Modi had cast a spell on me too: Sushilkumar Shinde
Solapur (Maharashtra): Congress veteran Sushilkumar Shinde said on Thursday that "a little Modi wave" still prevails in the country, and conceded that initially he himself had been impressed by the prime minister.
Things began to go downhill after Narendra Modi's first two years in office, he said.
Addressing party workers here, Shinde said the Congress succeeded in making the Shiv Sena -- a former BJP ally -- accept a common minimum program for running a coalition government in Maharashtra.
"We brought a secular government to power in Maharashtra and this is just a beginning," he said.
He further said that prime minister Modi still enjoys some public support.
"I know that a little Modi wave is still there. He had cast a spell on us. He had cast a spell on me too," the former Maharashtra chief minister said.
"During the initial two years, I too said that he was doing good work, but later the economic situation started deteriorating, misleading claims about employment were exposed, a rift was being created between communities and the situation in the country deteriorated due to some wrong decisions on religious lines," he said.
Commenting on Donald Trump's visit, Shinde said Modi's speech on the occasion was only about his friendship with the US president and nothing else.
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Tsunami alert after a volcano in Indonesia has several big eruptions and thousands are told to leave
Jakarta, Apr 17: Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert Wednesday after eruptions at Ruang mountain sent ash thousands of feet high. Officials ordered more than 11,000 people to leave the area.
The volcano on the northern side of Sulawesi island had at least five large eruptions in the past 24 hours, Indonesia's Centre for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation said. Authorities raised their volcano alert to its highest level.
At least 800 residents left the area earlier Wednesday.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
Authorities urged tourists and others to stay at least 6 km (3.7 miles) from the 725-metre (2,378 foot) Ruang volcano.
Officials worry that part of the volcano could collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami as in a 1871 eruption there.
Tagulandang island to the volcano's northeast is again at risk, and its residents are among those being told to evacuate.
Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency said residents will be relocated to Manado, the nearest city, on Sulawesi island, a journey of six hours by boat.
In 2018, the eruption of Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano caused a tsunami along the coasts of Sumatra and Java after parts of the mountain fell into the ocean, killing 430 people.
