SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Monday, June 3, 2024 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Taliban accuse Pakistan of sowing ‘distrust’ between Afghanistan, China (VOA)
VOA [5/31/2024 7:31 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4.2M, Neutral]
The Taliban government Friday dismissed the findings of a Pakistan probe that attributed a recent fatal attack against Chinese workers in the country to militants operating from Afghanistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, told an Afghan television station that his country had nothing to do with the March 26 attack on Chinese nationals in northwestern Pakistan, insisting it was an internal issue for the neighboring country to address.“The report published by Pakistan is an attempt to damage the trust between Afghanistan and China. We have repeatedly denied this report as illogical,” Mujahid told TOLO TV in his audio remarks.
The response came a day after a Pakistani delegation visited Kabul on Thursday and shared with Taliban counterparts the results of Islamabad’s investigation into the killings of five Chinese nationals, along with their local driver, in a suicide car bombing. The victims were working on a China-funded hydropower project in northwestern Pakistan.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson told a weekly news conference in Islamabad on Friday that its delegation also had requested assistance from Afghan authorities to apprehend the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on Chinese workers based on the "concrete evidence" Pakistan had shared with them.
"The Afghan side has committed to prevent the use of their soil for any terrorist activity, and they have agreed to examine the findings of the investigation and to work with Pakistan to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” Mumtaz Baloch said.Pakistani military and civilian officials maintain that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist group also known as the Pakistani Taliban, orchestrated the attack on Chinese personnel from Afghan sanctuaries.
The militant group has for years waged deadly attacks in Pakistan, targeting security forces and civilians.
Officials in Islamabad maintain that fugitive TTP leaders and combatants relocated to sanctuaries in Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of the country nearly three years ago, and they have since intensified cross-border attacks with “greater operational freedom.”
The Taliban have consistently denied that foreign extremist groups have a presence in Afghanistan and are using their territory to threaten outside countries. Critics, however, have questioned those claims.
This month, a U.S. government quarterly report to Congress noted that the ruling Taliban continued to allow senior al-Qaida leaders, the TTP, and other insurgent groups to operate in Afghanistan.
Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said Friday that the situation in Afghanistan "remains the main source of instability" in the region.
"Numerous radical groups have gained a foothold there, stepping up attempts to promote their ideas in the neighboring countries," the Russian state-run Tass news agency quoted him as telling a regional defense ministers meeting in Kazakhstan.
"The risk of gangs and terrorism spilling outside the country is growing," Belousov said. He stressed the need for "constant monitoring and prompt measures" to ensure regional stability.
A United Nations report published earlier this year said the Taliban continued to be “sympathetic” to the TTP and supplied it with weapons and equipment, and some Taliban members reportedly joined the TTP in conducting cross-border raids against Pakistan.
The Taliban government has not been formally recognized by the international community.
China has steadily improved relations with Afghanistan, though, since the fundamentalist Taliban regained power in Kabul in August 2021. Beijing was the first to appoint a new ambassador to Kabul and the first to officially accept a Taliban ambassador. Tens of thousands of children in Afghanistan are affected by ongoing flash floods, UNICEF says (AP)
AP [6/3/2024 2:18 AM, Rahim Faiez, 456K, Negative]
Tens of thousands of children in Afghanistan remain affected by ongoing flash floods, especially in the north and west, the U.N. children’s agency said Monday.
Unusually heavy seasonal rains have been wreaking havoc on multiple parts of the country, killing hundreds of people and destroying property and crops. The U.N. food agency has warned that many survivors are unable to make a living.
UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, said the extreme weather has all of the hallmarks of an intensifying climate crisis, with some of the affected areas having experienced drought last year.
The World Food Program said the exceptionally heavy rains in Afghanistan killed more than 300 people and destroyed thousands of houses in May, mostly in the northern province of Baghlan. Survivors have been left with no homes, no land, and no source of livelihood, WFP said.
UNICEF said in a statement Monday that tens of thousands of children remain affected by ongoing floods.“The international community must redouble efforts and investments to support communities to alleviate and adapt to the impact of climate change on children,” said Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.
At the same time, “UNICEF and the humanitarian community must prepare ourselves for a new reality of climate-related disasters,” Oyewale said.
Afghanistan ranks 15th out of 163 nations in the Children’s Climate Risk Index. This means that not only are climate and environmental shocks and stresses prominent in the country, but children are particularly vulnerable to their effects compared with elsewhere in the world.
Last week, the private group Save the Children said about 6.5 million children in Afghanistan are forecast to experience crisis levels of hunger in 2024.
Nearly three out of 10 Afghan children will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year as the country feels the immediate impact of floods, the long-term effects of drought, and the return of Afghans from neighboring Pakistan and Iran, the group said in a report.
More than 557,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan since September 2023, after Pakistan began cracking down on foreigners it alleges are in the country illegally, including 1.7 million Afghans. River ferry sinks in Afghanistan, killing at least 20 (AP)
AP [6/1/2024 9:03 AM, Staff, 27514K, Negative]
At least 20 people were killed when a boat sank while crossing a river in eastern Afghanistan Saturday morning, a Taliban official said.Quraishi Badlon, provincial director of the information and culture department in Nangarhar province, said that the boat sank while crossing a river in Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people including women and children.Badlon said that the boat was carrying 25 people, according to village residents, of whom five survived.So far five bodies have been retrieved including a man, a woman, two boys and a girl, said the Nangarhar health department in a statement. It added that a medical team and ambulances were sent to the area.The officials didn’t provide details on the cause of the accident and said that rescuers are still searching for other bodies.Residents of the area frequently use locally made boats to travel between villages and local markets. As Many As 20 Die In Afghanistan After Overloaded Boat Sinks Crossing River (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [6/1/2024 4:26 AM, Staff, 1299K, Negative]
A boat carrying 25 people sank while crossing a river in eastern Afghanistan on June 1, officials of the country’s Taliban-led government said.Quraishi Badlon, director of the Information and Culture Department in Nangarhar Province, said the boat sank on a river in the Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people, including women and children.He later revised the number of dead downward to eight.Moulvi Mohammad Ajmal Shagwal, the district governor of the Taliban-led government in Mohmand Dara, told RFE/RL that nine bodies had been removed from the river with help from local residents.He said that there were 25 people on board the boat, which sank at 7:30 a.m. local time. Ten people survived, all of them with injuries, he said.Badlon also said the boat was carrying 25 people, and initially said only five survived.When he revised the number of deaths downward to eight, he said two people were missing. He added in a post on X that 16 people had been rescued by civilians and authorities. At least 10 were injured and several were taken to a hospital, he said.Shagwal said there were women and children on the boat, but he did not give details. According to the province’s Public Health Department, the bodies recovered thus far include those of a man, a woman, two boys, and a girl.Sherzad Ahmad Khel, one of the survivors, said that the boat sank because too many people were on board.The government’s Bakhtar news agency published a video message in which an official said many people got into the boat, and when it reached the middle of the river, its motor overheated and burst into flames. The boat then flooded and sank, leaving its passengers to fend for themselves.District resident Abdul Majeed told RFE/RL that people had used the same boat to cross the river almost every day to get to work and shop in the district market. He stressed that a bridge should be built."It is very important to build a bridge here. We asked the previous government, but it was not built. We are still demanding that the government build a bridge for us. If the bridge is not built, similar incidents will happen."People of Mohmand Dara and other districts of Nangarhar use small boats to cross the river due to the lack of bridges.A few years ago, a number of people died in a similar boat sinking incident in district. German court orders man born in Afghanistan held after knife attack at an anti-political Islam event (AP)
AP [6/1/2024 11:27 AM, Staff, 1299K, Negative]
A German court on Saturday ordered a 25-year-old man born in Afghanistan held on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with a knife attack at an event organized by a group opposing “political Islam” that left six people injured.The victims included a police officer who remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after he was stabbed while trying to intervene, police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.Officials offered no information regarding the motive for the attack on Friday on the central square in Mannheim.A statement from police and prosecutors said that the suspect had lived in Germany since 2014, was married and has two children. His apartment in the town of Heppenheim was searched Friday night and police recovered digital devices whose contents were being evaluated.Officials said that the suspect, who was shot and wounded by police, was hospitalized and not in a condition to be questioned. They said he had no prior police record.They haven’t disclosed the suspect’s citizenship or immigration status or how he came to Germany.The group, Pax Europa, describes itself as an organization that informs the public about the dangers posed by the “increasing spread and influence of political Islam.” Michael Stürzenberger, an anti-Islamist activist who is one of the group’s leading figures and has spoken at its events, was among those wounded.Stürzenberger, 59, posted a picture of himself on his Telegram channel from his hospital bed, showing a long, bandaged cut on his upper lip and cheek. He said he had suffered “significant blood loss” from a stab wound in his thigh as well as a cut on his jaw that had been stapled shut.The other victims were five men ages 25, 36, 42, and 54. The 25-year-old man has been released from the hospital, while the others were still be treated. The 54-year-old man suffered injuries that were initially life-threatening, but he was now out of danger. Pakistan
Sharif’s Beijing trip: Can China-Pakistan Economic Corridor be revived? (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [6/3/2024 12:00 AM, Abid Hussain, 21M, Neutral]
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to fly to China on June 4 for a five-day trip that will see him engage with Beijing’s top leadership, at a time when Islamabad has come to increasingly rely on its alliance with the world’s second-largest economy.
Sharif will visit Beijing, Xi’an and Shenzhen — the southern city that China showcases as a poster child of its dramatic economic rise since the 1980s. Shenzhen was handpicked by then-leader Deng Xiaoping as the country’s first special economic zone.
As Pakistan looks to similarly kick-start its economy from the doldrums, amid high inflation and a debt crisis, one multibillion-dollar economic project is at the heart of its ambitions:
The $62bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), formally launched in 2015 by the two Asian nations, was pitted by the governments and many analysts in both countries as a “game-changer” for Pakistan’s economy. It included the construction of a flagship seaport, power plants and road networks across the South Asian country.
Yet nearly a decade later, questions hover over the future of the project.
The CPEC is a key component of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive network of roads, bridges and ports spread across nearly 100 countries that Beijing hopes will recreate the ancient Silk Road trade routes linking Europe and Asia.
But critics say the BRI is a vehicle for China to expand its geopolitical influence and puts poorer countries such as Pakistan under more debt.
In Pakistan, the project included the building of a seaport at Gwadar in the south, along with the development of the country’s energy, transport and industrial sectors. While there were initial successes, the CPEC had a bumpy ride in Pakistan due to the country’s frequent political, economic and security crises and has effectively come to a halt.
Now, a recently-elected government in cash-strapped Pakistan is making a renewed push to ramp up the CPEC.
Why Pakistan needs CPEC
Nearly 40 percent of Pakistan’s 241 million people are below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Inflation, which touched a devastating 40 percent a year ago, hovers around 20 percent now. An opinion poll before the national elections in February suggested that nearly 70 percent of Pakistanis believe their economic condition will continue to worsen.
In 2015, when Sharif’s elder brother and three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif entered into the CPEC with China, Pakistan was facing a massive electricity crisis, hampering its industrial growth. Islamabad used the CPEC to develop a series of power projects, despite warnings of accumulating more debt.
Gwadar, the coastal city in the southwestern province of Balochistan, was picked to host the CPEC’s crown jewel: A deep sea port that could turn the city into a bustling economic hub. Meanwhile, a web of highways was announced across the country, aimed at providing connectivity from China’s southwestern city of Kashgar all the way down to Gwadar, more than 2,000km (1,242 miles) apart.
According to Ammar Malik, senior researcher at AidData, a research centre at the College of William and Mary in the United States, while the CPEC delivered some infrastructure and energy sector projects, it struggled to deliver more tangible benefits for Pakistan’s economy.“CPEC has certainly improved sectors such as transportation or energy or provided enhancement in Pakistan’s capacity to produce electricity, but one has to translate these benefits into economic productivity and economic growth, which has not happened,” Malik told Al Jazeera.
The government’s data on the CPEC website itself corroborates that claim. The CPEC lists 95 projects, the largest being some $33bn planned as investments in the energy sector.
The data says out of 21 power projects, 14 have been completed so far with a combined capacity of 8500 megawatts, while two others are under construction and five are yet to start. Similarly, of the 24 proposed projects related to transport, only six have been completed and 13 are yet to see any work on them.
The CPEC, per the 2015 plan, was to include nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) – designated areas with lenient trade laws to promote growth. But none have been completed so far, with work in progress on four of them.
The CPEC was estimated to generate more than two million employment opportunities for Pakistanis, but government data says less than 250,000 jobs have been created so far.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s debt has continued to mount, putting a serious strain on its economy. When Nawaz Sharif came to power in 2013, Pakistan’s external debt stood at $59.8bn. Today, as his brother leads the nation, the same obligations have ballooned to $124bn — $30bn of which is owed to China.
The debt burden on Pakistan’s dwindling foreign reserves has paralysed a country heavily reliant on imports. Its central bank currently has $9bn, enough to cover for two months of import. The cash crisis has forced Islamabad to reach out to close allies, including China, to shore up its economy.
Pakistan is also negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another bailout package – its 24th since 1958.
But why is China wary?
The Chinese have repeatedly rolled over Pakistan’s loan repayment deadlines, including about $2bn due earlier this year. But China has its own concerns.Only this year, five Chinese nationals working on various CPEC projects have been killed in attacks by armed groups, who have openly admitted to targeting Chinese interests in Pakistan.
Dozens of Chinese workers have been killed across Pakistan since 2018, mainly in Balochistan where an armed rebellion against the Pakistani state has been going on for several years. The Baloch rebels now blame the Chinese projects in the province as a theft of their resources.
Stella Hong, a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center, told Al Jazeera that Pakistan’s security situation “remains the most immediate concern” for the Chinese and may impact their future investments in the country.“The violent incidents are also putting the two governments’ mutual trust to the test. There might be growing reservation from both the countries about the other side’s commitment to this relationship,” she said.
Khalid Mansoor, who headed the government’s CPEC Authority for nearly nine months before being replaced in April 2022, said the primary demand of the Chinese is foolproof security.“But despite the recent attacks, I can say this with confidence that the Chinese remain committed to the [CPEC] project,” he told Al Jazeera.
Weak governance
According to AidData’s Malik, the other major concern for the Chinese is governance – or the lack of it.“In any good partnership, there are two partners and I have over the years heard the Chinese complain about not being facilitated to carry out their work. The support they seek has not been given to them,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hong agreed, saying Pakistan needs to do more if it expects the Chinese companies to relocate and expand operations in the country.“Companies need to be able to run viable businesses if they were to relocate to Pakistani SEZs or even in Pakistan in general. But many seem to have been frustrated by the difficulties of getting things done in Pakistan,” she said.
But economist Safdar Sohail, who was part of the government panel that supervised the implementation of the CPEC project when it was launched, hoped the creation of a Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) could help resolve the governance issue.
Shehbaz Sharif formed the SIFC in his previous tenure as prime minister last year. The government body, represented by top civilian and military officials, is meant to serve as the top decision-making forum to ensure the execution of economic policies.
Safdar believed the SIFC may also remove the bureaucratic issues that have affected the pace of the CPEC projects in Pakistan.“But I think to really avail the potential of CPEC, we need to have a forward-looking plan instead of short-term projects that may only add to our debt burden,” he told Al Jazeera. Pakistan beefing up security after deadly attacks on Chinese workers (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [6/3/2024 1:56 AM, Adnan Aamir, 2.2M, Neutral]
Pakistan is beefing up security around two cities that are key hubs for Chinese workers after a string of deadly militant attacks aggravated tensions with Beijing and put future investment at risk.
Surveillance cameras, checkpoints and other barriers are among the upgrades planned for Dasu and Chilas in Pakistan’s north, but the government revealed few other details about its "Safe Cities" project, including a timeline and costs.
The May 25 announcement came just days after a meeting of the agency that decides on future Chinese investment in Pakistan, and with Islamabad under pressure to ease Beijing’s alarm over the killing of its citizens.
"The idea is to ensure that movement of all vehicles and travelers can be watched so that [militants] are not able to sneak in and attack Chinese in these areas," said a security official speaking on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to talk to media.
Pakistan has been battling a rise in militant activity involving myriad groups ranging from Islamists aiming to topple the government to separatists seeking to carve out a homeland in the southwestern province of Balochistan, home to Gwadar Port -- the centerpiece of the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Chinese nationals are a frequent target of attacks, and Beijing has repeatedly urged Islamabad to do more to protect its nationals and investments, which cash-strapped Pakistan sorely needs. Beijing has pushed Pakistan to allow private Chinese security contractors to operate in its territory, but Islamabad has so far rejected those requests.
In March, five Chinese engineers were killed by a suicide bomber near the Dasu hydropower project. The incident was the third deadly attack on or near Chinese interests in the period of a week. Nine Chinese engineers were killed in a similar attack in 2021 near Dasu, a city of about 200,000 people.
Chilas, which has been the scene of attacks on Pakistan’s security forces, hosts the Diamer Bhasha Dam, which Chinese engineers are also building.
It is not known how many Chinese workers live in Pakistan but they’re thought to number in the thousands.
Pakistan has paid a total of $2.5 million in compensation to families of the Chinese engineers and arrested 11 militants suspected in the March attack.
The following month, however, five Japanese nationals survived a suicide attack in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi after being mistaken for Chinese workers, according to authorities."Despite repeated assurances by Pakistan, China still has reservations about the security situation," Fakhar Kakakhel, an independent analyst specializing in militancy in Pakistan, told Nikkei Asia. "By developing these [security enclaves] Pakistan wants to provide relief to Chinese workers who are working in the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in that region."
This is not the first time Pakistan has planned a security enclave.
In 2020, the government start erecting a barbed wire security fence around key port town Gwadar to protect Chinese workers who could not move freely outside their compound because of security threats. But the project was shelved after protests by local residents who feared their own mobility would be hampered.
"Such enclaves further widen the divide between China and local communities," said Khuram Iqbal, an Islamabad-based counterterrorism expert. "To address security challenges effectively, China and Pakistan need to expand outreach toward the local stakeholders to ensure that the CPEC becomes more participatory and beneficial for local communities."
Another challenge for Pakistan’s security landscape is the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a banned militant group that aims to overthrow the government.
Last month, Pakistani security forces said they killed nearly two dozen TTP militants in clashes that left seven of their personnel dead.
Pakistan blames neighboring Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban for providing sanctuary to the group so it can mount attacks across border. It has also accused the Pakistani Taliban of being behind the March suicide bombing near Dasu.
"Pakistan cannot guarantee Chinese security unless the Taliban militancy threat is dealt with," Kakakhel said. Gunmen kill a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in Pakistan’s northwest (AP)
AP [6/3/2024 5:12 AM, Staff, 24454K, Negative]
Gunmen fatally shot a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said Monday.At least 11 police have died this year while on security duty for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.The gunmen fired at a team working in the Wargari area of Lakki Marwat district, said police official Sajid Khan. One of the attackers also died, while the remaining assailants fled.No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.A five-day anti-polio campaign started Monday in nine high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Health workers are tasked with administering vaccines to some 3.28 million children under age 5. More than 26,000 police are protecting the teams.Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped.The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water. India
As Voting Ends in India, Modi Awaits a Verdict on His 10 Years in Power (New York Times)
New York Times [6/1/2024 4:14 PM, Mujib Mashal, 831K, Neutral]
Voting in India’s general election, a six-week-long referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power, came to a close on Saturday as much of the country’s populous north was gripped by a deadly heat wave.
Results will be tallied and announced on Tuesday.
Mr. Modi, his power deeply entrenched, is seen as likely to win a third consecutive term as prime minister, which would make him only the second leader in India’s nearly 75 years as a republic to achieve that feat. Exit polls released after the last round of voting suggested a comfortable return for his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.
A newly united opposition has put up a fight, rallying against Mr. Modi’s divisive politics and management of India’s deeply unequal economic growth. But the exit polls indicated it was struggling to significantly cut into the sizable majority in the 543-seat Parliament held by Mr. Modi’s party.
In a message of thanks after the voting closed, Mr. Modi expressed confidence that “the people of India have voted in record numbers to re-elect” his government. But Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, played down the exit polls as “government surveys” and said the official results will show that his alliance was ahead.
The election, held in phases over a month and a half, is the largest democratic exercise in the world, with more than 950 million eligible voters. The last stretch of the campaigning drew large rallies even as northern India baked under an intense heat wave, with temperatures frequently exceeding 110 degrees Fahrenheit, or more than 43 degrees Celsius.
At least 19 poll workers have died from heat strokes or other health complications resulting from the heat in recent days.
Elections in a parliamentary system like India’s are usually fought seat by seat, with a candidate’s fate determined by local economic and social factors. But the B.J.P. made its parliamentary campaign into a presidential-style referendum, putting the focus almost entirely on Mr. Modi and his leadership. The party hoped that Mr. Modi’s deep popularity would help it overcome a growing anti-incumbent sentiment 10 years into the B.J.P.’s rule.
Mr. Modi held about 200 rallies across the country over more than two months of campaigning, hoping to lift up struggling candidates in his party. He also went on a media blitz, giving about 80 interviews to television stations and newspapers, almost all of them friendly to him.
As the campaigning ended and a mandatory two-day election pause was set to begin, Mr. Modi retreated south to the memorial of one of India’s most celebrated monks for two days of meditation. The country’s media followed. The stream of videos and photos put out by his office, shot from multiple angles in a place where photography is usually not allowed, led the nightly news and television debates.
Mr. Modi’s opponents cried foul, saying that the exercise amounted to prohibited campaigning — and that it exemplified the uneven playing field he has created.“The weather is good. The prime minister is sitting in meditation there and he has mellowed the sun goddess,” Ravi Kishan, an actor and B.J.P. candidate, told local media outlets. “This is historic — amidst intense heat, the wind started blowing today.”
The opposition, hamstrung by arrests and other punitive actions as part of a crackdown, still mustered its most united front in years. Opposition leaders painted Mr. Modi as a friend to billionaires who has struggled to create jobs for the country’s large youth population. They called his party elitist, accusing it of not lifting up those in the middle and lower ends of India’s caste system.
The opposition has stoked fears that if the B.J.P. remained in power, it might change the country’s Constitution to do away with affirmative action for middle and lower castes, a system put in place many decades ago to address centuries of oppression in India’s rigidly hierarchical society.
Mr. Modi has vehemently rejected the charges as unfounded; the party under him has increased its outreach to lower castes. To try to keep his Hindu support base united, he turned to anti-Muslim rhetoric, leveling attacks that were unusually direct for him in recent years.
The opposition has also tried to win over voters by promising a long list of welfare offerings, including the waiving of farmers’ loans, cash transfers for women and paid apprenticeships for the young. Mr. Modi, on the other hand, has stuck to an image of fiscal prudence, only highlighting his existing offerings. That, his party members say, was because he was confident of winning a third term, and he did not want to over-promise.
But even though the opposition seemed to gain some traction, it faces an uphill task in unseating Mr. Modi’s government. He has built a huge electoral advantage with a robust and well-funded political machinery. In the last election, Mr. Modi’s party won 303 seats, nearly six times as many as its closest national competitor, the Indian National Congress party. As Indian voting wraps up, reports of electoral irregularities mount (Washington Post)
Washington Post [5/31/2024 11:03 AM, Gerry Shih and Anant Gupta, 6.9M, Neutral]
As India wraps up a seven-week-long marathon election, reports of irregularities have reached a level not seen in decades. Across the country, supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been accused by their opponents of working with local authorities to suppress turnout among voters or to remove opposition candidates from the ballot altogether.
In the ancient diamond trading hub of Surat, the election ended before it began. After all eight opposition candidates dropped out under questionable circumstances, local officials declared a winner by default: the candidate from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.
Independent political analysts say there is no evidence to indicate systemic vote-rigging, and if Modi is declared the winner Tuesday as expected, his victory would be legitimate. But in the world’s largest democracy, the rash of irregularities at the local level — and the brazenness of several incidents publicized by BJP supporters themselves — have alarmed political observers who say India’s ruling party is increasingly wielding state power to tilt the democratic playing field in its favor.
During its previous decade in power, the Modi government has cracked down on critical media outlets, shut down nonprofits, and squeezed opposition politicians by targeting them for criminal investigations and imprisonment, “but the sanctity of elections itself has largely been protected,” said Maya Tudor, a political scientist at Oxford University.
Now, she said, “these are the first signs of the electoral moment itself being called into question.”
So far, election officials have ordered partial repolling in at least nine voting districts, including locations where party workers were caught on video casting multiple votes. But India’s Election Commission, led by a three-member panel nominated by the government, has been criticized for leaving many more allegations of irregularities unaddressed.
Some of these reports involved classic voter intimidation. In Uttar Pradesh state, for instance, baton-wielding police in recent weeks were filmed beating Muslim voters, who generally vote against the Hindu nationalist BJP, and driving them from polling stations. In the far northeast, voting has been marred by gun-toting militias who seized booths and roughed up party workers, according to eyewitnesses and news reports.“There have been clear failures in election management,” said S.Y. Qureshi, India’s chief election commissioner from 2010 to 2012. Qureshi noted that Indian bureaucrats worked hard in the 1990s to curtail widespread violence that often took place on election day targeting voters from lower castes, but he feared similar abuses from decades ago were creeping back. “How can this happen?” he asked angrily. “What action will be taken?”
Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a BJP national spokesman, dismissed allegations as campaign rhetoric by the party’s opponents. He said the BJP has never tried to suppress turnout. “These things are for the Election Commission to decide,” Agarwal said. “We believe in our institutions. We believe in and respect the democratic values that have brought us where we are.”
At the same time, opposition parties and political analysts have alleged that local BJP officials have tried a new tactic during this election: removing challengers from races altogether.In the central city of Indore, the sole candidate from a major opposition party dropped out hours before the withdrawal deadline and joined the BJP after a local judge brought fresh charges of attempted murder against him as part of a 17-year-old land dispute. In Khajuraho, another central city, the BJP candidate also ran without a major-party rival after election officials disqualified his opponent, citing incomplete paperwork.
In Gandhinagar, the seat of the powerful home minister Amit Shah in western India, opposition candidates released teary-eyed videos claiming they had received death threats warning them against running.
Adam Ziegfeld, an expert on Indian politics at Temple University, said the use of law enforcement or trumped-up cases came “out of the tool kit of electoral autocrats.”“This is about who gets scared off from running,” Ziegfeld said. “If you look at who [Russian President Vladimir] Putin lets run against him, it’s no wonder he wins.”
No contest
In Surat, a BJP stronghold in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, opposition candidates began to fall by the wayside in April.
One told reporters he was too depressed to campaign. Another cryptically cited “personal reasons” but posed for a photo shaking hands with a BJP leader. Two other candidates’ nomination papers were rejected by local officials. Finally, there was just one contender left challenging the BJP: Pyarelal Bharti, a veteran of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which represents low-caste voters across northern India.
Behind the scenes, BJP officials were waging an intense campaign to bribe and pressure each of their rivals, including Bharti, to withdraw before the deadline on April 22, according to local media reports that were corroborated by interviews with opposition leaders.
But by April 21, BJP officials still could not locate Bharti. Opposition party leaders had conferred and agreed to whisk Bharti out of Surat to the nearby city of Vadodara, where he could hide beyond the reach of BJP party workers, said local leaders from the BSP and the Congress party. But pressure began to mount before midnight, recalled Satish Sonawane, the BSP party chief in Surat.
First, a friend of Sonawane who served in the Surat police called to say that a rich local businessman had offered to pay Sonawane in exchange for revealing Bharti’s whereabouts. “He said they were willing to pay as much as we like,” Sonawane said. “But I told him that I didn’t enter politics for such things.”
The next morning, homes in Vadodara belonging to the BSP state leader, Surender Singh Kaloria, were raided by police, who also surrounded the home of Bharti’s son-in-law where the BJP believed Bharti was hiding, said one of Bharti’s associates, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retribution.
By midday, BJP supporters found Bharti and drove him back to Surat. He entered the government office through a back door and withdrew his candidacy shortly before the 3 p.m. deadline, according to BSP leaders, Bharti’s associate and one local journalist. That evening, Bharti left Surat and never came back; his phone has been switched off, and he could not be reached for comment.
Manishkumar Rathod, the police inspector who led the raid on Kaloria’s homes, said in a telephone call that Vadodara police had received an anonymous tip that Kaloria was illegally storing alcohol in his home. He denied that his unit tried to locate Bharti or interfere with the election.“I’ve seen money being involved before,” Kaloria said, referring to the tactic of paying rival candidates to drop out. “This was the first time I’ve seen police involved.”
A step too far
On April 22, with no votes cast or opponents standing, local officials named the BJP candidate, a first-time candidate named Mukesh Dalal, to be the next member of Parliament from Surat. The BJP Gujarat party chief, C.R. Paatil, immediately celebrated on social media, boasting that the BJP had won its first seat even though results were supposed to be announced on June 4.
The episode stunned many in India. Even leaders within the BJP’s Delhi headquarters wondered whether the Gujarat party officials went too far, said a senior Gujarat political journalist who covered the saga closely.
Paatil, the BJP’s state chief, declined to speak to The Post about the race in Surat. But on the day of the scheduled election, his colleagues at the BJP office in town acknowledged that the incident backfired. The state party was under pressure to demonstrate its strength and deliver high voter turnout. Yet the opposite happened, they said: Many residents in districts neighboring Surat believed their elections were also canceled and didn’t bother to vote.
Outside, an uneasy quiet settled. In a working-class neighborhood near the famous diamond polishing center, Bhupendrabhai Brahmbhatt and his daughter-in-law Seema watched boys play cricket in an alley that, on any other election day, would have been teeming with party workers scrambling to mobilize voters.
Both said they were longtime BJP supporters but felt a line had been crossed. “How could we change our rulers if no one is competing?” Seema asked.“Our politics have become such,” Bhupendrabhai sighed, “that those who rule by might take all of the gains.” Modi Set for Landslide Election Win in India, Exit Polls Show (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/2/2024 2:17 AM, Swati Gupta, Dan Strumpf, and Shruti Srivastava, 24454K, Positive]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is set to win a decisive majority in India’s election for the third time in a row, several exit polls showed, extending his decade in power atop the world’s fastest-growing major economy.The polls showed his Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance will win substantially more seats than the 272 needed for a majority in India’s 543-seat lower house of parliament. Official election results will be released June 4.Modi claimed victory for the BJP-led alliance based on the exit poll results, saying the ruling party’s track record resonated with voters, especially the poor.“I can say with confidence that the people of India have voted in record numbers to reelect the NDA government,” he said in a post on social media platform X. He also criticized the opposition alliance’s campaign for failing to provide a vision for the country.The results are likely to boost Indian financial markets, which had been volatile in recent weeks amid speculation the BJP and its allies would fail to meet Modi’s ambitious goal of winning 400 seats. In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats on its own and about 351 with its allies.V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, predicted a market rally on Monday, saying the exit polls removes some of the election jitters that had been weighing on sentiment in May.“This comes as a shot in the arm for the bulls who will trigger a big rally in the market on Monday,” he said. Investors will likely also be buoyed by data Friday showing the economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace of 8.2% in the fiscal year ended in March.While exit polls have a mixed track record in Indian elections, they correctly predicted the broad outlines of the result from the 2019 and 2014 general elections.The polls were released after the last of India’s nearly 1 billion registered voters finished casting their ballots in a grueling six-week-long election that was spread over seven voting phases. It started on April 19.The BJP’s strategy of centering its campaign around the hugely-popular Modi appears to have paid off if the exit polls are accurate. The party’s star campaigner, Modi criss-crossed the country holding roadshows and addressing large crowds. The party even titled its manifesto ‘Modi’s Guarantee.’A win for Modi would be historic: no prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru — who ruled India for 17 years after independence — has managed to secure three consecutive terms in power.The exit polls showed the BJP made gains in southern India, where Modi campaigned heavily to woo voters traditionally skeptical of the ruling party’s Hindu nationalist policies. The polls also showed the BJP retained much of its monopoly in the northern Hindi-speaking states.The win also signals additional trouble for the country’s opposition, especially the Indian National Congress, the largest party in the opposition alliance. Failure to dent the BJP’s mandate for a third straight national election may fuel concerns the Congress party needs an ideological revamp or a change in leadership.Shashi Tharoor, a Congress official, called the exit polls “deeply unscientific” and said the party would wait for official results on Tuesday. A bigger win for the ruling party positions it to potentially push through decisive new policy measures and further elevate Modi’s global stature. The BJP pledged in its election manifesto to invest more in infrastructure, boost manufacturing and continue its popular welfare programs.If the BJP-led alliance wins two-thirds of the seats, or 363, in the lower house of parliament — as some of the exit polls predicted — it also brings the party a step closer to making changes to the constitution. Most amendments would require two-thirds majority in both the upper and lower house of parliament. The BJP-led alliance currently holds about 50% of the seats in the upper house.Opposition parties on the campaign trail had warned voters the BJP government would use its super-majority to dilute affirmative action policies for lower-caste individuals. BJP officials have repeatedly denied the claims. India’s economy grew more than 8% in the fiscal year that ended in March, making it the fastest-expanding major nation in the world. The central bank is predicting 7% growth in the current financial year, far outpacing global expansion of about 3% in 2024. S&P Global Ratings this week signaled a possible credit rating upgrade for India, giving a boost to financial markets just ahead of the country’s inclusion in JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s emerging market bond index later in June.“If the results come in line with exit polls, it should be highly positive for markets as it would suggest policy continuity and sustained focus on macroeconomic stability, reforms, infrastructure creation and fiscal prudence,” said Garima Kapoor, an economist at Elara Securities India Ltd. Voting ends in the last round of India’s election, a referendum on Modi’s decade in power (AP)
AP [6/1/2024 12:44 PM, Sheikh Saaliq and Krutika Pathi, 12262K, Neutral]
India’s 6 -week-long national election came to an end Saturday with most exit polls projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to extend his decade in power with a third consecutive term.During the grueling, multi-phase election, candidates crisscrossed the country, poll workers hiked to remote villages, and voters lined up for hours in sweltering heat. Now all that’s left is to wait for the results, which are expected to be announced Tuesday.The election is considered one of the most consequential in India’s history. If Modi wins, he’ll be only the second Indian leader to retain power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.Exit polls by major television news channels projected Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies were leading over the broad opposition alliance led by the Congress party. Most exit polls projected BJP and its allies could win more than 350 seats out of 543 — far ahead of the 272 seats needed to form the next government.Indian television channels have had a mixed record in the past in predicting election results.Modi’s campaign began on a platform of economic progress, with vows to uplift the poor and turn India into a developed nation by 2047. But it turned increasingly shrill in recent weeks as Modi escalated polarizing rhetoric in incendiary speeches that targeted the country’s Muslim minority, who make up 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people.After campaigning ended on Thursday, Modi went to a memorial site honoring a famous Hindu saint to meditate on national television. The opposition Congress party called it a political stunt and said it violated election rules as the campaigning period has ended.When the election kicked off in April, Modi and his BJP were widely expected to clinch another term.Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has enjoyed immense popularity. His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world, and credit his pro-business policies with making the economy the world’s fifth-largest.At the same time, his rule has seen brazen attacks and hate speech against minorities, particularly Muslims. India’s democracy, his critics say, is faltering and Modi has increasingly blurred the line between religion and state.But as the campaign ground on, his party faced stiff resistance from the opposition alliance and its main face, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party. They have attacked Modi over his Hindu nationalist politics and are hoping to benefit from growing economic discontent.Pre-poll surveys showed that voters were increasingly worried about unemployment, the rise in food prices and an overall sentiment that only a small portion of Indians have benefitted despite brisk economic growth under Modi, making the contest appear closer than initially anticipated.The seventh round of polls covered 57 constituencies across seven states and one union territory, completing a national election to fill all 543 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament. Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — were eligible to elect a new parliament for five years. More than 8,300 candidates ran for the office.In Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, voters lined up outside polling stations early Saturday morning to avoid the scorching heat, with temperatures expected to reach 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit). Modi was challenged there by the state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, who heads the regional Trinamool Congress party.“There is a crunch for jobs now in the present market. I will vote for the government that can uplift jobs. And I hope those who cannot get jobs, they will get jobs,” said Ankit Samaddar.In this election, Modi’s BJP — which controls much of India’s Hindi-speaking northern and central parts — sought to expand their influence by making inroads into the country’s eastern and southern states, where regional parties hold greater sway.The BJP also banked on consolidating votes among the Hindu majority, who make up 80% of the population, after Modi opened a long-demanded Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque in January. Many saw it as the unofficial start of his campaign, but analysts said the excitement over the temple may not be enough to yield votes.Modi ramped up anti-Muslim rhetoric after voter turnout dipped slightly below 2019 figures in the first few rounds of the 2024 polls, in a move seen as a bid to energize his core Hindu voter base. But analysts say it also reflected the absence of a single big-ticket campaign issue, which Modi has relied on to power previous campaigns.In 2014, Modi’s status as a political outsider with plans to crack down on deep-rooted corruption won over voters disillusioned with decades of dynastic politics. And in 2019, he swept the polls on a wave of nationalism after his government launched airstrikes into rival Pakistan in response to a suicide bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers.But things are different this time, analysts say, giving Modi’s political challengers a potential opportunity.“The opposition somehow managed to derail his plan by setting the narrative to local issues, like unemployment and the economy. This election, people are voting keeping various issues in mind,” said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst. India’s Modi plans post-election reforms to rival Chinese manufacturing (Reuters)
Reuters [6/2/2024 10:26 PM, Ira Dugal and Aftab Ahmed, 45791K, Neutral]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans a raft of business-friendly measures if he wins a third term this week, including pushing through regulations making it easier to hire and fire workers, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.As part of an election pledge to transform India into a global manufacturing hub, Modi wants to offer subsidies for domestic production modelled on recent packages for semiconductor firms and electric vehicle makers, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to media.The premier also plans to reduce import taxes on key inputs for locally-made goods, which have pushed up India’s manufacturing costs, the officials said.Modi’s office and the labour and finance ministries did not respond to Reuters’ questions.Exit polls project that the right-wing coalition led by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win a big majority when election results are announced on June 4.Modi’s reelection campaign was partly built on the promise of continued economic development. He’s pitching India as an alternative for global firms diversifying their supply chains from China.India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy. But that includes both a booming tech sector and a struggling older economy that doesn’t provide enough jobs for everyone else, said Josh Felman, the former head of the International Monetary Fund’s office in India."What can be done now to provide employment - good jobs for these people - is manufacturing," Felman said.India successfully lured suppliers for major U.S. corporations like Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google. But less than 3% of global manufacturing takes place in the world’s most populous country, compared to 24% for China, World Bank data shows.The government plans to increase India’s share of global manufacturing to 5% by 2030 and 10% by 2047, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. It did not provide specifics.Reuters spoke to 15 people - including bureaucrats, representatives of major investors, economists and trade unionists - who identified three significant obstacles holding India back from manufacturing hub status: restrictive labour laws, challenges acquiring land, and a rigidly inefficient tariff regime.INDIA’S PEARL RIVER DELTA?When Modi was chief minister of his home state of Gujarat between 2001 and 2014, he dreamt up an investment zone in the Dholera region. Legislation creating the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) was passed in 2009 and local authorities began acquiring land for it in 2013.The plan, Modi said during a 2011 visit to a Chinese port, was to develop DSIR along the "Shanghai model".Starting in the 1980s, China set up special economic zones along its southeastern coast that are widely credited for it becoming the world’s factory floor.Land reform was a precursor for China’s manufacturing rise. Starting in the 1970s, Beijing separated ownership from usage rights, making it easier for investors to acquire industrial land, said Henry Gao, a Chinese trade expert at Singapore Management University (SMU).Beijing’s industrial zoning policies also made it easier for industries to set up in areas with ready access to materials and facilities, he said.As prime minister, Modi has continued to stress the importance of industrial zones for India. In March, he described facilities under construction in DSIR as central to the creation of an Indian semi-conductor manufacturing hub.Tata Group announced plans in January to build India’s first semi-conductor fabrication plant there. During a visit in March, Reuters also saw construction activity for an upcoming cargo airport and promotional billboards set up by real-estate developers.There were paved roads and a waterfront but little sign of bustling business.DSIR hopes to attract more manufacturing companies by providing leases of up to 99 years on government-owned land, said Rahul Gupta, head of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation.Local officials have said that it took more than a decade to acquire land and award infrastructure contracts, but Gupta predicted there would be much more activity in about two to three years.Outside such zones, industrial groups still have to undergo a "very difficult process" to acquire the large plots of land they need because title deeds are often unclear and holdings are fractured, said Richard Rossow of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.In May, Foxconn - whose local investment was trumpeted as a major success by Modi - was met with protests by farmers in Karnataka state unhappy with the compensation they received from local authorities for giving up their land to the manufacturer, Indian media reported.The Taiwanese company didn’t return a request for comment.LABOUR STRUGGLESIn much of India, firms with more than 100 employees need authorisation from state governments to hire and fire.This prevents companies from adjusting their operations to meet demand, said Atul Gupta, partner at Bengalore law firm Trilegal.The BJP-controlled parliament has passed legislation to raise the threshold before official approval to 300, but state authorities that must consent to the changes have stalled the move.Modi hopes that a strong win on June 4th will give him the momentum and political capital to push through their opposition, the two government officials said."No government wants to come across as giving permission to a company to let go of their employees (but)...this is just used to drag out the closure or the terminations endlessly," said Gupta, who advocates labour reforms.General Motors, for instance, decided to shut plants in Gujarat and neighboring Maharastra in 2017, citing low sales. But unions opposed the closures and GM only received judicial approval to exit India completely in January. The U.S. carmaker declined to comment.To avoid such difficulties, companies end up using contract workers for extended periods, said labour lawyer Amrish Patel.HSBC economists said that sweeping changes to labour regulations as well as land reforms are needed to sustain high growth.In a note to investors last month, HSBC economist Pranjul Bhandari wrote that such reforms could allow India to grow at 7.5-8% over the next decade, creating a wealth of jobs.But lawyer and union leader Sanjay Singhvi said nearly 60% of the workers who benefit from current labour laws would lose protections if the BJP’s codes are implemented.Praveen Chakravarty, a senior economics policy official with the main opposition Congress, told Reuters that labour law decisions should be left to the states. His party’s manifesto calls for a review of the labour codes passed by parliament.TARIFF LANDManufacturing costs in India are also elevated because of tariffs on imports, including components for high-end manufacturing.To encourage smartphone production, Delhi cut import duties on components to 10%. But competitor Vietnam already levies a rate of between 0% and 5% on equivalent inputs, according to the India Cellular and Electronics Association.The average import tariff imposed by India on World Trade Organisation (WTO) members was 18.1%, compared to 7.5% for China, according to WTO data for 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available.Customs processes are also significantly quicker and less burdensome in China, said Gao.Imports can clear customs in China in about 20 hours, said the SMU professor. It takes between 44 and 85 hours in India, according to a 2023 government study.Beijing has focused its efforts on being a key node in the supply chain rather than attempting to own the entire chain, leading to greater efficiencies.For instance, products exported by China often include inputs from other Northeast Asian countries, said Christian de Guzman of Moody’s Ratings.But Delhi "wants to have the entire thing come onshore," Guzman said. A Small Army Combating a Flood of Deepfakes in India’s Election (New York Times)
New York Times [6/1/2024 4:14 PM, Alex Travelli, 831K, Neutral]
Through the middle of a high-stakes election being held during a mind-melting heat wave, a blizzard of confusing deepfakes blows across India. The variety seems endless: A.I.-powered mimicry, ventriloquy and deceptive editing effects. Some of it is crude, some jokey, some so obviously fake that it could never be expected to be seen as real.
The overall effect is confounding, adding to a social media landscape already inundated with misinformation. The volume of online detritus is far too great for any election commission to track, let alone debunk.
A diverse bunch of vigilante fact-checking outfits have sprung up to fill the breach. While the wheels of law grind slowly and unevenly, the job of tracking down deepfakes has been taken up by hundreds of government workers and private fact-checking groups based in India.“We have to be ready,” said Surya Sen, a forestry officer in the state of Karnataka who has been reassigned during the election to manage a team of 70 people hunting down deceptive A.I.-generated content. “Social media is a battleground this year.” When Mr. Sen’s team finds content they believe is illegal, they tell social media platforms to take it down, publicize the deception or even ask for criminal charges to filed.
Celebrities have become familiar fodder for politically pointed tricks, including Ranveer Singh, a star in Hindi cinema.
During a videotaped interview with an Indian news agency at the Ganges River in Varanasi, Mr. Singh praised the powerful prime minister, Narendra Modi, for celebrating “our rich cultural heritage.” But that is not what viewers heard when an altered version of the video, with a voice that sounded like Mr. Singh’s and a nearly perfect lip sync, made the rounds on social media.“We call these lip-sync deepfakes,” said Pamposh Raina, who leads the Deepfakes Analysis Unit, a collective of Indian media houses that opened a tip line on WhatsApp where people can send suspicious videos and audio to be scrutinized. She said the video of Mr. Singh was a typical example of authentic footage edited with an A.I.-cloned voice. The actor filed a complaint with the Mumbai police’s Cyber Crime Unit.
In this election, no party has a monopoly on deceptive content. Another manipulated clip opened with authentic footage showing Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Modi’s most prominent opponent, partaking in the mundane ritual of swearing himself in as a candidate. Then it was layered with an A.I.-generated audio track.
Mr. Gandhi did not actually resign from his party. This clip contains a personal dig, too, making Mr. Gandhi seem to say that he could “no longer pretend to be Hindu.” Mr. Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, which exit polls on Saturday showed had a comfortable lead, presents itself as a defender of the Hindu faith, and its opponents as traitors or impostors.
Sometimes, political deepfakes veer into the supernatural. Dead politicians have a way of coming back to life via uncanny, A.I.-generated likenesses that endorse the real-life campaigns of their descendants.
In a video that appeared a few days before voting began in April, a resurrected H. Vasanthakumar, who died of Covid-19 in 2020, spoke indirectly about his own death and blessed his son Vijay, who is running for his father’s former parliamentary seat in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. This apparition followed an example set by two other deceased titans of Tamil politics, Muthuvel Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa Jayaram.
Mr. Modi’s government has been framing laws that are supposed to protect Indians from deepfakes and other kinds of misleading content. An “IT Rules” act of 2021 makes online platforms, unlike in the United States, responsible for all kinds of objectionable content, including impersonations intended to cause insult. The Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital rights group, which has argued that these powers are far too broad, is tracking 17 legal challenges to the law.
But the prime minister himself seems receptive to some kinds of A.I.-generated content. A pair of videos produced with A.I. tools show two of India’s biggest politicians, Mr. Modi and Mamata Banerjee, one of his staunchest opponents, emulating a viral YouTube video of the American rapper Lil Yachty doing “the HARDEST walk out EVER.”Mr. Modi shared the video on X, saying such creativity was “a delight.” Election officers like Mr. Sen in Karnataka called it political satire: “A Modi rock star is fine and not a violation. People know this is fake.”
The police in West Bengal, where Ms. Banerjee is the chief minister, sent notices to some people for posting “offensive, malicious and inciting” content.
On the hunt for deepfakes, Mr. Sen said his team in Karnataka, which works for a state government controlled by the opposition, vigilantly scrolls through social media platforms like Instagram and X, searching for keywords and repeatedly refreshing the accounts of popular influencers.
The Deepfakes Analysis Unit has 12 fact-checking partners in the media, including a couple that are close to Mr. Modi’s national government. Ms. Raina said her unit works with external forensics labs, too, including one at the University of California, Berkeley. They use A.I.-detection software such as TrueMedia, which scans media files and determines whether they should be trusted.
Some tech-savvy engineers are refining A.I.-forensic software to identify which portion of a video was manipulated, all the way down to individual pixels.
Pratik Sinha, a founder of Alt News, the most venerable of India’s independent fact-checking sites, said that the possibilities of deepfakes had not yet been fully harnessed. Someday, he said, videos could show politicians not only saying things they did not say but also doing things they did not do.
Dr. Hany Farid has been teaching digital forensics at Berkeley for 25 years and collaborates with the Deepfakes Analysis Unit on some cases. He said that while “we’re catching the bad deepfakes,” if more sophisticated fakes entered the arena, they might go undetected.
In India as elsewhere, the arms race is on, between deepfakers and fact-checkers — fighting from all sides. Dr. Farid described this as “the first year I would say we have really started to see the impact of A.I. in interesting and more nefarious ways.” ‘All of You Are Modi’: The Making of the Man Reshaping India (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [6/3/2024 12:06 AM, Tripti Lahiri, Rajesh Roy, and Krishna Pokharel, 810K, Neutral]
Locals in this town like to recount how, as a child, Prime Minister Narendra Modi swam through crocodile-infested waters to replace a flag on a shrine in the center of a lake. In some versions, he emerged from the lake clutching a baby crocodile.
The tea stall at the train station, where he worked as a boy helping his father, remains on the platform, drawing visitors curious about the leader. An illustrated poster in the lobby of a campus built around his former school—where teenagers are brought to be inspired as part of a leadership program—sums up his life in seven stages of transformation from “youth” to a “global leader.”
The burnishing of Modi’s roots in the town of Vadnagar into something resembling legend reflects the way he has been able to build his legacy while reshaping the economic, political and cultural fabric of India over a decade in power. If Modi wins a third term—as he is widely expected to do—when the votes of the nation’s general election are counted on Tuesday, he will be poised to overwrite the legacy of India’s first leader and further his vision of turning India into an economic power that draws national pride from its Hindu past.
Over India’s lengthy national election, Modi has said that he and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are planning not for the next five years but for at least the next 20. A minister in his cabinet compared his outlook to those of other leaders who have reshaped their nations, such as Deng Xiaoping in China or Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore.“These are the people who really thought that ‘this is my society, this is my country, I want to take it there,’” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister of railways in the Modi government. “And you start working—you start galvanizing everybody in that direction.”
For decades, Indians lived in a country that bore the imprint of its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, an English-speaking Cambridge-educated member of India’s elite who forged newly independent India into a pluralistic democracy against extraordinary odds. Reassured by the pledges of independence leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru, millions of Muslims stayed in India in 1947, when Partition created two nations from British-ruled India, rather than leaving for Pakistan, where Islam is the official religion.
Modi is from a different mold. One of six children, he grew up in more modest circumstances than Nehru, who was the son of an affluent lawyer. From his childhood, he was drawn to a secretive group that believes that Hindu culture defines Indian identity, a principle it calls on India’s Muslims and Christians to accept. The focus of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, on discipline and obedience, shaped Modi’s worldview and ideas about leadership.“He believes that a leader has to be a good follower in the first place,” said Urvish Kantharia, the author of a book on the prime minister, called “This is Narendra Modi,” which Modi gave to visitors when he was a chief minister in Gujarat.
But first, the group offered him a path of escape from the conventional life his family charted for him.
A young Modi makes his escape
When Modi was first seeking to be prime minister in 2014, his election filings stunned India’s national political establishment: The politician, widely believed to be single, revealed he was married to a woman named Jashodaben, a retired schoolteacher in Gujarat.
A teenage Modi didn’t want to marry, according to people who knew him growing up and a biography. But he succumbed to pressure from his family to follow through on a match they had arranged. His father cried when Modi tried to resist the marriage, said Shamaldas M. Modi, a former classmate and cousin. The prospects of his younger siblings and cousins would be ruined, family members remonstrated with him.
Soon after the wedding, Modi packed a small shoulder bag and left town, his cousin said. Modi has said little about what he did then, except for the fact that he spent time in West Bengal and India’s Himalayan region, where gods and humans have long sought wisdom and inner peace, according to Hindu scriptures. Current and former officials say those years, when he retreated from the world, shaped him as a future leader.“He is privileged to have spent some years in the pursuit of a different life. He couldn’t get it—that is different—but he was in some kind of a discovery,” said Nripendra Misra, Modi’s principal secretary in his first term. The two men remain close.
In the Modi government’s second term, the prime minister entrusted Misra with a key Hindu nationalist project—overseeing the construction of a temple in the city of Ayodhya on a site that many Hindus believe to be the birthplace of the Hindu divinity Ram. A Hindu mob in 1992 tore down a mosque that previously stood there, and many Hindus believe that medieval Mughal troops in the 1500s built the mosque over a temple.
At the temple’s inauguration in January—which fulfilled a promise integral to the BJP’s rise—Modi was at the center of the religious rites, alongside the chief of the RSS.
The group, which was founded in 1925 for “national reconstruction,” was banned briefly after the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a militant Hindu nationalist influenced by its ideology. Modi, born in 1950, encountered the organization when he was 8 years old, as many children in small towns across India have, and was drawn to its discipline. Youngsters attending the group’s gatherings at the time undertook exercise routines and heard exhortations to serve the motherland, at times donning an official uniform of khaki shorts and a cap. The organization’s senior leaders live simply and rarely marry, to devote themselves to the nation.
When Modi resurfaced from his travels, in his early 20s, he applied to become an RSS activist and the group’s state headquarters in the city of Ahmedabad became his home.“The RSS gave him a sense of identity,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist who first met Modi three decades ago, and later interviewed him as chief minister several times for a biography. “It was also a kind of family he was embracing, leaving behind the family he was born in.”
The group is deeply intertwined with Modi’s party. In 1987, RSS leaders tapped Modi to help build the relatively new BJP into a political force in the state.
Modi quickly became known for a relentless work ethic. He created a state media wing for the first time, said Yamal Vyas, now the BJP’s spokesman for the state. He trained young men answering the phone in the party’s office to greet callers as though they were at a company, “Namaste, you’ve reached the BJP.”
During the 1995 state assembly elections, he called each of the party’s 182 candidates starting at 5 a.m. each day to ask what he could do to help their campaigns, according to Vyas. The party won a majority and formed a government without coalition partners—setting a template for Modi’s future electoral dominance in national polls.
The defining political crisis of his career came in 2002 when a fire on a train killed nearly 60 Hindu activists. Years later, courts in Gujarat found a group of Muslim men guilty of conspiring to start the fire. Hindu activists called for a strike. In that volatile atmosphere, mobs attacked Muslim neighborhoods and leaders, leaving at least 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
In 2012, an investigative team answering to India’s Supreme Court said that it found no evidence of wrongdoing by Modi in connection with the riots. Modi has faced calls to express regret or apologize over the 2002 violence, which he hasn’t done. For years, he faced a U.S. visa ban over the violence under his watch, but it was dropped once he was elected prime minister. Modi has always denied any wrongdoing.
His office didn’t respond to detailed questions sent by email or grant a request for an interview.
As trials over the attacks and investigations into his actions made their way to India’s top court, Modi instead focused his efforts on fixing the state’s huge budget deficit, building roads and improving the power supply. In 2003, he hosted the first edition of Vibrant Gujarat, an investor summit. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, was at the small inaugural event, where he announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the state.
Those efforts, which helped the state grow by more than 9% a year, on average, and which he promoted as the “Gujarat model,” were key to rebuilding Modi’s global reputation and helping him become a national leader, according to political experts.‘All of you are Modi’
When Modi took the stage this April in the city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, his appearance injected fresh energy into a crowd that had been wilting in the heat. Some climbed on chairs to take videos. Many raised placards with the slogan: “I am Modi’s family.”
They chanted in a call and response: “One more time: Modi in power!”
If Modi wins a third consecutive majority for his party, he would become the first Indian leader since Nehru and his Indian National Congress party to do so, a testament to his personal popularity and ability to consolidate Hindu voters.
But as he pushes to reinvent what it means to be Indian, the country’s Muslims say they feel increasingly disenfranchised, and civil society groups, independent news outlets and political opponents say they have been targeted by government machinery. Several political scholars and think tanks rate India’s civil society as less free after a decade of Modi’s governance. For his part, Modi has defended his record on upholding democratic principles, including during his U.S. state visit last year, saying at the time that “Democracy is in our DNA.”
In these elections—in which the party fielded only one Muslim among its hundreds of candidates—Modi, in one speech, referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “people who have more children.” Political experts say that echoed language he used at times in 2002 in Gujarat.
Officials close to him say they expect Modi to return his attention to the economy and efforts to make India a manufacturing hub now that big-ticket elements of his platform for Hindu supporters have been completed. But Modi’s belief that pride in Hindu identity is the foundation of its economic rise will underpin his development philosophy. Modi has pointed to countries such as Japan as an example of a great power built on civilizational pride.“He will very often tell you no country in the world which is run well has been able to do well by turning its back on its own civilizational past,” said Hardeep Singh Puri, oil minister in the Modi government.
The prime minister has encouraged Indians to embrace his journey as their own. In Agra, he urged people to work not just with him—but as if they were him. “For me, all of you are Modi,” he said. Arvind Kejriwal returns to jail after India vote ends (Reuters)
Reuters [6/2/2024 11:10 AM, Rupam Jain, 45791K, Neutral]
The chief minister of India’s capital New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, surrendered to prison authorities on Sunday as the interim bail granted by the country’s top court in a corruption case ended, his party officials said.Kejriwal, a firebrand politician who has been a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested by the federal financial crime-fighting agency in March in connection with alleged corruption in the awarding of liquor licences.Kejriwal has denied the allegations.Last month the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal bail until June 1, the last day of India’s nationwide seven-phase vote, on condition he returned to pre-trial detention on June 2."I was given a 21-day (relief) by the Supreme Court. These 21 days were unforgettable," he said before returning to jail."I did not waste even a minute. I campaigned to save the country," he said.Political commentators have said Kejriwal’s rallies gave fresh impetus to the opposition parties who have formed an alliance to oppose to Modi’s ruling party.Results of the national elections will be declared on Tuesday.Kejriwal, is a former senior tax official who won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, often called Asia’s Nobel Prize, in 2006 for leading a right-to-information movement and helping the poor fight corruption.He founded one of India’s newest parties more than a decade ago on an anti-corruption platform and quickly led it to national prominence. Deaths mount and water rationed as India faces record heat (Washington Post)
Washington Post [5/31/2024 9:41 AM, Gerry Shih, 6.9M, Negative]
Indian officials are wrestling with mounting deaths, water shortages and blazing wildfires as a punishing heat wave continues to grip northern India days after monitors in New Delhi recorded temperatures of 126 degrees (52 Celsius), an all-time high.
The Indian capital reported the death of a 40-year-old migrant laborer — the city’s first heat-related fatality of the year — hours after a weather station recorded the historic temperature on Wednesday. (Indian authorities say they are still verifying the sensor reading.) Since then, reports of heat-related illnesses and deaths have surged across the country as daytime highs continue to hover around 120 degrees and nights remain over 90.
In the eastern states of Bihar and Odisha, 24 people died on Thursday, including three election officials and a police officer who collapsed in the midday sun, the Times of India reported, citing state officials. In the desert state of Rajasthan, 55 heat-related deaths have been reported in the last seven days. Within just a two-hour span on Thursday night, 103 patients complaining of heat stroke were admitted to Sadar Hospital in Aurangabad, surgeon R.B. Shrivastav told The Post by telephone. Five were dead by morning.
The Indian Meteorological Department said the severe heat will gradually abate in Delhi and neighboring states beginning Saturday but that “pockets” of heat might persist.
India’s heat waves are attributed to a combination of short-term weather patterns and long-term warming trends fueled by human-caused climate change. Residents in India’s sprawling capital are often particularly affected, because dense buildings, roads, cars and air conditioners contribute to urban heat, experts say.
Over the last week, climate experts have warned that the grueling temperatures have not only tested the limits of human physiology but also posed other environmental dangers.
In the Himalayas, a forest near the town of Shimla this week went up in flames. In cities, so did dwellings: On Wednesday, the hottest day, Delhi’s fire department received 183 fire-related calls, a high for the year, fire chief Atul Garg said. Other fire officials warned residents not to let air conditioners get overloaded and cause fires.
Aside from electricity demand, Delhi officials have also warned that the city’s water supply has fallen to crisis levels amid soaring consumption and reduced flow from the Yamuna River — a situation that mirrors the water shortage facing the southern megacity of Bangalore.
This week, Delhi officials instituted a new 2,000-rupee ($24) fine for wasting drinking water. In parts of the city that do not have running water, tanker trucks delivering water will come only once a day instead of twice, city administrators announced, even as television channels aired footage this week of people in urban slums lining up for hours and mobbing water trucks.
At a news conference, Delhi’s water minister, who goes by the single name Atishi, scolded wealthy residents for washing their cars with hoses and urged all residents to cooperate during a time of crisis.“I want to appeal to people of Delhi,” she said. “Right now, Delhi is facing an emergency situation because of the heat wave.” Heat wave kills at least 56 in India, nearly 25,000 heat stroke cases, from March-May (Reuters)
Reuters [6/3/2024 12:07 AM, Tanvi Mehta, 5.2M, Negative]
India saw nearly 25,000 cases of suspected heat stroke and 56 people lost their lives after several heat wave days across the country from March-May, local media reported, citing government data.
May has been a particularly bad month for the region, with temperature in capital Delhi and nearby state of Rajasthan touching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
In a contrast, parts of eastern India have been reeling under the impact of cyclone Remal. Heavy rain in the north eastern state of Assam has killed 14 people since Tuesday.
In the island nation of Sri Lanka, at least 15 people have died due to flooding and landslides after heavy monsoon rain lashed the region, the country’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said on Sunday.
A confluence of factors has led to a very hot summer in South Asia, a trend scientists say has been worsened by human-driven climate change.
At least 33 people, including election officials on duty in India’s just-concluded general election, died of suspected heatstroke in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the north, and Odisha in the east on Friday.
Data from the National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC)showed that the situation was worst in May, with 46 heat-related deaths and 19,189 suspected heat stroke cases, news website The Print reported.
Including suspected cases, the total number of deaths in India could be much higher at 80, newspaper The Hindu reported.
Over 5,000 cases of heatstroke were detected in the central state of Madhya Pradesh alone.
The weather office has predicted that heat wave conditions will be less severe till Wednesday and an early arrival of monsoon in the southern state of Kerala last week is expected to bring more relief. To Understand India’s Economy, Look Beyond the Spectacular Growth Numbers (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [5/31/2024 11:20 AM, Megha Mandavia and Tripti Lahiri, 810K, Neutral]
India is set to be the world’s fastest-growing major economy this year, but economists say the country’s headline growth numbers don’t tell the whole story.
The South Asian nation’s gross domestic product grew at more than 8% in its fiscal year ended in March compared with the previous year, driven by public spending on infrastructure, services growth, and an uptick in manufacturing. That would put India well ahead of China, which is growing at about 5%, and on track to hit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
But the way India calculates its gross domestic product can at times overstate the strength of growth, in part by underestimating the weakness in its massive informal economy. There are also other indicators, such as private consumption and investment, that are pointing to soft spots. Despite cuts to corporate taxes, companies don’t appear to be spending on expansions.“If people were optimistic about the economy, they would invest more and consume more, neither of which is really happening,” said Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economic adviser to the Modi government.
Private consumption, the biggest contributor to GDP, grew at 4% for the year, still slower than pre-pandemic levels. What’s more, economists say, it could have been even weaker if the government hadn’t continued its extensive food-subsidy program that began during the pandemic.
The problem is driven in part by how India emerged from the pandemic. Big businesses and people who are employed in India’s formal economy are generally doing well, but most Indians are in the informal sector or agriculture, and many of them lost work.
While India’s official data last year put unemployment at around 3%, economists also closely track data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private economic research firm. It put unemployment at 8% for the year ended March.
At a small tea-and-cigarette stall in the southern city of Bengaluru, 55-year-old Ratnamma said many of her customers in the neighborhood, which once bustled with tech professionals and blue-collar workers, have moved out of the city and returned to rural villages. Some have come back, but she has fewer customers than she once did.“Where did everyone go?” she said.
She makes about $12 a day in sales, she said, compared with as much as $100 on a good day in the past. It isn’t enough to cover her living expenses or repay a business loan she took out six months ago.
Economists say that the informal sector has been through three shocks in a decade—a 2016 policy aimed at tax evasion called “demonetization” that wiped out 90% of the value of India’s paper currency, a tax overhaul the following year that created more paperwork and expenses for small businesses, and the pandemic.
That has hurt employment in cities and contributed to millions of people going back to farms in recent years.
Dhiraj Nim, an economist with ANZ Research, said that a weak recovery in the number of monthly train journeys, an indicator of migration levels, shows that hasn’t fully reversed. “My guess is that overcrowding of farms persists even now,” he said.
India’s GDP measurement doesn’t fully capture the lingering weakness in the informal sector of the economy because it uses an index of firms in the formal sector to estimate informal activity. That could be a problem if it leads to government policies that aren’t adequately responding to what is actually happening in the economy. “There is no doubt that a wide range of Indian economic indicators are pointing in a somewhat different direction to that suggested by the headline GDP numbers. But India is hardly an outlier in that regard,” said Udith Sikand, senior emerging markets analyst at Gavekal Research. “The far more important question is whether the inaccuracy of statistics is so systemic and pervasive that it is clouding the judgment of economic policymakers.”“To put it differently,” he said, “the set of policies required to achieve and maintain trend growth of 8-10% is very different from the policies required when growth is trending at 4-6%.”
Economists also look closely at a measure of economic growth before adjusting for indirect taxes and subsidies. That figure, called the gross value added by the economy, grew 7.2% for the year.
Another dynamic in India’s GDP-measurement process is also likely to be at play. In 2015, India switched to calculating GDP at market prices—the norm for most countries and international institutions—and then adjusting for changes in prices to arrive at the real GDP. The new methodology, a long-planned revision, was overall seen as an improvement in the measurement of the economy.
But because of the way India adjusts for prices, the methodology could overestimate GDP growth when prices of commodities decline but other prices remain high, according to Subramanian. The economist says that is what happened in the last financial year and believes growth could be overstated by about 2 percentage points.“In the GDP calculation, because they are underestimating inflation they are overestimating real GDP growth,” said Subramanian.
The statistics ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Economists say this issue self-corrects when commodity prices rise.
Still, there are signs that some of those hurt the most by the pandemic are recovering ground. A March report by Morgan Stanley suggested two-wheeler sales, an indicator of middle-class consumption, had returned to 2019 levels.
Nim, of ANZ Research, says that improved rural wage growth and increased availability of construction work means “the lower rungs of the economy are now doing better than a couple of years ago.”
And the infrastructure-building spree, along with improved law and order, has put larger northern Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh, in a better position to participate in India’s efforts to attract manufacturers as they move out of China. More economic activity and jobs there would make a huge difference to India’s economy—and Modi’s goals—given a projected population of 240 million in Uttar Pradesh.“Just the arithmetic weight is so huge, it would be a game-changer in many respects,” said Subramanian. NSB
They’re Asian. They’re American. But, They Wonder, Are They Asian American? (New York Times)
New York Times [6/1/2024 4:14 PM, Amy Qin, 831K, Neutral]
When Dinesh Nepal first arrived in the United States in 2010, he had never heard of the term “Asian American.”
He knew that he was of Asian descent. He grew up in a refugee camp in Nepal after his parents were expelled from Bhutan, a landlocked Himalayan nation. And after he moved to Pittsburgh and became a United States citizen, he began calling himself an American.
But it never occurred to him to put those two labels together, even after he and his wife opened a shop selling bubble tea — a Taiwanese specialty that is iconic for Asian Americans.“It never really mattered,” Mr. Nepal, 26, said at his restaurant, D’s Bubble Tea and Cafe, in Pittsburgh.
Since 2008, about 85,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees have resettled in the United States and now live in cities like Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio, and Rochester, N.Y. Most have become American citizens, making up the newest group of Asian descent.
Older people who still have vivid memories of life in Bhutan identify primarily as Bhutanese American, while others, like Mr. Nepal, prefer to describe themselves as Nepali American because they speak Nepali and practice Nepali culture.
The refugees arrived well after the term “Asian American” was coined by student activists in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968. That broader identity was forged over decades by bringing together communities that, like Bhutanese people today, had considered themselves distinct from one another.
The experience of Bhutanese Americans underscores the complexity of the Asian American identity. It is a geographic and racial label but also a political and cultural identity. And not every American who traces their heritage to Asia sees meaning in the Asian American identity.
The New York Times interviewed nearly a dozen Bhutanese-Americans, some of whom said that they felt the term “Asian American” better described East Asian groups like Chinese, Japanese and Korean people, who have different languages, appearances and cultures from their own. To them, “Asian” was simply a box to check on the many forms that they had to complete upon arriving in the United States.
As a community, Bhutanese people also face different challenges, they said. Americans often stereotype Asian Americans as a “model minority,” seeing the broader community as wealthy and highly educated.
But most Bhutanese Americans arrived without language skills or credentials and took entry-level jobs as warehouse workers, home care providers and truck drivers. Only about 15 percent of Bhutanese American adults had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2019, compared to 54 percent of Asian American adults.
Though Bhutanese people have further established themselves in the United States in recent years, many face distinct mental health challenges related to their refugee experience of displacement, poverty and political persecution.“Having a home of our own, being able to say that we belong to a country — those were our biggest goals because we were stateless for so many years,” said Khara Timsina, the executive director of the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh, a local nonprofit organization.
The Asian American population is hugely diverse, with roots in more than 20 countries and numerous languages spoken. There are seventh-generation Asian American families whose ancestors arrived in the 19th century and new immigrants who know little about the discrimination that fueled the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, violence against Sikhs on the West Coast in the early 1900s and Japanese American incarceration during World War II.
Though Bhutanese refugees were resettled across the United States, many chose to move again to Pittsburgh, drawn by the city’s relative affordability and its abundance of entry-level warehouse jobs. Today, about 7,000 Bhutanese Americans live in and around Pittsburgh, according to Mr. Timsina.
Yad Gurung, 83, was about 50 years old when he was arrested by the Bhutanese government and falsely accused of instigating protests, he said.
The king of Bhutan had labeled tens of thousands of people of Nepali descent as “illegal immigrants,” though many families, like Mr. Gurung’s, had lived there for generations, farming crops like rice and cardamom.
In the early 1990s, more than 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese people were expelled and sent to United Nations refugee camps in Nepal. Mr. Gurung spent seven years in a Bhutanese jail as a political prisoner, where he was tortured, he said. After he was released, he eventually made his way to a refugee camp in Nepal and then to the United States.
In a recent interview, Mr. Gurung choked back sobs as he recalled the moment in 2015 when he was reunited with his children in Pittsburgh after being separated for nearly 25 years.
He would come to find that his children had done remarkably well. His daughter and five sons had steady jobs and eventually bought their own homes. And Mr. Gurung, who became a naturalized American citizen last year, now spends his days watching his grandchildren, studying Buddhist teachings and joining the occasional outing with other Bhutanese people to pick apples or cherries on local farms.
Identity is not often on his mind.“I am whatever you tell me I am,” he said, speaking through an interpreter in Nepali. “The important thing is that we have the freedom here to practice our culture.”
Asian Americans, who make up about 7 percent of the country’s population, are now considered the fastest-growing racial demographic in the United States — which has forced politicians and pollsters to take notice.
For that reason, Asian American leaders have held fast to the idea of power in numbers. Their efforts have benefited from the surge in migrants from Asia after a landmark 1965 immigration law. The coalition further grew after the government began combining Asian Americans with Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and May has widely been designated as A.A.N.H.P.I. Month.
More than 70 American universities and colleges now offer Asian American studies programs, and a number of states have passed legislation mandating Asian American history curriculum at the K-12 level.
But holding this disparate coalition together has not always been easy. More than half of Asian adults in the United States say they prefer more specific labels like Chinese American or Filipino American to describe themselves, according to a Pew Research survey published last year.“It’s a constant effort for activists, advocates and leaders to continue this narrative that we have things in common, and it makes sense for us to work together politically,” said Dina Okamoto, a professor of sociology at Indiana University Bloomington and the author of a book about Asian American identity.
In Pittsburgh, there are signs that many Bhutanese Americans are warming to the broader label as they spend more time in the country.
Jason Bhandari, 34, an educational assistant for Pittsburgh Public Schools and an associate pastor at Pittsburgh Bhutanese Hosanna Church, said that he had grown to appreciate that Nepali-speaking Bhutanese people had much in common with other Asian American groups, like a love of rice and an emphasis on family values.
Risthika Neopaney, 19, said that as a teenager growing up in Pittsburgh, she often introduced herself to others as Nepali American or South Asian. Now a freshman at Slippery Rock University, she said she had begun to identify more as Asian American after meeting students from countries like Myanmar, South Korea and Japan.“I fit in with them and I know they go by Asian American and stuff, so I feel like I’m part of that now,” Ms. Neopaney said.
At the Asian Festival Night at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the program featured performances by local Asian American cultural groups, including three young dancers from the Bhutanese community.
On the day of the show, two of them, Riya Timsina (no relation to Khara Timsina) and Shriya Rimal, sat cross-legged on the floor backstage.
Riya and Shriya, both 13, said they identified as Asian American but had complex feelings about the label. It often felt like what Americans considered to be “Asian” didn’t really apply to them. During the pandemic, for example, the spike in hate attacks against East Asians had been widely described as “anti-Asian,” even though South Asians, including Nepali Americans, weren’t being targeted.
Still, there was something about being around other Asian Americans that was comforting to Riya and Shriya. At festivals like this, it felt like their Nepali traditions were welcomed — even celebrated. Within the Asian American community, they felt like they belonged.
The two girls stepped onstage to perform their dance, an upbeat routine set to a traditional Nepali pastoral love song. Afterward, they took a final bow and beamed. The packed auditorium, with a cross-section of the local Asian American community, clapped and hollered in approval. Maldives will ban Israelis from entering the country over the war in Gaza (AP)
AP [6/2/2024 1:03 PM, Staff, 4186K, Neutral]
The Maldives government will ban Israelis from the Indian Ocean archipelago, known for luxury resorts, as public anger in the predominantly Muslim nation rises over the war in Gaza.The president’s office said Sunday that the Cabinet decided to change laws to prevent Israeli passport holders from entering the country and to establish a subcommittee to oversee the process.It said President Mohamed Muizu will appoint a special envoy to assess the Palestinian needs and to launch a fundraising campaign.Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said in response that the Foreign Ministry recommends Israelis avoid any travel to the Maldives, including those with foreign passports, and those currently there to consider leaving.Nearly 11,000 Israelis visited Maldives last year, which was 0.6% of the total tourist arrivals. Maldives to ban Israelis from entering country amid war in Gaza (CNN)
CNN [6/2/2024 5:10 PM, Staff, 20328K, Neutral]
The Maldives has announced it will ban Israeli passport holders from entering the country amid its war on Hamas in Gaza.The presidential office of the Indian Ocean island nation, known for its luxurious resorts and endless white sand beaches, made the announcement in a press release Sunday.Maldivian President Dr Mohamed Muizzu resolved to impose the ban following a recommendation from the cabinet, the release said.The country’s laws will be amended, and a cabinet subcommittee will be established to oversee the efforts, the president’s office said.Following news of the ban, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommended Israelis avoid travel to the island and “for Israeli citizens staying in the country, it is recommended to consider leaving, since if they fall into distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to help.” The president announced he is appointing a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs and is setting up a fundraiser to “assist our brothers and sisters in Palestine” with UNRWA, the release said.Muizzu will also conduct a nationwide rally under the slogan “Falastheenaa Eku Dhivehin,” which translates to “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine.”The news comes just a few days after the president condemned an Israeli airstrike attack on a displaced camp in Rafah, which killed at least 45 Palestinians and injured more than 200.“Together with the government and people of Maldives, I call for an immediate ceasefire, an end to violence and unhindered humanitarian access,” the president posted on X last week. Arrest Threatens Nepal’s Standing as South Asia’s Model for Free Speech (New York Times)
New York Times [6/3/2024 3:26 AM, Bhadra Sharma, 831K, Neutral]
In a region sliding toward authoritarianism one country after another, the small Himalayan nation of Nepal was a shining exception.
Political debates remained largely free, and the powerful could easily be questioned. That openness, in a poor country emerging from centuries of monarchical suppression and decades of insurgency, showed that democratic expression need not necessarily be correlated to economic status.
But the arrest last month of the owner of the country’s largest media conglomerate has raised fears about the Nepali government’s commitment to free speech, and about whether the country is now going the way of its South Asian neighbors Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
The executive, Kailash Sirohiya, was detained nearly two weeks ago in a thinly veiled act of retaliation by Nepal’s powerful home minister, Rabi Lamichhane. The minister had been the subject of intensely negative coverage by the Kantipur Media Group, owned by Mr. Sirohiya.
The company’s news articles had disclosed that Mr. Lamichhane, a popular television host before he turned to politics, had broken the law by serving in Parliament while maintaining citizenship in a second country, the United States.
Mr. Lamichhane resigned but then returned months later to Parliament, and to the helm of the Ministry of Home Affairs, after addressing the citizenship issue. Kantipur continued to examine Mr. Lamichhane’s actions, however, later reporting accusations of embezzlement against him.
The media group was not the only one to publish critical reports about Mr. Lamichhane, but it has the widest reach. The company owns Kantipur, the most widely circulated Nepali-language newspaper, and its English-language sister publication, The Kathmandu Post, as well as television and radio channels and magazines.The authorities arrested Mr. Sirohiya “with a vindictive attitude,” said Yubaraj Ghimire, the editor of a news website in Nepal. “The government has given a message: If you criticize the government, it muzzles you.”
The nature of Mr. Sirohiya’s arrest indicates that he was deliberately targeted.
A person filed a complaint saying that Mr. Sirohiya had a citizenship number — every Nepali is issued one — that was the same as his own. While such an accusation is serious, there have been many cases of irregularities under Nepal’s arcane citizenship system, some involving judges and generals.
What is different in Mr. Sirohiya’s case is that he was arrested and detained before the facts were established. In previous cases, investigations were first conducted to determine whether the problem was the result of a clerical error or wrongdoing like forgery.
On May 21, dozens of police officers, led by a senior superintendent, arrived at the Kantipur offices and loaded Mr. Sirohiya into a van. He was driven out of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, overnight, to Dhanusha, a district bordering India, where he remained in custody until Thursday.
Visiting Kathmandu while on a trip to the region, Amnesty International’s general secretary, Agnès Callamard, criticized the government’s decision to place Mr. Sirohiya in custody, saying that the charges had not required doing so.
The target of Kantipur’s critical reporting, Mr. Lamichhane, is the home minister in a coalition government in which multiple parties have a stake. Mr. Sirohiya’s arrest, analysts said, suggested unity among the parties in their view of the free press as a thorn in their side. The delicate balance that had defined Nepal may now be tilted toward the political class, they said.
Santosh Pariyar, a leader of Mr. Lamichhane’s Rastriya Swatantra Party, rejected any suggestion that the arrest had been revenge for critical news coverage. He said it was “mere coincidence” that Mr. Lamichhane had “reached a conclusion” that Mr. Sirohiya had violated Nepali citizenship laws.“We know well how important the press is for democracy,” Mr. Pariyar said.
Nonetheless, the arrest has had a chilling effect, prompting concerns that the country could be returning to dark days it appeared to have left behind.
During the monarchy, which ended in 2008 after the last king, Gyanendra Shah, was forced out by protests, the press was censored and journalists were frequently jailed.
But Nepal’s new Constitution, establishing a parliamentary democracy, ensured full press freedom. A vibrant civil society pushed back against any attempt to curtail speech and remained vociferous in holding the powerful to account.
One of the Maoist rebels who pushed to oust the monarchy, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, is now the prime minister and the leader of the coalition in which Mr. Lamichhane serves as a minister. Even some of Mr. Dahal’s onetime supporters have criticized him over Mr. Sirohiya’s arrest.“I’m ashamed to even see Prachanda following Gyanendra’s path after taking King’s place,” Baburam Bhattarai, a former Maoist leader and prime minister, wrote on X. Sri Lanka closes schools as floods and mudslides leave 10 dead and 6 others missing (AP)
AP [6/3/2024 1:23 AM, Bharatha Mallawarachi, 456K, Negative]
Sri Lanka closed schools on Monday as heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides in many parts of the island nation, leaving at least 10 people dead and six others missing, officials said.
The education ministry announced that the reopening of schools would depend on how the weather develops.
Heavy downpours have wreaked havoc in many parts of the country since Sunday, flooding homes, fields and roads, and forcing authorities to cut electricity as a precaution.
Six people died after being washed away and drowning in the capital, Colombo, and the remote Rathnapura district on Sunday, according to the disaster management center. Three others died when mounds of earth collapsed on their houses, and one person died when a tree fell on him. Six people have gone missing since Sunday.
By Monday, over 5,000 people had been moved to evacuation centers and more than 400 homes had been damaged, the center said in a statement.
Navy and army troops have been deployed to rescue victims and provide food and other essentials to those affected.
Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather conditions since mid-May caused by heavy monsoon rains. Earlier, strong winds downed trees in many areas, killing nine people. Sri Lanka monsoon floods kill seven people (BBC)
BBC [6/2/2024 11:29 AM, Sampath Dissanyake and Ido Vock, 70613K, Negative]
Flooding and landslides caused by monsoon rains in Sri Lanka have killed at least seven people, the country’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has said.In Sitawaka - outside the capital, Colombo - three members of the same family died when their house was flooded.Supplies of electricity have been cut off in several areas and schools ordered to remain shut on Monday.Landslide warnings have been issued in nine districts.DMC Director Pradeep Kodippili told the BBC’s Sinhala service that the risk of flooding was rapidly increasing in Colombo and other areas of the south."Many areas have reportedly received more than 400mm of rain so far," Mr Kodippili said. "The minor flood risk is increasing to a major flood risk."He urged Sri Lankans to pay attention to emergency announcements from the government and DMC. The DMC said 20 of the country’s 25 districts were affected by the rains.The military has been mobilised to provide relief to people affected, the government said.Air Force spokesperson Capt Dushan Wijesinghe told BBC Sinhala that three helicopters and rescue teams had already been deployed to help with relief efforts.Navy spokesperson Capt Gayan Wickramasuriya said 10 Navy teams had been deployed, adding that a further 116 were prepared to deploy.The army said it was providing food to displaced people.Sulakshana Jayawardena of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy told BBC Sinhala that electricity supplies had been disconnected in some areas."We have suspended power supplies in these areas in coordination with the DMC," Mr Jayawardena said."After the floods subside, we will look at the situation and work to restore electricity." Central Asia
Kazakhstan’s Concentration Camp For ‘Wives Of Traitors To The Motherland’ (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [6/1/2024 4:14 PM, Petr Trotsenko, 235K, Negative]
Known by the acronym ALZHIR, the Aqmola camp for the "wives of traitors to the motherland" was a Stalin-era labor camp in the Aqmola region of Kazakhstan. In the 15 years that it was in operation -- from 1938 to 1953 -- nearly 18,000 women passed through it, some of whom never left.
*****
To get a sense of the bleak harshness, one should visit here during the winter months, when the snow-covered steppe blends into the thick gray sky and the frigid, stinging wind pierces deep into your bones. These were the conditions faced by the camp’s initial prisoners when they arrived in the winter of 1938 at the height of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s repressions.
Galina Stepanova-Klyuchnikova, a student at the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers, was among the first prisoners to arrive. Following the arrest of her husband, she was condemned to five years of forced labor in Stalin’s gulags, from 1938 to 1942.
She wrote of her harrowing experiences:
"The barracks, made of adobe, not yet dried, were filled by women from different cities. Most of them were from Moscow, but there were also from Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia. The sight of them stunned me. They all had their heads shaved. The pitiful, scared women looked like ridiculous teenagers."
Their crime? Being in a relationship with "traitors to the Motherland," which made it sufficient grounds for them to also receive a prison sentence.
After her experience at the camp in Aqmola, Stepanova-Klyuchnikova was sent into exile in Petropavlovsk. In October 1956, following the historic 20th Congress of the Communist Party, which denounced the personality cult of Stalin, she was rehabilitated.
The Memorial Complex
In front of the museum, located in the village of Aqmol, three workers are struggling to attach a new banner to a roadside billboard with the inscription "ALZHIR Museum and Memorial Complex." The blustery wind causes the banner to whip back and forth as a metal ladder on which a man stands sways dangerously.
The museum is preparing for May 31: the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression and Famine in Kazakhstan. It is a day when floral tributes are laid and vigils are held and visits to museums such as this are made.
The museum in Aqmola was not built on the original site of the camp -- on the shore of Lake Zhalanash -- but several kilometers away. Today, at the former site where so many suffered and some died, only reeds and trees stand.
The museum, a large, unsightly building lined with rough brown tiles in a brutalist style, is not a welcoming site. It instead opts to make its visitors feel uncomfortable.
In front of the entrance stands the 18-meter-high Arch Of Sorrow monument, which symbolizes a woman mourning her dead husband and lost children. It is customary to walk under the arch with your head bowed in memory of those who survived the torment in the camps.
Stepanova-Klyuchnikov wrote:
"The days flashed by, the nights flew, sometimes cold in winter, sometimes stuffy from the Kazakh dry wind in summer. Our whole life merged into a hopeless, difficult, gray day. In the morning, there is a general roll call in front of the barracks, then a ladle of thin porridge in the dining room. Work after breakfast. For dinner, the same barley porridge without any signs of fat, and again work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week."
In front of the entrance to the museum stands a simple green tower from where a mannequin stands watch where one of Stalin’s wagons delivered their next batch of women.
According to museum staff, upwards of 70 people would be crammed into each carriage. It is difficult to imagine how so many people could fit in such a small space.
Author Eugenia Ginzburg, who was also subjected to Stalin’s repressions, wrote in her book Steep Route about her journey to the camp:
"I noticed that the carriage they squeezed me into is marked with the number seven. There are so many people crammed into it that it seems there will be nowhere to even stand. After all, the ‘law’ of the prison states that ‘the tighter, dirtier, and hungrier they are, the rougher the convoy, and the greater the chance of survival.’ So far, this has proven true."
Depictions of camp life form the basis of the museum’s exhibition: a prisoner under interrogation, a prisoner at work, a prisoner next to a cradle in which a fake baby lies.
It is hard not to notice the impression it makes on the museum’s visitors. Most rarely talk or take pictures with their phones; instead, they opt for silence, which is only broken by the voices of the guides.
"We have a lot of visitors here, especially foreigners and Russians," one of the museum employees said, before adding, "They come in groups, families, diplomatic delegations. There are also many Kazakhs, of course. Schoolchildren are often brought in when the program begins to study the history of the Soviet period."
As for the schoolchildren, the employee said that some look at the exhibits indifferently, while others try to joke, but nearly everyone is touched by what they experience.
"I can see it in their eyes," the employee said.
The Prison For Mothers
Women who were expecting or who had small children were housed in a separate barracks called the "Mother’s House." The children were watched over by a prisoner nanny while the mothers were forced to work. During the camp’s existence, 1,507 children were born in the camp. When they reached the age of 3, they were placed in orphanages.
Stepanova-Klyuchnikova recalled:
"A year of strict regime passed -- without letters, without parcels, without any news of freedom. And suddenly the whole camp was excited by an unusual event. A real letter with a stamp and postmark arrived. On the envelope, in a child’s handwriting, was written ‘City of Aqmol -- Prison For Mothers.’ An 8-year-old girl wrote that after her mother and father were arrested; she was also arrested and put in an orphanage."
An exhibition of personal belongings that were donated to the museum by descendants is now on display.
Of note are the personal artifacts from children who lived in the camp: a simple cap, a vest, and a shirt. Prisoner Lotta Rice sewed them for her children from pieces of old women’s underwear, which she exchanged for tobacco from fellow inmates.
On the top shelf stands a homemade folding book with an inscription on the cover: "To my son Kolya." Rice made this book using wooden planks and a wood-burning device. They say that this was the only toy her son had.
"Pooh-pooh, oh-oh-oh,
My little bunny is dying!
They brought him home
He turned out to be alive."
Kolya was born in 1946 at the camp in Karlag, at the time one of the largest gulags in the Soviet Union.
The boy survived, later moving from Kazakhstan to Germany, where he became Conrad Rice. In 2022, with a group of tourists, he visited the museum, where he told the staff the story of his life, about his childhood in the camp, and about how he had recorded the memories of his elderly mother.
Conrad Rice donated to the museum items that his mother sewed for him and his little sister, who died in the camp when she was 8 months old.
Behind The Door
During Stalin’s terror, prisoners were subjected to brutal interrogations that could last up to eight hours, or until the victims collapsed.
"The entire interrogation system is designed for the moral, psychological, and physical exhaustion of those under investigation," wrote camp historian Anfisa Kukushkina.
The door at the pretrial detention center is another exhibit. Massive, rough, and securely put together, it is impossible to knock down. Behind these doors, no one could hear the screams of the prisoners.
Nearby stands a mirror wall with a fake lattice, which is held by dozens of hands. This is the installation called Shackles. The mirror canvases behind the bars reflect the visitor’s barely recognizable features, momentarily transporting them beyond the line that runs between the present and the past. This is how the installation in the museum is explained.
Though the museum building is small, you can walk around its silent grounds for hours. Behind the museum stands a wall with the names of victims. During the 15 years of the camp’s existence, an estimated 600 women died here.
Along the grounds, near the young trees that separate the museum from the busy highway, stands a monument titled Tears featuring a map containing the names of 11 camps located on the territory of Kazakhstan. Atop it are steel bars with birds soaring high into the sky behind and above.
The only sounds one hears are the many crows who live in these trees, busily feeding their young.
*****Approximately 5 million people were banished to the gulags in Kazakhstan from the 1930s until 1959. It is estimated that over 1.1 million people died during the years of repression in the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan cracks down on immigration after mob violence in Bishkek (VOA)
VOA [6/1/2024 5:52 PM, Staff, 4186K, Neutral]
Following last month’s mob violence against South Asian students and workers in capital Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s government is cracking down on illegal immigration and considering changes to its immigration rules. Experts say the recent measures have divided Kyrgyz officials, and they could end up hurting the Kyrgyz economy.On May 18, about 700 Kyrgyz youths gathered in front of several Bishkek hostels mostly housing South Asian medical students, and they protested increasing immigration and demanded expulsion of foreign workers allegedly violating immigration rules.The protesters then broke into the hostels and assaulted residents and destroyed property. According to police reports, 41 students were injured, mainly Pakistanis.The police are still investigating the causes of the violence, but some officials were quick to deliver their opinion of the unrest.Among them was Kamchibek Tashiev, the head of the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, which is a successor of the Kyrgyz branch of the now defunct Soviet KGB). In a May 18 video appearance, he said the protesters’ demands were “to some extent correct.”
“We have statistics on crimes committed by illegal migrants. In general, these are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan,” Tashiev said, noting that Kyrgyz authorities deported about 2500 people for violating migration rules in the past several months.Tashiev, also deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers, is the most influential Kyrgyz leader after President Sadyr Japarov, and his call to stiffen immigration rules has been taken seriously.The Interior Ministry, which is answerable to Tashiev, proposed changes on May 24 to the immigration law to double the fines for overstaying a visa or unauthorized employment by immigrants, and raising the fine for employing foreigners who violated the rules.On May 30, the police conducted raids in Bishkek and other towns, resulting in the detention of 64 foreigners police said violated immigration rules.Kyrgyz media had reported in April that the Labor Ministry had suspended issuing worker visas for Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, and Indians.Crackdown spurs divisions in governmentThe immigration crackdown is causing consternation. Rakhim, a Pakistani medical student in a Kyrgyz university, said most of the Indian and Pakistani students targeted by the mobs hold legal residence under student visas, adding “We respect Kyrgyz traditions and laws.” He also complained about discrimination, saying the recent government measures have mainly been directed at South Asian country nationals.Kyrgyz media reported that more than 4,000 foreign students, mostly Pakistanis, have departed Kyrgyzstan since May 18.Asel Myrzakulova, a senior research fellow at University of Central Asia, suggested in a May 23 opinion article in The Diplomat that authorities could be exaggerating illegal immigration."Official figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs suggest a low incidence of illegal migration; for instance, in the first quarter of 2024, approximately 60 individuals were identified [as violators], with 264 criminal cases initiated at the start of the year," she wrote.The proposed legislative changes and the crackdown on illegal migration are raising concerns within the Kyrgyz government, too.According to the National Statistics Committee, 71,000 foreign students are studying for degrees in Kyrgyzstan, including about 24,000 from India and Pakistan, mainly studying medicine.Late last year, facing growing demand from Kyrgyzstan’s construction, mining and garments industries, the Labor Ministry increased the quota for foreign workers from 16,600 to 25,000 places.Labor Minister Gulnara Baatyrova spoke about negative impacts from the departure of migrants in a May 18 interview with Kyrgyz media.“We’re dealing with serious shortages of workers, and if they [foreign workers] leave, then this will negatively affect all small enterprises and businesses that are paying taxes to the state. Industries will come to a halt, and this will hurt the economy,” she said.Baatyrova also defended the government’s existing policy on foreign workers."Private business owners say foreigners show up for work regularly and on time, and in some cases work beyond the established schedule. Most of our citizens have gone to work in Russia and other neighboring countries and received permanent residence there. Our offers to return and work in Kyrgyzstan always remain unanswered," she said, noting that 6,500 job vacancies advertised by her ministry are unfilled.Political considerationsA Bishkek-based journalist who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity said the Kyrgyz leadership has been alarmed by the May 18 unrest.“The crowds [made up of unruly youths] could easily turn their anger at the government and occupy government buildings,” he said. The journalist added that the recent immigration crackdown is an effort by Kyrgyz officials to appease such crowds.Emil Joroev, a professor at American University of Central Asia located in Bishkek, said in a May 20 media interview:
“We haven’t seen such protests in Kyrgyzstan on sensitive political themes in a long while because the government has been suppressing such opportunities [to protest].”In his May 18 video appearance, Tashiev claimed there were outside agents among the May 18 protesters."Among them were those who, relying on telephone and WhatsApp, were raising various provocative issues against the state ... There were also people who had weapons. We have detained them and will prosecute," he said.Attempting reconciliationPresident Japarov sought to reconcile divisions within his government.In a May 20 statement on his official website, he described "the demands of our patriotic youth to stop the illegal migration of foreign citizens and to take strict measures against those who allow such activities” as “certainly correct," but he also sided with the officials who encouraged foreign migration."We all know that they [migrants from South Asia] pay taxes. Those educational establishments that provide foreign students with educational services and small businesses in our country earn millions of dollars. This revenue works for the good of our economy,” he said.In a May 30 post on Facebook, Japarov wrote that Kyrgyzstan was in dire need of workers."Sewing workshops, construction companies and other enterprises which were actively working during the past two years, are forced to suspend their activities because of the shortage of workers. We are also receiving numerous requests from the service sector, and company directors are requesting to increase the quotas for foreign workers."Japarov urged Kyrgyz citizens to apply for local jobs, but some observers doubt his call will have any impact.In her May 18 media interview, Baatyrova spoke about why Kyrgyz companies are reluctant to hire local workers."Our citizens do not come to work on time, disappear for two to three days after receiving their salary, and ask for time off for celebrations and birthdays," she said. Indo-Pacific
A Matter of Survival as South Asia’s Heat Wave Reaches 127 Degrees (New York Times)
New York Times [5/31/2024 4:14 PM, Zia ur-Rehman, 831K, Neutral]
As South Asia bakes under a blistering heat wave, life-or-death decisions arrive with the midday sun.
Abideen Khan and his 10-year-old son need every penny of the $3.50 a day they can make molding mud into bricks at a kiln under the open sky in Jacobabad, a city in southern Pakistan. But as temperatures have soared as high as 126 degrees Fahrenheit, or 52 degrees Celsius, in recent days, they have been forced to stop by 1 p.m., cutting their earnings in half.“This isn’t heat,” said Mr. Khan, sweat dripping down his face and soaking through his worn clothes. “It’s a punishment, maybe from God.”
It is yet another brutal summer in the age of climate change, in a part of the world that is among the most vulnerable to its dire effects. And there is more suffering to come: The extreme heat that Pakistan and neighboring India have been experiencing will continue for days or weeks, forecasters say. Already, it has exacted a deadly toll.
In the northern Indian state of Bihar, officials said that at least 14 people had died from the heat. Reports from other states in India’s north indicate that the count could be considerably higher. In both India and Pakistan, hospitals have reported large numbers of heatstroke cases.
Ten of those who have died in Bihar were poll workers preparing for the voting to be held in the state on Saturday, the final day of India’s national election. To mitigate the heat, glucose and electrolytes are being distributed to polling officers, tents are being erected to provide shade and earthenware pots will provide cool water. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, at least six election security workers have died.
New Delhi, where temperatures have approached 122 this week, nearly 20 degrees above normal, recorded its first official heat-related death of the year on Wednesday.
In Jacobabad, long regarded as one of the hottest places on earth, the temperature reached 126 degrees on Sunday, with highs of 124 each of the following three days. About 75 miles away, the Pakistani town of Mohenjo Daro, notable for its Indus Valley civilization sites from 2500 B.C., reached 127 degrees on Sunday, just shy of a record set in 2010.
The blazing temperatures compound the challenges for Pakistan, a country of 241 million people that is already grappling with economic and political turmoil.
For the more than one million people who live in the Jacobabad district, life is dominated by constant efforts to find ways to cope with the heat. Blackouts lasting 12 to 20 hours a day are common, and some villages lack electricity altogether. The absence of necessities like readily available water and proper housing exacerbates the suffering.
Most residents cannot afford air-conditioning or alternatives, like Chinese-made solar power batteries and chargeable fans. A solar panel to run two fans and a lightbulb costs about a month’s wages for laborers in Jacobabad.
The water crisis is so severe that donkeys can be seen on the streets carrying tanks, from which residents buy enough water to fill five small plastic jerrycans for $1. Soaring demand has pushed up the price of ice, making this essential commodity even harder to find.Many of the poor have no choice but to work outside. Rice, the lifeblood of Pakistan’s agriculture, demands backbreaking labor in the fields from May to July, the hottest months.
For Sahiba, a 25-year-old farmworker who uses one name, each day starts before dawn. She cooks for her family, then walks for miles with other women to reach the fields, where they toil until afternoon under the relentless sun. Nine months pregnant with her 10th child, she carries a double burden.“If we take a day or half-day break, there’s no daily wage, which means my children go hungry that night,” Ms. Sahiba said.
Each summer, 25 to 30 percent of the district’s population becomes temporary climate refugees, according to community activists. Some seek refuge in Quetta, a city 185 miles north, where the heat is more bearable. Others go to the port city of Karachi, 310 miles south, which has had its own deadly heat waves but offers some relief with its less frequent blackouts.“Those who can afford it may rent houses in cooler cities, but most residents are simply too poor. They struggle to survive under makeshift tents erected in the open sky,” said Jan Odhano, head of the Community Development Foundation, a Jacobabad-based organization that helps the poor cope with the heat.
Jansher Khoso, a 38-year-old garment worker, knows this struggle all too well.
In 2018, his mother went to the hospital with heatstroke as temperatures spiked in Jacobabad. Now, every April, he sends his family to Quetta, where they remain until the autumn, while he works in Karachi. But this comes at a steep price.“I work for 16 hours in Karachi to afford the expense of this temporary migration,” Mr. Khoso said, “because I don’t want any of my family members to die in the cruel heat of Jacobabad.”
Jacobabad’s suffering has not been limited to high temperatures. In 2022, monsoon rains and devastating floods — linked to erratic weather patterns associated with climate change — submerged the district and about a third of Pakistan overall, killing at least 1,700 people.
The heat is nothing new in the city, which was named after John Jacob, a British brigadier general who experienced its harsh climate firsthand in the 19th century.
Leading a small force to quell rebel tribes and bandits, General Jacob lost a lieutenant and seven soldiers to the heat on the first day of a 10-mile march. His diary described the wind as “a blast from the furnace” even at night.
To cope with the hostile climate, General Jacob introduced an irrigation system and built three canals to supply fresh river water to residents. Today, the canals are dry and full of garbage. Twitter
Afghanistan
SIGAR@SIGARHQ
[6/1/2024 11:01 AM, 170.4K followers, 3 retweets, 23 likes]
(1/2) #USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance & #StateDept’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration continued to partner with UN High Commissioner for Refugees & other implementing partners to support Afghan refugees, returnees, and other vulnerable persons,
SIGAR@SIGARHQ
[6/1/2024 11:01 AM, 170.4K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
(2/2)…through life-saving health activities; disaster assistance; and livelihoods programming and skills training such as courses to build literacy and business knowledge https://sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2024-04-30qr-intro-section1.pdf#page=12 Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzi12947158
[6/3/2024 1:34 AM, 2.5K followers]
Flash floods in Afghanistan posing urgent and persistent threat to children. UNICEF calls for increased investment in disaster preparedness and climate resilience as the recent floods provide a grave forewarning of potential future climate hazards: https://www.unicef.org/afghanistan/press-releases/flash-floods-afghanistan-posing-urgent-and-persistent-threat-children
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzi12947158
[6/1/2024 11:44 AM, 2.5K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes]
Women activists in Afghanistan have criticized the UN’s decision to invite the Taliban to its high-level meeting on Afghanistan, highlighting the regime’s human rights violations, especially those against women and girls: https://kabulnow.com/2024/05/women-activists-criticize-talibans-invitation-to-un-meeting-on-afghanistan/ Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[6/2/2024 5:35 AM, 478.8K followers, 41 retweets, 140 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 today received a telephone call from the Acting Foreign Minister of Iran, Ali Bagheri. They discussed the situation in Gaza and unabated Israeli atrocities there. The Deputy Prime Minister reiterated Pakistan’s full support for all initiatives aimed at ending the genocide in Gaza and for humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[5/31/2024 8:57 AM, 478.8K followers, 50 retweets, 124 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 received US Ambassador Donald Blome in his office today. A wide range of bilateral issues including security and economic cooperation came under discussion. Ambassador Blome briefed the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister about recent visits from the US side. The Deputy PM and the Ambassador expressed satisfaction with the current trajectory of bilateral relations and expressed commitment to further strengthen these ties in future.
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[6/3/2024 1:15 AM, 73.4K followers, 9 retweets, 50 likes]
Pakistan is all set to be Elected unopposed as the Non Permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the term of 2025-2026 on Thursday, the 06th of June’24 -- If Elected, This will be Pakistan’s 8th term at UNSC, last time Pakistan was at UNSC was in 2013.
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[6/1/2024 7:24 AM, 73.4K followers, 102 retweets, 243 likes]
Number of Senior Officers of Pakistan’s Foreign Service have written to Sect Establishment through the Foreign Sect demanding a thorough investigation into the death due to apparent stress of Dr Diyar Khan. In their letter, they have also demanded a review of the overall system at the NSPP and its staff among others -- Two senior staffers of the NSPP, Dean Afaqi and DS Usman were the ones who reportedly put undue stress which led to Dr Diyar’s apparent stress induced heart attack which eventually turned out to be fatal. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/2/2024 5:46 AM, 98.2M followers, 5.4K retweets, 35K likes]
I thank all those who voted for @BJP4Sikkim in the Assembly Elections. I also appreciate the efforts put in by our Karyakartas. Our Party will always be at the forefront of working towards Sikkim’s development and fulfilling people’s aspirations.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/2/2024 5:45 AM, 98.2M followers, 4.8K retweets, 33K likes]
Congratulations to SKM and CM @PSTamangGolay for their victory in the Sikkim Assembly Elections 2024. I look forward to working with the State Government to further the progress of Sikkim in the coming times.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/2/2024 5:25 AM, 98.2M followers, 5.6K retweets, 35K likes]
I would like to appreciate the hardwork of the exceptional @BJP4Arunachal Karyakartas through the election campaign. It is commendable how they went across the state and connected with the people.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/2/2024 5:25 AM, 98.2M followers, 8.7K retweets, 55K likes]
Thank you Arunachal Pradesh! The people of this wonderful state have given an unequivocal mandate to politics of development. My gratitude to them for reposing their faith in @BJP4Arunachal yet again. Our Party will keep working with even greater vigour for the state’s growth.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/2/2024 5:24 AM, 98.2M followers, 9.3K retweets, 67K likes]
Chaired meetings to review the situation in the wake of heatwaves and post cyclone flood situations in different parts of the nation. Took stock of the efforts underway to assist those affected by these adversarial conditions.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/1/2024 10:58 AM, 98.2M followers, 12K retweets, 69K likes]
Heartfelt gratitude to our outstanding security forces for their unwavering vigilance during the entire elections. Their efforts have ensured a safe and secure environment, enabling people to take part in the polling process with ease. Their service to the nation is deeply appreciated by each one of us.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/1/2024 10:57 AM, 98.2M followers, 9.9K retweets, 50K likes]
I would like to commend the @ECISVEEP for their exemplary efforts in ensuring a smooth and fair electoral process. Their dedication and meticulous planning have been crucial in upholding the integrity of our democracy, allowing citizens across the nation to vote with confidence and security. Our electoral process is something every believer in democratic values takes inspiration from.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/1/2024 10:25 AM, 98.2M followers, 4.1K retweets, 19K likes]
I can say with confidence that the people of India have voted in record numbers to reelect the NDA government. They have seen our track record and the manner in which our work has brought about a qualitative change in the lives of the poor, marginalised and downtrodden. At the same time, they have seen how the reforms in India have propelled India to being the fifth largest global economy. Every scheme of ours has reached the intended beneficiaries without any bias or leakage.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/1/2024 10:25 AM, 98.2M followers, 4K retweets, 17K likes]
The opportunistic INDI Alliance failed to strike a chord with the voters. They are casteist, communal and corrupt. This alliance, aimed to protect a handful of dynasties, failed to present a futuristic vision for the nation. Through the campaign, they only enhanced their expertise on one thing- Modi bashing. Such regressive politics has been rejected by the people.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/1/2024 10:25 AM, 98.2M followers, 3.6K retweets, 16K likes]
I would like to applaud each and every NDA Karyakarta. Across the length and breadth of India, often braving intense heat. I compliment them for meticulously explaining our development agenda to the people and motivating them to come out and vote. Our Karyakartas are our greatest strength.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/31/2024 10:25 AM, 98.2M followers, 14K retweets, 67K likes]
The Q4 GDP growth data for 2023-24 shows robust momentum in our economy which is poised to further accelerate. Thanks to the hardworking people of our country, 8.2% growth for the year 2023-24 exemplifies that India continues to be the fastest growing major economy globally. As I’ve said, this is just a trailer of things to come..
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/31/2024 7:37 AM, 98.2M followers, 10K retweets, 72K likes]
Unfortunately, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal have witnessed natural disasters in the aftermath of Cyclone Remal. My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected there. Took stock of the prevailing situation. The Central Government has assured all possible support to the states and is continuously monitoring the situation. Officials are working on the ground to assist those affected.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[6/2/2024 11:40 PM, 3.1M followers, 597 retweets, 2.6K likes]
Prime Minister @narendramodi’s reflections after the elections inspire us all to strive for the nation’s growth and development. As he lays out a vision for the journey to Viksit Bharat, he also underlines its larger global significance. A #mustread for all Indians and India watchers across the world. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/prime-minister-modi-writes-new-dreams-9368454/
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[6/2/2024 7:44 AM, 3.1M followers, 1.1K retweets, 10K likes]
Thank the people of Arunachal Pradesh for giving @BJP4Arunachal a decisive mandate. They have chosen politics of growth and development. Congratulate all Karyakartas whose hard work has borne fruits. Confident that under the leadership of PM @narendramodi, the BJP government will continue working for the people of Arunachal Pradesh. NSB
Awami League@albd1971
[6/2/2024 10:38 AM, 638.4K followers, 26 retweets, 57 likes]
Describing #Bangladesh as an important @UN partner, its Secretary-General @antonioguterres said the country is making significant contributions to many UN programs, including #peace and #security, sustainable development, and addressing #climatechange. https://link.albd.org/yeroh
Awami League@albd1971[6/2/2024 8:22 AM, 638.4K followers, 28 retweets, 69 likes]
Minister for @bdmoefcc, @saberhc said that if the agricultural irrigation pumps in #Bangladesh are converted to #renewableenergy, it could save 5,000 megawatts of #electricity. The govt is working towards the goal to produce 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2041. https://bssnews.net/news/192556
Awami League@albd1971
[6/2/2024 6:53 AM, 638.4K followers, 24 retweets, 78 likes]
Prime Minister #SheikhHasina said #Bangladesh would rather work with those countries which will help in its journey towards #development and prosperity not taking into consideration who engages in war with whom. https://bssnews.net/news-flash/192625
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[6/1/2024 4:24 AM, 108.5K followers, 117 retweets, 114 likes]
The Maldives welcomes WHA77’s decision to align the participation of the State of Palestine in the Assembly, with its participation in the UN https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/30944
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[5/31/2024 8:00 AM, 108.5K followers, 164 retweets, 192 likes]
Vice President @HucenSembe bids farewell to the first batch of pilgrims departing for this year’s Hajj. At the Velana International Airport (VIA) this afternoon, the Vice President met with the 298 intending pilgrims and wished them a "Mabroor Hajj" and a safe journey.
Dr Mohamed Muizzu@MMuizzu
[6/2/2024 1:08 AM, 81.7K followers, 485 retweets, 906 likes]
The #Maldives welcomes the decision of the 77th World Health Assembly (#WHA77) to align the participation of the State of Palestine in the Assembly with its participation in the @UN. Maldives was among the 101 countries that voted in favour of the resolution and enhanced the rights of Palestine at @WHO - a sign of increased global support for the full statehood of Palestine. Our decision to support the resolution stems from the Maldivian people’s strong support for the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights for statehood and their full membership in international organizations. We believe that this is an essential step towards enduring peace.
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[6/2/2024 5:20 AM, 436.7K followers, 6 likes]
In response to the recent floods, we have requested all SLPP organizers and rural leaders to support flood relief efforts. Let’s come together to aid those affected and provide relief to our communities in need. #FloodRelief Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ
[6/1/2024 2:30 AM, 51K followers, 5 retweets, 23 likes]6th meeting of Kazakhstan-U.S. Enhanced Strategic Partnership #ESPD took place today. Delegations reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen dialogue in political, economic, energy fields, with an emphasis on the deliverables of the New York Declaration http://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/783480?lang=enAsel Doolotkeldieva@ADoolotkeldieva
[6/1/2024 4:52 AM, 14.1K followers, 4 retweets, 50 likes]
The program of the upcoming annual CESS conference in Almaty looks promising. Topics such as domestic authoritarianism, climate change, identity shifts, imperial and colonial legacies, Russian & Chinese influences, etc. are present. Which means that as Area Studies, we are well
Asel Doolotkeldieva@ADoolotkeldieva
[6/1/2024 4:52 AM, 14.1K followers, 1 retweet, 13 likes]
Connected to the challenges and problems that real people face in our geographic area! I look forward to these exciting presentations and catching up with colleagues! And hopefully, there won’t be earthquakes, or at least that they will be detected and alarmed about in timeNavbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[6/1/2024 9:33 PM, 23.2K followers, 5 retweets, 4 likes]
Following last month’s mob violence against South Asian students and workers in capital Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s government is cracking down on illegal immigration and considering changes to its immigration rules. https://www.voanews.com/a/kyrgyzstan-cracks-down-on-immigration-after-mob-violence-in-bishkek-/7639051.html
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/2/2024 12:26 PM, 183K followers, 1 retweet, 31 likes]
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev toured the "Gijduvon Ipak Tola" enterprise to observe the cluster system’s achievements within the silk industry. He highlighted the imperative of cocoon genetic enhancement and the incorporation of scientific progress to improve the quality of silk products. In the aftermath of his visit, the president mandated the integration of advanced technological practices and the provision of specialized training for workers in the foremost clusters.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/1/2024 11:07 AM, 183K followers, 2 retweets, 20 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev convened a session to deliberate on the socio-economic development of the Bukhara region. He noted that the regional economy has expanded by 1.5 times in recent years. The establishment of 4.6 thousand new businesses in diverse industries has yielded more than 90,000 jobs. For this year, substantial investments are slated to bolster small-scale enterprises and the tourism sector, and for the advancement of industrial zones—initiatives anticipated to generate thousands of additional jobs. The President stressed the strategic necessity of crafting favorable living conditions for the populace, augmenting production capacities, and assisting regional businesspeople.Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/1/2024 9:59 AM, 183K followers, 11 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev inspected the road repaired under a new project in the #Karakul district, noting the need to scale up the project. The head of state focused on the organization of training for road construction professionals and on improving road culture. Additionally, the concept of developing the city of Bukhara and the construction of the "New Uzbekistan" housing complex and park were discussed.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/1/2024 9:28 AM, 183K followers, 1 retweet, 21 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev visited the newly constructed "Yangi Uzbekiston" residential area in the #Karakul district. The region is swiftly advancing, noted by the construction of a dozen multi-story residential buildings, a school, a preschool, and a healthcare facility. During his visit, he spoke with local community leaders about the critical need to promote social unity, focus on educational progress, and enhance the quality of public services. He further highlighted the significance of creating new job opportunities and improving the standards of living in the area.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/1/2024 12:32 AM, 183K followers, 3 retweets, 21 likes]
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat #Mirziyoyev launched the construction of critical energy and transport infrastructures within the #Bukhara region. At the launch event, he addressed the crucial impact these endeavors will have on the region’s industrial and tourism expansion. The start of the gas chemical complex, solar power facility, and international airport construction marks a significant milestone in the development journey of Bukhara.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/31/2024 11:37 PM, 183K followers, 4 retweets, 41 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev examined new investment initiatives in the #Bukhara region involving construction materials, electrical equipment, and pharmaceutical sectors. It was highlighted that approximately 4 billion dollars in investments have been drawn to the region in the past seven years, with thousands of new employment opportunities generated and over 600 prospective projects outlined.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/31/2024 12:19 PM, 183K followers, 3 retweets, 19 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev, while visiting the #Bukhara region, visited the new "Enpipe" factory located in the "Karakul" free economic zone. The establishment of this factory, with the backing of 58 million dollars in foreign investment, came to fruition thanks to a presidential decree designed to enhance the industrial capability of the region. The President stressed that the initiation of the factory’s functions is pivotal for diminishing reliance on imported goods, and fostering job creation.Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/31/2024 7:01 AM, 183K followers, 4 retweets, 44 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev commenced his trip to the #Bukhara region with a tour of the mausoleum of Bahauddin Naqshband. He surveyed the restoration efforts that have enriched the complex and reinstated its historical facade, taking particular note of the restored ancient passage from the Toki Miyon gates to the mausoleum. Emphasizing the reverence for history, the President highlighted the necessity of improving facilities for pilgrims and foreign visitors.
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[6/2/2024 8:09 AM, 3.6K followers, 8 retweets, 27 likes]
Glad to meet with H.E. @SalimAlmalik, the Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (@ICESCO_En). Underscored the big potential in our cooperation that we have to jointly utilize through promising projects not only in #Uzbekistan, but also on a regional and global scales. Appreciate Dr. Salim Al-Malik’s candid words about the incredible role our region’s scholars to the prosperity of humanity. {End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.