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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Hamas accepts cease-fire proposal for Gaza, but Israel's stance still uncertain
Jerusalem, May 6: Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but there was no immediate word from Israel, leaving it uncertain whether a deal had been sealed to bring a halt to the seven-month-long war in Gaza.
It was the first glimmer of hope that a deal might avert further bloodshed. Hours earlier, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the southern Gaza town of Rafah, signalling that an attack was imminent. The United States and other key allies of Israel oppose an offensive on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza's population, are sheltering.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking said Israeli officials were examining the proposal, but the plan approved by Hamas was not the framework Israel proposed.
An American official also said the US was still waiting to learn more about the Hamas position and whether it reflected an agreement to what had already been signed off on by Israel and international negotiators or something else. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a stance was still being formulated.
Details of the proposal have not been released. Touring the region last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pressed Hamas to take the deal, and Egyptian officials said it called for a cease-fire of multiple stages starting with a limited hostage release and some Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal, they said.
