Chinese media slams Prachanda for putting ties on back-burner

From K J M Varma

Beijing, Sep 20 (PTI) Irked by Prachanda's visit to New Delhi, state-run Chinese media today criticised India for trying to "turn tables" against China and lashed out at the new Nepal Prime Minister for "tricking" Beijing and putting bilateral ties on "back burner" at the behest of India.

China "feels tricked" that Nepal got close to Beijing to "relieve pressure" from India and signed a number of crucial agreements with Beijing to help get rid of its reliance on New Delhi but later put ties on "back-burner" after the "pressure" somewhat relaxed, an article in state-run Global Times said.

In a scathing attack on Prachanda and India, two articles in the newspaper pointed to China's anger over the regime change in Kathmandu replacing pro-China former Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli.

"Prachanda is no more "furious" as he was once described, but rather has more realistic considerations for political interest," one article said, recalling his choice to visit China first in 2008 during his previous tenure.

During his tour to India this time, the Pancheshwar Project, reconstruction after the earthquake and the East-West Railway programme were on the agenda of high-level meetings.

However, all those are among the "core subjects" of China's Belt and Road (Silk Road) initiative that can benefit Nepal, it said.

"Against such a backdrop, people cannot help but ask whether Prachanda is seeking reconciliation with New Delhi or maintaining Nepal's status of being controlled by India," it said.

"It seems that the relationship between Nepal and China stalled abruptly, and a visit by Chinese leaders to Nepal has allegedly been suspended - an unprecedented situation," it said, without directly referring to postponement of Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned to visit to Kathmandu next month.

The article said that the bilateral relationship between China and Nepal seems to have "suddenly turned fragile and sensitive".

"Obviously, China feels tricked. When Kathmandu needed Beijing to relieve pressure from New Delhi, it got close to China and signed a series of crucial agreements with Beijing which would help Nepal get rid of its reliance on India.

"But once India's attitude toward Kathmandu relaxed a bit and the former made some promises to the latter, Nepalese politicians immediately put the nation's ties with China on the back burner," it said.

The article added that in the Sino-Nepalese relationship, Kathmandu is the "one that always gets more. Beijing will lose nothing, but it is Nepal that needs to consider whether it will miss more opportunities".

Another article in the same daily titled "Good ties with China, India in Nepal's best interest" accused India of 'turning tables' against China.

"Alarmed by China's rising influence in Nepal, India is now trying to turn the tables. But such narrow-minded geopolitical logic will do favour to nobody," it said.

‘यूएन यंग लीडर्स’ में दो भारतीय, एक भारतीय-अमेरिकी शामिल

 

पीटीआई-भाषा संवाददाता 12:27 HRS IST

: योशिता सिंह : संयुक्त राष्ट्र, 20 सितंबर :भाषा: सतत विकास लक्ष्य हासिल करने के उद्देश्य से गरीबी खत्म करने, असमानता के खिलाफ लड़ाई वाले और 2030 तक जलवायु परिवर्तन से निपटने के लिए अपना नेतृत्व प्रदान करने वाले एवं इसके लिए योगदान करने वाले युवा नेताओं को सम्मानित करने की अपनी पहल के तहत संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने अपने ‘यूएन यंग लीडर्स फॉर सस्टेनेबल डेवलपमेंट गोल्स’ के शुरूआती वर्ग के लिए 17 लोगों का चयन किया है, जिसमें दो भारतीय और एक भारतीय अमेरिकी शामिल हैं।

इसके लिए चयनित भारतीयों में ‘शीसेज’ की संस्थापक एवं सीईओ तृषा शेट्टी :25: शामिल हैं। ‘शीसेज’ की शुरूआत पिछले साल हुई। यह एक ऐसा मंच है जो भारत में महिला यौन उत्पीड़न के खिलाफ सीधी कार्रवाई करने के लिए महिलाओं को शिक्षित, उनका पुनर्वास एवं उन्हें सशक्त बनाने का काम करता है।

भूख जैसे मुद्दे के समाधान एवं बेकार भोज्य पदाथरें विशेषकर शादी के आयोजनों एवं जश्न के दौरान बर्बाद होने वाले भोजन को जरूरतमंद लोगों को देने के लिए 2014 में शुरू किए गए ‘फीडिंग इंडिया’ के संस्थापक अंकित कवात्रा :24: का नाम भी चयनित भारतीयों में शामिल है।

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big win for Russia's ruling party

Vladimir Putin won even greater supremacy over Russia's political system after the ruling United Russia party took three quarters of the seats in parliament in a weekend election, paving the way for him to run for a fourth term as president.

With most votes counted, the party, founded by Putin almost 16 years ago after he first became president, was on track to win 76 percent of the seats in Russia's Duma, the lower house of parliament, up from just over half in 2011.

That would be its biggest ever majority. Putin's spokesman called it "an impressive vote of confidence" in the Russian leader and dismissed critics who noted a sharp fall in turnout.

Liberal opposition parties failed to win any seats. Dmitry Gudkov, the only liberal opposition politician to hold a seat before, said he had been beaten by a United Russia candidate.

"The question now is...how to live with a one-party parliament," Gudkov said.

European election monitors said the vote was marred by numerous procedural irregularities and restrictions on basic rights. Russian officials said there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

Near complete results showed turnout was only around 48 percent, down from 60 percent in 2011, suggesting apathy among some Russians - particularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg - and a softening of enthusiasm for the ruling elite.

Putin, speaking to United Russia campaign staff a few minutes after polling stations closed on Sunday night, said the win showed voters still trusted the leadership despite an economic slowdown made worse by Western sanctions over Ukraine.

"We can say with certainty that the party has achieved a very good result; it's won," Putin said at the United Russia headquarters, where he arrived together with his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, who is prime minister and the party's leader.

Alluding to the spluttering economy, which is forecast to shrink this year by at least 0.3 percent, Putin said: "We know that life is hard for people, there are lots of problems, lots of unresolved problems. Nevertheless, we have this result."

Putin's aides are likely to use the result as a springboard for his own re-election campaign in 2018, though he has not yet confirmed whether he will seek another term.

People walk past a sign reading ''United Russia'' on a building in central Stavropol, Russia, September 18, 2016. REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko

"OVERWHELMING MAJORITY"

United Russia won 343 seats of the total of 450 in the Duma, the Central Election Commission said, after 93 percent of ballots had been counted.

That is up from 238 seats in the last parliamentary election, in 2011, and is enough to allow United Russia to unilaterally change the constitution, though Putin can run again under the existing one as he was prime minister between his second and third terms.

Other parties trailed far behind.

According to the near complete official vote count, the Communists were on track to come second with 42 seats, the populist LDPR party third with 41, and the left-of-center Just Russia party fourth with 21 seats. All three tend to vote with United Russia on crunch issues and avoid direct criticism.

Among voting irregularities witnessed by Reuters were several people voting twice in one polling station in the Mordovia region of central Russia. Official results in another area showed a turnout double that recorded on the spot.

After the last election, in 2011, anger at ballot-rigging prompted large protests in Moscow and the Kremlin will be keen to avoid any repeat of that.

Ilkka Kanerva, a Finnish parliamentarian and special coordinator for the elections from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the OSCE had noted some improvements, including greater transparency when it came to administration.

But he said the overall picture was beset by problems. "Legal restrictions on basic rights continue to be a problem. If Russia is to live up to its democratic commitments, greater space is needed for debate and civic engagement," he said.

TURNOUT DOWN

Election officials said on Monday that turnout was nearly 48 percent, substantially lower than the 60 percent turnout at the last parliamentary election across Russia's 11 times zones, which stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea.

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Commenting on the turnout, Putin, at the United Russia campaign HQ, said it was "not as high as we saw in previous election campaigns, but it is high."

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the "overwhelming majority" of voters had come out for Putin in "an impressive vote of confidence". It would be wrong to call the turnout low, he said, adding that it was higher than in most European countries.

The return of an old voting system, under which half, rather than all, deputies were drawn from party lists with the other half decided by people voting for individuals, boosted United Russia's seats. Near final results showed it won 140 seats under the list system and 203 seats from the constituency system.

REFLECTED GLORY

United Russia benefits from its association with 63-year-old Putin, who, after 17 years in power as either president or prime minister, consistently wins an approval rating of around 80 percent in opinion polls.

Most voters do not see any viable alternative to Putin and his allies and they fear a return to the chaos and instability of the 1990s, the period immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, if his rule ends.

Many voters are also persuaded by the Kremlin narrative, frequently repeated on state TV, of the West using sanctions to try to wreck the economy in revenge for Moscow's seizure of Crimea, the Ukrainian region it annexed in 2014.

Putin has said it is too early to say if he will run in 2018. If he did and won, he would be in power until 2024, longer than Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the longest-serving Soviet leader aside from Joseph Stalin.

Liberal opposition politicians, the only group openly critical of Putin, failed to get over the five percent threshold needed for party representation in the Duma, near final results showed. They also failed to break through in constituency races.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov and Polina Devitt in Moscow, Jack Stubbs, Olga Sichkar and Svetlana Burmistrova in Ufa, Andrei Kuzmin in Velikiye Luki, Gleb Stolyarov, Alex Winning and Vladimir Soldatkin in Saransk, Anton Zverev in the Tula Region, Anastasia Teterevleva in the Moscow Region, Maria Tsvetkova, Kira Zavalyova, Denis Pinchuk and Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Christian Lowe and Andrew Osborn; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

China threatens countermeasures after Dalai Lama speaks at EU Parliament

China expressed anger on Monday and threatened countermeasures after exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama spoke at the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg and met its president, Martin Schulz.

China regards the 80-year-old, Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk as a separatist, though he says he merely seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland, which Communist Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" in 1950.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the European Parliament and Schultz had ignored China's "strong opposition" about meeting the Dalai Lama, which ran contrary to the European Union's promises to China on the issue of Tibet.

"China is resolutely opposed to the mistaken actions of the European Parliament," Lu told a daily news briefing, adding that its leaders' insistence on taking an erroneous position had damaged China's core interests.

"China absolutely cannot remain indifferent, and we will make the correct choice in accordance with our judgment of the situation," he added, without elaborating on what China may do.

Few foreign leaders are willing to meet the Dalai Lama these days, fearful of provoking a strong reaction from China, the world's second-largest economy.

Last week, Beijing warned Taiwan not to allow the Dalai Lama to visit, after a high-profile Taiwan legislator invited him to the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

Tibet's spiritual leader told the European Parliament last week he hoped the Tibetan issue would be resolved but urged the outside world and the European Union in particular not to hold back from criticizing Beijing.

The Dalai Lama, who also met the European Parliament's foreign affairs chairman, Elmar Brok, fled to India in 1959 following a failed uprising against the Chinese.

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Rights groups and exiles accuse China of trampling on the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people, charges strongly denied by Beijing, which says its rule has brought prosperity to a once backward region.

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Clarence Fernandez)