
PM Modi takes part in Bhopal event on 300th birth anniversary of Ahilyabai Holkar, launches projects
PM Modi inaugurates projects, honours Ahilyabai Holkar, and promotes women empowerment during event in Bhopal
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (May 31, 2025) took part in a 'Mahila Sashaktikaran Maha Sammelan' in Bhopal on the 300th birth anniversary of legendary queen Ahilyabai Holkar.
During the programme at Jamboori Maidan in Bhopal, he also virtually inaugurated the Super Priority Corridor of Indore Metro, Datia and Satna airports and laid the foundation stone of various developmental projects.
Ahilyabai Holkar, the revered queen of the Holkar dynasty in 18th-century Malwa, is remembered for her exceptional governance, commitment to social welfare, and contributions towards culture and spirituality.
PM Modi also transferred the first instalment of 1,271 new Atal Gram Seva Sadan (Panchayat Bhawan), built at ₹483 crore.
The six-km-long Super Priority Corridor of Indore Metro is part of the Metro Yellow Line, which includes 5 stations. It will give Indore, the country's cleanest city, a modern, pollution-free and fast transport facility, a first in Madhya Pradesh, according to officials.
The PM released a postal stamp and a ₹300 commemorative coin dedicated to Ahilyabai. He also honoured the artist, who has made a significant contribution to tribal, folk and traditional arts, with the National Devi Ahilyabai Award on the occasion.
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The Wire
an hour ago
- The Wire
As the G7 Clock Ticks, Silence over India's Invite and What it Means
New Delhi: A year ago, in the thick of a high-stakes general election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had locked in his attendance at the G7 summit in Italy, confident enough of returning to power to reserve a seat at the outreach segment of the developed world's high table. The BJP fell short of a parliamentary majority, but within days of being sworn in, Prime Minister Modi flew to Italy, signalling where his diplomatic priorities lay. At the summit, he told world leaders that his victory was a ' victory of the entire democratic world '. A year on, with just 10 days to go for this year's G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies, there has been no public indication that India has been invited. Each year, the G7 host country invites a handful of external leaders. These choices reflect both the host's strategic objectives and the group's broader aim of engaging rising powers in an increasingly multipolar world. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended five summits, when the group was still known as G8, as a special invitee. Modi made his debut in 2019 during the French presidency and went on to participate in four consecutive editions. The 2020 summit was held virtually due to the pandemic. Canada has remained tight-lipped about the guest list, with repeated queries to the G7 Canada secretariat only generating a standard reply that an announcement about special invitees would be made in due course. However, media reports made it clear that invitations had begun going out early. The new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, was quick to reach out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , shortly after assuming office in March, even before the snap polls, to extend an invitation. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly confirmed receiving his invitation in the first week of May. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she was invited during a phone call with Carney on May 15. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also received an invitation around the same time, as per Brazilian media reports. South Africa's High Commission in Ottawa told a Canadian news agency that Pretoria had been invited, though it did not confirm whether the country would attend. With others having received their invitations well in advance, a last-minute VVIP departure from the Indian capital to Canada appears slim. What's with the silence? Among diplomatic circles in Canada, India's absence from the confirmed guest list has triggered speculation, particularly given the guarded stance of Carney's office in response to informal inquiries. Canada claims to have chosen Brazil and South Africa in their capacities as chairs of COP and G20, respectively. Mexico, grappling with similar tensions with Trump-era policies, fits within Canada's strategic calculus. Australia remains a close Western ally. While both Ottawa and New Delhi have remained quiet, possibly to avoid confirming the denial, the the lack of clarity has already triggered political backlash in India. The Congress party has called the apparent snub a diplomatic failure. 'Whatever spin may be given, the fact remains that this is yet another big diplomatic bungle – after the blunder of allowing the US to overturn decades of Indian foreign policy by mediating between India and Pakistan and allowing American authorities to call for continued talks at a 'neutral site',' said Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, on X. For Modi, who is facing domestic criticism over the diplomatic handling of the recent hostilities with Pakistan, the optics of appearing alongside world leaders would have been politically useful. It would also have underlined India's stature in contrast to Pakistan, which has never been invited to a G8 or G7 summit. 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Khalistani protests outside Indian diplomatic missions have long been a source of friction between India and Canada. India wanted a complete prohibition, while Canada has maintained that peaceful protests is protected under Canadian law. A last-minute invitation would also present serious logistical challenges. Accommodation around the venue is already scarce. A Canadian media report quoted the Japanese consul general as saying it had been a major challenge to secure rooms for the 300-member Japanese delegation. This year's G7 summit also comes twenty months after India's ties with the host country, Canada, collapsed. In September 2023, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told parliament that Indian agents were involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen whom New Delhi had designated a Khalistani terrorist. India rejected the allegation and downgraded diplomatic relations. Since then, neither country has had an ambassador, and both embassies have been operating with reduced staff. When Canada was initially announced as host of the 2025 summit, it was assumed that Trudeau would chair the event, with Parliament's term running until 2026. At the time, there was little expectation that bilateral ties would improve enough for India to be invited. The hope was also that Trump's import tariffs would also spur both Canada and India to look beyond the Nijjar killings to urgently prioritise a diversified economic partnership. But, Canada has already signalled that full reconciliation would take some time. 'We are certainly taking it one step at a time . As I mentioned, the rule of law will never be compromised, and there is an ongoing investigation regarding the case that you mentioned,' said Canada's new Indian-origin foreign minister Anita Anand last month. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.


The Wire
an hour ago
- The Wire
Two Books Remind Us of the Importance of June 4, 2024
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Politics Two Books Remind Us of the Importance of June 4, 2024 Paranjoy Guha Thakurta 38 minutes ago Rajdeep Sardesai's '2024: The Election That Surprised India' and Ashutosh's 'Reclaiming Bharat: What Changed in 2024 and What Lies Ahead' are strong on reportage, understanding and explanation. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The news cycle blinds you with its speed, and its trajectory constantly diverts your attention. The pressure to keep up with what's going on takes a toll on our ability to cogitate and reflect. June 4, 2024 seems much more than a year away. Even the elections to the state legislative assemblies of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir (which is still a Union territory) seem to have taken place a long time ago. The allegations of inflating voter-rolls in Maharashtra are not remembered easily. The announcements and antics of the president of the United States and his acolyte the oligarch, the attack on tourists in Pahalgam, the four-day war with Pakistan and the disinformation accompanying it – have all occupied the collective mind-spaces of the world's most populous nation in recent weeks. Rajdeep Sardesai 2024: The Election That Surprised India HarperCollins India, 2024 Twelve months down the line, many seem to be forgetting that Modi 3.0 is distinctly different, and certainly weaker, than Modi 2.0 or even Modi 1.0. The difference between 303 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 240 MPs is a significant change from the one-party rule witnessed over a decade. The denouement perhaps ushers a return to coalition politics that India experienced between 1977 and 1980 and again between 1989 and 2014 (including the five years that P.V. Narasimha Rao was prime minister). Would it then be an exaggeration to contend that after having mutated into a cat, the tiger is still pretending that little has changed? That what we see today is more bluff and bravado on the part of our 'Supreme Leader'? There are many, including more than a third of the voting electorate, who opted for the ruling dispensation, who argue that for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, it is business as usual. Such loyal bhakt s and other not-so-loyal supporters of the BJP point out that it's amazing that Modi was sworn in as head of the Union government for the third time, notwithstanding anti-incumbency sentiments, and that Jawaharlal Nehru's record is about to be broken. They do not believe that internal dissensions in the right-wing, especially within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are noteworthy and have exacerbated after the elections. Nor do they consider important the fact that the BJP is yet to 'elect' its new president. To all those who think along such lines, one urges them to return to the first half of 2024 and read two best-selling works of non-fiction by two of India's best-known political journalists who work across the media: the written word and the audio-visual medium. Rajdeep Sardesai and Ashutosh (he uses one name) were both born in 1965 and both of them have spent over three decades in the profession. I have personally known both of them for quite a few years. It is, therefore, a challenging task for me to review their most recent books. I shall endeavour nevertheless. Journalists are often their own biggest enemies. Is the situation very different if one looks at other fraternities and professions, namely those of lawyers, doctors, engineers, tailors, cobblers, politicians, civil servants, authors, academics and publishers? Perhaps not. As a journalist, I assert that these two books are both excellent accounts and analyses of the 2024 general elections. Both are strong on reportage, understanding and explanation. Both are filled with personal anecdotes, Sardesai's book (2024: The Election That Surprised India) much more than the one by Ashutosh (Reclaiming Bharat: What Changed in 2024 and What Lies Ahead). Both have arrived at their conclusions, agree with them or not, after meeting many dozens of political players, practitioners and pretenders across the ideological spectrum: right, left and centre. Ashutosh Reclaiming Bharat: What Changed in 2024 and What Lies Ahead Westland, 2024 The two books seek to answer a series of important questions. Why did pollsters get the outcome of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections so wrong? Why was the so-called mainstream media so partisan? Why did the BJP's char sau paar rhetoric not work on the ground, particularly in India's largest state Uttar Pradesh? In Ayodhya/Faizabad where the grandiose Ram Mandir stands, why did the BJP fail so miserably? Lazy reportage and preconceived notions were certainly responsible for large sections of the media failing – or unwilling – to read the writing on the wall. Sardesai's book devotes considerable space in examining the role of law enforcement agencies, notably the Enforcement Directorate, in weakening the Opposition and making the playing-field rather uneven. And both books seek to examine whether the elections were truly free and fair. A chapter in Ashutosh's book is aptly titled 'When the referee turns rogue.' He also examines 'The divinity factor' and asks if by comparing himself with the Almighty, our non-biological prime minister put off many voters, including some who may have voted for him earlier. Whereas Sardesai's book is chock-a-block with anecdotes about his interactions with many politicians – some of these presumably took place after the studio cameras had stopped rolling – Ashutosh quotes several scholars and perceptive observers of the political scene to bolster his argument that what has taken place in India in recent years is nothing short of a right-wing 'revolution,' a word he acknowledges has been challenged in contextual terms. He details how the Constitution of India became an electoral issue of great import, largely because of the arrogance and the stupidity of some of the leaders of the BJP. Politics in India is full of surprises. How many of us could have anticipated that a cabinet meeting would be convened on the caste census just after the Pahalgam attacks took place? At a function on the occasion of the release of Ashutosh's book in which Sardesai was a speaker, after erudite discussions had taken place on issues such as 'electoral democracy versus constitutional democracy', he left with a parting shot on whether what the country has witnessed over the last decade or thereabouts was the 'rise of Hindutva' or the 'rise of Moditva'. Sardesai's book, unlike the one by Ashutosh, always seeks to 'strike a balance' between contending viewpoints – not that is prevents the former from taking positions. Sardesai candidly explains the circumstances that led to him being 'penalised' by his employer for his hurried on-air remarks on January 26, 2021 when protesting farmers had arrived at the heart of New Delhi and a young person had died. He hasn't changed his employer since. Be that as it may, much as the garam masala in Sardesai's book tickled this reviewer's tongue, I found the penultimate chapter titled ''You Are Godi Media': The Media Takeover' especially revealing and interesting. (A disclaimer is in order here: he quotes me at length in this chapter.) The parts on the 'hostile takeover' of New Delhi Television by the Adani group, the bashing that been inflicted on the NewsClick portal and the pivotal role played by the PM's information adviser Hiren Joshi have all been described in a riveting style, adroitly mixing the personal and the public. As a small publisher and copy editor, I was frankly appalled not by the niggling factual errors I chanced upon in Sardesai's book, but by the innumerable and egregious stylistic errors that are scattered right through Ashutosh's book. For example, there is no rhyme or reason in the way the acronym BJP has been expanded to Bharatiya Janata Party or compressed across several chapters. I don't blame Ashutosh in the least but lousy copy editors. Were they in a tearing hurry to bring the book out? Cribbing and quibbling aside, the two books are very important and must be read by all interested in the complex and unpredictable working of what continues to be described as the 'world's largest democracy' with or without qualifications. Both Sardesai and Ashutosh grapple hard with the meanings and the implications of the word 'democracy', making the books meaningful for academics and laypersons alike. From what I understand, both the volumes can be considered 'best-sellers' by Indian standards. They deserve to be. One hopes the publishers will seriously consider translating the two books into as many languages as possible to enlarge and widen their readership. Independent journalism in Modi's 'new India' has been severely constrained over the last decade or so, battered by shortages of resources and buffeted by the exigencies of news-cycles. Under the circumstances, the two books under review by the senior journalists give us reason to be cautiously optimistic about India's political future. After all, as they have emphasised, not too many anticipated the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an independent journalist, author, publisher, documentary film-maker, producer of music videos and an occasional teacher. For details, visit The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News 'Under New System, Presiding Officers to Enter Voter Turnout Data Every Two Hours on Polling Day': ECI 'We All Belong Here': Mumbai For Peace March Hopes to Reclaim Spaces and Resist Increasing Hatred SC Says ED is Violating Country's Federal Structure But the Same Court Had Once Emboldened the Agency A Look at the Left Govt in Kerala and the Times It Emboldened the Sangh Why a Special Session of the Parliament is Critical to Discuss the Disclosure Made by CDS Chauhan Mamata Accuses Modi of 'Political Holi' with Op Sindoor, Asks 'Why Not Give Sindoor to Your Mrs?' Merit vs Box-Ticking: How Exclusionary Norms Drain Students With Disabilities Modi's Search for Global Solidarity Rings Hollow Amid Rising Domestic Intolerance in India Has BJP Launched a Premature Election Campaign With Operation Sindoor Symbolism? About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.


Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Bengaluru Stampede: PM Modi calls RCB celebration tragedy 'absolutely heartrending', condoles lives lost
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