Manmohan Singh, the soft-spoken economist named India's next prime minister, assured the nation yesterday that his new government would work to restore harmony among religions, remain investor-friendly and continue to seek peace with rival Pakistan.
"Unity and communal harmony are a priority," he said, calling on all "patriotic Indians" to shun Hindu-nationalist sentiments against Muslims and others.
PHOTO: AP
The party of outgoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was widely accused of ignoring, and even stoking, deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat. The Bharatiya Janata Party also backed the construction a Hindu temple at the site of a 16th-century mosque razed by Hindu fanatics in 1992, setting off riots that left thousands dead.
"The essence of Hinduism is that parts may be different, but the goal is the same," said Singh, speaking in both Hindi and English.
"We are the most tolerant civilization in the world -- that is our great heritage. We have to strengthen and build on that heritage. I seek the cooperation of all patriotic Indians," he said.
India's president named Singh prime minister late Wednesday night, ending a week of political turmoil in which Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow at the head of India's most powerful political dynasty and largest party, declined to become prime minister.
Instead, the Congress party leader chose Singh, the 71-year-old former finance minister who was behind market reforms in the 1990s.
Singh said his swearing-in ceremony before the new Parliament was likely to be Saturday.
Today is the 13th anniversary of the assassination of Gandhi's husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and she will spend the day in solitude with their two children, Rahul and Priyanka.
Wearing a white Nehru-collar shirt and a light blue, traditional Sikh turban, Singh addressed the nation shortly before the start of India's trading day. Stocks opened higher, though they later fell.
"The emergence of India as a major global economic power happens to be one such idea whose time has come," Singh said, adding that the economic reforms promoted by Vajpayee's National Democratic Alliance would continue.
"Reforms with a human face will be pursued," he said, adding that those economic reforms must not leave behind farmers, the rural poor and minority ethnic groups that the Congress party claimed were ignored by the Vajpayee's Hindu-nationalist party.
"The war against poverty and disease has to be carried on relentlessly and I pledge our government to remain steadfast in our commitment," Singh said.
"In the words of Mahatma, to build an India free from the fear of war, want and exploitation," he said.
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
RSS