
Recep For Trouble
Recep For Trouble
Rudroneel Ghosh
TNN
Updated: May 15, 2025, 20:41 IST
Türkiye president, who fashions himself as a neo-Ottoman sultan, also has a ruthless pragmatic streak. His support for Pakistan is strategic foray into South Asia to counter headwinds in Ankara & West Asia
Indians are cancelling their travel plans to Türkiye in droves. Travel websites are no longer selling holiday packages to picturesque Cappadocia or Antalya. For, it didn't go unnoticed in India that during Operation Sindoor Pakistan military was using Turkish weapons to escalate the conflict. Initial investigations suggest that the hundreds of Pak drones deployed against India were of Turkish make.
So, there's a growing demand now to boycott everything Turkish, from apples to Turkish delight. Ankara has solidly backed Islamabad in the military hostilities with New Delhi. And while Pak army chief Asim Munir and the military-ISI complex were seen to be the architects of the conflict, the figure who may have been egging on Rawalpindi GHQ is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan .
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
29 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Harsimrat urges EAM to sensitise UAE govt on Sikhs' five articles of faith
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Saturday urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to initiate a dialogue with the UAE government to sensitise it about the religious significance of the five articles of faith, especially the 'kirpan', for the initiated Sikhs. In a letter to the minister, the Bathinda MP said she was making this appeal in the wake of a recent "advisory" by the Indian Embassy in UAE directing Indians not to carry sharp objects while visiting the country in view of Article 405 of the UAE penal law which prohibits the same. This move has caused deep distress and mental agony to Sikh travellers and residents alike, Harsimrat said, noting that there have been instances of Sikhs being detained and compelled to remove their 'kirpan'. She also cited a recent case of an elderly man being detained in Abu Dhabi for wearing the 'kirpan' and turban. Badal asserted in her letter that such incidents had caused distress within the Sikh community as they contravened the rights of Sikhs to practice their faith besides raising serious concerns about the protection of religious freedom for minorities in the UAE. "The Sikh community has always contributed positively to societies worldwide, including in the UAE, and demand the freedom to practice its faith in accordance with its tenets. "Denying Sikhs the right to wear their five 'kakkars' (Sikh articles of faith worn by baptised Sikhs), particularly the 'kirpan', is a curtailment of religious freedom and contrary to the principles of mutual respect and pluralism that India stands for," she said. The former union minister also requested Jaishankar to consider sending a high-level delegation, including representatives from the National Commission for Minorities and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), to engage with UAE authorities and relevant international agencies and sensitise them about Sikh articles of faith. She asserted that the 'kirpan' was a sacred symbol and an inseparable part of Sikh identity mandated by Sikh tenets since the time of Guru Gobind Singh. "Its significance is spiritual and symbolic, representing the duty to uphold justice and protect the oppressed, and not as a weapon for aggression or harm. The 'kirpan' is worn at all times by 'Amritdhari' Sikhs (initiated Sikhs) as a matter of religious obligation and conscience", she added.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
29 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Evasion won't protect credibility, telling truth would: Rahul Gandhi to EC
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit back at the Election Commission after sources in the poll panel rejected allegation of rigging in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, saying evasion would not protect its credibility but telling the truth would. In an article, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha had alleged "match-fixing" in the Maharashtra polls and claimed that it would next happen in the Bihar elections and "anywhere the BJP is losing". "Dear EC, You are a Constitutional body. Releasing unsigned, evasive notes to intermediaries is not the way to respond to serious questions," Gandhi said on X. "If you have nothing to hide, answer the questions in my article and prove it by: Publishing consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas of all states including Maharashtra and by releasing all post-5 pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths," he said. "Evasion won't protect your credibility. Telling the truth will," Gandhi also said. Election Commission sources earlier rejected claims made by Gandhi about alleged irregularities in Maharashtra polls. Responding to Gandhi's charges, the EC sources said any misinformation being spread by anyone brings disrepute to the thousands of representatives appointed by political parties during elections and demotivates lakhs of poll staff who work tirelessly for the gigantic exercise. They pointed out that unsubstantiated allegations raised against the electoral rolls of Maharashtra are an affront to the rule of law. Underscoring that match-fixed elections are a "poison" for any democracy, Gandhi wrote that the side that cheats may win the game, but it damages institutions and destroys public faith. Gandhi earlier outlined the alleged electoral irregularities in a stepwise manner -- fake voters added, the voter turnout inflated, bogus voting facilitated and evidence subsequently hidden. The Congress leader alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections were a "blueprint for rigging democracy" and this "match-fixing" would next happen "anywhere the BJP is losing". "How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy," Gandhi said while sharing an op-ed published in The Indian Express. "My article shows how this happened, step by step: Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission. Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll. Step 3: Inflate voter turnout. Step 4: Target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win. Step 5: Hide the evidence. "It's not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing - the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroys public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers," Gandhi said. In his article "Match-fixing Maharashtra", Gandhi said, "Voter rolls and CCTV footage are tools to be used to strengthen democracy, not ornaments to be locked up. The people of India have a right to be assured that no records have been or will be trashed." He said he doubted the fairness of Indian elections, "not every time, not everywhere, but often. I am not talking of small-scale cheating, but of industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions". "But if some earlier election outcomes seemed odd, the outcome of the 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections is glaringly strange," he noted. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


India.com
41 minutes ago
- India.com
After BrahMos, India's new homemade weapon will give sleepless nights to Pakistan and a warning to China, weapon is..., developed by...
New Delhi: During Operation Sindoor, the Indian Armed Forces decimated most of Pakistan's military infrastructure. One of the crucial weapons was the BrahMos missile. Now, India is preparing to launch another highly potent weapon which is an indigenous 155mm artillery shell developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). This homemade 155mm artillery shell will not only add more muscle to the might of the Indian Army but also serve as a warning to China as it could strengthen India's battlefield edge from the mountains of Ladakh to the Line of Control (LoC). Four variants of this next-gen artillery ammunition have been successfully developed and tested by the DRDO over the past two years. This is a massive step forward in India's journey toward self-reliance in defense manufacturing. For a long time, India had largely relied on Russia and Israel for artillery shells, but with its own advanced 155mm ammunition nearly ready, that dependency may soon end. Nearly two feet long, these shells weigh approximately 45 kg each and their range is about 32 km. The user trials are scheduled for November this year. Upon clearance, mass production will begin for deployment across India's armed forces. Apart from enhancing India's military infrastructure, this project is also a showcase of public-private partnership in defense. Under DRDO's Development-cum-Production Partner (DCPP) model, two companies, Jai Ammunition Ltd (a Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary) and Yantra India Ltd, a state-owned firm, have been shortlisted to co-develop and mass-produce the shells. Both the companies have worked closely with DRDO over the past two years, and will now produce prototypes for the Indian Army's evaluation. If approved, it could generate large-scale orders and help reduce India's massive import bill on defense supplies. Over the next decade, India's artillery ammunition market is projected to be worth over Rs 10,000 crore. Also, given their superior technology, the shells will be considered for exports. India's reputation as the developer and manufacturer of world-class weapons at reasonable price could make India a sought-after player in the global arms market.