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MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2017 West Mosul battle looks to be deadliest Trump escapes the Beltway as challenges mount yet for Iraqis Page 10 Page 9 LUCKNOW: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, second right and Yogi Adityanath, in saffron robes, greet with folded hands as Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, center and others wave to the audience after Adityanath was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh state chief minister in Lucknow, India, yesterday. —AP Is Modi moving towards a Hindu India? BJP wins biggest majority in 40 years NEW DELHI: A saffron-robed Hindu holy man was Don’t prejudge sworn in yesterday to lead India’s most populous Adityanath, elected five times to the federal par- state, sealing what appears to be a shift in course liament from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Clashes in Syria capital by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that could rede- has been magnanimous in victory, pledging to fine the world’s largest democracy as a Hindu uphold Modi’s slogan of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ nation. The choice as Uttar Pradesh chief minister of (‘all together, development for all’). “Everyone who is after surprise rebel assault Yogi Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu ascetic with a prejudging the decision is doing it at their own peril BEIRUT: Heavy clashes rocked eastern districts of the Syrian “These are not intermittent clashes-these are ongoing history of agitation against minority Muslims, - these arguments were also used in the case of capital yesterday as rebels and jihadists tried to fight their way attempts to advance,” he said. The Observatory said the rebel stunned observers who said it marked a departure Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” BJP spokesman into the city centre in a surprise assault on government forces. assault sought to relieve allied fighters in the nearby districts of from the platform of development for all on which Nalin Kohli said. “Almost three years down the line The attack comes just days before a fresh round of UN-brokered Barzeh, Tishreen and Qabun. “Nine regime forces and at least 12 Modi rose to national power in 2014. there is no departure from ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’; peace talks in Geneva aiming at ending Syria’s six-year war. Islamist rebels were killed” in those districts over the past 24 hours, “Modi is saying India is a Hindu country and there is no let up in providing governance and Rebels and government forces agreed to a nationwide cessation the monitor said. In recent months, the Syrian regime has sought shall remain so,” veteran journalist and commenta- improving delivery to the poorest; and there can be of hostilities in December, but fighting has continued across to secure territory around the capital with renewed offensives on tor Shekhar Gupta said. “Hindus will rule, so you no distinction between citizens on the basis of their much of the country, including in the capital. besieged rebel towns along with local “reconciliation” deals. had better behave.” A spokesman for Modi’s faith, region or identity.” Kohli also dismissed sug- Steady shelling and sniper fire could be heard across Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) however said the gov- gestions that Adityanath’s election would under- Damascus as rebel factions allied with former Al-Qaeda affiliate Israel threatens defense systems ernment did not make any distinction between citi- mine the secular basis of Indian democracy. Fateh al-Sham Front launched an attack on regime positions in Under such agreements, the government agrees to end zens on the basis of religion. Adityanath, 44, was There are precedents for Hindu devotees taking the east of the city. The attack began early in the day “with two bombardments and stop besieging towns in exchange for a elected by state lawmakers on Saturday, a week high office, he said, including Uma Bharti, a former car bombs and several suicide attackers” in the Jobar district, rebel withdrawal. Yesterday, dozens of rebels and civilians who after the BJP won a landslide victory in Uttar chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state who is now said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for had been bused out of the last opposition-held district of Homs Pradesh by mobilizing the Hindu vote. The BJP won Modi’s water resources minister. A source close to Human Rights monitoring group. Rebels seized several build- city reached northern Aleppo province. An AFP photographer the biggest majority for any party in the state legis- the powerful Hindu nationalist umbrella group to ings in Jobar and advanced into the nearby Abbasid Square saw men, women and toddlers peeking out from behind cur- lature in 40 years. which the BJP belongs, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak area, seizing part of a large bus station and firing a barrage of tains as the buses headed to Jarabulus, a town on the Syrian- He took the oath of office at an open-air cere- Sangh (RSS), said Adityanath would undergo a rockets into multiple neighborhoods, Abdel Rahman said. Turkish border. mony in the state capital Lucknow yesterday, complete image makeover to repackage him as a Regime warplanes have targeted rebel positions with more More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions before shaking hands with Modi and other BJP moderate reformer. than 30 air strikes since the morning, he added. State media have been displaced since Syria’s conflict erupted six years ago elders who attended. After the ceremony, Modi denied that rebel groups had entered the Abbasid district, how- with protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. After a said in a tweet: “Our sole mission and motive is Love jihad ever, reporting that the army had successfully “blocked an government crackdown, the uprising turned into an all-out war development. When UP develops, India develops.” Adityanath has in the past accused Muslim men attack by terrorists on military points and residential buildings that has drawn in world powers on nearly all sides. —AFP The BJP fielded no candidates from the Muslim of waging “love jihad”, or a love war, to entrap in Jobar”. State television aired footage from Abbasid Square, minority that makes up 19 percent of the popula- Hindu women and convert them to Islam. He drew typically buzzing with activity but now empty because the army tion in a state with a population of 220 million a reprimand from the election authorities for had ordered residents to stay inside. that is home to 15 percent of the worlds poor. If it exhorting Hindus to convert 100 Muslims for every were a country, Uttar Pradesh would be the Hindu that adopted Islam. Further, he disclosed in Army sends in reinforcements world’s fifth-most populous. his 2014 election affidavit that he faced criminal AFP correspondents in Damascus said army units had sealed India’s 1.3 billion people are about 80 percent cases including attempted murder; intimidation; off the routes into the square, where a thick column of smoke Hindu and 14 percent Muslim, with the rest made promoting religious enmity; defiling a place of wor- rose into the cloudy sky. The few people out on the street up of Christians, Sikhs and other minorities. It is ship; rioting; and trespassing on burial places. moved quickly between buildings, but many stayed in their officially a secular nation, but the BJP has for Such cases are common in India’s rough-and- homes in fear of stray bullets and shelling. Several tanks were years fought elections on a Hindu nationalist tumble politics. Although judges have taken cog- seen entering east Damascus as reinforcements ahead of a pos- agenda, with party members in the past being nizance of three cases against Adityanath, no for- sible counter-offensive. Several schools in the capital accused of making anti-Muslim statements to mal charges have been filed. As the month-long announced they would stay closed today. polarize Hindu voters. “Modi and the BJP had Uttar Pradesh poll progressed, the rhetoric used by Control of Jobar-which has been a battleground for more promised the poor of India good times to come,” Modi and his campaign chief Amit Shah struck an than two years is divided between rebels and allied jihadists said Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, editor of the increasingly harsh tone: In one speech Modi said and government forces. According to the Observatory, the Economic & Political Weekly. “When they fail to villages with graveyards should have crematoriums Islamist Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group and the Fateh al-Sham create jobs, revive the economy or lift investment, too - a veiled reference to the different burial prac- Front-known as Al-Nusra Front before it broke ties with Al- AL-BAB: Rebel fighters and Red Crescent members wait for they are going to fall back more on the majoritari- tices of Muslims and Hindus. Qaeda-have a presence in the area. Government forces have busses of Syrians who were evacuated from Waer, the last an agenda.” Modi, in his victory speech after the One of India’s most prominent Muslim politi- long sought to push the rebels out of Jobar because of its prox- opposition-held district of Homs, to arrive in the northern Uttar Pradesh triumph, had called for the creation cians, former Jammu and Kashmir state chief minis- imity to the city centre. But with Sunday’s attack, Abdel Rahman Syrian town of al-Bab yesterday, under a controversial of a “New India” by 2022, effectively staking a ter Omar Abdullah, said in a tweet that Muslims in said, “rebels have shifted from a defensive position in Jobar into Russian-supervised deal to bring Syria’s third city under full claim to a second term at the general election Uttar Pradesh “must be terrified of what the future an offensive one”.

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