Everybody knows who wins when someone stands against India: Rahul Gandhi
Bengaluru(PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said everybody knows who the winner is when someone stands against India and nobody has been able to fight the idea of India. Addressing the media here after deliberations between opposition leaders for the second day, Gandhi said the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are going to be a fight between "INDIA" and Narendra Modi.
The opposition has named its alliance as INDIA -- the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance -- as announced at the press conference after the meeting of the parties.
"All of you know who wins when anyone stands against India.... There is no need to spell it out," Gandhi said. The former Congress chief also said it is known to everyone what happens to those who oppose or attempt to fight the idea of India.
"You can look in our history and you will see that nobody has been able to fight the idea of India. So I do not need to go into who is going to win this fight. This is a fight between the idea of India and the idea of the BJP.... This is a fight between INDIA and the BJP.... It is a fight between INDIA and Mr Narendra Modi," he said.
Gandhi also said Tuesday's opposition meeting, the second in a series, was very successful and things moved "very smoothly" during the deliberations that lasted for more than four hours.
He said the idea of India is being attacked today by the ideology of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The wealth of the country is being snatched from the millions and millions of countrymen and handed over to a few businessmen "who are close to the prime minister and the BJP", the Congress leader alleged.
Noting that unemployment is spreading and prices are rising, he said this is what the fight is all about.
"The fight is about two different ideas of India and while we were having this discussion ... this name frankly emerged from the discussion because we asked ourselves what is the fight ... whom is the fight between?
"We realised that the fight is not between two political formations.... The fight is to defend the idea of India and that is why, we came up with the name -- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, which also happens to stand for INDIA and what we are doing here as a group," the former Congress chief said.
Gandhi also said "we are defending the Indian Constitution, the voice of the Indian people, the idea of our great country ... the idea of India". He said the third opposition meeting will be held in Maharashtra, where some key decisions will be taken.
"All of us have decided that we will prepare an action plan and move forward together and tell people about our ideology and what we plan to do for the country," Gandhi said.
He thanked all the leaders for attending the meeting. Subsequently, in a tweet in Hindi, Gandhi said: "Bharat will be united, INDIA will win."
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US lifts its blockade and the war ends: officials
Cairo (AP): Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear programme would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday.
US President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the US and Israel to go to war on February 28.
With a fragile ceasefire in place, the US and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The US blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.
The strait's closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.
The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran's proposal.
It came as Iran's foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It's unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.
Strait of Hormuz remains blocked
===================
Iran's ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.
Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the strait and reach global distribution points.
On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at around $108 per barrel, nearly 50 per cent higher than when the war began.
Iranian foreign minister holds talks as negotiations with US stall
===============================
Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the US and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg on Monday morning ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” Araghchi said in a video interview posted by IRNA.
It comes as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the US, and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.
Over the weekend, Araghchi made two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with Iran. He also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter.
Oman's response wasn't immediately clear.
The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the US blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.
Trump says Iran has offered a much better proposal
===========================
Trump told journalists Saturday that after he called off a trip by his envoys to Pakistan, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.
He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran insists its programme is peaceful, but the US wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, should Tehran choose to pursue one.
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 US service members in the region and six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.
