It was nothing but sheer spectacle of Modi magic that was evident at the Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Stadium in Sydney where a sea of Modi Modi chanting diaspora crowd created euphoria that happens very seldom in a lifetime. It may not even happen in someone’s wild imagination 8,000 miles away from home land in distant land of Australia.
Everyone present at the arena was mesmerised as PM Narendra Modi made his grand entry into arena and the chant of Modi-Modi just kept getting louder and faster. The Australian Prime Minister present at the event visibly looked amused that it’s all happening in his own country and that was not for him. An almost packed stadium of 25,000 capacity waited patiently with bated breath for 3 hours for their leader who has given them the opportunity to feel proud about their motherland. This was second time in Sydney after the maiden visit of Narendra Modi months after getting elected Prime Minister of India in 2014. On both the occasions Modi’s visit created the same frenzy, same spark and same euphoria within the diaspora community of Australia.
It has been over a month since the war broke between Russia and the Ukraine, which is being supported by NATO countries but there seems no end in the sight. While it may be business as usual in other parts of the world and many people blissfully be unaware of the miseries and sufferings of the people of Ukraine, situation in the war zone is critically dangerous and slowly creeping towards the possible atomic disaster.
We are in the middle of elections in five states of India which will be completed in seven phases as per the announcement of Election Commission of India. These elections have started from 10th of February and will end on 7th March. The results of these elections are expected to be out by the late evening of 10th March since polling in India is now done on EVMs hence counting of votes is done quite rapidly by using the EVM technology.
India has just celebrated 73rd Republic Day on 26th January this year with several historic changes that took place in the grand celebrations and the parade on Rajpath in New Delhi. The first and foremost being the Republic Day celebrations now starting from 23rd January, to mark the birth anniversary of the real hero of India’s independence struggle, Subhash Chandra Bose. This year also marks to be the 125th year of Netaji’s birth anniversary.
What a year 2021 has been for all of us, I think for most people it will not be easy to forget what happened during this period, very challenging yet full of aspirations and craving for ‘making it through’ zeal. A lot of people lost their near and dears, many separated from their families while many other lost their livelihood and emoluments.
The political agitation against the 3 new Farm Bills that ran for the longest period of time in the history of independent India, should ideally have come to an end by now. The Prime Minister of India never wanted to withdraw these reform bills as he and his government knew that they were brought only for the good of farmers, but the agitation stretched beyond the point of government’s imagination.
Modi government needs to come out clean about such an undemocratic action taken by them. If this trend becomes a precedence than the same people will demand to repeal all the recently passed laws by the parliament and that will make a mockery of the parliamentary democracy in the country.
Auckland continues to be in lockdown level-3, step 2 as we reach nearly 3 months of being in lockdown in the super city. Government is opening up slowly, relaxing lockdown conditions but still not allowing opening of eating joints, religious places or friends visiting over.
A country of New Zealand’s size should have been fully vaccinated by now and secured lives of its people without putting any additional burden on country’s exchequer. Whatever little action that we see happening today is result the of government being put under immense pressure from opposition parties, businesses, and health authorities. It’s quite fashionable in western countries to laugh at the status of basic amenities and poor infrastructure in south Asian countries especially on a country of India’s size and stature.
The opposition parties of New Zealand today echo the same voice that The Indian News first raised two weeks ago, advising Jacinda government on the points, to deal with the current Delta crisis. Former Prime Minister Sir John Key went even one step further by calling government’s approach of dealing with pandemic like if we live in a ‘smug hermit kingdom’.
It was understandable when pandemic struck first time, as every country was caught off guard and no one was sure of how to deal with it. Now since a range of vaccines are available to contain the virus from spreading and to immunise the population, one fails to understand what stops the New Zealand government from expediting vaccination at a faster pace. If a country like India can vaccinate at the rate of, up to two New Zealand per day and bring the life to normalcy, why can't we do the same in New Zealand?
It is a real shame that while the whole world is shocked and condemning the Taliban invasion of Afghanistan, there is a country in the world where its government is celebrating this ghastly act of terror and violence and that country is Pakistan. The Pakistan government has publicly expressed its solidarity with Talibans and displayed its happiness on Talibans taking control of Afghanistan.