Modi Ji's Diwalis

Ever since he became PM, every year Narendra Modi has been celebrating Diwali with solders right at the border areas. The locations are different each time.

In 2014, he went to Siachen - the world’s highest battleground. In 2015 he visited the Dograi War Memorial, and the Barki War Memorial along with Asal Uttar, the site of one of the biggest ever tank battles. Both these were at the India-Pakistan border. Diwali of 2016 was at the India-China border - at Kinnaur of Himachal Pradesh with the jawans of the Indo Tibetan Border Police, Indian Army and Dogra Scouts.

In 2017, he went to Bandipora district along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2018, the Prime Minister celebrated Diwali with the ITBP personnel at Harsil in Uttarakhand.

After winning the 2019 elections, Diwali was celebrated at the LOC in the district of Jammu and Kashmir.

And a few months ago, in 2020, he was in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer to celebrate Diwali with soldiers at the Longewala post. 

https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/india/longewala-pm-modi-to-celebrate-diwali-with-jawans/story

The link below is a pro BJP site. But see it to see more detailed information and actual photos.

https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/in-pictures-since-2014-our-prime-minister-has-celebrated-every-diwali-with-soldiers-guarding-indias-borders

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India Bangladesh enclaves

While there is generally no border dispute between India and Bangladesh, there has been a problem of some villages or enclaves of one country being physically within the other. Apparently from the time of the Mughals when the concerned kings or zamindars did not surrender. This situation remained at the time of the English and also during Independence. Thereafter, gradually, these enclaves became part of one country or the other. 

But we ended up having small incongruous  parts of India being landlocked within East Pakistan/ Bangladesh and vice versa. The problem was compounded by having enclaves within enclaves eg. Indian villages surrounded by Bangladesh villages landlocked within main India. The issue festered with various complications despite multiple agreements, one issue being that the aggregate land area on both sides was not equal.

As a result the people living within the enclaves were effectively stateless, neglected and uncared for, with poor law and order; they could not get say a visa as that involved crossing the other country to reach the concerned consulate. There were approx. 53000 residents and an area of over 100 square kilometres.

The two countries formally exchanged 162 enclaves (111 in India and 51 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh) on August 1, 2015 with citizenship left to the choice of the individuals. One-time movement of persons took place but the border between the two countries is now tightened.

There are issues still in the subsequent development of these areas and peoples as India is a federal structure and the enclaves are mainly with West Bengal and some with the NE States. Resolving issues now devolves upon the concerned State Govt and their will to do so.

https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-2015-india-bangladesh-land-boundary-agreement-identifying-constraints-and-exploring-possibilities-in-cooch-behar/

Incidentally, Vatican City is also an enclave, within Rome, Italy.

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Previous: UDAN and Regional Connectivity

UDAN and Regional Connectivity

 A scheme started in 2017 was UDAN-RCS.

UDAN is Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik – so development of regional airports. At the beginning of the scheme, we had 486 airports, but fully operational for civil operations were limited. Initial target was to develop new, or enhance existing, regional airports with regular scheduled flights from 70 (in May 2016), to at least 150 airports (by December 2018).

RCS - Regional Connectivity Scheme  is to add several hundred, capped-airfare, new regional flight routes to connect more than 100 airports in smaller towns with each other / with airports in bigger cities.

I could not get any comment upon the success of the scheme but there are some financial issues. And corona would certainly have impacted actually flying on new routes - present status is about 300 new routes have been added. 

https://m.economictimes.com/topic/Udan-scheme/amp

This time the link shared is not of the scheme as such but a glimpse into what is in the offing.

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Previous: Triple Talaq

Triple Talaq

A small beginning for the rights of Muslim women was made in the famous Shah Bano case – wherein the Supreme Court (in 1985?) passed a judgement for the right to maintenance to Muslim divorced women. Shah Bano, who had been divorced several years earlier, had filed a criminal case against her husband and was granted alimony - of a princely sum of Rs. 300 p.m. if I remember right. However Muslim politicians started a campaign against this and, in an obvious Muslim appeasement attempt, the Rajiv Gandhi Government diluted the ruling and held that a divorced Muslim women was entitled to alimony for the next 90 days only (period of Iddah – three menstrual cycles for confirmation of no pregnancy).

In India, unlike several Islamic countries, triple talaq was legal. This was held illegal by the Supreme Court in 2017 but the practice still continued – the farce going to the extent of the word talaq being pronounced thrice in a single telephonic conversation, a Skype chat, a text message or even on WhatsApp – and the husband might even be away somewhere abroad and the poor wife in India. This triple talaq is irrevocable and remarriage first requires marriage and its consummation with another man. To see the inhumanity of the practice, an old excellent movie is “Nikaah” with Salma Agha and Deepak Parashar.

In the middle of 2019, the present Govt passed a law for the protection of the rights of Muslim women wherein triple talq has been made a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of three years. There is also a provision of subsistence allowance to the woman and dependent children as well as custody of children. While this law too has been protested by several Muslim groups, the government has not given in. It also explains why Narendra Modi is quietly getting Muslim votes too, especially of women.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/law-banning-triple-talaq-a-year-ago-today-we-reached-a-defining-moment-in-empowerment-of-women 

Previous governments of our country took care of the Muslim clergy but did not care for the common Muslims. The present Govt, in implementing various welfare measures, is not discriminating between the religions of the poor. This has further annoyed the opposition parties and the leaders of various factions, the present Government has been bad-mouthed by the powers that be, as being anti-Muslim.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-s-muslim-neighbours-among-23-countries-that-have-banned-triple-talaq/story-J8b9HkOCwdMAIWyscwxZMK.html

And Triple talaq has been illegal in Pakistan since 1961 !!!!

Incidentally, every American citizen has to follow American laws. There is no place for triple talaq in USA. Even for divorce, alimony and custody of children, the same American laws apply, irrespective of your religion or nationality.

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Unmanned railway crossings

We had unmanned level crossings in the country and annual deaths of 12-13 thousand on railway tracks. So removal of these, on broad gauge lines was taken as a project with target date of 2020. 

 https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/railways-says-it-has-eliminated-all-unmanned-crossings-but-one-1975410

The link - an article of Jan 2019 - is by NDTV, a totally anti-BJP and pro Congress media house. All but one crossing had been taken care of. As I recall this had some issue, at that time, with the locals living there. I have not been able to get a recent article.

And here is another more detailed article on this.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/railways-to-eliminate-last-unmanned-level-crossing-ahead-of-2020-target-119012200523_1.html

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