janta Milan’ programme of state agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal after consuming some poison.

Said to be in a depressing mood, the transporter accused Chief Minister Trivender Rawat and his other ministers of doing little to solve his problem. He said that he was under debt after demonetisation and introduction of GST by the BJP government. In his interaction, the transporter revealed that he had come to the event after consuming poison.

Thereafter, the minister asked the police and other BJP members to take him to a hospital. As Pandey was being rushed to a hospital, his health deteriorated and he fainted on the ground. A wrapper of some pesticide was found when his pock was checked by some people. Pandey was rushed to the Doon Hospital on the car of the agriculture minister. A three-member team of doctors is presently looking after him.

Meanwhile, terming it a cowardly act, Uniyal said, “It was important to save his life, so we took him to hospital where he is getting the treatment.”

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that Indian taxpayers were making a sacrifice to keep the banking system in good health and hence the performance of banks would be under the lens over the next few years.

He said the government’s Rs 2.12 lakh crore recapitalisation plan was to keep banks in good health, which was “extremely” important for the economy.

“The taxpayers in India are making a sacrifice to keep the banking system in good health. This money which is being infused could be used for other social purposes. But that is the money being infused into the banking system to make sure that you are kept in good health so that you (banks) are able to improve the credit growth and growth processes in the country,” Jaitley said at the 75th-anniversary celebration of the UCO Bank.

“The society through taxpayers is reviving you. So it is your responsibility to come out with a much faster pace and in much better health so you are able to give a much more robust economy.”

“And therefore the next few years, your performance is really on test,” he said.

Jaitley said it was the responsibility of the banks to support and spur growth in India. He added a turnaround in the economy was now visible after various structural changes undertaken by the government which led to a “transient hiatus”.

“The lending that the banks do is an indication of how growth will move. The latest data has shown that credit growth has moved up. And once this infusion of capital takes place into the banking system, credit growth will further go up.

“And when that goes up, coupled with the revival of the global commodity prices, one should really visualize a better future from the current challenges,” he said.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Saturday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is re-laying the foundation stone of Barmer refinery as former Congress President Sonia Gandhi had done so in 2013.

Modi is scheduled to visit Barmer in Rajasthan on January 16 to lay the foundation stone of the Barmer refinery.

Gehlot said Modi was inaugurating the refinery again to draw the credit of bringing this entity in Rajasthan, which in true terms, was the Congress’ initiative.

Speaking to media persons here, Gehlot said he has already written to Modi raising the question as to why he is again laying the foundation stone of the Barmer refinery.

The letter mentioned Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the refinery on September 22, 2013.

He added that Modi’s proposed visit on January 16 for the foundation laying ceremony is unfortunate. “There shouldn’t be this new trend set for re-laying foundation stones as governments keep changing in a democratic country”.

Gehlot also accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of delaying many projects, including the refinery, which he said, was initiated under his tenure.

He has also requested the Election Commission to draw its attention to this issue. “The Prime Minister’s visit to lay the foundation stone when the code of conduct has already been implemented in the state in the wake of by-polls is violation of all set norms,” he added.

According to informed sources, HPCL and Rajasthan government, in a joint venture, has proposed to bring up the refinery cum petro-chemical complex on a vast spread land of 4,813 acre.

HPCL shares 74 per cent of share while Rajasthan government has 26 per cent of share. This refinery will be ready by 2021.

South Africa gained a crucial 77-run first innings lead after bowling India out for 209 in the post-tea session on day 2 of the opening Test at Newlands here on Saturday.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya (93) rekindled India’s hopes of a fightback with a classic counter-attacking half century but fell shy of seven runs to reach his second Test century.

Coming in at the fall of Ravichandran Ashwin when the Indians were tottering at 81/6, Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (25) not only steadied the ship but also reduced the deficit with a vital 99-run eighth wicket stand.

For the Proteas, pacers Vernon Philander (3/33) and Kagiso Rabada (3/34) shared six wickets while Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel contributed with two scalps each.

Brief scores:

South Africa 1st innings: 286 all out

India 1st innings: 209 allout in 73.4 overs (Hardik Pandya 93; Vernon Philander 3/33).

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said the three-and-a-half-year jail sentence to party supremo Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case will not lead to a split in the party.

The former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister also said an appeal will be filed in the Jharkhand High Court.

“There will be no trouble or any negative impact on the party. The RJD’s history has been that of struggle amid conspiracies against it. Laluji had to go to jail many times… but he came out every time. That time too, people said it (party) had split or predicted that it may split. Instead, it grew stronger,” Yadav, Lalu’s son, told the media.

Lalu Prasad, a former Chief Minister of Bihar, had support from across the country and he had indicated in a rally that there could be a conspiracy against him by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Yadav said.

“The Centre has misused the central agency (CBI),” Yadav, Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly, said.

He said the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leaders must understand their party had actually split, not the RJD.

“People are watching everything. Conspiracies are always hatched in order to suppress and scare Laluji. However, people gave a befitting reply every time,” he said.

He said the party had faith in the judiciary and they would get justice. “We are hopeful that Laluji will be among us very soon. We will try to address where we fell short. We will appeal in the High Court,” he said.

Lalu Prasad was on Saturday sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail in a fodder scam case. He was the Chief Minister of the undivided state from 1990 to 1997.

The special CBI court had on December 23 convicted Lalu Prasad and 15 others in the case relating to a multi-million-rupee scam.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founder member Kumar Vishwas has hit out at party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, saying that the party does not belong to “a coterie of 2-3 persons” but to lakhs of its workers.

In open defiance of the party leadership, Vishwas, who was appearing in Rajat Sharma’s show “Aap Ki Adalat”, telecast on Saturday night on India TV, said: “AAP does not belong to a coterie of two or three persons, it belongs to lakhs of workers waiting outside.

“Two or three persons may be speaking out against me, the common party worker may be addressing any leader as ‘ji’, but he addresses me as ‘Kumar bhaiya’, and this is my strength in the party”.

On January 3 when the AAP named veteran leader Sanjay Singh, businessman Sushil Gupta and chartered accountant Narain Dass Gupta as its debutants for the Rajya Sabha, Vishwas had expressed his disappointment over not being considered for the Upper House and claimed he was being “punished” for speaking the truth.

Poet-turned-politician Vishwas in the TV show listed out several instances in the recent past when he was sidelined by the party leadership.

“In Punjab, I had written poems against drug trafficking. I requested our leaders at least five to six times to allow me to campaign there, but I was not allowed to campaign in Punjab. I was told that the ‘fanatic movement’ in Punjab was unhappy with me.”

In Delhi, AAP did not lose MCD polls because of me, there were deficiencies in the party’s policies and strategy, he added.

The dissident AAP leader said he had opposed Kejriwal when he had demanded that the Narendra Modi government must produce evidence of the surgical strike against Pakistan.

“I told him (Kejriwal) it was a question of our troops’ morale, and he (Kejriwal) replied, Modi should go first, then everything will be okay. This was his outlook….

The AAP leader said the question was not of (being denied ticket to) Rajya Sabha but for the last seven months, he had been reduced to “a mere pawn”.

“I did say in the past that I am not in politics for posts or power… but I did not say while joining politics that the fruits of my seven years of struggle will be handed over to ‘Ajgar chhap’ (python-like) Guptaji (Sushil Gupta).”

Asked what was his fault for not being considered for Rajya Sabha, he replied with this Urdu couplet: “Mere lahze mein ji-huzoor na tha, Isse zyada mera kasoor na tha (my only fault was that I was never sycophantic).”

Vishwas admitted that he had once said, that out of the top three (in AAP), one became the Chief Minister, the other Deputy Chief Minister, and he (Vishwas) was left out.

Asked by Sharma why he, as “a younger brother”, did not speak to Kejriwal, Vishwas replied: “I tried, but could not talk. Yogendra (Yadav) was his elder brother, Anna Hazare was like his father, and I his younger brother. I still wish that he remains a leader, and let the party expand.”

On being asked why Arun Shourie, Raghuram Rajan, and Yashwant Sinha were approached for Rajya Sabha tickets by AAP, but they declined, Vishwas replied: “There was a time when big leaders lent us support saying we were part of a big battle.”

“We should understand why as many as 18 leaders refused this time to accept our party’s ticket. Raghuram Rajan is a great man, but when his PA conveyed that he does not want the ticket, it was an insult to our party. An insult to the toil of lakhs of party workers.

The Indian team arrived in South Africa full of confidence and the backing from stars of the previous era as well as pundits of the game.

In the past there were two worries for the Indians: One, not enough firepower to hustle the South African batsmen, and two, the technical ineptitude of the batsmen to stand up to pace.

The first day’s play in the new series has shown that the Indian pacemen are on track even though they failed to press home the advantage after Bhuvaneshwar Kumar removed the three top-order batsmen even before they could get their eye in.

All that the fast bowlers now need is to be consistent with their line and length. They would have realised what they did wrong and the bowling coach would have taken them to task for conceding cheap runs by way of far too many boundary balls.

In shuffling the fast bowlers, Virat Kohli forgot that he has a spinner, too, in the playing 11. It is not in hindsight that one brings Ravichandran Ashwin into the discussion after he took the last two wickets to prevent the South Africans from getting to a 300-plus total to feel psychologically a lot better.

When a team plays with four fast bowlers, it is possible to get tempted to use them in rotation in helpful seaming conditions. Of the four, young Hardika Pandya is still trying to make his position secure as an all-rounder and the other, Jasprit Bumrah, is making his debut with a reputation of overstepping the line at critical times.

When Bhuvneshwar, Mohammad Shami, Bumrah and Pandya had decent spells and all of them got wickets, you can find fault with the captain. Yet, it is perplexing to find Ashwin being used barely for seven overs after being ignored for a good two sessions.

If the Indian team management can take heart from the fact that it got South Africa out for 286 runs on a pitch where Faf Du Plessis decided to bat first when everyone thought the skipper winning the toss might prefer to bowl to use the lively conditions, what happened in the handful of overs the way their top-order batted may not have pleased it at all.

It was a startling start by India, if not all that surprising after seeing how the top-order of the home team fared against the new ball. They lost their three top-order batsmen for almost nothing, two of these, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, are proven stroke-makers and the third Murali Vijay is known for his monumental patience, and one who knows where the off-stump is.

The other batsman who can hold the innings is Cheteshwar Pujara and he saw through the first session on the second day, but the task was too much for the middle-order batsmen to stand up to the constant pressure of dealing with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada.

Only the devil-may-care Pandya freely played his shots to take the India total past the hundred-mark with the tail in support. He is doing exactly what A.B. de Villiers did when he came in with his team tottering at 12 for three.

De Villers showed the other batsmen that there is no devil in the pitch or in the bowling by cracking 17 runs, including four fours in one Bhuvneshwar over. Pandya showed similar belligerence by hitting fours freely.

Pandya’s knock of 93 is remarkably creditworthy as he was facing the four top pacemen of the world to bring the Indian team back in the Test to fight it out.

Now it is easy to have a Didn’t-I-Say-So look on some faces after the batting debacle, one look at the team compositions and their record says something different. Most of the players in the team have played in South Africa in the past and some even with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S Laxman. They did well to win a Test and came close to winning a series, too.

It is debatable whether Alan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini were superior to the present lot. The Indian batsmen have also done as well as their predecessors and the present lot of their fast bowlers are as good as Zaheer Khan and Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma, who is not playing in the New Lands Test this time.

The problem with a three-Test series is coming back losing the first Test. Seeing how the team bounced back on the last two tours, the players can keep their chins up.

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in a snow avalanche near Sadna top in Kupwara district, an official spokesperson said.

The government also announced a compensation of Rs 12,600 each to two other people who were injured condition in the accident, he said.

Ten people were killed and two were injured after a snow avalanche hit two vehicles in Kupwara yesterday.

Minister for Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation Reconstruction and Floriculture Javaid Mustafa Mir announced the compensation under the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for the victims’ families, the official said.

The minister expressed his deepest condolences with the bereaved families and assured them of every possible support from the state government, he added.

Mir also issued directions to provide better medical facilities to the injured, the spokesman said.

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine on Saturday became this season’s first WTA title winner, defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 at the Brisbane International tennis tournament.

This trophy was the 10th title for World No. 6 Svitolina in her professional career, after winning five titles in 2017, reports Efe.

The third-seeded Ukrainian needed 61 minutes to beat world No. 88 Sasnovich, .

Svitolina was a semi-finalist in Brisbane in 2017, when she lost to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, but the Ukrainian star improved her performance in this year’s edition.

On her way to the final, Svitolina, age 23, also defeated Carla Suarez of Spain, Ana Konjuh of Croatia, Johanna Konta of the United Kingdom and second-seeded Karolina Pliskova.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday criticised the madarsas in the state for their refusal to put up a portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside their premises, asking them to give up their “conservatism” on the issue.

“Installing the prime minister’s portrait in all government institutions and those being run on government grants has been an established practice. The madarsas should give up their conservatism on the issue,” he told reporters here.

“Madarsas are also educational institutions. They should not have any objection to installing a portrait of the prime minister. They should view the issue from the Indian point of view,” Rawat added.

The madarsas in the BJP-ruled state have refused to comply with a state government order, asking the state-run educational institutions to install a portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on their premises, on religious grounds.

“The madarsas in the state have not installed pictures of the prime minister because of religious beliefs as Islam prohibits installation of pictures of living beings inside mosques and madarsas,” Deputy Registrar of Uttarakhand Madarsa Board Akhlaq Ahmad had told PTI on Friday.

However, he had also said that the refusal to install the picture of the prime minister inside the madarsas should not be interpreted as their opposition to an individual.

“They are not opposed to any individual in particular. It is purely due to religious beliefs. Islam does not permit us to install pictures of living things or individuals, including those of religious leaders, inside the mosques or madarsas,” Ahmad had said.

The order was issued to all the government-run educational institutions soon after the Independence Day last year, asking them to install a portrait of Modi inside their premises and take a pledge to implement his vision of building a new India by 2022.

After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress party in Himachal Pradesh (HP) has picked up a younger face, Mukesh Agnihotri (55) to head Congress Legislature Party (CLP) with six-time former CM octogenarian, Virbhadra Singh also a member.

A former journalist, Agnihotri had switched to politics in 2003 and has won four Assembly elections in a row since then from Haroli segment in Una. He was Industries and Parliamentary Affairs minister in the previous Congress government.

“I will put in my best in the new role,” Agnihotri said.

Congress insiders said he got the support of Virbhadra Singh and majority MLAs, following which the party high command declared his name as the CLP leader.

It is for the first time that the CLP is headed by a leader from merged area. All as Congress CMs and CLP leaders have so far come from old HP.

Agnihtori will give a fresh look to the CLP with 21 MLAs to match young BJP Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur, 53, who was elevated to the top post after party’s CM face, Prem Kumar Dhumal, 73, lost the Assembly poll.

Even for Congress, the change of CLP leadership is seen as a generation and regional shift. The party has 21 MLAs in the Assembly of 68 members.