Politics can't define my cordial relation with Kohli: Afridi

Agencies
February 10, 2018

St Moritz (Switzerland), Feb 10: Prevailing cross-border tension may have restricted Indo-Pak bilateral cricketing ties but Shahid Afridi loves to put across a point firmly -- his "cordial relationship" with India captain Virat Kohli cannot and will not be defined by political situation.

"My relationship with Virat is not dictated by the political situation. Virat is a fantastic human being and an ambassador of cricket for his country, just like I am for my country," Afridi told PTI during an interaction on the sidelines of the St Moritz Ice Cricket Tournament.

"He (Kohli) has always shown a lot of respect and has even gone out of his way to present a signed jersey for my foundation (Shahid Afridi Foundation)," he added.

Afridi's foundation has been working on providing clean and safe drinking water for the economically weaker sections of society.

"There is a lot of warmth and fellow-feeling whenever I have spoken to Virat. It's not that we get a chance to speak a lot but from time to time, he would drop in a message and I would do the same. I congratulated him recently when I came to know he was getting married.

"I believe as cricketers we can set examples of how the relationship between individuals can be a template for the relationship between countries. I think after Pakistan, the two countries where I have received most love and respect are India and Australia," said the former Pakistan skipper.

For someone, who was a maverick during his international career, Afridi loves Kohli's aggression and believes that supporting juniors in crisis situations has also helped him in earning respect from youngsters.

"Virat is doing a brilliant job. I have no problem with aggression if it is a controlled one. And Virat's character is different from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was a composed individual.

"Now suddenly, you cannot change the inherent nature of a person. Virat's greatest asset is that he can take the team along," Afridi observed.

Asked to compare Kohli with Pakistan captain Sarfraz Khan, Afridi said: "Sarfraz is still new to the job and he will only get better along the way. The only thing I don't like is that media running down players during their rough times.

"As long as you are winning, everything is fine and you lose a game and all hell breaks loose. That is grossly unfair. We should not overlook someone's past achievements just because he is going through a bad patch," said the cricketer who has been loved and criticised in equal measure.

During a couple of days of Ice Cricket at St Moritz tournament, Afridi at times even beat Virender Sehwag in terms of popularity thanks to the presence of a larger number of expatriate Pakistani fans, who had thronged St Moritz.

The moment he entered the playing area wearing the orange jumper, St Moritz turned into a 'Lala Land' as everyone wanted a piece of their beloved 'Lala', as Pakistani fans affectionately call Afridi.

Afridi was a different man at different times.

He autographed the posters, even a Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf flag, obliged all the selfie seekers, seemed a tad irritated with multiple one-on-one interview requests, took his wife and youngest daughter out for a walk down the lake and did not even give a second glance at a young Pakistani woman, who in front of everyone shouted "Lala aapse kabhi alag se mil sakti hoon (Can I meet you somewhere else?)."

And yes, he played cricket too and tried to hit out as he would do often during his green jersey days. And the result was more often than not his downfall. It happened the same way but no one cared.

With Shahid Afridi, there are no half measures -- they all love the man more than the player.

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News Network
May 22,2020

Mumbai, May 22: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday reduced repo rate by 40 basis points to 4 per cent in an effort to further boost liquidity in the economy which has been reeling under the impact of COVID-19 induced countrywide lockdown.

As a result, the reverse repo rate stands at 3.35 per cent, said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) voted 5:1 in favour of the decision.

Repo rate is the rate at which a country's central bank lends money to commercial banks, and the reverse repo rate is the rate at which it borrows from them. 

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16, 2012 were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on Friday, ending a horrific chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul. Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya, the fearless one.

This is the first time that four men have been hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. The executions were carried out after the men exhausted every possible legal avenue to escape the gallows. Their desperate attempts only postponed the inevitable by less than two months after the first date of execution was set for January 22.

They were hanged at 5.30 am, Director General of Prison Sandeep Goel said.

After raping and brutalising the woman, the men, one of whom was a juvenile at the time, dumped her on the road and left for dead on the cold winter night. Her friend who was with her was also severely beaten and thrown out along with her. She was so severely violated that her insides were spilling out when she was taken to hospital. She died in a Singapore hospital after battling for her life for a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and the juvenile, were named as accused.

While Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case, the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.

The road to the gallows was a long and circuitous one, going through the lower courts, the High Court, the Supreme Court and the president's office before going back to the Supreme Court that heard and rejected various curative petitions.

The death warrants were deferred by a court thrice on the grounds that the convicts had not exhausted all their legal remedies and that the mercy petition of one or the other was before the president.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for March 20 at 5.30 am as the final date for the execution.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

New Delhi, May 31: India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 were from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five in Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.

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