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India, Saudi to ink raft of pacts during PM's visit

Agencies
October 28, 2019

New Delhi, Oct 28: India and Saudi Arabia will sign a raft of key pacts to significantly ramp up ties in several key sectors including oil and gas, renewable energy and civil aviation during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to the Gulf nation beginning Monday.

The major pacts to be signed included an agreement to launch an India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council, an MoU to roll out RuPay card, India's digital payment system, and a separate one on bringing coordination between e-migration systems of the two countries, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the External Affairs Ministry T S Tirumurti said.

Briefing reporters on Modi's visit, the official said both sides will also deliberate on further enhancing defence and security cooperation, adding the first naval exercise between the two nations will take place by end of this year or early next year.

Asked whether Modi will brief the Saudi leadership about India's decisions on Kashmir, he said Riyadh has shown understanding about recent developments in the Valley.

On cross border terrorism, Tirumurti said both India and Saudi Arabia have concerns over terrorism which reflected in the joint statement issued after Crown Prime Salman's visit here in February.

In Saudi capital Riyadh, the prime minister will meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and hold delegation-level talks with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Modi will also deliver an address at the third edition of Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative, an annual investment forum.

The Saudi Prince will host a banquet dinner for Modi on October 29.

Tirumurti said the two countries were also set to finalise and move ahead on the ambitious west coast refinery project in Raigarh in Maharastra which will involve investments from Saudi oil giant Aramco, UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Indian public sector oil firms.

To expand energy ties, two countries are also set to sign an MoU for a joint venture between Indian Oil Middle East and with Saudi company Al Jeri for downstream cooperation and setting up of fuel retail business in the Gulf country.

Tirumurti said India has invited Saudi Arabia to participate in India's s strategic petroleum reserves and that New Delhi hopes to finalise an MoU for it during the prime minister's visit to the country.

Saudi Arabia is a key pillar of India's energy security, being a source of 17 per cent or more of crude oil and 32 per cent of LPG requirements of India.

Tirumurti said both sides are also hoping to finalise Saudi Arabia's investment in India's national infrastructure investment fund. Another key agreement both sides are eyeing to finalise is in the area of migration and protecting interests of Indian workforce in the country.

Tirumurti said both sides will finalise a framework for aligning e-migration system of both the countries.

We hope to launch the integration of our e-migrate system and the Saudi system during the prime minister's visit, he said.

He said both sides are also expected to ink an MoU for cooperation in the area of renewable energy, adding a separate pact will be signed to increase number of flights between the two countries.

Talking about people-to-people contacts, he said the Saudi King had agreed to raise the Haj quota for India from 1,75,025 to 2 lakhs from the current year and the decision has already been implemented.

The official also said that Saudi Arabia has already released nearly 450 Indian prisoners as agreed to during the visit of the Crown Prince to India in February.

During his visit, both sides agreed to launch the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council to coordinate decisions regarding strategically important issues.

The council will be headed by Prime Minister Modi and Crown Prince Salman and it will meet at an interval of two years.

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News Network
January 15,2020

Jan 15: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday that the Muslim population in India increased manifold since the partition because they were given special rights and facilities, according to a report by The Indian Express.

"The Muslim population in India has increased manifold since 1947, it has gone up by seven to eight times. No one has any objection. If they, as citizens of the country, work for development, they are welcome. Their population has increased because they have been given special rights and facilities. All possible steps were taken to ensure their growth," Adityanath said while addressing a rally in Gaya organised by the BJP in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He asked the audience, "But what happened in Pakistan?" Claiming that the Hindu population in Pakistan had decreased since 1947, he asked why it was so.

Yogi said that the countrywide anti-CAA protests are a "conspiracy" hatched from afar by those resentful of a united and grand India and these are being aided by a "crooked" opposition. He further charged that those opposing the legislation were committing the "paap" (sin) of working against national interests.

"For taking such a step, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah deserve acclaim. Instead, they are being attacked", Yogi lamented.

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India
 - 
Wednesday, 15 Jan 2020

He himself contradicts his statements. He claims the Muslim population rose 8-9 (according to him) times since 1947. If he was educated its simple 73 years have passed the population grows. Still, the Muslim population is only a minority against the majority. He talks about special rights and facilities given yes agreed but not by him it's by the Constitution of India and for all the minorities. So it's not you its Constitution of India.  The majority of the people are against the act CAA is against the very fundamental of the Constitution of India which PM & HM are taking away from the people. If you disagree, disrespect, go against it then you are against the country itself in Hindi deshdruhi. 

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coastaldigest.com web desk
August 1,2020

New Delhi, July 1: In a terrific incident with chilling echoes of the 2015 Dadri mob lynching, a Muslim man, who was carrying meat, was savagely attacked by a mob belonging to a saffron outfit in the presence of in BJP ruled Haryana on the eve of Eid al-Adha. 

The incident occurred at around 9 a.m. on Friday, July 31 at Badshahpur village in Haryana’s Gurgaon, when Lukman was transporting meat in a pic-kup truck. 

The attack was captured on mobile phones by onlookers and the video clips of the incident are now spreading on social media. 

A group of saffronite cow vigilantes chased the truck for about 8 km managed waylay it. Lukman, who was driving the truck was pulled out and brutally assaulted on the suspicion that he was transporting cow meat.

Just like Dadri, the police were faster at sending the meat to a lab for testing than catching any one of the suspects. One of the assailants - Pradeep Yadav- has been arrested. 

After being beating to an inch of his life, Lukman was bundled into the pick-up truck and taken back to Gurgaon's Badshahpur village where the goons started thrashing him again.

This is when the police stepped in and stopped them - only to find the assailants fearless enough to even take on them.

Lukman was taken to a hospital and the police filed a case against "unidentified individuals" even though the video of the incident recorded by witnesses shows the faces of the assailants.

The owner of the vehicles said that the meat was buffalo and he has been in the business for 50 years.

The police have so far refused to give a statement on record on the incident and explain their inaction as seen on video.

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Agencies
April 27,2020

Riyad, Apr 27: The Saudi-led Arab Coalition supporting Yemen’s UN-recognized government on Monday urged all parties to end any escalation of hostilities and return to the status that existed before the Southern Transitional Council (STC) declared self-rule.

In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the coalition emphasized “the need to cancel any step that violates the Riyadh agreement and work to accelerate its implementation.” 

On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates-backed STC scrapped a peace deal with the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Accusing the government of corruption and mismanagement, the separatists said they would “self-govern” the key southern port city of Aden and other southern provinces.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Hadhrami described the move as a “resumption of its (STC’s) armed insurgency and rejection and complete withdrawal from the Riyadh agreement.” 

Authorities in Yemen’s southern provinces of Hadramawt, Abyan, Shabwa, Al-Mahra and the remote island of Socotra also rejected the separatist group’s claim to self-rule.

The government said local and security authorities in the five provinces dismissed the move as a “clear and definite coup.” 

Some of the provinces issued their own statements condemning it.

The coalition appealed to all parties to “give priority to the interests of the Yemeni people over any other interests”. 

It also urged the parties involved not to lose their focus on working to achieve the goal of restoring the state, ending the Houthi “coup” and “countering terrorist organizations”.

“The Coalition has and will continue to undertake practical and systematic steps to implement the Riyadh Agreement between the parties to unite Yemeni ranks, restore state institutions and combat the scourge of terrorism,” the statement said. “The responsibility rests with the signatories to the Agreement to undertake national steps toward implementing its provisions, which were signed and agreed upon with a time matrix for implementation.”

The STC has been part of the coalition-backed forces fighting the Iran-backed Houthi militia, which seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other provinces in 2014.

The Houthi “coup” has led to the formation of the Saudi-led coalition, which had since driven away the Houthis from the south and other provinces. President Hadi’s government has made Aden as its temporary seat.

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