When Modi meets Harris: A leg-up for Indian diaspora
Kamala Harris is America's first female Vice-President, as also
the first woman of colour to hold the office. And she is of Indian
origin. Pride is filling the Indian diaspora! But Modi called her an
"inspiration" for the entire world. “Your election as Vice-President
of the US is a historic event. You are a source of inspiration for
the world. I am confident that under President Biden and your
leadership our bilateral relations will touch new heights,” a
persuasive Modi told Harris, and invited her to visit India "from
the bottom of my heart". Is she coming?
NEW DELHI, Sept 24: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a three-day visit
to the US, met with Indian-origin Vice-President Kamala Harris in the White
House on Thursday. At the delegation-level talks, they exchanged views on issues
like the situation in Afghanistan, coronavirus pandemic, climate change, Indo-Pacific,
democracy, human rights, security and other bilateral issues, according to sources
in her administration.
Apart from the delegation-level meeting, Harris also met Modi at the Eisenhower
Executive Office Building portico.
Kamala Harris is America's first female Vice-President, as also the first woman
of colour to hold the office. And she is of Indian origin.
At a joint press briefing, speaking in Hindi, Modi said that the US and India
are natural partners that share similar values and geopolitical interests. Cooperation
between the two countries have continued to increase.
“Your election as Vice-President of the USA has been an important and historic
event. You are a source of inspiration for many across the world. I am confident
that under President Biden and your leadership our bilateral relations will
touch new heights,” Modi told Harris. Modi invited Harris to visit India.
Harris said, “India, of course, is a very important partner to the United States.
Throughout our history, our nations have worked together, have stood together,
to make our world a safer and stronger world.”
“The words that you chose when you spoke to me, I will always remember that,
and I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Like a true friend,
you had given a message of cooperation and full of sensitivity and immediately
we found that the US Government, corporate sector and the Indian community all
came together to help India," he said, referring to the call during the peak
of the covid pandemic.
Modi tweeted after the meeting that he was glad to have met Harris. "Her feat
has inspired the entire world. We talked about multiple subjects that will further
cement the India-USA friendship, which is based on shared values and cultural
linkages," he said.
“It (Harris meeting Modi) does represent a ‘coming of age’ moment for the diaspora,
which is now more than 4 million strong,” Milan Vaishnav, director of the South
Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Los Angeles
Times. Pride is conspicuously ballooning among the diaspora, as also in India.
However, as Modi said, her feat inspires the whole world, has a universal appeal,
and is not just partisan. Indian-Americans are becoming a powerful political
force in the US. Modi is likely to bring up issues related to immigration faced
by the diaspora at his talks with President Biden.
During their talks, Harris 'suo moto' referred to Pakistan's role in terrorism
and said the US had asked the country to stop supporting terror groups, according
to Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla. "When the issue of terrorism came up,
the Vice- President suo moto referred to Pakistan's role in that regard," Shringla
said.
This is the first meeting between Modi and Harris. She had earlier once spoken
over phone with Modi during the severe covid second wave in India.
Modi was scheduled to meet President Joe Biden on Friday and review the Indo-US
comprehensive global strategic partnership. He would also attend the first in-person
Quad leaders’ summit hosted by Biden, alongside Australian Prime Minister Scott
Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
The Prime Minister arrived in Washington on Wednesday on a three-day visit
at the invitation of United States President Joe Biden. He was given a warm
welcome by the Indian-Americans at the airport. On Thursday he held one-to-one
talks with top American CEOs with a view to expanding their involvement and
cooperation in various sectors in India. Modi also had a bilateral meeting with
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide
Suga before a meeting with Harris. On Friday, after the meeting with Biden at
the White House, and an in-person Quad summit of India, US, Japan and Australia,
the Indian Prime Minister will head for New York to address the UN General Assembly.
The Quad summit on Friday will be hosted by Biden. In talks with Biden Modi
will review the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and exchange
views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.
The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
Many of the victims were charred beyond recognition, making identification difficult. Three hundred nineteen body parts have been sent for DNA matching with relatives to determine the identities.
A comment on social media on Kanimozhi's answer on the question of national language read: "Daughter of Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi. Delivered the Birthday Present to her Father!!" (Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924)
(Today's headlines )
Trump said, "Elon is not really leaving" and will be "back and forth" to the White House because DOGE is his "baby." "I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.”
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
"Coming from a system like in England, empowering," she says she never had an idea of this sort of experience... being asked to “socialise with middle-aged men” who financed the event...humiliating...
Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
"It's a big victory not just for Tamil Nadu but for all Indian States. DMK will continue to struggle for and win State autonomy and Federal polity," Chief Minister MK Stalin said.
Of 2.08 km in length, it features 99 spans and a 72.5-metre vertical lift span that rises up to a height of 17 metres, facilitating smooth movement of ships while ensuring seamless train services to the holy town of Rameswaram on Pamban island.
ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
Suddenly these colonial clerks feel this effortless, little rule will tremendously enhance security and convenience for the railway passengers manifold. More stations will be covered in the next 77 years! (Also See:
New Delhi station stampede... What went wrong?)
) 
