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Ameen Sayani, a pioneering radio presenter who drew generations of listeners in India with his melodic voice on a radio show that became a national phenomenon, died on Tuesday. Born in 1932, Ameen Sayani was introduced to radio by his elder brother who was an English-language presenter. In 1952, Ameen became one of the first voices to be heard on the airwaves in Asia by starting the radio program for which he became the most famous, “Binaca Geetmala,” showcasing Bollywood music. He hosted the program on Radio Ceylon, one of the oldest radio stations in the world, based in what is now Sri Lanka. The show was later moved to All India Radio, the state-owned public broadcaster.

Persons: Ameen, Narendra Modi, Sayani’s, “, ” Mr, Rajil, Ameen Sayani, Binaca Organizations: Radio Ceylon, India Radio Locations: India, English, Asia, Sri Lanka

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

☆ Trapped in a Tunnel for 15 Days, With No End in Sight
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the two weeks that dozens of Indian construction workers have been trapped in a Himalayan road tunnel, the authorities have reported meter-by-meter progress toward reaching them and offered hopeful timelines for their rescue. Yet 15 days after disaster struck, the 41 men are still stuck. And now, as Indian officials try a new tack — drilling down through the top of a mountain — they acknowledge that the effort will take several days, if it works at all. “We feel a looming sense of doom,” said Jyotish Basumatary, whose brother, Sanjay Basumatary, is trapped inside. If it rains, “the workers’ hands would freeze,” he said by phone.

Persons: ”, Jyotish Basumatary, Sanjay Basumatary, ” Jyotish

Each notification sounded its own little alarm, but was amplified many times over when the targets identified themselves publicly. The warning on their phones, sent by Apple on Monday, seemed stark: “State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone,” it said in part. This week’s episode seemed to fit into that pattern for his critics and many who got the warning from Apple. Rahul Gandhi, the foremost opposition leader, said many of his confidants in the Congress Party received the notification. Mr. Gandhi added that he takes illegal surveillance by the government for granted.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Apple’s, Modi’s, Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Gandhi, “ Organizations: Bharatiya Janata Party, Apple, Party Locations: India

Purbasha Roy held her 9-year-old daughter’s hand and pointed toward the towering art installation: blooming pink buds symbolizing embryos, menstrual cups shaped to form a bouquet, fallopian tubes descending from corners of the ceiling. The work, part of a makeshift pavilion to worship the Hindu goddess Durga, was designed to break taboos in India about menstruation. And it had a clear target: A half-man, half-bull demon at Durga’s feet, an organizer explained to Ms. Roy and others, represented the “moral police” — India’s patriarchal society. The pavilion was one of hundreds, many politically pointed, that dotted Kolkata during a five-day festival called the Durga Puja, an event that brings this muggy, sleepy city alive each year as if jolted by a high-voltage current. Part Mardi Gras, part Christmas, the festival, which ended on Tuesday, is the most important religious celebration for Hindus in this part of eastern India.

Persons: Purbasha Roy, Durga, Roy, ” Locations: India, Kolkata

☆ Uncertainty ‘Is Killing Us’: Sikhs in India Are in Limbo Amid Canada Dispute
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now Mr. Singh is simply afraid to go, suspecting that flights might be canceled in coming weeks, leaving him helpless in Canada. “It hurts, this cold war, and there is an uncertainty now which is killing us,” Mr. Singh, a farmer who had hoped to explore business opportunities with extended family in Canada, said dejectedly. Each of their sentences, each word of our leaders, is affecting the lives of each one of us. Known as India’s breadbasket, Punjab is a majority-Sikh state where the average income is about $2,080 a year. It has a special relationship with Canada and a special place in the hearts of Sikhs like Mr. Singh.

Persons: Singh, ” Mr, breadbasket Organizations: Boeing Locations: Canada, Punjab

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

☆ Who Was the Man Whose Killing Canada Says India Instigated?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Sikh separatist whose killing in British Columbia this summer has suddenly set off a major diplomatic dispute between Canada and India was a prominent advocate of the creation of an independent nation, Khalistan, that would include parts of India’s Punjab State. Decades later, the Indian government declared him a terrorist, accusing him of plotting a violent attack in India linked to his advocacy. And in June, two masked assailants killed him in front of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, a city on the border with Washington. Mr. Nijjar was born in the district of Jalandhar in the North Indian state of Punjab. In Canada, he married, had two sons, worked as a plumber and became the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a temple in Surrey, in 2020.

Persons: Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Nijjar, Nanak Locations: British Columbia, Canada, India, India’s Punjab State, Surrey, Washington, Jalandhar, Punjab

☆ Making Sure 1.4 Billion People Are Very Aware India Is Hosting the G20
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In cities across India, the beaming face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi adorns giant posters promoting the country’s G20 presidency. A hundred national monuments, including the Red Fort in Delhi, were illuminated with the G20 logo to encourage people to post selfies. But India, and its governing party, were primed to capitalize on the moment. Mr. Modi has seized on the G20 presidency as confirmation and celebration of India’s ascent — a rise to which he has fused his own image — as he seeks a third term in an election early next year. “That India has arrived on the world stage will go strongly in his favor with the electorate.”

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi, ”, Neerja Chowdhury Organizations: Democracy Locations: India, Fort, Delhi

☆ At Least 26 Die as Bridge Collapses While Under Construction in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At least 26 workers were killed on Wednesday after the collapse of a bridge that was under construction in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, officials said. Several other workers were feared trapped under the wreckage, the Indian news media reported. Sabyasachi De, a spokesman for the North East Frontier Railway, said that Mizoram State had taken over a rescue operation and that the construction was a project of the federal railways ministry. “Most northeastern state capitals are not connected by the railways, so this bridge was part of that connectivity project,” he said. Mr. De said that a gantry, rather than the entire bridge, fell while being set atop the bridge’s piers.

Persons: Sabyasachi, ”, De Organizations: North East Frontier Railway Locations: Indian, Mizoram, Mizoram State

In June, 11 women who work together as sanitation laborers in India pooled their money to buy the equivalent of a $3 lottery ticket because they could not afford the cost individually. Last week, they won. The jackpot was $1.2 million, or more than $700,000 after taxes — an enormous sum for workers who spend their days collecting household waste and building public toilets. Lottery drawings are famous feel-good stories because they make people rich overnight, but these winners may be among the most deserving in history. “I’m swimming in debt, so this money will be a big relief,” said one of the winners, Leela K., 50, a mother of four daughters.

Persons: ”, Leela K, “ Locations: India

“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

☆ Monsoon’s Fury Sours Romance of Wet Season Travel in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Akash and Parvani Kapadi drove up pine-covered forests to a hill town in northern India with a view of the snow-capped Himalayas. In their hotel room, the gentle pitter-patter of monsoon rains on the roof set the stage for a week of romance — away from the heat and grime of the city. But the drizzle turned into a downpour and did not let up for days. “We were fearful that the honeymoon may result in a tragedy,” Mr. Kapadi said. Because of climate change, the wet season is forecast to get even more violent and erratic.

Persons: Parvani Kapadi, ” Mr, Kapadi, “, — Locations: India

☆ Video of Sexual Assault Goes Viral in India, Renewing Attention on Ethnic Conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Suhasini Raj | More About Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It took more than two months for word of the shocking sexual assault to spread, partly because the internet in the region had been shut down. So when a video — showing two women being paraded naked and assaulted in Manipur — went viral on Wednesday in India, it shocked the nation, further inflamed tensions and brought renewed attention to a conflict that has left more than 130 people dead, and over 35,000 displaced. It also led to Prime Minister Narendra Modi making his first public comments about the situation in the state. “This incident of Manipur which has come to light, for any civilized society, it’s a shameful incident,” he said on Thursday. It was, he added, an “insult” that “is of the entire nation.”

Persons: Narendra Modi, it’s, ” Locations: Manipur, India

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