Howdy Modi: Trump says Modi was ‘very aggressive’, asks to mediate on Kashmir

Agencies
September 24, 2019

New York, Sept 24: Mercurial US President Donald Trump has again inflamed a controversy over India and Pakistan just a day after participating in the Howdy Modi! rally with Prime Minister Narendra Modi by asserting that the Indian leader was "very aggressive" in his remarks about Pakistan there and that he had not expected him to make them.

In his speech at the Howdy Modi! rally, Trump had said to a standing ovation from the audience, "We are committed to protecting innocent civilians from the threat of radical Islamic terrorism." Modi had said that the same people who are bothered by India rescinding Kashmir's special constitutional status under Article 370 were the same ones who "shield terrorism and nurture it."

He did not name Pakistan, but added, "The whole world knows them very well. Their identity is in the sponsorship of terror and the world knows it." Trump, who again made pitch himself to be a mediator or arbitrator, said, "I'm sure there could be -- there's always a solution. And I really believe there's a solution for that."

He also made the claim that "India may come" around to him arbitrating on Kashmir.

But he made it a point of also saying that he could mediate only if both sides agreed to it.

India has refused to allow any third party involvement in disputes with Pakistan citing the 1972 Simla Agreement between the two nations that said they would resolve disputes bilaterally.

Trump said, "You have to have two parties that want to agree. When they come.. . and at some point India may come… I have a very good relationship with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. I have a very good relationship with Prime Minister Khan." "And if at any time they say, you know, 'We have some points we think you can maybe iron out', I think I'd be an extremely good arbitrator," he added. "I think I'd be an extremely good arbitrator. I've done it before, believe it or not, and I've never failed as an arbitrator. I've been asked to arbitrate disputes -- pretty big ones."

This is the second time Trump found himself in a controversy over Kashmir. He made an off-the-cuff remark before a meeting with Khan at the White House in July that Modi had asked him to mediate or arbitrate the Kashmir issue.

India strongly denied that any such request had been made and administration officials concurred.

"If I can help I will always do that," Trump said and that it will, however, depend on the two sides agreeing to it. "I am ready willing and able," he said.

Asked if he trusted Pakistan given its terrorism problem, Trump said, "I trust this gentleman right here and I do trust Pakistan." He added, "I have a lot of Pakistani friends in New York. Great negotiators by the way." Trump said that in dealing with terrorism "I've heard they made great progress." When Khan spoke of the problems his country has with Iran, Afghanistan and India, Trump said light-heartedly, "He lives in a very friendly neighbourhood."

Khan said that he wanted to bring up the Kashmir problem in private with Trump.

He said, "It's a humanitarian issue. If you were to meet him (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) now I would have asked to at least lift the siege."

"I honestly feel that this crisis would get worse," he added.

He said that as the "most powerful country" the US can do something at the Security Council to bring Indian and Pakistan together to discuss Kashmir and end what he described as a "the humanitarian suffering" in Kashmir.

In dealing with Afghanistan, Trump said "Khan has been very helpful."

Trump had made an election promise to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and has been negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban.

He may need the help of the Taliban's patron Pakistan to get the deal with the Taliban and is, therefore, trying to mollify him.

A diplomatic source, who follows Trump's verbal somersaults, said that from his mangled prose it appeared that probably meant to say Modi was very "passionate" but instead said "aggressive".

The diplomat also said that with Trump's America it was more useful to look at the broader picture of India-US ties that are close and growing rather than trying to read into Trump's every statement knowing that he has misspoken about various countries, including close allies.

Speaking to reporters before his meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, Trump said: "I heard a very aggressive statement yesterday. I don't have to say that. I was there. I didn't know I was going to hear that statement, I had said.

"But I was sitting there and I heard a very aggressive statement yesterday from India, from the Prime Minister, and I will say it was very well received within the rule -- you know, within in the room. The statement itself. That was a big room; there were 59,000 people."

The remark was off the cuff and poorly phrased with a stumble over "rule" and "room".

He repeated that it was a "very aggressive statement" and added, "I hope that they're going to be able to come together -- India and Pakistan -- and do something that's really smart and good for both."

Trump is scheduled to meet Modi on Wednesday at 12.15 p.m. New York Time (9.45 p.m. IST).

Asked about Trump's remark, External Affairs Ministry Secretary (West), Gitesh Sarma, declined to comment.

He said, "There is a meeting tomorrow (with Trump). Let us wait for it."

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Agencies
March 22,2020

Mumbai, Mar 22: The total number of coronavirus positive patients in Maharashtra has risen to 74 with 10 more positive cases reported in the last 24 hours, officials said.

Of the 10 new cases, 6 are in Mumbai and 4 in Pune, they said on Sunday.

Earlier this week, a Covid-19 patient died in Mumbai.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India witnessed a single-day spike of 52,123 COVID-19 cases as the total cases in the country reached 15,83,792, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The total cases include 5,28,242 active cases and 10,20,582 cured/discharged cases, the Health Ministry added.

A total of 775 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 34,968.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it reported 9,211 new COVID-19 cases 298 deaths on Wednesday. The total number of cases is now at 4,00,651 including 2,39,755 recovered cases, 1,46,129 active cases and 14,463 deaths.

The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu reached 2,34,114.

Delhi reported 1,035 COVID-19 cases yesterday, taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,32,275.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 29 is 1,81,90,382 including 4,46,642 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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