First & Foremost Asian Weekly in Europe
Price 80p Vol 46 | Issue 28
TM
18th November to 24th November 2017
Let noble thoughts come to us from every side
WHY WIDOWS NEED YOUR HELP
There are 46 million widows and over 100 million of their children in India, the largest in the world. Sadly, many get subjected to degrading treatment and are excluded or marginalised.
Invisible and forgotten, these widows suffer in silence. Our aim is to EMPOWER disadvantaged widows and EDUCATE their children - giving them the fundamental freedoms and human rights to lead a life of dignity.
Get involved
All donations to the charity are exempted. UK: Under gift Aid, USA: under 501 © (3)
PRITI PATEL EPISODE: GOVT PANICS AS MP APPEARS RELIEVED
Fierce ambitions come at a price. Last week, the British cabinet faced massive chaos as former I n t e r n a t i o n a l Development Secretary Priti Patel's unofficial meetings with Israeli politicians came to light. The past week was nothing but chaos, as the media scrambled for first-hand coverage, ministers scurried around trying to save their behinds, and the Prime Minister- who already suffers with a severe bout of public indisposition, visually struggled to handle the issue. It was Patel's poised calmness that seemed strange yet admirable during the whole charade. Patel has been replaced by Penny Mordaunt, minister for disabled people, who received a call from Theresa May asking her to join the Cabinet. Seen as a rising star in the party, the 44 year old was a prominent Brexiteer during last year's referendum campaign, and had openly
backed Andrea Leadsom in the Tory leadership contest. Regarding her appointment, she said, “I'm delighted to have been appointed by the Prime Minister to be the new Secretary of State for I n t e r n a t i o n a l Development. I'm looking forward to working with the team here to continue
building a safer, more secure, more prosperous world for us all and really giving the British public pride in what we do.” Driving force behind Patel's off-radar meetings- Lord Stuart Polak Patel's Israel visit was reportedly organised by Lord Stuart Polak, presi-
For more information, visit www.theloombafoundation.org or Email Smita Sarkar: smita@theloombafoundation.org
dent of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI). He arranged a dozen meetings during her summer holiday in Israel and was known to be in attendance at all, except one of them. He was also present in Patel's meetings in September with an Israeli minister Gilad Erdan, and a government official Yuval Rotem. Patel's meetings were efforts of increasing cooperation between the Department for I n t e r n a t i o n a l Development (Dfid) and Israeli defence forces carrying out humanitarian work in southern Syria. The whole strategy however, went down the drains when the story exploded all across the media. Ms Patel’s visit to Israel was organised by Lord Polak, president of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), which has lobbied on behalf of the Jewish state within the Continued on page 16
Prince Charles and his wife, Duchess Camilla meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Report on Page 26
Modi calls for joint efforts with ASEAN to fight terror Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for intensifying regional cooperation to effectively deal with terrorism, also pitching for a rulesbased security architecture for the resource-rich region. At the ASEANIndia summit held in Manila, the Philippines, Modi identified terrorism and extremism as the major challenge facing the region and said the time has come for the countries of the region to join hands to collectively deal with it. He said, “We have individually strived very hard to fight terrorism and violent extremism. It is time that we jointly address this challenge by intensifying cooperation
in this crucial area.” Referring to the South China Sea (SCS) dispute, Modi said India would continue its support to the ASEAN for establishing a rules-based security architecture. “India assures the ASEAN of its steady support towards achieving a rules-based regional security architecture that best attests to the region's interests and its peaceful development.” China's aggressive military build up in the SCS was one of the main topics of deliberations at the summit. The dragon claims sovereignty over all of SCS, which is also a huge source of hydrocarbons. Continued on page 26