Right thing to do: Indian-Americans on Biden dropping out of 2024 Presidential race
New York (PTI): US President Joe Biden did the “right thing” by dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, prominent members of the Indian-American community have said, noting that this must have been a hard decision for him to make but one he took to put “America first.”
Biden, 81, announced on Sunday that he decided to give up running for re-election as president of the United States and endorsed his deputy Harris to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
“While I acknowledge President Biden's decision to drop out of this race, I accept that decision as his last act to preserve American exceptionalism and as an ‘America First’ decision,” New York-based eminent Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra told PTI.
"Thank you, Joe Biden, for doing what must have been the hardest decision for you, and yet what every soldier on the battlefield does - give our last best measure to America,” he said.
Al Mason, prominent New York-based global real estate advisor and entrepreneur who also advises international education institutions, said that it was expected that Biden would drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
“He did the right thing. He is a good man, but he could never win against Trump. In fact Biden's endorsed candidate Kamala Harris too cannot beat Trump. She has no appeal in the battleground states,” Mason said.
Batra said Biden has served the United States with distinction and his 50-year career, especially as Senate Foreign Relations chair and then as President Barack Obama’s vice president are “remarkable”. He added that the citizens of the country are at their core not Democrats or Republicans or Independents but are Americans first.
Biden has done his “finest duty by dropping out, knowing that he cannot be a standard bearer for the Democratic Party and win against” Republican presidential nominee former US President Donald Trump who after being shot at during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, “in a moment of extreme personal crisis had the strength of heart and mind on the stage with a face bloodied to put up his fist and say ‘Fight’.”
“After all, that's what all we Americans do. We fight for democracy. We fight for meritocracy, because if we don't fight it's all over. It's game over,” Batra said.
Mason said Trump is “impossible” to beat, even more so now with his 39-year-old Vice Presidential candidate Senator J D Vance, who has great appeal in states like Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
Mathura (UP)(PTI): With the recovery of two more bodies on Sunday, the death toll in the boat capsize incident in the Yamuna river in Mathura has climbed to 13, officials said on Sunday.
Search for three more missing persons is underway.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student, identified as Dinki Bansal, near Devraha Baba Ghat and that of a man identified as Rishabh Sharma approximately 3 km away from the accident site.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying over two dozen tourists, primarily from Punjab, hit a floating drum of a pontoon bridge and capsized near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri areas of Ludhiana district.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the district administration and local police were actively engaged in the search for the missing pilgrims.
However, strong currents of the Yamuna river and the significant depth of the water at the ghats are proving a hindrance.
Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch extending from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Barrage has been divided into seven sectors.
The search for the missing individuals will now be conducted within this specific 20-square-km zone. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been designated as the in-charge for each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Range), seven SHOs will oversee operations across the seven sectors of river Yamuna.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, citing NDRF officials, on Saturday had said although the search for the missing persons is currently focused within a 14-km radius from the spot where the boat had capsized, there is a possibility that they may have been swept much further downstream.
SHO of Vrindavan police station Sanjay Pandey said boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of failing to provide life jackets to passengers before allowing them to board the boat, and operating the boat at high speed. This resulted in the boat losing control and colliding with a pontoon bridge's drum, which led to the accident, officials said.
Police have registered a case and also arrested the contractor, Narayan Sharma, responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said that on Friday evening, police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatman Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma, and subsequently arrested them.
According to the case details, Pappu's boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions whatsoever.
Moreover, despite repeated pleas from pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. By the time he realised the danger upon approaching the pontoons of the bridge, it was already too late.
Consequently, after colliding with a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It has also come to light that he is among those operators who have not obtained the requisite license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the work of dismantling and reassembling the pontoon bridge without providing any prior notification.
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