News of the day : India will fight, live, work and win as one, says Prime Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for a unified front across the country supportive of the armed forces who he said were defending the borders with utmost valour and cautioned against any act that might diminish the morale of the forces.

“When an enemy country wants to destabilise India, when they attack us in terror strikes, their main aim is to cripple our speed of our progress, that our country comes to a standstill. Every Indian should stand like a rock in front of their aims, they will have to acknowledge that this country will neither stop nor will it’s progress,” said Mr. Modi in his opening remarks during a video chat with over a crore BJP booth level workers.

The chat, that lasted a little over two hours, took place amid criticism by the opposition that Mr. Modi was continuing with his political programmes despite the crisis arising out of Indian air strikes within Pakistan and Pakistan’s capture of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

Speaking further on the crisis, Mr Modi said that at this time people’s feelings were engaged at a “different level” with forces deployed at the border.

“The world is looking at our collective will and we have the utmost confidence in our armed forces. Nothing should be done to lower the morale of the country and forces, no opportunity given to our enemies to lift a finger at us,” he said. “India will live as one, India will work as one, India will grow as one, India will fight as one, India will win as one,” he said.

Mr. Modi also told party workers to engage only positively in social media, and to delete negative posts “not only from your phones but from your minds.” He said that there were “three rules by which to engage with social media as a BJP person, one is positivity, the second was honesty and the third was accuracy.”

The Prime Minister then proceeded to chat with BJP workers at different locations, answering questions posed to him, including one from a party worker in West Bengal on the possible effect of the opposition unity Mahagathbandhan.

“First of all please refer to this grouping as Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) but as Mahamilawat (grand adulteration). Parties that can’t otherwise see eye to eye are coming together. This is nothing but an exercise in demonstrating the existential crisis of the Congress that, after the grand declaration at Panchmarhi in 1998 that it would go it alone, is now tagging itself to smaller parties as a junior partner.

“It has also become a fashion to say that a vulnerable or coalition government would be good for the country, you should dispel that myth and work for a decisive government. This Grand Adulteration will lead the country into an Intensive Care Unit (ICU),” he answered.

To a question on the NDA’s prospects in the south, he expressed confidence that the NDA’s alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu will see the party posting a good performance there.

“Media likes to say many things about us including that the BJP will not win in the southern states. We proved them wrong in Karnataka in 2008. Our government has worked hard to provide development and serve the people of the whole country, and the people of the southern states desirous of progress will acknowledge this,” he said.

He also revealed that his gesture of washing the feet of safai karamcharis who were working at the Prayagraj Kumbh was one of acknowledging people belonging to Dalit sections of the population.

“I wanted to show my appreciation for the cleanliness that has be maintained at the Kumbh this year, but in the past too I have acknowledged the contribution of this section of society. When first elected as Chief Minister of Gujarat, officials asked me about which family member of mine would carry the Kalash (ritual urn) into the chief ministerial abode. I told them to find any girl child of a Dalit class IV employee and get her to bless the CM’s residence,” he said.

‘No agreement’ reached at Trump-Kim nuclear talks

The nuclear summit between United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Hanoi ended without an agreement on Thursday, the White House said after the two leaders cut short their discussions.

They had “very good and constructive meetings” and “discussed various ways to advance denuclearisation and economic driven concepts”, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

But she went on, “No agreement was reached at this time,” adding that their “respective teams look forward to meeting in the future”.

No joint communique was issued, despite high expectations beforehand for progress.

In the original White House programme, a “Joint Agreement Signing Ceremony” was scheduled as well as a working lunch for the two leaders.

In the event, both men left the summit venue without a public signing ceremony and Mr. Trump moved up his news conference by two hours, sparking doubts about the progress made at the summit.

The Hanoi summit was supposed to build on their initial historic meeting at Singapore that critics said was more style over substance.

In Hanoi, the smiles and bonhomie remained as Mr. Trump touted the “special relationship” between the two but concrete statements were vague.

From the outset, Mr. Trump had appeared to downplay expectations of an immediate breakthrough in nuclear talks, saying he was in “no rush” to clinch a rapid deal and was content if a pause in missile testing continued.

He frequently dangled the prospect of a brighter economic future for a nuclear-free North Korea, at one point saying there was “AWESOME” potential.

As in Singapore, the two men put on a show of bonhomie, appeared to share jokes in front of reporters.

Looking relaxed but appearing to say little, they indulged in a poolside stroll on Thursday around the gardens of the luxury Metropole Hotel, a colonial-era building that has played host to stars ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Brad Pitt.

It echoed a garden walkabout in Singapore, where the two men bonded over Mr. Trump’s hulking car — the “Beast” — with the U.S. President allowing the younger man a glimpse inside.

‘Rocket man’

It was a far cry from the height of missile-testing tensions in 2017 when Mr. Trump slammed Mr. Kim as “rocket man” and the younger man branded the American president a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard”.

In apparently unprecedented scenes, Mr. Kim answered unscripted questions from foreign reporters, saying that he would welcome the establishment of a U.S. liaison office in Pyongyang, which would be a step on the way to diplomatic normalisation.

The Pyongyang strongman is looking for relief from sanctions imposed on the North because of its weapons programmes, which saw tensions soar in 2017 before a wave of détente.

He said there were “people who hold a sceptical view of our meeting” but pledged to seek “great, ultimately good results”.

“I think watching us have a great time will be like watching a scene from a fantasy movie,” he added.

Before the summit, there was talk that there could be a political declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean War which finished technically with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

There were also hopes Mr. Kim could pledge to destroy North Korea’s decades-old Yongbyon nuclear complex, which has long been at the heart of Pyongyang’s atomic development but remains shrouded in secrecy — and North Korea has promised to mothball it twice before.

A patent distraction from the summit was a scandal back home in Washington with Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen calling him a “racist” and a “conman” during a congressional hearing.

The President already showed he had the testimony at the back of his mind when he tweeted about it before his first meeting with Mr. Kim, saying Cohen — who has been sentenced to three years in jail — was “lying in order to reduce his prison time”.

Source – The Hindu

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