Tag: India

NYT running smear campaign against India: Union minister Anurag Thakur

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New Delhi: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur slammed The New York Times (NYT) chairman A G Sulzberger on Thursday for his claims that journalists are treated as terrorists in India.
Speaking at a UNESCO event on World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday, Sulzberger said in India, authorities have raided newsrooms and treated journalists essentially as terrorists.
Thakur asserted that the law took its own course in India in case of any wrongdoing and no one can claim immunity citing the status of being a media organisation.

“In India law takes its own course if someone does something wrong, newsroom or no newsroom. Mere claiming the status of a newsroom does not grant immunity from unlawful deeds,” he wrote on Twitter.
Thakur wondered how any investigation amounts to an attack on the press.
“Is it prudent to be a loose mouth and say journalists in India are treated as terrorists?” the minister asked.
He accused the NYT of running a “smear campaign” against India and using the UNESCO podium to “distort facts”.
“Unable to digest the global rise of India and its turning into an economic powerhouse, certain old world media houses have been running a systematic smear campaign against India,” Thakur tweeted.

“NYT, which has carved a niche for itself for writing fact-free and fabricated anti-India stories, shamelessly misused the podium of UNESCO to distort facts,” he added.
The minister said it has been difficult for him to differentiate whether the newspaper is “The New York Times or New Distort Times”.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 4, 2023
Bilawal Bhutto arrives in Goa; first Pak foreign min to visit India in 12 yrs

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Benaulim: Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari arrived in Goa on Thursday to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), becoming the first senior leader from the neighbouring country to visit India in almost 12 years.
Bhutto-Zardari’s visit to India to attend the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting comes amid continuing strain in ties between the two countries on a host of issues including Islamabad’s use of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Pakistan foreign minister was received at the airport in Goa by JP Singh, the joint secretary heading the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division at the external affairs ministry.

In 2011, Pakistan’s the then foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India and held talks with her the then counterpart SM Krishna.
#WATCH | Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari lands at Goa’s Dabolim to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting.
(Source: Pakistan MoFA) pic.twitter.com/6ZtTmRCdL7
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2023
“I am very happy to reach Goa to lead the Pakistani delegation at the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting. I expect the SCO CFM meeting to be successful,” Bhutto-Zardari told reporters.
Though there was a buzz in the media about Bhutto-Zardari’s two-day visit to Goa, both the Indian and the Pakistani side appeared to keep each other at arm’s length.
People familiar with official engagements on the sidelines of the SCO conclave said there is no plan for a bilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari so far as there was no request for it from the Pakistani side.
In a tweet with a caption ‘Salaam, from Goa India’, Bhutto-Zardari said: “Assalamualaikum, we have reached Goa for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet.”

“I will first hold a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister. Then, will hold a meeting with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister. I will attend the dinner hosted for all the foreign ministers…,” he said in a short video.
Before leaving for Goa, the Pakistani foreign minister said, “My decision to attend this meeting illustrates Pakistan’s strong commitment to the charter of the SCO.”
“During my visit, which is focused exclusively on the SCO, I look forward to constructive discussions with my counterparts from friendly countries,” he said.
The Pakistan foreign minister’s visit to India is the first such trip from Islamabad since 2011 as Khar visited New Delhi that year. She is currently serving as the minister of state for foreign affairs.
In May 2014, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited India to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.
In December 2015, former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan, and days later Modi made a brief visit to that country.
The invitation to the Pakistan foreign minister to attend the SCO meeting was sent in January, days after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered to hold bilateral talks between India and Pakistan.
In an interview with UAE-based Al Arabiya news channel, Sharif had said Pakistan has learnt its lesson after three wars with India and now it wants to live in peace with India, if “we are able to resolve our genuine problems.”
However, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office later said negotiations are not possible without India revoking its 2019 actions on Kashmir.
India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such an engagement.
The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.
The relations further deteriorated after India in August 2019 announced the withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories.
In a related development, Pakistan PM Sharif said his country’s decision to attend the SCO foreign meeting in India reflects its “commitment” to the SCO Charter and multilateralism as he asserted that his country was committed to playing its part to advance its shared values of peace and stability in the region.
“We are committed to playing our part to advance our shared values of peace and stability in the region. We are all for win-win understandings based on connectivity, trade and mutually advantageous cooperation,” he further said.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 4, 2023
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May 4, 2023
India, Egypt hold 12th round of foreign office consultations

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New Delhi: India and Egypt held the twelfth round of Foreign Office Consultations on Wednesday in Cairo when where both sides undertook a comprehensive review of the entire range of bilateral relations, covering politics, trade and commerce, according to the official statement released by External Affairs Ministry.
The Indian delegation was led by Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (CPV & OIA) and the Egyptian was headed by Ayman Kamel, Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt.
In the meeting, both sides undertook a comprehensive review of the entire range of bilateral relations, covering political, trade and commerce, investments, development partnership, capacity building, culture and people-to-people linkages, according to the statement.

They also discussed ways to further strengthen ties between India and Egypt and enhance cooperation in multilateral forums. Both sides exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest including climate change, resilient supply chains and participation of Global South under India’s G20 Presidency, the statement read.
Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (CPV & OIA) met Amb Khaled El Manzalawi, Asstt Secretary General, LAS on 3 May 2023 in Cairo.
Substantive discussions were held on enhancing cooperation between India and Arab League. pic.twitter.com/6bLh0Qp8cU
— India in Egypt (@indembcairo) May 3, 2023
The last round of FOC had taken place in December 2015 in New Delhi.
During the visit, Secretary (CPV & OIA) also held a bilateral meeting with Ambassador Hamdi Loza, Deputy Foreign Minister for African Affairs and exchanged views on India-Egypt bilateral ties.
He also called on Ambassador Khaled El Manzalawi, Assistant Secretary General, League of Arab States and had a substantive discussion on enhancing cooperation between India and countries of the Arab world. Secretary(CPV & OIA) also interacted with members of the Indian community at an event organised by the Mission.
Both sides agreed to hold the next round of Consultations at a mutually convenient date in New Delhi.

India and Egypt enjoy a great relationship. For the first time, in January 2023, Indo-Egypt held joint training exercise Cyclone.
India and Egypt, two of the world’s oldest civilizations, have enjoyed a history of close contact from ancient times. With a population of around 110 million, a location that straddles Africa and Asia, and a capital that hosts the League of Arab States, Egypt is a pivotal player in development.
It is also a country with which India enjoyed an exceptionally close relationship since immediately after its Independence. This is only natural, as the two countries were cofounders of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the 1950s.
Even, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attended India’s 74th Republic Day parade as the chief guest. He was the first Egyptian premier to have been invited to the Republic Day parade.

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#India #Egypt #hold #12th #foreign #office #consultations
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 4, 2023
Meta purges 43 mn bad content on FB, Insta in March in India

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New Delhi: Meta said that it took down over 38.4 million pieces of content across 13 policies for Facebook and over 4.61 million pieces of content across 12 policies for Instagram in March in India.
Between March 1-31, Facebook received 7,193 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism, and said that it provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 1,903 cases.
These include pre-established channels to report content for specific violations, self-remediation flows where they can download their data, avenues to address account hacked issues etc, said Meta in its monthly report in compliance with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

“Of the other 5,290 reports where specialised review was needed, we reviewed content as per our policies, and we took action on 1,300 reports in total. The remaining 3,990 reports were reviewed but may not have been actioned,” Meta added.
On Instagram, the company received 9,226 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism.
“Of these, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 4,280 cases,” it informed.
Of the other 4,946 reports where specialised review was needed, Meta reviewed content and took action on 1,656 reports in total.
The remaining 3,290 reports on Instagram were reviewed but may not have been actioned.

Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.
“We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action on for going against our standards. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning,” said Meta.
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#Meta #purges #bad #content #Insta #March #India
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
Doha: No breakthrough in sight as India joins UN to resolve Afghan issue

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New Delhi: India participated in a two-day closed-door conference on Afghanistan with 20 other countries led by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss the Afghan crisis. The UN was spurred by the deteriorating situation in the landlocked nation to organise the meeting along with the US, Russia, China and other nations.
The UN said that the aim of the meet was to “reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women’s and girls’ rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking. The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues”.
The Doha meeting, however, came under criticism from both – the Taliban and also Afghan women for not inviting them both for the discussions.

Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson for the Taliban said that any meeting without the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) was discriminatory and unjustified as the Taliban government was the main party.
However, it emerged from Doha that Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who has been banned from travel, will be visiting Pakistani capital Islamabad to hold talks with Pakistani and Chinese foreign ministry officials.
Women’s groups have held protests in Doha, for what they claimed were efforts by the UN to legitimise the Taliban regime despite the throttling of women’s rights in the country. The Taliban, contrary to assurances, after storming back to power in 2021 began steadily curtailing the rights of girls and women to education, stepping out of homes, visiting a doctor, marriage and divorce as well as working for UN agencies. The last one, which was imposed recently, galvanised women’s groups across the world against the Taliban rule.
Afghanistan’s Khaama news agency quoted Swiss ambassador to the UN, Pascale Baeriswyl, as saying that the situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban administration has turned into a complicated dilemma. “We do not have a magic solution to the Afghan crisis”, Baeriswyl said, adding that she is hopeful that the Doha meeting would lead to solutions to managing the Afghan crisis. Switzerland is currently the president of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
The people of Afghanistan continue to face hardships due to the unending conflict, droughts and economic problems, though the Taliban has $7 billion worth of sophisticated US weaponry which the American troops left behind in 2021 after 20 years of the war against terror.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
–indianarrative
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#Doha #breakthrough #sight #India #joins #resolve #Afghan #issue
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
Did you know Met Gala 2023 red carpet was made in India? More deets inside

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Washington: Met Gala, one of the biggest fashion nights, was held in New York City on Monday.
This year’s theme was “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” based on the new Costume Institute exhibition exploring the work of the iconic designer. Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85, spent decades creating clothes for Balmain, Patou, Chloe, Fendi and Chanel in addition to his own namesake label, Page Six reported.
But did you know that apart from the Indian celebs who walked the red carpet at the event, this year’s Gala night had another big Indian connection?

The beautiful red carpet on which the celebs walked was actually “made in India”. Yes, you read that right.
The carpet, not exactly red, was beige with a smattering of red and blue lines on it and was designed by an Indian design house based by Neytt by Extraweave, a design house based in Kerala.
Taking to Instagram, Neytt shared the news on their official Instagram handle and captioned it, “A proud moment for our team to provide carpets to the Met Gala for the second time in a row. Contemporary design, woven with love, rooted in Kerala. Made in India,” they wrote along with a picture of the carpet at the gala.
Reportedly, the carpet for the 2023 Met Gala took 60 days to make. The 6960 square metre carpet was made out of 58 30×4 metre rolls.
Several big celebs like Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Karlie Kloss, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, Kylie Jenner, Isha Ambani, Jennifer Lopez, Robert Pattinson, Jared Letto, Zendaya, Rihanna. Kim Kardashian and Gigi Hadid among others marked their presence at the Gala. (

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
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May 3, 2023
India criticised at UNESCO-sponsored press freedom event

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United Nations: Rana Ayyub, an Indian journalist writing for US media, has called for shifting global attention to media freedom in India as she spoke at a UNESCO-sponsored event at the world body.
“It is important for the world to shift its attention to India because we do not really talk about India as much and I really hope you do that in the days to come,” she said on Tuesday questioning New Delhi’s democratic credentials and its press freedom at the conference held on the eve of the World Press Freedom Day in the General Assembly chamber.
“When we talk about attacks in the press, we normally never look at India as much because India is seen as this place of democracy, you know, syncretic values and cultural pluralism.”

Earlier at the 30th Anniversary of the World Press Freedom Day Global Conference, New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger got the criticism of India rolling, saying that “in India, authorities have raided newsrooms and treated journalists essentially as terrorists”.
“In countries where press freedoms were strong, including the United States, journalists now face systematic campaigns to undermine their credibility, followed by attacks on the legal protections that safeguard their work,” he said.
Samantha Power, the administrator of the US government’s Agency for International Development (USAID), announced the launch of Reporters Shield, a programme to offer investigative journalists around the world insurance from defamation lawsuits and legal threats meant to “silence critical voices”.
Ayyub, who works for The Washington Post, said while seated at the General Assembly dais: “I have normally seen world leaders talk about democratic values right here at this podium (and) some of us journalists watching it on TV look at them and like, ‘Hey, you are anything but democratic.”
While detailing what she said were attacks on press freedom, she said: “I come from India, the land of democracy, which prides itself on, about democratic values. I love my country more than I love any other entity in the world, but which is why it is more important for me.”

She claimed that she was facing “legal warfare” through charges of money laundering and tax evasion and cases of defamation for her work as a journalist going back to an undercover assignment where she said she wore “eight cameras on my body” posing as a “Hindu nationalist”.
She referred to the killing in 2017 of journalist Gauri Lankeshwar, who had translated her book into Kannada and who she said had dismissed threats as “paper tigers”.
She said that she has been receiving threats of death and physical attacks on social media and at her house.
Mumbai Police, she asserted, were indifferent saying that the threats were only online.
Ayyub, who stressed her Muslim identity, claimed that “there is a sustained attack on the 200 million Muslim minorities on the lower caste in India systematically even as the country gears up to hold the G20 Summit in India, where world leaders are coming to India and (will be) talking about the virtues of democracy”.
Notably, the published list of speakers at the conference did not include anyone from China, either working there, or a dissident abroad.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
‘Operation Kaveri’: India brings back home 559 people on Tuesday

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New Delhi: India on Tuesday brought back home a total of 559 people under its mission to evacuate stranded Indians from violence-hit Sudan.
While 231 Indians arrived in Ahmedabad, another batch of 328 citizens were brought to New Delhi.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted, “328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now.”

Earlier in the day, 231 people reached Ahmedabad.
“Another #OperationKaveri flight lands in Ahmedabad. 231 more passengers have reached home safely,” Jaishankar said in another tweet.
Separately, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a group of 20 Indians crossed over to Chad through the adjoining land border with Sudan.
“Our teams are facilitating their journey back home,” he said on Twitter.
On Monday, India brought back 186 people under the evacuation mission that was launched a week back.

On Sunday, 229 Indians arrived in Bengaluru while 365 people reached Delhi on Saturday.
Under the evacuation mission, 754 people arrived in India in two batches on Friday.
The Indians were brought back home from the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah where India set up a transit camp for the evacuees.
The first batch of 360 evacuees returned to New Delhi in a commercial plane on Wednesday.
The second batch of 246 Indian evacuees arrived in Mumbai in a C17 Globemaster aircraft of the IAF on Thursday.
Under ‘Operation Kaveri’, India has been taking its citizens in buses from conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in Indian Air Force’s heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navy’s ships.
From Jeddah, the Indians are being brought back home in either commercial flight or IAF’s aircraft.
Sudan has been witnessing deadly fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group that has reportedly left around 400 people dead.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023