Speaker 1: In this episode, we talk about a medication that could
Speaker 1: potentially be a tool in the.
Speaker 2: Fight against cervical cancer. We also talk.
Speaker 1: About Prashantkishore's victory in Bihar's bunky Pur, which ended bgp's
Speaker 1: three decade.
Speaker 2: Long hold over the constituency.
Speaker 1: But first we turned to Indian hockey, where a change
Speaker 1: in the jersey color has triggered a controversy just weeks
Speaker 1: before the World Cup. Hi, I am Aherri Kananda and
Speaker 1: you are listening to three things in an Express News show.
Speaker 1: For decades, India's hockey teams have been associated with blue
Speaker 1: or white at major tournaments.
Speaker 2: But when the men's and women's.
Speaker 1: Teams walk out for the upcoming World Cup in Belgium
Speaker 1: and the Netherlands, instead of the traditional blue, they are
Speaker 1: expected to wear saffron, and since the color is closely
Speaker 1: associated with the RSS and the BJP, many have seen
Speaker 1: this as yet another move towards safroization. Now, Hockey India
Speaker 1: has said that the decision was technical and that saffron
Speaker 1: was chosen after consultations with players and coaches, but The
Speaker 1: Indian Express spoke to members of both the men's and
Speaker 1: women's teams who said they were not consulted, so to
Speaker 1: understand who was involved in that decision and why has
Speaker 1: India changed its hockey jersey color. Michael league Ichasharma is
Speaker 1: joined by The Indian Express's Mihirasaada.
Speaker 3: Here, could you start by telling our listeners a bit
Speaker 3: about how much does a jersey actually become part of
Speaker 3: a team's history and emotional connection with players and fans.
Speaker 4: Like you said, it's more emotional, right, So India started
Speaker 4: playing hockey. In fact, this is the one hundred tier
Speaker 4: of India playing hockey internationally. The first time the team
Speaker 4: went abroad was one hundred years ago in July to
Speaker 4: New Zealand. That was an Indian Army team which then
Speaker 4: went on to be identified as the Indian Teams. So
Speaker 4: we are celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Indian hockey now.
Speaker 4: Since India started playing at the Olympics in hockey in
Speaker 4: nineteen twenty eight, they've almost always played in blue jerseys
Speaker 4: all the major tournaments except one in twenty fourteen, which
Speaker 4: was the the sponsor commitments will come to it later.
Speaker 4: Every time in India have played, it's been in one
Speaker 4: of the shades of blue or the alternate jersey has
Speaker 4: been white. So over a century there has been this
Speaker 4: connection with the color blue. Cricket team we call them
Speaker 4: men in blue, but that's a very recent phenomenon. The
Speaker 4: og team in blue is hockey and that is one
Speaker 4: emotional connect because even before India became an independent country,
Speaker 4: it was through hockey that the country got its identity.
Speaker 4: Was the hockey team that won gold medals at the Olympics.
Speaker 4: It was Dyanchen who in those blue jerseys, literally took
Speaker 4: the world by a storm with his hockey stick, so
Speaker 4: much so that the legend, as the legend goes, of
Speaker 4: Adolf Hitler too being stunned by how good Dyanchen was.
Speaker 4: The first gold medal that India won after it became
Speaker 4: independent in the nineteen forty eight Olympics, also was when
Speaker 4: the team was wearing a blue jersey. So there is
Speaker 4: a lot of historical and emotional significance to this color
Speaker 4: and the jersey.
Speaker 3: And so why this switch from blue to saffron.
Speaker 4: There is one explanation that has come from Hockey India,
Speaker 4: which is the governing body of the sport in the country.
Speaker 4: They say that the blue color blends with the color
Speaker 4: of the turf, which is also blue. So the players
Speaker 4: have found it difficult to identify each other on field
Speaker 4: and the orange contrasts, they say helps them in just
Speaker 4: spotting a team mate better. That is the official explanation.
Speaker 4: So Hawk India said it was the players and coaches
Speaker 4: that came up with this recommendation and they were presented
Speaker 4: with a couple of colors orange and yellow. They prefer orange.
Speaker 4: They have put it on the players, right, And perhaps the.
Speaker 3: Most concerning bit even for the authorities isn't Saffron itself,
Speaker 3: but the decision making process. So could you tell us
Speaker 3: who actually approved this decision?
Speaker 4: That's where things get interesting because Hockey India put it
Speaker 4: on the players and coaches. And when we reached out
Speaker 4: to the team members and we go beyond the players
Speaker 4: and we speak to the wider group and the coaches,
Speaker 4: support staff and everyone, and five of them told us
Speaker 4: across men's and women's team, they told us that they
Speaker 4: were never consulted about this. It was only when they
Speaker 4: were shown the orange jersey did they get to know
Speaker 4: that this will be something that they'll be wearing at
Speaker 4: the World Cup which begins next week. So the process,
Speaker 4: we don't know how transparent it was. And this became
Speaker 4: apparent in the days that followed because it turns out
Speaker 4: that the Hockey India did not even consult its executive body.
Speaker 4: Forget the executive body. Even the Hockey India President, the
Speaker 4: Lip Turkey, who is a former India hockey captain or
Speaker 4: was not aware of this decision. So it begs a
Speaker 4: question of who took this decision. So the Key in
Speaker 4: his email to Hockey India Executive Board eluded that it
Speaker 4: was the Secretary General and the Executive Director of Hockey
Speaker 4: India who took this decision. He asked them why these
Speaker 4: decisions were taken and wet to hear exactly the sequence
Speaker 4: of events that led them to changing the color of
Speaker 4: the jersey.
Speaker 3: I me here, how common is it for national teams
Speaker 3: around the world to change colors that have defined them
Speaker 3: for decades.
Speaker 4: So it's not uncommon, I'll put it that way. It's
Speaker 4: not something that happens very frequently. But say, for example,
Speaker 4: in badminton, when the players are traveling the world and
Speaker 4: they're competing in a tournament week in and week out,
Speaker 4: you've seen PV. Sindhu, for example, playing multiple colors over
Speaker 4: the years. Same with Satwik Sairadi in Chirakshaiti. You've seen
Speaker 4: them play in all shades nearly. So it isn't as
Speaker 4: if that there is one color code that defines all
Speaker 4: Indian teams. But if there's one color that's associated with
Speaker 4: Indian sport, it is blue because all the big moments
Speaker 4: when India goes out and competes in multi discipline games
Speaker 4: with the Olympics, the Commonweal Games. We just concluded on Sunday,
Speaker 4: all the Asian Games which will begin next month, it
Speaker 4: will be blue that the teams will be wearing. That
Speaker 4: the players will be wearing. A cricket team. Like we said,
Speaker 4: they called men in blue and women in blue because
Speaker 4: they wear those blue jerseys which have been around for
Speaker 4: the last thirty to forty years. So it isn't changed frequently,
Speaker 4: but whenever there has been a change, it has been
Speaker 4: met with some backlash. I mentioned hockey playing a tournament
Speaker 4: in yellow. Now, the only two instances on record of
Speaker 4: hockey deviating from its blue was when in nineteen ninety
Speaker 4: four ninety five hockey sittin Kiyarumukam told us painting team
Speaker 4: kept on changing their patterns of t shirts although it
Speaker 4: remained some shade of blue, but still that was met
Speaker 4: with a rough backlash because it kept on changing. And
Speaker 4: then in the year twenty fourteen, the World Cup was
Speaker 4: played wearing yellow jerseys on both occasions. The decision driven
Speaker 4: by sponsors. They for their visibility and brand endorsements they
Speaker 4: made the team were a particular color, and swiftly the
Speaker 4: Federation had to revert to blue because of the backlash.
Speaker 3: Right and with the color switch, political interpretations seem almost inevitable.
Speaker 3: So what kinds of political debates have emerged since this change?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so immediately this issue was picked up by Congress
Speaker 4: MP Priyanka Gandhi. She spoke about it outside the parliament
Speaker 4: when she was interacting with the reporters, and then it
Speaker 4: ballooned into something which Hawkina did not anticipate would become
Speaker 4: a big issue. Of course, Saffron is a color linked
Speaker 4: to the RSS organization, and the critics in this case
Speaker 4: of the Jersey change said that this was an attempt
Speaker 4: to kind of change the identity and link it to
Speaker 4: political affiliated organizations, and that's one of the key reasons
Speaker 4: why there was an The demand was at least what
Speaker 4: the critics said, was to not mix sport and politics
Speaker 4: and to add to that, when the Hockey India President,
Speaker 4: the Lip Turkey wrote the email to his executive board
Speaker 4: last Friday, he did mention that the government of Orissa
Speaker 4: had questioned him. And now the Orisa government has been
Speaker 4: one of long standing sponsors principal sponsors of the Indian
Speaker 4: hockey team. So the BJP government there looks like they
Speaker 4: were concerned by the backlash that this decision received when
Speaker 4: they too were kept in the dark. Going by what
Speaker 4: the Lift Turkey mentioned in this letter, he did say
Speaker 4: that the Orisa government was questioning him on this decision,
Speaker 4: and I mean Buttnight, the former Orissa Chief Minister, the
Speaker 4: person who started the connection between Orissa and Hockey, put
Speaker 4: the blame fair and square on the current BJP government
Speaker 4: of the state and said that it was their attempt
Speaker 4: to change the color of the jerseys, although we haven't
Speaker 4: had any independent confirmation of that happening, right and me,
Speaker 4: here you.
Speaker 3: Spoke of a couple of stakeholders like players, sponsors. So
Speaker 3: normally who has the authority to approve something as significant
Speaker 3: as national team's jersey.
Speaker 4: So it's not a one person decision nor a one
Speaker 4: federation decision. Of course, if there's something as massive as
Speaker 4: this happening. And you know, I asked one of the
Speaker 4: former India players, Ajit Pulsing, who was the captain of
Speaker 4: the only side that has won the World Cup for
Speaker 4: India in nineteen seventy five. I asked him, you know
Speaker 4: a lot of people do have this question in mind.
Speaker 4: What bigger difference does a color make? If you're wearing
Speaker 4: orange or blue? How does it make any difference? And
Speaker 4: his simple reply was that if it doesn't make any difference,
Speaker 4: then why do you change from orange to blue? Then
Speaker 4: let it be blue. So that is one thing that
Speaker 4: the players feel. And if a decision as big as
Speaker 4: this has to be made, then it is fair that
Speaker 4: everyone involved in the process be the players, the former players,
Speaker 4: the federation and to a certain extend also the fans
Speaker 4: because they are the ultimate stakeholders of this sport. It
Speaker 4: should be a proper consulted decision and not one or
Speaker 4: two people inside of federation.
Speaker 3: And they here with the World Cup just days away?
Speaker 3: Could this controversy become a distraction for the players, Like
Speaker 3: could Hockey India still revisit the decision?
Speaker 4: They won't be able to change it now because unless
Speaker 4: they've done that already, but the deadline to submit the
Speaker 4: colors that your team will play in has passed. I
Speaker 4: think it was last Friday or Saturday. So unless the
Speaker 4: Indian team made those changes beforehand, and that's something that
Speaker 4: we don't think it has happened. India will play this
Speaker 4: World Cup in the Orange Jersey. And this was one
Speaker 4: of those controversies which is rather needless and could have
Speaker 4: easily been avoided. The team has had a rocky build
Speaker 4: up to the World Cup anyway, this only adds to
Speaker 4: the distraction just ten days or to twelve days before
Speaker 4: the World Cup for them. So yeah, it's a thing
Speaker 4: that was completely avoidable and we'll see if it really
Speaker 4: has any impact on the way they play.
Speaker 1: And next we talk about a major development that could
Speaker 1: change how we prevent and treat cervical cancer.
Speaker 2: Cervical cancer is.
Speaker 1: The second most common cancer among women in India, which
Speaker 1: in up to eighty five percent of the cases, is
Speaker 1: caused by the persistent human pepelloma virus or HPV infection.
Speaker 1: According to the Global Cancer Observatory, nearly seventy nine thousand
Speaker 1: women in India were diagnosed with cervical cancer in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, and the disease also claimed over thirty six thousand.
Speaker 2: Lives that year.
Speaker 1: Now, cervical cancer is one of the few cancers caused
Speaker 1: by an infection, which means it can largely be prevented
Speaker 1: through vaccination. But now researchers are looking at another potential
Speaker 1: tool in the fight against the disease, a new.
Speaker 2: Drug called shat A two.
Speaker 1: The drug has shown potential to block the cancer causing
Speaker 1: proteins produced by HPV, which could prevent the development of
Speaker 1: precancerous and cancerous lesions. So how does this drug work
Speaker 1: and how significant could it be in reducing cervical cancer cases.
Speaker 1: To understand this better, we speak to the internet, expresses Annoda,
Speaker 1: who writes on health for the paper. So, Anona tell
Speaker 1: us about this medication, shad A two, and how exactly
Speaker 1: does it work.
Speaker 5: So this particular pill is under development. It's an oral
Speaker 5: therapy to prevent human papilloma virus, not the infection, but
Speaker 5: the cancer that it can cause. Basically, it is a
Speaker 5: small molecule therapy, which means that it is a small
Speaker 5: molecule that can be ingested. And what it does is
Speaker 5: basically it targets certain proteins in the human body which
Speaker 5: make it a good environment for the oncoproteins.
Speaker 6: In the virus to thrives.
Speaker 5: So the HPV virus actually has certain proteins like X
Speaker 5: and E seven, which are called onco proteins, and they
Speaker 5: are the ones that on persistent infection lead to cancers.
Speaker 6: So what happens is when these human proteins are.
Speaker 5: Active, they create a space for this onco proteins to
Speaker 5: thrive without the body's immune system detecting them, and therefore
Speaker 5: it can lead to these pre cancerous lesions and of
Speaker 5: course cervical cancer as well. And this particular pill works
Speaker 5: by switching off these human proteins which protect the onco proteins,
Speaker 5: and thereby it prevents the HPV infection even if you
Speaker 5: get it, it prevents it from developing into the pre
Speaker 5: cancerous lesions and a full blown cancer.
Speaker 1: Right, So when should on individual take this medication, like,
Speaker 1: at what stage and in what form?
Speaker 5: So right now, testing that has been done, it has
Speaker 5: been in a capsule form, and this is essentially meant
Speaker 5: for people who are in the early stages of developing
Speaker 5: cancer because of HPV infection, So it would be someone
Speaker 5: who has pre cancerous lesions, but also people who have developed,
Speaker 5: the cancer can take this therapy and it can help
Speaker 5: in stopping the growth of the cancer and thereby treating it.
Speaker 1: And Anona, can you tell us about the origins of
Speaker 1: this medication, how was it identified and what stage of
Speaker 1: development is it currently at.
Speaker 5: So, like I mentioned, this is right now in the
Speaker 5: very early stages of development. This molecule was discovered by
Speaker 5: an institute in US which then partnered with the Indian
Speaker 5: Council of Medical Research to conduct the basic pre clinical
Speaker 5: studies which essentially demonstrates that this molecule can work and
Speaker 5: the mechanism of its actions. So they have verified the
Speaker 5: mechanism of action as well, and now the technology has
Speaker 5: been transfer to a company m Cure. So now it
Speaker 5: is on this company to take the trial forward. Now
Speaker 5: it has to be a human trial first to of
Speaker 5: course look at whether it can cause any toxic impact
Speaker 5: or there could be any negative side effects of the medicine.
Speaker 5: Then with a slightly larger number of people to check
Speaker 5: the efficacy of the pill, and then of course a
Speaker 5: larger phase three clinical trial would be required to see
Speaker 5: how at a population level the drug is able to
Speaker 5: impact treatment of survival cancer.
Speaker 1: Right, So, since the process is at such an early stage,
Speaker 1: when can we expect it to be available in India?
Speaker 1: And do we have any idea of how much it
Speaker 1: will cost.
Speaker 5: So it is unlikely to become available for at least
Speaker 5: a few years I think I was told or the
Speaker 5: trials would take about five years or so, so the
Speaker 5: therapy would of course become available only after all of
Speaker 5: this trial is complete and it has been proven to
Speaker 5: be effective, you know, in the large population in the
Speaker 5: phase three trial. Right now, it is not available because
Speaker 5: it is a small molecule. Like I mentioned, the manufacturing
Speaker 5: of it becomes very easy. So right now, for you
Speaker 5: know HPV, one way is to prevent it by getting
Speaker 5: children vaccinated at the beginning of you know, before they
Speaker 5: are sexually active. The second way is of course to
Speaker 5: detect the cancer early and treat it, and that would
Speaker 5: of course include you know, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, et cetera.
Speaker 6: This is an additional way to treat the cancer, not.
Speaker 5: To prevent it from happening, but halt it once it
Speaker 5: has happened. And of course once it becomes available, it
Speaker 5: would become a part of the treatment protocol.
Speaker 6: But because it is easy.
Speaker 5: To manufacture, unlike say an immunotherapy drug which requires a
Speaker 5: lot of you know, specialized manufacturing units and labs. A
Speaker 5: small molecule is much easier to make and cheaper to
Speaker 5: make and quicker. So all of this would add to
Speaker 5: the drug being actually you know, towards the lower end
Speaker 5: of the spectrum, and it would likely bring down the
Speaker 5: treatment of cervical cancer.
Speaker 1: And Anona, you mentioned the HPV vaccine which is a
Speaker 1: preventative measure against cervical cancer. So when shad A two
Speaker 1: is introduced, will the vaccine still be just as important.
Speaker 6: Yes, definitely. So these are all interventions at different stages.
Speaker 5: HPV vaccine, like I mentioned, is the most effective when
Speaker 5: you give it to say about twelve to fourteen years
Speaker 5: old children.
Speaker 6: Especially women.
Speaker 5: That's because this is when the immune response from the
Speaker 5: vaccine is the highest. Also, these children have not had
Speaker 5: sexual experience, which means that they are unlikely to have
Speaker 5: the HPV infection itself. So a shot given at that
Speaker 5: age can prevent the person from getting the HPV infection
Speaker 5: at all. And once you don't get the infection, you
Speaker 5: don't get the cancer. So it happens only when there
Speaker 5: is a persistent infection, and there is data from several
Speaker 5: countries like the UK, the Australia where there have been
Speaker 5: you know, mass vaccination campaigns where there has been a
Speaker 5: crash in the rate of cervical cancers.
Speaker 6: So HPV shot would.
Speaker 5: Still be very important and it will prevent people from
Speaker 5: getting the cancer itself.
Speaker 6: Over the say next decade or so, we will see.
Speaker 5: The impact of the vaccination the cancer rates would drop.
Speaker 2: And what about diagnostic tests like perpsmere.
Speaker 5: So when we talk about you know, diagnostic tests such
Speaker 5: as PAP smear or you know, an easier way to
Speaker 5: detect cervical cancer allegiance which is the visual inspection with
Speaker 5: acetic acid. So the tests are then at the secondary
Speaker 5: level where if you get the.
Speaker 6: Cancer, you can detect it early.
Speaker 5: So you have HPV DNA test, PAP smear test, you
Speaker 5: have like I mentioned, the basic where you know, you
Speaker 5: apply the acetic acid and you just see the lesions.
Speaker 6: You know, the lesions.
Speaker 5: Become white when you apply acetic acid and you can
Speaker 5: see whether a person has it or not. So all
Speaker 5: of these tests would still be necessary to detect the
Speaker 5: survival cancer cases. And if and when this pill becomes available,
Speaker 5: that would be in the third level where once you've
Speaker 5: been detected to have these lesions or have cancer.
Speaker 6: Then you take this pill for the treatment.
Speaker 2: And in the end we talk about the results of
Speaker 2: the bipole.
Speaker 1: In Bihar's bunky Pour, yesterday, Jan Suraj founder Prashant Kishoor
Speaker 1: landed a decisive victory in the bunky Pour by elections.
Speaker 1: The final numbers gave Kishor a winning margin of nineteen
Speaker 1: three and twenty four votes, breaking the bgp's three decade
Speaker 1: hold on this urban seat. He defeated BJP's niros Kumar
Speaker 1: Sinha and RJD's Reika Kumarigupta. The Indian Expresses Himanshu Hurst
Speaker 1: reported that post the announcement of the results, Kishore said
Speaker 1: the verdict was aimed at sending a larger political message
Speaker 1: to the bgp's central leadership rather than merely electing an MLAM.
Speaker 1: Calling the result a victory of the people of Bunkypour,
Speaker 1: Kishore said that victory and defeat are a part of
Speaker 1: the process and that he would work equally for those
Speaker 1: who voted for him and those who did not. Kishore
Speaker 1: argued that the BGP, which enjoys a comfortable majority in
Speaker 1: the Assembly, bears the responsibility of choosing leadership capable of
Speaker 1: improving governance, reducing corruption and creating jobs. He stressed that
Speaker 1: his opposition was not directed at any individual, but at
Speaker 1: the idea of interesting Bihar's leadership to a person with
Speaker 1: a criminal.
Speaker 2: Background or questionable character.
Speaker 1: He said that the verdict reflected growing public aspirations that
Speaker 1: politics in Bihar should move beyond caste, religion and welfare
Speaker 1: schemes alone and instead focus on education, industrialization, health care
Speaker 1: and employment. Referring to the bgp's electoral success in previous
Speaker 1: assembly and looks of high elections, Kishore said that the
Speaker 1: state its people had stood firmly behind Prime Minister Modi
Speaker 1: and therefore deserved.
Speaker 2: Equal attention from the center.
Speaker 1: Expressing hope that the bgp's central leadership would take the
Speaker 1: verdict seriously, Kishore said he expected concrete steps for Biha's
Speaker 1: development before the next looks of by elections.
Speaker 2: Jimnchurrites that as.
Speaker 1: The newly elected Emila Kishort said he would focus on
Speaker 1: visible improvements in Bunkipour over the next two to three months.
Speaker 1: While cautioning against unrealistic expectations, He reiterated that Jansuraj has
Speaker 1: entered the contest not to secure power or patronage, but
Speaker 1: to push for broader improvement in Bihar's governance and development.
Speaker 2: Kishore maintained that the Bipole.
Speaker 1: Was never about local civic issues alone, but about Bihar's
Speaker 1: political future, adding that quote the thirty year fortress has
Speaker 1: collapsed in just thirty days quote because people no longer
Speaker 1: wanted votes to be sought solely in the name of caste,
Speaker 1: religion or free Russian, but on education, health care, jobs
Speaker 1: and development. You were listening to Three Things by the
Speaker 1: Indian Express. Today's episode was edited and mixed by Suraish
Speaker 1: Babar and produced by Ichas Sharma.
Speaker 2: And me Nihari Kananda.
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