Officials launch investigation after separatist leader posts video warning Sikhs against flying with airline on 19 November
Canadian officials and the Royal Canadian Mounted police are investigating alleged “threats” against Air India after a separatist leader warned Sikhs against flying with the airline on 19 November.
The US-based activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun posted a video last week in which he called for a boycott of India’s flagship carrier.
Continue reading...Entrance to Silkyara tunnel collapsed in early hours of Sunday with dozens of workers inside
A huge operation is under way to rescue 40 construction workers trapped after a tunnel partially collapsed in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
The entrance to the Silkyara tunnel, which was under construction as part of a road project in Uttarkashi district, collapsed in the early hours of Sunday morning while dozens of workers were inside.
Continue reading...Toxic smog is annual event for Indian capital’s 33 million residents but nobody seems willing to take responsibility
As soon as the smog descended, the political mudslinging began.
For over a week, pollution levels in Delhi have consistently remained in the “severe” category and its 33 million residents have been forced to breathe toxic air that exceeded healthy limits of pollutants by more than 100 times.
Continue reading...Peers express fears that Jagtar Singh Johal will not receive ‘due process’ in India amid torture claims
Assurances by a UK minister that a British man imprisoned in India will receive a fair trial fly in the face of evidence that he has been tortured and arbitrarily detained, three lawyers who held senior public roles have warned.
To coincide with the sixth anniversary of Jagtar Singh Johal’s detention, Ken MacDonald KC, Elish Angiolini KC and Jim Wallace KC have written to the UK Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad asking him to retract his recent comments saying that the British citizen would receive “due process” in India.
Continue reading...Season of smog begins with air quality index near worst possible level of 500 and little apparent progress in controlling annual poisonous blight on life
Air quality in Delhi hit severe levels on Friday and a thick toxic smog cloaked the city, marking the beginning of a pollution season that has become an annual catastrophe for India’s capital.
Schools were shut and non-essential construction was banned around Delhi as the air quality index in the city hit 500 – the highest the measurement will go and 100 times the limit deemed to be healthy by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Continue reading...Tensions between the two countries peaked after Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in Canada earlier this year
India’s embassy in Ottawa has announced that it will reopen visa services for Canadians, a move that could reduce tensions in a bitter dispute over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil.
Relations between India and Canada plunged after Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, last month publicly linked Indian intelligence to the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, allegations New Delhi called “absurd”.
Continue reading...A 17-year-old with a passion for robotics has produced a cheaper utensil that uses sensors to cancel out hand tremors
The motivation for his invention came to Aarrav Anil last year when he saw his uncle Arjun, who has Parkinson’s disease, struggle to eat. Some food spilled out of his mouth, the rest splattered on his clothes. Arjun attempted to keep his dignity but the frustration forced the retired civil servant, who is in his 70s, to give up and call his helper to feed him.
The sight of his uncle’s tremors shaking the spoon so violently inspired Aarrav, 17, from Bengaluru, south India, to turn to robotics. He locked himself in his room with microcontrollers, sensors, motors, and a 3D printer. What emerged was a prototype of a smart spoon that is now undergoing trials at the RV College of Physiotherapy in Bengaluru.
Continue reading...Homosexuality was decriminalised in 2018 but the supreme court has declined to change marriage laws
Utkarsh Saxena had been secretly planning the proposal for weeks. He had secretly measured his boyfriend’s finger while he was sleeping and bought a pair of matching steel rings from a Delhi market. They had been together for 15 years, having fallen in love on the university debating team, and Saxena felt optimistic that this would be an auspicious moment to ask the love of his life to marry him – the same day that India’s supreme court ruled on whether same-sex couples would be allowed to get married.
Yet when the verdict came out on Tuesday, Saxena’s heart broke. Even as India’s chief justice, DY Chandrachud, spoke of India’s long history of LGBTQ+ people and their right to equality, he ruled that changing marriage laws was beyond the scope of the court and that marriage was not a fundamental right. It was the job of parliament, not judges, to make such decisions, Chandrachud said.
Continue reading...Country forced to reduce diplomatic presence amid tensions over Sikh separatist killing and says it will not take retaliatory steps
Canada has withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist, announced foreign minister Melanie Joly, adding that Ottawa would not take retaliatory steps.
New Delhi last month asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence after prime minister Justin Trudeau said there was credible evidence of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, who was shot outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia.
Continue reading...Judges say decision should be made by parliament but stress that such unions should not face discrimination
India’s top court has declined to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages, saying it is beyond its scope and should be decided by parliament, but emphasising that queer relationships should not face discrimination by the state.
The marriage ruling will be a disappointment for LGBTQ+ people in India, who had hoped the supreme court judges would recognise their constitutional right to marriage equality.
Continue reading...Top official sanctions case against Booker prize-winning novelist for comments about Kashmir
The Booker prize-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy could be prosecuted for a 2010 speech about Kashmir after a top official signed off on the move, according to reports in India.
Roy, 61, is one of India’s most famous living authors but her writing and activism, including her criticism of the prime minister Narendra Modi’s government, have made her a polarising figure in the country.
Continue reading...Vikas Oberoi named as suspect after Swiss couple die in collision between Lamborghini and Ferrari
An Indian billionaire is under investigation in Italy after his Lamborghini collided with a Ferrari during a supercar tour in Sardinia, leaving two people dead.
Vikas Oberoi was driving the car accompanied by his wife, Gayatri Joshi, a model and actor, when the collision occurred on Monday in southern Sardinia, an official from the carabinieri told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Catastrophic overflow of Lhonak Lake in state of Sikkim caused a dam to partially collapse and submerged army bases
At least 14 people have been killed and 102 are still missing in the north-east Indian state of Sikkim after heavy rain caused a glacial lake to burst its banks, triggering flash floods down a mountain valley.
The disaster, which took place on Wednesday, has affected more than 22,000 people, according to the authorities, and 22 army personnel are among the missing. It has also left over 3,000 tourists stranded after the floods washed away the main highways and bridges.
Continue reading...Relations between countries continue to fracture over alleged assassination of Sikh separatist in British Columbia
India has told Canada it must remove 41 diplomats from its embassy in Delhi amid a continuing diplomatic spat over Canadian accusations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader.
According to officials who spoke to the Financial Times, the Indian foreign ministry has given Canada a week to repatriate two-thirds of its diplomats stationed in India, reducing the number to 21. India’s ministry of external affairs declined to comment. An official familiar with the matter confirmed the report to the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Search also carried out on office of news website under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China
Police have carried out early morning raids on a news portal office and the homes of almost 50 journalists, activists and comedians across India under anti-terrorism laws, deepening concerns over a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.
Delhi police carried out the searches on numerous locations on Tuesday morning. Several journalists were detained, with their phones and laptops confiscated, and some were taken in for questioning. Delhi police confirmed that two journalists had been arrested in the case.
Continue reading...Demonstrators stage protest outside Indian high commission questioning UK government’s response to killings
Supporters of the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement gathered outside the Indian high commission in central London to call for the UK government to stand alongside Canada after the killing of a prominent Sikh leader.
Monday’s protest on Aldwych came two weeks after Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said his government was looking at “credible allegations potentially linking” India with the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia. Nijjar, who was 45, was killed on 18 June in a hail of gunfire outside his place of worship.
Continue reading...Runoff vote was widely seen as a referendum on whether to pursue closer ties with China or India, both vying for influence in the island nation
Pro-China candidate Mohamed Muizzu won Saturday’s presidential election in the Maldives, a result set to once again upend the archipelago’s relationship with traditional partner India.
Muizzu helms a party that presided over an influx of Chinese loans when it last held power in the atoll nation, better known for its luxury beach resorts and celebrity tourists.
Continue reading...Pro-Delhi incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih faces uphill battle against Beijing-leaning frontrunner Mohamed Muizzu as contest remains on knife’s edge
The Maldives started voting on Saturday to decide their next president, in an elections widely seen as a referendum on whether to hitch their fortunes to China or India, both vying for influence in the island nation.
Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, 61, faces an uphill battle to secure a second mandate after a term that saw renewed ties with New Delhi, the archipelago’s traditional benefactor.
Continue reading...Pro-China presidential candidate Mohamed Muizzu accuses incumbent Mohamed Solih of allowing traditional benefactor India too much influence
As the archipelago of the Maldives goes to an election run-off on Saturday, it will not just be two presidential candidates on the ballot.
This election is being pitched as a larger geopolitical battle between India and China, which over the past decade have been engaged in a tug-of-war to gain influence over the Maldives.
Continue reading...Revelation comes days after prime minister Justin Trudeau blamed the assassination of the Sikh activist on the Indian government
The FBI warned at least three Americans active in the Sikh community that their lives were in danger in the immediate aftermath of the murder of a Sikh activist in Canada last June.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has blamed the apparent assassination on the Indian government, as assessment that has reportedly been backed by Canadian and US intelligence sources and has created a rupture in Ottawa’s relationship with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s government.
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