Modi leaves for Indonesia
New Delhi, May 29 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi left on Tuesday for Indonesia on a five-day three-nation tour of Southeast Asia that will take him to Malaysia and Singapore.
"PM @narendramodi emplanes for Jakarta. He will be visiting Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in the next few days," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) tweeted.
"During these visits, he will be attending a wide range of programmes including talks with world leaders, interactions with students and top CEOs," it said.
In a pre-departure statement here on Monday Modi said he was "confident that my visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore will provide a further boost to our Act East Policy and enhance our relations and engagements with all the three countries".
Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on May 30. He will also address members of the Indian community in Indonesia.
On May 31, Modi will make a brief stopover in Malaysia on his way from Indonesia to Singapore to meet newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir, who governed for more than two decades became, at the age of 92, the world's oldest elected leader earlier this month.
On June 1, Modi will call on Singapore President Halimah Yacob and then hold a summit with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Later in the evening, he will deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to do so in the Track I annual inter-governmental security forum.
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BJP using women's quota bill as front to pass Delimitation Bill that will break India: Mamata
Cooch Behar (WB) (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was using the proposed amendment to the women's quota law in Parliament as a front for the Delimitation Bill that would "break the country into pieces".
The TMC will fight this Central government's move at every step, she asserted at her party's poll rally here.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women's quota law, along with the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, to implement the proposed amended women's quota law, in the Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
According to the Constitution amendment bill, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats will also be increased in state and Union territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
Opposing the Centre's move, Banerjee alleged that "the BJP brought the Delimitation Bill while keeping the women's reservation bill at the front".
"The BJP is trying to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to nearly 850 through the Delimitation Bill. It will break the country into pieces," the TMC supremo said.
She also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not speaking the truth about the development of north Bengal at a BJP rally last week.
"The prime minister said nothing was done for the development of north Bengal. But we spent Rs 1.72 lakh crore on the development of the region," Banerjee said and asked Modi to cross-check data before making such remarks.
