India’s PM Modi sworn in for historic third term

Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes his oath as India's prime minister for a third time at the presidential palace in New Delhi on June 9, 2024. (Prime Minister’s Office)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes his oath as India's prime minister for a third time at the presidential palace in New Delhi on June 9, 2024. (Prime Minister’s Office)
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Updated 10 June 2024
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India’s PM Modi sworn in for historic third term

India’s PM Modi sworn in for historic third term
  • Modi is first Indian leader to win 3rd straight term since founding PM Jawaharlal Nehru
  • He was formally elected leader of India’s winning coalition on Friday

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi was sworn in for a historic third term as India’s prime minister on Sunday.

Modi is the first Indian leader to win a third straight term since founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Over the past decade, his Hindu-nationalist BJP has governed India as part of the National Democratic Alliance.

Though the coalition won the election last week, the BJP lost its absolute majority for the first time since 2014, making it dependent on allies to form a government.

After several days of uncertainty over whether the coalition partners would back the BJP, the alliance leaders unanimously backed Modi on Friday as the leader of the NDA and their prime ministerial candidate.

His swearing-in ceremony was held at the presidential palace in New Delhi on Sunday evening, in the presence of the presidents of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the vice president of Seychelles, and the prime ministers of Bangladesh, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan.

In a meeting with prospective members of his new cabinet before the ceremony, the Viksit Bharat, or Developed India plan, appeared to remain a priority for Modi, according to reports from local media, as he highlighted his goal of making India a developed nation by 2047 that he often invoked during his reelection campaign.

“We need to continue with the Viksit Bharat agenda. Development work will go on without any halt,” Modi said.

While the BJP won 240 seats in India’s marathon, six-week election that began on April 19, it fell 32 short of the simple majority required in the 543-member lower house of parliament.

The NDA coalition took 293 seats after the BJP secured the backing of key allies the Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state and the Janata Dal (United) in eastern Bihar state, which won 16 and 12 seats each in their respective states, pushing the alliance comfortably over the halfway mark.

But Modi’s rare third straight term is the first time in his political career that the 73-year-old must accommodate the pulls and pressures of a coalition government and work with fickle allies.

The Telugu Desam Party is led by Chandrababu Naidu, who helped build the coalition that tried to unseat Modi in the 2019 election, while the Janata Dal (United) was with the opposition as recently as January.

Prof. Gopa Kumar, of Kerala-based think tank the Centre for Public Policy Research, said that Modi’s third time as premier is “an extraordinary development,” though he expects some changes in the leadership.

“I feel that the government will be more careful this time than the past … strong opposition is good for democracy. Modi will face sharp questions in the parliament and Modi will be cautious in taking up a controversial and divisive agenda,” Kumar told Arab News.

Though many are doubting the stability of the new coalition government, Kumar said he was “optimistic” that Modi’s new administration would be able to serve its full term.

“The mandate given to the NDA government is a restricted mandate which is healthy, because most of the parliamentary democracies show that they work better in a coalition system than a single-party absolute majority.”

With the BJP’s reliance on allies, Modi is also expected to be more accommodating in his politics.

“The mandate showed that Modi as prime minister will have to be more accommodative and open to pursuing a consensual politics, which has completely disappeared from India in the last 10 years. So, it is a very mature decision of the Indian electorate,” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based political analyst and writer, told Arab News.

“If he wants his government to survive he has to be much more humble and less authoritarian, less centralizing, more decentralizing and respecting the federal power of the state — not centralizing everything and overruling the state,” he added.

“To run his third government Modi has to be an individual, which he was not so far. He will have to work against his instinct.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on taking oath, in the first response by the neighbour on India's election results.


Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. (Twitter @RahulGandhi)
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. (Twitter @RahulGandhi)
Updated 15 sec ago
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Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. (Twitter @RahulGandhi)
  • In Washington, Gandhi said India had a problem with participation of weaker castes, pointing in particular to Dalits — the once so-called “untouchables” in India’s caste system

WASHINGTON: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday denounced an “ideological war” in the South Asian country, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party.
Rahul Gandhi said there were “two completely different visions” between his Congress party and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he spoke to the National Press Club in the US capital Washington.
“We believe in a plural vision, a vision where everybody has a right to thrive... an India where you’re not persecuted because of what religion you believe in, or what community you come from, or which language you speak,” he said.
Gandhi, 54, was appointed in June to lead India’s opposition in parliament, a key post that had been vacant for a decade.
He is the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades and is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.
His party’s result in the 2024 election — nearly doubling its parliamentary numbers — defied analyst expectations and forced Modi’s BJP to form a coalition to govern.
In Washington, Gandhi said India had a problem with participation of weaker castes, pointing in particular to Dalits — the once so-called “untouchables” in India’s caste system.
“So there is a very small percentage of India which is controlling the entire infrastructure,” Gandhi said.
He also criticized Modi’s handling of relations with China, with which India shares a 2,100 mile (3,500 kilometer) border that is a constant source of tension and occasional confrontation between the two nations.
“We’ve got Chinese troops occupying land the size of Delhi. I think that’s a disaster. I don’t think Mr.Modi’s handled China well at all,” he said.
Gandhi, on a multi-day visit to the United States mainly to engage with its large Indian diaspora, has also met with US lawmakers.
 

 


Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police

Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police
Updated 13 min 15 sec ago
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Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police

Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police
  • Manipur’s government is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

GUWAHATI, India: Internet and mobile data services were suspended for five days and an indefinite curfew imposed in some parts of India’s northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday after student protests over continuing ethnic strife turned violent.
After a brief lull, fighting broke out between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities on Sept. 1 and some attacks involved the use of drones to drop explosive devices, killing civilians. Police say they suspect that the drones were used by Kuki militants, a claim denied by Kuki groups.
Hundreds of Meitei students took to the streets on Monday to protest against the drone attacks, calling for a change in the leadership of the state’s “unified command” that oversees security.
Protesters threw stones and plastic bottles in front of the main gate of the state governor’s residence, police said in a statement. Police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds and about 45 protesters suffered minor injuries, a police officer said.
As protests spilled over into Tuesday, the local government imposed a curfew in the Imphal Valley and surrounding districts and suspended Internet services in five valley districts.
Government and private colleges in the state, which borders Myanmar, will also be shut on Wednesday and Thursday, according to an order issued by the government.
Authorities shut down the Internet in Manipur last year, in one of India’s longest enforced outages.
In the Thoubal district on Monday, police said a large mob “overpowered personnel on duty,” snatched arms and fired at the police.
“We are using minimum force as a preventive measure to control the crowd,” a police official said, and added that the situation had been brought under control.
At least 225 people have died and some 60,000 have been displaced since fighting broke out last year between the Meitei and Kuki communities over the sharing of economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education that are given to the tribal Kukis.
Manipur’s government is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Modi or the BJP have not commented on the latest violence in the state.

 


Biden says ending ban on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons being worked out

Biden says ending ban on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons being worked out
Updated 11 September 2024
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Biden says ending ban on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons being worked out

Biden says ending ban on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons being worked out
  • The US has been reluctant to supply or sanction the use of weapons that could strike targets deep inside in Russia for fear it would escalate the conflict.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his administration was “working that out now” when asked if the US would lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long range weapons in its war against Russia.
The US has been reluctant to supply or sanction the use of weapons that could strike targets deep inside in Russia for fear it would escalate the conflict.
Kyiv’s other allies have been supplying weapons, but with restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out of concern such strikes could prompt retaliation that draws NATO countries into the war or provokes a nuclear conflict.
Sources told Reuters last week that the US was close to an agreement to give Ukraine such weapons, but that Kyiv would need to wait several months as the US works through technical issues ahead of any shipment.


Ukraine braces for hardest winter due to intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure

Ukraine braces for hardest winter due to intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure
Updated 11 September 2024
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Ukraine braces for hardest winter due to intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure

Ukraine braces for hardest winter due to intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure
  • “Energy resilience is one of our greatest challenges this year,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a news conference in Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine’s prime minister warned Tuesday that the country could be facing its toughest winter since the full-scale Russian invasion began, as airstrikes against the country’s beleaguered energy infrastructure intensify.
Russian attacks continue to hammer Ukraine’s energy generation capacity, leaving the country heavily reliant on its three functioning nuclear power stations and electricity imports from European Union countries.
“Energy resilience is one of our greatest challenges this year,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a news conference in Kyiv.
“We successfully got through what was essentially two and a half winters. We will get through three, with this upcoming heating season likely being just as difficult, if not the hardest,” he said.
Shmyhal said Ukraine’s government, helped by European countries, was urgently developing initiatives to decentralize its power generation, to make it less vulnerable to attacks. That includes expanding renewable power capacity — a development applauded by environmental groups.
Greenpeace has argued that a decentralized solar power network — which would be harder to damage with Russian missile and drone strikes — could rapidly help repair domestic capacity, and is urging the government to make a bolder expansion into green energy.
The group is calling for internationally backed investments worth nearly 4.5 billion euros ($4.9 billion) through 2030, focusing on renewable projects dominated by the solar photovoltaic sector.
“(Our) research says that the current targets, which the Ukrainian government set for reaching solar energy by 2027, could be increased at least fivefold. This is a very conservative evaluation,” Natalia Gozak, head of Greenpeace in Ukraine, told The Associated Press after the group opened an office in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to the United Nations and the World Bank, Ukraine lost more than half of its power-generating capacity in the first 14 months of the war, with the situation continuing to deteriorate. Much of the country’s solar power generation was also lost because areas in the south of the country with more abundant sunlight came under Russian occupation.
The pre-war power mix in Ukraine was heavily dominated by traditional sources of energy, with coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear making up nearly 95 percent of the total, according to the two bodies.
Alexander Egit, an executive director at Greenpeace for Central and Eastern Europe, urged Western donor nations to back projects focused on renewable energy during and after the war.
“We expect billions of euros to be invested in Ukraine’s reconstruction by the European Union and beyond,” he said. “Greenpeace’s role is to advocate for decentralized renewable energy to ensure Ukraine is rebuilt as a modern, green, and independent nation.”


Biden says Israeli killing of US-Turkish activist appears to be ‘accident’

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs from the White House in Washington, U.S., September 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs from the White House in Washington, U.S., September 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
Updated 11 September 2024
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Biden says Israeli killing of US-Turkish activist appears to be ‘accident’

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs from the White House in Washington, U.S., September 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
  • "Eygi's family in the US released a statement saying “we are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional"

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Israel’s killing of a US-Turkish activist during a protest in the occupied West Bank last week appeared to have been an accident.
“Apparently it was an accident — it ricocheted off the ground, and she got hit by accident,” Biden told reporters, hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the killing was “unprovoked and unjustified.”