NEW DELHI: Rival political parties in India are putting aside long-held differences in a bid to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
An agreement between the Congress Party and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) — the ruling party of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and a strong regional party — this week gave new impetus to an opposition alliance challenging the BJP.
The Congress Party and the TDP are long-time political rivals and few would have predicted they would come together on a single political platform.
“We have to defend the democracy, the institutions and the future of this country,” Rahul Gandhi, Congress Party president, told a press conference on Wednesday after meeting TDP President Chandrababu Naidu. “We will talk about the present and look into the future, we will not talk about the past.”
Until recently the TDP was an ally of the BJP in New Delhi.
“The way the BJP is ruling the country, misusing the institutions, bulldozing them — it is in the national interest for the opposition parties to unite and challenge the BJP,” said Mandava Venkateshwara Rao, a TDP leader in Hyderabad.
Rao told Arab News that “the Congress alone is not in a position to take on the BJP, so there is a need for other opposition parties to come together.
“Similar larger alliances of opposition parties took place in 1977 when a grouping of smaller and regional parties managed to defeat the Congress Party when it was all-powerful.
“Even in its heyday, the Congress Party never talked about eliminating other opposition parties, but the BJP wants all opposing voices to vanish,” he said.
Two other regional parties — the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of the western Indian state of Maharashtra and the National Conference (NC) of Kashmir — also offered their support to the opposition alliance.
Speculation is rife that in the eastern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, two strong regional parties — Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — will forge an alliance with the Congress Party for the 2019 general elections.
The BJP national spokesperson, Sudesh Verma, described the opposition as an “opportunistic alliance desperately formed for the survival of each of its players.
“Democracy is vibrant and the opposition’s slogan of saving democracy is not correct,” he told Arab News.
“This is an attempt to confuse people with a false narrative. The fight is between dynasts and democracy. Barring a few, all likely parties in the so-called alliance will be working to save their dynasty. They won’t be able to face a Modi tsunami in 2019.”
Dr. Ajay Kumar, a senior leader of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a regional ally of the BJP, said that the Congress Party was struggling to deal with its own internal differences.
“How can they form an opposition alliance?” he asked.
Political analyst and writer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay said opposition parties were finally getting around to the idea that “the principal goal was to defeat the BJP.”
He told Arab News that the opposition must counter attempts by the BJP to fight the elections on a single political narrative.
“The basic question the BJP is posing is: If not Modi, then who?
“So the opposition’s strategy has to be that anybody is better than Modi,” he said.
India political rivals unite to fight Modi
India political rivals unite to fight Modi
- Speculation is rife that in the eastern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, two strong regional parties — Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — will forge an alliance with the Congress Party for the 2019 general elections
Columbia University lays off nearly 180 after Trump pulled $400M over his antisemitism concerns
- Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally
NEW YORK: Columbia University said Tuesday that it will be laying off nearly 180 staffers in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel $400 million in funding over the Manhattan college’s handling of student protests against the war in Gaza.
Those receiving non-renewal or termination notices Tuesday represent about 20 percent of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said in a statement Tuesday.
“We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources,” the university said. “Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard.”
Officials are working with the Trump administration in the hopes of getting the funding restored, they said, but the university will still pull back spending because of uncertainty and strain on its budget.
Officials said the university will be scaling back research, with some departments winding down activities and others maintaining some level of research while pursuing alternate funding.
In March, the Trump administration pulled the funding over what it described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.
Within weeks, Columbia capitulated to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration as a starting point for restoring the funding.
Among the requirements was overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process, banning campus protesters from wearing masks, barring demonstrations from academic buildings, adopting a new definition of antisemitism and putting the Middle Eastern studies program under the supervision of a vice provost who would have a say over curriculum and hiring.
After Columbia announced the changes, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the university was ” on the right track,” but declined to say when or if Columbia’s funding would be restored. Spokespersons for the federal education department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Columbia was at the forefront of US campus protests over the war last spring. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally.
Trump, when he retook the White House in January, moved swiftly to cut federal money to colleges and universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.
Trump hopes India-Pakistan clashes end ‘very quickly’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he hoped clashes between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan end “very quickly,” after New Delhi’s forces launched strikes and Islamabad vowed retaliation.
“It’s a shame, we just heard about it,” Trump said at the White House, after the Indian government said it had hit “terrorist camps” on its western neighbor’s territory following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
“I guess people knew something was going to happen based on the past. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it,” he added.
India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in full but administer separate portions of the disputed region.
“I just hope it ends very quickly,” said Trump.
India had been widely expected to respond militarily since gunmen shot dead 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, mostly Hindus.
New Delhi has blamed militants that it has said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organization.
Pakistan’s army said the Indian strikes targeted three sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two in Punjab province, the country’s most populous.
Islamabad said that three civilians, including a child, had been killed in Indian strikes.
The Indian strikes came just hours after the US State Department issued a fresh call for calm.
“We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work toward a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Her statement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned of stopping water from flowing across borders following the Kashmir attack.
‘World cannot afford’ India-Pakistan confrontation: UN
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “very concerned” about Indian military strikes on Pakistan, his spokesperson said on Tuesday, hours after India said it hit nine sites in Pakistani territory.
“The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries. The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson.
Germany’s Merz vows to be ‘very European’ chancellor
BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed Tuesday to be a “very European” leader, with the continent’s other countries hopeful Germany will take on a greater international role.
“I am influenced by my work in the European Parliament, that has shaped me a lot to this day,” Merz said after being elected chancellor by the Bundestag earlier in the day.
On his first full day in office, Merz will head Wednesday to France and then Poland seeking to boost ties with European neighbors in turbulent times.
Europe has sought to present a united front as US President Donald Trump upends long-standing security and diplomatic ties, and in the face of a hostile Russia.
But Germany has for the most part been on the sidelines since the collapse in November of former chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, with politics all but paralyzed as the country awaited a new leader.
Asked how Germany could seek to influence talks on a possible peace deal in the Ukraine war, Merz said there was a “proven format” of Berlin working together with France and Britain.
“Germany has been quite reticent in recent months due to the transition from one government to another,” Merz told public broadcaster ZDF, before adding that he planned to “consult intensively” with London and Paris from now.
“If we can include the Poles, then it will be even better,” he added.
European countries have been worried about being sidelined in talks on the conflict, after Trump’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Merz has vowed a crackdown on immigration but he insisted that European neighbors’ views would be “taken into consideration.”
“I will be discussing these issues with both the French president and the Polish prime minister — we want to prepare a European policy together,” he said.
US judge blocks Trump from shuttering three small federal agencies
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing workers and taking other steps to shut down federal agencies that fund museums and libraries, mediate labor disputes and support minority-owned businesses.
US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, agreed with 21 mostly Democrat-led states that Trump’s March executive order directing that the agencies effectively be wiped out violated the US Constitution.
“This executive order ... ignores the unshakable principles that Congress makes the law and appropriates funds, and the Executive implements the law Congress enacted and spends the funds Congress appropriated,” wrote McConnell, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama.
The judge halted Trump’s order from being implemented at the US Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service pending the outcome of the case.
McConnell did not order the agencies to take any specific steps. The judge told the states to consult with the Trump administration and submit a more detailed order for his approval.
Trump in his order directed that those agencies and four others be reduced “to the minimum presence and function required by law.” A judge in Washington, D.C. last week had separately blocked the museum and library agency from being shut down.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said McConnell had defied US Supreme Court precedent by blocking Trump from closing elements of the federal bureaucracy.
“The lower court’s outrageous order will not be the last say on the matter,” Ingle said in a statement.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Democrat whose office is leading the lawsuit, called the decision a critical win for the public.
“When the Trump Administration attempts to dismantle these agencies, it is making a targeted, concerted effort to prohibit everyday people from accessing their full potential,” Neronha said in a statement.
Trump’s executive order was part of his broader effort to dramatically shrink the federal government and slash government spending. Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, placed on leave indefinitely or accepted buyouts to leave their jobs.
At the three agencies involved in Tuesday’s case, virtually all employees were placed on administrative leave shortly after Trump issued his executive order, according to court filings.
The states in their lawsuit filed in April say that because Congress created the agencies and set their funding levels, Trump had no power to order that their work be halted.
McConnell on Tuesday agreed. Federal law includes a mechanism for the president to return unneeded funding to Congress, the judge said, but Trump failed to follow that process.
State libraries and museums have abandoned programs and implemented hiring freezes, business development offices are curbing training and other support programs, and state agencies have fewer options to mediate disputes with unions, McConnell said.
