Category Archives: Narendra Modi

India: more countries join Muslim protests over Muhammad remarks

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Disciplinary action against members of BJP fails to quell growing anger in Muslim world over comments insulting the prophet

Six more countries have joined diplomatic protests across the Muslim world over derogatory remarks insulting the prophet Muhammad made by spokespeople for the party of Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

Indonesia, the UAE, the Maldives, Jordan, Bahrain and Libya have joined Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Afghanistan in lodging official complaints over comments from representatives of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party. Meanwhile hardline party members have reacted angrily to disciplinary action against the pair after their comments went viral in the Middle East.

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Albanese insists ‘we will determine our values’ after Chinese premier reaches out to new PM

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Prime minister in Tokyo says no ‘serious person’ had believed Coalition line that a Labor government would adopt a softer approach towards Beijing

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his government will not bend to demands from China to reset the strained relationship despite overtures from Beijing in the wake of Labor’s election win.

Speaking after a meeting of the quadrilateral security dialogue (Quad) in Tokyo on Tuesday, Albanese confirmed the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, had sent a congratulatory letter to him following Saturday’s election win. The letter was first reported by Chinese state media Xinhua on Monday.

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Johnson vows to stop UK exports to India ending up in Russia

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PM says he will close loopholes that allow components to be smuggled via India for use by Russian military

Boris Johnson has said he will close loopholes to ensure UK exports to India cannot end up being used in Russian weapons, as he conceded the war in Ukraine could go on until the end of next year, and Russia could win.

Speaking in Delhi at the end of a two-day visit, the UK prime minister warned that Vladimir Putin was resorting to a “grinding approach” in Ukraine; and suggested the UK would help to “backfill” countries including Poland if they provided heavy weaponry such as tanks to Kyiv.

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Boris Johnson says he will still be prime minister in October as Partygate overshadows India trip – as it happened

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PM says he will still be leading the country by Diwali after being asked questions over Partygate scandal while on India trip

Johnson acknowledges that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is a real possibility.

Putin has a huge army. [But] he has a very difficult political position because he’s made a catastrophic blunder. The only option he now has really is to continue to try to use his appalling, grinding approach – led by artillery – trying to grind the Ukrainians down. And he’s very close to securing a land bridge in Mariupol.

Now, the situation is, I’m afraid, unpredictable at this stage. You’ve just got to be realistic about that.

We’ve got to look at what more we can do militarily. We’ve got to keep intensifying the economic sanctions. And that’s what we’re doing. We want to make sure that there is wave after wave of intensifying pressure on Putin.

One of the things that have been really effective in the sanctions that we’ve seen so far is the ban on tech transfer to Russia and that really makes a difference ... We’ll be making sure that we don’t allow any loopholes of any kind and we will take steps to make sure that stuff does not go through other routes to Russia.

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Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

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Jignesh Mevani accused prime minister of idolising Nathuram Godse, killer of Mahatma Gandhi

A state lawmaker in India was arrested for criticising the prime minister, Narendra Modi, in a tweet, officials have said, raising concerns over freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy.

His arrest coincided with the arrival of the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, in the country.

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India and UK to press ahead with talks on free trade deal

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Narendra Modi hails ‘good progress’ as Boris Johnson signals he is willing to make concessions on immigration

India and the UK will press ahead with talks on a bilateral free trade agreement, Boris Johnson and the Indian premier, Narendra Modi, have said, after the UK made clear it was willing to make immigration part of any deal.

The pair appeared to differ on how rapidly an agreement could be made – Johnson suggested it could be ready by the festival of Diwali in late October, but Modi pointed to the end of the year.

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MPs should wait for ‘full facts’ on Partygate, says Johnson in India

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Row over breaching of lockdown rules rumbles on as PM begins two-day visit to discuss trade and security

Boris Johnson has insisted MPs should wait for the “full facts” before deciding whether to trigger a fresh investigation into Partygate, as he kicked off a two-day trip to India.

Johnson will discuss trade and security with India’s premier, Narendra Modi, on his first visit to the country since becoming prime minister in 2019. He landed in Ahmedabad and was greeted warmly with multiple bunches of roses. The road into the city centre was lined with billboards featuring large photographs of Johnson.

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‘Hatred, bigotry and untruth’: communal violence grips India

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Country appears more divided than ever along Hindu-Muslim lines – and for many, Modi’s BJP is to blame

The procession had begun peacefully. Marching through the streets of Delhi’s Jahangirpuri district on Saturday, the devotees had gathered to celebrate the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti. But the peace did not last long. As the evening drew in, an unauthorised parade began to gather. This time, men clad in saffron, the signature colour of Hindu nationalism, filled the streets brandishing swords and pistols, and started to shout provocative communal slogans.

Ignoring previous agreements between Hindu and Muslim residents for the procession to avoid passing by a local mosque, they charged toward it.

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Joe Biden vows to tackle ‘grave threat’ of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ – as it happened

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The Democrat with perhaps the best chance to unseat Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, in the midterm elections in November has been knocked off the 7 June primary ballot – for now.

As the Associated Press reports, late on Sunday a state judge ruled that Abby Finkenauer cannot appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary, because of a technicality.

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Russia and India will find ways to trade despite sanctions, says Lavrov

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Russian foreign minister meets Narendra Modi and praises India’s refusal to condemn Ukraine invasion

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has afforded Russia’s foreign minister the honour of a meeting as Sergei Lavrov praised India’s refusal to condemn the Ukraine invasion.

Lavrov, who is visiting the country, predicted Moscow and Delhi would find ways to circumvent “illegal” western sanctions and continue to trade.

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Low turnout for India’s national two-day strike as 50 million join protests

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Unions say strike over ‘anti-worker’ government policies a success despite limited impact, with far fewer than predicted taking part

An estimated 50 million people joined India’s two-day national strike this week, a fraction of the number expected to protest.

Bank, factory and public transport workers disrupted services in six states on Monday and Tuesday, but the strike had limited impact across the rest of the country.

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BJP claims election victory in four states including Uttar Pradesh

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Win secures status of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk known for his hardline views

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party has claimed victory in four significant state elections, in a sign of the power of Hindu nationalist politics across the country.

The BJP defied historical precedent and retained power in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and politically significant state with more than 180 million voters. Early results on Thursday showed the party had won at least 266 out of 403 seats, giving it a clear majority.

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The world leaders pushing for peace in Ukraine, and their motives

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They claim to be honest brokers, but is that just a fig leaf to cover their moral bankruptcy?

How blessed are the peacemakers? After the first wave of intermediaries led by Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, a new group have beaten their way to Vladimir Putin’s long table since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or at least sought to intervene by phone.

The current crop includes Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed of the UAE and now the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

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‘A flashy theme park’: outcry over Modi’s plans for the Gandhi ashram

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The site Mahatma Gandhi lived at during 1917-30 is getting a very costly makeover many think is meant to distort his legacy

Like most things in Mahatma Gandhi’s life, his ashram in the Indian city of Ahmedabad was simple and austere. Yet between 1917 and 1930, these modest white bungalows, set on the bank of the Sabarmati river in the state of Gujarat, were the beating heart of Gandhi’s non-violent freedom struggle against British rule and his experiments in upending India’s oppressive caste system.

Gandhi – who would eventually lead India to independence and remains a global icon for peace – left the Sabarmati ashram in 1930, never to return, and in the years since, it has become one of India’s most sacrosanct sites. It is where Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Xi Jinping, Benjamin Netanyahu and most recently Donald Trump all paid a visit to during their trips to India.

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‘Shoot them’: Indian state police accused of murdering Muslims and Dalits

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Ahead of key Uttar Pradesh elections, state police accused of being ‘mercenaries’ of hardline Hindu nationalist government

According to police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, it was suicide. The young Muslim man they had brought into their custody had, out of despair, killed himself in the police station toilets. But, as photos of the scene emerged, so too did suspicions.

The 22-year-old man, Altaf, was 165cm (5ft 5in) tall and weighed 60kg (9.5 stone), but the toilet tap he had supposedly hanged himself from was just 76cm off the ground and made of flimsy plastic. And why, as the police later claimed in court, was the CCTV in the police station mysteriously not working that day?

Family and friends tell a very different story: that Altaf, a Muslim man living in the town of Kasganj, was in love with and planned to marry a Hindu girl. That powerful local Hindu vigilante groups opposed to interfaith unions found out and reported him to the police. And that on 9 November 2021, Altaf was arrested and tortured to death in police custody and his family pressured to keep quiet.

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Editor arrested in Kashmir as press crackdown escalates

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Journalist Fahad Shah detained on Friday under terrorism and sedition laws in disputed Indian region

A prominent journalist has been arrested under terrorism and sedition laws, as a crackdown on the press in Indian-administered Kashmir continues to escalate.

Fahad Shah, the founder and editor of the widely read local news website The Kashmir Walla, was arrested on Friday evening when he was summoned to a police station in the southern district of Pulwama.

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‘The strongman blinks’: why Narendra Modi has backed down to farmers

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Analysis: the authoritarian PM’s first retreat is a much needed triumph of democracy

“The strongman finally blinks,” was how one commentator put it. On Friday morning, India woke to a surprise announcement by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, that he was repealing the farm laws, which have been at the heart of one of the greatest challenges his government had faced in almost eight years in power.

It was a significant turning point, not only for the farmers, but for Indian politics and the reputation of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government. Since Modi was first elected in 2014, his modus operandi has been that of a tough, unyielding, authoritarian strongman leader who does not bow to public pressure.

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Modi repeals controversial laws in surprise victory for Indian farmers – video report

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Narendra Modi has announced he will repeal three contentious farm laws that prompted a year of protests and unrest in India, in one of the most significant concessions made by his government and a huge victory for India’s farmers. They had fought hard for the repeal of what the farmers called the 'black laws' that put their livelihoods at risk and gave private corporations control over the pricing of their crops

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‘We are more powerful than Modi’: Indian farmers celebrate U-turn on laws

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Camp outside Delhi cheers after PM announced revoking of farm laws following a year of protests

The scent of victory was in the air. As tractors rolled through the protest camp on the outskirts of Delhi set up by farmers almost exactly a year ago, rousing cries of “long live the revolution” and “we defeated Modi” rang out. Old men with trailing silver beards and rainbow turbans danced on tractor roofs and flag-waving children were held up high.

“For one year we have been at war,” said Ranjeet Singh, 32. “We have suffered, people have died. But today farmers won the war.”

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The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed?

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In 2018, Indian police claimed to have uncovered a shocking plan to bring down the government. But there is mounting evidence that the initial conspiracy was a fiction – and the accused are victims of an elaborate plot

In April 2018, a large group of policemen arrived at the Delhi flat of Rona Wilson, a 47-year-old human rights activist. They had travelled from Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, and appeared, accompanied by Delhi police officials, at Wilson’s single-room flat at 6am. For the next eight hours, they scoured the modest premises, searching the files on Wilson’s laptop and rifling through his books. Annoyed and short of sleep, he asked that they be put back in place after they had been scrutinised. When the police eventually left, they took away Wilson’s Hewlett-Packard laptop, a SanDisk thumb drive and his mobile phone.

Seven weeks later, the police were back at Wilson’s flat, this time to arrest him. He was accused of conspiring to assassinate the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and planning to overthrow the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Evidence of these crimes had allegedly been found on his laptop. Wilson was flown to Pune, charged under India’s anti-terror law and incarcerated. More than three years after the arrest, he remains in prison.

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