Archive for ‘sparked’

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27/05/2020

New Indian roads, air strips sparked border standoff with China, India observers say

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR (Reuters) – A Himalayan border standoff between old foes India and China was triggered by India’s construction of roads and air strips in the region as it competes with China’s spreading Belt and Road initiative, Indian observers said on Tuesday.

Soldiers from both sides have been camped out in the Galwan Valley in the high-altitude Ladakh region, accusing each other of trespassing over the disputed border, the trigger of a brief but bloody war in 1962.

About 80 to 100 tents have sprung up on the Chinese side and about 60 on the Indian side where soldiers are billeted, Indian officials briefed on the matter in New Delhi and in Ladakh’s capital, Leh, said.

Both were digging defences and Chinese trucks have been moving equipment into the area, the officials said, raising concerns of a long faceoff.

“China is committed to safeguarding the security of its national territorial sovereignty, as well as safeguarding peace and stability in the China-India border areas,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s office said in a statement.

“At present, the overall situation in the border areas is stable and controllable. There are sound mechanisms and channels of communication for border-related affairs, and the two sides are capable of properly resolving relevant issues through dialogue and consultation.”

There was no immediate Indian foreign ministry comment. It said last week Chinese troops had hindered regular Indian patrols along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

But interviews with former Indian military officials and diplomats suggest the trigger for the flare-up is India’s construction of roads and air strips.

“Today, with our infrastructure reach slowly extending into areas along the LAC, the Chinese threat perception is raised,” said former Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao.

“Xi Jinping’s China is the proponent of a hard line on all matters of territory, sovereignty. India is no less when it comes to these matters either,” she said.

After years of neglect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has pushed for improving connectivity and by 2022, 66 key roads along the Chinese border will have been built.

One of these roads is near the Galwan valley that connects to Daulat Beg Oldi air base, which was inaugurated last October.

“The road is very important because it runs parallel to the LAC and is linked at various points with the major supply bases inland,” said Shyam Saran, another former Indian foreign secretary.

“It remains within our side of the LAC. It is construction along this new alignment which appears to have been challenged by the Chinese.”

China’s Belt and Road is a string of ports, railways, roads and bridges connecting China to Europe via central and southern Asia and involving Pakistan, China’s close ally and India’s long-time foe.

Source: Reuters

Posted in air strips, Belt and Road Initiative, border, bridges, camped, central, China, China-India border areas, Chinese foreign ministry, connecting, Construction, Daulat Beg Oldi, Europe, faceoff, Galwan Valley, Government, Himalayan border, India, India’s, Indian, Indian Foreign Secretary, Ladakh region, Line of Actual Control (LAC), national territorial sovereignty,, new, New Delhi, observers, old foes, Pakistan, peace and stability, ports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, railways, region, roads, Safeguarding, soldiers, southern Asia, sparked, Srinagar, standoff, triggered, Uncategorized, Xi Jinping’s | Leave a Comment »

17/11/2019

The truth behind India’s viral photo that got a girl into school

The viral photo in the newspaperImage copyright EENADU NEWSPAPER/A SRINIVAS
Image caption The photo that sparked an outcry

A five-year-old in the southern city of Hyderabad was enrolled in school after a photo of her peeking into a classroom sparked an outcry. BBC Telugu’s Deepthi Bathini reports on why the photo doesn’t tell the full story.

Divya is something of a local celebrity in the slum where she lives. The shy five-year-old was the subject of a recent photo which went viral – it showed her clutching a bowl and peeking into a classroom at the local government school.

The touching image was published in a Telugu newspaper on 7 November with a caption that translates from the Telugu as “hungry gaze”.

It quickly grabbed people’s attention: a children’s rights activist shared it on Facebook, lamenting that yet another child was being denied the right to food and education.

It had such an impact, the school enrolled Divya the following day.

But her father, M Lakshman, says the photo and the outcry it provoked was in fact unfair to him and his wife, Yashoda, who works as a sweeper.

Divya in school
Image caption Five-year-old Divya enrolled in school after a photo of her in a newspaper went viral

“I felt sad when I saw the photo,” he told the BBC. “Divya has parents and we are working so hard to give her a good future – but she was portrayed as a hungry orphan.”

Mr Lakshman says he was waiting for Divya to turn six so he could enrol her in a government hostel where his other two daughters are studying. The couple also have a son, who has finished school and is now applying to college while helping Mr Lakshman, who works as a rag picker.

Breaking the cycle

Divya and her parents live in a one-room hut in a shanty town in the heart of Hyderabad. The slum is about 100 metres from the government school, where Divya was photographed. Most of the 300 families living here are daily wage labourers and their children attend the school nearby.

The home is sparse and plastic and glass are piled outside, ready to be sold for recycling. He says between him and his wife, they earn about 10,000 rupees ($139; £108) a month, which pays for their food and clothes. Education, however, is free for the children, since they are all enrolled in government-run schools.

Mr Lakshman knows what it is to struggle: he himself grew up without parents and always battled to earn a decent living. “I never wanted my children to have the life I had. So I made sure they all go to school.”

The photo, he adds, was especially hurtful because he has also been taking care of his brother’s five children.

Divya with her father
Image caption Divya’s father said the outcry over the photo was “unfair” to his family

“My brother and sister-in-law passed away sometime ago. I didn’t want their five children to grow up as orphans. So, I enrolled all of them in a hostel and I take care of them.”

When asked why Divya had gone to the government school with a bowl in hand, Mr Lakshman explains that a lot of the younger children from the slum go there around lunch time to take advantage of the free midday meal – a government programme which provides cooked meals to children in more than a million schools – which they know about because their older brothers and sisters are already enrolled.

“Divya doesn’t go every day but she happened to go on that day and someone photographed her,” he explained.

This was confirmed by teachers at the school who told the BBC that some children brought lunch from home, so leftovers over from the free meal scheme would be given to the younger children who had not yet joined.

“Children are children. And there is no day-care centre, so a lot of these children hang around the school anyway,” says one teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Divya in her new school
Image caption Divya says she’s excited to go to school

Mr Lakshman and his neighbours acknowledged the lack of an anganwadi, or government-sponsored day-care centre, in the neighbourhood was a major problem as parents had no place to leave their children so they could go to work.

The local school inspector, SU Shivram Prasad, says he hopes the attention generated by the Divya’s photo will hasten the process of setting up one up.

“It will help the parents and the children can eat a nutritious meal,” he adds.

Teachers at the school also hope that the media spotlight will improve facilities. They say there is an acute shortage of staff and teaching materials, and the school did not even have a compound wall, which meant they have to constantly watch the children during their breaks.

Divya, however, is excited to be going to school. She insists on taking her school bag with her everywhere, even to the playground. Other than saying her name, she does not answer any questions.

“She is a very calm child,” says Mr Lakshman, as his daughter holds his hand and kisses it.

And he admits that despite everything, the photo did do some good.

“Now other children who are Divya’s age are also enrolling in school. So that makes me happy.”

Source: The BBC

Posted in activist, attention, BBC Telugu, child, Children's rights, classroom, denied, education, enrolled, Facebook, Food, Girl, government hostel, hungry gaze, Hyderabad, India's, lamenting, Local government, newspaper, outcry, peeking, people's, photo, school, shared, sparked, sweeper, Telugu, Uncategorized, viral photo | Leave a Comment »

12/09/2019

Hong Kong protesters sing and boo China anthem

Football fans hold up their phones and shout during a protest at the end of the World Cup qualifying match between Hong Kong and Iran at Hong Kong Stadium on September 10, 2019Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Protesters sang their new rallying cry at a stadium on Tuesday night

Hong Kong’s protest movement made its presence felt in a sports stadium and shopping malls on Tuesday.

Fans attending a football match drowned out the pre-game Chinese national anthem with loud booing.

Protesters have also staged flash events in shopping malls, singing Glory to Hong Kong which has become an unofficial anthem of the movement.

The protesters won a major concession last week when the extradition bill which sparked the unrest was scrapped.

But this has failed to end the unrest as protesters continue to demand full democracy and an investigation into allegations of police abuses.

On Tuesday night, thousands of protesters gathered in shopping malls across Hong Kong chanting slogans and singing Glory to Hong Kong.

Residents and protesters sing songs and shout slogans as they gather at a shopping mall after business hours in Tai Koo districtImage copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Many protesters flooded shopping malls

In the popular shopping district of Mongkok, a sea of protesters dressed in black were seen congregating across the different levels of one mall.

Another video showed protesters chanting “Go Hong Kong” – a phrase that has been used frequently as a sign of encouragement.

Shopping malls have been the scene of clashes in recent weeks, with one incident in July seeing riot police fight battles with protesters inside a mall in the district of Sha Tin.

But the recent events have played out peacefully.

Glory to Hong Kong was written by a local musician in response to calls for an anthem for protesters.

The lyrics include lines such as “Do you feel the rage in our cries? Rise up and speak up” and “persevere, for we are as one”.

The new rallying cry has joined other popular songs used by the protest movement, including Do You Hear the People Sing? from musical Les Miserables and the Christian hymn Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.

It was also heard at the Hong Kong v Iran football match on Tuesday at Hong Kong Stadium.

The 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier saw thousands of protesting booing when the Chinese national anthem played before the start of the game.

The jeering, which could be heard from outside the stadium, was intended as a clear “message” to Beijing that they do not want to be part of China in the future, says the BBC’s Nick Beake who was at the game.

It’s not the first time people in Hong Kong have been heard booing the Chinese anthem – though it is not clear how long they might be able to do this.

In 2017 China passed a law making it illegal to disrespect the anthem, but the law has yet to be passed in Hong Kong.

‘Too little, too late’

Hong Kong, formerly a British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Under the “one country, two systems” rule, the city is granted a high level of autonomy, an independent judiciary and rights such as freedom of speech.

But those freedoms – the Basic Law – expire in 2047 and it is not clear what Hong Kong’s status will then be.

There has been growing anti-mainland sentiment in recent years, and anger at what many feel is increasing mainland interference in Hong Kong affairs.

Media caption Protesters sang the US anthem outside the consulate

This reached a tipping point when the Hong Kong parliament proposed a new law that would have enabled suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to China.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched on the streets in protest of the law, demanding that it be abandoned. The government initially suspended in June, and then finally dropped earlier this week – almost three months after protests first begun.

But protesters have said this is “too little, too late”, and their demands have evolved into calls for a much wider set of reforms, including a call for universal suffrage.

Source: The BBC

Posted in "one country, two systems", 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier, allegations, anti-mainland sentiment, attending, autonomy, Beijing, boo, chanting slogans, China anthem, Chinese national anthem, demand, Do You Hear the People Sing?, extradition bill, Fans, football match, freedom of speech, full democracy, Glory to Hong Kong, Go Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong parliament, independent judiciary, investigation, Les Miserables, mainland interference, major concession, Mongkok, police abuses, pre-game, protesters, rallying cry, sang, scrapped, Sha Tin, shopping district, shopping malls, sing, Sing Hallelujah to the Lord, sparked, sports stadium, the Basic Law, too little, too late, Uncategorized, universal suffrage, unrest | Leave a Comment »

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