No foreign voters in Bihar SIR list; Modi brings divisive agenda: CPI(ML)
Countering Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on Independence Day that illegal immigration is threatening the country's demography, Mr. Bhattacharya said the SIR exercise in Bihar did not bring out a single case of illegal immigrants in the State. 'PM Modi gave his longest Independence Day speech, but the important point is that the theme of Independence Day is now being reduced to partition. It is as if the government is trying to finish the incomplete agenda of partition,' he said.
He maintained that out of the 65 lakh voters who have been disenfranchised, no one was a foreign national. 'But once again, Modi ji has brought back that agenda, completely unsubstantiated, the bogey of illegal immigration, infiltration. And the things that they are doing to change our demography, taking away all jobs, occupying land, getting married to women and forcing conversion. This is a total anti-immigrant agenda of the RSS and BJP. This is what led to partition, perhaps they want another partition...' he said.
He asked how the Centre concluded on the number of foreign nationals entering India illegally, when there has been no Census since 2011. 'It has created a tone of terror in the country, it has created major insecurity, and when you sort of view it together with the ongoing SIR, the backdoor NRC, the ongoing so-called police verification drive, the MHA circular, so it creates before us the danger of a huge social division and the creation of a permanent category of disenfranchised people,' he said.
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Hindustan Times
20 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
PM Modi to inaugurate Delhi sections of UER-2, Dwarka Expressway on Sunday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate two major highway projects worth ₹11,000 crore on Sunday, as the government attempts to ease chronic traffic congestion in Delhi and improve connectivity across the National Capital Region. An aerial view of a national highway project ahead of its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (@narendramodi) The Delhi sections of the Urban Extension Road-II and Dwarka Expressway will be formally opened at a ceremony in northwest Delhi's Rohini, the Prime Minister's Office announced on Saturday. 'These initiatives reflect Prime Minister Modi's vision of creating world-class infrastructure that ensures seamless mobility,' the PMO said. Officials hope the new corridors will reduce travel times, divert freight traffic from the city centre and provide relief to Delhi's gridlocked Inner and Outer Ring Roads. Third ring road for Delhi The flagship project is the 54.21km stretch of UER-II, running from Alipur through Bawana, Rohini, Mundka, Bakkarwala, Najafgarh and Dwarka to Dichaon Kalan at a cost of ₹5,580 crore. The six-lane highway, conceived as Delhi's third ring road under the Delhi Master Plan Road 2021, includes new links to Bahadurgarh and Sonipat. The corridor is expected to ease traffic on Delhi's Inner and Outer Ring Roads and busy points including Mukarba Chowk, Dhaula Kuan and NH-9. The new spurs will improve industrial connectivity, cut city traffic and speed up goods movement in the NCR. It will cut travel time from Indira Gandhi International Airport to various locations in southwest and northwest Delhi by 40-60%, according to government estimates. Officials say the route will provide faster connectivity for commuters travelling from Chandigarh to Gurugram and Delhi's IGI Airport. Sections around Najafgarh, Mundka and Alipur have already opened in phases, benefiting previously undeveloped areas including Karala, Alipur and Bawana. The route provides quicker access to south Delhi, Noida and Faridabad whilst improving connectivity to areas such as Dwarka, Mahipalpur and Vasant Kunj. The complete UER-II spans 76km—54.21km in Delhi and 21.5km in Haryana—with a total construction cost of ₹8,000 crore. Declared as a national highway, the project is being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India in five packages, with the Delhi Development Authority funding the capital's section. Airport connectivity boost The second project is a 10.1km section of the Dwarka Expressway, built at ₹5,360 crore. The bypass of NH-48 Delhi-Gurugram Expressway includes an underpass near the airport and provides direct connectivity from IGI Airport to UER-II, Gurugram and Dwarka. It provides a direct route to Yashobhoomi in Dwarka's Sector 25 and will also provide multi-modal connectivity to Delhi Metro's Blue and Orange Lines, the upcoming Bijwasan railway station and Dwarka cluster bus depot. The construction of the Dwarka Expressway has already reduced travel time for areas in the capital such as Dwarka, Mahipalpur, Vasant Kunj and Najafgarh, enhancing connectivity to Gurugram and key locations like IGI Airport. The Delhi section comprises two stretches: 5.9km from Shiv Murti intersection near the airport to Dwarka Sector 21, and 4.2km from Sector 21 to the Delhi-Haryana border. The route includes a tunnel to ensure uninterrupted traffic flow. The 19km Haryana section of the Dwarka Expressway was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on March 11, 2024. The complete 28km corridor was constructed at ₹8,611 crore. Sustainable construction Construction has incorporated environmental initiatives, with two million tonnes of waste from the Ghazipur landfill used in UER-II development, reducing the waste mountain's height by seven metres. Union minister Nitin Gadkari highlighted this during Delhi assembly election campaigning earlier this year. 'We are using inert materials recovered through biomining of legacy waste for highway construction to promote sustainable infrastructure,' an NHAI official said. 'These inert materials such as soil, silt, stones and construction debris are stable and suitable for embankment filling, subgrade layering and service roads,' the official added. The inert material is also being used for other projects, including the DND-Faridabad Bailabgarh Sohna bypass, aimed at reducing landfill volume, conserving natural resources and lowering construction costs and carbon emissions. Regional connectivity Chief minister Rekha Gupta, along with senior officials and party leaders, visited the inauguration site on Saturday to review the preparations and issued necessary instructions. She described the projects as a 'historic gift' for the city. 'The commencement of UER-II will play a vital role in reducing congestion, improving industrial corridor network, lowering vehicular pollution and thereby contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment,' Gupta said. 'UER-II is not just an infrastructure project; it is an investment in the future of Delhi. It will improve traffic flow, cut travel time drastically, and uplift the quality of life for lakhs of people living in Delhi and NCR,' she stated. She also emphasised the long-distance connectivity that UER-II will bring, saying the route will integrate with the Delhi-Jaipur national highway, KMP Expressway, and Gurugram-Sohna Highway, which connects to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. 'Travel to Chandigarh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Jaipur, and even Mumbai will become faster and more convenient. It is truly a transformative project,' she added. 'With this network, UER-II will emerge as a backbone of high-speed connectivity, linking Delhi not just with NCR but with the entire nation,' Gupta said. The projects are part of the government's broader plan to decongest the national capital, though transport experts have previously questioned whether new roads provide lasting relief or simply shift bottlenecks to other locations.
Hindustan Times
20 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Shubhanshu Shukla set to return home today; Parl plans special session on mission
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The Hindu
30 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Trump's Tariff Threat Tests India-US Relations
Published : Aug 16, 2025 19:25 IST - 6 MINS READ There is a distinct souring of sentiment in the narrative across India's 24-hour news channels. A news anchor opens her piece with a sarcastic diatribe on how, if only Trump were president of the USA in the past, so much could have been avoided through history; the First World War, the Second World War, all of it. The screen behind her displays an image of the US president with the text 'Earth is spinning better, thank Trump!'. The title of this video op-ed piece is 'Why Trump Should Never Win the Nobel Peace Prize'. It is a marked departure from the rapturous reception a second Trump term got only nine months back. A statement released then by India's External Affairs Ministry described how the two leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to a mutually beneficial and trusted partnership and agreed to remain in touch and meet soon. Social media and news coverage were awash with praise both for this sweeping victory and the warm and cordial relations between Mr Trump and Mr Modi. President Trump's decision and threat to now impose a 50 per cent tariff by the end of August because of India's purchase of Russian oil has escalated a stand-off over trade and led to a spiral of news flow; the US will regret treating India this way, warns one piece; US-India relations are at their worst, bemoans another. The social media clarion has sounded—it is time to ditch American products and companies like McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Amazon; although how exactly that will be done remains unclear. All this unfolding while a fresh deadline to this hefty tariff clocks down. So much has changed in nine months. India has for now been steely in its response; but both choices present hard outcomes. Global commodity data shows India imported about 1.8 million barrels per day of Russian crude in the first half of the year, which is about 37 per cent of its total imports. Since 2023, India has been the biggest market for Russian crude, and between the two largest buyers of Russian crude, India and China, it is India that is clearly more dependent. According to data and analytics company Kpler, India imported 89 million tonnes (seaborne crude) last year, which was more than China's import. Switching crude oil varieties and buyers is neither going to be easy nor practical for India's refineries, aside from the fact that it also threatens to ratchet up prices. Also Read | America's melting ice cube and other tariff fairy tales On the flip side, the collateral damage of a 50 per cent tariff slap will be large. There are a number of export-oriented industries that are already feeling jittery; textiles, for one, the gems and jewellery sector, another, where the US makes up 30 per cent of its exports. Many export-oriented industries are in fact also labour-intensive industries, and a hit to their fortunes will have a massive knock-on effect on jobs. The list of vulnerable companies includes the big gun, Reliance Industries, which signed a 10-year contract to buy nearly 5,00,000 barrels a day of crude from Russia's state-owned Rosneft, making it the biggest-ever energy agreement between the two nations. Reliance has been exporting its refined products to both Europe and North America. A breakdown in ties with Western countries will mean significant changes in its business and perhaps its profitability in the months to come. India's domestic advantage with a large consumer market has been pointed to, but whichever way you cut it, a tariff hike of this quantum will see economic damage and dented investor sentiment for the country. There are counter-arguments to the possibility of a grim reset in Indo-US ties. One, that this will be yet another flip-flop by the US President, where a resolution of some sort will be cobbled together before the end of August, which is the deadline set by him. Two, that the two countries are now intertwined across too human and financial capital strands; Indian tech firms have long been present in America's industry through its services and its engineers. Money now flows both ways through venture capital and significant equity market exposure. Ripping all that apart will take more than tariff sabre-rattling. All or some of this may prove to be true. But there are also two clear questions here that need to be reckoned with. India was used to being the 'pick me' candidate when it came to China, where there was tactical and strategic advantage in building strong relations with India to offset China's growing strength in the region. Many nations, the US included, are having a rethink about that approach. China is no longer taboo, and India is no longer the counterfoil to China's regional dominance. Worse yet is the distinct turn in relations between the US and India's other neighbour, Pakistan. What started with a rather embarrassing display of cornering credit, President Trump claimed he was the one to put a stop to an imminent war between India and Pakistan—a claim that has been consistently repeated while speaking on the subject. While Indian diplomatic channels frantically tried to belie that take, Pakistan not only concurred with the US President's statement, it went on to nominate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Relations between the US and Pakistan have been on the upswing since then, ranging from private lunches with Pakistan's top military brass and talks about potentially boosting trade and commercial ties. It has left the Indian government with egg on its face and a disgruntled domestic mood. India and Pakistan, to America's mind are now firmly re-hyphenated. Also Read | Modi's foreign policy in shreds as non-alignment becomes multi-alignment How did it all turn sour so quickly when the singular narrative so far has been Prime Minister Modi's outstanding personal equation with Trump—from walking out hand in hand to address a rally in Houston, Texas a few years ago, to what is now being termed the lowest point in Indo-US ties in many decades; the 'great friendship' has not yielded any joy on economic ties. Perhaps the first lesson then is when policies—foreign, national, or economic—are built around personalities rather than nations, egos tend to get in the way. Especially when there is a domestic fan base that has been cheering the 'strongman' approach to cater to. There is also a view that this could be the moment India dives into structural reforms. In other words, this will be the catalyst for the great reset. As we wait on that outcome to emerge, it gives rise to the second question: Was that not the plan with the 'Make in India' campaign launched a decade ago? What has gone so sorely wrong ten years into its launch, where is the performance audit on the promised nation-building initiatives, the manufacturing thrust, more jobs for more people? This present round of tariff threats and ultimatums could go in any direction. Frankly, it does not even matter. The economic ground is shifting beneath the feet of both leaders. Time to see who has feet of clay. Mitali Mukherjee is the Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. She is a political economy journalist with more than two decades of experience in TV, print and digital journalism. Mitali has co-founded two start-ups that focussed on civil society and financial literacy and her key areas of interest are gender and climate change.
