Trending News

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to Germany, Denmark and France on 02-04 May 2022. This will be the Prime Minister’s first visit abroad in 2022.

In Berlin, Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).

According to a statement by the MEA, the IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees participation of several Ministers from both sides. This will be Prime Minister’s first IGC with Chancellor Scholz, and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German government, which assumed office in December 2021.

During his visit, Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a Business Event. Prime Minister will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany.

“In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000. This visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest,” read the statement from MEA.

After the joint address PM Modi will thereafter travel to Copenhagen on an official visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen. He will also participate in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit being hosted by Denmark.

The visit will include talks with PM Frederiksen as well as an audience with Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II.

The statement read, “The Green Strategic Partnership was the first of its kind arrangement between India and Denmark. The visit would provide both sides an opportunity to review its progress, as well as examine ways to further expand our multifaceted cooperation. During the visit, Prime Minister will attend an India-Denmark Business Forum and also address members of the Indian diaspora.”

During the 2nd India-Nordic Summit, Modi will also interact with other Nordic leaders – Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland.

The Summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region. The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm.

On his return journey on 04 May 2022, Modi will briefly stopover in Paris and meet Emmanuel Macron, President of France. India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the Strategic Partnership.

A group of 108 former civil servants on Tuesday have written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for an end to “politics of hate” that allegedly Bharatiya Janata Party is practising “assiduously”.

The former civil servants in the open letter said, “We are witnessing a frenzy of hate filled destruction in the country where at the sacrificial altar are not just Muslims and members of the other minority communities but the Constitution itself.”

They alleged that in the states in which BJP is in power there have been an escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years.

“The escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years and months across several States – Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, all states in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power, barring Delhi (where the union government controls the police) – has acquired a frightening new dimension,” the letter read.

The former bureaucrats said that the hate directed against Muslims have embedded itself deep in the recesses of the structures, institutions and processes of governance in the States in which the BJP is in power.

“The hate and malevolence directed against Muslims seems to have embedded itself deep in the recesses of the structures, institutions and processes of governance in the States in which the BJP is in power. The administration of law, instead of being an instrument for maintaining peace and harmony, has become the means by which the minorities can be kept in a state of perpetual fear,” the letter read.

They further wrote that the “unique syncretic social fabric” which is India’s greatest civilizational inheritance is likely to be torn apart. They further said to PM Modi that his silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening

“Prime Minister, we, the members of the Constitutional Conduct Group – all of us are former civil servants who have spent decades in the service of the Constitution – believe that the threat we are facing is unprecedented and at stake is not just constitutional morality and conduct; it is that the unique syncretic social fabric, which is our greatest civilizational inheritance and which our Constitution is so meticulously designed to conserve, is likely to be torn apart. Your silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening,” the former civil servants wrote.

They appealed to Modi, urging him to take “heart” from his promise of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’.

“We appeal to your conscience, taking heart from your promise of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas. It is our fond hope that in this year of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, rising above partisan considerations, you will call for an end to the politics of hate that governments under your party’s control are so assiduously practising. The idea of India that our founding fathers had envisioned and fought for needs a climate of fraternity and communal harmony to thrive. Hate will engender hate, rendering the environment too noxious for the idea to survive,” concluded the letter.

Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, Anita Agnihotri, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, ex-foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, former Home Secretary GK Pillai and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Principal Secretary TKA Nair are among the 108 signatories of the letter.