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is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies.

Persons: Trump Organizations: The Times

The ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tightened its grip over India’s populous northern belt, results of state elections showed Sunday, expanding its dominance of a key region ahead of general elections in which Mr. Modi is seeking a third term. The party, which ruled for a majority of India’s history as a republic, has struggled to claw its way back after Mr. Modi rose to national power in 2014. The Congress party was hoping to use the state elections to build momentum for national elections next spring, but instead lost all three states in which it was pitted against Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. The only victory for Congress came against a smaller regional party in Telangana, in India’s south, where Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics has faced resistance. The results of elections in a smaller fifth state, Mizoram, are expected on Monday, but the race there is between two smaller regional parties.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi, Modi’s Organizations: Indian National Congress, Mr, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress Locations: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana, India’s, Mizoram

In page after page of fly-on-the-wall detail, the indictment unsealed in New York this week describes a chilling plot: A criminal operative, on orders from a government official in India, tried to arrange the killing of a Sikh American on U.S. soil. And he was ordered to proceed even as India’s prime minister was on a red-carpet visit to Washington. The plot was eventually foiled, the indictment says. But its damning account leaves open a burning question: Why would the Indian government take such a gamble? Pursuing a vocal American activist in the movement would seem a risk to the momentum in U.S.-India relations as New Delhi expands its trade and defense ties with Washington in unprecedented ways.

Organizations: Washington Locations: New York, India, American, Canada, Washington, New Delhi

As the trapped workers came out of the under-construction road tunnel after 17 days, the happy end to a rescue effort that had riveted India set off celebrations across the country. Gone for the moment were questions about why the 41 men had been put at risk of being entombed in the tunnel in the first place. Cameras focused on local representatives of India’s governing party, who credited the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While activists and environmentalists also watched with relief, the scenes carried another, very different meaning for them. They had long warned, in futile court cases and failed tribunal hearings, that the $1.5 billion road-widening project was dangerously destabilizing the already fragile Himalayan landscape.

Persons: Narendra Modi, “ Modi, Modi Locations: India

☆ India Faces Questions About Another Reported Foreign Assassination Plot
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Mujib Mashal | More About Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the second time in recent months, the Indian government is facing questions about whether it was involved in an assassination plot on Western soil, as American officials said they had expressed concerns to New Delhi about a thwarted plan to kill a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. U.S. officials did not publicly accuse India of trying to orchestrate the killing of the dual citizen, reported by news outlets to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a vocal advocate of the cause of Sikh separatism. But the revelation of a foiled plot comes just months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of another Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian territory. And in the case of Mr. Pannun, news outlets, led by The Financial Times, reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration had told the Indian government it had information possibly linking New Delhi to the plot against him. Responding to those reports, which cited anonymous U.S. officials, the Indian foreign ministry issued a vaguely worded statement acknowledging discussion with the United States on the matter.

Persons: Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Justin Trudeau, Hardeep Singh, Biden Organizations: The Financial Times Locations: New Delhi, U.S, India, Canada, United States

For Mr. Putin, it was a rare interaction with Western leaders since the start of the war last year. Once he had a chance to respond, Mr. Putin could not hide his irritation. “Some colleagues already in their speeches were saying that they were shocked by the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Mr. Putin said. Mr. Putin repeated Russia’s official line that the Kremlin was ready to negotiate and blamed Ukraine for rejecting talks. “Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine,” Mr. Putin said.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, ” Mr, ”, Mr, Viktor F, Yanukovych, Putin —, Xi Jinping —, Biden, Sergei V, Lavrov, Li Qiang Organizations: Hamas, Western, Kremlin, Ukraine Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Russia, India, Gaza, United States, China, Moscow, Europe, Delhi, Western

☆ A Big Year for India on the Global Stage Ends in Cricket Heartbreak
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Mujib Mashal | More About Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The stage was amply set: an acrobatic air show by Indian military planes, performances by star Bollywood singers, a light display, lots of fireworks and — talked about as the highlight — an appearance by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the vast stadium that bears his name. All India’s national cricket team, undefeated and heavily favored, had to do was win. In the end, the Indians fell short, losing to Australia on Sunday night in the men’s World Cup, silencing the home crowd of about 100,000 and bringing heartache to more than a billion Indians who have grown used this year to unending validation of their country’s global rise. The result was a bitter pill for a nation that expected a coronation as the most dominant force, measured in passion and money, in a sport that by some estimates is the world’s second most popular. It seemed to symbolize how far India has come, on and off the field, and how far it still has to go.

Persons: —, Narendra Modi Organizations: national cricket team, Australia Locations: India

Seven generations of its men before him had trained as Islamic scholars, known as Mawlawis. But his father, Mawlawi Mohammed Rafiq Habibi, was a conflicted man. He dressed in suits and ties and was open to debating theological questions with his son about the existence of God. On a bus ride from Kandahar to Karachi, the conductor softly sang the song. “All these distances in the world — the threads, the ropes are in God’s hand,” she told him.

Persons: Mohammed Sadiq Habibi, Kandahar “, Mawlawi Mohammed Rafiq Habibi, Bibi Hazrata, “, ”, tugged Organizations: Radio Afghanistan Locations: Afghan, Kandahar, Karachi, India, Arghandab

The anthem they stand for at the beginning of every game belongs to a republic that was toppled two years ago. Yet Afghanistan’s athletes have become the unlikely — and widely celebrated — heroes of the Cricket World Cup that is underway in India. In a tournament followed by hundreds of millions of people across the globe, they have defeated the defending world champions and two former titleholders handily. When they win, players sing and dance from the dugout, to the team bus, to their hotel rooms. The Afghan cricket team’s accomplishments are amplifying what has already been an astonishingly speedy rise in sports history.

Organizations: Cricket Locations: India

Officials in Nepal were still assessing the extent of the damage on Sunday from the earthquake that struck the country’s west two nights earlier, leaving at least 150 people dead and thousands either homeless or afraid to sleep indoors. An earthquake in Nepal’s east in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people, and the toll of Friday’s temblor, which was categorized as medium in intensity, suggested the country is a long way behind in its preparations. “You cannot move the population; the entire country is seismic, the entire Nepal is seismic,” said Amod Mani Dixit, the director of the National Society for Earthquake Technology in Kathmandu, the capital. “But can we improve the building stock? The answer is yes we can, and we have demonstrated in many parts of the world, including in Nepal, that we can.”

Persons: ”, Amod Mani Dixit Organizations: National Society for Earthquake Technology Locations: Nepal, Nepal’s, Kathmandu

The allegation was a bombshell: that India had been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil in June. Canada’s prime minister leveled the charge on Monday, and an all-out diplomatic war soon followed. Canada pressed its allies to come together to challenge India, with statements of concern issued in Washington and Canberra, Australia. India moved to expel a top Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move, and Indian officials lined up to air grievances with Canada. But behind the plunge in relations to what officials and analysts called the lowest point ever were years of diplomatic tension.

Persons: Canada’s, Canada — Organizations: Canadian Locations: India, Canada, Washington, Canberra, Australia, Canadian, Britain, United States, Punjab

For more than a decade, China has courted developing countries frustrated with the West. And as it challenged the postwar order, especially with its global focus on development through trade, loans and infrastructure projects, it sent billions of much-needed dollars to poor nations. Exhibit A: the unexpected consensus India managed at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi over the weekend. With help from other developing nations, India persuaded the United States and Europe to soften a statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine so the forum could focus on the concerns of poorer countries, including global debt and climate financing. India also presided over the most tangible result so far of its intensifying campaign to champion the global south: the admission of the African Union to the G20, putting it on par with the European Union.

Organizations: Group, African Union, European Union Locations: China, ”, India, New Delhi, United States, Europe, Ukraine

Inside a sprawling golf resort south of New Delhi, diplomats were busy making final preparations for a fast-approaching global summit meeting. Not far away, however, were the remnants of bitter division: grieving families, charred vehicles and the rubble of bulldozed shops and homes. Weeks before, deadly religious violence had erupted in the Nuh district, the site of the resort. Clashes quickly spread to the gates of Gurugram, a tech start-up hub just outside New Delhi that India bills as a city of the future. Mr. Modi, India’s most powerful leader in decades, is attempting nothing less than a legacy-defining transformation of this nation of 1.4 billion people.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi Locations: New Delhi, Nuh, Gurugram, India

Bangladesh’s multiparty democracy is being methodically strangled in crowded courtrooms across this country of 170 million people. Nearly every day, thousands of leaders, members and supporters of opposition parties stand before a judge. Charges are usually vague, and evidence is shoddy, at best. But just months before a pivotal election pitting them against the ruling Awami League, the immobilizing effect is clear. About half of the five million members of the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are embroiled in politically motivated court cases, the group estimates.

Organizations: Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party Locations: Dhaka

☆ India’s Frugal Path to Global Clout: Breakthroughs in Space and Beyond
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Mujib Mashal | More About Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even during the difficult decades when India was struggling to muster resources and find a path out of poverty, its scientists were aiming high in a characteristic style: frugally and often with little fanfare. Some of their breakthroughs, such as the nuclear tests that began in the mid-1970s, brought sanctions and restrictions on knowledge sharing that forced the scientists to become self-reliant for leaps forward. Others, such as India’s repeated success in space exploration, were followed by nagging questions of priorities: Should a nation unable to meet the basic needs of much of its vast population be focusing on the skies? The country’s groundbreaking landing on Wednesday of a rover on the southern polar region of the moon was done with a space budget that was smaller than many other countries’ and a tiny fraction of NASA’s. It did not just send a burst of joy and pride through the Indian public but also delivered a potent message: Resource constraints need not cut off the path to momentous achievement.

Locations: India

The Indian mission launched in July, taking a slower, fuel-conscious route toward the moon. Vikram out-endured its Russian counterpart, Luna-25, which launched 12 days. Luna-25 was scheduled to land on the moon on Monday in the same general vicinity as the Indian craft but crashed on Saturday following an engine malfunction. India’s recent efforts in space exploration closely mirror the country’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise. Indian officials have been advocating in favor of a multipolar world order in which New Delhi is seen as indispensable to global solutions.

Persons: Vikram, Narendra Modi’s Organizations: Soviet Union Locations: India, Russia, Soviet, New Delhi

India has a busy decade of space exploration ahead. In addition to the scientific results of Chandrayaan-3, India is preparing a joint lunar exploration with Japan, in which India will provide the lander and Japan the launch vehicle and the rover. It is therefore preparing its first astronaut mission to space, called Gaganyaan. But the project, which aims to send three Indian astronauts to space on the country’s own spacecraft, has faced delays, and ISRO has not announced a date for it. ISRO will first have to conduct a test flight of the Gaganyaan spacecraft with no astronauts aboard.

Organizations: Indian Space Research Organization, Indian, ISRO Locations: India, Japan

“The fact that there are these weapons which are at large — massive number of sophisticated weapons — is a very huge risk to our national security,” Mr. Gogoi said in an interview. Mr. Modi’s silence, analysts said, reflects how crucial his brand is for the calculations of his governing party, known as the B.J.P., around next year’s general elections. Amit Shah, Mr. Modi’s home minister, visited Manipur last month, and told Parliament last week that he was willing to have a discussion on behalf of the government. Since India’s founding as a republic seven decades ago, its northeast has been rife with insurgencies rooted in tribal and ethnic grievances. Successive national governments have prioritized connections through the northeast that could expand trade with neighboring Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southeast Asia more broadly.

Persons: Mr, Gogoi, Amit Shah, Modi’s, Modi Organizations: Party Locations: Manipur, Meiti, New Delhi, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Southeast Asia

In recent weeks, families have been rationing their intake of tomatoes, which are fundamental to the Indian diet. They’re omitting tomatoes from salads, keeping the few they can afford for flavoring the main dish. Some, out of fear of even higher prices, have been stocking tomatoes as purée in their freezers. Tomatoes have even found their way to the middle of India’s raucous, and increasingly polarized, politics. A prominent leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist party, Himanta Biswa Sarma, blamed the country’s Muslims for the price rise.

Persons: Himanta Biswa Sarma Locations: India, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Indian officials on Friday arrested three railway workers in connection with a deadly train crash last month that left at least 290 people dead and once again highlighted safety problems across a vast train network that serves as an important lifeline for the poor. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the criminal inquiry into the train accident in the eastern state of Odisha, said the workers were arrested on charges of endangering the safety of passengers, culpable homicide without murder, and tampering with evidence. In a statement, the agency identified the three as a senior section engineer, a section engineer and a technician. The “investigation is continuing,” the agency said. The Coromandel Express, which was traveling from West Bengal, crashed into a parked freight train in Odisha at a speed of 80 miles an hour, resulting in a three-way tangle with another train that was passing in the opposite direction.

Organizations: India’s, Bureau of Investigation Locations: Odisha, West Bengal

Their love affair across one of the world’s most heavily guarded borders had begun on the virtual battlefields of a video game where players bond over having one another’s back against bloody enemy ambushes to become the last survivors. But when Seema Ghulam Haider, 27, a married Pakistani Muslim, sneaked into India with her four children to be with Sachin Meena, 22, a Hindu man, their time together was brief. About two months after they started secretly living in the same neighborhood in Rabupura, a town outside New Delhi, the couple ran into the Indian authorities. “I don’t want to go back,” Ms. Haider told reporters as she was taken away by the police, her befuddled children next to her. I love him a lot.

Persons: Seema Ghulam Haider, Sachin Meena, Haider, Meena, ” Ms, “, Sachin, ” Locations: Pakistani, India, Rabupura, New Delhi

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