Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal said that the world is looking up to India in every sphere. He said that India deeply values its 25 years of strategic partnership with France and 75 years of friendship. He said that France is the preferred partner in defence, economy, investments, etc. and this 25-year journey truly is reflective of India’s journey of progress. He said that India desires to strengthen this partnership with France. He said that the vibrant Indian Community in France acting as a true living Bridge between the two countries will relentlessly pursue a path that will further strengthen India’s ties with France in technology, investments, tourism, etc.

The Minister narrated India’s development story on French soil during an interaction with the Indian diaspora in Paris, France yesterday & described how India is emerging as a bright spot on the global stage under the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

The Minister said that in 1947, as India gained independence it started regaining its place in the world. He said that this year India is celebrating 25 years of partnership with France and 75 years of India’s independence. He said that while it’s a great moment to reflect on all the good things that have been achieved in the last 75 years, it’s also a great opportunity for each one of us to reflect on new ideas about how our country should progress in the future.

The Minister noted the changes that have taken place in India over the last 9 years of government. He said that the focus of the government has been on ensuring that the basic needs of every single person in the country, particularly those at the lowest strata of society are taken care of. He said that the provision of housing for all, healthcare, food, clothing, shelter, etc. have been strongly pursued by the government at all levels. He appreciated the role played by the community leaders and Ekal Vidyalaya in supporting and empowering the tribal communities.

He said that half of India until 2014 did not have a toilet, governments came and went but somehow that sensitivity was missing that our mothers, our sisters and our daughters deserve better dignity. He said that the respect and dignity which can come from a basic amenity like a toilet was realised by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and toilets were constructed throughout the country under the Swachh Bharat Mission so that today not a single sister has to face the indignity of not having this facility at home. For women empowerment, he said that the government has ensured cooking gas connection in nearly every home in the country to save the women from inhaling the harmful smoke from traditional cooking fuels like coal or wood.

The Minister said that the government has also launched the Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest Healthcare scheme, ensuring free healthcare for around 500 million people. He also noted some other initiatives undertaken by the government like the new National Education policy promoting liberal education, digital connectivity, encouraging startups, Jal Jeevan Mission, etc. He said that these initiatives are reforming the entire country’s way of working and leading India towards becoming a developed country.

The Minister said that during the challenging period of COVID-19 pandemic, the government undertook sincere efforts to ensure that food, water, etc. was made available to every person in the country. He said the other countries of the world appreciated the manner in which the Indian government managed to take care of all the Indians despite the world’s strictest lockdown to contain COVID.

He said that these efforts undertaken by the government over the last 9 years are the building blocks and enablers that have prepared India to work in this new age of technology to provide a better quality of life for our people and build a nation of aspirational young Indians looking for a better future.

He said that with every Indian empowered with skills and talent and with the basic requirements taken care of, the youth of India who watch the progress around the world on their smartphone can work for achieving bigger and better. He said that with more women coming into the workforce and with India moving rapidly towards adopting sustainability as the core of its working principles, along with rapid strides in manufacturing and service sectors India is on the right path towards becoming a developed country.

He said that India offers huge opportunities to the rest of the world and India’s overall exports growing to US $ 765 Billion in 2022-23 is an example of a new India which is showing the path to the rest of the world, a new India with capability, capacity & confidence. The Minister said that each member of the diaspora is an ambassador of India.

He said that the Indian Community in France can contribute to this journey of Amrit Kaal envisioned by the Prime Minister to see India as a developed Nation by 2047. He said that India must find its rightful place in the comity of Nations now as ‘this is the time, this is the right time’ as said by the Prime Minister.

(With inputs from PIB)

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Coming amidst the spat between France and Turkey following the beheading of the French school teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist inspired by ISIS, the French satirical magazine Charle Hebdo has published another controversial caricature of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This brutal caricature of the Turkish ruler that was published over a front-page in its latest edition comes after Erdogan questioned the mental health of Macron for insulting Muslims and Islam. 

The front-page caricature of Wednesday’s (October 28) edition of Charlie Hebdo scathingly shows Erdogan in a t-shirt and underpants, drinking a can of beer (alcohol is forbidden in Islam) and lifting up the hijab of a woman to reveal her naked bottom.

The caption translated from French Reads, “Ooh, the prophet!” the character says in a speech bubble, while the title proclaims “Erdogan: in private, he’s very funny”.

https://twitter.com/Charlie_Hebdo_/status/1321134572105572352

Immediately Erdogan’s top press aide, Fahrettin Altun sent out a tweet, “We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred,”. 

In another tweet sent by Altun, he said, “French President Macron’s anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit! Charlie Hebdo just published a series of so-called cartoons full of despicable images purportedly of our President.”  

French President Macron’s anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit! Charlie Hebdo just published a series of so-called cartoons full of despicable images purportedly of our President. We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred.

— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) October 27, 2020

This has triggered a wave of protest by Ummah, the solidarity among the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion. In light of this, France has cautioned its citizens living in or traveling to Islamic countries to be careful and take additional safety measures, Reuters reported.

There has been an exchange of barbs between the French President and the Turkish President after the brutal beheading of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty by a suspected Islamist who had apparently been irked by the teacher’s portrayal of Prophet Mohammad.

The Turkish President in a televised speech said that Muslims were now “subjected to a lynch campaign similar to that against Jews in Europe before World War II and European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign”.

Macron said that the teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed because Islamists wanted France’s future and that France would not give up the right to freedom of expression. He also pledged to fight against “Islamist separatism” that threatened Muslim communities around France.

A few days ago, the cartoons of Mohammed that were published in Charlie Hebdo was projected on the wall of a government building in France much to the anger of Muslims around the world. 

In 2015, two brothers, Muslim jihadists who were inspired by the ISIS attack killed 12 people dead, including some of its most famed cartoonists who worked for the publication. 

The relationship between France and Turkey has also taken a geopolitical turn to the worst due to the ongoing Greek-Turkish maritime dispute and also the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

The French foreign ministry has issued a safety instruction for citizens of France in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iraq and Mauritania and in an official statement have said, “It is recommended to exercise the greatest vigilance, especially while travelling, and in places that are frequented by tourists or expatriate communities,”.

In another development, Pakistan decided to recall its ambassador from Paris, however, it turned out that Islamabad had never sent its envoy in the first place. Erdogan who is now very popular in Pakistan has urged Turks and fellow Muslims to boycott French products amid a wave of anti-France protests in Muslim-majority countries.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan sent out a tweet in which he said, “Hallmark of a leader is he unites human beings, as Mandela did, rather than dividing them.” Khan went on to accuse Macron that he encourages “Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence”.

https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1320286659477442565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1320286659477442565%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fswarajyamag.com%2Finsta%2Fmohammed-cartoons-pakistan-pm-imran-khan-accuses-french-president-emmanuel-macron-of-provoking-muslims-and-stoking-islamophobia

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In a show of defiance and solidarity, amid the presence of heavily armed police officers who stood guard Wednesday  (October 21) evening, the people of France espousing the valued of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” and defied Islamic terrorism ideology by projecting huge images of Charlie Hebdo cartoons on a local government building.

The images of Charlie Hebdo cartoons that also included a caricature of Prophet Mohammad was projected onto two town halls in the Occitanie region — Montpellier and Toulouse — for four hours on Wednesday evening. Regional mayor Carole Delga was quoted by FranceBleu as saying of the decision to show the art: “there must be no weakness in the face of the enemies of democracy, facing those who transform religion into a weapon of war… those who intend to destroy the Republic.”

This follows days after the brutal beheading of Professor Samuel Paty by a radicalized Islamist. 

Charlie Hebdo cartoons, including one of Mohammed, projected onto Montpellier government building. pic.twitter.com/pnhU0EXTsc

— Chris Tomlinson (@TomlinsonCJ) October 21, 2020

Samuel Paty, who lived in the greater Paris area was murdered on Friday by a Muslim immigrant terrorist because he showed the cartoons to his students as part of an exercise to enjoy the right freedom of expression.

In 2015, Islamist gunmen carried out a deadly attack in the offices of Charlie Hebdo and many of the paper’s editorial staff were killed. Right now fifteen individuals are under trail for the terror attack in a Paris court. Two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, carried out the terror attack because the magazine published cartoons of Mohammed, and justified the killing under Islamic law.

Before attacks were against Charlie Hebdo cartoons and the beheading of Samuel Paty, the French teacher, Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten was the subject of several terror attack plots since it “published an image of Mohammed wearing a bomb in his turban in 2005.”

However, it seems Friday’s attack was the proverbial “hay that broke the camel’s back” and has prompted a strong response from the French government. Already, the French government has been aiding individuals and organisations that expressed support for the attack and attacker.

The French government under the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron have now taken strong measures by dissolving extremist Islamist organisations in the country that had the permission to operate.

One mosque that justified the action of the Islamic terrorist issued an apology for its actions this week, insisting that it was not foreseeable that the call could lead to someone being killed. However, despite the apology, orders have been given to shut the mosque. 

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After the brutal beheading of Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher by an Islamist in France, 231 radicalised foreign nationals in a sweeping crackdown have been expelled, Reuters reported.

France Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin said that the government has plans to carry out the expulsion swiftly in response to the killing of Samuel Paty who had shown the cartoons of Mohammad that had been published in the French weekly, Charlie Hebdo.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the act as an “Islamist terrorist attack” and had defended the right to blasphemy. 

Earlier this month, President Macron had unveiled a plan to defend France’s secular values against Islamist radicalism, and had stated, “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country,”.

France defines extremists as “people who, engaged in a process of radicalisation, are likely to want to go abroad to join terrorist groups or take part in terrorist activities”.

After this brutal murder, 231 foreigners in the File of Alerts for the Prevention of Terrorist Attacks (FSPRT) will be deported. As per reports released by the French government, 180 people are currently in prison and 51 are expected to be arrested in the next few hours. Also, more than 850 illegal immigrants are registered to the FSPRT.

Macron has also announced that his government will be presenting a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state.

This step will ensure that France as a nation will maintain its neutrality on religion. In a speech to the nation, Macron emphasised that “no concessions” would be made in a new drive to push religion out of education and the public sector in France.

Macron went on to say that France would seek to “liberate” Islam in France from foreign influences. This will be done by improving oversight of the financing of mosques and closer scrutiny of schools and associations exclusively serving religious communities, he stated.

In January 2015, the staff of Charlie Hebdo was massacred and the government described it as an act of “Islamist terrorism”. Right now 14 perpetrators, who are charged with various crimes including supplying weapons, membership of a terrorist organisation, and financing terrorism are on trial.

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French police have arrested over 9 people after a teacher was beheaded in a Paris award for showing caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in class.

The prime accused is 18-year-old Chechen, who had later been killed by police in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Police went to the scene after receiving a call about suspicious individual loitering near the school, a police source said. They discovered the dead man and soon spotted the suspect, armed with a blade, who threatened the officers as they tried to arrest him. The attacker had let out jihadist attack cries like Allahu Akbar upon police confrontation, following which they had encountered him.

The victim is Samuel Paty, A 47-year-old history teacher who had shown caricatures of Prophet Muhammad to his class as a part of a discussion regarding freedom of expression. This had apparently invoked complaints from parents. They had then signalled a disagreement to this display of the cartoon. The parents of the suspect were also part of this group.

The attack came as a trial is in progress over the January 2015 massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, which had published caricatures of the prophet Mohammed that unleashed a wave of anger across the Islamic world. In a tweet, Charlie Hebdo expressed its “sense of horror and revolt” at Friday’s attack. French President Emmanuel Macron called this an Islamist terror attack in a press conference on Saturday.

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The city of Paris inaugurated its very first park in northeastern Paris honouring a revolutionary Black woman named Solitude, who had been instrumental in fighting for the rights of Black slaves in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

This follows after statues of colonial figures were taken down in the US and UK in the wake of Black Lives Matter Movement. Instead of taking down the statues, the French have opted to honour more of lesser-known historical figures. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, opened the park to the public on Friday, and stated in her address that a statue of Solitude is to be erected in the park to acknowledge her contributions in the Guadeloupe resistance movement.

Solitude was born around 1772, as the daughter of an African slave who had been raped by a white sailor on the ship bringing her to the Antilles, according to newspaper Le Monde. She had actively fought against racism and slavery in the Guadeloupe resistance movement while being pregnant. She had been put to death at the gallows a day after she gave birth.

France abolished slavery in 1794 but it was reinstated back by Napolean. It was once again abolished in 1848. Guadeloupe, a part of France, saw protests earlier this year against racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the US.

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The global Islamic terror group, Al-Qaeda has threatened the French weekly Charlie Hebdo after the satire magazine republished cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.

According to SITE observatory, Al-Qaeda issued the latest threat against the French weekly on the day when America mourned the victims of 9/11 attacks.

The threat was also extended to the French President Emmanuel Macron who supported the decision of Charlie Hebdo to republish the cartoons and the and the terror outfit also sent the “same message” to former French President Francois Hollande.

The trial of 14 suspects who had provided support to the Islamic terrorists who killed the journalists in the Charlie Hebdo office is ongoing. Charlie Hebdo’s director Laurent Sourisseau told the court that there is nothing to regret over publishing the cartoons.

“What I regret is to see how little people fight to defend freedom. If we don’t fight for our freedom, we live like a slave and we promote a deadly ideology,” Sourisseau said. On the question of republishing the cartoon, Sourisseau added that “If we had given up the right to publish these cartoons, that would mean that we were wrong to do so in the first place.”

Al-Qaida message is very clear, the attack on Charlie Hebdo wasn’t “one-off” and it will again carry out an attack on the magazine for reprinting the “contemptible caricatures”.

Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi on January 7, 2015, killed twelve people in offices of Charlie Hebdo.

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As the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo republishes the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, it found an ally in French President Emmanuel Macron who on Tuesday (1 September) said he was not in a position to pass judgement on the editorial decision of Charlie Hebdo to republish the cartoons. 

Macron made this statement when he visited Lebanon again after Beruit the capital was rocked by a massive explosion. The French President said that citizens should be respectful for each other, and avoid a ‘dialogue of hate’.

He made it very clear that he would not criticise the magazine for republishing the cartoon and also paid tribute to the victims of the January 2015 attacks.

Macron said, “Beyond the trial that will begin tomorrow (2 September), and I don’t have to express myself on this point as president, we will have a thought for all those who fell,” Macron was quoted as saying.

“It’s never the place of a president of the Republic to pass judgment on the editorial choice of a journalist or newsroom, never. Because we have freedom of the press,” he added.

“There is in France a freedom to blaspheme which is attached to the freedom of conscience. I am here to protect all these freedoms. In France, one can criticize a president, governors, blaspheme,”.

The publishers of Chalie Hebdo decided to go ahead and republish the cartoons because it is there right under freedom of expression. On 7 January 2015, two Muslim gunmen opened fire, killing twelve people that included nine staff of the magazine, two cops and one maintenance worker. The police later identified the two terrorists as Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi, French Muslim brothers of Algerian descent.

When the magazine published the cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, there was violent outrage as a wave of anger spread across the Muslim world and many demanded revenge.

For Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and the punishment is death, reports DW. All Islamic countries have laws that can punish a person who insults Mohammad and countries like Pakistan frequently abuse the blasphemy laws to crackdown on its non-Muslim minorities.

The 14 perpetrators are charged with various crimes including supplying weapons, membership of a terrorist organisation and financing terrorism. The massacre at the weekly took the life of its editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, cartoonists Cabut, Bernard Verlhac, Georges Wolinski and Philippe Honore, economist Bernard Maris, columnist Elsa Cayat, Charb’s bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro, visitor Michel Renaud and proof-reader Mustapha Ourrad.

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As the trial starts against 14 perpetrators who helped carry out terror strike against French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in 2015, the magazine has decided to reprint its cartoons of Mohammed, the AFP reported.

On 7 January 2015, two Muslim gunmen opened fire, killing twelve people that included nine staff of the magazine, two cops and one maintenance worker. The police later identified the two terrorists as Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi, French Muslim brothers of Algerian descent.

As they fled the office, the terrorists were heard shouting ‘We have killed Charlie Hebdo. We have taken revenge for the sake of the Prophet Mohammed.’

As the magazine which has cited free speech and is going to go ahead with the republications of the controversial cartoon, the French government has warned of reprisal.

Charlie Hebdo director Laurent Sourisseau wrote in an editorial to go with the cartoons today and said. “We will never lie down. We will never give up”.

The 14 perpetrators are charged with various crimes including supplying weapons, membership of a terrorist organisation and financing terrorism. The massacre at the weekly took the life of its editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, cartoonists Cabut, Bernard Verlhac, Georges Wolinski and Philippe Honore, economist Bernard Maris, columnist Elsa Cayat, Charb’s bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro, visitor Michel Renaud and proof-reader Mustapha Ourrad.

The cover of the latest Charlie Hebdo issue shows a dozen cartoons first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 — and then reprinted by Charlie Hebdo in 2006.

The French government is on the toes and Interior Minister has said that the main threat the country faces today is the risk of terror of Sunni origin.

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Iconic Eiffel Tower went dark for one hour on Wednesday to pay homage to the victims of the Beirut warehouse explosion. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted, saying, “In solidarity with #Beirut and #Lebanon, the city of @Paris will unlock an exceptional emergency aid of 100,000 Euros. This Wednesday night from midnight, we will turn off @LaTourEiffel to pay tribute to all the victims.” Similarly, pyramids in Giza and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai were lit up with a display of Lebanon’s flag to pay tribute and display their solidarity in the wake of the victims of the blast.

On Tuesday, an enormous explosion tore through the Lebanese capital and destroyed several hundred metres of the area around. This was the most powerful blast in many years in the city, which is already suffering from the global pandemic and an economic crisis. The explosion killed nearly a hundred people and injured 4000.

Heart-wrenching visuals emerged on social media following the blast and showed the aftermath of the disaster, causing an outpouring of support and solidarity for Lebanon from across the world.

Notably, ammonium nitrate, the chemical that was responsible for the blast, has a dark past in terms of causing industrial accidents all over in the history of the world.

CORRECTION: The Eiffel Tower in Paris switched off its lights an hour earlier than usual to commemorate the victims of the warehouse explosion in Beirut https://t.co/2mtCm2vaoN We are deleting an earlier tweet that contained a typo pic.twitter.com/7VTj1xASNl

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 6, 2020

#Egypt's Giza pyramids were illuminated on Tuesday night with colours of #Lebanon flag in solidarity with victims of #BeirutBlast pic.twitter.com/fBiw43k9v2

— DNE Buzz (@Dnebuzz) August 4, 2020

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