NEW DELHI 22 JANUARY 2023 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  twitter.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in PLUS: 12 PAGES The Uncommon Flu MAGAZINE The Self-sleep Hack EXCLUSIVE VOICES Why are Hindus and Muslims in India Worshipping Dead Jews? A Colourful Life Prabhu Chawla Shankkar Aiyar Namrata Joshi Ravi Shankar Anand Neelakantan Sumeet Bhasin Neha Sinha Anuja Chandramouli Raising the Gold Standard Written in Vain ‘I am Drawn to Real-Life Heroes’ Ministry cancels all WFI events as embattled chief opens meet N A M I TA B A J PA I / F I R O Z M I R Z A @ Lucknow/Chennai A day after wrestlers called off their protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the Senior National Open Ranking Tournament began in Gonda (Uttar Pradesh), the home turf of embattled Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on Saturday . In the eye of the storm after serious allegations, including that of sexual harassment were levelled against him by the agitating wrestlers, Singh has been asked to step aside from the day-to-day functioning of the federation late on Friday night. However, the WFI chief not only inaugurated the threeday tournament as a chief guest but also witnessed the day’s action from close quarters at the indoor hall. Hours later, the ministry has asked the WFI to cancel all events, including the ongoing ranking meet, until the oversight committee it promised to appoint is in place and takes over the day-to-day functioning of WFI. The ministry directed the federation to return the entry fees charged from players. In another decision, the sports ministry issued an order to suspend the assistant secretary of the WFI, Vinod Tomar, with immediate effect. Union sports minister Anurag Thakur announced late on Friday night that a panel that will be constituted to probe the charges will submit its report within four weeks. Its members were to be announced on Satur- day but the cherry-picking has been postponed by a day . All eyes will be on the emergency executive committee and special general body meeting of the WFI on Sunday. “WFI president will not attend; secretary-general V N Prasood will chair it,” said an official. Replying to the ministry’s notice, WFI earlier in the day dismissed all allegations and said the protest was motivated and P11 part of a larger plot. YouTube, Twitter axe BBC series after govt’s fiat PA R V E Z S U LTA N @ New Delhi OH BOY! A FAN MOMENT An injurd Indian Secular Front worker lies on a road | PTI A boy invaded the pitch to hug captain Rohit Sharma during India’s innings against New Zealand in the second ODI at Raipur on Saturday. Rohit later asked security to not take action against the boy. Chasing 109, India won by 8 wkts to seal series 2-0 | PTI ISF men, cop battle it out on Kolkata street Ahead of R-Day, 9 injured as twin explosions rock Jammu Indian Secular Front (ISF) men fought a pitched battle with police at Esplanade in central Kolkata on Saturday during a protest against alleged attacks on their workers by the ruling Trinamool Congress in South 24-Parganas. A number of police personnel and agitators were injured. F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar AT least nine people were injured, one of them critically in , twin blasts in Jammu, the winter capital of J&K, where security has been tightened following Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and ahead of the Republic Day . ADG Mukesh Singh said the blasts took place at the Transport Nagar area of Narwal in the morning. “Around 11 am, a blast took place in a Bolero vehicle. Soon after the blast, security personnel rushed to the area and launched an operation. Just as they went about their job, another blast took place, near the first blast site,” said Singh. The injured have been shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital Jammu. The condition of one of them is said to be critical. The police, CRPF and Army personnel along with other officials rushed to the spot and sealed the area. A team from J&K police State Investigation Dinosaur nest cluster with 256 eggs found in Narmada Valley A N U R A A G S I N G H @ Bhopal A rare discovery of 92 closely located dinosaur nests and 256 fossilised eggs of herbivorous Titanosaurs (one of the largest known dinosaurs) has been made by a team of palaeontologists in Dhar district, which is part of the Narmada Valley in Madhya Pradesh. While dinosaur nests and eggs having been found in the past, too, by other palaeontologists in the Jabalpur region of MP and Balasinor in Gujarat, this recent find raised the possibility of the Narmada Valley having been a fertile hatchery location for dinosaurs millions of years ago. The field research was carried out by a team of palaeontologists from Delhi University , Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohanpur-Kolkata and Bhopal in many villages of Bagh and Kukshi areas of Dhar district between 2017 and 2020. A paper on their research by Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, G V R Prasad and others was recently published in the PLOS ONE research journal. “A major inference from the three years of research is that the nests and eggs found in the villages of Dhar district date back 66 million years ago. It’s quite possible that the Titanosaurs either just came to lay the eggs in this area of Narmada Valley or the eggs were also hatched there. The eggs found by us show evidence of hatching as well as not having been hatched,” Dhiman, the lead researcher told this newspaper on Saturday “Since only nests . and eggs and not bones have been found, we need to perform micro CT scan for further research,” Dhiman added. Fossilised femur bone and fossilised eggs of dinosaurs found in Narmada Valley | PTI Egg diameter around 15-17 cm The nests found in the Narmada valley were close to each other, which is generally not the case. These nests had eggs which ranged between 15 cm and 17 cm in diameter. “Each nest had between one and 20 eggs,” Dhiman said Agency visited the blast site to assist in the investigation. A bomb disposal team along with the Army dog squad rushed to the area to sanitise the area. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha called for urgent steps to identify the attackers. “Such dastardly acts highlight the desperation and cowardice of those responsible. No efforts should be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Lt Governor said. He announced a relief of Rs 50,000 to those injured in the blasts. THE Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued directions to block multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts that shared links to the first part of a BBC documentary India: The Modi Question, , on the 2002 Gujarat riots. Twitter was ordered to block over 50 tweets containing links of those YouTube videos, officials said. The directions came from the Secretary I&B minis, try on Friday, who invoked emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. “Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions,” sources added. The ministry of external affairs had a couple of days ago had trashed the docuseries produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation, saying it was a ‘propaganda piece’ that lacked objectivity and reflected its colonial mindset. While the BBC did not make it available in India, some YouTube channels appear to have uploaded it, sources said. YouTube has also been instructed to block the video if it is uploaded in future. Sources said that senior officials of multiple ministries — external affairs, home and I&B — examined the video and found it to be an attempt to cast aspersions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court of India. It sows divisions among various Indian communities and makes unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign governments in India, sources said. “The documentary was found to be undermining sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact India’s friendly relations with foreign States as also public order within the country said sources. ,” While the Congress and the Trinamool Congress called it censorship, a group of 302 former judges, ex-bureaucrats and veterans slammed the BBC documentary as a “motivated chargesheet”. AMMA SPEAKS Meditation with Compassion IAF employee detained over bomb hoax call to halt Rajdhani A M I T PA N D E Y @ New Delhi A drunk Indian Air Force employee was detained on Saturday for allegedly trying to delay the Mumbai-bound Rajdhani train by making a hoax call. The caller informed the police about a bomb being placed aboard the train, which was scheduled for departure seven minutes before the police received the call around 4:48 pm. Railway officials along with a police team quickly reached platform number three, where the train was docked. “We began the search from the two ends of the train,” said Hareesh HP DCP (Railways). , As the mobile number through which the call was made was out of reach, the ownership of the cell number was obtained. It was found in the name of Anand Kumar, a resident of Bhiwani, Haryana, said the officer. The police also found another number in the ownership details. “On contacting the alternate number, a person named Anand responded and told the police that the owner of the mobile number is his younger brother, Sunil Sengawan,” said the DCP. The caller told the police that Sengawan is a sergeant in the IAF and was due to board the train from the New Delhi railway station, said the officer. Anand also told the police that his brother was a habitual drinker. Based on the inputs, the police traced the caller and his identity was established through his IAF I-card. “Sunil was detained in an inebriated condition. He said he played the prank because he was getting late for the train” said the DCP Action as per law . is being taken against him, the police officer said. EXPRESS READ Bail to man accused of assaulting Swati Maliwal A city court on Saturday granted bail the accused, Harish Chander, who was arrested for allegedly molesting Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal. Chander, 47, a resident of Sangam Vihar, was granted bail on a bond of Rs 50,000 along with a surety of the same amount by Mahila Court Metropolitan Magistrate Sanghmitra of Saket Court, noting that all the offences he was charged with, barring one, were bailable in nature and its punishment is less than seven years. New worry as cracks on Badrinath road widen Cracks are widening on the only road linking Badrinath Dham following land submergence, intensifying concerns of the administration. Several parts of the road leading to Badrinath have developed cracks ranging from one to two metres. If the process of widening the cracks continues, then a large part of the highway would have to be razed. In such a situation, along with blocking the route of Badrinath Dham, the Indian Army may also lose contact with the China border. P8