www.freepressjournal.in | twitter.com/fpjindia Reg. No. Mcs/048/2018-20; RNI No. 1541/1957 I M.p.c.s office Mumbai-400001 MARKETS MAY REMAIN VOLATILE IN HOLIDAY WEEK Pg 9 LESSON FROM BENGAL: POLL OUTSOURCING CAN BE COSTLY VARUN DHAWAN GETS HITCHED TO A STAR! Pg 18 280c. 180c. Sunrise: 07:14 am Sunset: 06:28 pm Vol. 64 No. 229 | MONDAY | JANUARY 25, 2021 | 15 Pages | EDITIONS: Mumbai*, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, E-Paper ON FOOT FOR A CAUSE 1,436 KM AWAY EDIT Pg 10 Over 15,000 farmers reach Mumbai from Nashik, 7 km through Kasara Ghat on foot SANJAY JOG / Mumbai Over 15,000 farmers affiliated to the All India Kisan Sabha and various other farmer organisations from 21 districts reached Azad Maidan on Sunday evening. A sea of farmers, which also comprised women and youths waving flags and carrying banners, meandered through the 7km Kasara Ghat connecting Nashik and Thane districts on foot, followed by hundreds of their vehicles. On the way to Mumbai, they were welcomed at the Kalyan-Bhiwandi crossroad, at Thane border and at Kannamwar Nagar, Vikhroli, before they reached Azad Maidan. The farmers had set off on Saturday covering the 180 , kilometres between Nashik and Mumbai on foot and by vehicle, stopping at Ghatandevi, Kasara, for the night. PARADE ALLOWED BUT WITH RIDERS They are protesting the Centre’s Farm Laws, 2020, and extending support to the agitating farmers who have been at Delhi borders for over two months now. These farmers will join the sit-in organised by the Samyukta Shetkari Kamgar Morcha beginning on Monday that will continue till Re, public Day Leaders from . the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi government, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and the AIKS national general secretary , Hannan Mollah, among others will address the rally The . state Congress unit, an ally of the MVA, has already extended its support to the protest. However, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will be unable to make it owing to prior engagements. CONTD. ON P13 Keen to soothe the frayed nerves on both sides, the Delhi Police held a press conference on Sunday to clarify that farmers can carry out a peaceful tractor parade on January 26. There are numerous riders, the chief among them being that the parade will be conducted after the Republic Day celebration concludes. Barricades and other security paraphernalia will be removed and the farmers can enter the national capital. Later, they will return to their designated points after covering a "respectable" distance. ‘‘We have given them around 170 kilometres of distance in three routes," explained a senior police official. A professional assessment of these routes has been already done. However, the bottom line is that the main RDay function will not be disrupted and the farmers’ procession will be peaceful. "We repeatedly told the Samyukt Kisan Morcha that there should be no disturbance as Republic Day is an event of national importance," Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence), Delhi Police, Dependra Pathak said. CONTD. ON P13 pinned it down to her "antiHindu" mindset. ‘‘If CM Mamata Banerjee can recite an Islamic prayer at a West Bengal government event, why does she have a problem being greeted with Jai Shree Ram? Appeasement? She disgraced Bengal and insulted Netaji’s legacy by her conduct at the event," the Bengal BJP tweeted. ‘‘Lord Ram is soul of the country Why does she get . angry with 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans? We fail to understand," pointed out International joint general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Surendra Jain. Wire agency PTI quoted Singh as telling reporters on Sunday "There is a defect in , the DNA of Mamata Banerjee, and she hails from the demoness culture [Mamata Banerjee ke DNA mein dosh hai, woh raakshashi sanskriti ki hain]. No demon can love Lord Ram. Mamata Banerjee is a dishonest and evil [shaitan] person. Her hatred for Lord Ram is natural." Meanwhile, PM Modi shared on Sunday a video on Twitter from the trip, thanking the state "for the overwhelming affection." FPJ NEWS SERVICE / Mumbai / New Delhi Mamata is in the pillory FPJ NEWS SERVICE/ Kolkata The knives are out for Mamata Banerjee with rightwing outfits going hammer and tongs at her for refusing to deliver a speech at the 'Parakram Diwas' celebration on Saturday after she was allegedly heckled with 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans. The BJP has questioned her "appeasement politics," the cornerstone of her policy in Bengal, reminding the chief minister of recitation of Islamic prayer at a state government event. The VHP leadership, in turn, has Fast News RAHUL ATTACKS KNICKERWALLAHS Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday raised the decibel level ahead of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu on Sunday. The former party president and sitting Lok Sabha MP took part in roadshows before addressing an election campaign event. At the meeting in Dharapuram, Gandhi took aim at PM Modi and the RSS. He said, "Knickerwallahs from Nagpur can never ever decide future of the state. Doesn't matter how many parades they have. Tamil Nadu's future will be decided by the youngsters of Tamil Nadu." "We will not allow Narendra Modi to destroy the foundation of India. He has also got another confusion- he thinks that just because he can blackmail the government of Tamil Nadu, he can control the people of Tamil Nadu. He does not understand that only the Tamil people can decide the future of Tamil Nadu," Rahul Gandhi went on to say. Killjoy UP adds to the cost of tipplers SRAWAN SHUKLA Lucknow It is indeed disheartening for tipplers. The killjoy Yogi Adityanath government has made it mandatory to obtain a license for stacking more than the prescribed limit of six litres of liquor in private bars at home. Political observers described it as a move akin to securing a license for possessing arms. If that were not dispiriting enough, tipplers will have to cough up more for Indian Made Foreign Liquor, as the state government has hiked the license fee by 7.5 per cent to offset the excise revenue losses incurred during lockdown. A bottle of 750 ML will be costlier by Rs 20 to 40, depending on the brand The new policy aims at mopping up Rs 34,500 crore from excise duty in 20212022, as against the expected revenue of 28,340 crores in the current financial year. Those having private bars at home and keen on hoarding more liquor than the prescribed limit for per-sonal consumption will have to obtain a license by shelling out Rs 12,000 annually and making a security deposit of Rs 51,000. At the same time, to encourage the intake of low-alcohol content beverages, excise duty on beer has been reduced under the new policy The government has also . given excise duty holiday for five years to those making wine within the state with locally-produced fruits. CONTD. ON P13 But that had not been always so. "When I was young, I was petrified of bouncers. To overcome my fear, I started negotiating chest-high balls during my practice sessions. I would practise the drive and began playing the pull shot with a straight bat as I matured. I also developed a shot where I move back a little to play the cut. Since I was scared of short deliveries, I always wanted to get away from the line of the ball to play the cut shot. These two to three shots were my favourite as a kid and now they have become a part of my repository ," Gill was quoted as saying by kkr.in. CONTD. ON P13 Cosmologist to preside over Marathi meet SANJAY JOG Mumbai Renowned astrophysicist and prolific writer Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, Professor Emeritus, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, was unanimously chosen as the president of the 94th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sammelan on Sunday The literary , summit will be held in Nashik from March 26 to 28. This is the first time in the history of the event that a scientist-writer will be presiding over the proceedings. The Padma Vibhushan awardee’s name was finalised on Sunday after a three-hour , long meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Mahamandal (All India Marathi Literary Board). In all, nine literary personalities including Bharat Sasane, Jayant Narlikar, Ramchandra Dekhane, Janardan Waghmare, Tara Bhawalkar, Anil Avchat, Ravindra Shobhane, Manohar Shahane and Ganesh Devi were in the fray for the President’s post. Reacting to his appointment, Narlikar said ‘‘Even though the use of technology has increased, society still lacks a scientific approach. CONTD. ON P13 When Gill was petrified of bouncers LAST WORD S New Delhi hubman Gill's debut Test series Down Under was a dream start. It seemed that he was having a gala time prancing around on the jerky pitches of Australia, fending off the lethal bouncers of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. Regulate your mind. Do not worry excessively about the future. If you have done everything that has to be done, the future will take care of itself. Master Choa Kok Sui Finally, the end of the Cold War? Ladakh standoff: Indian and Chinese armies hold over 11-hour-long military talks AGENCIES / New Delhi After a gap of over two-andhalf months, India and China on Sunday held the ninth round of military talks specifically focusing on ways to move forward on the longnegotiated disengagement process in eastern Ladakh as thousands of their troops remained deployed at friction points under freezing conditions. The Corps Commander- Faction expels Nepal PM Oli from the party Kathmandu The ruling Nepal Communist Party's faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda' on Sunday expelled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli from the party amid increasing politi, cal unrest following his decision to dissolve the lower house of Parliament without the party’s consent. Since then, discord and division have simmered inside the Nepal Communist Party , which has not split formally but virtually fallen apart. Since then, the Nepal Communist Party is acting like two parties -- one headed by Oli himself and the other led by former Prime Ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda and Madhav Kumar Nepal. CONTD. ON P13 level meeting began at around 10 am at the Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and was continuing till after 9 pm, sources said. People familiar with the negotiations said India insisted the onus is on China to carry forward the process of disengagement and de-escalation at the friction points in the region. CONTD. ON P13 Man acquitted as rape victim's statement was ‘substandard’ NARSI BENWAL Mumbai The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court recently acquitted a man of rape charges since the victim, a minor, in her testimony did , not specify how she and the accused found privacy and how the relatives of the accused permitted them to sleep together. The HC, while noting that the statements of the girl did not inspire confidence, considered the testimony of the man, who claimed that the girl told him she was a major before the duo had intercourse. A bench of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala was dealing with an appeal filed by the 22-year-old accused, a truck driver, who was convicted for raping the minor, a 16-year- old girl, on the pretext of marriage. According to the prosecution, the girl and the accused had a love affair and in October 2017, the girl left her parents' house and went to Jaipur to marry the accused. While in Jaipur, the accused took the girl to the homes of three of his maternal relatives, and at these locations he had sex with her by promising marriage, the girl alleged. However, the Nagpur police, on a complaint from the girl’s family brought the cou, ple back to Maharashtra. The medical report stated that there wasn’t any recent sexual intercourse but she was habituated to it. Since the girl's age was shown to be 16-and-a-half years, the accused was booked under the stringent POCSO law and was subsequently convicted by a lower court under provisions of raping a minor and was sentenced to 10 years of jail. CONTD. ON P13