Daily Briefing: PM Modi mourns the death of Japan Ex PM Shinzo Abe; cloudburst in Amarnath

Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the country’s longest-serving premier, was assassinated on Friday while campaigning for the upcoming election.

Calling Shinzo Abe one of his “dearest friends”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a day-long national mourning for the former Japanese Prime Minister on Saturday.

Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday. (Reuters)

🔴 What happened: The 67-year-old world leader was shot at twice while he was delivering a speech on the streets of Nara. Soon after, security officials tackled the suspected gunman at the scene of the incident and arrested him. The suspect, a man named Tetsuya Yamagami, admitted to shooting Abe with a homemade weapon, and alleged that he had a grudge against a “specific organisation”. 

​​🔴 A friend of India: During his time in office, Abe was a great friend of India — a relationship that he invested personally in – and shared a special rapport with Modi. While the foundation for a “Global Partnership between Japan and India” was laid in 2001, and annual bilateral summits were agreed upon in 2005, Abe accelerated the pace of ties since 2012. During Abe’s tenure, India and Japan came closer in the Indo-Pacific architecture. Abe had spelt out his vision of the “Confluence of the Two Seas” in his 2007 speech when the Quad was formed.

🔴 In our opinion section today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi writes about his friend, Abe, who he calls “an outstanding leader of Japan, a towering global statesman, and a great champion of India-Japan friendship”. 

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Just a week into the annual 43-day Amarnath pilgrimage in South Kashmir, tragedy struck. On Friday, at least 12 persons were killed and 25 were injured in a flash flood triggered by a cloudburst that hit a camp near the Amarnath cave in J&K’s Ganderbal district.

Rescue operation after a cloudburst that hit near the base camp of the holy cave shrine of Amarnath. (PTI)

🔴 What happened: An official confirmed that the cloudburst occurred around 6 pm, and the flash flood washed away a part of the camp with officials estimating that at least 25 tents were hit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish at the loss of lives and said “all possible assistance is being provided” to the affected.

🔴 What is a cloudburst? Cloudbursts are short-duration, intense rainfall events over a small area. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), it is a weather phenomenon with unexpected precipitation exceeding 100mm/h over a geographical region of approximately 20-30 square km.

🔴 The Amarnath shrine finally reopened for pilgrims on June 30 after a two-year gap induced by the coronavirus pandemic. Read our explainer on the history of the pilgrimage. 

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Four Army officers of the rank of Colonel and Lt Colonel have filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that their right to privacy under the Constitution has been violated by military authorities who seized their mobile phones for an espionage investigation and then suspended three of them on grounds of morality.

🔴 Why are they being investigated: According to the petition, it was suspected that a Whatsapp group, called “Patiala Peg”, of which these officers were members, had been infiltrated by a Pakistan Intelligence Operative (PIO) triggering a probe to find if classified information had been shared.

🔴 What has the Army said: An Army official said: “Investigation into an incident of alleged cyber security violation by some serving members of the Indian Army is in progress. The Indian Army has zero tolerance towards cyber security infringements and the investigation is progressing as per laid down procedure.”

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🍿 What to watch this weekend 

This week, Shalini Langer reviews the Chris Hemsworth-starrer ‘Thor Love and Thunder’: Love and Thunder has no big Thor-ic ambitions — except perhaps one. When an angry Zeus flicks clothes off that blond, biceped screen god called Chris Hemsworth, what’s down there causes watchers to gasp, swoon and collapse.Moments like these abound in director Taika Waititi’s Thor, who takes the fun and games that he began with Ragnarok one step further to reinvent the God of Thunder as no other Marvel character.  Chris Hemsworth-starrer ‘Thor Love and Thunder’: 

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reported to have asked the BJP national executive in Hyderabad last weekend to reach out to “deprived and downtrodden sections” in communities other than Hindus, which was understood to be a message to the party to focus on groups such as Pasmanda Muslims in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

🔴 Who are the Pasmanda Muslims? A Persian word, ‘Pasmanda’, means the ‘ones left behind’, and is used to describe depressed classes among the Muslims, while underlining their deliberate or conscious exclusion. Pasmanda has become an umbrella identity used by backward, Dalit, and tribal Muslims to push back against caste-based discrimination against them within the community.

🔴 What do Pasmanda Muslims want? Pasmanda Muslims say that despite their overwhelming numerical strength within the community, they are under-represented in jobs, legislatures and government-run minority institutions, as well as community-run Muslim organisations.

🔴Why is the BJP reaching out to Pasmanda Muslims? The bid to woo Pasmandas comes as the party prepares to face the crucial 2024 general elections.

Read the full explainer here.

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Saturday Quiz

A port city in the Netherlands faced an uproar a few months ago when it briefly contemplated dismantling a section of a 95-year-old bridge to allow Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ new, more than 400-foot-long super yacht to pass. This week, the city decided against it. Which city is it?

1. Moerdijk
2. Rotterdam 
3. Amsterdam 

Until tomorrow, 

Rahel Philipose and Vidya Gowri