Congress slams Trump for bombing Iran: Mockery of his own call for dialogue
Furthermore, Jairam Ramesh also said the government's response, or lack of it, was deeply concerning. "The Modi government has unequivocally neither criticised nor condemned the US bombing and Israel's aggression, bombings, and targeted assassinations".The Congress leader also pointed to the broader crisis in the region, accusing the Indian government of maintaining a "deafening silence" on what he described as the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. "It has also maintained a deafening silence on the genocide being perpetrated on the Palestianians in Gaza," he added. advertisementHis remarks followed the United States' airstrikes on three major nuclear facilities in Iran — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — effectively drawing itself into the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and conveyed India's "deep concern" over the rising tensions between Iran and Israel. PM Modi urged for an immediate de-escalation of hostilities and stressed the importance of resolving the situation through dialogue and diplomacy."We discussed in detail about the current situation. Expressed deep concern at the recent escalations. Reiterated our call for immediate de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward and for early restoration of regional peace, security and stability," PM Modi said in social media post.
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First Post
4 minutes ago
- First Post
This Week in Explainers: Can India do without Russian oil amid Trump threats?
US President Donald Trump has threatened India with a 'penalty' for buying Russian crude. As bilateral trade talks continue, America has imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports. But what are India's options? All this and more in our weekly wrap read more India is staring at a 25 per cent tariff on its goods exported to the United States. Announcing higher rates for India than more than 50 other countries, President Donald Trump has also threatened New Delhi with a 'penalty' for buying Russian crude. The Indian government has confirmed that the three terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev were behind the Pahalgam terror attack. Hashim Musa, the reported mastermind of the April 22 massacre, was among those killed by Indian security forces in a joint operation this week. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Nisar, an Earth-observation satellite built by India and the US, was launched into space. The mission will study minute changes on the Earth's surface. Here's all this and more in our weekly wrap from India. 1. The US imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Indian imports from August 1. American President Trump has been railing against India's 'high tariffs' and the massive trade deficit between the two countries. Trump's high tariffs against India come even as New Delhi and Washington continue to negotiate a bilateral trade deal. As the taxes on Indian goods imported to the US come into effect, Americans will face the brunt immediately. India's GDP could also take a hit. We take a look at the impact in this report. 2. Trump has threatened a 'penalty' tariff on India for buying Russian crude oil. The US president has so far failed to achieve a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. India has maintained a neutral stance in the war and continued to buy discounted fuel from Moscow despite pressure from the West. Russia accounted for just 0.2 per cent of India's imports of crude oil before the Ukraine war began in February 2022. Today, India is among the top buyers of Russian oil. How did this shift happen? And can India do without Russian crude? Here's our report. 3. The week that the Parliament held a discussion on Operation Sindoor, reports came that three terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam attack had been killed. Home Minister Amit Shah told the Parliament that those killed were indeed the Pahalgam attackers and this was established with the aid of forensic and ballistic tests. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He also confirmed that all three terrorists were Pakistani citizens, who were killed in Operation Mahadev, a joint effort by the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The encounter between the security forces and the terrorists took place in the upper reaches of Dachigam Forest, which is in Srinagar's Harwan area. Read our report to know more. 4. Nisar, or Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar, was launched into a 747 km sun-synchronous polar orbit this week. It lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, onboard Isro's GSLV Mk-II rocket. Weighing 2,392 kilos, Nisar was jointly developed by Isro and Nasa. It has two frequencies — Nasa's L-band and Isro's S-band, which will equip the mission to observe changes more accurately than any other satellite. Nisar will scan the globe every 12 days, providing detailed images of the Earth's surface. We take a look at what makes it special. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 5. A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court announced its verdict in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, acquitting all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit. The explosion near Bhikku Chowk in Maharashtra's Malegaon town had killed six people and injured 101 others. Pragya Singh Thakur has been acquitted in the Malegaon blast case. File Photo/PTI The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested the accused nearly 17 years ago. However, all have been out on bail for years. The special NIA court has now acquitted all the accused. But why? Here's our detailed report. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 6. An elderly woman accused of the murder of her husband had recently gone viral after her video defending herself in a courtroom with the help of science surfaced. Mamta Pathak, 65, made headlines again this week after the Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld her life sentence for killing her husband by electrocution. Dr Neeraj Pathak was found dead at his Loknathpuram house in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur in April 2021. But how did the police arrest his wife, a former chemistry professor? Why did she murder her husband? Here's our story. This is all we have for you this week. If you like how we analyse news, you can bookmark this page. PS. In a highly rare pregnancy, the foetus of a woman in Uttar Pradesh is growing in her liver instead of the uterus. Read this report to know more.
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First Post
4 minutes ago
- First Post
Why India is a spoke in the Trump-Xi wheel
The emergence of India as a significant economic and military power is a complication in the G2 global power duopoly read more No one likes an impoverished former colony becoming the world's fourth-largest economy. At Independence in 1947, India had a minuscule GDP of Rs. 2.70 lakh crore. By the end of 2025, India's GDP is projected by the IMF to be Rs. 360 lakh crore ($4.19 trillion). This would make India not only the world's fourth-largest economy but also, at an annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent, the world's fastest-growing major economy. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD All of these rankles in two global capitals: Washington and Beijing. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are resigned to battling each other in a long, drawn-out Second Cold War. The emergence of India as a significant economic and military power is a complication in this G2 global power duopoly. Trump's punitive tariff rate of 25 per cent on Indian exports, along with an unspecified penalty for buying oil and military equipment from Russia, reflects Washington's angst. India's economy is still too small—one-fifth China's size and one-seventh America's—to be an immediate concern to either. But both know that, over the next decade, India will be the only country outside the G2 that can swing the balance of global power between the US-led West and the China-led East. India is therefore in the awkward position of being both an ally and a threat to the G2. The recent thaw in India's relations with China is aimed at lowering the bilateral temperature between Beijing and Delhi. China is meanwhile quietly pleased at the tension between the US and India over trade tariffs. Washington has pivoted away from India in Trump's second term. It wants to keep India in the Western camp but is annoyed at India's independent streak over foreign and trade policy. The tariff attack is meant to place pressure on India to toe its geopolitical line. Russia is a red flag. Legislation imposing 100 per cent secondary sanctions on India for buying Russian crude will come up before the House of Representatives when it reconvenes in September. But saner minds in Washington know that India can easily replace the 2.1 million barrels of oil it buys per day from Russia with crude from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and South America. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As India's Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, India bought just 0.1 per cent of its total crude from Russia before 2022. It can go back to near-zero again. The world is awash in oil as demand in China tapers amid its move towards green fuels. The US and China, as they contest global supremacy well into the 2030s, have both tried to weaken India's resolve. China infiltrated across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on multiple occasions before opting for a more calibrated strategy after India exhibited military force. Significantly, Beijing did not block the UN Security Council's condemnation last week of Pakistani terror group TRF (an LeT offshoot). The UNSC, using strong language, said the TRF was responsible for the Pahalgam attack. Future world order? In his new book The Once and Future World Order, Amitav Acharya, distinguished professor of international relations at American University in Washington, DC, argues that the US-led Western world order was a continuation of older world orders—including civilisations in India and China. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Acharya says that as the West declines, the 'Rest' will form a multiplicity of global power blocs. That does not align with the US-China construct of a G2 world. While Washington and Beijing are discomfited by a rising India, some commentators in India downplay the decline of the West that Acharya accurately portrays and underplay the rise of the Rest. For example, C Raja Mohan, distinguished fellow at the Council of Defence and Strategic Research, wrote in The Indian Express on July 30: 'Acharya's critique of Western dominance is compelling, but not all aspects of the Western legacy can or should be discarded. The Enlightenment ideals of the 17th and 18th centuries—reason, scepticism, science, individual liberty, and secularisation of society away from religious dominance—are at the very foundation of Western primacy in the last three centuries." 'If the East wishes to lead in shaping the world order, it must engage these ideals critically and constructively. Any notion that the East can rise by short-circuiting these values is an illusion. It only delays and derails the effort to rise. The battles against political, religious, and other absolutisms remain to be fought and won in the East. Until then, a rising East will not present an alternative model—only a different and less attractive one. The profound internal contradictions within and across the East will continue to keep it well behind the West.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This is the sort of commentary Western institutions use to buttress their own thesis of Western supremacy in a Trump-led world. In Raja Mohan's article, the West is lauded for its 'reason, scepticism, individual liberty, and secularisation of society' without a word (beyond the solitary reference to 'exploitation') pointing out the other contributory factors for the West's rise: rapacious colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and extra-territorial invasions. All occurred after the Age of Enlightenment. Acharya's conclusions of a 'multiplex' global order might be an old idea wrapped in a new cover, but it stays honest to the history of the West and the Rest. The rise of China, for example, is inevitable. So is India's over a longer period. The two Asian powers may meanwhile reach a modus vivendi over the next few critical years. By 2035, the combined GDP of China ($30 trillion) and India ($8 trillion) will equal the estimated US GDP at the time ($38 trillion). STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The G2 could then morph into a G2+1 before becoming a full-fledged G3. It is not a prospect either Washington or Beijing relishes. The writer is an editor, author and publisher. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Deccan Herald
4 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Dhankhar raises eyebrows as he leaves office; Trump slaps 'friend' Modi's India with 25% tariffs
Hello readers! We are back with a new edition of DH Political Theatre. The previous week witnessed debates and chaos in the Parliament as the Monsoon Session kickstarted with the much awaited discussion on Operation Sindoor, giving a chance to the Opposition to bombard the government with even more questions. The Opposition also took on the Modi govt on the US tariff row, indicating it to be the start of "bure din" as 25 per cent US tariffs came into effect for India. Let's dive in deeper and see what else happened in India this on Operation Sindoor, and the unanswered questions .Home Minister Amit Shah announced in Lok Sabha the killings of three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) 'A-category' terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam attack. In the House, questions were raised by the Opposition regarding the silence on why Operation Sindoor was stopped midway. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the government for the violence in Manipur, Delhi riots, and Pahalgam, all of which happened under Shah's watch. In his 100-minute reply during the special discussion, the PM put up a brave front by saying India "taught" a lesson to those behind the Pahalgam attack, and stated that no country stopped India from carrying out the operation, hinting at Donald Trump's claims of having brokered the ceasefire. Trump has repeated his claim of ending the conflict between India and Pakistan nearly thirty times by saying he 'helped settle' the tensions using trade as a sharp attack, Rahul Gandhi accused Modi for carrying out Operation Sindoor to protect his "image". He also took a dig at him vis-a-vis Trump, saying, "We can't have a PM who doesn't have the courage to call Trump a liar, who can't use the Army as it is supposed to be."Amid all this, the silence of certain leaders made loud statements. "Maun vrat, maun vrat": Shashi Tharoor said outside the Parliament when asked about participating in the 16-hour special discussion. Tharoor has publicly praised Modi on Operation Sindoor, and participating in the debate would have meant 'attacking the government'. .'Kaun banega next VP?'.After the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar, the question on who will be the frontrunners for becoming the next Vice President has become Election Commission has informed that polls to pick the VP will take place on September 9. With that, the I.N.D.I.A. bloc will be exploring a consensus candidate. Dhankhar cited health concerns as the reason for his exit, but Congress senses there is "far more to his totally unexpected resignation than meets the eye", and that there are "deeper reasons" behind the the ruling BJP-led NDA enjoying a majority in the electorate, it is likely to consider probable names soon. The BJP has a large pool of leaders to choose from for the were even speculations among politicians in Kerala that Shashi Tharoor may be chosen by the BJP. However, time will tell if BJP will choose an "outsider" for the crucial Constitutional post..'SIR: Attack on Democracy'.Several Opposition leaders demanded the rollback of Election Commission's voter roll revision in Bihar. The MPs raised slogans and protested against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in SIR as "vote chori", the Opposition protested in both Houses of Parliament against the exercise, alleging that the EC's initiative was aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls. Following this, the Supreme Court said it was overviewing the process of SIR as judicial authority, and would immediately step in if there was mass exclusion of all this, a bizarre event has rattled Bihar's administrative machinery, as a residence certificate was issued to a dog named "Dog Babu".Independent MP Pappu Yadav slammed the administration, and called out on how a dog is getting a residence certificate, while ordinary people cannot get row: 'Bure din for India?'.The United States announced 25 per cent tariff on Indian exports, and signed a trade deal with Pakistan. Trump called India a "friend", however mounted a sharp attack, and discontent over India's ties with Russia. The two countries can can take their "dead economies down together," Trump said. Following the tariff deal, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at PM Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and claimed everybody except them knows that the Indian economy is "dead". Rahul had said a trade deal with the US will happen and Trump will define it, while "Modi will do what Trump tells him to do".Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too noted that this is the beginning of "bure din" for India. In the midst of the tariff talks, the White House believes Trump should be awarded the Nobel Prize, as he "ended several conflicts around the world", saying it is well past rekindles 'Dalit CM' debateCongress President Mallikarjun Kharge recalled how he lost the CM's post in 1999 to S M Krishna, which seems to have rekindled the 'Dalit CM' debate within the party's state unit. Deputy CM D K Shivakumar backed Kharge and said that there is nothing wrong if a senior leader like him is expressing his emotions. Kharge's remark sparked a fresh debate on the long-standing demand for a Dalit CM in Karnataka, a hotly debated matter within the Congress party, an issue on which senior leaders and Ministers Parameshwara and H C Mahadevappa have openly spoken in the past. The BJP took no time in picking on Kharge's statement. Attacking the Congress for "tokenism" when it comes to "Dalit empowerment", Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka said, "Every time a Dalit rises in Congress, the Gandhi family ensures he is pulled down."More from KarnatakaRahul Gandhi has the evidence regarding the modus operandi for "vote theft" during last years LS polls, claimed CM Siddaramaiah, adding that Rahul will be in Bengaluru on August 5 to participate in a protest and submit a representation to the EC officials in Karnataka. Deputy CM D K Shivakumar too cited two instance of voter additions during the 2023 Assembly polls. He claimed that Congress wants to "save democracy" and does not want the EC to be a part of the political process. .What happened elsewhere?In a development that took Maharashtra politics by surprise, the Thackeray cousins were seen together at the iconic Matoshree, the home of former Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. This was a second meet up of Raj and Uddhav in a fortnight's time, intensifying the alliance buzz. Meanwhile in West Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee led her party to launch a second "Bhasha Andolan" to protest the "linguistic terror" she accused the BJP of unleashing on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states. .These were all the political updates of the week. Stay tuned to DH for all the latest news and we will be back with Political Theater next Stage Left,DH Newsletters Team
