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Tag: Narendra Modi

  • Modi expresses grief over Pakistan earthquake

    Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the loss of lives and damage to property after an earthquake in Pakistan killed at least 40 and left more than 500 people injured.

    The Twitter handle “PMO India” wrote, “PM has expressed grief on the loss of lives and damage to property due to an earthquake in parts of India and Pakistan”.

    “PM expresses condolences to the families of the deceased and prays for the speedy recovery of those injured”, said the Tweet.

    A powerful 5.8-magnitude earthquake jolted several parts of Pakistan on Tuesday, particularly areas of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

    According to the geological wing of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the epicenter of the quake was stated to be one kilometer (km) southeast of Mirpur, 10 km beneath the earth’s surface.

  • India requests Pakistan to let Modi fly through its airspace

    India requests Pakistan to let Modi fly through its airspace

    India has requested Pakistan to let Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s aircraft fly through its airspace to New York for his week-long trip to the United States (US) from September 21 to 27.

    India has formally requested Pakistan to allow use of its air space for PM Modi’s flight, ANI reported.

    On September 22, Modi will address the Indian community as part of the ‘Howdy Modi!’ event in Houston, Texas. The event will be his third major address to the Indian-American community after he became the prime minister in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May.

    The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016.

    Modi will then visit New York from September 23, where he will address the 2019 Climate Action Summit hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He is also expected to meet US President Donald Trump.

    Modi had in August used Pakistani airspace for the first time after February’s botched Balakot strike by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

    The flight carrying Modi, callsign Air India One (AI-1), used Pakistani airspace while en route to France from New Delhi.

    Pakistan closed its airspace in February this year after a standoff with India in the wake of an attack on a police convoy in occupied Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary police.

    In the aftermath, two Indian fighter jets’ were downed. Pakistan also captured one of the Indian pilots who was later released.

    In June, Modi avoided flying over Pakistan during a trip to Central Asia, even though its airspace was opened as a goodwill gesture.

    Islamabad had fully reopened its airspace to civilian flights a month later.

  • Supreme Court orders Modi govt to restore normalcy in Kashmir

    Supreme Court orders Modi govt to restore normalcy in Kashmir

    The Supreme Court of India (SCI) on Monday ordered the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi-led government to restore normalcy in occupied Kashmir “as soon as possible while keeping in mind national safety and security.”

    “Schools, hospitals, public transport should function properly,” said the ruling of a three-member bench of India’s apex court.

    According to Dunya News, the ruling came as the SCI took up multiple pleas against the Indian premier’s August 5 decision of revoking the special autonomy of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

    The court has ordered the government to submit a report mentioning the actual situation in the region that has been lockdown for 43 days with communication blackout.

    During the hearing of petitions, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi remarked that if “requirement arises”, he would himself visit Jammu and Kashmir and expressed concerns over reports of inaccessibility of Kashmiris to the high court.

  • Consult Indian Air Force before ‘invading’ Azad Kashmir, ISPR chief trolls Indian minister

    Consult Indian Air Force before ‘invading’ Azad Kashmir, ISPR chief trolls Indian minister

    Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor has trolled Indian Union Minister Jitendra Singh by asking him “to consult Indian Air Force (IAF) before invading Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)”.

    “After Article 370, Pakistan occupied Kashmir is our next agenda,” the Modi-led Hindu nationalist government’s minister had been quoted as saying.

    Taking to Twitter to ridicule Singh while mentioning failed Indian airstrikes from February 2019 — which resulted in two IAF jets being shot down by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and capture of pilot Abhinandan Varthaman — the ISPR chief wrote:

    https://twitter.com/peaceforchange/status/1171493626024587270

    “Please always consult IAF before talking about such agenda. As regard 370…. and siege, what you couldn’t suppress through overt & covert physical efforts for 72 years, this paper work can’t do that either. You shall see the just struggle succeeding. IA [sic].”

  • VIDEO: Modi consoles ISRO chief after moon landing fails

    VIDEO: Modi consoles ISRO chief after moon landing fails

    A video showing Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi consoling Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Kailasavadivoo Sivan as he broke down following the failure of India’s lunar moon mission, has gone viral over the internet.

    Modi was seen hugging and consoling K Sivan shortly after ISRO’s plan to soft-land Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram module failed during the wee hours on Saturday. The lander lost communication with ground stations during its final descent towards the moon.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    The Indian premier also gave a speech after the briefing where he told ISRO scientists to “not get disheartened by the hurdles in the moon mission” and asserted that there “will be new dawn”.

    Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has taken a jibe at the failed Indian moon mission, terming the Indian spacecraft a “toy”, adding that “it must have landed in Mumbai”.

    Taking to Twitter, the minister advised Indians to “sleep instead of waiting for an announcement from ISRO” about the moon mission.

    “Modi is giving a speech on satellite communication as though he was actually an astronaut, not a politician,” Chaudhry said in a subsequent tweet.

  • India to produce drug with cow urine, dung to develop ‘highly intellectual’ children

    India to produce drug with cow urine, dung to develop ‘highly intellectual’ children

    India’s Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (National Commission for Cows) and the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) are working together to produce a drug using cow urine and dung that “will help develop highly intellectual children”.

    According to ThePrint, the commission has claimed that pregnant women may be able to give birth to “smart, highly intellectual and healthy children” if they consume the drug regularly.

    The drug will be made using cow urine, dung, milk, ghee and curd, the commission’s chairman, Vallabhbhai Kathiria, told the media outlet.

    The cow commission was set up by Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s government in February for the purpose of conservation and protection of cattle population in the country.

    “Ministry of AYUSH and the newly-formed Ministry of Animal Husbandry will seek the cooperation of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)
    in producing and marketing the drug,” the commission chairman was quoted as saying.

  • India to offer Russia $1 billion loan for development of Far East

    India to offer Russia $1 billion loan for development of Far East

    Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Thursday said India will “walk shoulder-to-shoulder with Russia in its development of the Far East” and announced a $1 billion line of credit for the development of the resource-rich region.

    Addressing the plenary session of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok city of Russia, Modi said the friendship between India and Russia was not restricted to governmental interactions in capital cities, but was about people and close business relations.

    “India’s connection to the Russian Far East goes back a long way. India was the first country to open a Consulate in Vladivostok,” Indian media reports quoted Modi as saying. “For its development, India will give a line of credit worth $1 billion.”

    “My government has actively engaged East Asia as part of its ‘Act East’ policy. I firmly believe that today’s announcement will add a new dimension to the economic diplomacy of the two countries,” he added.

    The Indian premier, in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also unveiled the “Act Far East” policy to boost India’s engagement with Russia’s Far East region. “Let us deepen the bond between India and Russia even further.”

    The development comes a day after media reports claimed that India was trying to garner Russia’s support as Pakistan attempts to challenge the Modi-led government for robbing occupied Kashmir of its autonomy.

    New Delhi had in August abrogated Article 370 of its constitution to snatch away the held valley’s special status — a move which Pakistan fears can pave way for a Muslim genocide in the disputed territory.

  • Kashmir crisis: India suffers major diplomatic defeat at European Union

    Kashmir crisis: India suffers major diplomatic defeat at European Union

    The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) has demanded the Indian government to immediately lift the 29-day curfew in occupied Kashmir, which has created a humanitarian crisis in the troubled valley.

    Expressing serious concern over the continued lockdown, suspension of all communication means and media blackout in the Muslim-majority region, the European Parliament strongly criticised India and condemned the Modi-led government for its brutal action that has brought life to a standstill in the held Kashmir.

    Raising their voice for the oppressed Kashmiris, the members also demanded India to begin a dialogue with Pakistan, adding that the European Union (EU) and the European Parliament should issue a reactionary statement on the situation in occupied Kashmir as soon as possible.

    BRITISH KASHMIRIS BOYCOTT INDIAN RICE

    Meanwhile, over a million Kashmiris in the United Kingdom (UK) have boycotted Indian rice in protest against New Delhi’s move to strip Kashmir of its special status.

    According to Radio Pakistan, 1.2 million British Kashmiris have boycotted the Indian product to send a message to the country against abrogation of Article 370.

    The report said that Indian rice has also been put on sale at lower prices due to the decrease in demand in the UK.

  • PM Imran, Gandhi’s great grandson on same page against extremist RSS?

    PM Imran, Gandhi’s great grandson on same page against extremist RSS?

    A day after Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan said that the ideology of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had taken over India, a much similar statement of the great grandson of independent India’s founding father Mahatma Gandhi, has emerged.

    “The RSS ideology has taken over India, the way the Nazi party had taken over Germany,” the premier had said while addressing a Kashmir Hour gathering on Friday. “They think that Muslims should be taught a lesson, that they are not equal citizens. Today, the whole world is seeing what is happening in Kashmir.”

    With the premier’s words being widely shared over the internet, it wasn’t later that someone pointed out their similarity with an earlier statement by Gandhi’s great grandson, Tushar Gandhi.

    Addressing a gathering earlier this year, he had called for fighting the ideology of RSS, which he said was trying to divide India.

    Tushar, who is the son of Mahatma’s grandson Arun, had said that Gandhiwadis (believers of the Gandhian philosophy) can remain neutral, but those who call themselves Gandhi’s workers, cannot do the same in the present era as the RSS was threatening the very ideals espoused by Gandhi.

    “I do not hate the RSS functionaries. But I oppose RSS… that idea, which is dividing the country… I do not say that others have not done this. We oppose them as well. We will have to protest, otherwise, we don’t deserve to be called Gandhi’s workers.”

    PM Imran’s Friday address wasn’t the first time when he called out his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s regime for being inspired by the RSS.

    In two loaded tweets on the eve of Eidul Azha, he had tweeted, “The curfew, crackdown and impending genocide of Kashmiris in IoK [Indian occupied Kashmir] is unfolding exactly according to [the] RSS ideology inspired by Nazi ideology. Attempt is to change demography of Kashmir through ethnic cleansing. Question is: Will the world watch & appease as they did Hitler at Munich?”

    “I am afraid this RSS ideology of Hindu Supremacy, like the Nazi Aryan Supremacy, will not stop in IoK; instead it will lead to suppression of Muslims in India and eventually lead to targeting of Pakistan. The Hindu Supremacists version of Hitler’s Lebensraum,” he had said further.

  • Kashmir crisis: PM calls UAE crown prince who awarded Modi highest civilian honour

    Kashmir crisis: PM calls UAE crown prince who awarded Modi highest civilian honour

    Amid rising Kashmir tensions, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has called Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who had recently drawn ire of hundreds of thousands of people for awarding Indian PM the country’s highest civilian honour.

    According to reports, the “regional and international developments” were discussed over the phone call, while a tweet by the crown prince also confirmed the development.

    The two dignitaries discussed “ways to enhance bilateral cooperation as well as the latest regional and international developments and issues of mutual interest”, the tweet said.

    Mohammed bin Zayed — or MBZ — is also the deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. The phone call between the two leaders comes days after Indian premier Narendra Modi was awarded UAE’s highest civilian honour.

    The move had sparked outrage among rights activists over the Modi-led government’s clampdown on the Muslim-majority Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).

    MBZ had personally put the gold medal around Modi’s neck, with a portrait of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s first president after whom the order is named, displayed behind them.

    The two men had also held hands for a moment and spoken quietly. “You deserve it,” MBZ had told the Hindu nationalist leader at one point while posing for photos.