India saw a day of extravaganza for thousands of supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, who lit 71,000 earthen lamps, cut a 71-feet-long cake and prepared a giant 71-kilogram traditional sweet to celebrate his 71st birthday.
Mr Modi, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, is counted as independent India’s most powerful and popular leader, whose strongman image has won him hordes of friends and detractors in the culturally and religiously diverse country of 1.4 billion people.
#HappyBdayModiji --’Ji’ an honorific used to show respect — was trending on Twitter and Facebook, with the Prime Minister’s colleagues and supporters showering him with praise and praying for his long life.
Even opposition leaders, including his arch rival and critic from Congress party, Rahul Gandhi congratulated him on Twitter, along with greetings from Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.
Members of his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised scores of Hindu fire rituals to celebrate the leader’s birthday and pledged to support his endeavours.
One artist created an 2.4-metre-long portrait of Mr Modi using food grains and another made a giant sand sculpture with seashells.
His Hindu nationalist party will organise blood donation camps, cleanliness drives and distribute 140 million food packets with his photograph over the next three weeks to commemorate the birthday and his two-decades in public life.
Some 50 million “Thank You” postcards will be sent to him by his party workers as an acknowledgement for his contribution to the country.
The government also arranged for 22 million people to receive a Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, out of a target of 25 million.
The new record surpassed the previous record of 13 million vaccines against Covid-29 on September 1.
India has administered 780 million cumulative vaccines including second doses
Known for his oratory skills, charismatic personality, tech-savvy and somewhat “no-nonsense” approach to government, Mr Modi steered his party to an overwhelming second straight win in national elections in 2019, pushing India’s grand-old Congress party to the margins.
Mr Modi cancelled the celebrations last year as the country was reeling under the coronavirus pandemic, but many see this year’s bash as part of a reaching out to the public after Mr Modi’s approval ratings took a hit over his government’s handling of the second coronavirus wave.
"It is quite a spectacle and we have not seen anything on this scale before. This is not even a milestone birthday as he turned 71. Clearly, all these poll ratings and the general murmur on the ground shows that his popularity has dipped considerably over the last two years, particularly after the pandemic and the second wave this year...lots of death, terrible mismanagement," said Arathi Jerath, a Delhi based political analyst.
"This is an effort to shore up his popularity, build up his image but this creation of a personality cult that we have not seen in India before."
India was battered by the pandemic between March and June, when millions of people were infected and its healthcare system almost collapsed.
Many blamed Mr Modi’s government after it prematurely claimed victory over the virus in January.
Mr Modi has been lauded by his supporters for clean and efficient government and many have seen him as a saviour with the ability to rid the country of poverty, corruption and bring economic prosperity.
But the pandemic, coupled with a flailing economy, unemployment and divisive politics have eclipsed his popularity in recent years.
Opposition parties marked his birthday with public protests over decades-high unemployment numbers and record fuel and food prices under Mr Modi’s seven-year rule.
Born Narendra Damodardas Modi in 1950 in western Gujarat state’s Vadnagar district, Mr Modi had a humble upbringing, with his father running a tea stall at a local railway station.
As a teenager, he was inspired by the ideology of Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh, a powerful Hindu paramilitary organisation, and at 20, he renounced material life, even abandoning his teenage wife.
He dedicated his life to spreading RSS ideology before plunging into active politics, with RSS’s political arm, the BJP.
In 2001, he went on to serve Gujarat as its chief minister for nearly 13 years.
Mr Modi rose to the national stage in 2013 after he was declared as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections despite a controversial past, including his alleged role in the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, when he headed the state.
But his strong Hindu icon image gave the party a stunning victory in the world’s largest democracy.
Since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Modi has pushed bold policies such as opening the country to foreign investment, universal healthcare and encouraging local manufacturing to make the country a $5 trillion economy.
But many of his ambitious policies have turned sour, including the farm reform that triggered continuing protests by farmers across the country.
He is also blamed for hurting the Indian economy through his sudden decision to ban high-value 500 and 1000 rupee notes in 2016, and for rolling out a flawed Goods and Services Tax in 2017.
He recently faced flak over building a multi-billion-dollar residence for himself in Delhi under his ambitious $2.8 billion Central Vista Project.
The project aims to construct a new parliament building and repurpose British-era government buildings in the capital, causing much furore among historians.
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So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
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Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
RESULTS
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
Winner: Dirilis Ertugrul, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ismail Mohammed (trainer)
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
Winner: Kidd Malibu, Sandro Paiva, Musabah Al Muhairi
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
Winner: Raakezz, Tadhg O’Shea, Nicholas Bachalard
3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
Winner: Au Couer, Sean Kirrane, Satish Seemar
3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
Winner: Rayig, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
Winner: Chiefdom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
Winner: King’s Shadow, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
The five pillars of Islam
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
