Tough draw for Indians at Badminton Worlds
New Delhi, July 17: India's competitors in the BWF World Badminton Championships 2018 in Nanjing, China, have been handed a difficult path in the draw.
Men's singles fifth seed Kidambi Srikanth has been clubbed in the fourth section which also has Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei, means they could clash in the quarter-finals.
Srikanth will open against Ireland's Nhat Nguyen and is likely to meet Indonesia's Jonatan Christie, 13th seed, in the third round.
H.S. Prannoy, on the other hand, may face Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent and Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen after being handed an easy opening round clash against Australia's Abhinav Manota. In the last eight stage, rising Chinese star Shi Yuqi may be Prannoy's opponent.
B Sai Praneeth will have to upset South Korean Son Wan Ho, while Sameer Verma meets Frenchman Lucas Corvee in the opening round.
In the women's singles category, third seed and three-time medallist P.V. Sindhu will open her campaign against the winner between Fitriani Fitriani or Linda Zetchiri. If the Indian wins the match, South Korean ninth Sung ji Hyun will be a stiff challenge for Sindhu while reigning world champion Nozomi Okuhara is a possible opponent in the quarter-finals for the Hyderabadi.
Sindhu's senior, Saina Nehwal will play either Swiss Sabrina Jaquet or Turkish Aliye Demirbag in the second round. After this round, she is expected to fight Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the next two rounds.
In the men's doubles, senior pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will open against Bulgarian combo of Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev, while fast-rising Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face Olympic bronze medallists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge of England.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy will meet Chinese Taipei's Chiang Kai Hsin and Hung Shih Han in their first round.
The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini and Satwik will clash with Danish pair of N. Nøhr and S. Thygesen, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki will meet Czech combine of Jakub Bitman and Alzbeta Basova.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
