The leader of India’s ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, was recovering yesterday after undergoing “successful” surgery for an undisclosed medical condition in the US, a spokesman said.
“The surgery is over,” Congress Party spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said, adding that the “surgeon had indicated that the operation was successful.”
The 64-year-old Gandhi, widely seen as India’s most powerful politician, was recovering in an intensive care unit. The name and location of the hospital has not been released.
“As this is a personal matter that pertains to her health and medical treatment, her family requests that her privacy be -respected,” Dwivedi said.
India’s Tehelka news magazine said on microblogging site Twitter that Gandhi was admitted on Thursday to New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the world’s largest private cancer center, according to the hospital Web site. The Congress Party broke the surprise news of Gandhi’s impending surgery on Thursday morning and has since blocked all queries regarding the nature of her illness.
The Italian-born Gandhi is the widow of assassinated former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and wields enormous influence from her key power-broking position as Congress Party president.
In her absence, she appointed a four-member group to handle the day-to-day running of the Congress Party — including her son Rahul Gandhi, who is tipped as a future prime minister.
The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has ruled India for most of its post-independence history, with three members of the family becoming prime minister.
Sonia Gandhi holds total sway within the Congress and is credited with crafting the strategies that gave the party back-to-back general election victories in 2004 and 2009.
An expected absence of two to three weeks means she will miss a crucial session of parliament for the scandal-plagued government, which intends to introduce draft laws on a range of key areas, including corruption, land acquisition and food security.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese