AV 12th February 2022

FIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

Your ambition..

Our expertise e.

Legal advice you can trustt Pragnesh P gnesh h hwadia Modhwadia Mo

PM Modi unveils Statue of Equality in Hyderabad

Managing Partner

R

SEE PAGE - 22

12 - 18 FEBRUARY 2022

5 Big questions about your Covid-19 booster jab answered

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

15

14 Karenjeet Kaur: The first British Sikh female to represent Great Britain in powerlifting

Meet the Super Nani, Bimla Devi

LEVELLING UP, REALLY?

+44 (0) 20 0 8951 6989 enquiries@axiomdwfm.com nquiries@axiomdwfm.com axiomdwfm.com

VOL 50 - ISSUE 40

20 After Abu Dhabi, Bahrain allots land to construct Hindu temple

Lata Mangeshkar bids adieu

A racism report says 75.6% of doctors surveyed have experienced racism at least once in the last two years, while the government’s ‘Levelling Up’ white paper promises equal opportunities. Both contradict each other.

Lata Mangeshkar, India's nightingale whose countless melodies are fused with the country’s postindependence narrative, died following prolonged illness on Sunday morning. She was 92. Lata was admitted to Breach Candy hospital on January 8 and spent nearly a month in the ICU, battling Covid-19, pneumonia and age-related problems.

She is survived by sisters, playback singers Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Khadikar; brother, music director Pandit Hridayanath; nephews and nieces; ardent admirers - and a treasure trove of songs that have become part of the collective visual and aural memory.

Continued on page 22

Shefali Saxena The British Medical Association’s Racism in Medicine Survey highlights the grim fact that at least 75% of ethnic minority doctors experienced racism more than once in the last two years, while 17.4% said they regularly faced racism at work.

Ironically, the ‘Levelling Up’ white paper by the UK government talks about fairness and equality at the same time as the racism report has gone

viral. The government’s white paper on Levelling Up the UK says that the UK has a “National Health Service which guarantees care for every citizen”. It further adds that levelling up is a mission to challenge, and change, that unfairness. Levelling up means giving everyone the opportunity to flourish. The paper cites the UK as an “unparalleled success story – a multicultural, multi-national, multi-ethnic state with the world’s best broadcaster”.

Continued on page 6

Special tribute on P3 and 28

Rise in energy bills: Knock-out effect on hospitality sector Ofgem is the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets has said in a report that the energy price cap will increase from 1 April for approximately 22 million customers. Those on default tariffs paying by direct debit will see an increase of £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 per year (difference due to rounding).

Prepayment customers will see an increase of £708 from £1,309 to £2,017.

Continued on page 17

02

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

with Keith Vaz

Paediatrician asks parents not to doubt their parenting

SULEMAN NAGDI MBE Volunteer and Community Consultant Suleman is married with 3 children and 7 grandchildren. He was born in Africa and arrived in the UK aged 19. He worked in the textiles Industry.

Suleman is semi-retired and volunteers as a Community Consultant working on matters that have significance on communities. He is non-sectarian in approach and is sensitive to the rules of natural justice.

Suleman is a pioneer and his style has galvanized unity and togetherness in individuals and communities.

1) Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?

Leicester is a city I have adopted as home. I have lived and worked in Leicester for 45 years, my children and grandchildren are born in Leicester this city has given me a great opportunity both to be a volunteer and be part of the civic life of this city.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

My personal relates to my family and seeing that my children have made their way in this world and have families of their own. The arrival of my grandchildren has added great joy in my life. On a professional base, I am very proud of my charitable work, in particular the setting up of (MBCOL), a bereavement charity.

3) What inspires you?

The courage, sympathy and resilience that I see in my friends and those that support my struggles, include my family. My strong faith and the humanity that I see on others around me. One of the core values is that we work collectively to create positive change for all of society.

4) What has been biggest obstacle in your career?

One of the biggest obstacles was the disruption to my educational achievements by reason of external pressures. I had the ambition to study Law and to work in the legal profession. The lack of academic credentials was always an obstacle.

5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

The love and support from my wife, children, siblings and close friends.

Relocation as an immigrant and basic sur-

vival influenced my career path; I had seen poverty as a child, which impacted me so I always wanted to serve humanity in every capacity I could.

6) What is the best aspect about your current role?

To be available for those that need help and to share my humanity with others.

Particularly those who are grieving, to articulate their needs especially when they were faced with the death of loved ones and to help support them during their hour of need.

7) And the worst?

I do not think I have managed to convince more people to share my passion for voluntary work.

8) What are your long-term goals?

To go aboard and help those who do not have access to education, is preferable in a country that is warmer.

9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?

I believe that there is a great need for equity in our policies, we all need to be treated regardless of our status and wealth.

It is only through fairness and the rules of natural justice that I mentioned earlier that we can deliver our national interest.

10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why.

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, I find her to be a unique leader who has integrity, humility and empathy this was demonstrated by her during the horrific terror attack in New Zealand. Can learn a lot from her.

NHS inadequate urgent care leading to deaths of patients During the first year of the pandemic, 4,000 extra deaths took place in hospitals in England due to inadequate care, according to the research.

In December 2020, June Roche's husband Jake went through a lot of pain for nine hours before transferring him to a cardiology ward after suffering a heart attack. However, he died 36

hours later.

"I know they can’t save everybody and I know that he may have died anyway.

But I just feel that on that Friday night he did not need to sit there for nine hours. They needed to make him comfortable. But it wasn’t the doctors making him sit there. It was the system. They were overwhelmed. They couldn’t do

FINANCIAL A SERVICES MORTGAGES Residential Buy to Let Remortgages

PROTECTION Life Insurance Critical Illness Income Protection

Please conta act:

Dinesh S Shonchhatra Mortgage Ad dviser

Call: 020 8424 C 4 8686 / 07956 810647 77 High Street, Wealdston ne, Harrow, HA3 5DQ mortgage@majorestate.co om ~ majorestate.com

anything. They couldn’t get around to people", Roche said.

She added that there was only one doctor on shift that evening.

A year on, despite the vaccinations, the situation is still the same owing to staff absences and a shortage of workers.

A report found out that in November, the patients were dying in the back of ambulances and up to 160,000 people were left unattended and were stuck outside hospitals.

Dr Mona Amin, a board-certified paediatrician, and mother of a two-year-old son has asked parents not to pressurize themselves about parenting amid the pandemic. She added parents should not take the pressure of doing everything perfectly.

Dr Amin frequently shares parenting tips and information on social media by the username @PedsDocTalk.

Last week, she shared a post on her Instagram profile, highlighting the toll the

pandemic has had on parents and urged her followers to loom after their own well being.

In the post, she has mentioned how parents have felt helpless and are in desperate need of a break. She also said that she is "more concerned

about us than our kids".

“We have had to carry an enormous weight on our shoulders for two years. The lack of stable childcare help, the lack of in-person community, handling work-life balance, the constant mental gymnastics we have to do about risk reduction and the desire to keep our children and family healthy and safe, and the realisation that we can’t always rely on others to do their part to keep our community and children safe, she added.

Men who sexually abused kid behind bars Hannan Ullah (57) of Longbridge Road, Barking and Mohammed Shahabir Alom (62) of Ashdown Walk, Isle of Dogs were sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on January 28 for repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy in a Tower Hamlets shop.

The two abused the boy on four separate occasions between January 15 and February 2 in 2018. The shop where the abuse took place has been shut down. Det Con Fatima Ahmad, the

investigating officer from the Met's Central East basic command unit, said: "These two men prayed on an innocent young boy to fulfil their sexual gratification. I would like to praise the bravery of the victim who came forward and gave evidence which has resulted in putting them behind bars."

The court heard how the duo befriended the victim then went on to abuse him.

The offences occurred at the shop in the Westferry area of Tower Hamlets - some-

times in a storage room.

After the final offence, the victim told his mother and the matter was reported to the police. Both of them have received indefinite restraining orders prohibiting them from directly or indirectly contacting the victim.

Former Peer jailed for sexually assaulting children 64-year-old Nazir Ahmed, former Lord Ahmed of Rotherham until he resigned in 2020, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two children 40 years ago.

He has been jailed for five years and six months for attempting to rape a child.

At the start of January, Nazir Ahmed was found guilty of attempting to rape a young girl in the 1970s when he was a teenager.

Along with this, he is also found guilty of the historic offence of buggery

against a boy under 11, also in the early 1970s.

Throughout his career, Ahmed was both a Labour and non-affiliated peer.

British-Pakistani Lord Nazir Ahmed found guilty of child sex offences. He has been a huge supporter of Khalistani terror groups and has had an anti-Indian government

sentiment.

Tom Little QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "I have evidence against that paedophile."

Initially, Ahmed had denied all the charges was until he was found guilty of attempting rape and buggery.

Ahmed's two older brothers Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, faced charges of indecent assault to the same boy that Ahmed abused, but both these men were deemed unfit to stand trial.

Unvaccinated mum barred from seeing her sick son A mum from Leicester claimed that she was prevented from seeing her sick baby son in intensive care with Covid-19 because she was isn't vaccinated. The mother then did a Facebook live in tears and seeking for help while walking down some stairs at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

The video has been picked up on Twitter

and has been seen almost 181,000 times has prompted angry comments from people.

Meanwhile, Leicester Royal Infirmary told LeicestershireLive that they sympathise with the family, but they need to follow guidelines to ensure the safety of patients.

Speaking in the video, she said: "Please can somebody help me? Basically, I wouldn't let them Covid swab [my son] but they took some secretions off his chest and sent them off for analysis, and now he's tested positive for ing conditions, YOFC Ltd has gone Covid. into administration.

"They didn't let me on the ‘Along with my team, I have tried ward at all unless I did a lateral everything to keep the pub going. flow test, so I provided a lateral However, the past two years have flow test so I could see my son. But been unprecedented for the hospitali- now, because I'm not vaccinated, ty industry, and have defeated all of us they're not letting me see my baby. who have been trying our hardest to "I need some advice, because ensure this multi-award-winning pub surely this isn't normal, they can't could continue trading into the do that. He's seven months old future.’ and in intensive care and now The pub is expected to reopen they've kicked me out of the hospiunder new management. tal and I can't be with my baby."

Britain's oldest pub to close after 1,229 years Britain's oldest pub Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans, Hertfordshire to close after 1229 years. This pub was established in 793AD and has survived wars, plagues and financial crises.

However, Covid hit the business.

Landlord Christo Tofalli announced the sad news on Facebook saying he is feeling 'heartbroken'.

Writing on Facebook, he said: ’It is with great sadness that I have to announce that today, after a sustained period of extremely challenging trad-

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

03

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

Are we really friends?

A de-ja-vu. The protest and violence that Keir Starmar witnessed on Monday, after unapologetic Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile remark, was almost a repeat of the scene from Capitol Building in Washington DC in January 2021, when Donald Trump’s supporters vandalised the building and terrorised the city.

Rishi Sunak has been voted as the Tory party’s next choice for Prime Minister, with Asian voters looking forward to welcoming the country’s first-ever Indian-origin Prime Minister. While it is praiseworthy that today’s Cabinet has so many ethnic minorities, it does not reflect in the same way in wider politics. Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman or Alok Sharma, do not need their race to win a well-deserved seat. And the same race card should not be used for patronising either. Race is not a prized possession, neither it is a benchmark of one’s success in the UK. It is a natural, cultural heritage, of one’s roots, a sense of belonging that adds to their individual accomplishments and legacy.

Standing at the doorstep of a huge transition, with Brexit insecurities mounting, a country struggling with energy and living costs, poverty, racism, healthcare system almost at a breaking point, it is a shame how we continue to embarrass ourselves in the international political arena.

The government’s mini reshuffle is a pathetic and enraging attempt to move focus from national interest. Then comes actions against one of Britain’s greatest allies. An antiIndia and anti-Modi letter to PM Johnson allegedly circulated

by a Tory peer in the House of Lords on 1 February requesting for support and signatures, followed by a debate remembering 20 years of Godhra riot on Wednesday 9 February, under labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s watch are some shameful stunts.

India’s politics, their elected Prime Minister, internal conflicts, history- are not for Britain’s Parliamentarians to discuss. Neither it is anyone’s business to instigate communal disharmony. With Queen’s Jubilee, there is so much celebration to look forward to. But here we are on Queen’s 70th year of succession to the throne, making a spectacle of ourselves.

But then Queen’s announcement did not bring any less cross-continental drama! With the promise of the Koh-i-noor shining on Duchess of Cornwall’s crown, the anti-colonial uprising is strong. As journalist and author Anita Anand in an article in The Daily Telegraph wrote, “The international press was largely positive after the news. Charles paid tribute to his “darling wife” the Duchess of Cornwall for her “steadfast support”. Then, sometime during the night, the mood in India changed. Someone must have asked what crown she would be wearing when she eventually became queen. It would, it transpired, be the Queen Mother’s crown, made by Garrard & Co for the 1937 coronation of George VI. "The crown is genuinely stunning, featuring 2,800 diamonds. The largest, the 105 carat Koh-i-Noor, is more of a diplomatic grenade than a jewel. Translated from the Persian the word Koh-i-Noor means “Mountain of Light” – ironic since its history is infused with such darkness.”

India-US long term foreign policy in jeopardy Two months ago, US intelligence reported Russia’s plans to position troops along Ukraine’s border, fanning the fire to an age-old conflict that has not only brought years of destructions but also unfathomable poverty to a country that could have been otherwise prosperous.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, neither care about EU nor NATO, so US as self-elected leader, stepped up as a negotiator. Britain followed suit, with trepidation, which was obvious when Russian flights appeared on Scottish border, startling the RAF. But in all this fiasco, 3000 miles away from RussiaUkraine tension New Delhi on 6 December welcomed President Putin. In a private meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he signed a historic defence cooperation agreement, bilateral agreements and hosted inaugural 2+2 dialogues. Just two months later, the political scene in Eastern Europe is volatile, with soldiers from US and UK arrive to Romania, Poland and Germany to hold the fort. US is trying all possible methods to stagger de-escalation, but Europe’s divided politics has deterred the effort. French President Macron’s separate bilateral talks with Russia shows how Europe is divided on what US believes to be a “unilateral voice of reasoning”.

We all know what happened to Afghanistan in a conflict between US and Russia. Talibans were brought in power by US to combat Russia. Years later, US lost hundreds of innocent citizens in a terrorist attack on 9/11, followed by Britain on 7/7.

In 2021, US removed its NATO troops from Afghanistan destroying its promised society, civil liberty and human rights, leaving everything in the hands of a new age fascism.

No war is ever welcome anywhere. When the problem is between two nations, it is natural to look for a camaraderie.

But has anyone asked if the Eastern Europe, that has battled with economic oppression and destruction for years through two world wars and a cold war, ready to embrace the decision made by US on their behalf?

It is natural that US and Russia will now wait for India to choose sides. Though Joe Biden has been reportedly not a big fan of PM Narendra Modi, the country is well aware of the friendship it needs to forge and not an over-militarised preparation for warfare in Indian Ocean.

As South Asian Voices write, Despite India’s hesitancy to take an active role in de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, Russian invasion of Ukraine will be disastrous for India’s long term foreign policy. The subsequent political isolation for Russia in international arena, will make it more dependent on China. It is already unfolding as Russia is repeatedly rejecting US sanctions, but this will also endanger New Delhi, as the SinoIndian border conflict rises, especially if Russia reduces arms sales in India.

A full-fledged war will will definitely lead to domino effect that will break the UK-India ties. While the power politics is shifting its balance, no one wants US and UK to destabilise nations that have no real part to play in their age old enmity with Russia.

Lata Mangeshkar - the phenomenon When a newly-independent India, still coming to terms with the bloodbath of the partition, heard Lata Mangeshkar sing' Yun hi muskuraye ja, aansu piye ja… uthaye ja unke sitam' from the Nargis Dutt-Raj Kapoor-Dilip Kumar-starrer 'Andaz' (1949), it seemed like a salve for broken hearts. When the song reached the other side of the border, the Naushad composition had the same effect - after all, the separation pangs were the same on either side. The song turned a 20year-old Lata, a newcomer from Kolhapur, into a superstar and the gold standard of genius. “Kambakhat, galti se bhi besuri nahi hoti,” Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali had once said of her. Indeed, so pervasive was Lata's influence that generations have grown up listening to her, singing her songs, and, in the case of women musicians, aspiring to be like her. If Hindi films have been the life of India’s masses, the soundtrack to their lives has been its music. The audience formed an emotional connection with the singers: you were either a Rafi believer or a Kishore Kumar acolyte. But when it came to Lata Mangeshkar, she was the undisputed queen, who could sing everything from bhajans such as 'Allah tero naam' (Hum Dono, 1961, composed by Jaidev and penned by Sahir Ludhianvi) to love songs such as 'Ye zindagi usi ki hai' (Anarkali, 1953) or nostalgic numbers such as 'Mere saaya saath hoga' (Mera Saaya, 1966).

Through several decades, Lata Mangeshkar sang for the righteous and chaste Indian woman on-screen. Lata had such charisma that filmmakers and composers realised very early on that having her in a project signalled credibility and impeccable standards. Much before a film was shot, the composer, lyricist and singers were signed on for the project. This meant that several films that did badly at the box office had outstanding music helmed by Lata, that reached listeners through radio, a ubiquitous mode of entertainment in those early days after Independence. In fact, it was radio that took her voice to different parts of the country and made her synonymous with Hindi playback singing. Lata never took talent for granted. She would spend time on her rehearsals, practise

her diction and ensure immaculate renditions. Once, when superstar Dilip Kumar told her to improve her diction, she asked a family friend, an imam, to come and teach her to read and write Urdu. She sang in a range of Indian languages from Bengali to Marathi - her mother tongue - to Punjabi. If those in Punjab sang alongside her rendition of Baba Bulleh Shah’s Heer, those in Maharashtra swayed to the tune of her 'Saanwre rang rachi' and her 'Na jeyo na' was a staple at every Durga Puja function in West Bengal. She was a unifying factor, who brought the nation together as a repository of its culture, entertainment and, of course, music.

One of the lesser-known facts about Lata is that she transformed the way Indian music concerts were perceived in the West. Her first performance outside of India was at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall in 1974. Until then, film music concerts were song-and-dance affairs held in community halls and colleges and rarely taken seriously. Lata made a demand that was inconceivable back then - she asked to sing in mainstream halls only. This was an honour that until then bestowed upon classical musicians as a result of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s collaborations and performances in the West. But it was an honour afforded to her.

Lata’s voice encapsulated sweetness, purity and simplicity – traits matching the mood and predilections of the times when she rose to prominence. It didn’t convey power and muscle. Much like her persona, her voice embodied quiet strength and resolve. No surprise, she fought and succeeded in the male-dominated film industry on her own terms. The singer also represented, like film director Satyajit Ray and actor Dilip Kumar, an unwavering dedication towards attaining excellence. Uncompromising work ethic, devotion to meticulousness and unmatched talent combined to ensure that even the most demanding of songs was perfected and delivered with care. For decades, every aspiring singer wanted to sing like her; aptly reflected in the number of clones that subsequently emerged. Lata was a cultural icon like few others were or will be and a global ambassador for India.

Thought for the week Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They’re in each other all along. – Rumi

Political Sketchbook Alpesh Patel

You’re not my Hindu I generally like social media. I post a lot on it, especially TikTok. Instagram is a bit pointless to me with its pictures of vacations and food and clothes. Twitter I post on but get little engagement. LinkedIn I love.

So when this past week I was told by a normally intelligent person that Shah Rukh Khan had spat on the ashes of the beloved Lataji, I knew instantly what the person was talking about.

I’d seen a bunch of posts on social media already. All nonsense because even a child with an IQ of 10 would know that firstly no one would do such a thing let alone someone who obviously respects the deceased and moreover another ounce of thought would allow you to judge it must be a Muslim tradition to blow on ashes.

Now I don’t need to have Mensa level IQ to come to that conclusion. You do not need the wisdom of Solomon either.

There are few things on social media which can so easily show bias, hatred. This was a prime example. Others who came to the same conclusion as me labelled those calling it spitting as ‘bhakts’, Modi-fans; Hindu fanatics.

They let themselves down and through their thoughts let down Hindus everywhere for they revealed a knee-jerk hate at worse and bias at best.

Oh sure, they didn’t go out and murder someone. So let’s keep level headed in a way they were not. What they did is damage the reputation of that which they seek to protect the most. That is the characteristic of a fanatic.

They play into the hands of those they dislike – in this case liberal secularists who doubtless they dislike, and harm the reputation of what they claim to love the most.

When Christians were persecuted, some would have a code word to prove their faith. It was the word ‘Shibboleth’ because it was considered one which only those of the faith would be able to get their tongue around.

The viral video of Shah Rukh Khan is a shibboleth of someone having Hindu beliefs and someone claiming to but damaging the faith.

What has Hindu got to do with it? What has Shah Rukh’s faith got to do with it? No one mentioned it but you Alpesh, you are the biased one?

Well, let me put it this way, at University I was once shown the electoral poster of a far right US candidate standing in Alabama with a picture of a white hand giving food to a black boy. I said to my tutor, what makes you think that is meant to be racist or provocative.

He looked at me in incredulity. He reminded me of my work experience including visits to CIA and the concept of ‘plausible deniability’ – do something wrong as long as you have some plausible believable way of denying it. This was the plausible deniability game. But we’re not stupid.

Anyone claiming that the video of Shah Rukh Khan paying his respects to Lataji was disrespectful fails the Shibboleth test of being Hindu. They are claiming plausible deniability of their true underlying motivations.

Yes, but Alpesh, what about all the Hindus murdered and persecuted for decades and today? To that I say, ‘a girl was raped in India and her whole village egged on the perpetrators. Why don’t you go and solve that problem first.

Or are you too busy in WhatsApp and Google?’

Judgement is the most valuable asset any person can possess. Develop it, I want you to be my kind of Hindu.

Alpesh Patel, Chairman City Hindus Network and The India League

Asian Voice is published by

Asian Business Publications Ltd Units 207-208, Harrow Business Centre, 429-433 Pinner Road, North Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 4HN Tel: 020 7749 4080 • Fax: 020 7749 4081 Email: aveditorial@abplgroup.com Website: www.abplgroup.com Editor: CB Patel INDIA OFFICE

Bureau Chief: Nilesh Parmar (BPO) AB Publication (India) Pvt. Ltd. 207 Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad380 015. Tel: +91 79 2646 5960 Email: gs_ahd@abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications

04

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Woman's bank account frozen amidst lip filling job Hareem Shah claims she had to leave her lip-filled appointment with only half of her mouth plumped as Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency froze her bank accounts. She said Pakistani authorities were investigating her when she posted a video of herself with two big stacks of cash.

On January 12, they started their inquiries suspecting she may have been laundering money.

She told India Today, "I am in the UK right now.

Today I went to the doctor to get my lip filler done. The doctor had just inserted a filler on one side of my lip when I received a call and I got to know that Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has frozen my bank

accounts.’

In her defence of having cash with her, she said she had drawn a heavy amount of money to spend in the UK. Meanwhile, Ms Shag has filed a petition against the FIA asking that any money laundering hearing be postponed to March 8, as her lawyers explained that the vlogger was in the UK and will not be able to attend the hearing was set on January 19.

Chancellor insists Covid cash fraudsters will be chased Rishi Sunak has insisted a task force is "going after" everyone suspected of making bogus Covid cash claims.

He said the government has spent £100million last March to create a 1,200strong taxpayer protection task force to bring back the Covid cash.

Rishi Sunak has insisted that every Covid cash fraudster will be chased while denying billions of fraudu-

lent claims. The chancellor said that there have been 13 arrests over applications for business bounce-backfunds.

The Treasury is being accused by the Labours for failing to protect taxpayers' cash.

Treasury minister Lord Agnew's resignation sparked the row.

Speaking before a Commons debate secured by

Labour, Mr Sunak said: “Nothing has been written off in that regard. We are going after each and every person who we suspect of defrauding the taxpayer.”

He added: “The original estimate of fraud, and it was an estimate independently provided of £4.9billion, has actually already been revised down by a third since it was first published, thanks to the actions that we are taking.”

BBC worker allegedly raped BBC worker was allegedly raped during the production of a new cooking show. The incident reportedly happened in London in September 2021. City of London police is now investigating the alleged attack.

A source informed The Sun that the incident has made crew nervous who are working on the programme, 'Hungry For It'.

A statement released by the City of London Police said: “On Sunday 19

September 2021, City of London Police was contacted by another police force, which had received a late report of a rape that took place in September 2021.

The evidence in the case is currently being reviewed and the female victim has been supported by specifically-trained officers.”

A BBC Studios statement said: “BBC Studios has robust processes in place to ensure that any of our staff or freelancers who may have

been the victim of a crime are given all the appropriate support needed and that the matter is handled with the utmost seriousness and care.”

In the new show, amateur chefs will pit against each other while competing for challenges and will be able to seek help from industry stalwarts as well.

Stacey Dooley, who is known for her documentaries will be presenting the show.

Asian owner’s pharma company named in drug pricing fraud collusion An investigation by The Times in 2016 had exposed how drug companies exploited a loophole in NHS rules to impose large price increases.

The price paid by the NHS for prochlorperazine 3mg dissolvable tablets rose by 700 per cent, from £6.49 a packet to more than £51, between December 2013 and December 2017, costing the NHS an extra £5 million a year.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

recently ruled that several pharmaceutical companies broke the law by fixing the market and agreeing not to produce a rival version of the drug, which can be prescribed to chemotherapy patients.

CMA reported that Focus Pharma came into agreement with Lexon and Medreich to stay out of the market in exchange for a share of the profits.

Lexon is a Gujarati family-owned business and inde-

pendent wholesaler. One of their Directors, Nitin Sodha, is the former chair of the NPA. He later resigned from his post when Lexon was charged with NHS price-fixing.

A report in The Times stated that drug companies Lexon and Medreich were fined £7.3 million and £4.6 million respectively. Fines of £260 million and £100 million were imposed last year over price rises for two other drugs.

Five fraudsters arrested in £700K courier fraud scam Five fraudsters Fawaz Miah, 26, Fras Abdulkarim, 20, Abdul Olayinka, 19, Noor Sharif, 20, and Sahil Zaman, 22, have been sentenced to jail for a period of 21 years for targeting vulnerable people across the North East and stealing their life savings.

Between 2018-2019, the men posed as police officers to carry out their scam by taking over £700,000 in total - with one victim losing over £450,000.

Known as Courier Fraud, these criminals claimed to be police officers investigating fraudulent activity on victims' bank accounts.

The victims were then asked to withdraw large amounts of cash which was then collected by the fraudsters.

The scam was unearthed by the officers from the North East Regional Special Operations Unit (NERSOU) with the support of other forces and agencies, which led to the arrest of five men.

Detective Constable Gillian Coulson, the officer who ran the investigation, said: “This is a cruel crime in which criminals target the most vulnerable members of our community and steal their life savings. We encourage people to look out for vulnerable family members and friends and to challenge anyone on the phone asking for money or valuables."

The police have also urged people who might have been a victim of courier fraud to please contact them on 101 or to call Action Fraud immediately on 0300 123 2040.

Asylum seekers will be denied free access to medication The Home Office has sent a letter to all asylum seekers stating that free access to nonbasic items like toiletries and medication by the UK government will be denied to asylum seekers. The measures will come into to effect on 11 February.

The Home Office revealed the government is spending £4.7 million a day on asylum seekers in hotels – an estimated £127 per person.

The letter states the asylum seekers will receive main meals but will no longer receive “complimentary snacks, toiletries (aside from basic toiletries) or over the counter medication”.

Faiz Mohammad Seddeqi, a former guard at the British Embassy in Kabul, who has been staying in a hotel for almost six months after being evacuated to the UK from Afghanistan in August with his wife and son, said, "I’m not very satisfied at all living at this hotel, the hotel is not very clean, firstly… secondly, the food they are giving us is not good."

The Home Office told the Home Affairs Committee there are currently 25,000 asylum seekers and 12,000 Afghan refugees in hotels, a total of 37,000.

Sadiq Khan ‘could shut’ London Tube and bridges Sadiq Khan "could shut" London's tube network and a number of bridges for days as the black hole in Transport for London’s (TfL) finances have reached £1.5billion.

TfL finances have suffered a severe blow by the drastic fall in revenue raised by fares during the pandemic.

Board papers have revealed that plans to introduce a road tax, raise council tax and extend the congestion charge zone will not be enough to balance TfL books.

Along with this, the programme to avoid road deaths will be put on hold, said the officials at the transport

authority.

It is believed that to prevent London Underground and the capital’s buses from grinding to a halt, Mr Khan, 51, who is also the chairman of TfL, had to rely on a number of bailouts from Westminster.

Gareth Bacon, Conservative MP for

Orpington, told The Telegraph: "The Government will cover the cost of coronavirus, but Sadiq Khan needs to come up with a plan to pay for London's public transport in the long term. Undoubtedly, his decision to freeze fares, which lost TfL at least £640m, has made this task far harder.

in brief RISHI SUNAK DELIBERATELY BLOCKING NHS RECOVERY PLAN Matthew Taylor, the head of the NHS Confederation said Rishi Sunak is delaying the NHS recovery plan because he believes Boris Johnson's government is "dying". He made a statement when "elective recovery plan" which was due to be unveiled by the prime minister and the health secretary was suddenly shelved. “Increasingly getting the sense that Johnson now faces the same (but more intense and short term) challenge TB had in his third term,” the NHS Confederation chief executive tweeted. “Namely that HMT [Her Majesty’s Treasury] is loath to agree to any No 10 plans involving money as the ChX [chancellor] sees these as opportunistic and wasted on a dying administration.”

Meanwhile, Treasury sources said Mr Sunak was unwilling to sign off on the multi-billion pound NHS recovery plan because its targets are ill-conceived.

DOCTOR JAILED FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING MALE PATIENTS 39-year-old Tayyab Shah who worked at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham has been jailed for four and a half years for sexually assaulting two male patients. The attacks were carried out in September 2020. Under the pretext of medical examinations, Shah touched the men's genitalia, the court heard. A married father of two was found guilty of five counts of sexual assault after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Keith Girling, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said, "Our thoughts are with his victims and their families, and I am so incredibly sorry that they were taken advantage of when they were so vulnerable."

CAMPAIGN AGAINST DANGERS OF USING MOBILE WHILE DRIVING KICKSTARTS A national campaign aiming at raising awareness of the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving kick-started on February 7. The campaign is supported by Hampshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police’s Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit. This will run until February 27. As per the research, alongside drink and drug driving, speeding and not wearing a seatbelt, using a mobile phone can increase the chances of getting injured or even killed if involved in a road traffic collision.

AMPUTEE TO WALK THE 6,500-MILE COASTLINE Mark Pattenden, 59, who lost the lower part of his leg more than 20 years ago is aiming to set a record by walking solo with his prosthetic leg around the UK coast in seven months. On February 5, he started his walk from Bournemouth pier. He is aiming to raise £40,000 for the Arctic One Foundation, a charity, and £10,000 for new sports prosthetics for another athlete. He is planning to walk 249 daily marathons while pulling 60kg of equipment, including the tent he will sleep in. Mr Pattenden said: "The challenge is really both physical and mental - and it's about preparing yourself for a journey that's going to go on day in and day out for eight months."

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

05

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH UK GOVERNMENT

BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR COVID-19 BOOSTER JAB ANSWERED Many of us who have already had our Covid-19 vaccinations have now been offered additional booster jabs to further our protection against serious illness caused by coronavirus and help reduce the risk of hospitalisation. If you haven’t yet had your booster or are feeling hesitant or have some concerns, especially because of the widespread misinformation in social media, here are some answers to commonly asked questions. These will not only help to put your mind at ease, but also explain how the booster dose remains safe and the best defence against Covid-19 and its new variants.

Rupanjana Dutta Why should I get the booster vaccine?

A: Unvaccinated people are more likely to be hospitalised than those who have had both doses of the vaccine and a booster.

If you catch Covid-19, there’s a chance that you might get ‘Long Covid’, which can have serious and debilitating longterm effects. Many have said it has had a major impact on their lives, especially the ability to exercise, work and maintain relationships.

Boosters give you the best possible protection against the virus and should significantly reduce your risk of serious illness and hospitalisation.

Dr Rupa Joshi, GP and Managing Partner at the Woodley Centre Surgery in Berkshire said: “During these unprecedented times, it’s extremely important for everyone to have their booster vaccination. It’s the best protection we have against the Omicron variant. For some people, the symptoms are mild. But for others, there are high rates of hospital admissions and mortality.

So, please have your booster dose.

“You can use the national booking service, or you can also contact your primary care network or GP surgery or use walk-in-centres and pharmacies for booster jabs.

“If you have any questions, there’s a lot of information on the gov.uk website. Or you can also speak to your local pharmacist or your health care professional.”

I have already had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, why am I not protected enough?

A: Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19 is highly infectious and spreading fast.

It is more important than ever for you

to get vaccinated now. A booster will strengthen your protection against serious illness from coronavirus and give you and your family the best possible defence.

My second dose of the vaccine was not that long ago. When can I get a booster jab?

A: You can get a Covid-19 booster vaccine 3 months after your second dose.

I have a condition that makes me immunosuppressed and more vulnerable to infection. How soon can I get my booster dose?

A: In certain circumstances for example, people that are immunosuppressed may be eligible to receive a booster jab sooner.

If you haven’t had your booster yet, then go to the NHS website and book an appointment or find your local walk-in vaccination centre.

I’m concerned about the side effects of the vaccine. Is the booster jab safe?

A: Yes, the booster vaccine has been approved for use by the MHRA. Millions of people have already been protected from serious illness by getting jabbed. If they get side effects at all, people have reported them to be generally very mild, that usually don’t last more than 24 hours.

If you catch Covid, you may need to take time off work to isolate and recover from the illness. Whereas side effects of the vaccines are usually mild and short-lived. A day off to recover from side effects is better than isolating for 5 days or more if you test positive for Covid-19.

Is the booster jab actually effective against the Omicron variant?

A: Every adult in the country now needs to get a Covid-19 booster vaccine, because

two doses do not give you enough protection against catching Omicron.

Get Boosted Now is our national mission to build a wall of defence against the Omicron variant. A booster will strengthen your protection from serious illness from Covid-19 and give you the best possible defence for you and your family.

Getting a booster jab does not fit in with my lifestyle/schedule.

What should I do?

A: The Covid-19 vaccine is quick, easy, and free. It’s easier than ever to get the jab, it only takes a few minutes, and you can get it anywhere and at a time that’s convenient for you, even at the weekend.

Dr Amir Khan, a GP based in Bolton said: “We know many people are juggling busy lives Dr Amir Khan which is exactly why the NHS is making it as easy as possible for you to get your booster.

New vaccination sites have been set up across the country and existing sites have extended their opening hours so as many people as possible can get jabbed, as soon as possible. And once you’ve had your vaccine, then why not encourage your friends and family to book as well, so we all have the best protection possible.”

If you have already had your booster, then encourage friends and family who haven’t to book theirs now or visit a walkin centre.

Get your booster now. nhs.uk/covidvaccination

I’m pregnant and concerned about the efficacy of the vaccine.

Why should I get a booster vaccine?

A: Being pregnant can put you at greater risk of getting seriously ill with Covid-19 which brings extra risks to your new-born and increases the chances of your baby being born prematurely or even stillborn. If you’re pregnant, make sure to get boosted now.

The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows Covid-19 vaccinations provide strong protection for pregnant women against the virus.

It also shows the vaccines are safe for pregnant women, with similar birth outcomes for those who had the vaccine and those who had not.

The Covid-19 vaccines also have no impact on fertility, which has been made extremely clear by the government, its senior clinicians, and a range of independent experts from stakeholder GP and deputy lead for the NHS Covid Vaccination Programme, Dr Nikki Kanani, said, “Our NHS staff and fantastic volunteers have worked hard to deliver the largest and fastest vaccine drive in NHS history which is operating from around 3,000 sites across the country.

“We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to get their jab so we’re going into the homes of those who are housebound, care homes, and putting on these incredible transport offers in tandem with local authorities, volunteer

groups such as RCOG the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the British Fertility Society.

Geetanjali Singh, an optician, gave birth to her second baby just before Christmas and has been fully vaccinated. She said, “I am so grateful that the guidance on pregnancy and

the Covid-19 vaccine changed last year.

Plus, my husband contracted Covid whilst I was pregnant, so being vaccinated gave me peace of mind that I and my baby had some protection.

“My advice to pregnant women who are unsure about having the vaccine is to speak to your midwife or health professional and make an informed choice.”

Dr Nikki Kanani

organisations and of course the taxi and bus providers themselves.

“If anyone has not yet had their booster, or either of their first two doses, then please do come forward. The evidence is clear that having two vaccinations does not give you enough protection from the Omicron strain so get boosted now.”

06

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

LEVELLING UP, REALLY? Continued from page 1 The 17-page document on Levelling-Up does not have a single mention of the words- “racism”, “diversity”, “discrimination” which are seemingly used daily by ethnic minorities to describe their issues in the country. The Tory government is being critiqued by the regions outside London that are not led by the Conservatives, where many have cited issues and demands that need to be met under “Levelling-Up”.

While the white paper is all about equal opportunities, the racism survey revealed that nearly 20% of doctors said that they either considered leaving (13.8%) or left their job (5.6%) within the past two years due to racial discrimination. Nearly 60% of doctors who experienced racism said that the incident had negatively impacted their wellbeing including causing depression, anxiety, and increased stress levels. 59.7% of Asian respondents saw racism as a barrier to career progression compared to just 4.2% of White British respondents.

In an official statement to Asian Voice, Dr Nikita Kanani, GP and NHS medical director of primary care said, “There is never an excuse for Dr Nikita Kanani MBE racism, or any form of discrimination and it should not be tolerated by anyone, including our hard-working and dedicated NHS staff. While our latest equality report shows that we have made progress in some areas of the NHS, it is completely unacceptable for anyone to experience racism, discrimination or prejudice at work and NHS organisations should continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to all and any form of discrimination.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair of council, said, “Portraying the NHS as a success purely because of the numbers of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds employed within the service shows little acknowledgement of the racist incidents that these staff members deal with on a regular basis.

“Decision-makers must get their heads out of the sand and act now. The BMA will be publishing its full report with recommendations this Spring which the Government must act on as a matter of priority.”

NHS as an organisation has a problem with race, full stop Doctors from ethnic minorities at NHS fear that this longstanding practice of racism in the trust will impact retention and mental health of health care professionals. They unanimously agree that NHS is racist.

Dr Partha Kar OBE, Diabetes colead, NHSE; DirectorEquality, Medics, NHSE; Consultant, Portsmouth said, “What the report Dr Partha Kar OBE shows, is a reflection of what the wider reports have shown over the last few years. It basically confirms that we know that the NHS as an organisation, has a problem with race, full stop.

“I've been here for nearly 20-25 years, people will not talk about it, not in the public domain. Over the last few years, you can see many people are coming out and speaking out about it. That's a positive thing because it forces people to look into it.

“Will that put off people for coming to the NHS? I think the answer is probably yes unless we change things.

“So, if you want people to come around, it's not just about facing racism, it's also linked to your career progression. If you don't feel you're well treated, and hire opportunities are blocked off, then why would you come and work here? Especially if you're coming from another country, and you're being treated differently, and you see local people being treated differently.”

Dr Kar further elaborated that racism is

a fundamental issue, and therefore, there are all these roles where there is a fundamental shift in people being appointed to tackle this.

“What I would also say to all your readers - don't be put off by what you see.

Because there is a firm focus on tackling this. I'm not here just to build my CV. I'm here to basically do this job so there are people like me now in different posts who are trying to help. So please bear that in mind as well as depressing and dark as his report sounds, it also has resulted in the triggering of lots of action points to try and tackle this,” he explained.

Professor Amitava Banerjee, Professor of Clinical Data Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Institute of Health Informatics, University Prof Amitava College London spoke Banerjee to the newsweekly, “The BMA’s Racism in Medicine survey published last week adds strong supporting evidence to show the scale of the problem among doctors from ethnic minorities.

Improvement and a move in the right direction will make changes at several levels and joined-up solutions across the health sector.”

However, Banerjee added that he has been “fortunate” and has faced very few incidents of racism in his career. “However, I have seen colleagues trained in the UK and abroad from ethnic minorities face racism in different ways. In the worst case, this has led to the unfortunate step of moving out of healthcare or from the UK. Overall, the situation is improving but not quickly enough. To do the best for our patients, health professionals need to be able to practice without fear of discrimination,” the professor told us.

Talking about the impact of racism on doctors, Dr Ananta Dave, President British Indian Psychiatric Association and Executive Medical Director of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Dr Ananta Dave Foundation Trust said the long term impact includes burnout, mental illness, impact on physical health, leaving jobs, chronic absence and long term sick leave, apathy, alienation.

“It will adversely impact retention as 40% of doctors are from ethnic minority backgrounds. I think doctors will keep coming to the NHS to further their careers but retention will become an issue, and there will be increased costs to the NHS through sickness, locum costs, reputational costs etc.” Dr Dave told the newsweekly.

“I know of many colleagues who have left the NHS or gone back to countries of origin after racist discrimination. I have experienced racism too at several points in my career - have spoken out publicly including in a Channel 4 documentary. I have remained committed to the NHS though,” she added.

Dr Arjun K Ghosh, Director, Foundation Programme, St Bartholomew's Hospital and Consultant Cardiologist Barts Heart Centre told us, Dr Arjun Ghosh that while racism can dissuade people from wanting a career in the NHS, “Studies have shown senior management is not diverse enough. Work needs to be done to improve this and championing this change can be very positive. Clearly, previous papers have not been enough as we wouldn’t have these current findings in that case. It needs a concerted effort to change and more at a societal level also and not just in the NHS. I think this has probably happened to most minorityethnic doctors to a greater or lesser. What is more important is not to accept it and help drive the change to improve matters.”

Bradford has the greatest potential for ‘Levelling-Up’ While London and WestMidlands get the larger share of benefits, especially via the UK-India FTA agreement and other plans in the White paper, councillors and mayors outside London fear unequal levelling up after all.

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, told Asian Voice, “Bradford is the UK’s number one levelling up opportunity. We Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe are a young, entrepreneurial and globally connected district, ripe with potential for growth.

We are ready to work with the government to unlock the kind of transformative change that the communities across our district deserve. To achieve that transformation, it will require a stepchange in national investment in Bradford. Whilst the government’s rhetoric on levelling up has been good, now is the time to deliver.

“So we will be seeking more detail from the government about what the Levelling Up White Paper means in practice on the ground, what new investment it will bring and what real, positive choices will be made to benefit our communities in the Bradford district.

“Locally we are getting on with the job and 2022 promises to be an exciting year as we progress the City of Culture bid and our ambitious regeneration schemes, with the new city centre market, our investment plans for Keighley and Shipley and the rejuvenation of the Odeon building into Bradford Live. We are also investing significantly in our successful jobs and skills programmes and we have the right plans in place for 21stcentury transport and infrastructure that simply require government support.

“We are seeking more clarity from the government on the process for becoming a Levelling Up area, which obviously we should be first in the queue to secure. We have the plans, the people and the sites which can bring real benefits for our people and businesses. Independent research has shown Bradford has the greatest potential of the 34 largest cities outside London for levelling up. So for the country to truly level up, it depends on Bradford levelling up. We will hold the government to account to work with us and deliver on our ambitions for the Bradford district.”

Mayors from across the North of England- Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, Jamie Driscoll, North of Tyne Mayor and Dan Jarvis, Mayor of South Yorkshire have written to the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Levelling Up Secretary and Transport Secretary challenging the Government to open a new assessment process with Transport for the North (TfN). This process would openly assess both the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan and the rail plan put forward by Northern Leaders to see which would achieve the greater impact in Ministers’ central mission - levelling up the country.

In the letter, the Mayors wrote: “We find it strange to say the very least that the IRP, the Government’s flagship levelling up policy, has not been fully assessed for its levelling up impact. Surely the Government would want to ensure that any major investment of public money achieved the greatest impact on its central mission?

“We know that Crossrail will soon open in London. We do not for one moment begrudge our Capital city this new east-west line and the huge economic benefits it will bring. We simply ask for the same for the North of England.”

MetPolice Commissioner asks racist and sexist officers to “leave now” Commissioner of Met Police, Dame Cressida Dick has told Metropolitan Police officers “enough is enough” as she admitted its reputation has been tarnished by “poor conduct and nasty and inappropriate behaviour”.

She has sent a letter to 43,000 officers and staff telling them the force’s reputation has been damaged by repeated “poor conduct and nasty and inappropriate behaviour”.

She said prejudice, racism, homophobia and sexism will not be tolerated, adding: “If this is you I have a message: the Met does not want you.

Leave now."

She added, “This is serious and it is urgent.

To lose public consent would be unthinkable.

Action is needed now. Enough is enough.”

She was put “on notice” by Mayor Sadiq Khan earlier this week in an allegedly intense meeting which apparently mentioned with reports against the conduct of MetPolice officers, this seems to be the force’s “return to the bad days” of the 1970s and 80s.

A report published in SkyNews quoted Mayor Sadiq Khan, saying, that the Met "needs to urgently show it has an effective plan for restoring the trust and confidence of Londoners in the police and to drive out the culture of racism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny which clearly still exists within its ranks".

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has released recommendations to tackle Met culture after investigation uncovers bullying and harassment in the ranks in early February to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to change policing practice after nine linked investigations found evidence of bullying and discrimination within the ranks.

Racism in the NHS - 76.5% of surveyed doctors experienced racism at work at least once in the last two years - 17.4% experience racism on a regular basis - 20% experienced racism from patients - 71% of those don't report it, either out of fear or lack of faith that it will be properly investigated - 19.4% have considered leaving or have left their job in the last two years because of racism - Nearly 60% say racism at work has impacted their mental health and wellbeing Source: British Medical Association

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

07

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH BETTER HEALTH

GET FIT, HEALTHY AND HAPPY Feeling lethargic after the holidays is common but the start of a new year is the perfect time to make a change to improve your health and getting started can be easier than you think. Extra pounds can put a strain on our bodies, but there are little changes we can make every day to eat better, lose weight and get active.

What we eat and drink and how often we move can make a real difference to our health, and a healthier lifestyle means a greater chance of fighting off serious diseases whilst easing the strain of day-to-day activities.

Physical activity is good for the body and mind

Azmina Govindji

Following a healthy lifestyle that includes physical activity can improve sleep, boost energy, and empower people.

Motivate yourself even more by setting mini goals because hitting your daily targets will feel great! Tracking apps can help like Active10, but even just a checklist on a piece of paper will do.

Award-winning Dietitian Azmina Govindji said, “The resources from the Better Health campaign provide the support you need to take small steps towards a healthier lifestyle in the new year - whether it’s losing weight, getting more active, or making better food choices.”

Here are top 5 tips from Azmina, to keep yourself active.

• When it comes to exercise, some of it is good for you, but more is better.

Remember every minute counts! It is never too late to get active to improve your health, so start small and build up. It can be as simple as starting with 10 minutes of brisk walking a day. Cold winters do make it more challenging for us to get outdoors. However, it can be refreshing even for 5 or 10-minutes and can help

you to feel refreshed and invigorated.

• Making simple dietary changes, such as eating fewer processed foods, reducing sugar intake, monitoring calorie intake, and keeping an eye on portion sizes can help with weight loss. This will ideally be combined with increasing physical activity that you enjoy. The beauty of the South Asian community is that we have support from our family and friends.

Seek to become more active together, as this is a great way to encourage each other.

• Quick 10-minute videos online can be a simple way to enjoy activity in the comfort of your own home. You can then build up gradually from there. There are many online tools that can help you to track your progress. Keeping a record of any increase in your activities can help you to feel more motivated and reach even higher targets, in time.

• In the winter, you are more likely to sit and watch television for long periods.

Get into the habit of standing up and moving around.

For example, if you need to visit the bathroom, instead of using one you may have downstairs, choose to go upstairs so you’re moving around a bit more.

• Do you often fast forward advertisements when you are sitting in front of the television? Instead, why not use the advertisement break to stretch your arms and legs? Maybe you could do a little tidying up, wash some dishes, go up and down the stairs a couple of times, or whatever tasks you might have to do that could fill that commercial break.

Move more at home or outdoors

A recipe for success If you pair physical activities with eating better, you have a recipe for success. Here’s a quick recipe of vegetable jalfrezi.

Vegetable jalfrezi is an easy curry and when served warm makes a very satisfying meal.

• Preparation: 20 mins • Cooking: 40 mins • Serves 4 adults • Calories per portion: 401 kcal.

Ingredients: • 2 tsp vegetable oil • 2 medium onions chopped • 1 medium apple cored and chopped • 1 garlic clove crushed • 2 tbsp Jalfrezi curry paste • 1 carrot sliced • 1 green pepper deseeded and chopped • 400g chopped tomatoes • 3 handful cauliflowers broken into florets • 400g chopped tomatoes • 410g chickpeas in water rinsed and drained • 300ml reduced salt vegetables stock • 180g easy cook long grain brown rice • 50g frozen peas • 2tbsp fresh coriander chopped (optional) • 4 tbsp low-fat natural yoghurt to serve • 1 pinch ground black pepper What to do: Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions, apple and garlic and cook, stirring, for 3-4 mins. Stir the curry paste and cook for a few seconds.

Add the carrot, pepper, tomatoes, cauliflower, chickpeas, and stock. Simmer, partially covered, for 25-30 minutes, adding a little extra stock or water it

needed. St the same time, cook the rice in a large saucepan of gently boiling water. It will take about 30 mins.

Add the peas and coriander to the curry (if using) and heat for 2-3 mins. Check the seasoning, add a little ground black pepper if needed.

Serve the vegetable curry on warmed plates with the rice, topping each portion with 1 tbsp of low-fat yoghurt.

Tips for how to eat healthier meals • Become portion aware. Swap your usual plate or bowl for one that’s smaller in size and try to say no to second-helpings.

• Swap white rice with brown rice and use coarse wholemeal atta for chapatis instead of white flour for better-for-you carbs.

• Try healthier snacks such as a handful of roasted channa, whole almonds, unsalted peanuts, or wholemeal pitta bread strips with two tablespoons of hummus.

• The fibre in fruit and vegetables can help keep you fuller for longer, and most vegetables are low in calories - great for helping you watch your weight.

• Keep an eye on how much juice you drink – even unsweetened fruit juice can have a lot of sugar – so stick to 150mls or a small glass a day.

9 simple tips to move more

Shilpa Panchmatia

54-year-old Shilpa Panchmatia, is a business growth coach and serial entrepreneur with a busy life in London.

Shilpa decided to use the NHS Couch to 5K app to get fitter. She told Asian Voice, “I was just fed up with not feeling 100% fit or healthy. I wanted to go back to having more energy and fitting into my clothes and feeling good.

“My work is busy; I don’t have time to think and work out a plan and a structure to exercise and then wonder daily if I am doing it right or doing enough.

“My friends had used the NHS Couch to 5K app and when I saw it in a magazine, I instantly loved it. It is very simple and easy to follow. Moreover, I like to set goals and achieve them. It gives me something to aim and strive for. I also like a structured plan and an organised way of doing things.

“My plant-based diet incorporates fresh vegetables and healthy proteins, and I rarely use packed or processed foods.

I exercise daily and eat healthy on most days as it makes me feel good. I have a daily yoga session; I go for walk regularly and think daily exercise helps my mental health immensely.”

• Better Health has lots of free ideas and guidance online to help you on your journey whether you choose to move more at home or outdoors. For free tips and tools to lose weight or get active, search ‘Better Health’ or visit www.nhs. uk/better-health.

• Get into a good habit Set a reminder (you could use the alarm or timer on your phone) to get up and move every 30 minutes during the day. Try stretching during TV ad breaks or pacing around the kitchen while the kettle’s boiling.

• Lunch time is your time Lunch time is a good opportunity to fit in some activity. Take a break to stretch and unwind, or even fit in a quick 10-minute home workout video.

• Your own stand-up routine Try standing when you can instead of sitting – even short periods will add up and improve your strength.

• Take up a hobby Active hobbies like gardening or DIY can be great for your mind as well as your body.

• Track your progress Hitting your daily target will feel great! Using tracking apps can help, but even just a checklist on a piece of paper will do.

• It’s better together If your friends and family want to be more active too, why not bring out everyone’s competitive side with activity challenges such

as who can do the most steps in a day.

• Go from strength to strength Strength-building activities – like carrying heavy supermarket bags or following an online pilates or strength workout video – help to keep muscles, joints and bones strong. Aim to do this at least twice a week.

• Reward yourself Set yourself activity goals and rewards.

You could go for a long walk then treat yourself to an episode of your favourite TV show!

• Find something you enjoy Not sure where to start? Try one of our free weight loss plans or special offers on www.nhs.uk/better-health to find something that’s right for you. There are plenty of online programmes available. Whether it’s running, yoga or dancing around your living room, it all counts!

Explore weight loss plans, tips to eat better and new ways to get active on the Better Health website. Download Couch to 5K, NHS Weight Loss App and Active10 from App Store or Google Play.

08

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Fuh-net-ic filter gets Brits sharing the right way to say their name Mispronunciation of people’s names happens every day and everywhere. But according to Race Equality Matters (REM), this can often have a negative impact on inclusivity in the workplace, particularly for those from minoritised ethnicities. So, to raise awareness of this problem and also provide a solution, REM is launching the #MyNameIs ’FuhNet-Ic Filter’. The campaign marks the start of the UK’s second-ever Race Equality Week (7th to 13th February, 2022).

The Fuh-net-ic Filter is a powerful yet easy-to-use tool that allows people to get the phonetic spelling of their name and share it on social media with a fun and engaging piece of content. They simply go to the my-name-isiowebsite and then type their name to get a phonetic translation with the #NyNameIs hashtag. There’s also an option to upload their photo.

Once this is done, they can download the image, share it on social media or even drop it into email signatures, business cards or any other place where people will see their name.

The phonetic spellings are sourced from NameShouts, which holds over half a million names, including multiple pronunciations of some so you can select the one that works for you. The tool also has an audio version of the

name to aid pronunciation. Individuals whose names are not already in the tool can type their own names and add to this growing community and valuable source of phonetic name translations. In doing so, they’ll help others who are seeking phonetic spellings of their names.

“Many in our REM community have said that their names are mispronounced at work. Some found it disrespectful or upsetting, while others said it affected their sense of belonging,” said Javed Thomas, Managing Director at Collaboratory, one of the founding members of REM. “While the issue is likely to be more prevalent amongst minoritised ethnicities with non-British names, it’s something most of us can understand or empathise with. As everyone’s name is part of their heritage, their pride and identity. That’s why this Fuh-ne-tic Filter is open to everyone. It gives a voice to those who are impacted by mispronunciation and beyond this to others who want to show allyship and support for greater inclusivity in the workplace.”

Race Equality Matters membership includes thousands of organisations striving for racial equality in the workplace, which, despite continued action, remains a challenge in the country. For example, in its recent Business Leaders

Index, REM founding member Green Park revealed that the top three roles of the FTSE 100 organisations have failed to improve ethnic diversity.

According to Raj Tulsiani, CEO at Green Park, “With only 11 ethnic minority Chairs, CEOs and CFOs, there is still a long road ahead for many organisations that want to create more diverse, and inclusive workplaces. But while the problem can seem quite complex, there are often simple actions that can be done to help create the culture for change. Taking a moment to understand how to correctly pronounce a colleague’s name can go a long way towards this.

During Race Equality Week, The Fuhne-tic filter will help achieve just that and point to a range of resources dedicated to those who want to improve workplace inclusivity.”

A UK-wide initiative, Race Equality Week was launched by REM to turn words into meaningful action; a movement spurred on by the events of 2020, which have heightened the country’s collective consciousness of the racism, inequality and injustice experienced by minoritised communities. Over 2,000 organisations participated in the inaugural Race Equality Week in 2021 with a further 1,000 set to join in 2022. 500 organisations have already adopted the MyNameIs Guide.

Bake Off's Chigs Parmar Households face water basking in the glory scarcity in Harrow Chigs Parmar, a 40-year-old sales manager from Leicester couldn't believe himself when he was selected for the most popular show Great British Bake Off. Parmar was the most inexperienced Baker as he had taken up the hobby during the first lockdown in 2020. He thought he will not make it to the second round.

However, as days passed by, Chig's creations improved and he was named star baker twice and gained two Hollywood handshakes.

"I didn't expect that at all, I don't know where that all came from. I was shocked. My whole family is a massive foodie family, I've always loved cooking from the age of about 10. My mum, my auntie and my gran taught me how to cook," Chigs told the LeicestershireLive.

Chigs now works as a sales manager for Domestic and General, which he says was very supportive of his GBBO experience, as the former allowed him to take seven weeks' leave to pursue his newfound love.

"It started with the sourdough, then I started making normal bread, then brioche. I started making cookies, cakes and pastries.

One thing led to another."

Man allegedly rapes woman at Gladstone Park 21-year-old was allegedly raped at Gladstone Park in June last year. A CCTV image has been released of an accused.

The victim was approached by a man on Brook Road, near Dollis Lane last year, as she was followed into Gladstone Park.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the man allegedly raped her in the park.

The suspect is described as aged in his

20s or 30s, with brown skin, black hair and beard.

Police were informed that he spoke with a foreign accent and was wearing a dark body warmer, long sleeve top under the body warmer and light coloured jeans.

Anyone who has information that could help police should call 101 ref CAD 6412/25 June or contact anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

On February 5, people in the HA3, HA5 and HA7 postcodes were left without water as a pipe burst due in Uxbridge Road. After the incident, the water was restored.

Though the water main has not been fixed yet, Affinity Water says homeowners should now have water. It said: "We have restored water to all properties by redirecting water across our network although this may be at a lower pressure than normal.

"Our repair team have stayed on Highcroft and have now exposed the damaged section of the water main and the repair is underway, this will involve a section of the main to be cut out and replaced for the works to be completed.

"As soon as we know how much longer this will take, we’ll let you know.

"We’re really sorry for the disruption. We’re working hard to get your water flowing normally again soon."

New life-extending drug for advanced womb cancer New life-extending drug for advanced womb cancer to be rolled out on the NHS A 30-minute treatment, the first of its kind for advanced womb cancer, is being rolled out for women across England, the NHS has announced.

Around 100 women with advanced and often incurable endometrial cancer, every year will be offered this life-extending drug after the NHS agreed on early access to the treatment through the Cancer Drugs Fund.

The drug, called Dostarlimab, is the first of its kind for womb or endometrial cancer and works by attaching to a specific protein on the surface of the cancer cells, helping the immune system to

detect and attack it.

It will give eligible patients with this specific form of cancer, who would otherwise quickly deteriorate, a greater chance of survival.

The treatment, which takes just 30 minutes to administer through the bloodstream every three weeks for over a 12-week period offers patients real hope of extending their lives and improving their quality of life.

The NHS Long Term Plan is committed to providing the latest cuttingedge treatments and therapies for patients, and the Cancer Drugs Fund provides faster access to promising cancer treatments on the health service in England.

Do you think there can be a problem in paradise, too?

Rohit Vadhwana Do you think there can be a problem in paradise, too? It is a strange question since everyone believes that paradise means the end of all problems, a place where everything is pleasant and perfect. But it is worth asking if there can be problems there too.

Sometimes we are in a perfect and desirable situation.

Finances are well in place. Health is in pink. The family is living happily. Friends are supportive and encouraging. But still, something keeps tingling at the back of our minds.

What is that - a problem in paradise? Have you ever faced such a situation in your life? It becomes so tricky that we don't even know what is lacking. While everything is fine, yet, something is wrong - which bothers us continually. If someone asks how they can help, we don't have any answer, because we don't know what the actual issue is.

In Iran, there is a very popular tradition. On the day of 21 December, known as Shab e Yalda, families gather at the house of the eldest member, mostly grandparents. All children, with their families, meet to celebrate the evening.

One important ritual of this event is to read Fa'al of Hafez, a great Persian poet in the 14th century who is considered to be one of the greatest visionaries. You have to make a wish in your mind and then a page in the book of Hafez is opened randomly to reveal one poem. The poem is interpreted by the elders and you relate it to your asked wish. It gives an indication as to how good the coming year would be for you. But on such occasions, there has to be some wish in mind to fulfil, or some problem in life to solve.

What if you are unable to actually zero down on any particular wish, feeling that you already have everything in life, or identify any specific problem as if nothing is wrong, but still something unidentifiable keeps bothering you? A very typical situation for some people who have achieved a lot, and fought hard to resolve every issue. A kind of situation when you feel like being in paradise but still some unreckonable problem keeps bothering you.

If this is a situation that you have ever faced in life, perhaps that is what we can call a problem in paradise, which does not seem to be big trouble yet it doesn't allow you to live in perfect harmony. How to find out and how to resolve that issue is not a philosophical but a real question.

Do you have any such problems in your paradise?

(Expressed opinions are personal)

Divorce rate falls among lockdown couples According to the Office for National Statistics, during the year of the first lockdown, the divorce rate fell in spite of speculation that the coro-

the previous year.

However, for same-sex couples, there was a rise of more than 40 per cent: from 822 in 2019 to 1,154 in 2020. Of these, 71 per

navirus pandemic would hamper marriages.

In 2020, 103,592 divorces were granted in England and Wales, a decrease of 4.5 per cent in

cent of divorces were reported between female couples. While 102,438 heterosexual divorces took place in 2020, a decrease of 4.7 per cent.

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

www.asian-voice.com

09 12 - 18 February 2022

Family always wants the best for you, says Chief Inspector Manjit Atwal on joining the police

C

hief Inspector Manjit Atwal says her parents were initially concerned when she joined the police, but that they were won over when they saw her succeed and thrive. After 26 years in the force and with numerous awards under her belt, she knows from experience that concerns turn to pride when you stick to your beliefs and follow your dreams.

Manjit joined the police later in life while bringing up two children. “I had always wanted to make a difference in the community, but I didn’t think I was tough enough mentally or physically, to work in policing. My initial reservations about not being strong enough for the job were dispelled with the training I received and once I wore my uniform, I no longer had those fears.” Manjit’s career has involved working in 18 different areas of policing – including neighbourhood policing, youth offending, operational planning, intelligence gathering and counter terrorism.

She is also a nationally trained hostage and crisis negotiator, and more recently working on the national violence against women task force with the College of Policing.

Manjit, who works in local policing, believes family or community concerns come from a loving place. She says, “your family will always want the best for you and that tends to be where concerns stem from. Once they understand the difference you are making to the community and see that you are happy in your chosen career path, most likely, their worries will dissipate. I am pleased to say that their initial concern has given way to parental pride.”

The Chief Inspector says her cultural background has been a huge asset in serving her community. “I believe that having a diverse police force which is reflective of the people being served improves effectiveness. My Sikh background helps to break down barriers as I am able to help others around me to understand cultural differences.” She adds that this helps “build trust and bring communities closer together.”

Although family and community support is important to her, it is the challenging and rewarding nature of police work that keeps Manjit motivated. “Being a police officer has helped me to grow as a person. It has enabled me to see and experience things people wouldn’t normally see in other jobs. I still pinch myself about the fact that I am in a job that I love so much.”

To find out more about a career in policing, visit: joiningthepolice.co.uk

10

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Dear Readers, I am very pleased to announce that your favourite newsweeklies Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar have now started operations from its new office. For the last four decades, we had our offices at Karma Yoga House in Hoxton Square.

With the infinite grace of God and the blessings from elders, we feel immense joy and pride that ABPL Group is reaching new heights. Though our office has relocated, we take pride to assure you that it will not make the slightest difference in our loyalty, social commitment and service to you.

Please note the new address of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar as below.

Asian Business Publications Ltd Units 207-208 Harrow Business Centre 429-433 Pinner Road North Harrow Middlesex HA1 4HN Contact: 020 7749 4080 Email: support@abplgroup.com Yours, C B Patel Editor-in-Chief

Saraswati returns to heaven First of all, we pray Almighty Lord and Goddess Saraswati to grant eternal peace to the departed soul of Lataji in heaven. And what a coincidence! She died on Feb 6 and Feb 5 was an auspicious day as per Hindu calendar “Vasant Panchami” devoted to Goddess Saraswati and Lataji had immense blessing Devi Saraswati in her singing so personally, she came to escort her to heaven. But Lataji’s sweet voice is left in this world forever for everyone to listen and get peace of mind. We were very fortunate to attend her concert in June 1985 as she was invited by United Way Of Greater Toronto at Maple leaf garden and raised $150,000:00 in charity (in today’s time more than 1 million dollars) and attended by 12,000 people. To everyone’s disbelief, Lataji sang Canadian singer Anne Murray( rock, pop, country, soft, contemporary singer ) song “You needed me” at her request and she got a standing ovation. We went with my wife Bhavna, daughter Alpa and Aarti and that was the most memorable time of our life to cherish forever. My wife Bhavna - Bhanumati after finishing senior Cambridge, Nairobi, Kenya in 1964 went to India and join convent college in Indore, MP, India and after two years she visited Lataji’s family with her college friend to whom Lataji’s family has friendly relation. They were very much impressed by their nobility and kindness.

In 1995 York University conferred on her an honorary doctorate. At the same University, our older daughter Alpa got her BEd. degree and I did my Institute Of Canadian Banker’s course. Good memories always last.

Suresh and Bhavna Patel, Markham, Canada

Lata Mangeshkar's death is a loss to the nation Lata Mangeshkar's death on February 6, 2022, is indeed a loss to the nation. Born on September 28, 1929, she was the daughter of the well-known drama troupe owner, Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar.

A book on her life --- "Lata Mangeshkar: A Musical Journey” has been written and published by Yatindra Mishra. The book tells about the life of the queen of Hindi music from the 1940s to the current time. Her childhood name was Hema. She was renamed after a character, Latika, from one of her father’s plays. The first fruits of classical music were tasted by her under the auspicious training of her dad. She has received many awards and honours for her melodious singing. In the year 2001, she was honoured with the biggest award --- the Bharat Ratna.

She has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1969, Padma Vibhushan in 1999, Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1989, Maharashtra Bhushan Award in 1997, NTR National Award in 1999, Legion of Honour in 2007 (France highest order), ANR National Award in 2009, 3 national film awards, Filmfare awards and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. Lata Mangeshkar meant several things to people. To composers, she was a singer whose unblemished voice could not strike an off-key note even if she willed it to. To young girls, her voice was the holy grail whose pursuit began in infancy.

Jubel D'Cruz, Mumbai, India

Lata Mangeskar: Soul of Bollywood no more Lata Mangeskar, Nightingale of Bollywood, passed away at the ripe age of 92, another victim of Covid 19 that has taken away many elderly, popular personalities all over the world. People of my generation who were brought up during the hay-days of Bollywood, the only means of entertainment at the time, fondly remember her, as her songs were streaming out from every house.

She was born in 1929, in a music-mad family, her father Deenanath Mangeskar was a film producer, music director and singer. In Lata, he saw the talent that would ultimately dominate the Bollywood music industry. How right he was! Lata’s sister Asha Bhosle with whom Lata sang many duets was also a leading singer, even more, versatile than Lata. This era gave us versatile stars like Saigal, Mukesh, Mohamed Raffi and Kishore Kumar, a few among many.

Lata sang her first song in 1943 in a Marathi film. Her singing carrier took off when the silent movie era came to an end in the mid-nineteen forties. She was an instant success, appreciated for her modesty, charm and dedication, sometimes recording three songs a day in three different films! Her early films were Awara, Shree 420, Pakiza, Madhumati and many more. When she sang in memory of martyrs of the 1962 war with China “Ye Mere Watan Ka Log (People of my beloved land) she brought tears even in the eyes of PM Nehru. She was a national treasure, cultural icon, voice of Bollywood’s Lip-synching. She was a favourite, first choice for many music directors, including Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, Kalyanji Anandji, Madan Mohan and many more. She is credited with 30K songs in 36 different languages. Besides music, she was deep into cricket; Sachin Tendulkar was her favourite Indian cricketer. She was unique, the like of her we will never see again!

Bhupendra M. Gandhi

Unfortunate Sri Lanka crisis Right now, there have been various reports of current economic crises in Sri Lanka. First off, the people of Sri Lanka have been caught unawares, unable to buy essentials and food items in the wake of a shortage of food products. Rice or sugar, most essentials have been out of reach of people now.

Incidentally, the current situation, if allowed to continue, will create humanitarian issues like droughts and hunger deaths in Sri Lanka. Despite being home to agricultural activities and crop cultivation, Sri Lanka has been pushed to the current economic crises by various factors from lack of funds to the inefficient government. That apart, natural disasters have always been playing havoc with growth. For example, the 2004 tsunami disasters and the 2004 tsunami-triggered train tragedy in Sri Lanka have been fresh in mind even now - the Tonga volcano eruption being the latest on the world front.

In my native areas like Korkai, Tuticorin, Tiruchendur, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, rigorous agricultural activities like crop cultivation have been going on for a long time now thanks to water sources, technology, efficient local administration and people's hard work.

Only such robust agricultural activities will facilitate growth across the board. Unfortunately, this spirit is missing in Sri Lanka now. So the agriculture sector should be given a new lease of life right away through funds, crops and fertilizers. Next, the UN, the world and the Asian community should come forward to help Sri Lanka come out of this crisis soon through proper financial measures.

P. Senthil Saravana Durai Mumbai, India

Raising children - Government or family responsibility?

With child poverty being a topical subject at present, I would like to share with your readers how financially challenging it was to raise my 3 children and put them through University.

Our household was on mediocre income but was not considered poor enough to qualify for free school meals or subsidized school trips. Neither were we rich enough to not feel the financial pain involved but we managed by making sacrifices and prioritising education over other things such as holidays, eating out, etc. I guess we were not unique in this as many families have to go through this when they become parents.

It was our decision on whether to have children and, if so, how many. Maternity pay and child benefit in the UK were financially helpful in our decision making. Having made this personal choice, it is our responsibility to raise our children and we should not expect the government (taxpayer) to shoulder or take over this parental responsibility. The Government's role should be confined to framing familyfriendly policies (Flexible working, Part-time working, etc.) to allow parents to have children and a career alongside each other.

I was born in Tanzania which did not have a welfare state. We should remember that there are many countries around the world that do not have a welfare system and yet the parents manage to raise their children with love and care to then become productive and outstanding citizens of their countries.

Rashmi Jeshang

•

Kapil Dudakia

Kapil’s KHICHADI

Rahe Na Rahe Hum As we in the UK were waking up on Sunday 6th February, news filtered through that the Nightingale of India had left us all. Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan Smt Lata Mangeshkar Didi ji took her last breath after giving the world seven decades of the most melodious and timeless music.

She sang a song in the movie ‘Mamta’ in 1966 titled ‘Rahe na rahe hum’. How apt given Lataji became the maternal (Mamta) figure in Bollywood and wider afield. The first few lines of the song encapsulate this moment in time: Rahe na rahe hum mahakaa kareN.ge (Whether or not I am here, this fragrance will remain) Banke kali banke sabaa baagh-e-wafaa mei.N (As if a flower, as if a breeze in our devoted garden) Thousands of very enlightened individuals have paid tributes and given their memories of Lataji. In this publication, you will read many more. She touched our hearts, more than we thought possible.

She expressed for us every human emotion we feel and go through in our lives.

She is with us when we are patriotic and sing, ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo’. Lataji sang more than 30000 songs in more than 20 languages. Songs that help us to express every feeling, every thought, and every moment in time. Songs such as: • Lag Jaa Gale (Woh Kaun Thi) • Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai (Shor) • Kabootar Jaa Jaa Jaa (Maine Pyar Kiya) • Pyaar Hua Iqrar Hua Hai (Shree 420) • Main Chali Main Chali (Professor) • Aaja Piya Tohe Pyaar Doon (Baharon Ke Sapne) • Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…)

• Dil Pukare Aare Aare (Jewel Thief) • Jo Wada Kiya (Taj Mahal) • Yeh Samaa, Samaa Hai Ye Pyar Ka (Jab Jab Phool Khile) • Kora Kaagaz Tha Ye Man Mera (Aradhana) • Gata Rahe Mera Dil (Guide) • Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi Shikwa (Aandhi) • Chalte Chalte Yunhi Koi Mil Gaya Tha (Pakeezah) • Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka (Haré Rama Haré Krishna) • Chanda Hai Tu (Aradhana) • Satyam Shivam Sundaram (Satyam Shivam Sundaram) The list is endless. I can give you names of another hundred songs that are dear to me, and that would only scratch the surface.

As a Gujju I would of course like to point out that her mother, Smt Shevanti ji Lad was in fact from Gujarat. Lataji’s silent demeanour hid a steely patriotic backbone. When she sang ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo’, it was more than just a song to her. She maintained her heritage and was not afraid, even whilst being in the middle of Bollywood, to express her sentiments with that soft but firm voice. Who can ever forget her rendition of, ‘Vande Mataram’. In 2013, at the opening of a Super Speciality Hospital in Pune, she said, “I pray to God that we see Narendra Bhai as PM”.

And in 2014 God answered her prayers.

In the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “I am anguished beyond words. The kind and caring Lata Didi has left us. She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerise people.”

For me, it’s a celebration of a life. A life that did everything, gave everything and left a mark on this earth that will stand the test of time.

Rahe na rahe hum mahakaa kareN.ge, Banke kali banke sabaa baagh-e-wafaa mei.N. My Koti Koti Pranams to the Nightingale of India, the Voice of the Millennium and the Queen of Melody.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

We are grateful to all letter writers for more and more versatile letters well within word limit.

Please keep contributing as always. If you are new, then write to Shefali at shefali.saxena@abplgroup.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

11

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

Priti Patel’s Speech to a US think tank: Much ado about nothing

Ruchi Ghanashyam Mrs. Ruchi Ghanashyam is the former High Commissioner of India to the UK. With a career in Indian Foreign Service for over 38 years, she has been posted in many countries including South Africa, Ghana, before arriving in the UK. She was only the second woman High Commissioner to the UK since India’s independence and during her tenure, she witnessed a number of significant developments in the UK-India relations. @RuchiGhanashyam

A few days ago I was surprised to see a news report in The Times of India titled ‘Priti Patel accused of smearing Sikhs in a speech to the US think tank’. The speech had been made on 19 November 2021 to Washington DC-based think tank, Heritage Foundation and was published on the UK Government’s website on 22 November. I was travelling at the time for a seminar in Shillong, but even if I had been in town, I doubt if the speech would have drawn my attention.

Almost four months later, the media came up with the above story based on activism by a member of the Sikh Federation, UK. A body called the Sikh Press Association appears to have posted a video of the remarks on Twitter, accusing the Home Secretary of misrepresenting Sikhs in the statement.

My curiosity aroused, I went through the text of the remarks that had elicited this much-delayed reaction! In a long speech of around 4000 words, I could only find eleven words for Sikh separatist extremism! To be precise, she said, “Sikh separatist extremism has also caused considerable tensions in recent years. While we stoutly defend freedom of expression, it must always be within the law.” The sec-

Shri Hardeep Singh Puri (Minister of Housing & Urban, Affairs Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas) receiving a portrait of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji at The University of Birmingham

ond sentence is a general statement of an unobjectionable principle that freedom of speech must be exercised within the law!

The overall speech focused on a number of issues that also included terrorism and the UK’s determination to deal with it.

The more I tried to unravel the story, the more confused I became! What did she say to arouse this angry reaction?

Moreover, what was it that prompted a respected mainstream Indian newspaper to print such a reaction, four months after the speech was made?

Chairman of the British Sikh Association, who is a peer in the House of Lords, Lord Rami Ranger, seemed to articulate a similar view in his statement to TOI when he said that as Home Secretary of the UK, Patel "is right to ensure Britain never becomes a launchpad for terrorists".

There appears to be no controversy amongst the UK’s Sikh community on the subject. Neither the Sikh Federation nor the individuals quoted represent the Sikh

community in the UK. During the last three years, it is understood that the Sikh Federation has been largely squeezed out by the community in the UK. A majority of the UK based Sikhs do not subscribe to extremist ideology and views of radical groups. In fact, the community has been gravely concerned about the damage that the presence of radical elements does to the image of this hardworking and successful community. The Sikhs in the UK are also concerned that attempts to radicalise the Sikh youth in the UK could end up ruining the lives of their children who are the targets of the radicals. I personally heard these concerns from assorted members of the community.

In his statement, Lord Ranger added that no Prime Minister had promoted the lives and teachings of Sikh Gurus on a national and international level before.

"Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has gone out of the way to support Sikhs.

Kartarpur corridor is a good example and withdrawal of the farm bills is another.”

I was privileged to see the growing bond of affection for India amongst the Sikh diaspora in the UK during the celebrations of the 550 years of Guru Nanak Devji. During the year-long celebrations, we witnessed boundless enthusiasm from within the community at events organised across the length and breadth of the UK. Be it Wales, England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the Sikh diaspora eagerly attended the various events. An exhibi-

MoS External Affairs, Mr. V Muraleedharan, Lord Tariq Ahmad and other dignitaries attended at the 550th Birthday Anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji at Guild Hall, London in Dec. 2019

tion on the life and teachings of the holy Guru explained through simple pictures and paintings was much in demand from the community. The culmination of the year-long celebrations was held on Gurupurab at the grand Guildhall in the city of London and was attended by more than 1500 prominent members of the Sikh community from all corners of the UK. Gurudwara leaders, entrepreneurs, scholars, prominent achievers from various fields and professions, joined the Indian and UK dignitaries.

During these celebrations, we received threats on more than one occasion from some extremists to prevent us from holding the celebrations. But we chose to ignore them. There were also demonstrations outside the India House in London during my time, by some of these extremists. I saw videos of the extremists attacking innocent and elderly members of the Indian diaspora (men, women and children), burning and insulting the Indian flag and making other attempts to intimidate us. On more than one occasion, some of them were apprehended by the Police, including for possessing and brandishing a knife. With this background, should anybody be surprised that the Home Secretary remembered to put some words on the subject in her speech! As a UK Government spokesperson said to TOI, "We are committed to tackling those who spread views that promote hatred against individuals and communities and work closely with international partners to tackle extremism in all its forms."

The radical extremists belonging to known violent groups are obviously concerned about their diminishing clout and disappearing support amongst the Sikh diaspora in the UK. It is apparent that this controversy was manufactured to reinvigorate their vanishing base. They seem to have ridden on the coattails of the Sikh Federation.

University of Oxford names graduate college after Reuben Brothers

Reuben College building photo by Morgan Sindall

The University of Oxford’s newest graduate college has been named after popular business tycoons and Rich List winners Reuben Brothers.

With roots in Baghdad, Iraq, the Iraqi-Jewish entrepreneur brothers David and Simon Reuben were born in Bombay (now Mumbai) while their father was posted in a textile company in India.

According to their online biography, the brothers arrived in London in the 1950s with their mother, Nancy, and lived in Islington; having run various businesses across the Indian Subcontinent from their bases in Bombay and Baghdad. The brothers attended state schools, with Simon never completing his formal education.

The duo stands at the second spot of The Sunday Times Rich List 2021 with a net worth of £21.4bn. They have never missed a spot in the top five for several years now.

As of today, Reuben Brothers have an empire across Russia, China, Monaco, the Middle East, the US and Europe. They are not fond of publicity despite being incredibly celebrated for their achievements.

UK properties owned by the Reuben Brothers include Millbank Tower; the John Lewis Partnership headquarters in Victoria; the American Express offices also in Victoria; Carlton House; Academy House on Sackville Street; Connaught House on Berkeley Square; Market Towers; the London Primark store on Oxford

Street; Sloane Street shops; and Cambridge House, the former premises of the Naval and Military Club, which comprises six freehold buildings which have planning consent for a six-star hotel and private members' club.

The family's philanthropic vehicle, the Reuben Foundation, is focused on the advancement of healthcare and education. The family founded the Nancy Reuben Primary School, an independent Jewish day school in Hendon in honour of their mother.

The foundation has donated £80 million to support the creation of Reuben College, Oxford, originally named Parks College. It will be a post-graduate college focused on climate change, artificial intelligence and cellular life.

12

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

SCRUTATOR’S Indian scientists showcase hack-proof communication tech Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) and Space Applications Centre (SAC) scientists have demonstrated hack-proof satellite-based communication. The technology, which uses the concept of “quantum entanglement” will make it impossible to hack any communication in future. In layman’s terms, quantum entanglement is the behaviour of atomic particles like photons to act as a unified body even though they are apart from each other. The concept is at the core of futuristic quantum computing. It also has applications in building unbreakable encryption technology and scientists world over are working on it.

Quantum communication is one of the safest ways of connecting two places with high-level codes and quantum cryptography that cannot be decrypted or broken by an external entity. If a hacker tries to crack the message in quantum communication, it changes its form in such a manner that the sender gets alerted and the message gets altered or deleted. (The Times of India) MP CM Chouhan sees traces God in PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "super-human and there are traces of God in him", Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. “He is a repository of unending powers. How can one person work so much? Congress ran a government for years before this. Were there development works everywhere you went?" Chouhan said at a BJP election rally in poll-bound Goa "I am not saying this because I am a Chief Minister and a BJP worker. I am saying what I feel in my heart. It is fortunate that the country has a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi. He has an incredible personality," Chouhan added.

Chouhan went on to describe PM Modi as a super-human. "Narendra Modi is superhuman. He is a man of ideas."

Chouhan said that PM Modi had restored India's pride overseas. "When the Congress was in power, people abroad used to ignore us when we say we come from India. There was no respect. They would not look at us with pride. India used to be discussed vis-a-vis issues related to corruption." (Agency) Portuguese dad, daughter groove to Bengali song The song 'Kacha Badam' has turned into a viral sensation. If you are a regular user of the social media, you may find your feeds flooded with videos showcasing people grooving to this song. There is a now a latest inclusion to that list and it shows a dad-daughter duo showcasing amazing moves to the hit number. There is a chance that their syncronised routine will make you want to shake your legs too.

The profile is filled with dancing videos of a Portuguese father and daughter duo.

“Love #trend #indian,” they wrote while sharing this particular dance video. The video has accumulated more than 25,000 likes and the numbers are only increasing.

The share has also prompted people to post various comments. “Lovely,” wrote an Instagram user. (Agency) Dubai ruler tweets in Malayalam, Kerala CM replies in Arabic A tweet in Malayalam by Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice

President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, soon after his meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Emirates, has gone viral on social media as several expatriate Malayalis shared it on their virtual platforms.

Besides the tweet, the Dubai ruler also shared the picture of the reception given to Vijayan at the venue of the Dubai Expo 2020. The tweet was later shared by Vijayan on his Twitter handle. "The UAE shares a special relationship with Kerala.

Keralites are playing a significant role in the economic and developmental growth of Dubai and the UAE," he wrote in Malayalam. Interestingly, the Chief Minister replied to Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid thanking him through an Arabic tweet. ".....Humbled by your hospitality and warm welcome...," Vijayan wrote.

(Agency) Jinnah Tower in Andhra painted in tricolour

The Jinnah Tower in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur, which was in the news recently after members of a right-wing group were thwarted from unfurling the national flag at the landmark, now bears the colours of the tricolour. The development follows the controversy which erupted on January 26, on the occasion of Republic Day. “After request from various groups, we decided to decorate the tower with the tricolour.

We will also construct a pole near it for hoisting the national flag. Necessary arrangements to hoist the flag will be made,” said Guntur East MLA Mohammed Musthafa, who is from Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party (YSCRP). Musthafa, who visited the tower to inspect the security arrangements, accused the opposition BJP of trying to provoke communal clashes. “Muslim elders fought against the English during the freedom struggle. After achieving independence, some Muslims left the country and settled in Pakistan. But, we wanted to continue in our country as Indians and we love our motherland,” the legislator further said.

(Agency) Ban on flying objects over RSS HQ extended Considering the threat perception to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur, the police extended the prohibitory orders on flying of aerial objects, including drones, on the RSS headquarters and other vital installations in Nagpur till March 31.

Following the information on a terror plan emerged during the interrogation of a man arrested in Jammu and Kashmir last month, the city police had beefed up the security in and around the RSS national headquarters. It was emerged that the operatives of Pakistan-based Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) allegedly conducted a recce of sensitive establishments. During the period, the city police had also banned flying drones near the RSS headquarters and taking photographs. (Agency) This seat saw only women winners Uttarakhand has had very few women ministers and no female chief minister till date but Yamkeshwar constituency in the hill district of Pauri Garhwal has always elected women ever since the state was formed in 2000. The seat has a total of 90,638 voters, of which nearly half (42,075) are women. From the first assembly elections in 2002 to the one in 2012, BJP leader Vijaya Barthwal won from the seat for three straight terms. In 2002, she defeated Sarojini Kaintura of Congress by a margin of 1,447 votes. In 2007, she defeated Renu Bisht of Congress by 2,841 votes and in 2012, won again with a comfortable margin. She also served as a cabinet minister in the governments of B C Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. In 2017, BJP gave the Yamkeshwar ticket to Ritu Khanduri, daughter of former chief minister BC Khanduri, and she also won from here.

This time, BJP has fielded Renu Bisht, who had contested as an independent from the seat in 2017 and got the maximum votes after Khanduri. Bisht is up against six other male contenders from the seat and if she wins, Yamkeshwar’s reputation as a ‘women’s bastion’ will remain. (Agency) Kerala man drives burning lorry to safety A quick thinking man prevented a major tragedy in the town of Kodenchery in Kerala. A lorry laden with rice straw caught fire after coming in contact with an overhead power line. The driver of the lorry stood helpless, certain that his vehicle would be destroyed in the fire - but one man jumped into action to save the lorry and avert a bigger tragedy. Shaji Varghese made his heroic entry after the lorry driver jumped out of his vehicle and unsuccessfully tried to put out the fire. Shaji hopped into the lorry and drove it into an empty playground in a bid to save the town and its residents from a possible explosion. Not only did he display presence of mind in driving the burning lorry away from a crowded area, he also managed to save the burning vehicle.

According to a report, he drove the lorry in a 'zigzag' manner to offload as much of the burning load as possible. Shaji, along with other volunteers, managed to prevent the

vehicle from burning down and safely managed the situation until the arrival of firefighters. (Agency) One more common crane gets GPS-GSM tag The Gujarat Forest department and Wildlife Institute of India has given GPSGSM tag on yet another common crane found in Thol-Ramsar site. This was done to study the migratory pattern of the bird.

The crane first went to the nearby fields in search of food and returned to the same spot at Thol lake. Brijesh Chaudhary, deputy conservator of forests, said, “The bird was GPS-GSM tagged. A yellow ring was slid onto its leg to identify it from a distance. The tag will be able to provide information about its movements. The bird weighs 4.1 kg and is a male. So, the movement of the entire group will be noted. This is the second tagging of the bird. In 2020, a crane was tagged in Surendranagar. The bird was named Vadla and after spending a month in Gujarat departed for its northward migration on April 10. It arrived in Northern Kazakhstan covering a distance of 4,800 km in 15 days.

Thereafter, Vadla spent five months in the area which is likely to be its breeding site.

On September 29 it started on its return migration flying through the same route via Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, northern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally arrived in Gujarat on October10. (The Times of India) Snake handler bitten by cobra, hospitalised Popular snake handler and rescuer Vava Suresh (47) was hospitalised after being bitten by a cobra during a rescue mission in Kottayam district of Kerala. A video shot by a local resident showed the moment when Suresh got bitten by the snake. As Suresh put the reptile inside a gunny bag, it creeped up close to his leg and bit him above the knee.

He, however, managed to place the snake inside the bag before locals rushed him to a private hospital. Hospital officials said Suresh was unconscious when he was brought in. He is reportedly in a critical condition and anti-venom is being administered to him. Suresh rose to fame in Kerala for always promptly responding to calls from people who spotted snakes in their homes and backyards. He subsequently rescues these snakes and then releases them into the wild. Suresh has claimed to have been bitten dozens of times by snakes during rescue missions. In 2020, he spent weeks in the intensive care unit of a hospital after being bitten by a pit viper. (Agency)

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

13

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

Virendra Sharma MP reacts to concerns of women’s safety in Southall Women in Southall have expressed safety concerns after being harassed by men at night.

According to MyLondon News, a number of corner shops in Southall were allegedly found to be selling alcohol to groups of men who then went on to harass women in the streets.

Inspections by Ealing Council and the Metropolitan Police reported finding that six off-licenses in Southall were encouraging street drinking by selling alcohol to groups of men "lingering" in the street. It also

stated that women in Southall are scared to go out alone.

Reacting to the news Virendra Sharma MP told Asian Voice, “This is very concerning news, everyone should have the right to feel safe and secure in the street. I am pleased that steps have already been taken to disburse groups of street drinkers, but more can still be done. We need visible policing to deter street drinking and shops to be responsible about who they sell alcohol to. I regularly meet with the Police and Council and will be pushing them to act.”

A mentor for every young Londoner in need of support The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Chair of London Councils, Georgia Gould, announced that every young Londoner in need of support will have access to a personal mentor by 2024 – one of his key manifesto pledges.

This will be delivered as part of a New Deal for Young People, with City Hall, London boroughs, community groups and others across the city working in partnership to put young Londoners at the heart of the recovery from the pandemic.

The commitment is to provide access to a dedicated mentor to young Londoners who are most in need of support and who face the biggest challenges to reaching their potential. This includes children who have been excluded from school or college, those who are impacted by exploitation, young Londoners who are impacted by domestic violence or living in poverty, and those involved in the care system. Overall, there are roughly 100,000 young people in London who face these kinds of challenges.

The Mayor is kickstarting the action by announcing £7.2 million of investment from City Hall. The new funding will expand the mentoring offer in the capital now,

helping young Londoners most in need get the help and support they deserve to reach their potential.

The new fund consists of £4.8 million for three programmes that will boost mentoring capacity and build on the incredible work already happening across London. It will expand mentoring for young people, including in science, technology, engineering, arts and maths, and support local organisations to provide training and work experience.[2] Alongside this, the Mayor has announced today that London’s Violence Reduction Unit, which he set up in 2019, will invest £2.4m in a three-year mentoring programme. The new investment will build on the VRU’s determination to tackle school exclusions by investing in effective mentoring programmes to keep pupils in Pupil Referral Units, engaged in their education, motivated and supported to achieve their goals.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m determined to put young people at the heart of London’s recovery efforts and I’m proud to be delivering on my man-

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has published a report updating its analysis of data on barristers’ income by gender and ethnicity.

This builds on previous research by the BSB published in 2020 and research into incomes undertaken by the Bar Council in September 2021 by considering a wider range of factors liked to income (such as seniority and location) as well as comparing pre and post pandemic income levels.

The report shows that female barristers are likely to earn less than male barristers and that those from minority ethnic backgrounds are likely to earn less than White barristers. There are also differences in the income of barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds once ethnicity is looked at in more

detail, with Black and Black British barristers earning less than Asian and Asian British barristers overall.

As it did in the BSB report published in November 2020, the report shows that income differences are particularly marked when looking at gender and ethnicity together, with female barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds being the lowest earning group and white male barristers being the highest earning group.

Despite heated debate, politicians finally exhibit grace and dignity

ifesto pledge to give every young Londoner in need access to a dedicated mentor by 2024.

“This will not only help prevent vulnerable young Londoners from being exploited or sucked into gangs and violence, but provide a helping hand for Londoners to reach their potential.

“Working in partnership with London Councils and boroughs, community groups, the youth sector and others across our city, I’m determined to ensure that every young Londoner in need of support has the positive opportunities and role model they deserve. This will play a critical part in helping us build a safer, fairer and more prosperous city, where no-one is left behind.”

Anti-India and anti-Modi sentiment on the rise in UK? Recently, anti-India and anti-Modi sentiment seems to be rising in the UK. A letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which is allegedly written by a British politician from the Asian community, is apparently doing rounds for gaining signatures of politicians in the UK seeking intervention to address the warnings issued by human rights groups of an impending genocidal catastrophe in India with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The letter which does not have a signature of the author at the end, states that international human rights organisations - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Genocide Watch have publicly warned that there is a real danger that genocide of Muslims in India is likely to take place unless the Indian government takes action to avert it.

Another event slated to take place in Westminster Hall debate on 9 February at 4 pm is about the “20th anniversary of the 2022 Gujarat riots”.

While the UK is yet to find the culprits of “Partygate”, battling staff shortages, rise in energy bills, discrepancies in ‘levelling up’, and not to forget,

Barristers from ethnic minority backgrounds continue to earn less than White barristers

racism and unemployment amid the ongoing pandemic, it is amusing to see how India’s internal matters are of supreme interest to the British people in positions of power, when India is a free country for the past 75 years.

In an interview with Asian Voice in the year 2020, sharing his point of view on the abolition of Article 370 in India and its economic impact, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon had exhibited a non-intervention policy towards India’s internal matters. Back then, he had termed India’s abolition of Article 370 “very much an internal matter for the Indian government.” He accepted that while the situation in Kashmir is still challenging in terms of human rights, the CW office will “raise its concerns privately, bilaterally and constructively”.

You can see the full letter on our website www.asian-voice.com

Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, was harassed outside Parliament on Monday by protesters against coronavirus restrictions, who could be heard yelling accusations of “protecting pedophiles” — echoing a slur made by Johnson last week.

Two people were arrested after police had to help Starmer escape from protesters who surrounded him near Parliament.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said, “All Members of Parliament must be able to go about their lives without fear of threats or intimidation. The scenes outside Parliament of people accosting Keir Starmer and David Lammy were completely unacceptable. I am in contact with the police about the incident.”

Starmer went on record to say that PM’s wife Carrie Johnson should not be dragged into gutter” with Boris Johnson.

While Boris Johnson is struggling to get a grip on the Downing Street party gate scandal, is now witnessing a personal attack on his wife Carrie. Lord Ashcroft is all set to publish a book titled First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson in which he claims that Mr Johnson is 'completely mesmerised' by his 33-year-old wife and cuts a 'lonely' figure surrounded by her close friends who are now among his most influential aides.

A Tory source was quoted by the press saying: “Carrie has for some time been the target of an increasingly brutal briefing campaign to attack and discredit her. It is deeply unpleasant." Mr Johnson’s allies are furious that the PM’s wife is being targeted when she cannot speak out herself.

One supportive MP said: “Attacking the PM is fair enough, but going for his family is a new low."

NCGO reacts to the Westminster Hall Debate on Gujarat Riots National Council of Gujarati Organizations UK (NCGO) has issued a letter in the light of the event planned to discuss the 2002 Gujarat riots at Westminster Hall.

It mentions that there is “a highly provocative and divisive manoeuvre by a Labour Member of Parliament Kim Leadbeater (Batley & Spen). The letter reads as follows: "She has organised a debate on 9 February at 4 pm at the Central Hall in Westminster to discuss the Gujarat Riots. We fail to understand what is there to discuss?

"There was a sad saga that ended up in death and disruption.

Fortunately, the communities have lived harmoniously in the last two decades.

“Kim Leadbeater is an irresponsible Labour MP and her behaviour as a British Member of Parliament is provoking disharmony amongst Indian Communities in the UK. Labour Leader Keir Starmer should immediately stop this nonsense which can harm the

relations between large Indian Communities and the India-UK relationship.

"National Council of Gujarati Organisations UK is an umbrella organisation of over 100+ Gujarati Community Organisations in the United Kingdom and it condemns these activities of opportunist MPs of Parliament.

“We believe this is an unwarranted, provocative and divisive initiative by a Labour MP and should be stopped immediately to maintain harmony within the wider communities in the UK. We will be monitoring the role of all Labour Lords, MPs, Councillors and request them to disassociate from this type of controversy in future.

“NCGO UK requests all Gujarati Residents to remain calm and peaceful. For further information please contact: Vimalji Odedra, President - 07718539114; Krishna Pujara, Public Relations Officer – 07931708028.”

14

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Karenjeet Kaur: The first British Sikh female to represent Great Britain in powerlifting Shefali Saxena Karenjeet Kaur Bains (25) started powerlifting at age 17. Karanjeet was the fastest girl at school. She was equally studious. She heavily derives inspiration from her family which has a rich history of fitness and bodybuilding, especially her parents.

Her Indian roots In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice, Karenjeet said, “Both my Mum (Manjit Kaur Bains) and Dad (Kuldip with a Big 4 Accounting Firm and qualified as an ACA Singh Bains) were born in Chartered Accountant. It is all about determination, Punjab, India – my Mum was discipline and a clear focus on what you want to born in a village called achieve in life! I don’t believe in the fact that the sole Bahadurpur near Noormahal, focus of a child should just be their education, encourand my Dad from a village age your children to be well-rounded individuals and called Shadipur. My Dad came support them in their ambitions and dreams. to England aged 7 and my “I always believe the greatest gift that you can give Mum aged 19 to get married. your children is your time as a parent – be it watching My Dad is a former bodyyour child at their first sports day or being at every builder and powerlifter himtraining session to watch them in their extracurricular self who is my coach. My Mum activities and sport. At the end of the day, all a child (maiden name Randhawa ever hopes to do is to make you proud and if they can before she was married) came from a family of champion see their parents are there for them and fully supporting wrestlers with her older brother Surjit Singh Randhawa them watch how far they fly! being a renowned champion wrestler.”

“Also, let us break the stereotypes Reaching milestones particularly in the South Asian comKarenjeet is the first female Sikh powmunity that anything a boy can do a erlifter to represent Great Britain. girl can also do equally, if not better on Speaking about her experience of the some occasions. If we raise our daughchampionship, she said, “I walked in with ters to fly high and put them on the both my brothers by my side. I remember same pedestal as our sons then we and the referee was actually from South truly might see the next generation of Asia himself. He came up to us, looking at South Asian Female World and my muscular-looking brothers and felt Olympic Champions! Now that is the that one of them was going to compete. future I would love to create, and I And my brother corrected him saying, hope my example can steer the direc‘No, it's my sister’. And I was always there tion of change.” in the middle, just completely overlooked.

Working out while menstruating Karenjeet with her father Kuldip Singh Bains South Asian women can be strong and Karenjeet also feels that if you are gone are the days when women in our a functioning menstruating female, community needed to be kind of dainty, quiet, and overly it’s important to talk about it and it’s a normal cycle. feminine to fit into the box of the very traditional woman According to her, some amount of workouts really helps who stays in the kitchen. So, I love strength training. I think release tension from the abdominal muscles and helps in it's really important because it's so empowering,” she told us. reducing cramps. “I've always tried to just do my best on Further speaking about her training, Karenjeet added, “I those days because sometimes my lower back tends to ache compete in both the under 63kg and under 69kg women’s weight class. My best lifts to date are 150kg Squat, 95kg Bench Press and 170kg Deadlift. My achievements to date include being the Commonwealth Powerlifting Champion winning 3 Gold Medals and 2 Silver Medals as well as being the First British Sikh Female to represent Great Britain placing in the Top 10.

“Most recently, I competed at the World Classic Bench Press Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania my debut as a Senior Lifter and placed 6th in the world with the aim of medalling in the near future. I have ambitions to one day become the First British Sikh Female World Champion!”

Bains loves pasta and parathe!

Karenjeet with her mother Manjit Kaur Bains The nutrition of a sportswoman has to have some serious amount of discipline. Bains follows that. She said, “I eat a lot and I get quite bloated, when you wear that belt, it feels a bit of pasta, but my diet is quite flexible - I weigh myself every too tight. Especially when you're trying to cut weight, during day to track my weight throughout my cycle in the month menses you sometimes tend to gain about a kilo of water and learn the fluctuations in my body however I do allow weight. I think it's important to be open with your coach, it's myself cheat days on the weekend which is my favourite time okay to say I'm not feeling too good today. On your heavy to have Aloo wale parathe!” flow days, if you're feeling really tired, it's okay to back off a Parental support little bit because you don't want to risk injury and even top Karenjeet’s parents have been tremendously supportive athletes would say the same thing. Goo listen to your body,” of her inclination towards powerlifting. Her father even corKarenjeet explained. rected her fad diets and eating habits when she started to When Karenjeet goes out to perform, the feeling that she misconstrue the difference between gaining muscle and gets gives her an adrenaline rush. “I just love the feeling when gaining weight. Talking about the role that Asian parents can I go out there and on the platform and like you're getting the play in supporting their daughter’s career, Bains told the adrenaline and the crowd is roaring because I remember at newsweekly, “I think supporting your children in pursuing the World Championships, the crowd was roaring and I was their passions is extremely important in life, and I hope to be like, just, it's just an amazing experience. And then when you an example or role model to many young people out there lift to something that you've never lifted before, and like, you that you can balance academic success with your passion just feel such a feeling of accomplishment,” she said. In one which for me is lifting heavy weights! of her media interactions, Bains said that while she’s delight“Throughout my sporting career, I have studied and got a ed that she’s the first female to do so, she doesn’t want to be First Class Honours Degree from Durham University (one of the last. Here’s hoping that we see more Karenjeet Kaur the Top 5 Universities in the country), obtained a scholarship Bains in the future.

Birmingham entrepreneur set to spice up seasoning sector Red Loon is an exciting new condiment brand with two unique and authentic products, created by Solihullbased audiologist, Raspal Kaur.

Drawing on Raspal’s own heritage, RedLoon products are based on genuine recipes that have been passed down through the generations of Raspal’s family for nearly 80 years. Now Raspal is revealing the secret culinary power of these store cupboard essentials to the nation and hoping to make RedLoon the go-to seasoning for the masses.

Aligned with the launch of

RedLoon, is Raspal’s other passion: mental health awareness.

While the BIG project is being worked on, in the interim, for every RedLoon product sold, 1p will be donated to the charity Mind, via the Work for Good scheme. RedLoon Seasoning and RedLoon Spicirub are available in environmentally friendly and eye-catching packaging, in 100g cartons, priced RRP £2.40 and £2.99 respectively. Both products have achieved Vegan Approved status from The Vegetarian Society.

Nation unite to tackle menopause taskforce Women across the UK will benefit from improved menopause support and care as government ministers and senior clinicians from across all 4 nations have come together for the inaugural meeting of the UK Menopause Taskforce.

Millions of women go through menopause every year, with the majority experiencing symptoms that can be severe, such as low mood, anxiety, hot flushes and difficulty sleeping, and have a negative impact on everyday life.

The task force will tackle issues surrounding menopause including increasing access to treatment and ending the taboos

and stigmas that still surround conversations about menopause, including in the workplace. The inaugural meeting comes as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) launched a consultation into the reclassification of a locally applied HRT product, Gina, meaning women in the UK could access a menopausal treatment over the counter at a pharmacy, without requiring a prescription.

This is the first time HRT has been considered for sale over the counter, marking important progress in ensuring women can more easily access menopause treatment.

Inviting women in Leicester for a creative art project Leicester women are invited to share experiences of being homeless for a creative art project.

Women in and around Leicester who have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, homelessness are being invited to share their stories for a new creative project established to highlight the issue. In a collaboration between De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), local charities in the Leicester Homelessness Charter, and ‘In Her Strength’ led by Vicky Moran, the project aims to bring together a group of women as they each develop an autobiographical monologue detailing their personal experience. In 2021, it was estimated that around 227,000 people were experiencing the worst forms of homelessness across England, Scotland and Wales.

The project, funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, is open to

anyone based in or around Leicester who identifies as female, has experience of homelessness in any of its multiple forms, and would be comfortable sharing their story. Those chosen will need to be available from 1.30-2.30 pm every Monday from 7th March to 11th April, to attend the weekly one-hour online workshops, as well as inperson on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th May for recording their monologue.

Attendees will receive £20 for every session they join.

To apply, women are asked to submit a short writing extract on any subject they like, as well as one line about their experience or risk of homelessness, to hello@inherstrength.co.uk by 8 pm on Tuesday 22 February. (Any written art form is welcome, for example, it could be a monologue, poem, short story or script). Participants will be informed if they have been chosen by Thursday 24th February.

AsianVoiceNews

VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

15

12 - 18 February 2022

Meet the Super Nani, Bimla Devi Shefali Saxena

O

n Valentine’s Day, we bring you the story of a brave and determined grandmother whose relationship with her granddaughter is extremely adorable and heartwarming.

There’s a lesson in love right there.

Born on 3rd February 1933, Bimla Devi who recently celebrated her 89th birthday lived across Punjab, Pakistan. She moved to the UK in the 1950s. She is Punjabi Sikh. Her granddaughter, a Senior Reporter and Presenter and BBC Panorama Journalist Monika Plaha told the newsweekly that Bimla Devi (her Nani) came with “absolutely nothing” to the UK. Her Nanaji (grandfather) was working in a steel factory and her Nani got a job as a cleaner at a hospital. She worked very hard, sometimes, for as much as a pound a week to raise five kids.

Monika’s Nanaji passed away before she was born. Bimla Devi is a partition survivor who became a refugee in her own homeland. But Monika describes her as a ‘Mother India Superwoman’ who despite having very little money, made it through in life to take care of her children and now grandchildren.

“I lived positive life. I was never scared of anything. I had a hard time in Pakistan when we left on the way to India and still, I was brave. I never looked back on what happened. I just wanted to go forward,” Bimla Devi told Asian Voice.

Monika Plaha was brought up by her Nani. She used to take Monika to school. ”I remember when Nani used to leave me I used to cry. I was like one of those emotionally attached kids.” While Monika went to school, her Nani took English language lessons for grandparents at Monika’s school. Back then Bimla Devi was 65. Monika says that the “aura around her is just so infectious.”

At 89, Bimla Devi has been regularly working out at a gym for at least five days a week and during the lockdown, she continued to work out at home. She started weight training and also plays Squash. Bimla Devi believes in the value of Seva in the community, and she also knits for the homeless and the poor.

“I haven't actually picked up the gym trait and I really want to her ability to want to access her mind the way that she just wants to keep fit and active as amazing and she loves working out I don't think I've quite got that trait,” Monika told us. However, she aspires to be as bubbly and as amazingly positive as her Nani.

Monika has picked a wonderful trait from her Nani, which is cooking. Her staple chicken-saag, roti and dal and the habit of overcooking so that anyone can walk into the house and have a meal, is something she has imbibed from

Having ice-cream at the park Monika and Bimla Devi on her birthday on Feb 3 Baby Monika with her Nani Nani at the Taj Mahal

Bimla Devi.

At 89, Monika’s Nani gave her first interview to almost an audience of over a million people on live television on BBC Breakfast and ITV. While her mother tongue is Punjabi, and she speaks Hindi and Urdu as well, Bimla Devi has heartwarmingly and quite beautifully picked up the English language. Her careful construction of sentences and pauses make listening to her all the more an adorable experience.

Monika told Asian Voice, “When English is not your first language, I knew that Nani was going to be a little nervous, but she did it. It's off her bucket list and she's such a passionate person that she just gives it everything that she's got and I'm just so proud of her. She gives herself a challenge and she just wants to do it and she proved people wrong. She is just an icon in our community.”

While Asians are always said to be closer to their grandparents, the pandemic and their proximity with them may have altered their relationship with each other. However, Monika’s bond with her Nani is precious.

She said, “I've always had a really special attachment with Nani from a very young age. She has always been that one constant in my life that kept me grounded, kept me sane and keep me going. She just always had my back whenever I lost my analogy.”

Bimla Devi spoke about her relationship with Monika.

She said, “My memory of Monika goes back to when she was one week old. Since then, I have been with her all the time wherever she goes. Once she was crying at the nursery school and she didn't let me go. I had to stay with her a few times. After that, we used to go to the park and make a sand-

Roar into the Year of Tiger Rupanjana Dutta Over the weekend, the nation celebrated Chinese New Year with much fervour. After two years of restrictions, it has been a time to rejoice in many pending joyous moments.

Ping Pong is a contemporary and lively collection of restaurants serving carefully handmade dim sums, which literally means ‘touch the heart’.

An ideal choice for a quick, light lunch or a fun night out, the restaurant is spread across 7 locations in London. It is celebrating Chinese New Year from 1 February for the whole month, making it also a possible choice for enjoying Valentine’s Day out with your loved ones.

Their Dim Sum Master Ruby Wu has created a wonderful array of new dim sums added to the already extensive menu. One of the new dishes include Tiger Paw Vegan Dumpling - a vibrant orange dumpling reminiscent of a tiger sauteed root vegetable, shiitake mushroom, bean curd and Chinese leaves wrapped in gluten-free golden turmeric pastry- my favourite.

Chandni For those with a sweet tooth, there is a delicious new fluffy Custard Tiger Bun - steamed Cantonese bun filled with creamy custard, along with seasonal sorbets or chocolate fondants.

There are 4 set menus available catering to all kinds of diets from regular to vegan to gluten-free. All priced at £23.95. There is an ala-carte menu as well, that serves those who don’t want to be confined by a set meal.

Martini lovers can try the Tiger Eye martini, which pays homage to this year’s majestic

Bimla Devi in her youth

wich lunch. We would spend hours there, playing with ball on the grass and we ate ice-creams. Then we used to come home and sit together and sometimes we played a game of English spellings.”

Sharing her advice for our readers on love, Bimla Devi said, “I believe that if you give love to children, then they will come to you. I’m talking about real love, not false love.

If you do that, children will never leave you alone. Monika and her sister never leave me alone. And I can't live without them. We have so much love between the three of us.”

Talking about fitness, Monika’s Nani said, “Gym is very important to me. It keeps you healthy and fit. Meeting other people in the gym, talking to them, helps you in enjoying while you doing your exercise.”

“I don't give up. I love going forward. Doesn't matter where I'm going. I'm just going to go forward all the time,” Bimla Devi added.

Monika’s Nani also said that she has never seen Valentine’s Day in her young days. “I haven't seen any Valentine’s Day in India, but now everybody is celebrating it,” she said.

“I was 16 when I got married. I didn’t have a choice. My parents and my Nani chose my husband. Then after that, we started living together, so love naturally came into it.

Monika’s Nanaji loved me a lot. He thought that I was the one in the world for him. I just met him by luck,” the 89-year old told us.

As for the younger generation and finding love, Bimla Devi gave a straight answer without mincing her words. She said, “You have too much choice. You don't know which way to go.”

Valentine's gift for Care Homes Maria Fernandes, Fernandes Vaz Solicitors

zodiac animal and its fierce personality. Though the set menus may appear small, the food is distinctive in taste, texture, quality and quite filling.

Chandni, who opted for the Tiger Set Menu during her visit to the Covent Garden branch said, “The tiger set (non-veg) menu had a variety of dumplings with spring rolls, that were full of flavours. A warm custard tiger bun was the perfect dessert to end this for me.”

Ajay, who chose the Tiger set menu, but the vegetarian option on his recent visit said, “I loved the vegetable sticky rice and their har gau- simply exquisite.”

Gong Hei Fat Choi everyone!

Bimla Devi with her husband

Staffing in the care home industry has been in crisis for several decades before Brexit. They were the first that suffered the consequences of the Covid pandemic and have continued to face challenges throughout their time since.

In response to this in April 2021, Senior Care workers were placed back on the Shortage occupation list having been removed from it for some years despite the then clamour for staff. These changes have enabled Sponsors to bring Senior Workers for a minimum salary of £20,480 per annum.

However, with the crisis deepening, the Migration Advisory Committee recommended further measures.

The result is that as of 15 February 2021, Care workers have also been added to the shortage list. This means that the skill level of the position is no longer relevant.

The code includes a whole list of positions including, home carers, care assistants, care workers, carer, home care assistants, support workers (nursing homes).

However, Care workers will only be allowed to work for sponsored businesses that deliver care. The regulations will not enable private households to employ staff.

Applications made before 15 February 2022 will be considered under the old

regulations.

These changes will undoubtedly be welcomed by an industry faced with considerable strain.

The Shortage Occupation list reflects the current shortages.

Only employers who hold a sponsor licence will be able to apply for these staff.

In addition, it is necessary to meet the other requirements which include English language and maintenance requirements, and health and criminal record checks will be carried out. Job offer from an employer who holds a Sponsor licence Right to work checks changing At present employers can choose to use either the Home Office online service or a physical card to evidence a right to work to an employer.

From 6 April 2022, holders of BRC and BRP and FWP holders can only evidence their right to work using the Home Office online service. Employers will no longer be able to accept physical cards for the purposes of a right to work check even if it shows later expiry date.

Retrospective checks will not be required on biometric cardholders who, before 6 April 2022, used the physical card to demonstrate a right to work.

To carry the online check, the employer will need the employee’s date of birth and a valid share code generated by the employee. The shared code is valid for 30 days.

16

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Senior Faith Leaders from all major UK Faiths

support the Platinum Jubilee Beacons S

enior faith leaders in Britain, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols and the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis have voiced strong support for the Platinum Jubilee Beacons and urged their communities to take part.

In an unusual move, in the run-up to Accession Day on 6th February, leaders from the nine faith communities (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian, Bahai), united by admiration for HM The Queen, have congratulated Her Majesty on seventy years as monarch and encouraged their members and communities to celebrate by lighting beacons in her honour. Through their leadership, the faith and community leaders represent millions of people in the UK, and in some cases, internationally too.

Building on a long tradition of lighting beacons to mark significant Royal celebrations, over 1,500 Platinum Jubilee Beacons will be lit across the UK and Commonwealth on the first evening of the four-day Jubilee Weekend (on Thursday 2nd June 2022). The Beacons will enable local communities to join together and pay tribute to Her Majesty as part of the official programme of events.

The Revd Canon Hilary Barber and Mr Narendra Waghela, Co-Chairs, on behalf of the Interfaith Network Board for the UK Board of Trustees, said: “On behalf of the Trustees of the Inter Faith Network for the UK we are delighted to offer our warm support for The Platinum Jubilee Beacons programme which forms part of the official celebrations of 70 years since the accession of Her Majesty The Queen. Service is a key value in all faith traditions and faith communities throughout the UK come together in many contexts in a spirit of friendship to serve others.”

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth said, “In Jewish tradition, the lighting of a flame accompanies many of our most important religious observances, representing the point at which the material and sacred meet. The fragile flame conveys the profound lesson that spirituality cannot manifest in the world if we do not cultivate and protect it. The values that we share as a nation are similarly fragile. Mutual respect, the rule of law, liberty and equality are so frequently tested and often drowned out by

other competing interests. During the course of her reign, Her Majesty The Queen has been a beacon of light, often through periods of darkness.”

Visakha Dasi, Temple President of Bhaktivedanta Manor (of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) said, “In acknowledgement of the Platinum Jubilee, we will be asking the extensive community of Bhaktivedanta Manor to light traditional clay diva lamps in their homes to represent the beacon of appreciation and celebration of the Queen’s reign, and recite passages from the Bhagavad Gita that truly exemplify Her Majesty’s qualities.’

Rajnish Kashyap, General Secretary, Hindu Council UK said, “The Platinum Jubilee marks 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, making her the first British monarch to reach this milestone. The Hindu Council UK and our temples up and down the country will join others to celebrate this momentous occasion by lighting beacons and offering prayers for the Queen’s long life. We will also take this opportunity to thank Her Majesty for her service in promoting the principles of unity, equality, and justice amongst the diverse peoples of the Commonwealth these past 70 years.’

Trupti Patel, President, Hindu Forum of Britain said, “We the Hindu Community in the UK wishHer Majesty The Queen healthy and happy years to follow. She is a true Karama yogi (Selfless Sewa by action) with a splendid track record of historic 70 years of service to humanity. She represents a true Nari-Shakti (women empowerment) and is an inspiration to many women across the world. I encourage Hindus in the UK and across the Commonwealth to light a beacon

in celebration of the Queen’s prosperous reign.”

Lord Singh of Wimbledon, Director at Network of Sikh Organisations UK said, “I feel the Beacons Project is an excellent way to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of HM The Queen; a joyous event in the UK and many countries abroad. Beacons in different parts of the UK and Commonwealth will shine a light on HM The Queen’s important contribution to values that we as Sikhs support, including selfless service and respect for all faiths and beliefs.”

Jasvir Singh OBE, Chair of City Sikhs said, “The lighting of The Queen’s Jubilee Beacons is a wonderful way of marking 70 years since she came to the throne. Her life has been dedicated to serving the British public and the wider Commonwealth, and this is a good opportunity for Sikh communities and all of us to come together in celebration and thank her for that unwavering service.”

Dr Natubhai Shah, Founder Chair/CEO of the Jain Network said, “On behalf of the Jain community and with the greatest respect, I have the deepest honour to pay tribute to Her Majesty The Queen’s historic 70 years of service to the country and Commonwealth.

“On a personal note, I have been fortunate to meet her on many occasions such as Commonwealth services at Westminster Abbey, Garden parties at Buckingham Palace and Thanksgiving services at St Paul’s Cathedral. Her warmth and hospitality at more private occasions are also cherished memory.

“The Jain community will celebrate the occasion with special events involving diverse communities and the lighting of lamps (beacons) at our centres.”

Krish Raval OBE, Director, Faith in Leadership said, “‘I encourage friends of all faiths to light The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons across places of worship and centres of community all over the UK and beyond.

The Sovereign’s sacrificial and sacramental bond of duty over seventy years resonates with the deepest teachings on service and sacrifice, and it pulls together people of every race, religion, generation, occupation and background into an unprecedented and healthy plurality. Interconnected in our hopes and dreams of a better world, may the Jubilee Beacons reflect the progress and goodwill represented by a remarkable reign.”

Duchess of Cornwall to wear India’s Koh-i-Noor In a “sincere wish” the Queen has expressed that the Duchess of Cornwall must become Queen Consort when Charles becomes king.

Marking the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, she has paved the way for Queen Camilla.

When the duchess married the Prince of Wales in 2005, it was made clear by Clarence House that she would carry the title of HRH The Princess Consort, The Guardian reported. A Queen Consort is the wife of a reigning king.

In a written message released on Saturday before Sunday’s Accession Day, the Queen thanked the nation for the “loyalty and affection” she had received over her long reign.

She added: “And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife, Camilla, the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

The Queen also said in her message that it was still a day “even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, George VI, as for the start of my reign.”Paying tribute to the Duke of

Edinburgh, who died in April aged 99 after being at her side during 73 years of marriage, the Queen said: “I am fortunate to have had the steadfast and loving support of my family. I was blessed that in Prince Philip I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it. It is a role I saw my own mother perform during my father’s reign.”

She further added that the goodwill has been shown to her by people of all nationali-

ties, faiths and ages in this country and around the world over these years.

“I remain eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me,” she said.

Interestingly, upon succession, Camilla will receive the crown, which houses 2,800 diamonds with the worldfamous Koh-iNoor, which currently belongs to the Queen of England is made up of platinum and sparkles with hundreds of diamonds.

In 1937, it was originally made for the coronation of King George VI. The crown also houses a large stone gifted to Queen Victoria back in 1856 by the then Sultan of Turkey to show his gratitude for the British Army’s support in the Crimean War. The 105-carat Koh-i-Noor is housed on a detachable mount made of platinum that is attached to the front cross of the British crown.

in brief GOVERNMENT SPENDING £4.7M PER DAY ON MIGRANTS Around 37,000 migrants are living in UK hotels at a cost of £4.7m per day, MPs were told. The home secretary Priti Patel said though it is getting difficult to find permanent homes for refugees the Home Office is working with local authorities to develop better ways for the accommodation. Patel said: "We do not want people in hotels, we are looking at dispersed accommodation." She said in the coming days, Ministry of Defence buildings might be put to use for more asylum accommodation. Home Office official Tricia Hayes told the committee homes, "We're incredibly grateful to the 300 councils that have already stepped forward to help us, but we can always do with more."

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Tim Loughton said he was called a troublemaker and told to shut up when he told Patel about the appalling condition of an Afghan refugee who lives in his constituency with young children.

“SCIENTISTS AND POLITICIANS KILLED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE" Oxford scientist Prof John Bell who worked on jab said scientists and politicians damaged the reputation of the AstraZeneca vaccine that “probably killed hundreds of thousands of people”.

Prof John Bell said: “They have damaged the reputation of the vaccine in a way that echoes around the rest of the world.”

“I think bad behaviour from scientists and from politicians has probably killed hundreds of thousands of people – and that they cannot be proud of that,” he told a BBC Two documentary.

When the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab was rolled out in the UK government, advisers suggested under -the 40s should be offered an alternative due to a link to very rare blood clots. Due to this, other countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Iceland and Thailand, pause their use of the vaccine.

DOCTOR WARNS OF ROGUE SPERM DONORS IN 'VANS' Women who look out for sperm donors should not put themselves at risk by using rogue sperm donors in vans, warned a Birmingham doctor. Sexually transmitted infections and genetic risks can be transmitted via rogue sperm donors.

It is believed that dangerous sperm donors advertise themselves on social media to abuse women who are desperate to start a family. There are various public sperm donation groups on Facebook where men plug their services and women request donors. While clinics or fertility centres charge for the same, rogue donors do it for free putting women at greater risk.

Often women are told to have sexual intercourse with the donor - known as 'natural insemination' or 'NI' but 'rogue' donors, have "dubious motivations" for helping the women, warns the Science Lead at Birmingham Women’s Fertility Centre.

"Those people are there and they are exploiting women and their wish for a child," Dr Jackson Kirkman-Brown told BirminghamLive. "These are men asserting that they are fertile, that they have got 'great sperm', suggesting that they may have a better chance of getting pregnant if they have intimate sexual relations with the woman."

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

www.asian-voice.com

17 12 - 18 February 2022

A legacy worth celebrating Tribute paid to Parikh Saheb on Shreekumar and Urvashi Parikh’s 50th wedding anniversary A heart-warming event was held to celebrate Shreekumar and Urvashi Parikh’s 50th wedding anniversary on Sunday 6 February 2022. The evening was also attributed to Late Shree Balmukund Parikh aka Parikh Saheb, who was an inspiring personality.

Speaking at this special occasion, son Sharad Parikh recalled how their father inspired them to work for a better life and society. He said, “All of us have found a balance in our commitment to our family life. Since childhood, we were taught to work, not just for money but as a service to humanity. We believed that if you did your

L-R: Shree, Urvashi, Aruna, Sharad, Gitu, Renuka, Omi, Shivani, Andrew and grandchildren Harry and Shadha

work well then money would follow. Our parents used to teach us the lessons from Gita every day.

“My father Shri Balmukund Parikh, was a pioneer in establishing religious and cultural establishments. He was a teacher in Gujarat, transferred to Kenya and retired when Kenya got its independence. He moved us to London in 1957. Our mother supported us by running a boarding house.

The early days of struggle and hardship made us more determined to forge a better life.”

Guest of honour and Editor-in-Chief of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, CB Patel said, “Parikh Saheb lived a purpose-driven life of giving- a life dedicated to the pious endeavour of educating young minds. While he no longer remains with us, he has left behind a legacy worth celebrating.

“Parikh Saheb had a spark in him so bright, that he lit up every life around him.

Today, his work and achievements are carried forward by his family. His sons, Gitu, Shree and Sharad share their father’s commitment to society. Their father always believed that good education is every child’s

CB Patel with Shree, Urvashi, Aruna, Sharad, Gitu and Renuka

right. This is perhaps why he became a teacher. Parikh Saheb has also inspired me to believe in family traditions and our core values.”

Remembering Parihk Saheb Balmukund Parikh was instrumental in the inauguration of a Hindu Centre in a church hall at Golders Green in 1965. In the ‘70s, he also joined forces with Yogi Maharaj of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan (BAPS).

In the ’80s, Swami Prabhupada, famously known as the founder preceptor of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or the ‘Hare Krishna Movement’ visited Balmukund Parikh to establish a temple in the UK. Balmukund Parikh was a key in acquiring the Bhaktivedanta Manor near Watford, during the Hare Krishna movement in 1973. As Bhaktivedanta Manor became a popular visiting place for the Hindu population, the increased road traffic disturbed the life of the villagers. The council had permitted ISKCON to be used as a theological college, and with the complaints, the council wanted to close the place.

This gave birth to the ‘Save Hare Krishna Temple’ campaign supported by Shri Parikh, along with other prominent members of the Hindu community, Gujarat Samachar and New Life (erstwhile Asian Voice). A crowd of 30,000 Hindus protested against the closure of the temple in London and eventually, the temple was saved by a new access road and the unity of the community.

As Swami Gitaprakashnanda, Balmukund Parikh founded a UK charity – The Hasumati Balmukund Parikh Gita Association, to spread the values and teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

Contributions made to RAF by Indian and Jewish communities lauded

R

emembering the contribution made by the Indians and Jews in the Royal Air Force, the British Indian Jews Association (BIJA) organised an event called “Hidden Heroes” on 3 February 2022 at the RAF museum in Colindale, Group Featuring Dr Peter Chadha (Co-Chair, BIJA), London.

Sanjeev and Sangita Kanoria (Advinia Healthcare), Zaki Cooper (Co-Chair, BIJA) Speaking at the Warrent Officer Ashok Kumar Chauhan MBE and other dignitaries event, journalist and renowned author community in the second world war. He Shrabani Basu hailed the Indian fighters indicated that their contribution was in the two world wars and said, “Despite disproportionately large for a very small population in the world.

RAF museum CEO Maggie Appleton and Advinia Health Care CEO Sanjeev Kanoria also hailed the unsung heroes.

The event was attended by over 150 people from the Indian and Jewish communities L-R: Maggie Appleton (CEO, RAF Museum), Dr Peter Chadha (Co-Chair, BIJA), Zaki Cooper (Co-Chair, BIJA), including Air ViceAir Vice-Marshal Simon S Edwards (Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, RAF) Marshal Simon Edwards (Assistant social prejudices, Indian pioneers joined the RAF in both world wars." Shrabani has authored so many books including “Victoria and Abdul”, which is based on the true story of Queen Victoria and her closest confidant Abdul and is now a major motion picture.

CB Patel, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of RAF museum Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar addressing the guests ambassador, author and historian Joshua Levine praised the contribution of the Jewish Chief of Air Staff of the RAF) and the current and former Chairs of AJEX, Dan Fox and Mike Bluestone.

Assistant Chief of Air Staff of the RAF, Air Vice-Marshal Simon Edwards there isn’t much said, “The Hidden Heroes event brought clarity on its together the Indian and the Jewish extent.” communities. We heard about the Lord Karan outstanding contributions of the RAF by Bilimoria, members of those communities. At the Founder Cobra same time, new relationships and Beer, told the connections were made. The event BBC that the highlighted the historic and current picture had diversity of RAF personnel.” become really challenging for Co-Chairs of BIJA, Zaki Cooper and firms and Dr Peter Chadha said, “It was fantastic consumers. to be back together in person for a BIJA "Our input event after a two year hiatus, especially Pritha Mukherjee costs in every being surrounded by War-time aircraft. way - bottling, The history of the Indian and the Jewish energy - are up. Freight costs have soared, contribution to the RAF and the military sometimes ten times. Wages are increasing is a long and distinguished one.” and on top of that, there are labour Zaki acknowledged the presence of shortages.

"It does mean that businesses have to CB Patel, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of put up prices. But the consumer is already Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar feeling the squeeze. It is a really among the audience and called him one challenging situation for everyone," he of the main pioneers in bringing the said.

Indian and Jewish communities together Alongside the £9.1 billion Energy Bills in the UK, helping in the foundation of Rebate announced on 3 February, the BIJA.” government is providing £12 billion of CB addressing the guests said, “The support over this financial year and next to Indian and Jewish communities have a ease the cost of living pressures, with help rich culture of coexistence. Both the targeted at working families, low-income communities have abilities to integrate households and the most vulnerable. The with the local culture of the region. The government said all households will receive £200 off their energy bills, and will two countries have an extensive and then pay this “loan” back at a rate of £40 a praiseworthy economic, military and year over five years from 2023. political relationship."

Rise in energy bills: Knock-out effect on hospitality sector and insurance have Continued from page 1 risen.

The increase is driven by a Pritha Mukherjee, record rise in global gas prices CEO and Founder, over the last 6 months, with Posto/Kolkata Kitchen wholesale prices quadrupling told Asian Voice, “The in the last year. It will affect rise in energy prices is default tariff customers who coming at a time haven’t switched to a fixed deal which is inappropriate and those who remain with for the hospitality their new supplier after their industry. Hospitality previous supplier exited the Vivek Singh has been one of the market. worst-hit industries Under the price cap following the pandemic. In addition to mechanism, energy companies will be energy prices, we are foreseeing an allowed to pass on these higher costs from imminent rise in interest rates as well. This April when the new level takes effect. This will make access to funding even more is because energy companies cannot afford difficult as well. The rise in energy prices to supply electricity and gas to their will not only impact the bottom line due to customers for less than they have paid for higher energy bills for the businesses, but it it. will also have a knock-on effect on the Over the last year, 29 energy overall sales as our customers will now companies have exited the market or been have lower disposable income to shell out put in special administration in the wake on dining out or takeaways.” of soaring global gas prices, affecting Restaurateur and Chef Vivek Singh of around 4.3 million domestic customers.

Cinnamon Club told us, “Rising costs and Of the 680 businesses that were increased uncertainty are not great news surveyed by UK Hospitality, a total of 93 for restaurant businesses at the best of per cent said they are planning to increase times, but coming out of a 2 year period of their taxes by an average of 11 per cent in poor trading and accumulated costs/ rents the next few months.

(Covid-19) it could just be a knock out blow Since lockdown, pubs, bars, restaurants for many businesses. Most businesses and hotels have seen their overheads surge anticipated a rise in food and drink costs which began to lift last April. Due to and to some extent are preparing for them shortages of both labour and goods, the alongside VAT rises. However, rises in cost of staff, food and drink, energy bills energy costs are difficult to factor in as

18

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Dear Financial Voice Reader,

Alpesh Patel

Is the US Stock Market Going to Crash?

Almost exactly a year ago I asked this question in this column. The question is more relevant than ever now.

Does the Buffet Indicator Suggest a Stock Market Crash?

The “Buffet Indicator” has long been known in Wall Street circles as a stock market valuation metric worth paying attention to. It’s a straightforward ratio that takes the total market capitalisation of U.S. stocks and divides this by the nation’s GDP. Even last February it was at 195%.

The PE ratio is the investment price divided by its profits or earnings. Because each year brings about its own ups and downs, the Shiller PE ratio — also known as the CAPE index — takes a long view and calculates the rate by earnings over the last decade, adjusted for inflation. The current Shiller PE rating suggests the US stock market has been this overvalued twice before: the 1929 stock market crash and the 90s Dot Com bubble.

What Could Cause the Crash?

While there are many ways a crash might happen, it would take a combination of a few events.

Continued COVID-19 Problems Though things are looking positive, we’re not entirely out of the woods yet. The vaccine rollout has been encouraging, but further mutations or variants could render that mute. Were that the case, additional lockdown measures could push the economy to a breaking point.

The unprecedented stimulus packages were all that kept the market from destruction in 2020, and a failure to get this right during further waves would be catastrophic.

However, all in all, this outcome is remote.

Loan and Credit Delinquencies While the market has performed well since March, out on the ground things are far from normal. A series of loan, mortgage and credit delinquencies could hurt US financial stocks badly. And with government funds already being hoovered up by covid stimulus packages, the financial markets could find themselves unable to receive the assistance needed.

Shiller Is Right If the Shiller index is correct — and the market is overvalued — that will hit at some point, and will lead to some panicked and erratic behaviour as consumer confidence evaporates. As long as the market continues to perform, people will ride the wave. But a few poor annual returns from tech stocks, in particular, could see sentiment change quickly and violently.

My conclusion is that quality companies with outstanding profits, growth, cash flow have fallen to now stabilise at a slower rate of share price growth. Poor quality companies often making losses and paying no dividends have generally fallen because sellers will remain sustained in them and their risk is clearer.

Boris challengers urged to focus on cash crunch resolution Prime Minister Boris Johnson is battling for his survival amid a crisis which has gripped his government over three months, with a growing number of lawmakers calling Boris Johnson publicly for a change at the top to rebuild in their ambitions and trust with voters. focus instead on steering Britain through the biggest First it was parties durplunge in living standards ing strict coronavirus lockin a generation. Many peodowns, at a time when ple were struggling with many people could not say soaring energy costs and farewell to dying relatives. food inflation, which were Later he further angered 'the number one priority'. colleagues when he falsely While Johnson has accused the leader of the apologised after the paropposition of failing to ties, the prime minister has prosecute a child sex abussince said he accepts that er when he was in charge of Labour leader Keir Starmer public prosecutions. That, was not personally to critics said, shows Johnson blame for failing to proseis incapable of changing, or cute the television celebrity showing true remorse.

Jimmy Savile in his former However, senior memjob. But he refused to bers of Conservative Party apologise. urged challengers to to rein

Food insecurity rises dramatically in UK The number of people experiencing food insecurity was one-fifth higher in January than six monthspreviously, according to a survey that showed families in the UK were struggling to feed themselveseven before the imminent squeeze on living standards.

Data released by the Food Foundation, a charity, showed in January 4.7 mn adults had experienced food insecurity, equivalent to 8.8 per cent of the population. This is 20.5 per cent higher than in July last year, when the survey reported 3.9 mn adults had experienced food insecuri-

ty.

Statistics reveal that rising cost of living leaves 4.7mn Britons struggling to feed themselves leading to sharp increase in food insecurity amid warnings of worse still to come. The stark indicators of hunger come before a once-in-ageneration hit to living standards, as people in the UK brace for a triple whammy of tax rises, increasing energy costs and consumer price inflation.

The decline in living standards for much of the UK population prompted chancellor Rishi Sunak last week to announce a £9 bn package to help struggling

households. On the same day energy regulator Ofgem announced a 54 per cent rise in energy bills and the Bank of England increased interest rates from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent. It warned inflation could hit 7.25 per cent

by April, threatening to limit people’s spending power as a planned increase in National Insurance contributions reduces their take-home pay.

Alarmingly, a Food Foundation survey, based on the responses of more than 4,000 people, found 62 per cent of households experienced higher energy

bills and food shop costs, and 16 per cent cut back on food to afford other essentials. One million adults equivalent to 3.6 per cent of the population - reported they had to go at least one day without eating in the previous month because they couldn’t afford or access food. In July, the figure was 2.6 per cent. Households with children were also more likely to struggle to feed themselves, with 12.1 per cent of households experiencing food insecurity, and 1mn adults reporting they had to go a whole day without eating because they couldn’t afford food.

Rebate on energy bills to benefit 80% households The energy regulator Ofgem announced a £693 rise in its price cap, taking it to £1,971 from April.

Globally, there has been a fourfold increase in the wholesale price of gas. Currently, a £700-a-year rise in the average household’s energy bills is forecasted this year.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made the announcement in the House of Commons on energy rebate, and now further details have been published, which explains households in England, which are in council tax bands A, B, C or D, will get the £150

rebate.

The rebate to bills will be made directly by local authorities from April. This one-off payment will benefit around 80 per cent of all homes in England and is £1billion more generous and more targeted towards lower-income families than a VAT cut on energy bills.

In addition to this discount, discretionary funding of £144 million will also be provided to support vulnerable people and individuals on low incomes that do not pay council tax, or that pay council tax

Tech executives seek more reforms Bosses of tech groups such as Checkout.com, Klarna and Graphcore were invited to Downing Street to meet City minister John Glen and officials to discuss the progress made in attracting founder-led tech companies.

The mood, according to those present, was bullish, underpinned by London Stock Exchange data that more than £6.6bn had been raised by tech and consumer internet companies last year, double 2020 levels.

However, many tech executives expressed doubt over whether the bold words would be sufficient to turn the London market into a destination with more global heft. This concern was highlighted when GP Bullhound, a London-headquartered venture capital

group that invested in Revolut and Klarna, last week raised €200mn for a blank cheque company.

Rather than London, it turned to Amsterdam.

Other executives say short term share price movements should not sway opinion and point to the poor performance for US tech IPOs over the past year.

But others worry the UK in particular needs to prove a point - with valuations much lower than the US and are worried the changes to the listings rules so far are not enough to spark a new wave of tech IPOs this year.

Officials who attended the meeting last week reassured tech bosses the government would introduce further reforms, noting the importance of access to capital.

for properties in Bands E-H. The energy bills rebate will provide around 28 million households with an upfront discount on their bills worth £200. Energy suppliers will apply the discount to domestic electricity with the government meeting the costs. It also comes as welcome news that the government will go ahead with existing proposals to expand eligibility for the Warm Home Discount. This will increase the number of people eligible for the payment by one third, which is around 780,000 families.

PwC investigated by the UK accounting regulator The Financial Reporting Council announced in January that it was investigating PwC’s audits of defence group Babcock over a four-year period. In the past two years, it has also opened probes into the firm’s audits of collapsed mini bond company London Capital and Finance and Wyelands Bank, owned by steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta.

The FRC ordered changes to Galliford Try’s accounts two years ago after it overstated its assets by £94.3mn in its accounts to June 2018. If the regulator finds that PwC failed to meet the required audit standards, it has powers to reprimand the firm, impose a fine and order extra staff training.

The FRC began looking

at the audits more closely after concerns were raised during its routine quality inspections, a source said.

The exact stage of the regulator’s probes into PwC is not known but the source said the firm was likely to seek a settlement with the watchdog rather than defend any potential adverse findings at a public tribunal.

PwC, which paid its UK partners a record average of £868,000 last year, signs off the accounts of 104 companies on the FTSE 350 index, according to data provider Adviser Rankings.

Metaverse will be subjected to stringent UK regulation Virtual worlds, where users’ life like 3D avatars can express themselves in a fuller range of human speech and gestures, present an even greater contentmoderation challenge than the hundreds of millions of written posts and images that flow through Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram every day.

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, flagged potential regulatory risks from its metaverse strategy to investors in a securities filing. Meta has already spent $10bn building its augmented-reality division, seeking to create an avatar-filled virtual world.

According to the experts whose

work underpins the forthcoming Online Safety Bill, the metaverse will be subjected to stringent UK regulation, making tech giants behind the virtual worlds open to billions of pounds of potential fines.

UK ministers, including Chris Philp and Nadine Dorries, have also previously warned that the new law would apply in the metaverse, whatever future form it took. Meta said that safety and privacy will be baked into its metaverse designs and that it had already committed $50mn into research in this area.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has also painted his company’s

$75bn purchase of video games company Activision as central to the future of online interaction as people spend more time in the metaverse.

In fact, Meta’s virtual reality boss, Andrew Bosworth, has admitted that virtual reality can often be a “toxic environment” especially for women and minorities. He said that moderating user behaviour “at any meaningful scale is practically impossible”. Further complicating the path to the metaverse are Meta’s hopes of incorporating blockchain-based digital payments, which it has warned investors will also involve a high degree of legal uncertainty and technical risk.

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

www.asian-voice.com

FINANCE & REAL ESTATE

19

12 - 18 February 2022

Gautam Adani overtakes Mukesh Ambani as Asia's richest person Billionaire Gautam Adani has become Asia’s richest person. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the coal magnet’s net worth reached $88.5 billion on Monday, eclipsing Mukesh Ambani’s $87.9 billion. Adani (59) is now the world’s biggest wealth-gainer this year, with around $12 billion jump in his personal fortune.

Gautam Adani has increasingly looked beyond the fossil fuel for expansion and is moving into renewable energy, airports, data centers, and defense contracting. If 2020 was Ambani’s year

when Reliance Industries created billions of dollars in wealth through a technology pivot that brought in Facebook and Google as investors, the pendulum has now since swung toward Adani.

“The Adani Group has spotted and entered all the happening sectors at the right time, which has appealed to a select band of foreign portfolio investors,” said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at Mumbai-based brokerage HDFC Securities Ltd, according to Bloomberg. “The sectors are capital-intensive and the company has faced

little difficulty in raising funds to expand.”

Some of Adani Group’s listed stocks have soared more than 600 per cent in the past two years on bets his push into green energy and infrastructure will pay off as Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks to revive the $2.9-trillion economy and meet the India’s carbon net-zero target by 2070.

According to a Bloomberg report, both Ambani and Adani, who have built their empires on fossil fuels or coal, are now pushing ahead with green energy projects. Ambani has

Gautam Adani

committed $10 billion over the next three years as part of a larger $76 billion spend plan in renewables. Adani has pledged to invest a total of $70 billion by 2030 to help his group become the world’s largest renewableenergy producer.

Google to build more Banks suggest ways to products in India for the world Reiterating his vision to help India join the digital bandwagon, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said the ongoing investments are a reflection of the Sundar Pichai company's confidence in the future of the country and its digital economy.

The company, which announced a $10 billion Google for India Digitisation Fund last year, has already invested $4.5 billion for a 7.73 per cent stake in Reliance Jio Platforms, along with recently investing up to $1 billion in Bharti Airtel.

"It is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India, its digital economy, our desire to build products there, which we think will help us globally," Pichai said during the company's earnings call. On the company's payment strategy, Pichai said it is thinking deeper about emerging markets like India as it "lines up with our mission of building a more equitable Internet for everyone".

Pichai is also bullish on YouTube's future in the country.

"When I look at YouTube in India, some of the commerce ideas we talked about earlier, you may see as the first stride in India first because we can get quicker feedback, a very dynamic, youthful population," he noted. "So we'll do it there (in India) and then roll it out globally. We are constantly looking for opportunities like that," Pichai added. YouTube Shorts continues to drive significant engagement for the company globally including in India. "We just hit 5 trillion all-time views and have over 15 billion views each day globally. This is helping our creator community reach newer and bigger audiences," Pichai added.

Govt to decide on the size of LIC IPO soon The Centre will soon decide on the size of initial public offer of state-run insurance giant LIC, a top official said, asserting that the government will provide a fresh push to the privatisation of oil marketing firm BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and a clutch of other public sector units.

“LIC IPO will happen this year, we are planning that. Nothing stops us from going beyond the target of £7.8 billion,” Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary, department of investment and public asset management said. He said the budget estimate of £7.8 billion for disinvestment this year is an indicative estimate.

Pandey said the transaction for metals

company Nilachal Ispat Nigam (NINL) will be completed as well. Tata Steel emerged as the winning bidder for NINL with a £1.21 billion bid. He said transactions for SCI, BEML were also in fairly advanced stage. “BPCL is another transaction where we are persuading the bidders to hurry up,” said Pandey, while detailing the impact of pandemic on asset sales programme. He said the climate change and energy transition issues and queries from bidders on these had also delayed the transaction.

resolve litigation over Future Retail

Pushing ownership over the litigation-mired assets of Future Retail (FRL) owned by the beleaguered Kishore Biyani-led group, a consortium of 27 banks told the Supreme Court that the best way out of the present mess is to ask both Reliance Retail and Amazon to make open competitive bids for the assets, with a base price of £1.7 billion.

The consortium, which also included 10 private and three foreign banks, through senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, told the SC bench that the current outstanding against FRL is around £1.7 billion and that the loans were advanced between 2015 and 2020,

much before Amazon initiated arbitration proceedings to shut out Reliance from acquiring Future’s retail chain of stories.

“Since loans and repayments were governed by separate agreements between banks and FRL, both Amazon and Reliance can have no say on the manner in which the banks, which are repositories of public money, want to monetise FRL assets. The contracts Future Coupons’ with Amazon and FRL’s with Reliance - are private in nature but the agreement between FRL and banks involve public interest,” Dwivedi said.

New hunting ground

Suresh Vagjiani, Sow & Reap Properties Ltd

The London market is over heated, this is a result of lack of supply; less properties are coming on to the market than previously, whilst demand is at an all time high.

Recent events have caused this uplift in price to spill out into the surrounding countryside as well. Predictably, large houses with spare bedrooms and gardens are on the top of buyers lists, flats are bottom. In the last 18 months, UK’s average house prices have gone up by 16%.

This has driven us to look further afield for deals. Last week, I took a trip up to Manchester to see some opportunities there. This is not an area where I would go in cold, I had the expertise of a local businessman who is well established in the area and part of the fabric. He is also a prolific property investor as well.

Initially, we were involved in arranging some development funding for him. It was when I started looking at some of the returns he was looking to generate, my attention was caught; this prompted me to take a visit and explore further. There is a portfolio for sale by order of the court, as the beneficiaries could not make up their minds as how to divvy up the assets.

Typically with sales such as this the properties have been underlet, and generally in a poor condition. This was no exception. What attracted me to the deal, was there was potential to uplift on the rent substantially, thereby increasing the value.

All the portfolio consisted of commercial properties consisting of shop and uppers, where the whole property had been rented to the commercial tenant.

I saw various opportunities with this. Firstly, to build out into the pitched roof, for which there was precedent.

Then, split the commercial away from the uppers.

The potential upside on this deal is substantial, and whilst you are doing this there is rental income coming in from day one. This takes the pressure off the deal, and in fact it is cash flowing strongly at over 7%, allowing for the funding costs this would generate roughly about £72K per annum. On a commercial property this would be an FRI lease therefore there would be no agent’s fees, or maintenance costs. This looks like a very lucrative deal, with several angles to add value; the kind of deal which we focus on. We were sharpening our pencils to present an offer this week, we would have been coming in at £2.4M. However, yesterday I had a call saying there had been an offer made for £2.8M, prior to even the deadline!

I was asked if we still wanted to go ahead with the offer.

It’s always good to go ahead even if you’re not in pole position. Many deals have come back to us, when the front runner either couldn’t perform or took too long in closing the deal. Regardless of how this deal goes, the appetite has been whetted for this region in the UK, and if not this deal, another will pop up when the time is right.

India’s digital currency to debut by early 2023 India’s official digital currency is likely to debut by early 2023, which will mirror any of the currently available private com pany-o perated electronic wallets, but with a change that it will be a sovereignbacked facility, a top government source said. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech last week talked about launching a central bank-backed ‘digital rupee’ soon.

A top government source said the digital currency issued by the RBI would be numbered in units, just like every fiat currency has an unique number. “The units issued in digital rupee would be included in the currency in circulation. It would not be very different from fiat currency. It would be more like an electronic form of fiat currency, so in a sense it would be a government-mandated electronic wallet,” the source said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has indicated that the digital rupee would be ready by the end of next financial year, the source added. The digital rupee blockchain, being developed by the Reserve Bank, would be able to trace all transactions, unlike the current system of mobile wallet offered by private companies. Explaining further, the source said that using electronic wallet offered by private companies, people currently transfer money to the private company who holds the money on his/her behalf and pays to a merchant when there is any transaction.

Reliance aims to acquire Sintex for £280 mn Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has submitted a revised resolution plan to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad, to acquire the debt-ridden Sintex Industries Ltd for an offer of £270 to £280 million to the financial creditors, sources said.

RIL has reportedly entered into a partnership with Assets Care & Reconstruction Enterprise (ACRE) for the bid to acquire Sintex, said sources. The RIL offer includes payment to financial creditors and equity infusion for working capital requirements, said sources. In a BSE filing, Sintex Industries said the interim resolution professional has received revised resolution plans

from all four prospective resolution applicants.

Sintex Industries, which was promoted by Amit Patel and family, specialises in the premium fashion industry. It provides fabric to global clients such as Armani, Hugo Boss, Diesel and Burberry.

Other bidders include Welspun Group' Easygo Textiles, GHCL, and Himatsingka Ventures, according to sources.

"Revised Resolution Plans received from all four PRAs shall be evaluated by the Interim Resolution Professional and then shall be placed before the Committee of Creditors, for its further consideration," Sintex said in its stock exchange filing.

20

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

China lost 42 soldiers, not 4, in Galwan valley clash, claims report NEW DELHI: China lost 42 soldiers in the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash, at least nine times more than the four it has acknowledged, a report quoted by Australian newspaper "The Klaxon" has said. The report is by a group of social media researchers.

Here are the top 10 updates on this story: At least 38 soldiers were killed while attempting to cross the fast-flowing Galwan River in the early stages of the June 15-16 clash, says the report prepared after a year-long investigation. The soldiers were crossing the river in sub-zero temperatures and in darkness.

Of the four soldiers China confirmed had died, only one Junior Sergeant Wang Zhuoran- reportedly drowned, the investigative newspaper said, citing the report titled

"Galwan Decoded".

The report cited "several Weibo users" and said, "at least 38 PLA (People's Liberation Army) troops along with Wang were washed away and drowned that night...of which only Wang was declared among the four officially dead soldiers".

"Comrades in arms kept slipping and being rushed downstream," the report said, adding, "After the incident, the bodies of the soldiers were first taken to Shiquanhe Martyr

Cemetery, followed by local ceremonies at the local towns of the killed soldiers."

It quoted a Weibo user (Qiang) as claiming to have served in the area. The user claimed that the Chinese army was creating infrastructure in the buffer zone, violating the mutual agreement and had been trying to expand its patrolling limits within the buffer zone since April 2020.

"PLA did not adhere to its promise...and instead of dismantling its own infrastructure as agreed upon, secretly dismantled the river crossing bridge constructed by the Indian army," said the report.

Beijing went to "extreme lengths to silence discussion about the battle" and in partic-

ular, any "discussion about the true number Chinese casualties''.

The Klaxon cites the report as saying that a division of the Xinjiang Miltary Region "organized officers and soldiers to go to the Shiquane Martyr Cemetary to lay flowers to the revolutionary martyrs, organize party members to take an oath and sweep the tombs for heroes".

The investigation involved "discussions with mainland Chinese bloggers, information obtained from mainland-based Chinese citizens and media reports that have since been deleted by Chinese authorities.''

India had officially announced that 20 soldiers were killed in action in the clashes that were the deadliest since the 1962 war.

After Abu Dhabi, Bahrain allots land to construct Hindu temple After Abu Dhabi, Bahrain has allotted land to construct a Hindu temple. Swaminarayan Sanstha will take up the construction work. Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed this through a tweet after he spoke to His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Modi’s tweet reads: “Had a warm conversation with HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain.

Thanked him for the Kingdom’s

attention to the needs of the Indian community, including recent decision on land allotment for the Swaminarayan temple”.

Had a warm conversation with HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince & Prime Minister of Bahrain. Thanked him for the Kingdom's attention to the needs of the Indian community, including recent decision on land allotment for the Swaminarayan temple.

According to Khaleej Times, Brahmavihari Swami, a religious leader, has met His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

Hindu businessman shot dead in Pakistan ISLAMABAD: Sutan Lal Dewan, 50, a Hindu businessman, was gunned down when he was returning home from a cotton factory in Daharki town of Ghotki. One of his relatives was also injured in the attack. In fact, this was the second attempt on Lal’s life.

He had posted a video on social media after the first attack, appealing to law enforcement authorities to protect him from people who were threatening to kill him.

In the video, he alleged that his nephew and his four accomplices attacked him over a land dispute. Lal had said the attackers told him to leave Pakistan and settle in India. “Despite threats, I would live and die in my native Sindh,” Lal could be heard as saying in the clip. “I filed a report about the attack and threats, but police haven’t taken any action,” Lal had said in the video.

The murder in Ghotki district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, highlights the plight of minorities as police had

ignored the man’s calls drawing attention to death threats after a previous attack that left him gravely wounded.

The murder triggered protests in several towns of Ghotki, with Hindus, traders and human rights groups staging demonstrations. A complete shutdown was also observed in the towns of Daharki, Pano Aqil and Mirpur Mathello to mourn his death. Traffic was disrupted as protesters put his body on the highway, demanding speedy justice.

Lal’s shooting followed the murder of a Christian priest in Peshawar recently.

“Yesterday it was a Christian and today a Hindu. Minorities are among the most vulnerable here,” the minority wing of the main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ( PML-N) tweeted in response to Lal’s murder. Krishan Sharma from PM Imran Khan’s PTI party blamed the provincial government of Sindh for failing to protect religious minorities.

of Bahrain and Prince Salman several times in the last few years. He is also overseeing the construction work of BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi.

Brahmavihari Swami said that when Pramukhaswami Maharaj arrived in Bahrain during a pilgrimage in 1997, for the first time in the history of Bahrain, a religious leader was invited to the Royal Palace in Bahrain. Sheikh Isa asked Pramukhaswami Maharaj, where is your house? At the time, the devotees told Sheikh

Isa that “Swami Shri is constantly on the move. He has no house anywhere, but has visited 15,000 villages and over two-and-a-half lakh houses. To this, Sheikh Isa lovingly said, “Make Bahrain your home. ” Recalling the occasion, an overjoyed Crown Prince told Bahraini officials present that the country’s main slogan should be ‘Make Bahrain your home’.

1 mn Afghans flee to Iran as economic condition worsens

KABUL: Over one million Afghans flee to Iran as the economy has collapsed in the wartorn nation. The immediate economic crisis, the prospect of long term Taliban governance including restrictions on women and fears of retribution - has added to the urgency of citizens opting to flee from the country.

Aid organisations estimate that around 4,000 to 5,000 people are crossing into Iran each day. According to a report from October 2021 to the end of January 2022, more than a million Afghans have fled to Iran.

According to David

Mansfield who is a researcher tracking Afghan migration “There’s an exponential increase in Afghanistan through this route.” He estimates that up to four times as many Afghans were leaving the country for Pakistan and then Iran each day in January compared with the same time last year.

The mass exodus has raised alarms across the region and in Europe, where politicians fear a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis, when more than a million people, mostly Syrians, sought asylum in Europe, setting off a populist backlash.

in brief CASH-STRAPPED PAK TO LEND LANKA $200M Cash-strapped Pakistan has decided to lend Sri Lanka a $200 million loan for the purchase of rice and cement. The decision was made during a recent visit of the Sri Lankan trade minister to Islamabad, a report said. However, the terms and duration of the loan were being finalised by the authorities from both the countries, it added. Sri Lanka will use the amount for the import of rice and cement from Pakistan. Sri Lanka’s secretary to the treasury Sajith Attygalle confirmed that Islamabad and Colombo have agreed on the $200 million credit line in principle while the details of the credit is yet to be worked out, according to the Colombo-based Daily Mirror newspaper. The amount will be used to import cement, basmati rice and medicines manufactured in Pakistan, the publication added. Sri Lanka has been facing a shortage of cement which has led to skyrocketing prices.

MORE THAN 100 KILLED IN SYRIA PRISON ATTACK At least 120 people have been killed in ongoing battles between US-backed, Kurdish-led forces and ISIL (ISIS) fighters after an attack on a Syrian prison. The UKbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “at least 77 IS members and 39 Kurdish fighters, including internal security forces, prison guards and counter-terrorism forces have been killed” in the attack. ISIL claimed responsibility for the prison break on its Amaq media mouthpiece. A video it released purported to show armed men infiltrating the prison and raising the group’s black flag as they stormed the Kurdish-run Ghwayran jail in Hasakeh city. At least seven civilians were also killed in the fighting. The Kurdishled Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it tightened its siege, aided by US-led troops, and that 17 of its soldiers had been killed.

KENYAN AIRWAYS VOWS TO STOP TRANSPORTING MONKEYS Kenya Airways has announced it will not renew its contract with a Mauritius breeding farm to transport monkeys from the Indian Ocean Island to the United States (US) to be used in laboratory experiments. Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph confirmed that the airline shipped the long-tailed Macaques from the island nation of Mauritius to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

From there, the monkeys were placed on a truck that later crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

One of the monkeys was corralled at the scene. three others became the subjects of a lengthy search by Pennsylvania State Police and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which located and euthanized the animals. "As a conservationist, I am equally horrified even though I am assured that ... every international guideline has been followed," Joseph told People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA in an email.

ITALY'S 80-YEAR-OLD PRESIDENT SWORN IN FOR A SECOND TERM Italian President Sergio Mattarella received an astounding 55 rounds of applause from an otherwise divided parliament after he was sworn in to a second term in office.

Mattarella, 80, agreed to remain in office after Italy’s fractious parties failed to agree on a successor, citing a sense of responsibility given the ongoing pandemic and efforts to relaunch the economy. Mattarella’s decision to remain in office as head of state is expected to allow the current government, headed by Premier Mario Draghi, to finish its mandate, which expires next year. The role is largely ceremonial, but can also require institutional knowledge and deft negotiations to navigate political crises.

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

21

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

in brief VIOLENCE, PROTESTS MARK MYANMAR COUP ANNIVERSARY A nationwide strike in Myanmar marked the one-year anniversary of the army’s seizure of power, as sporadic protests and violence across the country raised further international concern over the ongoing struggle for power. Photos and video on social media showed that a countrywide “silent strike” had emptied out streets in Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon and other towns as people’s show of opposition to army rule.

CHEF MAKES SCULPTURE OF CHOCOLATE TIGERS If you are a regular on Instagram, then you might have come across the page of a famous pastry chef named Amaury Guichon. He is a Swiss-French pastry chef who is known for his pastry designs and chocolate sculptures. This time he has taken to Instagram to share a video of himself making a tiger sculpture out of chocolate. It is to mark the Lunar New Year that's better known as the Chinese New Year 2022. The video opens to show Guichon in the process of making the tiger as he prepares moulds after moulds, filled with chocolate. He keeps shaping them according to how a tiger cub would be shaped. From its face, to its ears, tail and paws - everything looks just as realistic as an actual tiger cub would. He finishes the tiger sculpture by spraying some edible paint onto it and marking some stripes on the cub.

'ALL-AMERICAN GIRL' TURNED JIHADIST DENIED BAIL A woman from Kansas once known as a doe-eyed "all-American girl" will remain in custody before facing terrorism charges for allegedly leading a female Islamic State fighting squadron. Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, is accused of training children as young as six to use machine guns and planning to commit "violent jihad". She was denied bail after appearing in court in Virginia last week. She faces decades in prison. How the former school teacher, who said she prefers to go by the surname Ekrens, went from Midwestern wife to terror fanatic who rose in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) group to command her own all-female battalion is a mystery. Larry Miller, who was Ekren's science teacher when she was a teenager in Topeka, Kansas, in the 1990s, said that he was utterly stunned by the news of her IS ties. He remembered her fondly as a bright student during the years that she attended the fee-paying school where he taught.

US ARMY DISCHARGING SOLDIERS WHO REFUSE VACCINE US soldiers who refuse to get a Covid-19 vaccine will be immediately discharged, the US army said, saying the move was critical to maintain combat readiness. The army’s order applies to regular army soldiers, active-duty army reservists and cadets unless they have approved or pending exemptions, it said. The order is the latest from a US military branch after the Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory for all service members in August 2021. The vast majority of all active duty troops have received at least one dose.

Gandhi statue vandalised in New York NEW YORK: A life-sized bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi, located in Union Square near Manhattan, was vandalised, an act strongly condemned as ‘despicable' by the Consulate General of India, triggering shock and disappointment among the Indian-American community.

The satue was defaced by some unknown persons, the Consulate General of India in New York said. “The Consulate condemns this act in the strongest terms,” it said, adding that the matter has been taken up with authorities.

“The matter has also been taken up with the US state department for imme-

diate investigation and we urged appropriate action against those responsible for this despicable act,” it said. The 8foot-high statue was donated by the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, and was dedicated on October 2, 1986 to mark the 117th birth anniversary of Gandhi.

Incidentally, the statue was removed in 2001, conserved and reinstalled in a landscape garden area in 2002. Last month, unknown miscreants had similarly vandalised, broken and ripped from the base another statue of Gandhi in a park in California.

India comes to Lanka’s rescue with $500 mn credit COLOMBO: India has come to the rescue of Sri Lanka with a $500 million line of credit (LOC), as it faces one of its worst financial crises leading to breakdown of power and fuel supplies. India's assistance followed discussions between the two sides during the visit of Lankan finance minister to India in December last. With the recent support, India’s overall development assistance to Lanka stands at close to $4 billion. Meanwhile, the Indian Oil company has announced the supply 40,000

metric tons of diesel to the country to generate electricity.

India's Exim bank and the Sri Lanka government signed an agreement for purchase of petroleum products in the presence of Lanka’s finance minister.

The Indian support for fuel imports by Lanka from India, through the LOC, is in response to Sri Lanka’s request for assistance. This critical support comes in the wake of a virtual between India’s meeting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Lankan presi-

dent Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on January 15, during which they discussed a range of issues.

Expats urged to send money home Meanwhile, Lankan president has urged the expats settled abroad to send money home as it struggles with the worst economic as coronavirus has dealt a heavy blow to an economy that depends heavily on tourism and trade. The government has estimated a loss of $14bn over the last two years. The economy is estimated to have contracted by

1.5 per cent in July-September 2021, according to the central bank.

Addressing a ceremony marking the independence day in Colombo, Gotabhaya urged expatriate Sri Lankans to invest in their homeland. Data shows that overseas remittances have fallen by nearly 60 per cent to $812m in December from a year earlier. Because of the currency shortage, importers are unable to clear their cargo and manufacturers are unable to buy raw materials from overseas.

Indian-origin man in Singapore Maldives to make antiIndia protests a crime sentenced to death SINGAPORE: A Malaysian man of Indian-origin has been sentenced to death by a court here for delivering heroin in Singapore and acting as a middleman for drug traffickers, according to a media report.

Kishor Kumar Raguan, 41, delivered a bag containing more than 900 grams of a powdery substance in July 2016. The four bundles inside the bag were later analysed and found that it contain 36.5 grams of heroin.

The law provides for the death penalty if the amount of heroin trafficked is more than 15 grams.

Singaporean national of Chinese-origin Pung Ah Kiang, 61, who received the bag from Raguan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for possessing the drugs for the purpose of trafficking. High court Justice Audrey Lim said she found that both Raguan and Pung knew that the bundles contained heroin.

Rejecting Raguan's defence that he believed the bag contained "stones", the judge said the Indian-origin man, who was involved in drug activities, had failed to show that he genuinely believed the bundles contained something innocuous. She found that Kishor was told that

the items to be delivered were "kallu", which he knew referred to heroin.

Justice Lim also rejected Pung's claim that he did not know what was in the bag and was merely keeping it temporarily for his brother-in-law. She imposed life imprisonment on Pung as he was certified by the prosecution to have substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities, the report said. "As the prosecution did not issue Kishor with a certificate of substantive assistance... I passed the mandatory death sentence on him," a report quoted the judge as saying. Raguan had brought the bag containing the bundles of drugs into Singapore on July 29, 2016, and delivered it to Pung near his Paya Lebar condominium.

MALE: The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is coming up with a bill that will make sloganeering and demonstrations against India a crime. Recently many videos have surfaced on social media, in which people of Maldives are seen protesting against the Indian government wearing T-shirts of 'India Out'.

The MDP believes that bilateral relations are affected by such demonstrations. Therefore they should be banned.

According to the report, 'India Out' campaign is being run by former President Abdulla Yameen the country. The government is considering bringing a new bill to declare such campaigns illegal. Its objective is to adopt a balanced foreign policy, which will prove effective in strengthening its relations with other countries. Under the new bill, a fine of 20,000 Maldivian rufiyaa will be charged from those raising anti-India slogans. Along with this, there is also a provision of imprisonment for 6 months or detention for 1 year. An MDP leader said, 'We have a clear majority in the 87-member Parliament. So it does not matter who is opposing the bill. We feel that there is a need to enact such a strict law, because our and India's security is intertwined. However, voices are also being raised against this bill. Opponents say that this is a violation of democratic rights to protest. Yameen has accused India of interfering in the country's internal politics and the current government of Maldives in collusion with India. By the way, this is not the first time that there have been protests against the Indian Army and the Government of India in Maldives. A similar protest took place in the year 2012, after which Indian airport operator GMR had to leave Maldives that year and return to India.

Panic grips devotees, priests of Hindu temples in Canada TORONTO: There is an atmosphere of panic among priests and devotees of Hindu temples in the Greater Toronto Area due to the frequent incidents of sabotage and theft. For the last 10 days, there have been incidents of sabotage in about 6 places of worship. In addition to stealing cash from the donation box of the temple, the miscreants involved in this debate also stole the ornaments adorned on the idols.

This process of theft and vandalism in temples has started from January 15. On

this day there was a failed attempt to vandalize the Hanuman temple in the GTA city of Brampton. On January 25, the temple of Goddess Durga was demolished in this

city. Even after these two incidents, the miscreants also created a ruckus in the Gauri Shankar temple and Jagannath temple.

On January 30, two men vandalized the donation box and the main office by barging into the Hindu Heritage Center in Mississauga. According to a report, two masked men caught in security camera pictures spend a lot of time inside the temple premises and target the donation box and the orna-

ments adorned on the idol of God. In a release issued by Hindu Heritage, it has been said that the police have confirmed that this is the same group of persons who enter the temples early in the morning and carry out the thefts. The security of the temple has been tightened after this incident.

Volunteers associated with the temple has started the night shift for the temple premises.

At the same time, after the incidents of theft and sabotage, the police have also promised to increase the security of the temples.

22

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

PM Modi unveils Statue of Equality in Hyderabad Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week inaugurated the 216foot tall 'Statue of Equality', honouring the 11th-century Hindu saint Ramanujacharya.

"This statue of Ramanujacharya ji is a symbol of his knowledge, detachment, and ideals," he said.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the Statue of Equality commemorates Ramanujacharya, who promoted the idea of equality in all aspects of living including faith, caste and creed.

"Today Ramanujacharya ji is giving us the message of equality in the form of a huge Statue of Equality," said the Prime Minister. The statue is made of 'panchaloha', a combination of five metals:

gold, silver, copper, brass, and zinc and is among one of the tallest metallic statues in sitting position, in the world.

It is mounted on a 54-feet high base building, named 'Bhadra Vedi', has floors devoted for a Vedic digital library and research centre, ancient Indian texts, a theatre,

an educational gallery detailing many works of Sri Ramanujacharya. statue The among the world's tallest - has been conceptualised by Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swami of Sri Ramanujacharya Ashram. As part of the event, the Prime Minister visited the recreations of 108 Divya Desams (ornately carved temples) that surround the Statue of Equality.

KCR skips PM Modi's event Amid the escalated war of words between the TRS and the BJP, Telangana cief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao skipped

in brief DAY AFTER ATTACK, OWAISI REFUSES ‘Z’ SECURITY Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city. KCR, as the chief minister is also known, said he was "unwell" and hence couldn't make it.

The absence irked the saffron party which said KCR failed to follow the protocol and alleged that amounted to insulting the Prime Minister.

Justifying KCR's staying away from the PM programmes, TRS party, in its twitter page, said there is no necessity for the CM to receive PM during a private visit.

China, Pak rake up J&K issue after Xi-Imran meet China and Pakistan raked up Jammu and Kashmir again as they brought up the issue in a joint statement, following President Xi Jinping’s meeting Pak PM Imran Khan in Beijing, with China saying it opposed any “unilateral actions” that complicates the situation.

While there was no official response by India, sources said China and Pakistan should remember that the Union Territory is an integral and inalienable part of India.

According to the statement, the Pakistan side briefed the Chinese on the latest developments on the situation in J&K, including its concerns, position and pressing issues.

China “reiterated” that the Kashmir issue was a dispute left from history and should be peacefully resolved based on the “UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements”.

This is not the first time

though that China and Pakistan have referred to the situation in J&K in their bilateral documents. India has in the past dismissed such references as interference in its internal affairs.

Russia rejects report Menwhile, Russia has rejected a report by ‘redfish channel’, categorised on Twitter as Russia state-affiliated media, describing Kashmir as another Palestine in the making. The Russian embassy said in a statement that Moscow continued to follow a policy of

non-interference in bilateral issues.

The redfish channel describes itself as a multi award winning digital content creator which specialises in producing short and in-depth documentaries in collaboration with people "involved in grassroots struggles worldwide to build an alternative to the ruling capitalist system". Many have alleged that it is backed by Kremlin. In a documentary on Jammu and Kashmir, it has said the Union Territory is fast becoming a "settler-colonial state”. The video is titled “Kashmir: Palestine in the Making’.

Lata Mangeshkar bids adieu Continued from page 1 The Union government declared two days of national mourning. In Maharashtra, a state funeral was announced within an hour after the news broke. The final rites were conducted at Shivaji Park in the presence of family members, admirers and dignitaries.

Her death marks the end of a momentous age in which cinema emerged as an instrument of socio-cultural assimilation. With the finest musicians and lyric poets flocking to the industry after 1947, filmdom's golden era peaked at the same time as Lata's career. Singing stars of an earlier era were replaced by professional playback artists, and the chanteuse became the standard against which female voices were measured. “The industry realised artistic and commercial merit of a song thanks to her,” said cinema chronicler Veerchand Dharamsey. In a career of seven decades, Lata is believed to have recorded over 7,000 songs in 30 languages. Private albums of bhajans and ghazals added to her vast repertoire.

Generations of actors - from Kamini Kaushal to Kajol and Bina Rai to Aishwarya Rai - lip-synched to her work. Her ability to capture an emotion was perfect for celluloid. Female leads would ask for songs to be picturised on them to be rendered by her. Record companies and radio channels enhanced her popularity, not to speak of countless verse booklets printed out of nondescript printing presses. It was a voice that symbolised “youth, freshness and passion,” said classical exponent Shruti Sadolikar.

Lata was cremated with full state honours on Sunday evening in a funeral

attended by the country’s top leaders and personalities. Her funeral saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, and actors like Shah Rukh Khan lay a wreath on her mortal remains. Also present were Javed Akhtar, Vidya Balan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Siddharth Roy Kapur among others.

The Home Ministry said the national flag will be flown at half-mast from February 6 to 7 throughout India. They said there will be no official entertainment. “I am anguished beyond words,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet.

“She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerize people.”

Tributes poured in from all over the world. Actor Amitabh Bachchan penned a note for her on his blog and paid his respects to her mortal remains at her house. He was accompanied by his daughter Shweta Bachchan. Others to pay tribute to the late singer on social media include Akshay Kumar and his wife Twinkle Khanna, Dharmendra, and his wife Hema Malini, Oscar winning music composer AR Rahman, Anuradha Paudwal,

and several others from the arts, politics and industry.

Lata didi, as she was fondly called by everyone, has an inspiring career spanning seven decades. She has recorded over 25,000 songs in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, and other regional languages. Over her life, she has been honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, National Award, and Filmfare Awards.

Thousands line up to bid farewell While PM Narendra Modi flew down to Mumbai for the state funeral which was held at Shivaji Park, thousands of Mumbaikars lined the route from Lata’s Prabhu Kunj, Pedder Road, residence to Shivaji Park when the body, draped in a tricolour, was carried in an open, flowerbedecked army truck to bid farewell to their favourite singer.

CM Uddhav Thackeray awarded the singer a state funeral at the maidan, where such a singular honour was last given to his father, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

Earlier, Lata’s body was escorted by the Thackerays, including MNS leader Raj Thackeray, from hospital to her nearby residence at 1 pm. Lata’s siblings Asha Bhosle and Meena, Usha and Hridaynath Mangeshkar boarded the bedecked truck bearing the body, and nephews and nieces walked beside the cortege. Luminaries led

by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, actor Amitabh Bachchan, lyricist Javed Akhtar and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali visited the house to commiserate, while scores of music celebrities, apart from actor Shah Rukh Khan and former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, arrived for the cremation.

Asaduddin Owaisi

A day after his car was fired upon from close range in western UP, AIMIM member Asaduddin Owaisi said he does not want ‘Z’ category security issued by government but is desirous of ‘A’ category citizen’s status “like you all”, as he questioned why has UAPA not been slapped on those responsible for the attack and those who are radicalising youth.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, Owaisi said threats were issued to him by name in the“dharma sansads” held in Hardwar, Raipur and Prayagraj, and the government should look into them. “If someone gives a speech or posts support for a cricket team on Facebook, they are booked under UAPA. But no UAPA for (attack on) a sitting MP?” he said.

STRONG EARTHQUAKE HITS J&K A 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit Jammu and Kashmir last week, causing damage to the spire of a famous Sufi shrine in Chrar-e Sharief but there were no reports of any loss of life, officials said. The epicentre of the quake was at the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border. Strong tremors were felt in Jammu and Kashmir, they said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to enquire about the situation in the union territory following the earthquake.

The officials said the quake hit at latitude 36.34 degrees north and longitude 71.05 degrees east at a depth of 181 km. The tremors damaged the spire of the revered shrine of Sheikh Noorud-Din Noorani, popularly known as "Nund Rishi".

MAN WANTED IN 1993 MUM BLASTS CASE HELD A man wanted by the Indian authorities in connection with the1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case has recently been held in the UAE. However, officials here said it was not clear in which part of the UAE he was held in. The accused, Abu Bakar alias Abdul Gafoor, was involved in landing of RDX explosives that were used in the blasts and was also a part of the planning and the conspiracy along with fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and his brothers, police said. The UAE authorities confirmed to Indian security agencies about his arrest and are in the process of deporting him to India. A close aide of Dawood, Bakar had fled to Dubai soon after the blasts.

AAP CANDIDATES IN GOA PLEDGE AGAINST DEFECTION Weeks after Congress party candidates took a public oath in front of religious deities against defecting to other political parties after elections, candidates of the AAP in Goa signed affidavits against switching political parties after the February 14 polls. At a press conference in Panaji, Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal also said that the issue of defections had reached “world record” proportions in Goa, calling for the strengthening of anti-defection laws in the country. “Anti defection laws need to be strengthened in India. Especially in the case of Goa. If an MLA wants to defect for reasons of ‘defection’ then they need to go back to the people,” Kejriwal said.

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com

23

12 - 18 February 2022

Positive developments in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir over the past two years A) Governance All Central laws have been extended to the Union Territory including legislations meant for protecting and promoting social, economic and political rights of women, children, underprivileged sections as well as those for ensuring transparent and accountable governance. These include the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2007 etc.

Strengthening Grass-root democracy – Elections were conducted for District Development Council in October -November 2020, with 51.7 per cent voter turnout. Jammu and Kashmir amended the Panchayat Act for the establishment of the 3rd tier of Panchayats at the district level. Earlier, elections to Block Development Councils (BDC) were held for the first time in the history of J&K in October 2019 with 98.3 per cent voter turnout. For the first time, women benefited from reservation bringing them into mainstream politics.

The delimitation process in J&K is being fasttracked. J&K Delimitation Commission in its first draft has proposed to increase six seats for the Jammu Division and one for the Kashmir Division besides reserving 16 seats for the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.

Nearly INR 1727 crore (USD 230 million) has been devolved through Panchayat institutions for MGNREGA, Mid Day meals and other programs. Exposure and training visits for the newly elected BDC chairpersons and sarpanches to other states have been conducted.

44 Digital village centres have been established at Gram Panchayat to provide internet access to rural areas as well as access to e-delivery of Government services.

The third phase of a unique participatory program ‘Back to Village’ which aims at delivering equitable development was conducted in October 2020. Over 70,000 ration cards were seeded with Aadhar while 50,000 families were covered under state-sponsored Health Insurance Schemes.

Under the same Back to Village program over 15,000 loans have been sanctioned which included 4600 loans for women entrepreneurs. To improve infrastructure in villages, over 20,000 development works have been identified directly by the people.

Under the Budget Estimation Allocation Monitoring System – information regarding funds released by the Government for developmental projects can be monitored, thus ensuring transparency in allocation and disbursement of Government funds.

An integrated grievance redressal and monitoring system was launched in September 2020, to provide an online grievance redressal system to the people of J&K. Over 85,000 grievances have been received, with over 90 % of grievances being satisfactorily dealt with.

B) Infrastructure Development Under Prime Minister’s Development Package 54 projects have been identified with the investment of INR 56,261 crores (USD 7.5 billion). 20 of these projects have been completed/substantially completed. 13 more are likely to be completed by the end of 2021-22 and the remaining by 2022-23.

The completed projects include the all-weather 8.45 km long hi-tech tunnel between Qazigund and Banihal built at a cost of USD 420 million. Rambagh flyover in Jammu has been completed. IIT Jammu has started functioning from its own campus while work on AIIMS Jammu has started.

The Udhampur-Sringara-Baramulla Railway Link project is under construction. The world’s highest railway bridge is being built over the Chenab river for this link.

Power generation capacity is to be doubled in the next 3 years. 3500 MW of hydro-power capacity was

installed in the last seven decades, another 2500 MW is to be added by 2024-25. Pakal Dul (1000 MW) and Kiru (624 MW) hydroelectric projects have commenced. Additional agreements to install a further 4674 MW capacity have been signed with an investment of INR 34882 crores (USD 4.5 billion).

Jammu and Kashmir achieved 100 household electrification. Over 350,000 beneficiaries were covered by laying down new electric cables in remote areas and thus eliminating the dependency on diesel generators.

All 18.16 lakh rural households of J&K to have functional household tap connections by March 2022.

During 2020-21, 1289 road construction works were completed at a cost of INR 1638 crores (USD 220 million). Construction work of 14500 km of road has been completed so far under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, which has connected about 2000 places.

C) Industrial Development J&K Industrial Development Policy 2021-30 has been notified with an outlay of INR 28,400 crores to provide incentives to all new industrial units being set up in the UT as well as any existing units undertaking substantial expansions. J&K Industrial Land Allotment Policy 2021-30 has been adopted under which land has been allocated to 15 industrial projects with a projected investment of INR 1,548 crore (200 million USD).

Single window clearance rules have been notified.

Investment - Jammu and Kashmir has received investment proposals of over USD 4 billion. The J&K Government has also entered into six agreements with global investors at the Dubai Expo 2020 to bring in investments in real estate, infrastructure, tourism, healthcare and manpower development.

D) Employment Opportunities and skill training Quick and transparent recruitment process.

Nearly 2000 people were hired and 15,000 vacancies were identified.

Centres for Invention, Innovation, Incubation and Training have been established in Jammu and Baramulla as a joint venture between the Government and Tata Technologies, to provide training to unemployed engineers.

Two IT parks, one each in Jammu and Srinagar to be established. Rural BPOs in all district headquarters to be established.

Under the Back to Village Programme/Mission Youth initiative of the Government, the Jammu and Kashmir Bank has sanctioned 16,000 loans amounting to Rs. 260 crore, out of which, self-employment loan to 11,000 cases amounting to Rs. 175 crore has been disbursed.

During FY 2021-22 nearly 140,000 persons have been covered under various self-employment schemes of the Government.

The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has approved a business revival package of Rs.1352.99 crore on 25th September 2020, which has a direct bearing on the creation of job avenues in J&K. A new Wool Processing, Handicrafts and Handloom Policy 2020 has been adopted for the promotion and development of the Handicrafts and Handloom sector. Financial Support Scheme to the tune of Rs. 100,000 for each Cooperative/Self Help Group in the Handicrafts and Handloom Sector has been approved. The government has also approved a new Credit Card Scheme for providing a loan of INR 200,000 for Artisans/Weavers with interest subvention of 7% for five years.

E) Social inclusion Social Security schemes have been expanded to include over 270,000 additional people. Transgender people have been added for the first time to provide them with pension benefits.

100 % saturation has been achieved in 17 individual beneficiary centric schemes, including Saubhagya (universal household electrification), Ujala (domestic lighting program), Ujjwala (LPG connections to deprived households) and Indradhanush (full immunization of children) schemes.

F) Health Free and universal healthcare insurance scheme in J&K has been extended to all residents of the Union Territory. J&K has one of the highest budget allocations for the healthcare sector (5%) in India.

Seven new medical colleges and hospitals including 2 AIIMS, 2 cancer institutes, bone institutes and child hospitals are being established in J&K. Jammu and Kashmir has been rated a front runner in Niti Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and well being) after improving its score by 8 points between 2019-20 to 2020-21.

G) Covid J&K is one of the leading states/UTs in India in Covid-19 vaccination coverage, having fully vaccinated >99 % of its adult population.

Booster dose vaccination campaign for health care and frontline workers and the elderly has been launched.

Special monthly pensions and scholarships to the families who have lost their breadwinners to Covid-19.

H) Education Scholarships at pre-matric (pre 10th standard/O level), post-matric levels have been nearly trebled. 2 new AIIMS, 7 new medical colleges, 5 new nursing colleges and 2 state cancer institutes are being established in the UT. Seats for graduation in medicine (MBBS) have been increased from 500 to 1100.

IIT Jammu and IIM Jammu have been made functional.

50 new colleges are being established with additional opportunities for over 20,000 students.

Translation of textbooks in local languages of Dogri, Hindi, Kashmiri and Urdu for primary schools.

Two special Centers in Jammu and Srinagar for providing tutoring and guidance to students for civil services and other competitive examinations under the PARVAAZ Scheme. In addition, scholarship assistance will also be provided to students.

1,000 Atal Tinkering Labs are to be established in J&K of which 187 will be established by the end of FY 2021-22.

I) Agriculture Government of J&K has entered into an agreement with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) wherein NAFED will invest nearly 230 million USD into high-density plantations of Apple, Walnut, Cherry, Pear over the next five years in order to increase production.

Three cold storage clusters to be developed with the investment of INR 500 crores (67 million USD) Kashmiri Saffron has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag J) Sports INR 200 crore (26 million USD) have been allocated under Prime Minister’s Development Package for the up-gradation of sports infrastructure.

Development of two Khelo India Centres of Excellence in Jammu and Srinagar K) Environment 19,000 solar street lights to be installed across J&K. 13,000,000 (13 million) trees to be planted across J&K. A new environment action plan to clean and restore 19 lakes and water bodies in J&K. L) Connectivity An international flight from Srinagar to Sharjah has been started on 23.10.2021. In addition, nine flights from Jammu and Srinagar have also been started.

24

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

SOUTH INDIA

Karnataka hijab row: Students asked to follow rules till HC verdict BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has asked students in junior colleges to adhere to the state government’s rules regarding uniforms until the issue over wearing of headscarves in classes is addressed by the High Court.

Bommai, who is on a visit to Delhi to discuss the expansion of his cabinet among other things, refused to comment on the dress code controversy in junior colleges in the state, which has kept several Muslim girls out of classes for wearing the hijab or headscarf.

“Since the matter is in court, I do not want to discuss it,” he said on Monday morning. “For now, the instructions on uniforms issued in the circular (of February 5) should be followed until the high court

decides on the matter,” Bommai said.“Exams are coming up and all students must follow the circular.

Students must maintain peace,” the chief minister added.

The controversy, which erupted when six students of a college in Udupi protested a move by the institution to prevent them from wearing the hijab in class, has spread to many colleges in Udupi and other districts of Karnataka. The protests were countered by Hindu students who sought to attend classes wearing saffron

shawls, leading to disruption of classes.

On Monday, a junior college in Udupi’s Kundapura allowed Muslim girls to enter the college campus on the condition that the 22 girls who came wearing hijabs would have to attend classes in a separate classroom.

The ban on hijabs has been questioned by some students of the Udupi government junior college in the Karnataka High Court. The students have argued that the ban violates the Right to Freedom of Religion enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution of India. The high court is scheduled to hear the matter soon. On February 5, the Karnataka government issued a circular which virtually directed colleges to maintain status quo on norms regarding uniforms

for the current academic year.

The circular justified the move by some colleges to ban hijabs in classrooms by stating that it does not violate the students’ fundamental right to practice their religion. It also invoked a section of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983 which allows the state to issue directions to colleges on curriculum that maintains social harmony and upholds Constitutional values.

Prior to the protests in Udupi last month, the students attended classes without the hijab, but wore it on the campus.

Following the students’ protests seeking the right to wear the hijab in classes as well, many of the college councils – headed by local BJP MLAs – have hardened their stance on banning it inside classrooms.

PUNJAB

Cong names Channi as its CM face in Punjab CHANDIGARH: The Congress leadership reposed faith in chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and chose him as its chief ministerial face for the February 20 Punjab polls, dashing the hopes of contender Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Rahul Gandhi made the announcement during a virtual rally in Ludhiana in the presence of Channi and Sidhu, both of whom hugged twice on stage in a display of bonhomie that did little to calm the PCC president's supporters in Amritsar East. Sidhu had been lobbying for the top post ever since Amarinder Singh stepped down as CM. Sources said the party had assured Sidhu of “a key role” if it forms the government again.

“The decision on who should be Congress's CM face was not taken by me, but by the people of Punjab, and I totally agree with them. They said they want their CM to be from a poor home someone who can understand poverty and hunger. . . (It was) a very tough decision, but you people made it very easy. Punjab’s chief

ministerial candidate is Charanjit Singh Channi,” Rahul said.

Amid cheers from the audience, Sidhu raised Channi’s hand, seemingly in a gesture of collective triumph. He, Channi and Rahul then got into a team hug.

Touching the stage and bowing towards the audience, Channi said, "I want to thank Punjab’s people, based on whose voice Rahul Gandhi has picked a poor person like me. I request everyone with folded hands to help fight a very big battle that I cannot win alone."

Sidhu, who spoke before Rahul and Channi, told the gathering ahead of the formal announcement that he had made peace with the Congress leadership's call on who should be the CM candidate.

Haryana challenges HC’s job quota stay in SC NEW DELHI: Within 24 hours of the Punjab and Haryana high court staying a Haryana law mandating 75% quota in private jobs for locals, the Manohar Lal Khattar government moved the Supreme Court for vacation of the injunction Manohar Lal Khattar and alleged the HC stalled implementation of the law after a 90 second hearing in clear breach of principles of natural justice.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Haryana government, sought an urgent hearing on the state’s appeal from a bench headed by CJI N V Ramana and informed the court that he had appeared before the HC to argue in defence of the law and the necessity of such reservation for locals in private jobs, which offered salaries less than Rs 30,000 per month.

“I was asked by the HC to argue. When I started and had hardly completed two sentences in about the one-and-a-half minute-long hearing, the HC dictated the order granting an interim stay on the operation of the law, Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act,” Mehta said. CJI Ramana agreed to hear the appeal.

“This, by itself, is a serious matter and I have many points to make. Despite the order being passed hurriedly, the same is not yet uploaded,” the SG said and sought the CJI’s permission to circulate the special leave petition subject to his placing the order of the HC on record. The CJI permitted the circulation of the SLP, subject to the order being placed on record.

WEST BENGAL

Mumbai court issues summons to Mamata MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court at Mazgaon in Mumbai issued summons to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, for disrespecting the national anthem. Advocate Vivekanand Gupta, Secretary, BJP Mumbai, had filed a complaint against her on 1st December 2021 after she was seen “showing utter disrespect to the national anthem” by allegedly singing it while in a sitting position and then “abruptly stopping after 4 or 5 lines”. On 1st December 2021, Mamata was present as a guest in a public function organized at Y B Chavan Auditorium in south Mumbai, where the incident happened.

of up to three years imprisonment or fine or both for intentionally preventing someone from singing the Indian National Anthem or causing a disturbance.

In his order, the metropolitan magistrate P I Mokashi has said “The accused was accompanied by Javed Mamata Banerjee Akthar and Pawan The metropolitan Verma on the dais. At the end of magistrate has observed that the program, the accused started Mamata has prima facie singing the national anthem in a committed an offence sitting position, and later on, she punishable under section 3 of stood up and sang two more the Prevention of Insult to verses and abruptly stopped National Honour Act, 1971. This singing and left the venue.” section prescribes punishment The magistrate himself

watched the evidence video on a laptop and ruled that the event was not a government function or any official program, and even though she is a CM, she was not discharging her official duties. Therefore, no prior sanction is needed to proceed against her and there is no bar on the same. Advocate Gupta cited a judgment given by the Bombay High Court in February 2021 to prove that the offence is cognizable and non-bailable.

The magistrate found that the evidence on record was sufficient to issue a process against the West Bengal chief minister. The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on March 2.

in brief ED ATTACHES ASSETS WORTH £650,000 OF TN MINISTER The Enforcement Directorate claimed to have attached properties worth over £650,000 of Anitha R Radhakrishnan, minister for fisheries and animal husbandry in the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, on charges of money laundering.

The attached assets include 160 acres of land and residential properties of the minister and his family members. Anita is accused of acquiring disproportionate assets beyond the source of his declared income. Earlier, the anti-corruption department and the directorate of vigilance of the state government had registered an FIR against him in a disproportionate assets case.

The ED later used the FIR to lodge a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. ED claimed that the properties were purchased at a declared value of £100,000, while their market value is estimated to be around £650,000.

GOVERNOR RETURNS TN GOVT'S ANTI-NEET BILL Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi refused to give assent to the anti-NEET Bill passed by the assembly, saying it was against interest of students, especially those from rural areas and underprivileged families. The state government objected to the governor’s remarks and convened an all-party meeting to discuss the issue. A release from Raj Bhavan said the governor took the decision after a detailed study of the bill for admission to UG medical courses that seeks to do away with NEET, besides the report of the state government-constituted panel that recommended the move. The panel examined the pre-NEET status of social justice in medical admission, especially for students coming from socially and economically underprivileged backgrounds.

CHANNI’S NEPHEW HELD IN ILLEGAL SAND MINING CASE The Enforcement Directorate’s zonal office arrested Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew in an illegal sand mining case. He was produced before a court and was remanded to ED’s custody till February 8. After ED raids on the premises of CM’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey and his aides on January 18, the ED summoned him to record his statement in a money laundering case registered in 2018 against Honey’s confidant Kundratdeep Singh.

He was arrested after questioning him for about 9 hours. After his arrest, he complained of uneasiness and was taken to Jalandhar’s civil hospital for checkup where doctors declared him to be fit and he was taken back and kept overnight in custody. Sources claimed that during his questioning Honey had accepted that the entire amount of £1 million seized by ED during January 18 raids from him and his associates belonged to him.

BENGAL GOVT ALLOWS REOPENING OF SCHOOLS, COLLEGES The West Bengal government has allowed the schools and colleges to reopen for classes 8 to 12 from February 3 as the Covid-19 pandemic situation has improved in the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing a press conference earlier, had said that colleges, universities and polytechnic institutes will reopen from February 3.

“Everything cannot be shut down indefinitely,” she said after a cabinet meeting. “Covid-19 cases have now decreased. Therefore, it has been decided to open schools, colleges and universities in the state on the basis of discussions with the state education department,” she added. She, however, said, "We will decide on reopening primary schools later." Tthe state government has issued a notification for holding open air learning sessions from pre-primary level students.

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

25

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

in brief ODISHA SACKS IAS OFFICER IN GRAFT CASES Vinod Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer and one of the key accused in the multicrore rural housing scam following the 1999 Super Cyclone in Odisha, has been dismissed from service following his conviction in two corruption cases. The Centre recently gave its nod to a proposal from the Odisha government to sack Kumar. Official sources said as many as 27 vigilance cases were registered against Kumar.

During his posting as managing director (MD) of Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC), Kumar allegedly showed undue favours to some firms and individuals in disbursement of funds worth £3.33 million.

AIRLINE ORDERED TO PAY COMPENSATION TO DOCTOR A consumer court in Ahmedabad has ordered Etihad Airways to pay Rs 65,000 compensation to a doctor for denying him a boarding pass though he had a confirmed ticket. The flight had been overbooked. The damages have been computed for the loss of two days of his medical practice because he got late as he had to take a connecting flight.

The case involved Krutesh Shah, who runs a hospital in Vadodara. He was on a US visit in January 2017 and had return tickets booked from San Francisco to Abu Dhabi and from Abu Dhabi to Ahmedabad with Etihad Airways. Accordingly, he landed at Abu Dhabi airport on January13, 2017, and was to board an Ahmedabad-bound flight after obtaining a boarding pass. But the airlines denied him the boarding pass saying that the flight to Ahmedabad was already overbooked.

ASSAM GOVT DECISION ON MADRASSAS UPHELD The Gauhati High Court upheld The Assam Repealing Act, 2020, under which all government-funded madrassas are to be converted into schools in the state. A division bench said the changes brought about by the legislative and executive action of the state are for the provincialised madrassas alone, which are government schools, and not for private or community ones. It also dismissed a writ petition challenging the validity of the Act. The madrassas, which are maintained by the state cannot impart religious instructions in terms of the mandate of Article 28(1) of the Constitution of India, the court said.

Meanwhile, around 900 private madrassas can continue to remain functional.

SURAT TO BE THE FIRST STATION TO BE READY FOR BULLET TRAIN The Minister of State for Railways Darshana Jardosh, said Surat city in Gujarat will become the first station to be ready between Ahmedabad – Mumbai Bullet Train route for India’s first High Speed Rail project. The MAHSR corridor will cover 12 stations in totalSurat, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, Sabarmati, Bilimora, Bharuch, Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi stations. Once the project is ready, the journey time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be 2.07 hours (limited stops), 2.58 hours (halting at stations) vis a vis existing train journey duration of seven-eight hours. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train will run on Japanese Shinkansen Technology, which is known for its safety as well as reliability and is proven for more than 50 years. The maximum design speed- of the train would be 350 km per hour and the maximum operating speed would be 320 km per hour. For the project, Gujarat has acquired almost 100 per cent of the private land required. However, in the state of Maharashtra, 24 per cent of land is yet to be acquired for the project. Commissioner of land reforms P Swaroop was quoted as saying that more than 99.4 per cent of land required for the rail project in Gujarat has been acquired. The land acquisition process is being monitored on a daily basis, he stated.

Zydus begins delivery of its needle-free Covid vax to govt Zydus Cadila has begun supplying its needle-free antiCovid vaccine ZyCoV-D to the government, the company said. The vaccine has been supplied from its Zydus Vaccine Technology Excellence Centre at the Zydus Biotech Park in Changodar, Ahmedabad, the company said in a statement.

The government last year placed an order for 10 million vaccine doses for the national anti-Covid immunisation programme. The company is also planning to make the vaccine available in the market.

ZyCoV-D is the world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine. A threedose vaccine, it is to be administered intradermally using the painless PharmaJet needle-free

system called Tropis on day 0, day 28, and day 56.

The vaccine will be priced ₹265 per dose and the applicator ₹93 per dose excluding GST. The company said it has signed an agreement with Shilpa Medicare Limited, a contract manufacturing organisation, to produce doses of vaccine. It also has a pact with Enzychem Lifesciences of the Republic of Korea for the manufacturing license and technology transfer for the vaccine.

The national drugs regulator granted the vaccine approval for restricted use in emergency situations for people aged 12 and above. The company earlier announced it

should have a production capacity of about 10-12 million doses per month.

The Union health ministry has said the Zydus vaccine would initially be used in dis-

tricts in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal having low first dose coverage. The vaccine will be rolled out nationwide later.

India seeks tougher action from tech giants on fake news Indian officials have held heated discussions with Google, Twitter and Facebook for not proactively removing what they described as fake news on their platforms. The officials, from the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B), strongly criticised the companies and said their inaction on fake news was forcing the Indian government to order content take downs, which in turn drew international criticism that authorities were suppressing free expression, two sources said.

The sources described the conversation as tense and heat-

ed, signalling a new low in ties between American tech giants and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. The officials did not issue any ultimatum to the companies at the meeting, the sources said. The government has been tightening tech sector regulations but wants companies to do more on content moderation.

The meeting was a followup to the I&B ministry’s use of “emergency powers” in December and January to order the blocking of 55 channels on Google’s YouTube platform, and some Twitter and Facebook

accounts.

The government had said the channels were promoting “fake news” or “anti-India” content and that the disinformation was being spread by accounts based in neighbouring Pakistan. Facebook, now known as Meta, Twitter and ShareChat declined comment.

Without commenting on the meeting, Alphabet Inc’s Google said in a statement it reviews government’s requests and “where appropriate, we restrict or remove content in keeping with local laws. ”

In its transparency reports, Twitter has said the Indian government makes among the highest number of requests to remove content from its platform. Technology website Comparitech in October said India made 97,631content removal requests in 2020, the second-highest in the world after Russia, mostly to Facebook and Google.

KFC, Hyundai come under fire Avalanche hits Army patrol in for posts targeting Kashmir Arunachal, 7 soldiers missing Indian are fuming on social media over some controversial posts targeting Kashmir by reputed multinationals. Hyundai's Pakistan dealership came under heavy fire for sharing a post on its official social media handles, extending support to "Kashmir Solidarity Day". Soon after, #Boycott Hyundai started trending on Twitter, with Indians condemning the car giant's controversial stand.

Now, KFC has come under scrutiny over the same reasons.

Indians are calling for boycott of KFC, the popular fastfood chain with branches across the globe. The reason for the social media boycott, which is trending in India under the hashtag #BoycottKFC, is a post shared by the eatery's Pakistan handle last year.

Boycott KFC trends in India; eatery's 2021 post on Kashmir triggers fresh controversy. "We stand together this Kashmir Solidarity Day, to realise their right to freedom," KFC PAK wrote. Making things worse, a picture of snowy mountains with overlaying text:

Their cravings for freedom are heartfelt, was shared. The word Kashmir is marked with a barbed wire, signifying Kashmir is not free.

As the screenshot of last year's tweet by KFC Pakistan on Kashmir went viral, many Indians took to Twitter to express their dismay. Hundreds and thousands of users have called out the propaganda against India on the sensitive issue of Kashmir. Netizens are already pledging never to eat again at a KFC joint.

Its a planned campaign initiated by ISI to influence Kashmiris with official social media handles of different companies, but we aren't fools to fall for their propaganda.

Seven soldiers are missing after their patrol along the border was hit by an avalanche in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. “Search and rescue operations are currently under way in the high-altitude area. Specialised avalanche rescue teams with equipment have been airlifted to assist in the operations,” an Army officer said.

“There has been no trace of the missing soldiers, who were being led by a NCO (non-commissioned officer), till now. The area has been witnessing inclement weather with heavy snowfall over the last few days,” he added.

The Army often suffers casualties due to its soldiers being deployed in large numbers in avalanche-prone areas along the unresolved borders with China and Pakistan, including eastern Ladakh and the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge region. Two soldiers from the Punjab Regiment, for instance, had died in an avalanche in sub-sector Haneef of the Siachen region in April last year. Over 1,000 Indian soldiers, including over 35 officers, have lost their lives in the Siachen Glacier Saltoro Ridge region since April 1984, with around three-fourths of these casualties being caused by the severe terrain and climatic conditions there rather than enemy fire. Ary officers say soldiers deployed in high-altitude regions are given prior training in mountain craft, ice craft and survival to cope with any eventuality like avalanches, but sometimes it becomes impossible to fight nature.

26

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

UK’s Afghan-Sikh model becomes the first Sikh to be signed by a modelling agency in Paris Shefali Saxena Karanjee Gaba, the first Afghan-Sikh model has become the first Sikh to be signed with a modelling agency in Paris. The model announced this news on Twitter last week.

Reacting to this news, Karanjee Gaba exclusively told Asian Voice, “As I am from Afghanistan, this is a huge deal for me.

Being on one of the biggest campaigns means breaking barriers! As many of us believe we have to modify ourselves for us to be accepted, but really just be ourselves and represent our true self. It is a huge opportunity for us to teach others about who Sikhs are, what we believe and as I am from Afghanistan, “I tend to teach people about my

religious and cultural identity which many people are not aware of. Like Guru Nanak

Dev Ji has travelled around the world, this is a similar part which I have followed in fashion to teach the world about Sikhism and my identity.”

In an earlier interview with Asian Voice, Gaba had categorically mentioned what it means for him to be a British Afghan Sikh.

“To begin with, I was closer to British Culture but during my journey, I wanted to explore more about my identity. As an Afghan, I then went to speak with the elderly about our community and from there I have become more attached to our culture as we need to carry on the legacy.

We need to keep it for the future and may it never be forgotten. We cannot lose our history because if we do, it’ll mean we have lost our identity,” he had told Asian Voice.

Sandeep Mahal joins Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company has added Sandeep Mahal, director of sector change at People Make it Work to its first leadership associates team in senior leadership.

Mahal will serve as a part of the team to take forward the company’s vision of “commitment to diversifying the voices leading and governing the organisations.”

Sandeep will help the RSC’s strategic review until September 2022.

Hampstead Theatre’s annual year-long writers’ programme commences

Grammy-nominated Harpreet Bansal brings The Raga 2.0 The Norwegian Grammy-nominated Harpreet Bansal blurs the lines between the North Indian tradition and erratic, playful jazz in Parvat - the wildly free and musically outstanding three-piece movement.

37 minutes long, the body of work is a showcase of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic soloist’s talents. With a strong and deep-rooted foundation in Indian’s classical music, the music is elevated by the rich well of Harpreet’s influences. Inspired by all, from Konnakol, her contemporaries, the finest gurus across Europe, India, and Asia, and even classic rock, Parvat is an epic and dramatic collection of movements. At times a billowing air of mystery with deep double bass and an encompassing soundscape, and at other times highly kinetic with thundering tabla and strikes of string, the album’s constant is a sense of the extraordinary.

Beginning her musical journey at only two years old, Harpreet’s first guru was her father who moved to Oslo in the 70s. From there Harpreet’s journey has seen her tour extensively through Europe, India, and Asia, and studying under legendary Indian musicians such as Dr L. Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthi, trailblazing as the first to study North Indian classical music at the Norwegian Academy of Music, being nominated for a Norwegian Grammy for her second album, and playing 700 concerts for school children which she describes as “the toughest and best audience in the world”.

More recently, fans may recognise Harpreet from her placement in the band

Culture in Crisis New research has revealed the profound impact of Covid-19 on the UK cultural sector’s organisations, workforce and audiences.

This extensive study of the impacts of Covid-19 on the UK’s cultural industries took place between September 2020 and November 2021. It was delivered by an interdisciplinary project team of 35 people from across the UK and involved a combination of complementary methods. The team conducted over 230 interviews with cultural sector professionals and analysed the data thematically to highlight the most significant impacts and implications. The interview data was supplemented by: quantitative analysis of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data, a population survey of cultural engagement, social media analysis and ecosystem analysis of Greater Manchester.

The sector is at a major turning point and facing imminent burnout alongside significant skills and workforce gaps, a report from Leeds’ Centre for Cultural Value shows.

Its key findings state that Its impact was not experienced evenly across the sector, with younger workers, women and workers from ethnically diverse backgrounds among the hardest hit in terms of losing work and income.

For freelancers, who make up a significant part of the cultural workforce, the impact was major and sometimes devastating.

Freelancers constituted 62% of the core-creative workforce before the

pandemic and only 52% by the end of 2020.

The most dramatic decline in the cultural industries workforce was observed in music, performing and visual arts, where the professional workforce fell by around a quarter between March and June 2020, with no signs of significant recovery by the end of 2020, in comparison with other sectors.

Places with a history of obtaining public investment – and the arts and cultural organisations based in those places – benefited most from the Culture Recovery Fund.

Networks played a key role in building resilience and, in light of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter, many cultural organisations re-evaluated their relevance to local communities.

This was complemented by an increase in hyperlocal engagement due to lockdown restrictions on travel and behaviour.

The Centre for Cultural Value is now working with policy partners to test and refine a set of policy recommendations based on the research findings, at a time when the critical importance of the cultural industries in supporting the Government’s Levelling Up agenda is becoming clear. Immediately evident is the need for national and local governments to communicate clear public health and safety guidance to all cultural organisations at the onset of a future crisis or pandemic.

Combonations with BBC World Music artist the late, great Solo Cissoko, as well performances alongside the likes of Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils Petter, Svante Henryson, and Vahid Taj Ao. Between being a composer, orchestra soloist, mother, and even having a Tae Kwon Do black belt, it is apparent that Harpreet Bansal is one of North Indian traditional music’s most exciting characters. With a universally praised radical approach to the genre, the artist carries the torch from the greats before her as she pushes the music into new and exciting territories altogether.

Audiences can look forward to hearing Parvat on Feb 11th 2022.

Idli-Sambar, a love story

C

hef Jomon Kuriakose, Chef De Cuisine, Baluchi At The Lalit London says that there is a romantic pair in India, especially in his state, Kerala that we don’t often think of.

They are a special combo that cannot be separated from each other. “Their love poem is always thrilling, especially to the Malayalees living as expatriates. It is none other than our own idli and sambar,” he told the newsweekly. On Valentine’s Day, he shared his grandmother’s recipe with our readers.

Chef Jomon’s grandmother’s recipe Sambar powder - Coriander seed: 1/2 cup - Cumin seeds: 2tbsp - Dry Red chilly: 15-20 nos - Fenugreek seeds: 2tsp - Black peppercorn: 1 tbsp - Channa dal: 2 tbsp - Urid dal: 1tbsp - Curry leaves: 3-4 strings - Black mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp - Asafoetida powder: 2 tsp - Turmeric: 2tsp Method 1) Dry roast all the i n g r e d i e n t s separately on a low flame until it’s leaving a nice good flavour 2) Mix them with asafoetida and turn powder when it cools down.

3) Grind them nicely into a fine powder 4) Store them in an airtight container Picture courtesy:- Sekhar Abraham Photography

Hampstead Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for the world premiere of Alexis Zegerman’s vivid, new play, The Fever Syndrome. Directed by Roxana Silbert, The Fever Syndrome will run from 19 March until 23 April 2022. Lisa Dillon (Cranford, BBC One; Hapgood, Hampstead Theatre), Jake Fairbrother (Skyfall, EON Productions; Hamlet, National Theatre), Alexandra Gilbreath (Not Going Out, BBC One; The Provoked Wife, Royal Shakespeare Company), Robert Lindsay (My Family, BBC One; Anything Goes, Barbican), Sam Marks (Doctor Who, BBC One; Richard II, Royal Shakespeare Company), Bo Poraj (Miranda, BBC One, Raya, Hampstead Downstairs) and Alex Waldmann (The Mikvah Project, Orange Tree; Julius Caesar, Royal Shakespeare Company) will perform in this thrilling portrait of a brilliantly dysfunctional family. INSPIRE, Hampstead Theatre’s annual year-long writers’ programme, has also commenced.

Led by the award-winning playwright Roy Williams and Hampstead’s Literary Department, this year’s writers are Dexter Flanders, Jessica Norman, Magdalene Bird, Martha Watson Allpress, Mary Antony, Nana-Kofi Kufuor, Nancy Netherwood, Nic McQuillan, Nicola May-Taylor, Patrick Swain, Phoebe Frances Brown, Sarah Power and Sid Sagar.

Three million pounds for the arts and culture in Birmingham Almost three million pounds to support the arts sector and cultural activities in Birmingham for 2022/23 is set to be approved by the cabinet.

The Commissioning of Cultural Activities 2022-23 cabinet report proposes revenue funding grants totalling £2,429,710 alongside Local Arts Development and art project commissioning totalling £546,441, including £100,000 to support cultural programming for the Commonwealth Games.

Smaller Birmingham-based arts organisations will be commissioned to deliver projects for people with fewer opportunities to engage with culture, such as ‘Culture on Our Doorstep’ for adults in their local communities, ‘Next Generation’ for younger people and ‘Cultural Regeneration’ for residents from a culturally diverse background. The Commonwealth Games cultural programme funding is in addition to the £2million fund to help residents in all 69 of the city’s wards feel involved with the Games.

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

www.asian-voice.com

CALCIUM + Magnesium + Vit. D3

SKIN, HAIR, NAILS

Beauty Tablets

UK’S AWARD WINNING NO.1

Available from Superdrug, Holland & Barrett, Lloydspharmacy, GNC, supermarkets, health stores independent pharmacies, www.vitabiotics.com

Most trusted for pregnancy

Menopause Tablets

TABLETS For all women over 40 years Gentle IRON+Vitamin syrup

MRC, Mumbai, said, “More than a hundred million neurons with billions of connections are found in our brain.

However, more than 90 per cent of the brain is not utilised by us. We use only 10 per cent of the brain.

Therefore, by using your brain by exercising your brain, you can decrease the 90 per cent and make sure a healthy young person utilises more than 10 per cent of the brain.”

Consumption of sugary drinks can increase the risk of dementia in even people without diabetes.

Refined carbs, saturated fats and highly processed foods have a negative impact on memory. Meanwhile, foods like turmeric, coffee, freshwa-

The study looked at the impact of “prehabilitation” exercise, a guided exercise programme in which patients received regular training sessions before and during their chemotherapy treatment. The patients were compared with a group of patients of similar age and clinical status before the chemotherapy.

The scientists looked at tumour samples, CT scans and immune markers from the patients. They found that those who had taken part in the exercise programme showed a better response to the chemotherapy, with their tumours shrinking more, and being more likely to be “down-graded”. Lead author of the study Andrew Davies said, “This is a small study, but a promising one, as it shows how a moderate exercise pro-

Drink hing water daily for weight loss, good skin Hing, also called asafoetida, is a dehydrated plant sap that has been used for hundreds of years now. It not only possesses a unique flavour but also has potential health benefits, says Asma Alam, a Consulting Nutritionist and Dietitian.

Drinking hing water aids our digestive health like reducing symptoms of conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel diseases and maintaining bowel regularity. Besides, hing possesses antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer properties too. Hing is an exceptional source of potent antioxidants which can be reaped by drinking hing water daily.

Furthermore, it may help ease asthma symptoms, lower blood glucose and blood pressure levels. says Alam.

Here’s how you can make hing water: Take a glass of lukewarm water, add one fourth of a pinch of hing in it, mix well to combine. Consume this drink preferably on an empty stomach. You can also add a pinch of turmeric to this, for an extra dose of antioxidants and to speed up weight loss.

Here are some extended benefits of hing water: Weight loss - Hing water is known to give a much-needed boost to our metabolism. A fast metabolism directly assesses weight loss.

Why? Because the higher the metabolic rate the better you digest your food. Good digestion is directly proportional to the amount of weight you lose.

Good skin - Yes, you can get an age-defying and glowing skin just by sipping on hing water everyday. Hing is loaded with antioxidants and drinking it regularly can protect your body from free radical damage. This is bound to prevent skin degeneration by protecting it against oxidative stress.

Treats cold and cough -It’s winter, the season of flu. Drinking hing water can protect you from catching a cold. Hing is known to treat respiratory ailments like cough, stuffy nose and excess mucus.

HEALTH & VITALITY Tablets

Loneliness increases heart disease risk in women ter salmon are types that improve brain functioning.

Increased screen time could be affecting your memory more than you think. Excessive screen time can hinder the alertness of the brain and our capacity to think and imagine which could be affecting our memory. Activities like reading a book, solving crosswords, and exercising can help keep your mind alert. A balanced diet involving foods from all groups, regular physical activity, sound sleep, reading, and brain exercises could work wonders for your brain function and memory.

Moderate exercise can improve cancer treatment outcomes Research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that a moderate exercise programme could improve the success of chemotherapy treatment in oesophageal cancer patients. The study, which involved 40 oesophageal cancer patients, showed that exercise can be safely included as part of cancer treatment.

Moderate exercise was shown to reduce some of the negative effects of chemotherapy on fitness, and researchers said the findings indicated that a larger study was needed to confirm results. Standard treatment for a range of cancers, chemotherapy can have negative side effects for patients including tiredness, sickness and risk of infection.

12 - 18 February 2022

MOST TRUSTED VITAMINS

Common lifestyle mistakes affect our memory Experts believe our daily habits - eating, exercising, and working style could be affecting our memory in significant ways. A study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) believes that depression, low levels of education, physical inactivity and high blood pressure increased the likelihood of memory complaints in younger adults.

The study says that if one is depressed, not getting exercise or has high blood pressure, they may find themselves complaining about memory problems. It is possible to improve your brain health and even utilise your brain better with just a few healthy changes to your lifestyle.

Dr. P.P. Ashok, Consultant Neurologist and Head, Division of Neurology at P.D Hinduja Hospital &

27

sponsored by:

gramme could help to improve the success of chemotherapy treatment. We want to confirm this effect in further studies, but conceivably this may benefit patients with other types of cancer and be a cost-effective way to improve the effectiveness of treatment.”

What happens if you eat two bananas every day Health gurus have a love-hate relationship with the curved yellow fruit.

Some warn against eating too many while others say they’re good for you. Pretty confusing. We were curious to find out what really happens when you eat two bananas a day - the result is pretty nice!

These positive things happen: Sugar- Of course, a banana is rich in sugar and some (e.g., diabetics) have to be careful when eating it. If you exercise and eat mostly healthy foods, then you can expect the following to happen if you start eating two bananas a day. You get more energy- The carbohydrates in bananas will give you more energy because the energy is absorbed slowly over time. In contrast, snacks sweetened with granulated sugar will give you an initial burst of energy, but one that quickly wears off.

Your muscles won’t cramp as often- Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with muscle cramps? You can try to stop this from happening by eating bananas. They contain high levels of potassium, which ensures that your muscles will not contract as quickly.

You’ll suffer less from heartburn -Do you often suffer from heartburn? Then the banana is your best friend. When eaten at the onset of heartburn, a banana will provide immediate relief by neutralizing the acid in your stomach.

A recent study has found a link between social isolation and loneliness, and an increase in heart disease risk in postmenopausal women. The study, which has been published in the JAMA Network Open Journal, has found that there is an almost 27 per cent increase in heart disease risk in women who experience high levels of loneliness.

Findings revealed that social isolation and loneliness independently increased cardiovascular disease risk by eight per cent and five per cent, respectively. If women experienced high levels of both, their risk rose 13 per cent to 27 per cent compared to women who reported low levels of social isolation and low levels of loneliness.

First author Natalie Golaszeweski at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California San Diego, said, “We are social beings. In this time of Covid-19, many people are experiencing social isolation and loneliness, which may spiral into chronic states. It is important to further understand the acute and long-term effects these experiences have on cardiovascular health and overall wellbeing.” Senior author John Bellettiere at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, said, “Social isolation is about physically being away from people, like not touching or seeing or talking to other people. Loneliness is a feeling, one that can be experienced even by people who are regularly in contact with others.”

When researchers included all health behaviours and conditions in their study and adjusted for diabetes and depression, high social isolation and loneliness remained strongly linked with increased risk for heart disease.

Child masking associated with reduced Covid-19 issues: Study In a first-of-its-kind study on child masking, a research team states that child masking is effective in lowering risks of Covid-19. The study was published in the JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association. Experiences of 6,654 centre-based and homebased child care professionals from all 50 US states were studied during a one-year period from May/June 2020 to May/June 2021.

The study was part of a series of studies aimed at informing policies regarding the health and well-being of children in child care programs. It is believed to be the first large-scale longitudinal study of the potential effects of various safety measures used to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in child care programs and keep this essential service open for working families.

Child masking in schools and child care centres is a hotly debated topic, especially with a surge in cases due to the Omicron variant of the virus. During the study, 43 per cent of child care programs had closed at least temporarily due to a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19. Amongst all safety measures that were studied, including adult and child masking, 6-foot distancing, controlled arrivals and departures, child masking emerged as the most successful strategy that led to reduced child care closure rates.

Thomas Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and lead author of the study, said, “We have been seeing increased numbers of children, especially young children not yet able to be vaccinated against Covid-19, admitted to our children’s hospital. It is heartening to know that following child masking recommendations for children two years and older may be an effective means for keeping young children in child care programs and potentially lowering their risk for Covid-19.”

To Our Readers

We are publishing these reports in good faith. Before you try any of these remedies, please consult the doctor. We are not responsible for any adverse effects.- Editor

28 SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

Lata Mangeshkar Mahesh Gadhvi

H

Like the Queen, Lataji was someone who resonated with an entire nation. For the vast majority of India’s population, Lataji was all they knew. From the 40s and 50s, to her pinnacle in the 70s and 80s, to even most recently in the noughties, she had a place in everyone’s hearts.

Her life is symbolic to that of India. Whilst India gripped with independence in 1947 under Jawaharlal Nehru’s political leadership, India looked upon Lataji for her cultural voice. This is a role Lataji upheld with the upmost integrity and virtue for over 75 years.

I was privileged to share a great, personal bond with Lataji and her family since the early 1970s. I first met Lataji in India in 1971 during my visit to Mumbai. Lataji came to know that I was a huge fan of hers, especially her songs from the films Sharmeeli, Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Pakeezah. To my amazement, Lataji very kindly sent her driver to send me four signed copies of her albums which I have treasured till this day.

Lataji’s first tour in London was organised in 1974 by the late Mr Gourisaria and compared by the legendary Dilip Kumar. This was the first time in the history of this country, that the Royal Albert Hall was opened to a Bollywood singer. The show was a magnificent triumph and many of the then early Indian migrants from East Africa and India still reminisce about Lataji’s electrifying performance.

At the time of her first tour, I had the honour of looking after Lataji who stayed at 20 Abbey Road – opposite the studio of the Beatles. Lataji had come to London with her mother and family. My friendship with Lataji and her family blossomed, particularly with her younger brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar who she knew was very close to me.

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

British Indians pay tributes to Lata Mangeshkar

My journey with ere in London as we celebrated 70 years of the accession of Her Majesty the Queen, India on the other side of the world mourned the loss of its Queen, Lata Mangeshkar.

Lataji was indeed the “Nightingale of India” and held a role symbolic to that of Her Majesty the Queen. It was therefore no surprise that the Government of India announced two days of national mourning and Lataji was bestowed with a State funeral.

AsianVoiceNews

Cricket ground in Lord’s View. The apartment was chosen for its views of Lord’s – as Lataji was an enthusiastic cricket fan. I remember watching cricket games with her in her apartment balcony with Lataji and Hridyanathji.

Lataji would always make sure I always ate with them. She was energised by the cricket and as an ardent fan she respected all the cricketers, including the likes Sunil Govaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.

I still have vivid memories of touring London with Lataji.

She was an avid explorer and shopper who was mesmerised by London. I had the privilege to take her to the Tate Gallery and all the sites of London. One of Lataji’s great hobbies was photography, which she adored.

Lataji later had two more shows in London, but regrettably with age she opted to travel abroad less, much to the disappointment of her fans.

However, she continued her zest for music, acting as a playback singer to thousands of films. She was known to tip the balance of a film’s fortune and actresses would plead for Lataji to be their playback singer. It was therefore no surprise that Lataji became the first-choice singer for so many directors. One of Lataji’s personal favourite directors was of course Yash Raj Chopra – who she considered an elder brother. Yashji would only release a film if Lataji agreed to be the playback. Lataji also worked with new music directors including AR Rahman who went on to produce some of India’s finest music.

Hridaynathji played with me on several occasions in London and eventually made my album of ghazals in India, which was performed on Door Darshan TV on Aarohi programme.

Given the great success of the show, there were other shows of Lataji again in London in 1979, again at the Royal

Despite her age, Lataji was still active in public and civic life. She devoted a lot of her life to philanthropy, and she set up a hospital in memory of her father in Pune in benefit of the disadvantaged. I was lucky to maintain my friendship with Lataji and I would always visit her in her apartment in Mumbai. I remain incredibly fortunate for the time I had with Lataji.

Albert Hall and the London Palladium with the Wren orchestra, this time with Sunil Dutt, Nargis and Dilip Kumar. Here my wife Nitu Gadhvi had the opportunity to sing with Lataji including songs such as “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” and “Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya”. This time, given her love for London, Lataji had her own flat in St John’s Wood opposite Lord’s

We were all devasted with the news of her passing – particularly my wife Nitu, whose musical career involved singing hundreds of Lataji’s songs. Lataji was indeed an icon of India who was much more than a musician. She was India’s guiding light. Whilst we may never see her like again, Lataji will live on in our hearts for generations to come.

English singer, songwriter, Boy George paid his tribute on Twitter: “RIP Lata Mangeshkar, one of India's most beautiful voices. My deepest condolences to her family and most especially to her sister Asha Bhosle who sang on Bow Down Mister. A gifted family.”

BBC News South Asia correspondent Rajni Vaidyanathan paid tribute to Late Lata Mangeshkar, saying, “India is in national mourning after the death of famous Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar. Her voice was one of a kind, her career spanned decades. She recorded more songs than the Beatles and Stones combined.”

The British High Commission, New Delhi: “The British High Commission family joins India and Indians worldwide to pay tribute to the #NightingaleOfIndia #LataMangeshkar. Her legacy will live forever. We join India in mourning the passing away of its Nightingale #LataMangeshkar. A global icon, she was the first Indian artist to perform live at London's @RoyalAlbertHall. She is also the only Asian to have received the Platinum Disc of EMI London.”

Midlands reporter Balvinder Sidhu paid her tribute and also initiated a conversation on Twitter on why British media is reporting the death of legendary singer: “Some people are questioning why British media is reporting the death of an Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar firstly there is a significant minority of British born Asians like me who’ve been impacted by her music but also our media isn’t just reaching homes in the UK through.”

Phizzical Productions tweeted: “Our grandparents first heard her, our parents kept listening, we grew up with her voice and our children were surrounded by her melodious echoes. The heavens have a nightingale today #LataMangeshkar #RIP condolences to her family and sisters @ashabhosle.”

Hindu Think Tank UK (Hindus in the UK) paid tribute on their Facebook page: “Billions of Indians across the World mourn as “The Greatest Voice of India…..The Pride of India” ~ Lata Mangeshkar passes away at the age of 92, in Mumbai, India. Lata Mangeshkar was an Indian icon and a national treasure. To many she was affectionately known as “Didi” (sister). For decades, the "Nightingale of Bollywood" was the country's most in-demand singer. Her records, sold in the tens of thousands, and she recorded a back catalogue of over 30,000 songs spanning numerous genres and in 36 languages. Lata Mangeshkar once said: “I always think, that happiness is for sharing with the world, and sorrow is for keeping to yourself”. Her everlasting music certainly brought happiness to millions of Indians and “became the soundtrack" to their lives.

Sanjay Jagatia, Chair-Hindu Think Tank UK, Hindus in the UK.” Abbey Road Studios: “Legendary singer #LataMangeshkar, one of India's biggest cultural icons, has sadly passed away aged 92.

An Indian national treasure who made her name in Bollywood, we were honoured to record several of her live concerts in the 1970s, including one at the London Palladium.”

FISIUK (Friends of India Soc Intl UK): “We join millions of Indians in grieving the loss of legendary singer,#LataMangeshkar She had lent her melodious voice to more than 30,000 songs across 36 languages leaving an indelible mark in people's hearts & minds.

She was also the first Indian to perform in Royal Albert Hall, London.”

Conservative Councillor Anjana Patel: “Bharat Ratna and Queen of melody Lata Mangeshkar Ji an iconic singer passes away at 92. Her melodies will remain immortal. Very sad day for India/Indians. Lata Mangeshkar Ji will live in our hearts forever. #LataMangeshkar #OmShanti.”

Lataji- an icon, a legend

K

angana Ranaut conveyed the heartfelt sentiment of the Hindi film world when she wrote on her Instagram story: “What a loss!! India’s most beautiful voice is gone!!

There will never be another Lataji.” Megastar Amitabh Bachchan described Lataji as “the voice of million centuries” on his personal blog. He wrote: “She has left us . . The voice of a million centuries has left us . . her voice resounds now in the Heavens! Prayers for calm and peace. ” Karan Johar said: “Today, heaven truly gained the voice of an angel. I grew up listening to Lataji’s songs and as I mourn her loss today - I know with absolute confidence that unki ‘awaaz hi pehchan’ hai and she has left an indelible mark on our Indian culture for many generations to come.

Anil Kapoor said he was heartbroken but “blessed to have known and loved this

incredible soul.” He added: “Lataji holds a place in our hearts that will never be taken by anyone else. May she rest in peace and light up the heavens with her brightness.”

Actor Jackie Shroff shared a post on Instagram, where he is seen holding a picture of the nonagenarian, and captioned it with a heartbreak emoji. “An icon, a legend . . . words will always fall short. Thank you for your glorious voice, Lataji. It will resonate worldwide for generations to come. RIP,” tweeted Shahid Kapoor.

Tamannaah Bhatia called it an end of an era. “We lost a legend today. Truly, an end of an era. May her soul rest in peace and glory. ” Actress-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt wrote: “#LataMangeshkar To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. ” Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar said on a personal note: “She has been a mother figure to me over the years.”

Singing 'abhangs' was closest to Lataji's heart

H

undreds and thousands of film songs in more than a dozen languages, ghazals, patriotic songs and also ‘bhav geet’, the quintessential semi-classical, non-filmi songs in Marathi, Lata Mangeshkar sang them all but it was singing ‘abhangs’ that was closest to her heart.

Revered by the Maharashtrian populace the world over, but unknown to others, even to those who know her bhajans, ‘abhang’ a-

bhang, or ‘that which cannot be broken even by time’ — were a genre that allowed for the expression of her spiritual strength.

Abhangs are the traditional poems praising Maharashtra’s popular deity Vitthal

by Sant Jnaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdev and Eknath, to name a few from Maharashtra’s robust bhakti tradition. These have survived for centuries as they have percolated into just about every socio-economic milieu.

AsianVoiceNews

29

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

There is no glorification of infidelity in 'Gehraiyaan', says Ananya Panday

Shefali Saxena When Karan Johar’s 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' was released in 2006, there was a massive moral judgment that followed post the release of the film, about the infidelity factor, starring Alist actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan and Preity Zinta. Sixteen years later, Dharma Productions has yet again attempted a first of its kind film in Indian cinema, which is helmed by 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu' and 'Kapoor & Sons' director Shakun Batra.

In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice, actors Ananya Panday and Dhairya Karwa spoke about the film 'Gehraiyaan.'

Talking about the inevitable comparison between KANK and Gehraiyaan, Ananya said, “I think the premise is the same, the story telling and the experience are going to be different.

I mean, that's for the audience to really judge for themselves.

How do they differentiate the two films? I honestly didn't feel that KANK was ahead of time because infidelity is a problem that's existed for so long, maybe now, we're more open to the

conversation about it.

“And I think with Gehraiyaan, there is no glorification of infidelity. We're not passing a judgment on whether it's morally right or wrong. You know, the lens that Shakun has chosen to view this film has been very observational, and it's modern relationship drama.

“Infidelity is a part of the film, but it's not the whole film, there's a lot more when you watch the film, there are many more dynamics. There's a lot more complexity when you watch the film, and you’ll get that it is kind of not about finding your soulmate after marriage. That's not the kind of story that Gehraiyaan is.

“So maybe in that way, it is a little different from the films made before. But having said that, I think the audience has evolved so much. Now when people go back and view films, like Silsila, now they're like, ‘oh, why did we think this was ahead of its time?’.”

The film is releasing on Amazon Prime Video on 11 February. When asked if it was always supposed to be an OTT release, Ananya said, “I don't think it was in his mind that it was going to go to OTT at that time.

It just so happened that this is a circumstance, but I think we all kind of agree that it's the best thing that could have happened to the spin in that way.”

“The story was never altered. Considering the platform. it was just so circumstantial, really. It’s great that people can view it from the comfort of their homes, feeling safe and secure,” Dhairya Karwa added, who plays Deepika Padukone’s longdistance boyfriend in the movie. Gauging the success of a film in these times is now a difficult task for both audiences and the makers.

Commenting on that, Ananya said, “Shakun had recently said that the measure for success for this film for him will be many years later, will people still go back and relate to this kind of film, where he gave the example of 'Dil Chahta Hai' and 'Lagaan'. These are timeless films. When it comes to film success, I don't feel like anything can replace the cinema experience. I feel like both things can coexist now.”

The film has been supported by intimacy director/coordinator, Dar Gai who has directed the intimate

Shah Rukh’s daughter Suhana to make her Bollywood debut?

No more remakes for now: Sara Ali khan A

fter her success with 2021 movie ‘Atrangi Re’ which brought her much positive feedback for her role, actress Sara Ali Khan is all set to return to Laxman Utekar’s next project with Vicky Kaushal.

In her short career span, Sara has worked in diverse films. In ‘Atrangi Re’, she was given a role matching her male co-star Dhanush, while two of her previous films were more about the hero. When asked why she said yes to movies where her characters were overshadowed by the heroes, she said, “For me, the role and screen time matter. Of course, having done Aanand Ji’s

(Atrangi Re) film, I am greedy, I want more meaty parts. I want to do all kinds of films.

Today, if Rohit Shetty (Simmba) comes to me with another commercial film where he needs me to do another ‘Aankh Maare’, I will do it.”

However, she wants to stay away from remakes. Sara has already starred in the remake of 1995 hit Govinda and Karisma Kapoor starrer ‘Coolie No 1’. She says, “No more

Abhishek Bachchan starts filming for R Balki’s next

S

hah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan is grabbing headlines. It’s because she was snapped outside filmmaker Zoya Akhtar’s office. Fans are speculating that she might be starring in Zoya’s next film. Suhana was seen in a tank top and cargo pants. Many fans are eagerly waiting for her film debut.

According to reports, Zoya’s next will be an adaptation of Archie comics. Sridevi and Boney Kapoor's younger daughter Khushi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan's grandson Agastya Nanda are also being considered for the film. So it might be a launchpad for these star kids.

Suhana has been in New York for her studies. She has been sharing pictures from her life in New York. For the unversed, she has already made her acting debut with a short film called 'The Grey Part of Blue.'

In the past, Suhana had shared a tweet of a user on her social media handle which read, "Misogyny is not only conscious hate towards women, it's also subconscious conditioned hateful behavior towards women. You don't have to consciously think you hate women but ask yourself why when a woman does something you feel more triggered than if it was done by a man."

scenes, a first of its kind experience for Indian cinema. Sharing his experience, Dhairya told the newsweekly, “Having an intimacy coordinator is as normal as having an action director, or a choreographer onset, it is just that we see it rarely. It’s like we're borrowing that trend from the west, which is when it's normal, right. The whole point of having an intimacy coordinator on a story like this, or any set is to create a safe and secure environment for the artists to showcase their vulnerabilities, know their limits and where to draw the line and just be comfortable, really. Intimacy is just part of the story theory.

It's not this whole story.”

Ananya added, “We needed intimacy workshops, to just generally build trust also between one another, to just set boundaries in terms of how far we can go in certain scenes and situations. And it also taught us a lot about ourselves.”

Abhishek Bachchan commenced filming for his upcoming R Balki’s ‘Ghoomer’. The actor, who turned 46 over the weekend, shared the news about sharing the shooting of the new film on Instagram.

Sharing a picture of a clapboard, he wrote, “Can’t ask for a better birthday present! Birthdays are best spent, working.???? Now spinning!”

Makers of the film are yet to reveal details of the plot, and other cast members of the movie. ‘Ghoomer’ marks the second collaboration between Bachchan and Balki after the commercially and criticallyacclaimed 2009 film ‘Paa’.

On the work front, Bachchan was last seen in ‘Bob Biswas’, and will star next in ‘Dasvi’ alongside Nimrat Kaur and Yami Gautam. He also has the third season of Prime Video series ‘Breathe’ to look forward to.

remakes for me right now.

I will star in the remake of ‘Atrangi Re’. You tell Aanand Ji and we will start rolling at India Gate in Delhi.”

Talking about what she loves about her work, she said, “The favourite thing of my job is that ek din main Ranveer Singh ke saath high energy gain karungi, aur doosre din Dhanush ke saath scene karungi, Varun (Dhawan) ke saath comedy.

That’s why I do what I do so that I can do everything.”

Nora returns to Instagram after short sabbatical Actress and dancer Nora Fatehi has returned to Instagram after she left her fans concerned with her account going inactive. Nora returned to the photoblogging website and shared a note revealing the reason behind her break from the platform. Taking to her Instagram Stories, she wrote, “Sorry guys there was an attempted hack on my Instagram!

Someone’s been trying to get into my account since the morning! Thanks to the Instagram team for helping me sort this out quickly!”

Nora has 37.6 million followers on Instagram. Her last post was about her trip to an animal reserve in Dubai where she spent time with white lions. She has shared many more glimpses from her current Dubai vacation, including her pictures from a pool. Nora was last seen in Guru Randhawa’s music video ‘Dance Meri Rani’. She had previously appeared in Guru’s music video ‘Naach Meri Rani’ as well.

30

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

12 - 18 February 2022

Malavika Mohanan reacts to 'vulgar' photo of her circulating online M

alavika Mohanan has reacted to a “vulgar” photoshopped picture of hers that has been doing the rounds on the internet. She called it cheap journalism to use the picture without doing a fact check. Taking to Twitter to share her disappointment, she wrote, “This is a photo of mine from a few months back which somebody has photoshopped and created a fake vulgar one. A lot of people have been circulating that, including media houses like @AsianetNewsTM, which is just cheap journalism. If you see the fake one please help and report.”

The actress made her Tamil debut with Rajinikanth’s ‘Petta’ last year. She recently finished working on Tamil film ‘Maaran’ with Dhanush. In a 2017 interview, the actress said in an interview, “I’ve seen people who do films just to keep the momentum. There were so many films that came my way post ‘Beyond The Clouds’ which any other newcomer would be excited to be a part of. As for me, unless I feel my intuition telling me to be a part of a project, I don’t feel driven enough to say yes to something.”

“I read somewhere that we always tend to think about the next step so much that we stop living in and enjoying the present. I’m having fun with all the success I’m experiencing in the Tamil film industry and the exciting things happening in Bollywood as well,” she added.

Allu Arjun I spoofs South cinema in advert, fans take offence

n a new advertisement posted by food delivery giant Tomato, Telugu star Allu Arjun is seen flexing his acting skills and spoofing South cinema. Channelling his character from his latest release ‘Pushpa : The Rise’, Arjun can be seen battling a number of goons in a mall.

He begins to fall in slow motion as he punches a villain, who asks him to drop faster. Taking a dig at high-octane action sequences in the film, he says, “It’s south cinema.

This is how we do it.”

The goon replies that he is craving for Gongura Mutton and the restaurants would close by the time he hits the floor in slow motion. Arjun flashes his phone and says in Telugu, “Gongura Mutton or anything else, Zomato is there for you”. At the end, he paraphrases a famous line from ‘Pushpa’ and says, "Manasu korithe,

thaggedele (when your heart desires, don't just settle).

The advertisement garnered a lot of attention, some positive but some negative as well. Fans took offence to the actor seemingly making fun of south cinema. One tweeted, “Don’t forget your roots, Mr Allu Arjun”, while another added, “It’s insulting the south cinema”. There were also social media users who threatened to delete Zomato app from their phones. One such netizen wrote, “I am uninstalling the app in my phone right away. Degrading south cinema in your recent ad.”

On the work front, Allu Arjun was last seen on screen in ‘Pushpa : The Rise’, which co-starred Rashmika Mandanna and Fahad Faasil. The movie earned over £33.5 million at the box office, becoming the most successful Indian film of 2021.

TV Listing

* Schedule is subject to change

Adivi Sesh’s ‘Major’ gets release date M

akers of Adivi Sesh-starrer ‘Major’ have finally announced that the biopic will release on May 27. Sesh took to his social media handles to share the new release date and a poster of the movie. Caption of the poster read, “This. Summer. Will. Be. Massive. #MajorTheFilm Worldwide on 27 May, 2022. #Major ka promise hai Yeh.” The movie was initially slated for a February 11 release. However, it got postponed due to a rise in Covid-19 infections and the uncertainty over the functioning of theatres. The movie is based on the life and times of late decorated Indian soldier Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. The movie aims to tell the tale of a hero, who lost his life fighting terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai serial attacks.

Jointly bankrolled by Sony Pictures Films India, GMB Entertainment, and A+S Movies, the film is helmed by Sashi Kiran Tikka.

The movie also stars Saiee M Manjrekar, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prakash Raj, Revathi, and Murali Sharma. ‘Major’ will

MON 14 FEB - FRI 18 FEB 2022 6:00: Ramat Ramade Rupiyo 9:00: MOTU PATLU 9:30: GATTU BATTU 15:00: RASOI SHOW 17:30: SHRIMAD BHAGWAT MAHAPURAN 18:00: SUDI VACHCHE SOPARI 18:30: SURI 19:00: BHAKT GORA KUMBHAR 19:30: MARU MAN MOHI GAYU 20:00: RASHI RIKSHAWALI 20:30: MOTI BAA NI NANI VAHU 21:00: SORATHNI MRS SINGHAM 21:30: GEETA

* Schedule is subject to change

MON 14 FEB - FRI 18 FEB 2022

11:00: KARADI TALES

16:00: DIL SE DIL TAK

16:30: RASOI SHOW DESI FLAVOURS

17:30: CHHUTA CHHEDA

18:00: SASURAL SIMAR KA 18:30: TU AASHIQUI

19:00: BHAGYA KA LIKHA

19:30: HUKUM MERE AAKA

20:00: BALIKA VADHU 2

20:30: Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki

have a simultaneous release in Telugu, Hindi, and Malayalam.

21:00: THAPKI PYAR KI 2

21:30: SASURAL SIMAR KA 2

SATURDAY 19 FEB 2022 6:00: Maina Popat 9:00: MOTU PATLU 9:30: GATTU BATTU 15:00: RASOI SHOW 17:30: SHRIMAD BHAGWAT MAHAPURAN 18:00: SUDI VACHCHE SOPARI 18:30: SURI 19:00: BHAKT GORA KUMBHAR 19:30: MARU MAN MOHI GAYU 20:00: RASHI RIKSHAWALI 20:30: MOTI BAA NI NANI VAHU 21:00: SORATHNI MRS SINGHAM 21:30: GEETA SUNDAY 20 FEB 2022 12:00: Fagnyo Aayo Holi Laayore 15:00: Chimanbhai Ni Chawl 18:00: MARU MAN MOHI GAYU ® 19:00: SHU CHALE CHE 19:30: GEETA 20:30: SORATHNI MRS SINGHAM 22:00: SHU CHALE CHE SATURDAY 19 FEB 2022 11:00: KARADI TALES 15:00: SHU CHALE CHE 16:30: RASOI SHOW - DESI FLAVOURS 17:30: DESI BEAT 3 18:00: SASURAL SIMAR KA 18:30: TU AASHIQUI 19:00: BHAGYA KA LIKHA 19:30: HUKUM MERE AAKA 20:00: COMEDY NIGHTS WITH KAPIL 21:00: THAPKI PYAR KI 2 21:30: SASURAL SIMAR KA 2 SUNDAY 20 FEB 2022 11:00: KARADI TALES 16:30: RASOI SHOW - DESI FLAVOURS 17:30: DESI BEAT 3 18:00: BFFs with Vogue - Season 1 19:00: KHATRA KHATRA KHATRA 20:00: COMEDY NIGHTS WITH KAPIL 21:00: THAPKI PYAR KI 2 21:30: SASURAL SIMAR KA 2

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

www.asian-voice.com

CROSS-PLATFORM

31

12 - 18 February 2022

‘Love Hostel’ to be released on OTT platform B

obby Deol, Vikrant Massey, and Sanya Malhotra have collaborated for a film titled ‘Love Hostel’ which will premiere on OTT platform ZEE5 Global. Set in North India, the story is touted to be a “tale of hope and survival in a world where power, money, principles lead to mayhem and bloodshed.”

In a statement, makers of the film said the plot “traces the volatile journey of a spirited young couple (Massey and Malhotra) being hunted by a ruthless mercenary (Deol). The star-crossed lovers take on the entire world in search of their fairytale ending. Set against the pulsating

backdrop of rustic North India, ‘Love Hostel’ is a tale of hope and survival in a world where power, money, principles lead to mayhem and bloodshed.”

Director Shankar Raman said in a statement, “‘Love Hostel’ is at its core a “love on the run” film. It has been a deeply satisfying journey and it would not have been possible without the support of a stellar cast and crew.”

Produced by Gauri Khan, Manish Mundra and Gaurav Verma, ‘Love Hostel’ also marks the second collaboration between ZEE5 and Red Chillies Entertainment.

‘Rocket Boys' makes Vikram Sarabhai’s family emotional

Chris Hemsworth spends 'one of the few quiet moments' on ‘Extraction 2’ sets

H

ollywood star Chris Hemsworth shared a photo with his son from the sets of Netflix’s ‘Extraction 2’. The film, which is a sequel to 2020’s action-thriller ‘Extraction’, brings back Tyler Rake (Hemsworth).

The picture features the star and his son standing on a pier beside a frozen lake. It is yet to be known where the film is set.

Hemsworth captioned the picture, “on set of extraction 2 with my boy taking in the sights.

One of the few quiet moments we’ve had on this adrenaline driven shoot! Cheers @jasinboland for the shot @netflix #extraction2”.

The sequel to the hit film sees director Sam Hargrave, and writer Joe Russo return.

The first film, set mostly in Bangladesh, had Rake being recruited by another mercenary Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) to rescue Ovi Mahajan Jr (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), the son of an imprisoned crime lord Ovi Mahajan (Pankaj Tripathi) from Bangladeshi crime lord Amir Asif. Randeep Honda was also in the first and gave a well-acclaimed performance. Joe Russo had earlier mentioned in an interview that a whole universe based on the ‘Extraction’ franchise may be in development.

F

ilmmaker Nikkhil Advani’s web series ‘Rocket Boys’ released on Sony Liv last week received a lot of positive reviews. The series stars Jim Sarbh as Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Ishwak Singh as Vikram Sarabhai.

Speaking in an interview, Advani said, “When we decided to make the show, I knew that we were trying something special. I’m just glad that the audience has embraced it and understood what we have tried to do.

It’s a special story with special people.”

Praising Sarbh’s acting, Advani said, “He’s a phenomenal actor.

When we called him, the first thing he said was, ‘I’m so glad you did not call me for a negative role’. It took us two years to make this show because we were shooting for two seasons simultaneously. So, we needed somebody who was not gonna turn and say, ‘I’m done’. We provided Ishwak and Jim with all this material

to consume - research, diary, letters, all the films - and then we told them to forget because back then, Mr Bhabha or Mr Sarabhai didn’t know they would become so fundamental in India’s history of science.”

When asked how Sarabhai and Bhabha’s families reacted to the show, Advani said, “Homi Bhabha has no family. His brother was the only relative who passed away recently. He gave his entire estate to the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai.”

As for Sarabhai’s family, “We met Mallika Sarabhai, Kartikeya Sarabhai and Revanta Sarabhai. They were part of our research team. They were part of the making throughout.

Mallika choreographed a dance sequence performed by her mother Mrinalini Sarabhai, which was an emotional moment for her. They saw the episodes a week ago. They were very emotional and moved.”

Kangana to make digital debut with Ekta Kapoor’s dating show

A

ctress Kangana Ranaut is all set to finally make her OTT debut with Ekta Kapoor’s upcoming show ‘Lock Upp’. This is the first time the ‘Queen’ actress has collaborated with Ekta. The upcoming reality dating show will feature 16 controversial celebrities who will be put together in a lock-up for months and will be stripped of their amenities. Ekta took to Instagram last week and shared a glimpse of the launch event.

Talking about the project, Kangana said, "I am thrilled and excited for foraying into the OTT with such a unique and brilliant concept. The scale and reach of both ALTBalaji and MX Player are massive.

I am sure this show will give me a great opportunity to get in touch with my fans and entertain them as the host of ‘Lock Upp’. I want to thank the boss lady Ekta for always being by my side, she has always

been someone I admire and respect a lot. I am glad that she is there with me for my OTT debut as well. To all my fans out there, get ready for the most fearless show ever."

Produced by Endemol Shine India, the show premiers on ALTBalaji and MX Player.

‘Lock Upp’ is claimed to be the world's first metaverse-based fantasy game.

32

www.asian-voice.com

12 - 18 February 2022

AsianVoiceNews AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Young guns bring home Under-19 WC

India clinched the U-19 Cricket World Cup title for the fifth time after beating England by four wickets in the summit clash, riding on a sensational all-round show from Chandigarh boy Raj Angad Bawa on Saturday.

Bawa shone with the ball with a sensational fiver (5/31) to help India shot England out for 189 before hitting a valuable 35 down the order to help India chase down the target of 190 with 2.2 overs to spare. Earlier, England opted to bat after

winning the toss but they were shot out by India for 189 in 44.5 overs with pacer Bawa (5/31 in 9.5 overs) and Ravi Kumar (4/34 from 9 overs) sharing the spoils.

Their latest triumph, in the West Indies, holds special significance and offers plenty of hope to Indian cricket at a time when the senior team is in the throes of a transition. “It an outstanding was achievement by the boys. Hats off to them for winning two major tournaments - the

Under-19 Asia Cup (In UAE) and then the World Cup in span of a month. Considering that we had hardly two-three months’ time to prepare, it’s a great achievement,” India Under-19 chief selector Sridharan Sharath said. The way this bunch conquered an outbreak of Covid-19 - six players were infected at one point in the league stage, forcing India to barely find 11 fit players for the games against Ireland and Uganda - is an inspiring tale in itself. Sharath gave credit for keeping the boys motivated in this low phase to batting legend VVS Laxman, who was in the Caribbean in his capacity as the National Cricket Academy head, and the team’s coaches head coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar and bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule, both former India players.

“Credit to VVS Laxman. His presence itself was a tremendous thing. It gives a huge confidence to the boys.

You can’t substitute such kind of an experience. The coaches and team management must be given a lot of credit, too.

Collectively, everybody worked well,” summed up Sharath.

The heartening aspect of India’s performance was that the team appeared strong in all facets of the game. The batting was led by skipper Yash Dhull and his deputy Shaik Rasheed.

If Dhull slammed a superb 82 in the opener and then 110 in the semis against Australia, Rasheed slammed halfcenturies in the semis and the final. Keeping calm under pressure, Nishant Sindhu took India home with a fabulous, unbeaten half-century in the final.

India win first ODI against West Indies On the back of a quick 60 from captain Rohit Sharma and an unbeaten stand of 62 for fifth wicket between Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda, India scripted a six-wicket win over West Indies in the series opener at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. India’s 1000th ODI appearance went through a scare when they went from 84/0 to 116/4 in 17. 3 overs. But Yadav and Hooda ensured there were no more hiccups for India, who achieved the target with 22 overs to spare.

Chasing a lowly 177, India made a solid start, scoring 67 in the powerplay. Rohit and Ishan Kishan smashed boundaries at

will. Rohit took a special liking to Kemar Roach, smashing the pacer for boundaries through mid-on and mid-off in the eighth over. The right-hander followed it up with fours through pull over square leg and a deliberate late cut through third man and a cracking six pulled over square leg. It was Alzarri Joseph who broke the 84run opening stand.

Virat Kohli fetched boundaries on his first two balls but mistimed a pull off Joseph and the top-edge flew to fine-leg to become the second big scalp of the right-arm pacer. Rishabh Pant got going with two boundaries while Ishan

Neeraj nominated for ‘World Breakthrough of the Year’ award Neeraj Chopra, champion javelin thrower, who won an Olympic gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was nominated for the prestigious Laureus ‘World Breakthrough of the Year’ award by a panel of more Neeraj Chopra than 1,300 sports journalists and broadcasters across the globe.

The 24-year-old from Panipat in Haryana is one of the six nominees shortlisted for the award in this category, including US Open champion Emma Raducanu, World No. 2 Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev, FC Barcelona prodigy Pedri, triple jumper Yulimar Rojas and swimmer Ariarne Titmus.

Neeraj is only the third Indian athlete to be nominated for a Laureus award after wrestler Vinesh Phogat in 2019 and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who won the ‘best sporting moment in the last 20 years’ award in 2020.

Commenting on his nomination, Neeraj said: “I’m delighted to be nominated for this award. It is a great honour for me to be recognised in the wider sporting world for what I achieved in Tokyo. ” World Athletics (WA) president Sebastian Coe shared his views on Neeraj’s nomination. “I have always since becoming the president of World Athletics done my level best to be entirely neutral when I’m watching competitions, and that’s always a challenge. I obviously and instinctively always want British athletes to do well. But I also recognise that I have to be aware that I represent, as president of the sport, well over 200 nations. I have to concede that my impartiality that night was really tested to its limit because my grandfather was Indian. My mother was born in Delhi and brought up in India, so I have obviously very strong emotional ties still to that country,” he said.

continued to hold the fort. But Ishan, in an effort to unsettle Hosein, went for a big slog-sweep and instead picked out the fielder at backward square-leg. In the very next over, Pant was run-out at the nonstriker’s end a straight drive from Suryakumar was met by Joseph sticking his right foot out on follow-through. The bowlers played a big role in the victory.

Offie Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal grabbed seven wickets between them and made good use of a helpful pitch and an opposition that was unwilling to

graft and played with hard hands.

Both bowled with skill and control though.

Chahal’s dismissal of Pollard with a googly and getting Shamarh Brooks caught behind with a delivery that drifted in, dipped and spun, showed his class.

Indian diplomats boycott Beijing Winter Olympics Terming China’s decision to field a People’s Liberation Army soldier involved in the June 2020 Galwan clashes as the torchbearer for the Winter Olympics Games in Beijing as “regrettable”, India announced a diplomatic boycott of the games just ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday last. State broadcaster Doordarshan also announced it will not telecast the opening and closing ceremonies live, where India has one athlete, skier Arif Khan, participating.

The decision came after Chinese media reports identified Qi Fabao, a PLA regiment commander who received military honours for the Galwan clashes, where he was injured, as one of about 1,200 runners bearing the torch at a relay in Beijing. China’s decision to field him and New Delhi’s announcement of its first ever political boycott of Olympic games, are likely to increase IndiaChina tensions that have risen since PLA aggressions along the Line of Actual Control began in April 2020.

India had earlier expressed support for the Beijing Olympics, even as more than a dozen countries, led by the United States, had announced a boycott of the games. “It is indeed regrettable that the Chinese side has chosen to politicise an event like Olympic,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, referring to the media reports. “The Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of India in Beijing will not be attending the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics,” he added.

The Indian Ambassador to China, Pradeep Kumar Rawat, whose appointment was announced in December, is expected to take charge in the next few weeks, and hence the Charge d’Affaires Acquino Vimal is the top diplomat in Beijing at present. Vimal and other officials had been expected to attend the ceremonial functions at the games, although the MEA had said no political or high level representation would be sent from Delhi. The Chinese decision to publicly honour the military commander for involvement in the deadly clashes in the Galwan valley, where 20 Indian soldiers, and at least four Chinese soldiers (far higher according to media reports) were killed, is seen as a deliberate insult to New Delhi, which came despite the fact that the Modi government had decided not to join western boycott calls over human rights concerns.

in brief BOPANNA-RAM WIN DOUBLES CROWN Star Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan came up with a superb performance to win the doubles title in the home ATP 250 event title, beating Australia’s Luke Saville and JohnPatrick Smith at the 2022 Tata Open Maharashtra on Sunday. The Indian pair produced a scintillating display to overcome the Australian top seeds Saville and JohnPatrick Smith 6-7(10), 6-3, 10-6 to claim their second ATP title together. It was Bopanna’s 21st doubles title, and second in Pune after having won partnering Divij Sharan in 2019.

The Indian duo, which kickstarted the year on a high with their maiden ATP title together in Adelaide in January, started off well and despite some stiff challenge from the top seeds, put themselves ahead in the contest at 5-4 in the second set

NAGAL DROPPED, YUKI RETURNS FOR DAVIS CUP TIE Sumit Nagal has been dropped from the five member Indian Davis Cup team for the World Group 1 play-off tie against Denmark here next month, the national tennis federation said. Nagal (world ranked 222) made way for Yuki Bhambri (863) in the squad which also has Ramkumar Ramanathan (182) and Prajnesh Gunneswaran (228) as other singles players. The team has been selected keeping in mind the playing surface as both India’s top ranked singles player - Ramkumar and Yuki - are comfortable playing on grass courts. Gunneswaran and Nagal, on the other hand, are not grass court players. Besides, doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna has retained his place in the squad alongside Divij Sharan, the AITA said. Saketh Myneni and Digvijay Pratap Singh are the two reserve players in the squad, to be coached

by Zeeshan Ali, and has Rohit Rajpal as nonplaying captain.

DHAWAN, SHREYAS, ASHWIN AMONG TOP DRAWS IN IPL AUCTION Top Indian players, including senior opener Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer, along with overseas stars such as Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada have been bracketed in the £200,000 highest base price category for the upcoming IPL auction. The mega auction is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on Feb 12 and 13 and will see 590 players go under the hammer. The IPL announced the final list, which was pruned from the original list of 1,214 players released last month, after the franchises reverted with the players they are interested in. Among the 590 cricketers, a total of 228 are capped players, 355 are uncapped and seven belong to associate nations. Senior Indian players Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane have also registered with a base price of £200,000. While Iyer and Dhawan are the top draws, the 10 teams are also likely to be involved in a bidding war for youngsters Ishan Kishan, Devdutt Padikkal, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, last season’s top wicket-taker Harshal Patel, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and fast bowler Shardul Thankur. All of them are in the top bracket. A total of 370 Indian players and 220 overseas cricketers will be up for grabs.