epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Taliban push for normalizing male-only higher education (VOA)
VOA [5/28/2024 2:47 PM, Akmal Dawi, 4186K, Negative]
In coming weeks, tens of thousands of students in Afghanistan are set to sit for university entrance examinations.

Notably absent from the list of candidates will be females.

The upcoming exams are expected to determine the admission of about 70,000 students to public academic and professional institutions this year.

Last week, when officials from the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education unveiled the specifics of the upcoming exams, they conspicuously omitted any mention of the exclusion of female students from university admissions.

Despite facing widespread domestic and international criticism for their prohibition of women from educational and professional opportunities, the Taliban have persisted in enforcing discriminatory gender policies.

“The exclusion of women from higher education significantly limits the country’s economic potential, as half the population is unable to contribute effectively to the workforce,” David Roof, a professor of educational studies at Ball State University, wrote to VOA.

In December 2022, the Taliban suspended nearly 100,000 female students enrolled in both public and private universities across Afghanistan.

With the nation already grappling with some of the most dire female literacy rates globally, Afghanistan has failed to produce any female professionals over the past two years.

According to aid agencies, the absence of female medical professionals, compounded by other restrictions, has contributed to the deaths of thousands of young mothers in Afghanistan.

The United Nations reports that over 2.5 million Afghan school-age girls are deprived of education.

“The interruption in education can result in a generational setback, where entire cohorts of women remain uneducated and unqualified for professional roles,” Roof said.

‘Hermit kingdom’

The elusive supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, purportedly responsible for the ban on women’s education and employment, has never publicly clarified his directive.

Initially, when secondary schools were shuttered for girls in March 2022, Taliban officials said the action was "temporary," insisting that the Islamist leadership did not fundamentally oppose women’s education.

However, more than two years later, Taliban officials have provided no rationale for the continued absence of girls from classrooms.

“They have normalized gender-apartheid,” said an Afghan women’s rights activist who did not want to be named in this article, fearing the Taliban’s persecution.

“This is a new norm in Afghanistan, however insane and destructive it may look in the rest of the world,” she added.

In January 2022, the U.S. Department of State appointed Rina Amiri as the special envoy for Afghan women, aiming to garner international backing for Afghan women’s rights.

Amiri has actively engaged with Muslim leaders, emphasizing the importance of women’s rights in Islam, in hopes of influencing Taliban leaders.

Despite these efforts, there has been no indication from Taliban leaders of any intention to abandon their discriminatory policies against women. “There is no indication this will subside,” Amiri told a Congressional hearing in January.

Senior U.S. officials have also warned the Taliban that there will be no normalization in their relations with the international community unless they allow women to return to work and education.

Thus far, the Taliban’s response has been that they value depriving women of basic human rights more than having normal relations with the rest of the world.
Pakistan
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is reelected as president of ruling party (AP)
AP [5/28/2024 9:11 PM, Staff, 39876K, Negative]
Pakistan’s former premier Nawaz Sharif was reelected president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party on Tuesday. He last held the position in 2017, when he was forced out of office amid corruption allegations.

The PML-N came into power with the Feb. 8 elections that Sharif’s key rival, former premier Imran Khan, alleged were rigged. Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, now leads a coalition government and Sharif is a member of Parliament.

Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power in 2017 when the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding any public office over concealing financial assets, a charge Sharif denies. His conviction and sentences were overturned last year, allowing him to hold any public or party office.

Sharif returned to Pakistan in October from self-imposed exile in London, where he went in 2019 for medical treatment when Khan was in power.

Khan was ousted through a no-confidence vote in 2022 and is serving multiple prison terms.
Suspected militants burn girls’ school in northwest Pakistan, in third such attack this month (AP)
AP [5/29/2024 4:49 AM, Staff, 360K, Negative]
A group of militants used kerosine to set fire to a girls’ school in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold, destroying furniture, computers and books, police said Wednesday, in the latest in a surge in such attacks.

No one was hurt in the overnight attack in North Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Rehmat Ullah said. Two other girls’ schools in the region were bombed earlier this month.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but authorities suspect Islamic militants, who targeted girls’ schools years ago, saying that women should not be educated.

North Waziristan is a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, who are also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. It is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.
A bus falls into a ravine in southwest Pakistan, killing at least 28 people and injuring 20 (AP)
AP [5/29/2024 3:54 AM, Staff, 360K, Negative]
A speeding passenger bus fell from a highway into a rocky ravine in southwest Pakistan early Wednesday, killing at least 28 people and injuring 20 others, officials said.

Local police officer Asghar Ali said the driver lost control suddenly in Washuk town as the bus was traveling from Turbat, the second-largest city in Baluchistan province, to Quetta, the province’s capital. Police were trying to collect details from the injured.

Ismail Mengal, a government administrator in Washuk, said the driver of the bus was among the dead. He said officers are still trying to determine the cause of the crash.

He said rescuers and police quickly responded and provided initial medical treatment to the injured passengers. Police transported the dead and injured to a hospital, where some of the injured were in critical condition.

Local media pictures showed the wreckage at the bottom of a rocky ravine.

In a statement, Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Baluchistan, expressed grief over the loss of lives, and he ordered the best possible medical treatment be provided to the injured.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in separate statements expressed sorrow over the deaths.

Road accidents are common in Pakistan where traffic rules and safety standards are sparsely followed, even on battered roads in particularly rugged areas.

The latest accident occurred three days after 13 members of a family were killed in a deadly collision between a van and a truck in Multan, a city in the eastern Punjab province.

At least 20 people were killed and another 30 were injured earlier this month in a similar crash.
At least 28 killed after bus falls into ravine in Pakistan’s Balochistan (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/29/2024 12:00 AM, Abid Hussain, 21M, Negative]
At least 28 people have been killed in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan after a bus they were travelling in fell into a ravine, officials say.

The bus from Turbat city in southern Balochistan was headed towards the provincial capital of Quetta, about 750km (466 miles) to the north, when it crashed in the mountainous region early on Wednesday morning.

Noorullah Essazai, a government health official in Washuk district where the incident happened, confirmed the number of deaths to Al Jazeera, adding that a total of 54 passengers were travelling in the bus.

Some of the survivors have sustained serious injuries, he said, and are being treated at a local hospital.

“We have eight to 10 critically injured patients and are making arrangements to send them to Quetta by helicopter while some others will be shifted to a hospital in Khuzdar,” said Essazai, referring to a town 120km (75 miles) away.

Muhammad Ismail, a government official in Washuk, said the bus crashed through a bridge and fell into a rocky ravine. The bus driver is among the dead.

In a statement, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his condolences over the incident and directed the authorities to help the injured.

“We stand with the bereaved families in this difficult time and express our heartfelt sympathies with them,” said the statement issued by the prime minister’s office.

In another statement, Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti expressed his sadness at the loss of lives.

“We share the grief of the families who lost their loved ones. We will provide medical facilities at the earliest to those injured in the accident,” said the statement.

Road accidents are common in Pakistan, mainly in its mountainous regions in Balochistan and the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Earlier this month, at least 20 people were killed and dozens of others wounded when a passenger bus fell off a ravine in the country’s northern area of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan: Abusive Evictions Target Urban Poor (Human Rights Watch)
Human Rights Watch [5/28/2024 11:00 PM, Staff, 2.4M, Negative]
Pakistani authorities frequently use colonial-era laws and policies to forcibly evict low-income residents, shop owners, and street vendors to enable public and private development projects, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 48-page report, “‘I Escaped with Only My Life:’ Abusive Forced Evictions in Pakistan,” documents widespread and abusive forced evictions that disproportionately affect the most economically and socially marginalized communities in Pakistan. The authorities have evicted thousands of people without adequate consultation, notice, compensation, resettlement assistance, or means of redress in violation of their basic rights.

“The Pakistani government urgently needs to reform its colonial-era land laws so that they are equitable, transparent, and in line with Pakistan’s international obligations,” said Saroop Ijaz, senior Asia counsel at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should ensure that no one is made homeless due to eviction, compensate the loss of land, and provide for the resettlement of those displaced.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 36 victims of forced evictions in the cities of Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi, as well as lawyers advocating for the rights of those evicted and urban planners, and reviewed court decisions and laws governing Pakistan’s land tenure system.

In the vast majority of mass eviction cases documented, the authorities failed to provide adequate consultation, notice, and a means of redress. During many evictions the police used unnecessary or excessive force to remove tenants, including beatings, arbitrary arrests, and destruction of personal property. The government’s promotion of the development projects as serving important public functions does not lessen the avoidable harm to those affected or the government’s international legal obligations to address those harms.

Many of those evicted, in addition to losing their homes, frequently lose their livelihoods and access to essential public services, such as schools and health care. These practices worsen social and economic inequalities, disproportionately burdening people and households with low incomes, and who often are ethnic minorities.

Pakistan’s colonial-era Land Acquisition Act of 1894 has provided the template for public land acquisition in the country more than a century later. The law permits Pakistani authorities to acquire land for vaguely defined “public purposes,” which may include use by public-private partnerships and even private, for-profit companies. The law and others based on it gives the government almost exclusive authority to decide what falls within its scope and to displace people with minimum procedural safeguards that are contrary to international human rights law and standards.

The government frequently asserts that removing structures that “encroach” on public lands or state property is both necessary and justified. Encroachment is also a crime under several provincial and regional laws, and those convicted face fines or even prison sentences.

But interviews with those who have been forcibly displaced in such operations indicate that there is little consistency and often less rationale behind the use of anti-encroachment as a justification for evictions. In one example, the family of Bashir Husain had been running a small shop in a Karachi market for 70 years and paid timely rent to the local government municipal corporation, as well as utility bills and taxes. But in 2018, the authorities demolished Husain’s family shop as part of an anti-encroachment drive. “How can my shop be an encroachment?” he said. “Since the 1950s we have paid rent to the government. How long does it take for something not to be an encroachment? Three generations of my family have run this shop.”

Governments are empowered to expropriate land, including evicting people from their property, for the public interest and other exceptional circumstances. However, to be lawful, evictions must be carried out in accordance with domestic law, and international human rights law and standards. International law defines a “forced eviction” as “the permanent or temporary removal against their will” of individuals, families, or communities from homes, business premises, or land “without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.”

Human Rights Watch found that the authorities frequently fail to ascertain land rights of residents beforehand and provide little if any compensation. In some cases, the police arrest and prosecute those who resist without a lawful basis. Other contributing factors that facilitate abuse include corruption in land acquisition; impunity for police who carry out abusive evictions; and poor land registration mechanisms that make it difficult for victims of forced evictions to prove ownership.

Some Pakistani authorities have attempted to address the problem; in January 2023 the Sindh provincial government enacted the Sindh Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy 2022, Pakistan’s first. However, the real test is ensuring that the policy is carried out effectively, Human Rights Watch said.

“Pakistan’s government should ensure that projects intended to benefit the population are achieved hand-in-hand with the law,” Ijaz said. “Any necessary resettlements should be planned and carried out in a lawful and orderly way that respects people’s rights to housing, livelihoods, and safety.”
Pakistan’s Sufi festivals reclaim spirit after violence (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/28/2024 11:27 PM, Zian Zama Janjua, 82990K, Neutral]
Rhythmic drums and spirited dancing are once again bringing life to the shrines of Pakistan’s saints, where festivals were long stifled by jihadist violence.

As the harvest season ends and schools finish for the summer, villagers climb atop tractor trolleys, buses and rickshaws to head to the annual celebrations at Sufi shrines dotted across the country.

"Those who cannot meet during the rest of the year reunite at the fair," said Muhammad Nawaz, a farmer from Punjab province at the annual "mela" to honour saint Shah Jiwana in Jhang city in May.

"These fairs and Punjab’s culture share a profound connection, one of love and brotherhood."

Fairgrounds, musicians, traditional wrestlers and motorcycle acrobats delight pilgrims lit by lanterns of all colours -- but always under the watchful eye of hundreds of police officers.

Centuries-old Sufi orders across the Islamic world have millions of followers, from Turkey to South Asia, and their beliefs are rooted in mysticism and a devotion to saints.

Many orthodox hardliners consider Sufi beliefs heretical, however, and Sunni militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State have carried out bloody attacks at shrines and festivals.

In Pakistan, the attacks led authorities to ban festivals or limit their activities until recently.

"The goal was to avoid risking public lives," said Alloudin Mehmood, a government official at Bari Imam shrine in Islamabad, targeted by a 2005 suicide bombing that killed 19 people.

Security has dramatically improved after several military operations, allowing celebrations to slowly return.

"Only after receiving security clearance was the festival permitted last year, ending a 16-year hiatus," Mehmood added.

The event was shortened from five days to three, with mobile phone signals suspended for security reasons.

The landscape of rural Pakistan is adorned with thousands of Sufi shrines, varying in size from grand edifices to modest structures, each steeped in a tapestry of associated legends.

Particularly in Punjab and Sindh, saints, commonly referred to as "Pirs," are revered and miracles attributed to their spiritual presence.

"These shrines have endured threats and persecution," said anthropologist and author Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro.

"Culture always has a remarkable resilience, capable of absorbing shocks and persevering through challenging times."

The annual celebrations commemorate the anniversaries of a saint’s death and symbolise the spiritual union between devotees and the divine.

"Pilgrims find solace, healing, release and entertainment at these events that celebrate the ‘friends of God’," said Carl W. Ernst, who has authored several books on Sufism.

Sufism has inspired some of Pakistan’s most beloved artists, writers and musicians.

Sufi shrines often attract marginalised groups, including transgender women and drug addicts.

"We are never as well-received as at festivals," Khusbhoo, a transgender woman, told AFP.

At the Shah Jiwana shrine, devotion gives way to entertainment in the late afternoon.

A juice seller belts out a famous Punjabi song: "Forget about your responsibilities for a while; let’s head to the fair instead."

Thousands turn to the fields to witness traditional games such as Kabaddi, a rough contact sport where opponents slap each other around the face, and tent pegging, a more graceful display of horsemanship.

Against the neon background of the fairgrounds, 16-year-old stunt girl Fatima Noor prepares her motorbike.

Defying both gravity and social taboos, she circles the "wall of death" to the amazement of the crowd -- a chance to earn some money for her family.

"These fairs must be held, because we do not have any other employment opportunities," she said.

Eighteen-year-old Hamid Ijaz delighted in the celebrations, disrupted for much of his childhood.

"Because of how widespread hate and sectarianism are in our country, it’s crucial to organise events like these where people can come together and foster love," he told AFP.
Pakistan Plans to Regulate Social Media Through Legislation (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/28/2024 10:24 AM, Umair Jamal, 847K, Negative]
The Pakistani government is planning to introduce legislation aimed at safeguarding digital rights and curbing fake news.

The legislation reportedly stipulates that sharing private information without consent, causing a mockery of people, and spreading false information could result in harsh penalties. Additionally, the bill could lead to severe punishments and imprisonment for spreading false information against the judiciary, military, and government officials, among other key state institutions, including constitutional figures and positions.

Amid a rapid increase in the use of social media, the government sees the spread of disinformation in a deeply divided country as a problem that needs to be addressed. However, there are concerns that the proposed law will be used for political gains.

The issue of unrestrained social media use has long plagued Pakistan. The country has attempted to shut down the internet in the past to combat the problem, and in other instances, blocked sites like X, formerly Twitter, to limit people’s access.

In the absence of legislation, these actions by the government have been criticized for limiting free speech and information access. However, the Ministry of Interior recently defended its actions in a court saying that these restrictions were put in place in the “interest of upholding national security, maintaining public order, and preserving the integrity of our nation.”

The use of social media platforms has become a key tool for political parties in Pakistan to reach out to the country’s large and mostly young population, often at the expense of truth and accuracy.

With over 111 million internet users and 64.6 percent of the total internet user base using social media, the government faces a monumental challenge in regulating this space and exercising its writ.

Fake news online in Pakistan is largely centered around politics, the economy, military issues, gender, culture, and religion, according to a report by Accountabilitylab. In Pakistan, people tend to believe fake news because of the country’s increasingly polarized culture and low level of media literacy among other reasons.

A simple screenshot circulating claiming that the prime minister will resign due to differences with the military, for example, could go viral and receive millions of shares, affecting the financial markets and political stability.

Recently, a social media user who threatened to campaign against Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa was taken into custody by law enforcement agencies. Subsequently, the chief justice’s security had to be increased by the authorities. Following the incident, Isa remarked that “the more you lie, the more it sells on social media.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a government official told The Diplomat that freedom of speech does not equate to an unregulated environment as there is a system of checks and balances in force.

Nevertheless, there are concerns that the law may be misused by the authorities. In an attempt to allay fears, the government has declared that it will only enact the law to regulate social media through consensus. Minister of Law Azam Nazeer Tarar has announced the creation of a special committee to promote political consensus on the proposal and said that “all journalist organizations and press clubs will be taken into confidence on the matter.”

The Punjab province passed the Defamation Bill, 2024, earlier this month to provide “protection from false, misleading and defamatory claims via print, electronic and social media against public officials and private citizens.” While the law’s opponents claim that its real goal is to suppress free speech and marginalize opposing viewpoints, the government in the province feels the heat of the impending challenge it faces from online spaces is hindering its ability to function effectively.

The conversation concerning the use and misuse of social media in Pakistan is just getting started. Pakistan appears to still be far from the real bombshell of the fake news challenge as the country’s internet penetration rate stood at 45.7 percent of the total population of 242.8 million at the beginning of 2024. When internet penetration reaches 70 percent, mainly among the younger population, what would this challenge look like?

The exponential growth in the size of Pakistan’s population will make it extremely difficult for the state to effectively control this space and ensure that its operations are balanced and conducted in a transparent manner.
India
23 Dead, 18 Missing as Heavy Rain Hits India’s Mizoram State (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/28/2024 10:09 AM, Chiranjivi Chakraborty, 24454K, Negative]
At least 23 people are dead and more than 18 missing as incessant rains brought by cyclone Remal led to landslides in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, said Irene Lalmuanzovi, supervisor in the state’s disaster management department.

Local broadband and electricity services have been disrupted in various areas, and several fatalities have been reported, a post on X by India’s state broadcaster All India Radio said.

The next of kin of each victim will receive 400,000 rupees ($4,808), Lalmuanzovi said.
China Fortifies Disputed Border Against Key US Partner (Newsweek)
Newsweek [5/28/2024 6:45 AM, Aadil Brar, 44206K, Neutral]
China is expanding a network of dual-use villages and military facilities near its disputed border with India, a key U.S. partner and ally.

"In the desolate and inhospitable Himalayas, China is constructing and expanding hundreds of "xiaokang" villages along its hotly disputed border with India," a new report by Washington think tank the Center for International and Strategic Studies said May 16.

Newsweek accessed new satellite imagery of Yarao village (also known as Yarap), located north of the border with India, from geospatial data provider Sentinel Hub. The imagery shows its expansion between 2022 and 2024.

The CSIS report revealed the expansion of military and dual-use village infrastructure at four separate locations near India’s Arunachal Pradesh. It further revealed the expansion of military facilities at Zhuangnan, Majiduncun and Kuiqiongmen, besides Yarao.

India considers Arunachal an integral territory, while China claims the region as part of Zangnan, or South Tibet. Subject experts say China’s construction of xiaokang villages (or well-off villages) along the frontier employs "gray-zone" tactics—quasi-military moves short of war. Some warn the settlements could secretly house garrisons to launch offensives.

The Xiaokang villages are inhabited by Tibetan herders who were brought to settle there as part of a government scheme to improve their livelihoods. However, people from elsewhere in China are also encouraged to live there as new villages appear.

The Center for International and Strategic Studies said that between 2018 and 2022 China built 624 xiaokang villages, and work on additional villages has continued.

Tensions along the disputed border remain high after a clash between troops there.

In December 2022, Chinese and Indian soldiers fought with fists and handheld weapons — not firearms — near Arunachal’s Tawang region. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged the People’s Liberation Army to defend borders at all costs, driving a harder territorial stance.

The two Asian giants fought a bloody border war in 1962 over the 2,100-mile Line of Actual Control. In the past three years, fresh clashes erupted at both ends as they wrestled over the inhospitable Himalayan ground.

The simmering border conflict has no clear path to resolution. With differing claims and increased militarization, the risk of miscalculation remains high.

"In the area of these four locations these have largely a military character as a step-up for military operations towards the three valleys in Arunachal Pradesh. It’s a kind of geostrategic pressure, a threat in being that would tie down Indian armed forces. Adding to the entire border, geopolitical pressure is being built up," Rakesh Sharma, a retired Indian Army general and now a distinguished fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation think tank in New Delhi, told Newsweek in an interview.

Yarao offers a glimpse into China’s ambitious effort to establish well-appointed settlements in inhospitable terrain. Satellite imagery reveals a construction boom there from 2022 to 2024, with at least 65 identical buildings erected between March and November 2022 alone, according to the new report.

Newsweek contacted China’s ministry of foreign affairs and India’s ministry of external affairs for comment via email.

The rapid pace of development is a testament to China’s capacity to quickly build infrastructure to support its xiaokang villages. Workers also added a new road and two helipads near Yarao last year.

Despite the challenges posed by Yarao’s high altitude of 3,900 meters (12,795 feet), where thin air and harsh weather conditions can create logistical hurdles, China managed to complete many new buildings by December 2022, the report said.

"Indeed they have an underlying military potential, like providing a firm base from where to build up and progress operations. China is also changing the demography of border areas with a mixture of Tibetan and Han Chinese populations. There would be an intelligence perspective to insert or extricate human assets, acquiring and confirming military intelligence," Sharma said.
India Temperature Nears Record Above 50C as Heat Wave Worsens (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/28/2024 12:33 PM, Pratik Parija and Atul Prakash, 24454K, Neutral]
The maximum temperature in India crossed 50C (122F) for the first time this summer, just a whisker away from an all-time high, as deadly heat waves in several states continue to pose severe health risks for millions.

The mercury soared to 50.5C on Tuesday in Churu, a city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, according to the India Meteorological Department. The record for the country is 51C, set in May 2016 at Phalodi in the same region.

Extreme weather events in India have been exacerbated by climate change, with the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts and cyclones rising year after year. The South Asian nation is not alone in facing the vagaries of nature. The world posted an 11th month of record-breaking heat in April, with warmer conditions engulfing Asia and a hotter-than-usual summer predicted in Europe. A sizzling season poses risks for lives, strains power grids and wilts crops.

Delhi’s Aya Nagar recorded an all-time high of 47.6C for the center, while Mungeshpur automatic weather station, which was set up some years ago, saw 49.9C, the IMD said. The maximum temperatures in several areas of the nation are expected to rise by as much as 5C in the next few days, it said.

Authorities are advising people living in some northern and western states to avoid exposure to the blazing sun, stay hydrated and wear light-colored clothes. They have been sprinkling water on roads, moving some people to shelter homes and putting up banners as reminders to take precautionary steps. There are reports of long blackouts as demand for cooling appliances has surged.

India has recorded 16,000 cases of heat stroke — a medical condition when the sweating mechanism fails and the body is unable to cool down — and 60 deaths since March 1, the Mint newspaper said on Friday. However, the government has not confirmed reports of weather-related hospitalizations and deaths, according to media reports.
India issues heat wave alert as Delhi posts record high temperature (Reuters)
Reuters [5/29/2024 2:28 AM, Sakshi Dayal, 45.8M, Neutral]
India’s weather department issued a red alert for several parts of the country’s northwest on Wednesday, warning of a severe heat wave a day after parts of the capital Delhi recorded their highest temperature ever at almost 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).

A red alert implies a "very high likelihood" of people developing "heat illness and heat stroke", and calls for "extreme care" for vulnerable people, according to the India Meteorological Department.

India has been grappling with unusually high temperatures this summer, and the weather department has said "heat wave to severe heat wave" conditions are likely to continue in several parts, including the capital, through Wednesday.

India declares a heat wave when the maximum temperature of a region is 4.5 C to 6.4 C higher than usual, while a severe heat wave is declared when the maximum temperature is 6.5 C higher than normal or more.

Local weather stations in Delhi’s Mungeshpur and Narela neighbourhoods recorded a temperature of 49.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday - an all time record for the city and 9 C above normal.

Delhi’s local government also restricted the supply of water because of the heat. It said water levels in the Yamuna River, the main source, were low.

The city does not have uninterrupted water supply at any time, but the government said neighbourhoods which received water for some hours two times a day would be subject to further restrictions.

"I appeal to all the residents that whether there is a water problem in your area or not, please use water very carefully," the local government’s Water Minister Atishi, who used only one name, said on Tuesday.

Billions of people across Asia, including India’s neighbour Pakistan, have been experiencing a hotter summer this year - a trend international scientists say has been worsened by human-driven climate change.

Three more deaths were attributed to heat stroke on Tuesday in Jaipur in Rajasthan state, local media reported, taking the city’s toll to four and that of the state to at least 13.

Rising temperatures also prompted India’s polling body to make additional arrangements when Delhi voted in the national elections last week, including deployment of paramedics at polling stations, which were also equipped with mist machines, shaded waiting areas, and cold water dispensers.

The elections conclude on June 1 with counting set to take place on June 4.
India’s election campaign turns negative as Modi and ruling party embrace Islamophobic rhetoric (CNN)
CNN [5/28/2024 10:12 PM, Rhea Mogul, 20328K, Neutral]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is increasingly resorting to overtly Islamophobic language during his election campaign, critics and observers say, as he seeks a third straight term governing the world’s most populous nation.

As turnout in the polls so far shows a slight dip from five years ago, the popular leader – and overwhelming favorite – has embraced negative campaigning, they say, and received little pushback from civil society or election authorities.

Followers of Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – and some of its top figures – have long been accused of using inflammatory language to describe the country’s 200 million Muslims, but rarely Modi himself. However this election has brought a clear shift, critics say.

“What is unique about what we’ve seen recently, is that these statements are being uttered by the Prime Minister himself,” Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Not necessarily by surrogates – the Home Minister, or by the chief minister – or by other kind of party apparatchiks.”

The shift in tone is making many Indian Muslims nervous.

“Modi and the BJP have for a long time been making references to the community, but it’s moved on from the dog whistle,” said political researcher and columnist Asim Ali. “It’s painting us as an existential threat to Hindus. It’s coming directly from the prime minister. It’s anti-Muslim, and it’s dangerous.”

Modi and his BJP have repeatedly said they do not discriminate against minority groups.

But analysts and observers have noted multiple speeches he’s made during this six-week election campaign, that began last month, specifically refer to Muslims and paint them in a negative light.

Calling Muslims “infiltrators” with “large families,” Modi has accused his main opposition, the Indian National Congress, without evidence, of intending to redistribute the country’s wealth to Muslims. He warned women that the opposition would take their gold and redistribute it to Muslims. He accused Congress of wanting to choose players on the Indian cricket team “on the basis of religion.” And he has claimed the party is conspiring to commit “vote jihad” by uniting “a certain community” against him.

The BJP did not respond to a request for comment on the rhetoric being used by party leaders during this campaign. BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill previously told CNN that the party is not prejudiced against Muslims, and the community has benefited from Modi’s leadership.

For Irfan Nooruddin, a professor of Indian politics at Georgetown University, the rhetoric has “become much more starkly and overtly communal.”

“These are very central views within the BJP that are sometimes suppressed to avoid negative press or civil society pushback. With the media and civil society neutralized, the BJP no longer fears such consequences and so can pull back the veil,” he said.

“The BJP understands that its path to a majority in parliament – especially a super-majority that would allow it to amend the constitution – is to consolidate the Hindu vote and to prevent the opposition from making inroads through economic appeals,” added Nooruddin.
Signs of anxiety?

The prime minister has set an ambitious target for his alliance to win 400 seats in the country’s Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament, in this election.

Many in the country say their lives have been transformed under his leadership, aided by his far-reaching welfare and development schemes. Weeks before voting began, analysts were certain his party would sweep the polls yet again.

Since April 19, millions have flocked to polling booths to cast their vote. But turnout across six phases so far has slightly dipped from the record highs of 2019, and this might be causing anxiety among BJP leaders, analysts say.

The chief minister of Delhi, popular opposition leader and staunch Modi critic, Arvind Kejriwal, was temporarily allowed out of prison earlier this month after being arrested on corruption charges, in a case his allies claimed was politically motivated. His release has galvanized a once flattened opposition, uniting them to deliver a tough fight to Modi and his BJP.

“This election is becoming competitive,” said political researcher Ali, suggesting that a tighter race in key seats might be motivating the ruling party to ramp up the inflammatory language. “The BJP is a favorite but their target is ambitious, and this rhetoric appeals to their vote bank.”

Many have accused the prime minister of tacitly endorsing sectarianism to bolster his Hindu-nationalist credentials, while diverting from policy failures – such as youth unemployment, which now stands at close to 50% among 20- to 24-year-olds, and the vast wealth gap in the country, which according to a recent study is more unequal than it was during British rule.

“The BJP’s track record on economic growth, job creation, and poverty alleviation is weak,” Nooruddin, from Georgetown University, said. “These bread-and-butter issues are central to election campaigns and the opposition has really sought to emphasize them. So, I think the BJP’s resort to overt communal rhetoric is an effort to fight an election on its preferred terms rather than on issues where it is vulnerable.”

Muslim independent journalist Alishan Jafri noted that the day-to-day struggles brought by poverty and unemployment are “affecting Muslims as much as it’s affecting poor Hindus,” pointing to some 800 million people dependent on rations provided by the government.

“To tell (Hindus) that Muslims will take away even half of that is surely going to scare them and divide the communities on religious lines. That the mainstream media has refused to push back tells us two things: they are compromised, or they support it.”
Global reputation

Modi’s government posits India as a leader on the global stage. His calendar last year included diplomatic trips to Australia and the United States, and he presents himself as a statesman cementing the country as a modern power.

Last year India overtook China to become the world’s most populous nation, while the year before it surpassed former colonial power Britain to become the world’s fifth-largest economy. According to Vaishnav, the muted response to Modi’s divisive language from Western leaders must be seen through the prism through which they view India – as a balance against an increasingly assertive China.

At home, analysts say, his grip on power has allowed him to make such comments with little pushback from civil society.

“The Election Commission is pretty toothless and what powers it has had have been further weakened by changes made to how commissioners are appointed by making the Prime Minister’s Office more central to that process,” Nooruddin said.

Modi’s April 21 speech about “infiltrators” has ignited widespread anger among Muslim leaders and opposition politicians, and calls for election authorities to investigate. BJP party spokespeople subsequently said Modi was talking specifically about undocumented migrants.

The election commission has asked the BJP to respond to the allegations. But opposition groups and critics say the response is not strong enough.

Globally, independent polls suggest that India’s image is declining in some countries around the world and there is some criticism about the government’s Hindu nationalist ambitions.

“The anti-Muslim rhetoric used on the campaign trail will unfortunately further damage India’s reputation globally. This is unnecessary at a time when India should be ascendant,” Nooruddin said.

For Jafri, the journalist, the effects are clear.

“I can’t express what millions of people feel as a collective, but I am sure that nobody likes being constantly abused, bullied, betrayed, and singled out,” he said. “Some feel attacked and humiliated. Many have become cynical, and they don’t expect any better from this regime and its supporters.”
The Indian state holding the key to PM Modi’s re-election (BBC)
BBC [5/28/2024 5:30 PM, Geeta Pandey, 70613K, Neutral]
As India votes to elect a new government, all eyes are on the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, commonly known by its initials UP.

Spread over an area roughly the size of Britain, the state packs in nearly four times as many people. With an estimated 257 million people, it is India’s most populous state and would be the fifth largest in the world if it was an independent country after India, China, United States and Indonesia and ahead of Pakistan or Brazil.

The state is among just three in India which are voting in all seven phases in the elections which are spread over 44 days. (Voting ends on 1 June and results will be announced on 4 June.)

So, it’s no surprise that UP - which elects 80 MPs in the 543-member lower house of parliament (the Lok Sabha) - is considered key to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election bid as he seeks to return for a third consecutive term.

“It’s commonly said that ‘the way to Delhi is through UP’ and a party that does well in the state generally goes on to rule India,” says Sharat Pradhan, senior journalist in the state capital, Lucknow.

“Eight of India’s former prime ministers,” he adds, “have represented the state and in 2014, when Mr Modi - originally from the western state of Gujarat – made his debut as an MP, he too chose UP.”

Mr Modi held his seat in the ancient city of Varanasi in 2019 and aims to do so again this year.

So, Mr Modi has been on a whirlwind tour of the state, doing roadshows and addressing rallies – sometimes up to seven in a single day – to convince voters to support his party. He’s set his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a goal of 370 seats - a party needs 272 to win.

In 2014, BJP won 71 seats in the state and in 2019, it got 62. This time, party leaders say, they’re aiming for 70 plus – even all of its 80 seats.

The maths, the opposition Congress party’s Gaurav Kapoor says, is simple – “a party that wins 70 seats here needs just 202 more to form a government”.

Earlier this month, when Mr Modi arrived in the city to file his nomination, accompanied by the state’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-robed Hindu monk-turned-politician, thousands of supporters gathered to cheer them on.

A truck painted saffron – the colour associated with the BJP – and decorated with marigold flowers carried them as their cavalcade made its way through the narrow streets of the ancient city.

Mr Modi waved and held up a replica of the lotus flower – his party symbol – as men and women dressed in saffron clothes and caps raised slogans in support.

It’s not just the BJP that’s eyeing the state regarded as “the biggest prize” in Indian election. The Congress, which was dominant in the state for four decades until it was edged out by local parties in 1991, is fighting here in alliance with the regional Samajwadi Party (SP). The alliance has also claimed that “we are winning 79 seats and have a fight in one”.

Counting of votes on 4 June is likely to show claims on both sides are exaggerated, but analysts point out that all the elections in the past 10 years in the state have gone in the BJP’s favour. And the upbeat mood at Mr Modi’s roadshow reflected that self-assurance.

Most Varanasi residents in the crowd talked about the transformation their city has undergone in the past decade – the new highways that have been built, the expansion of the Kashi-Vishwanath temple and the spruced-up banks of the river Ganges.

Watching Mr Modi’s procession from his shop along the route of the roadshow, Ambrish Mittal, a chemist, says “the city roads are cleaner and the long power cuts that plunged the city into darkness for hours are history”.

But despite its political significance, UP remains among India’s poorest states - though there have been some positive changes in the past few years.

Government data shows that millions more now have electricity, access to toilets and are using clean fuel compared to five years ago.

But UP still has the largest concentration of poor in the world – with 23% of its population recorded as multidimensionally poor even after tens of millions have been lifted out of poverty.

The state also records tens of thousands of violent crimes against women every year and continues to make headlines for cases where the accused are politically influential men.

And although these ills have plagued the state historically, opposition parties have seized upon them and been raising them at their campaign rallies as the BJP has been in power nationally for a decade and also ruled UP for seven years now.

The huge turnout at their meetings, opposition leaders say, reflects voter disenchantment with the BJP.

“Until a few weeks back, election in the state had seemed like a one-sided contest with the odds stacked against us,” says Abhishek Yadav, a Samajwadi Party youth wing leader and a star campaigner for his party.

But he feels that the opposition’s campaign has gathered pace as unemployment and price rise have become main issues.

The BJP claims that a lot of investment now started coming into the state and there’s been an industrial revival, but Gaurav Kapoor of the Congress says the government’s failure to establish any new industry or create jobs has alienated many voters.

“Temples are the new industry for Mr Modi. Post-Covid, the only business that has progressed in the state are hotels and restaurants and other things to do with religious tourism. But the youth want jobs.”

Ashwani Shahi of the BJP, however, blames opposition parties for everything that’s wrong with the state.

“In 2017 when the BJP won UP, we inherited a state which was poor, had high rates of illiteracy and unemployment. We have started work to change that.

“But It takes time to uplift people from poverty. I think By 2029, we’ll be able to take 90% people out of poverty.”

Mr Shahi admits there is some anti-incumbency, but the BJP will still romp home in Uttar Pradesh – and the rest of India - because of Mr Modi.
Modi courts millions of first-time voters as BJP election momentum falters (The Independent)
The Independent [5/28/2024 7:26 AM, Maroosha Muzaffar, 44927K, Neutral]
The Instagram video begins with a stern-looking cartoon of Narendra Modi staring down the barrel of the camera, appealing for Indians to lend him their “massive support at this hour”. With stirring music and an impassioned voice-over, it uses menacing-looking caricatures of sword-wielding Muslims to warn that Modi’s opponents want to “snatch the wealth of non-Muslims” and “distribute it to Muslims, their favourite community”.

The animation was released by the official social media account of Modi’s BJP party with the country’s marathon general election already underway. Though it was later taken down amid public outrage for demonising a minority religion, it mirrors similar messaging in the prime minister’s own rally speeches and was followed by another video on similar themes posted on the party’s Twitter/X profile.

Another reel on the BJP’s Instagram page features a parody of Shark Tank India, the most-watched Hindi-language non-fiction show in the country in the past year, with 12.5 million viewers. In the video, the “contestants” pitching to the judges are India’s main opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party. They are mocked by the judges, before being shown a BJP manifesto. At the end of the clip, each judge pledges not an investment, but “my support for Modi”.

Modi was the overwhelming favourite before the start of the election, boasting that his party would win as many as 400 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. But that aura of invincibility has been dented in the first phases of the campaign, partly because of the release and enthusiastic campaigning of key rival Arvind Kejriwal, and partly because of a noticeable dip in turnout compared to the last election.

The BJP, in a possible sign of worry at the way things are progressing, has doubled down on its core messaging to appeal to Hindu nationalists, and is using its formidable digital campaigning machine to reach out to a young demographic. From social media campaigns and videos on YouTube, to leveraging its influence over the Bollywood film industry and star actors, the BJP has spent a sizeable amount of its outsized election budget in pursuit of India’s youth.

There are an estimated 18 million first-time voters registered in India for this election, out of the total of 970 million people who are eligible to vote for their Lok Sabha representative. The number of first-time voters between 18 and 19 years of age has risen by 20 per cent compared with the last time India held a general election in 2019.

Now the BJP is trying to showcase the government’s initiatives in education, health, communication and start-ups via short videos that can capture the attention of impressionable young voters. Using social media extensively, the party has also launched a campaign website called pehlavotemodiko.bjp.org (“Pehla vote modi ko” roughly translates as”First vote to Modi”) to connect with young voters.

On the website, users can play a game entitled “Be the detective: discover the uniqueness of Modi’s new India”. This game consists of two contrasting images, with the caption: “Spot the differences in the household of a common Indian, pre-2014 and post-2014. What transformations can you identify?” It’s a reference to the fact that Modi came to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The pre-2014 image shows a man watching a TV showing footage of the 2008 terror attack on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. A frowning woman is using firewood to cook her meal, a pot containing something black. A calendar on the wall has an image that reads “2G scam”, “coal scam” – references to public scandals under the last government before Modi came to power.

In the post-2014 image, the man is watching a TV showing the inauguration of the controversial Ram temple in Ayodhya. The temple was constructed on the site of a demolished ancient mosque and most political opposition leaders boycotted the temple’s inauguration, arguing that it contradicts the principles of a secular India.

The woman in the image has a phone in her hand which runs on 5G internet. She is cooking on a gas stove and the pots are full of rice and vegetables. The calendar on the wall carries an image of the Indian lunar spacecraft mission, Chandrayaan. Last year, India made history by becoming the first country to land a lunar mission near the Moon’s south pole.

Once you click to find out the “correct” answer, you have to then submit your phone number to know the results – thereby providing the party with your contact details. The website then outlines the “achievements” of the Modi government, such as “India is the first country in the world to land on the south pole of the Moon”; “Under the prime minister’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, [a scheme to ensure food for the poor] more than 81 crore [810 million] beneficiaries are receiving free rations”; “India leads the world in the fastest 5G rollout” and so on. Sanjay Kumar, director of Lokniti, a research programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, says that political parties have always put a particular focus on first-time voters because they represent a “significant and fluid voting bloc” who are not yet committed to any party.

“If you look at the voters of other age groups, a very large fraction of them are already decided about which party to vote for,” he tells The Independent. “So the fluidity in political choice is likely to be higher among the first-time voters compared to voters of other age groups. As a result, political parties are more keenly interested in mobilising [that] fluidity.”

Historically, youth participation in Indian elections has been lower than in other demographics, especially from 1996 to 2009, but there has been a notable increase in voter turnout among young people since 2014, Kumar noted.

A sample survey by Lokniti earlier this year suggested that at least 70 per cent of first-time voters in Delhi preferred the BJP in federal government. Kumar believes that the prime minister effectively connects with the youth via several means that resonate well with young voters. India’s first-time voters have come of age during Modi’s decade in charge of the country.

“Prime minister Modi has effectively established a direct connection with the youth of India through various means. He engages with them on numerous occasions, such as national events like Independence Day and Republic Day, as well as during significant sporting events involving the Indian cricket and hockey teams,” he says. This direct communication is impactful because, in a large country like India, it is not easy for people to meet their elected representatives, he explains. “The youth see him as a formidable and influential leader compared to other politicians.”

However, Satish Misra, a political analyst and a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) doesn’t think the BJP’s tactics for appealing to young people will override their concerns with the state of the economy. Misra tells The Independent that first-time voters “may not feel comfortable with the current political scenario” in the country. He thinks that could affect the election.

There is high unemployment, a major issue among young people entering the jobs market. According to the latest data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment was 6.8 per cent in January this year. Despite a minor improvement from 8.7 per cent in December, these figures highlight a persistently troubled job market.

Unemployment among people aged 20 to 30 surged in the October-December quarter of 2023. For those aged 20 to 24, unemployment rose to 44.49 per cent from 43.65 per cent in the July-September quarter. For the 25-to-29 age group, unemployment increased to 14.33 per cent from 13.35 per cent in the previous quarter.

At a voting station in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, where polls were conducted during the first phase of the general elections last month, first-time voter Sakshi Verma, 22, tells The Independent that it was a mix of her family’s voting history and social media that helped her make up her mind who to support. She says she voted for the BJP as she felt women were safer in the city now.

Asked whether she felt empowered as a young person to vote differently from her family if she wanted to, she said: “Yes, I think so.”

Her understanding of politics has come from her family though, she admitted. “I listen to my family. We voted for the same party. I see that women feel safe now, there is development.”

While Verma might have voted the same way as her family, more young people than ever in this election will be influenced by what they see online and – given the huge popularity and relative affordability of Indian cinema – what they see on the big screen,

The BJP has a track record under Modi of using cinema to propagate its ideology, or to stir up nationalistic fervour. Films supporting the BJP’s viewpoint receive tax breaks and regulatory leniency, and are strategically released shortly before elections. The blockbuster biopic Swatantrya Veer Savarkar was released on 22 March and features a glowing portrayal of Savarkar, an early 20th century ideologue usually referred to as the father of Hindu nationalism.

Under Modi, films supporting the government in power focus on its welfare initiatives, as well as themes of Hindu nationalism and Hindu-Muslim tensions. For example, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, aligned Modi with sanitation reforms, and the prime minister publicly praised The Kashmir Files, a historical drama which negatively portrays Kashmiri Muslims.

Nandini Raj, programme officer with the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), believes that accurate information provided through social and traditional mass media for young voters is crucial, as they will otherwise simply be influenced by their family background and community relationships. She believes that “to increase the interest of young voters in politics, the political parties should give tickets to young candidates, too”.

She tells The Independent parties should “engage the youth in manifestoes targeting the youth”. She suggests that “political parties can hire more youth for social media management, consultancy, campaign management etc” in order to do so – something the BJP is seen as leading the way on.

Raj notes how politicians are using modern strategies, such as podcasts and YouTube videos, to establish relatability and a personal connection with young voters. “By collaborating on these platforms, politicians aim to convey their messages in ways that resonate more effectively with younger audiences.”

Investment by political parties in such strategies is only likely to grow in the years to come, with Misra noting that while cinema has long been the obvious route for party propaganda, a number of such films this year have flopped at the box office, suggesting they no longer have the same resonance with their audience.

Snigdha Poonam, author of Dreamers, How Young Indians Are Changing Their World, believes that complex forces drive political decisions among young people. She recently produced an exhibition entitled 2024: Notes from a Generation, a series of portraits and accompanying soundscapes capturing the voices of India’s youth, exploring their experiences and aspirations amid the backdrop of significant political and social shifts in the country.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement every election cycle about where the young voters stand because people expect that they will be thinking in a different way about the direction in which the country’s going, being the generation that has the most at stake when it comes to India’s future,” she says.

“I’ve found that young people’s voting choices are very heavily influenced by their families’ voting history and community relations, so to expect that youth in India is a voting bloc looking at its own issues or concerns independent of affinities based on caste or region or religion is somewhat unrealistic.”

But she says that she is noticing a small trend that “young women are becoming more vocal about issues, particularly their frustration with the BJP not doing enough to uphold constitutional values or dismantle the caste system or patriarchy”, which may influence their voting behaviour differently from young men.
Modi’s India is Already on a Collision Course with the West (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/28/2024 6:57 AM, Mohamed Zeeshan, 847K, Neutral]
Several years ago, India’s then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to the United States, then led by President Barack Obama. Singh was hosted for the first state dinner of the Obama presidency. The two leaders argued that theirs was not merely a strategic relationship between two governments; it was a policy response to an ongoing love affair between two peoples.

“I think that the United States and India are natural allies,” Obama said. “We have a range of shared values and ideals. We’re both entrepreneurial societies. We’re both multiethnic societies. We are societies that believe in human rights and core freedoms that are enshrined in our founding documents.”

Singh concurred. “When India and the United States meet, it is a moment to celebrate the values of democracy, pluralism, liberty, and freedom,” he said. “In our discussions today, there was a meeting of minds.”

Fifteen years later, New Delhi has largely dispensed of this “meeting of minds.” Instead, it has adopted a frontal attack on the West and what it perceives as the West’s hegemony of the world.

The immediate context is a clash over values. Amid India’s ongoing parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has come under sharp criticism from abroad for restrictions on the press, the imprisonment of political opponents, and hate speech against India’s Muslims.

In March, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, delivered an unflattering appraisal. “I appreciate the country’s secular and democratic traditions and its great diversity,” he said. “I am, however, concerned by increasing restrictions on the civic space — with human rights defenders, journalists and perceived critics targeted — as well as by hate speech and discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims.”

Last week, an organization affiliated with the U.N. in Geneva deferred the accreditation of India’s National Human Rights Commission over concerns of political interference in its functioning and lack of representation of minorities. The deferment could have consequences for the commission’s ability to represent India at the U.N. Human Rights Council or hold governance positions in that organization.

These developments followed a steady downgrading of India’s democracy on various parameters of freedom and institutional independence by multiple organizations based in the West. In its latest report, released this March, Sweden’s V-Dem Institute called India “one of the worst autocratizers.” The following month, the U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report cited “significant human rights issues” in India’s conflict-stricken northeastern state of Manipur.

Reprimands from abroad sit uneasily with Modi’s election campaign. Over the last several months, starting with India’s presidency of the G-20 last year, Modi has sought to convince voters that he has improved India’s reputation and stature on the world stage. If institutions in the West regularly upbraid New Delhi, that would be inconsistent with Modi’s message.

In that context, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has adopted increasingly bellicose rhetoric against the West to discredit its criticism. “Western countries actually feel that they have influenced the world for the last 200-300 years,” Jaishankar said most recently. “How do you expect someone who has been in that position to give up those old habits so easily? [The Western media] will reputationally damage you, they will bring out an index and put you down.”

It would be easy to write off Jaishankar’s strident rhetoric as the product of electioneering, but that would be inaccurate. For years, Jaishankar has been arguing that powerful political interest groups in the West are arranged against India. In the aftermath of a controversial BBC documentary on Modi last year, Jaishankar accused the West of engaging in “politics by other means.” The West is invested in shaping “a very extremist image of India, of the government, of the Prime Minister,” Jaishankar said. “This has been going on for a decade.”

Jaishankar’s criticism of the West echoes the complaints one often hears in Beijing and Moscow because it reflects a very similar frustration: that a Hindu nationalist India may never achieve power and recognition in a world still dominated by the West and its institutions.

This is a new turn for India’s foreign policy. New Delhi has always argued for multipolarity under successive governments in an effort to raise its own profile. Yet, at least since the turn of the century, it has rarely argued for the upturning of Western hegemony the way China or Russia have long done.

Instead, in the aftermath of the landmark nuclear deal with the U.S., India saw Western hegemony as a possible vehicle for its own admission into the ranks of global powers. India widely marketed its credentials as a liberal, multicultural democracy in a very Western sense and lobbied for support in Europe and America for its inclusion in the world’s decision-making councils. The argument was that since India practices the same values as the West, it would likely pursue the same global outcomes as the West.

Multilateral institutions built by the West appeared to support that assessment. Take India’s National Human Rights Commission, for instance, which failed to win accreditation at the U.N. this month. In 2006, India’s commission was given the highest grade for compliance with international standards for institutional independence and effectiveness. That grade was reaffirmed upon periodic review in 2011. But starting from 2016, two years after Modi came to power, India’s rating became a matter of controversy, culminating in the ongoing crisis.

New Delhi therefore sees the proliferation of liberal norms and the Western world order as a direct threat to the success of Hindu nationalism. As civil society institutions and multilateral agencies based in the West publicly call India’s democratic credentials into question, the Modi government will look to push back by discrediting the U.S. and its global hegemony.

India’s democracy was once feted by the West as a model for the developing world. Now, it is increasingly treated as a has-been. That puts India on a collision course with the West’s global interests.
India, Iran, and the Taliban’s Gamble on Chabahar (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/28/2024 8:55 AM, Shanthie Mariet D’Souza, 847K, Neutral]
India is trying to breathe life into Iran’s long delayed Chabahar port. India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) and the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran signed a 10-year deal on May 13 that allows New Delhi to develop and operate the Iranian port of Chabahar. Under the agreement, IPGL will invest about $120 million while there will be an additional $250 million in financing, bringing the contract’s value to $370 million.

The “Chabahar Agreement” to establish an international transport and transit corridor between India, Afghanistan, and Iran goes back to May 2016. The agreement sought to use the port not only to transport and transit goods and passengers among all these three countries but also to attract the transit of goods and passengers from other countries. Then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the first phase of the Chabahar Port in December 2017. The IPGL first took over operations of the port at the end of 2018 and has since handled container traffic of more than 90,000 TEUs with bulk and general cargo of more than 8.4 million tonnes.

The Trump administration issued a waiver in 2018 that exempted Chabahar from U.S. sanctions to enable the port’s use to aid Afghan reconstruction efforts. At the time, a State Department spokesman said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s “South Asia strategy underscores our ongoing support of Afghanistan’s economic growth and development as well as our close partnership with India.”

“This exception relates to reconstruction assistance and economic development for Afghanistan. These activities are vital for the ongoing support of Afghanistan’s growth and humanitarian relief,” the spokesman added.

Responding to the recent agreement, however, the United States has sounded a word of caution, indicating the Indian company IPGL is liable to be sanctioned if it goes ahead with the investment.

American considerations regarding Chabahar have changed since it exited Afghanistan in August 2021. Washington has no plans to recognize the Taliban-led regime that replaced the Republic government and has worked on a strategy that applies financial pressure in the hopes of shifting the Taliban’s regressive policies. Although such a strategy has not yielded any results, the activation of Chabahar as a major trade and transit hub that the Taliban can benefit from potentially further diminishes the prospects of the U.S. strategy.

For India, on the other hand, Chabahar is a project that provides multiple benefits. It is about maintaining its historical ties with Iran, which had been damaged to an extent as the Indian import of Iranian oil had dried up and their policies on a host of matters have diverged. It is about also activating the dormant International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) that aims at facilitating trade between India, Iran, Russia, and several Central Asian and West Asian states. With the India-Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC) project unveiled with much enthusiasm in 2023 being almost given up for dead amid Israel’s war in Gaza and negotiations for free trade agreements with the EU and U.K. stuck in limbo, India’s need for alternate trade routes has grown immensely.

Chabahar is also about India reinventing itself in Afghanistan, much in the same manner it did for two decades between 2001 and 2021, building close relations with the Republic government and with common Afghans. One of the crucial aspects of the 2016 Chabahar agreement was to provide land-locked Afghanistan “access to open seas,” bypassing Pakistan’s Karachi and Gwadar ports. Pakistan has over the decades repeatedly closed its borders to Afghanistan, denying the country access to the sea and trade and transit opportunities with India and South Asia. The same has become relevant yet again in the light of difficult Afghanistan-Pakistan relations.

The groundwork to reactivate Chabahar to provide an alternate route has been laid through numerous negotiations, both overt and behind the scenes.

In the past few months, India’s proximity to the Taliban has grown, corresponding with plummeting Afghanistan-Pakistan relations and also turbulent Tehran-Islamabad ties. Taliban officials have spoken publicly about disconnecting from “a country [i.e. Pakistan] that has been heavily involved in Afghanistan’s affairs.” During the March 2024 meeting between Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, and J.P. Singh, the head of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Division of India’s Foreign Ministry, in Kabul, Chabahar came up for discussion. A statement from the Taliban Foreign Ministry on March 28 specifically mentioned India’s “support for bolstering trade between the two nations via the Chabahar port.” Earlier that month, the Taliban announced its plan to invest around $35 million in Chabahar port.

Indian, as well as Iranian, approaches toward the Taliban have converged on engagement with the Islamic Emirate. It isn’t difficult, therefore, to see that New Delhi, Tehran, and Kabul are trying to overcome the sense of déjà vu by implementing the original Chabahar plan. Even if this entails going ahead with the deal without express endorsement from the United States, these regional players are willing to risk a gamble on the regional chess board.

Backchannel diplomacy and robust strategic ties between India and the U.S. have allowed New Delhi to bypass U.S. sanctions while importing S-400 missiles and subsequently oil from Russia. This time too, New Delhi remains confident it will be able to, in the words of the Indian foreign minister, “communicate, convince and get” the United States’ hushed nod on the Chabahar deal, so that IPGL won’t be sanctioned. New Delhi remains a critical partner for the U.S. in its growing competition with China and Washington would avoid harsh measures, especially in an election year. More importantly, in time of shifting regional alignments and alliances, India and the United States will have to navigate a complex and difficult regional terrain as they look toward avenues for building a stronger strategic partnership.
NSB
Counting cyclone losses, Bangladeshis call for more climate action (Reuters)
Reuters [5/28/2024 12:04 PM, Md. Tahmid Zami, 82990K, Negative]
As Bangladeshis count their losses from the cyclone that lashed low-lying coastal areas on Sunday, calls are growing for the government to bolster storm defences and aid mechanisms as extreme weather becomes more common.

Strong gales and heavy rain triggered by Remal, the first major cyclone of the year, pounded the coastlines of India and Bangladesh on Monday, killing at least 16 people, cutting power to millions and wrecking homes and livelihoods.

Tens of thousands of cyclone-response volunteers helped in the evacuation of almost a million people to storm shelters in Bangladesh following a warning by the country’s meteorological office, helping to limit the death toll.

But the cyclone caused multimillion-dollar economic losses, dealing a heavy blow to about 350,000 shrimp-farming families affected by the monsoon surge, said Abdullah Al-Mamun, professor of fisheries and marine science at Noakhali Science and Technology University.

Ripon Chandra Das, a student from the hard-hit southern region of Dacope, said the monsoon surge had swept away the coastal fish and shrimp ponds of hundreds of families in his village.

"All the ponds and enclosures were swamped by the torrent, flushing out the fish and shrimplings that farmers had introduced not so long ago," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from his village of Joynagar.

Remal caused fisheries losses estimated at about 1.7 billion taka ($14.55 million), local media reported.

In Batabunia, which lies in the same district as Joynagar, the village market was completely smashed by the cyclone, said Achyut Prasad, a health professional from the area.

Across the country, nearly 35,000 homes were destroyed and another 115,000 damaged, a government official said.

CALLS FOR COMPENSATION

Cyclone Remal is the first of the frequent storms expected to pound the low-lying coasts of India and Bangladesh this year as climate change drives up surface temperatures at sea.

In Bangladesh, the storm’s devastation is a fresh blow for poor rural families who have been forced to switch to fish and shrimp farming due to the impact of increasing drought, heat and soil salinity on agriculture.

Researchers say saline build-up is growing in the country’s coastal regions - spurred by various factors including rising seas.

Many villagers invested their savings and took on debt to build fish ponds washed away by the tidal surge, Chandra Das said.

Maksudur Rahman, head of local development organisation Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) near the Sundarbans area, said better maintenance of coastal embankments would help limit the damage from storm surges.

He suggested the government provide funding to local shrimp and fish farmers to help them build higher embankments around their low-lying aquaculture sites, and said the state must act to ensure more people receive compensation.

"We cannot expect more than 10% of the affected people to get compensation, as support is usually inadequate with lots of loopholes," he said.

Helping smallholder farmers and aquaculturists adapt their fields and fish ponds should be a priority for the government as the world tries to channel more climate finance to the poorest communities, Rahman said.

As well as raising coastal embankments, mangroves are a vital shield from storm surges, he added. Tree-planting programmes would also help as climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather.

While the government has a database of fish farmers, Mamun called for the use of artificial intelligence-powered tools to estimate the economic losses in order to channel state aid to the affected families.

"We have the tools and data to address these damages, but we need to put them together," he said.
Alarming levels of ‘forever chemicals’ found in water near Bangladesh garment factories (The Guardian)
The Guardian [5/29/2024 4:00 AM, Sarah Johnson, 83.6M, Negative]
Rivers, lakes and tap water in areas of Bangladesh that host garment factories are swarming with dangerous levels of toxic “forever chemicals”, some with links to serious health issues, according to new research.

In the first study of its kind conducted in Bangladesh, a global fashion hub supplying international brands, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals, were found in 27 water samples collected close to textile factories in the capital, Dhaka.

In many of the samples, taken in 2019 and 2022, PFAS levels were far above regulatory limits set in the EU and the US, while several contained one or more globally banned chemicals, according to the report by the Environment and Social Development Organization (Esdo) and Ipen, a network of NGOs.

PFAS are a family of about 10,000 chemicals that have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including certain cancers. They have been used in manufacturing and added to everyday consumer products since the 1950s.

They are called forever chemicals because scientists say they could take hundreds or even thousands of years to degrade after the products they were used in are thrown away. If PFAS leak into water, they could remain there for centuries. The textiles industry accounts for 50% of the total global use of PFAS.

“Bangladesh is an international textiles manufacturing hub, and the prevalence of toxic chemical emissions from this sector puts our residents at higher risk,” said Siddika Sultana, the executive director of Esdo in Bangladesh. “The fashion export industry should not get a free pass to contaminate our rivers, lakes and taps with PFAS.”

Certain PFAS have been banned globally under the Stockholm Convention, of which Bangladesh is a signatory, and others are under review. The global treaty aims to protect human health and the environment from the effects of persistent organic pollutants.

Of the 27 samples found with PFAS, 67% contained one or more globally banned PFAS chemicals. Samples with high levels were common in areas near textiles factories, suggesting that the industry may be a significant source of water pollution. Samples taken in two waterways downstream from large factories in 2022 showed higher levels of PFAS than samples taken upstream.

The highest PFAS levels were detected in water taken from the Karnatali River at more than 300 times the proposed EU limit. The sample had the highest level of two banned PFAS. These were more than 1,700 times higher than a Dutch advisory limit for perfluorooctanoic acid and more than 54,000 times higher than the limit for perfluorooctane sulfonate.

Bangladesh has no specific regulations for PFAS so the study compared findings with standards in the EU, the Netherlands and the US.

Shahriar Hossain, a lead author of the study, said: “Bangladesh is a small country with a large population. The water bodies are major sources of irrigation, agriculture, industrial development and drinking water. We found that water is contaminated with highly toxic chemicals, and consider this a big problem that needs to be addressed.

“If Bangladesh is a signatory of the Stockholm Convention, it has an obligation to regulate PFAS.”
What Drives People From ‘Booming’ Bangladesh to Migrate? (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/28/2024 9:32 AM, Mubashar Hasan, 847K, Neutral]
Earlier this month, the governments of the United Kingdom and Bangladesh signed an agreement to expedite the return of failed Bangladeshi asylum seekers in the U.K. via a special fast-track process.

Last year, nearly 11,000 Bangladeshis entered on various visas into the U.K. and lodged asylum requests within 12 months of their arrival, adding to the burden on the British migration system.

Following the deal between Bangladesh and the U.K., British Minister of State for Countering Illegal Migration Michael Tomlinson boasted that “Bangladesh is a valued partner and it is fantastic that we are bolstering our ties with them on this and a range of other issues.”

Not only in Britain but in several European countries a record number of Bangladeshis — a whopping 40,000 — sought asylum in 2023. Instances of Bangladeshis trying to enter the United States illegally through the Mexico-U.S. border and Australia by boat have made it to the news in the past. In 2015, accounts of Bangladeshis and Rohingya crossing the seas in rickety boats drew attention to a humanitarian crisis in the high seas.

The news of an increasing number of Bangladeshis seeking asylum abroad through legal and illegal means is perplexing as Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is widely celebrated for its economic growth.

Economists like Kaushik Basu have claimed that the Bangladeshi economy is booming and celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs observed that under Hasina’s leadership, Bangladesh has made tremendous gains towards achieving various sustainable development goals. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen even said that Bangladesh is ahead of India on many social indicators. Indeed, in 2026, Bangladesh is set to graduate from the list of least-developed countries.

In a nutshell, these narratives, mostly by non-Bangladeshi influential experts, who do not have lived experience in Bangladesh, point to a Bangladesh that is making exceptional progress.

Why then are hundreds and thousands of Bangladeshis seeking asylum abroad? Bangladesh is a relatively stable country with no ongoing war or armed conflict. Yet Bangladeshis are willing to risk long journeys through turbulent seas to seek asylum abroad. They top the list of people arriving by boat in Europe.

A study on Bangladeshis taking boats to migrate illegally into other countries identified the rise of people-smuggling networks, climate change, economic inequality, and political repression as key drivers of people’s outbound journey. In recent years, however, economic inequality and political persecution have become key drivers behind people seeking asylum abroad.

While many researchers agree that not all the cases of Bangladeshis seeking asylum abroad are genuine, informed sources told The Diplomat that many Bangladeshi opposition leaders, dissenters, government critics, and activists sought asylum in European countries, Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Malaysia, and Australia to flee persecution at home. Simultaneously, the Bangladeshi diaspora media and opposition activism got traction over the years.

Bangladesh has not seen a free and fair election since 2008. Elections under the ruling Awami League in 2013, 2018, and 2024 were deeply flawed and criticized by the liberal democracies. The erosion of democracy in Bangladesh has made an impact on the situation of human rights and political repression of the opposition.

Almost 2.5 million Bangladeshi opposition activists are reportedly facing multiple judicial cases against them. Over 2,500 people were extrajudicially murdered by the state forces between 2009-2022, and over 600 people forcefully disappeared, according to allegations of various human rights groups. The 2024 World Press Freedom Index ranks Bangladesh at 165 out of 180 countries. Even media in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which stands at 162, are freer than in Bangladesh, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Against this backdrop, in 2021, the United States imposed human rights sanctions using the Magnitsky Act against the Bangladeshi elite force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and six RAB officials, including current and immediate past heads of the Bangladesh police. Recently, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the previous Army Chief General Aziz and his immediate family members on charges of serious corruption and for undermining democracy in Bangladesh.

Saimum Parvez, a Marie Curie Fellow of Political Science at Vrije University in Brussels, has been interviewing Bangladeshi migrants who arrived in European and British cities, including London, Bradford, Rome, Bonn, and Berlin, as part of his research project that also investigates why Bangladeshis come to Europe.

Saimum told The Diplomat that many migrants he interviewed told him that they had fled ongoing political persecution of the opposition in Bangladesh. “Many members of law enforcing agencies in conjunction with the ruling party members threatened to torture, imprison, and file fabricated cases against the migrants I interviewed,” Saimum said.

Many opted for illegal migration after a cost-benefit analysis of whether to stay at home and face relentless political persecution or migrate abroad. However, it should be noted that while many Bangladeshis sought political asylum to flee persecution at home, a significant number are economic migrants trying to exploit the asylum system of other countries by citing Bangladesh’s poor record in human rights and democracy.

Nevertheless, the fate of these Bangladeshi economic migrants is tied to the politics in Bangladesh, as an authoritarian style governance of the economy in the country has resulted in producing a new nouveau riche – politically connected businessmen, politicians and public servants – while the majority are struggling to make ends meet.

In other words, authoritarian politics has become economically lucrative for certain groups of people and contributed to rising inequality, pushing hundreds of thousands out of the economic growth bubble. Feeling hopeless in their homes, many opted to work and settle abroad legally and illegally.

The Bangladesh-U.K. agreement underscores the fact that authoritarian politics in Bangladesh is not without worrying implications for developed countries too.
China helps Nepal look for oil, vying with India for influence in Himalayan nation (South China Morning Post)
South China Morning Post [5/28/2024 11:00 AM, Laura Zhou, 9587K, Neutral]
China is helping Nepal look for oil as Beijing seeks to strengthen bilateral ties and competes with India for influence with the Himalayan neighbour.

A team of about 20 Chinese engineers and 45 Nepali technicians began a six-month drilling campaign in Dailekh, Nepal earlier this month, according to the Nepali-language newspaper Kantipur.

Financed by the Chinese government, which also provided technical help, the campaign is part of an agreement between China and Nepal signed in 2007. Drilling is expected to reach as deep as 4km (2.5 miles) below ground to determine oil and gas reserves.

It will be the first oil and gas exploration in the Himalayan country since 1985 when a similar mission in southern Nepal yielded no results.

Observers see the latest project as an attempt by Nepal to reduce its reliance on India for the fossil fuel.

“Nepal’s dependence on India for oil has long been a strategic vulnerability, often subject to political and logistical challenges,” said Narayani Sritharan, a research fellow at the Global Research Institute at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

“If successful, this could significantly reduce Nepal’s reliance on Indian oil imports, enhancing its energy security and economic independence.”

Liu Zongyi, a senior fellow with the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said Nepal might take a “more balanced approach” in its pursuit of a foreign policy of non-alignment if it becomes more self-sufficient in energy supply.

“Nepal is now too dependent on India for energy and trade, and one result of that is that India has enormous influence on Nepal’s domestic and foreign policy even though Nepal has opted for a trend of hedging with both neighbours,” Liu said.

“But self-sufficiency in energy may help Nepal adopt a more balanced approach between India and China.”

Landlocked Nepal has no known oil or gas reserves. Kathmandu invited foreign oil companies to look for resources in 1985. They conducted a seismic survey and drilled a 3,520-metre (11,549-foot) test well that turned out to be dry. No investors have shown interest since a joint team by Shell and Triton Energy withdrew in 1990.

In 2015, Nepal was hit by a serious energy crisis triggered by what Kathmandu has called an undeclared blockade by New Delhi. Nepal accused India of imposing the blockade because of the latter’s dissatisfaction over the new Nepalese constitution. India has denied it imposed the blockade.

To alleviate fuel shortages, Nepal turned to China in December of that year. Beijing agreed to grant 1.4 million litres of fuel worth 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) to Nepal, and the state-owned PetroChina signed an agreement with Nepal Oil Corporation to export fuel to the Himalayan country, effectively ending India’s four-decade-long monopoly on fuel in the country.

During a 2007 visit by then-prime minister KP Sharma Oli, Beijing signed an agreement with Kathmandu to help Nepal in oil exploration. A decade later in 2017, China and Nepal agreed to jointly carry out a feasibility study for oil and gas exploration after a visit to Kathmandu by then vice-premier Wang Yang.

In 2019, a technical team with China Geological Survey carried out a technical study and later identified drilling spots in Dailekh, where a series of oil and gas seeps were discovered. However, further exploration was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saurav Dahal, a geopolitical analyst in Kathmandu, said that the 2015 blockade was a “wake-up call” for Nepal.

“Since then, Nepal has sought to diversify its oil and trade dependencies through various agreements with China.”

Sritharan, who researches China as a non-traditional aid donor in developing countries, said that while the exploration initiative, which involved substantial Chinese support, could deepen Nepal’s ties with Beijing, “this collaboration may be perceived by India as a strategic move by China to increase its influence in Nepal, potentially heightening geopolitical tensions”.

“However, successful oil exploration could also provide Nepal with greater leverage to negotiate with both neighbours, balancing its foreign relations more effectively.”

Sitting between geopolitical rivals China and India, Nepal, a country of 30 million people, has been long considered by India as part of its sphere of influence. But China has made inroads in recent decades with increasing investment, from highways, airports and power plants to factories and schools.

In 2010, China granted zero-tariff treatment to more than 8,000 Nepali products.

In 2016, Beijing and Kathmandu signed a transit and transport agreement allowing Nepal to use Chinese ports for third country trade. And in 2018, Nepal-China Optical Fibre Link started operation, ending Nepal’s dependence on India for internet services.

In another sign of Beijing’s growing influence, China and Nepal settled a long-running dispute in 2020 by agreeing on the height of Mount Everest, which straddles the border between the two countries.

In 2022, the two sides carried out a joint feasibility study for the 170km (106-mile) Trans-Himalayan Tibet-Nepal railway to link Gyirong county in southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region to Kathmandu. The project is part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s strategy to build global trade and infrastructure links. Nepal signed on to the initiative in 2017.

However, uncertainties about the future of China’s ties with Nepal have emerged in recent years.

In 2022, Nepal decided to accept a US$500 million grant from Washington’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), part of Washington’s foreign-aid apparatus seen as an attempt to rival China’s initiative.

A month later, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi travelled to Kathmandu, where his Nepali counterpart Narayan Khadka promised that Nepal would “not allow any activity against China on Nepali territory”.

As Nepal grapples with its economic woes such as a poor job market, inflation and corruption, there have been growing calls in the Himalayan country to rethink its deals with its global partners, including China.

Dahal said he was cautious against excessive optimism about Chinese-led projects in Nepal.

The belt and road agreement between China and Nepal, for instance, had been in limbo over a couple of issues such as funding modality and interest rates since its signing in 2017, he said.

“If implemented correctly, [Belt and Road Initiative] could bring significant benefits to Nepal. However, there has been no progress over the years,” he said.

“We in Nepal hope that both the ongoing oil exploration and the historic oil trade agreement of 2016 and other major agreements like the [Belt and Road Initiative] will come to fruition sooner rather than later.”
Nepal’s Deputy PM Crosses Swords With Largest Media House (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/28/2024 7:11 AM, Santosh Sharma Poudel, 847K, Neutral]
On May 21, Kailash Sirohiya, chairman of the Kantipur Media Group (KMG), the largest and most influential private media house in Nepal, was arrested at the KMG headquarters. The district court of Dhanusha had issued an arrest warrant against him on the charge that he was using multiple citizenship certificates.

Sirohiya issued a 10-point clarification, saying the case against him had no merit. There was no need for his arrest, he said, as he would have been present at the court had the authority written him a letter to do so. He squarely blamed the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, saying, “This is pure vengeance against the news coverage on Lamichhane’s dual citizenship, holding passports of two different countries and embezzlement of savings of depositors of multiple cooperatives.” He alleged that the case was filed on Lamichhane’s behest by his party cadre.

Reaction to Sirohiya’s arrest was swift.

Thirty-one editors of various news organizations in Nepal wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alleging that Sirohiya’s “arrest from inside a media house was intended to create pressure and fear on the press.” They accused Lamichhane of attacking the media for their reporting on the cooperative fraud, where Lamichhane and his partner were accused of misappropriating $7.5 million.

Asia News Network, an alliance of 20 leading media outlets representing 19 countries, wrote a letter to Dahal expressing concern over “media intimidation.” The Network warned that Sirohiya’s arrest for his media house’s investigation into the conduct of a politician [Lamichhane] impairs Nepal’s reputation as a democratic country.

Nepal Human Rights Commission called on the government to respect press freedom. Asian Human Rights Commission described the arrest as “personal vendetta [of Lamichhane] against the media.” It further warned that media suppression attempts are unlikely to end at KMG.

Amnesty International Secretary General pressed for Sirohiya’s immediate release. Former President Ram Baran Yadav was among several leaders who said the arrest was unconstitutional. The U.S. embassy urged the government and people of Nepal to have a “meaningful dialogue about how to ensure good governance, freedom of the press, and people’s fundamental rights.”

Lamichhane has denied the accusations of his involvement in the cooperative fraud. Instead, he lambasted the way the media has treated him, accusing them of running a “media trial” against him and his party, while ignoring accusations of corruption against the establishment leaders.

This is not the first tussle between Lamichhane and the KMG. His previous stint as Nepal’s deputy prime minister and home minister ended within a month in January 2023, owing to his dual citizenship. He had obtained American citizenship in 2014, which meant he renounced Nepali citizenship by default. He left his American citizenship in 2018 and was eligible for Nepali citizenship, yet he needed to go through due process.

In the interim, he used the invalidated citizenship certificate to obtain a Nepali passport. The Supreme Court of Nepal therefore scrapped his membership in parliament. After he secured Nepali citizenship again, he won a by-election by a record margin.

The KMG reported extensively on Lamichhane’s citizenship issues and was instrumental in bringing the case to national attention.

Upon his party’s pullout from the coalition government in February 2023, he lashed out at the mainstream media, particularly KMG. He accused the 12 establishment media houses of running like a cartel and that the political leaders were scared of them. He asserted that the media “influenced” the Supreme Court’s decision, and said that the fraternity of 12 influential media houses in Nepal were the real enemy of the people.

Ironically, Lamichhane gained national prominence as a straight-talking television presenter, unafraid to criticize the leaders or government.

In personally attacking KMG and Sirohiya, Lamichhane claimed that Sirohiya gets “golden shares” for every big business established in the country to ensure that KMG does not write against the establishment. He accused Sirohiya of running a fiefdom and warned that he would rally his supporters to “encircle” the media house if it continued spreading “falsehoods.”

Sirohiya vehemently denied the accusations and counterclaimed that Lamichhane was attempting to divert attention from his citizenship and passport issue.

Later, KMG was again critical in investigating and publishing reports about the alleged cooperative fraud involving Lamichhane, his partner at Galaxy Media Group, and even his family. It has captured national attention.

The main opposition party, Nepali Congress (NC), has used the issue to attack the ruling coalition, particularly Lamichhane. This has led to the government agreeing to form a high-level parliamentary committee to investigate the matter. Some details are yet to be worked out.

Lamichhane’s attack on the media shows that Nepali politicians are yet to fully internalize the concept of freedom of expression especially when they are at the receiving end of media criticism. While this is not an isolated incident, a celebrated former television presenter engaging in vendetta politics against his former fraternity with such vitriol is especially jarring.

As jarring is the way parties are willing to use an issue to remain in power or to gain power. On the one hand, the NC offered Lamichhane the prime ministerial portfolio if he partnered with the NC to form a government replacing Dahal as prime minister earlier this year. After Lamichhane chose to join Dahal’s coalition, NC relentlessly attacked his role in the cooperative fraud and prevented him from speaking in parliament as home minister for two months.

On the other hand, Dahal has remained mum to ensure the survival of his tenuous coalition. He does not want to push Lamichhane against the wall but is facing increasing pressure from the opposition and the public to address the massive cooperative fraud. Lamichhane’s Rashtriya Swatantra Party has become the coalition’s Achilles’ heel. Therefore, he is painstakingly negotiating with his coalition partners and the opposition to form an investigative committee but with a mandate that Lamichhane can also agree to.

Additionally, it also reveals Dahal’s limited power despite his heading the government. Khadga Prasad Oli retains significant influence because his party, the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist is the largest coalition partner by a distance. The ministries run by other coalition partners often run on the minister’s whim because they know they cannot be fired.

Dahal reportedly requested Lamichhane not to arrest Sirohiya “immediately” after the warrant was issued. Yet, Lamichhane chose to ignore his premier’s appeal. This shows the limited power Dahal wields in the government.

In saying that, this episode shows the robustness of the Nepali media landscape. It is chaotic, and some may serve the interests of a specific party or businessperson. Nevertheless, the sheer number and diversity have created a vigorous media scene. That, in itself, is an achievement for Nepali democracy.
Central Asia
Kazakhstan: Mayhem mars the end of the school year (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [5/28/2024 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Neutral]
Kazakh authorities, citing safety concerns, scaled back end-of-school-year festivities, known as the last bell. But such efforts failed to head off widespread incidents of violence and mayhem.

The school year ended May 25 for the country’s approximately 4 million schoolchildren, including 200,000 graduating high school seniors, according to the Ministry of Education. Increasing rowdiness in previous years prompted officials in April to ban the organization of end-of-school special events, including banquets and car caravans for graduates in honor of the ‘last bell.’ A more subdued celebration, dubbed class hour, was instituted for this year “to ensure the safety” of children. Class hour festivities featured opportunities for graduates to summarize their studies and discuss future plans.

“I am confident that this year’s graduates will hold this event at a highly cultural level, without frills, without pompous celebrations, at a spiritual and moral level,” said Minister of Education Gani Beisembayev, when announcing the change in plans.

The students, and their parents, had other ideas, however.

Flouting the ban, students around the country organized caravans, in which cars crammed with seniors careen about town honking horns and generally ignoring the rules of the road. In many cases students were drinking and driving. Police made dozens of arrests.

The ban on banquets and big parties was also roundly ignored. Authorities in the Mangystau region, for example, conducted multiple raids on illicit bashes, held in spaces rented by parents so that graduates could secretly celebrate.

A school principal in Mangystau, Askar Dosov, said that parents in his district signed a pledge to adhere to the government ban, only to ignore it. “It is you, parents, who [should] understand that all prohibitions are aimed solely at the safety of your children,” Dosov was quoted as saying by the Lada.kz news site.

Several instances of end-of-school-related violence have been reported. In Astana, a female graduate was reported to be in critical but stable condition after being stabbed by another student May 26.

On the same day, the Buzyq Telegram channel posted a video in which two graduates in Almaty were seen repeatedly punching and kicking what appears to be another student. One of the attackers was wearing a 2024 school graduate’s ribbon. According to police, the alleged attackers have been detained.
Former Deputy Chief Of Almaty City Police Detained In Torture Case (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [5/28/2024 11:26 AM, Staff, 1299K, Negative]
The Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office said on May 28 that the former deputy chief of the Almaty city police department, Berik Abilbekov, was detained as part of a case of torture during unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022 that turned deadly after security forces opened fire.

While the office provided no details, the media outlet Orda.kz cited lawyer Rena Kerimova, who represents popular Kyrgyz jazz musician Vikram Ruzakhunov, as saying that Abilbekov’s arrest was linked to the beating and torture of her client.

Ruzakhunov, who says he suffered a chest injury, broken ribs, a concussion, and multiple bruises while in Kazakh custody, visited Kazakhstan several times after Kazakh officials launched a probe into his beating in Almaty.

Ruzakhunov has said that four Kazakh police were detained in Almaty on suspicion of involvement in his beating.

Anti-government protests sparked by a fuel-price hike erupted in Kazakhstan in early January 2022. President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has publicly blamed what he said were “20,000 extremists” trained abroad for attacking Almaty during the unrest. He has not produced any evidence to back up the claim.

Ruzakhunov’s situation was amplified when a Kazakh television channel showed a video in which he said he was recruited by an unspecified group to take part in the unrest for $200.

In the video, severe bruises can be seen on Ruzakhunov’s face, which appear to back up his claims that he was forced to make the statement.

The video sparked protests in Kyrgyzstan, where Ruzakhunov was immediately recognized by his fans. He was freed several days after his arrest and allowed to go to Bishkek after the Kyrgyz government demanded his release.

Kazakh officials have said that six people were tortured to death after being arrested for taking part in the protests, and 238 people died during or after the unrest, which was violently dispersed by law enforcement and the armed forces.

The Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office has said 25 people were officially considered victims of torture as investigators used hot irons during their interrogations.

Human rights groups insist that the number of people killed during the unrest may be bigger, presenting proof that many peaceful demonstrators and persons who had nothing to do with the protesters were slain by police and military personnel following a "shoot-to-kill-without-warning" order issued by Toqaev.

After Ruzakhunov was released following the public outcry in Kyrgyzstan and returned from Kazakhstan to Bishkek, Kyrgyz authorities concluded that Kazakh police had inflicted severe injuries on Ruzakhunov’s body during his illegal arrest.
Jailed Kyrgyz Activists Demand Medical Checkups Fearing TB Outbreak (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [5/28/2024 11:10 AM, Staff, 1299K, Negative]
Eight jailed Kyrgyz activists and politicians on trial for protesting a Kyrgyz-Uzbek border deal issued a statement on May 28 urging authorities to organize immediate medical checkups for them after at least two inmates in their detention center were diagnosed with tuberculosis. The eight men were arrested in 2022 along with 19 other people and charged with organizing mass disorder and plotting to seize power after they protested the deal that saw Kyrgyzstan hand over the territory of the Kempir-Abad reservoir to Uzbekistan. Nineteen of the group were later transferred to house arrest.
State Projects and Proxies: All the President’s Men in Kyrgyzstan (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/28/2024 11:06 AM, Catherine Putz, 847K, Neutral]
Temirov Live, an investigative outlet and an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) member center, was investigating projects under the Kyrgyz Presidential Administrative Directorate when it was effectively shut down earlier this year, its employees jailed after a January raid. The raid came after years of pressure on Temirov Live that had peaked in November 2022 with its leader Bolot Temirov’s deportation after his being stripped of Kyrgyz citizenship (and that came after an ultimately failed effort to lock him up on drugs charges).

Curiously, each wave of pressure coincided with a new investigation by the outlet, often highlighting allegations of corruption linked to the government, families, and networks of President Sadyr Japarov and his security chief, Kamchybek Tashiev.

A newly released investigation conducted by OCCRP, in partnership with Temirov Live and another beleaguered independent Kyrgyz outlet, Kloop – titled “All the President’s Men” in OCCRP’s version and “The Khan’s Entire Army” by Kloop – proclaims in its introductory overview: “Now, we’re going to finish the work of those who can longer do journalism in Kyrgyzstan.”

The report alleges that dramatic changes made in April 2022 to Kyrgyzstan’s Law on Public Procurement, which allow state-owned enterprises to bypass tender procedures, decreased transparency in public spending and dovetailed with an ambitious series of state projects – projects that the reporters say “are being implemented by companies owned by people who appear to be close to the president himself.”

Since Japarov took power following the October 2020 revolution – before which he was serving a jail sentence – the president has centralized power in his administration’s hands, couching this power-grab as both increasing efficiency and as an effective anti-corruption effort. Japarov likes to take “personal control” of important projects.

The Presidential Administrative Directorate seems to be at the center of this effort, though arguably it has neither brought efficiency nor eliminated corruption. The directorate’s purpose is ostensibly to provide “financial, material-technical, transportation, social, recreational and medical support” to the president, but its remit has clearly expanded.

In the new investigation, the reporters identified at least 11 major projects initiated by the Japarov government being managed by the directorate – six of which come with a price tag of $137 million. “It was impossible to determine how much the government was spending on the other five,” the report said, noting increasingly scarce official procurement data and a lack of open records.

The reporters also found a network of five companies given contracts for the projects that all appear to be tied back to Japarov or the head of the Presidential Administrative Directorate, Kanybek Tumanbayev.

“There is no definitive evidence that Japarov has anything to do with the five companies, but the firms all have multiple connections to his family members and the head of his Presidential Administrative Directorate, raising serious questions about how he is allocating the contracts for major state projects — especially given Kyrgyzstan’s newfound lack of transparency,” the report stated.

One example: Module House engaged in work on several state projects, including building guest houses at Ala-Archa National Park and reconstructing the Jyrgalan resort in Issyk-Kul. The company was established by a former classmate of Tumanbayev who, the reporters note, had no other business interests. The company was then transferred to Elaman Toktobekov – a 24-year old rapper and a friend of the president’s son. A person named Kochkorbek Zhumanazarov was “identified by multiple sources as a person who helped Tumanbayev operate his businesses.” Zhumanazarov has been identified as the or co-owner of multiple companies tied to Tumanbayev by the investigation; he was also the director of a burger restaurant owned by Tumanbayev’s family.

Social media provided critical clues in lieu of official records. In a TikTok video, construction workers at the Jyrgalan resort addressed Japarov directly with complaints that they hadn’t been paid: “They continue to deceive us. What kind of firm this is… We can’t reach its management.”

The investigation notes that it’s not just the public who can’t figure out who is managing these state projects; it’s the government itself. When a decree was unexpectedly posted online in August 2023 revealed that the company building the new Presidential Palace would receive three plots of land in the south of Bishkek, Radio Azattyk reported the estimated value of the land at $77 million. Reacting to the news, Dastan Bekeshev, a notably outspoken member of parliament, posted online: “[We] still don’t know how much money was taken from the budget to begin the construction… [but] you might have a heart attack… For your own health, information about the actual expenditure on the construction of the Presidential Palace is classified.”

This most recent OCCRP, Temirov Live, and Kloop investigation is yet another glimpse into the ways informal networks have hollowed out the Kyrgyz state.

In the May issue of The Diplomat Magazine, Aksana Ismailbekova argued that the strength of the Japarov-Tashiev tandem is rooted in “its ability to accumulate money and use that money to secure power, and not just by simple bribery.”

Ismailbekova went on to explain:

Money plays a crucial role in the political system of Kyrgyzstan, as it enables Japarov and Tashiev to centralize power in their hands. Money – metaphorically speaking – has become the “heart” of Japarov and Tashiev’s tandem. Money allows them to carry on strengthening their authoritarian aims, and money may enable them to stay in the power for a long time.

“Of course” – this is what my interviewees all say when I ask them whether Japarov and Tashiev are amassing wealth, and if money is at the core of their tandem. “Of course they are.” Of course it is.

Eliminating transparency mechanisms – like open tenders for state-funded projects and independent journalism – is arguably a necessary step to protect that wealth.
Twitter
Afghanistan
SIGAR
@SIGARHQ
[5/29/2024 3:00 AM, 170.3K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
First two wild #poliovirus cases of 2024 reported in #Afghanistan last quarter, one each from Kunar and Nuristan Provinces, and 15 positive environmental samples (a key polio surveillance indicator) were found https://sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2024-04-30qr.pdf#page=56
Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[5/29/2024 2:43 AM, 6.7M followers, 77 retweets, 192 likes]
Today Pakistan joins the international community in honoring UN peacekeepers. UN missions have been critical in maintaining peace and protecting civilians in conflict zones. Special gratitude to Pakistani peacekeepers who have made significant contributions. 230k military personnel, including our brave Pakistani female peacekeepers, have made the nation proud since 64 years of our commitment to the UN peacekeeping. Among these were 181 martyrs who sacrificed their lives for global peace, we also pay tribute to them. Their selfless act of courage and sacrifice will forever be etched in our hearts.
Pakistan remains committed to its pursuit for peace and justice and today we reaffirm our resolve to build a future where peace prevails and humanity thrives.

Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[5/28/2024 8:14 AM, 6.7M followers, 882 retweets, 2.8K likes]
Deeply concerned by the disturbing developments in Rafah. Pakistan strongly condemns Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment that has led to heavy casualties. It is deplorable that international law is being repeatedly violated, despite ICJ’s recent clear verdict against Israel. The international community, particularly the UN, must play its part in protecting civilians from such brutal aggression.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[5/28/2024 10:51 AM, 478.7K followers, 24 retweets, 40 likes]
A symposium and exhibition, titled “From Gandhara to the World” is being held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad in connection with the ‘Vesak Day’, which commemorates Lord Buddha’s birth and enlightenment. Islamabad-based diplomats, government functionaries, scholars, artists and art lovers are attending the symposium. Foreign delegates include Ministerial level participants from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. The Symposium showcases Pakistan’s rich cultural heritage, and the rich history and contributions of Gandhara civilization in the spread of Buddhism. The panelists will underscore the importance of inter-faith harmony and inter-cultural dialogue and explore opportunities of cooperation and engagement.

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[5/28/2024 3:18 AM, 73.4K followers, 64 retweets, 174 likes]
Pakistan has given consular access to India for 2 alleged Indian spies, who were arrested from Gilgit Baltistan on charges of spying — The consular access meeting took place on Monday, per sources. #Pakistan #India
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/29/2024 2:41 AM, 98M followers, 919 retweets, 3.9K likes]
In this interview with @CNNnews18’s @_pallavighosh, I speak about the corruption, bullying and misgovernance of TMC. Have also highlighted what we will do for the people of West Bengal. https://x.com/i/status/1795484010749300983

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/29/2024 2:40 AM, 98M followers, 595 retweets, 2.4K likes]
In the midst of the Kolkata roadshow, spoke to @BanglaRepublic on the political scenario in West Bengal and why BJP is headed for a big win here. https://x.com/i/status/1795471655952887920

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:17 PM, 98M followers, 5K retweets, 30K likes]
Today’s roadshow ended at the Vivekananda Museum, Ramakrishna Mission. This is the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda. Every Indian is proud of the service initiated by the Mission.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 947 retweets, 2.7K likes]
Over the last decade, the Government of India has made many efforts to enhance Kolkata’s progress. A large part of these works relate to connectivity. Just two months ago, projects worth over Rs. 35,000 crore were either inaugurated or their foundation stones were laid.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 227 retweets, 508 likes]
We’ve done significant work to improve metro connectivity for Kolkata. Recently, Kolkata metro had India’s first underwater transportation tunnel inaugurated. New stretches of the metro have also been periodically inaugurated, which have boosted ‘Ease of Living’ for the people.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 240 retweets, 531 likes]
In line with our vision for port-led development, we have worked to improve the infrastructure at the Kolkata Port. In March this year, key projects were dedicated to the nation which will boost efficiency. Work is underway to improve Berths as well.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 246 retweets, 533 likes]
NDA is committed to focusing on other aspects of Kolkata’s governance, such as improving rail and aviation-related infrastructure. We also want to work towards ensuring proper housing facilities for those who have not yet got them under PM-Awas Yojana.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 247 retweets, 552 likes]
Kolkata is known for its love of culture and literature. As we have done over the last decade, inspired by the Mantra of ‘Vikas Bhi Virasat Bhi’, we will work to celebrate local culture and boost tourism to Kolkata and West Bengal. We will make all possible efforts to popularise the local heritage and upgrade related infrastructure while at the same time preserving its historical nature.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 840 retweets, 2.1K likes]
West Bengal’s Nari Shakti has been the biggest sufferer of TMC’s misgovernance. They don’t get access to development funds, and the issue of women’s safety is also a matter of concern. A vote for the BJP is a vote for transparent governance and a vote to ensure anti-social elements patronised by TMC are kept under check.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/28/2024 12:08 PM, 98M followers, 847 retweets, 2.3K likes]
For decades, Left and TMC leaders have ignored Kolkata’s progress. TMC has reduced municipal administration to a way of making money. This rampant corruption has affected common citizens. They are fed up of the Left, TMC and Congress. I am confident Kolkata will elect the BJP this time.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[5/28/2024 10:32 PM, 3.1M followers, 209 retweets, 1.5K likes]
On the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, salute the valour of the brave men and women who dedicate themselves to maintaining peace and security in regions affected by conflict. Honour especially memory of those who have made the supreme sacrifice in carrying out the cause of @UNPeacekeeping.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[5/28/2024 7:54 AM, 3.1M followers, 169 retweets, 1.1K likes]
A great interaction on Viksit Bharat@2047 in Shimla this afternoon. Viksit Bharat is a goal that will be a reality for our next generation. However, it will not happen on its own. The quest for a developed and inclusive Bharat requires a Government that has vision and leadership. One that inspires confidence amongst the people. For reaching those goals, we espouse a ‘Bharat First’ approach as well as a Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam outlook. That is how we will be seen as Vishwa Bandhu by the world.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[5/28/2024 7:26 AM, 3.1M followers, 123 retweets, 892 likes]
An open exchange of views with media professionals of Himachal Pradesh in Shimla earlier today. Good discussion on the transformation in India over the last decade and plans that Modi 3.0 will be implementing soon.
NSB
Awami League
@albd1971
[5/29/2024 1:34 AM, 637.8K followers, 9 retweets, 22 likes]
Prime Minister #SheikhHasina has directed the authorities to speedily repair the embankments damaged by #cycloneRemal in the coastal areas. She also directed for ensuring #safewater in the cyclone-affected areas so that #waterborne diseases could not spread. https://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/repair-quickly-embankments-damaged-by-cyclone-remal-pm-hasina-asks-authorities/136381

Awami League
@albd1971
[5/28/2024 9:24 AM, 637.8K followers, 39 retweets, 111 likes]
Prime Minister #SheikhHasina will visit Patuakhali to see how the coastal district has been affected by #cycloneRemal. The cyclone hit the country yesterday and left a trail of devastation in the coastal districts. It completely destroyed more than 35,000 houses and killed at least 12 people across #Bangladesh. More than 37.58 lakh people were affected by the cyclone. https://en.somoynews.tv/news/2024-05-28/cyclone-remal-pm-to-visit-patuakhali-on-thursday

Awami League
@albd1971
[5/28/2024 7:31 AM, 637.8K followers, 29 retweets, 54 likes]
.@ilo has praised #Bangladesh’s policies on #technicaleducation and #skilldevelopment. The ‘National Skills Development Policy’ is facilitating the up-skilling of the workforce and the traditional technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system has evolved into an industry-relevant and skills-focused model in Bangladesh. https://thedailystar.net/business/news/technical-training-leads-skills-development-ilo-3596711

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[5/29/2024 1:02 AM, 108.4K followers, 47 retweets, 52 likes]
The President urges Governments to forge stronger partnerships with private entities and foster an environment conducive to increased private-sector investment https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/30890

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[5/28/2024 4:09 PM, 108.4K followers, 63 retweets, 66 likes]
For SIDS to achieve the SDGs, access to affordable finance is a question of justice, says the President https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/30887 #SIDS4 #SmallIslands #MaldivesAtSIDS4

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[5/28/2024 1:27 PM, 108.4K followers, 77 retweets, 75 likes]
The President co-chairs the Interactive Dialogue: Revitalizing SIDS’ Economies for Accelerated and Sustainable Growth on the sidelines of SIDS4 https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/30885 #SIDS4 #SmallIslands #MaldivesAtSIDS4

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[5/28/2024 12:33 PM, 108.4K followers, 111 retweets, 105 likes]
President H.E. Dr @MMuizzu co-chairs the Interactive Dialogue "Revitalizing SIDS’ Economies for Accelerated and Sustainable Growth," at the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), in Antigua and Barbuda today. As co-chair, he delivered opening remarks and closing remarks at the Dialogue. His Excellency Anders Adlercreutz, Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering of the Republic of Finland co-chaired the dialogue with the President. The Interactive Dialogue held a fireside chat, with His Excellency Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and President of the Conference, and Her Excellency Debra Anne Haaland, Secretary of the Interior, Department of the Interior of the United States of Amercica, as participants, and was moderated by Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. It also held two presentations by panelists Mr. Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Mr. Gerd Müller, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), as well as interventions from a number of Heads of State and Delegations attending the SIDS4 Summit. #SmallIslands #MaldivesAtSIDS4

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maldives
@MoFAmv
[5/28/2024 10:57 AM, 54.1K followers, 14 retweets, 15 likes]
.@MoFAmv & @HCI reviewed the progress of ongoing High Impact Community Development Projects under the grant aid by Govt. of India.The two day review was joined by Ambassador-at-Large,Ahmed Naseer & High Commissioner of India, @AmbMunu, senior govt.officials & other stakeholders of Maldives

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[5/29/2024 12:01 AM, 5.5K followers, 2 retweets, 13 likes]
It was a pleasure to address the @IORAofficial Business Conclave this evening organised by @CeylonChamber in collaboration with @MFA_Srilanka under #SriLanka’s Chairmanship of IORA on the theme "Sustaining Growth- Bridging Horizons.” This event brought together business stakeholders from across the IORA Region, and was successful in creating a productive forum for the group and marks another step towards developing commerce and investment in the region under Sri Lanka’s Chairmanship of IORA.

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[5/28/2024 4:14 PM, 5.5K followers, 4 retweets, 33 likes]
Today, I visited the recently established Consular Affairs Division at Suhurupaya in Battaramulla. During the visit, I had the opportunity to interact with several individuals availing services, who expressed their contentment with the services rendered by the Consular Affairs Division. I am pleased to witness the Division’s commitment to enhancing services for the public @MFA_SriLanka

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[5/28/2024 4:11 PM, 5.5K followers, 2 retweets, 12 likes]
This afternoon I had a discussion with the families of the Sri Lankans deployed as combatants in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with the presence of Parliamentarians @DayasiriJ and Gamini Waleboda. I informed of the immediate measures taken by @MFA_SriLanka and the engagement with the Russian authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of the Sri Lankan combatants and their return.
Central Asia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 12:05 PM, 177.7K followers, 4 retweets, 24 likes]
The productive Uzbekistan-Russia summit concluded with President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev warmly seeing off President Vladimir #Putin at the airport. As they parted ways, both heads of state reaffirmed their dedication to sustained cooperation between their nations.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 10:28 AM, 177.7K followers, 4 retweets, 28 likes]
Concluding the official segment of the high-level Uzbek-Russian summit, Presidents Shavkat #Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan and Vladimir #Putin of Russia presided over the inaugural session of the Council of Regions of #Uzbekistan and #Russia in Tashkent. Evolved from the Forum for Interregional Cooperation created six years prior, this council has been established under the guidance of both heads of state. On the sidelines of the Council, a substantial suite of documents was signed, encompassing interregional interactions and agreements aimed at fostering collaboration in trade-economic, scientific-technical, and humanitarian spheres.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 9:25 AM, 177.7K followers, 3 retweets, 20 likes]
As part of the UZ-RU summit, Presidents Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and Vladimir #Putin visited the Victory Park memorial complex in Tashkent. They honored the memory of fallen soldiers by laying wreaths at the "Ode to Resilience" monument. The leaders toured the exhibits of the Museum of Glory, emphasizing the importance of preserving historical memory for fostering patriotism and strengthening cultural ties.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 8:28 AM, 177.7K followers, 5 retweets, 17 likes]
At the conclusion of the bilateral events, the Presidents of #Uzbekistan and #Russia visited the Alley of Honorary Guests at the "Kuksaroy" residence. The heads of state planted a tree together as a symbol of the enduring friendship between the nations and the strengthening of strategic partnership relations.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 7:25 AM, 177.7K followers, 2 retweets, 15 likes]
Following high-level talks at the "Kuksaroy" residence, President of the Republic of #Uzbekistan Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and President of the #RussianFederation Vladimir #Putin made statements to the media. They expressed great satisfaction with the outcomes of the negotiations, which took place in a traditionally open, constructive, and friendly atmosphere.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 7:00 AM, 177.7K followers, 2 retweets, 14 likes]
Following the negotiations, Presidents Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and Vladimir #Putin signed a Joint Statement.
During a ceremony attended by the state leaders, significant bilateral deals were exchanged, including:
- a Joint Action Plan for extending engagement in key areas of Uzbek-Russian cooperation;
- a Cooperation Program aimed at increasing tourist flow for 2025–2026;
- a Joint Action Plan between the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation to broaden industrial collaboration for the purpose of increasing trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation, among others.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[5/28/2024 6:37 AM, 177.7K followers, 5 retweets, 30 likes]
Presidents Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and Vladimir #Putin, alongside their delegations, engaged in extended negotiations. They agreed to continue active interactions across multiple levels, encompassing parliaments, governments, ministries, departments, regional administrations, civic society, as well as expert and business circles.

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[5/28/2024 1:03 PM, 3.6K followers, 4 retweets, 6 likes]
State visit of the President of #Russia to #Uzbekistan was very rich in agenda and comprehensive in content. Presidents H.E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev and H.E. Vladimir Putin held extensive talks covering all the issues, confirmed their full readiness to further strengthening UZ-RU bilateral relations of friendship, comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance. Both Leaders also hosted the first Council of Regions of our two nations that will serve for opening new horizons of productive cooperation. @UzbekMFA and @MFA_Russia will deploy all their resources to bring the agreements reached between Presidents to a life.

{End of Report}
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