eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Zen and the Art of Minimalism NEWDELHI,LATE CITY APRIL4,2021 With his 1961 canvas selling for ` 39.98 cr, he set a new record for Indian art. But, for VS Gaitonde, less was always more PAGES 14, 15, 16 18PAGES,`6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, ` 12SRINAGAR) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA 48-HOUR BAN CUT TO 24; ASSAM FINAL PHASE VOTING APRIL 6 ECrelaxesbanafterHimantasayssorry; Congsayspollpanelfailedtodoitsduty Sarma told panel ban hurts him as seat goes to polls April 6; EC tore ‘impartiality’ page from rulebook, says Priyanka SUNDAY STORY PAGE 10 Player blaming umpire (EC), something wrong with (Mamata) game, says PM SANTANU CHOWDHURY KOLKATA, APRIL 3 Captain Comrade BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma campaigning in Guwahati on Saturday. PTI RITIKA CHOPRA & MANOJ CG NEW DELHI, APRIL 3 THE ELECTION Commission Saturday reduced its 48-hour campaign ban on Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to 24 hours after the powerful BJP leader offered what he called an “unconditional regret” and requested the poll panel to halve the ban period. Withdrawalorrelaxation of campaign bans DECISION 2021 ASSAM is rare. During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the EC had lifted its ban on BJP leaderAmitShah'selectioneering in Uttar Pradeshafterheassured the poll panel that he would not “make any utterances violative” of Pinarayi Vijayan has rewritten rules of the game. Will it be enough to see him through? the conduct code. Saying it was “deeply dismayed and disappointed,” the OppositionCongress,whichfiled thecomplaintthatledtotheban, said the move raised “several doubts” and the poll panel had “singularly failed” to discharge CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi Saturday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying her questioning the credibility of the Election Commission, securityforcesand EVMs was a sure sign of her impending defeat. Addressing a public meeting at Tarakeshwar in Hooghly district, Modi said: “On the cricket field, if a player keeps raising questionsabouttheumpire’sdecisions...you can assume that there’s a problem with (his/her) game….Didi used to believe in the same security forces and Election Commission but she is defaming them today. The same CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM In poll playbook: Central agencies come knocking on Opposition’s doors EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, APRIL 3 THE INCOME Tax department’s raids Friday on DMK leader Stalin’sdaughterSenthamaraiin Tamil Nadu and the Enforcement Directorate’s attachmentof propertiesSaturday of TMC leadersKunalGhosh and Satabdi Roy in West Bengal fit a pattern. Be it the run-up to a state assembly election or Lok Sabha polls, central agencies — from the ED to CBI to I-T — have a knack of knocking on the doors of Opposition leaders in the states they control. TheagenciesdenyOpposition allegations that their actions are EXPRESS NETWORK FOUR LINKED TO BAJRANG DAL HELD FOR MANGALORE ATTACK ON COUPLE STUDENT ‘SEXUALLY ASSAULTED’ AT IIT GUWAHATI: 1 HELD PAGE 7 Oxygen alarm bells in Maharashtra, hospital beds running out, shortage of cylinders TABASSUM BARNAGARWALA AURANGABAD, APRIL 3 An injured security person in Bijapur on Saturday. PTI Chhattisgarh: Five security personnel killed in 3-hr gunbattle RAIPUR, APRIL 3 AT LEAST five security personnel werekilled,morethantwodozen suffered serious injuries and some are feared missing after an exchangeoffirebetweensecurity forces and Maoists Saturday in Chhattisgarh'sBijapur,policesaid. Two Maoists, including a woman,werealsokilledafterthe three-hourgunbattle,policesaid. Officialssaidthebodyof only one of those killed could be recovered by late tonight. Seven CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 requirement of medical oxygen in the state is 700-750 metric tonnes, up from 150-200 until the end of February. In Aurangabad, the daily requirement is 49.5 metric tonnes, up from 15-17 metric tonnes until February end. Thereisnoshortageofoxygen forpatientsadmittedtohospitals, buthospitalsarerunningshortof oxygenatedbeds.Forpatientsbeing turned away and advised homeisolation,oxygencylinders Heat turned ● onMaoists THE ENCOUNTER comes 10 days after five security personnel were killed when Naxals blew up their bus in Narayanpur, the first major attack this year. This operation was meant to target Hidma, a key Maoist leader, and inflicted “heavy losses,” police said. have become hard to get. Given the shortage, the state Public Health Department had last Tuesday directed manufacturers to supply 80 per cent oxygen for medical use and the balance 20 per cent for industrial purposes until June 30. On Saturday, when CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORT PAGE 7 been a partner until 2009. The case is still under investigation. MAHARASHTRA ■ In February this year, the CBI questionedRujiraBanerjee,wife of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief MinisterMamataBanerjee,inan alleged coal scam case. It also summoned Ankush Arora, husband of Abhishek’s sister-in-law Menaka Gambhir, and her father-in-law Pawan Arora. ■ In March, the ED summoned state minister Partha Chatterjee and former minister Madan Mitra in two different cases relating to chit funds. Both are contesting the assembly elections on TMC tickets. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ■InSeptember2019,amonthbefore the assembly polls in Maharashtra,theEDregisteredan alleged money laundering case against NCP chief Sharad Pawar andhisnephewAjitPawarinconnection with the Maharashtra StateCooperativeBankscam.The case is still under investigation. ■ In August 2019, the ED questioned MNS chief Raj Thackeray in connection with an alleged money laundering case pertaining to IL&FS group’s loan equity investment of over Rs 850 crore in a company called Kohinoor CTNL, of which Thackeray had AVISHEK G DASTIDAR NEW DELHI, APRIL 3 The world’s highest railway bridge, over river Chenab. Courtesy: Afcons/Northern Railway A HALF-A-KILOMETER long arch, the defining feature of the world’s highest railway bridge over river Chenab, is set to be completedonMonday.Andwith this, the biggest civil-engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent WEST BENGAL 2011 CD CASE Bhushans: Court again rejects police plea to close case, says probe more Police say no evidence against then ministers, Bhushans slam probe ANANTHAKRISHNAN G & ANAND MOHAN J NEW DELHI, APRIL 3 FOR THE second time in nine years, a Delhi court has rejected a Delhi Police request to close a 2011 case regarding an audio CD and directed it to investigate the CD contents again. Thecaserelatestoapurported phoneconversationbetweenformer Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh (who passed away last year) in which a voice, allegedly that of Bhushan,referstohislawyer-son PrashantBhushanwhocan“manage… very well” and to a then Chenab arch to bridge distance between Kashmir, Kanyakumari E E X P L A I NE D GARGI VERMA A SEVERE shortage has sent the prices of oxygen cylinders soaring across Maharashtra. Aurangabad, where the positivity rates were the highest in the state March-end, is particularly hard hit, with all oxygenated bedsoccupiedovertheweekend, andpatientsdesperatelyseeking to treat themselves at home. All 2,214 oxygen beds were occupied over Friday and Saturday in the district, where the positivity rate was 43.8 per centintheclosingdaysof March. Of a total 15,484 active cases, 4,600 are under home isolation. Most are mild, said doctors, but some are moderately ill, and require oxygen support. Since March, the demand for medical oxygen has risen across Maharashtra. The current daily promptedbypolitics,butoverthe years a pattern has emerged. Consider these: history, will be over. The 5.3-metre last piece of metal will be fitted at the highestpointonMondayandjointhe two arms of the arch that currentlystretchtowardseachother from both the banks of the river. This will complete the shape of thearchthatwill thenloomover thetreacherousChenab,flowing some 359 metres below. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Shanti Bhushan Supreme Court judge. The re-investigation direction came on January 28 this year.InitsApril2014“untracereport”, the Special Cell of Delhi Police had said though Shanti Bhushan “suspected that “Amar Singh “could be behind the fabrication and circulation of the audio CD to malign his reputation” and that its circulation amongthemedia“wasintended CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ECONOMY FACEBOOK DETAILS OF 533 MN USERS GLOBALLY, 6 MN FROM INDIA POSTED ONLINE FOR FREE PAGE 13 WORLD PROTESTERS DEFY CRACKDOWN, FIVE KILLED IN MYANMAR PAGE 12 MP tribal women script success story — in Vogue, fashion industry PAGE 1 ANCHOR IRAM SIDDIQUE MANDU, APRIL 3 TILL FIVE days ago, Sita Vasuniya (25) was an unknown tribal woman in the quiet town of Mandu, 35 km from Dhar. But her anonymity ended when her photograph, draped in a beige and golden Maheshwari silksari which she had hand-printed in bright hues of red and black, got picked up by Vogue Italia’s digi- tal edition on March 29. Similarly, Kiran Davre (20), from the neighboring village of Sulibardi,wasaMicrobiologystudent who also helped out on her family’sone-acrefarm.Today,she is considering modelling assignmentsinMumbai,after her photographs, in a bright yellow sari handprinted by her, did the rounds of the fashion industry. Sita and Kiran are part of a group of 10 tribal women who are scripting their own stories of economic and social independence — one sari at a time. It was only in January that thesewomen, fromneighboring villagesin Mandu,wereroped in for Dhara, a self-help group set up by the district administration toprovidesustainablelivelihood to women under Madhya Pradesh’s Ek Jila, Ek Utpad Scheme. There are two other such groups — Suraj and Chandani. Helmed by Dhar'sAdditional DistrictMagistrateSaloniSidana, the group was trained in the traditional handicraft, albeit with a modern twist which included innovation in the texture of fabric, design and colour. Instead of the conventional 'Bagh' design of flower motifs, Sita Vasuniya’s photograph on Vogue Italia’s digital edition; (above) women of the self-help group. Courtesy: Aditi Gupta the district administration tied up with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and Nation Institute of Design (NID) to explore new designs. Meanwhile, a team of 40, headed by Aman Akash, part of Enactus SRCC, an NGO, conducted a market survey to understand the demands in the textile industry and the ways to reinvent.Theteamalsocreateda database of prospective clients. “We wanted to create productsthatappealtoallagegroups, and women in different professions who can wear these saris in various seasons. We came up with several designs, playing around with the geometry, and alsoexperimentingwiththefabric,” said Sidana. A local handicraft artist, Gurudutt Kathe, was roped in to train the women. They learnt to print the wooden blocks on delicate fabric, experimenting with various forms — from Batik to Dabu printing. They were also trained in threadwork and hand painting. But when the first batch of sariswereready,thesecondwave of Covid-19madetravellingdifficult. Aditi Gupta, a Delhi-based CONTINUED ON PAGE 2