Chief Minister of GujaratNarendra Modi said the Congress had a big role to play in Slumdog Millionaire sweeping the Oscars, at his maiden public rally in Thane, Maharashtra.
Narendra Modi, who is also the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP)Maharashtra election in-charge said that the 60 years of Congress reign in the country had given rise to slums. "Without Congress there would not be slums and without slums there would not be any Slumdog Millionaire and no Oscars," he said at his public rally at the Thane's Central Ground.
"Gujarat has become a benchmark for development in the country. Gujarat and Maharashtra were one state till 1960; if Gujarat can achieve then so can Maharashtra," said Modi.
Wearing his trademark half-sleeve khadi Kurta, Modi's speech was in essential a battle cry to vanquish the Congress rule at the Centre, however his target of ridicule was not Sonia Gandhi but Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar. Referring to the remarks made by Pawar during a public meeting at Nashik the day before, Modi said : "Leaders like Pawar and others from the Congress know that to win the election they have to mention my name. Pawar says that the path followed by Gujarat is not needed in Maharashtra. Pawar fears Gujarat's progress and the fact that Gujarat has 24 hour power even in the villages."
Replying to the Pawar's remark at Nashik that people of Gujarat want Gandhiji's and not Modi's Gujarat, Modi said: "Pawar has insulted Gandhi, one of greatest leaders, by comparing him with a small person like me." He added that Gujarat was fulfilling Gandhiji's dream of Ram Rajya by empowering the villages. "For Pawar, Gandhiji is only a medium of attaining power," he quipped.
Terror struck at the heart of cricket when masked gunmen attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Five cricketers, including Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, and his deputy Kumar Sangakkara, received minor injuries. The attack left six security men and two civilians dead and will almost certainly leads to abandonment of the ongoing Test match.
There have been terror strikes on the peripheries of cricket, but this is the first time players have been directly targeted. The Sri Lankans were on their way to the Gaddafi Stadium when their bus was attacked by five armed terrorists near Liberty market. Habibur Rehman, chief commissioner of police, said 12 masked terrorists fired at the Sri Lankan team bus. The gunmen shot at the wheels of the bus and also injured the driver. A grenade was also thrown at the bus but it missed. The others players injured are Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana.
"The bus came under attack as we were driving to the stadium, the gunmen targeted the wheels of the bus first and then the bus," told Mahela Jayawardene. "We all dived to the floor to take cover. About five players have been injured and also Paul Farbrace [a member of the support staff], but most of the injuries appear to be minor at this stage and caused by debris."
Sri Lanka's sports minister Gamini Lokuge said Farbrace and Samaraweera were hospitalised while the others have been discharged. "Mahela and the other three had very minor injuries and they have already reached their hotel," Lokuge said.
Obama administration important member United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first overseas trip to Asia has elicited diametrically opposite views from two South Asia experts.
Stephen P Cohen, who heads the South Asia Program at the Brookings Institution, told "I think this administration is not quite sure about their map of Asia and India doesn't seem to be part of it."
"There are a lot of signs, which are quite, I won't say alarming, but, interesting," he said, and added, "The way in which they have put India in the National Security Council under China. The same guy who is in charge of matters concerning China also looks at Indian issues, even though he is from East Asia, not South Asia."
Jeff Baden, a specialist on China, heads the Asia Division in the NSC. So far, no one has been appointed as the director for South Asian affairs in the White House.
Cohen acknowledged that including India on Clinton's trip to Asia would have had a significant symbolic value. "It is really impressive that India doesn't seem to figure at all in the American foreign policy," he said.
"They certainly don't seem to have taken any special interest in India, as compared with the Bush administration," he added.
Cohen pointed out that so far, "Nobody has raised the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal with India. It sort of has simply vanished from the screen. So we'll see what happens. But I am not encouraged by the first couple of weeks."
