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Journalism of Courage
United States Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti may soon be dipping into his past experience as the mayor of Los Angeles while addressing a group of mayors. Garcetti, who took charge as ambassador in April, is likely to address the Urban20 Mayoral Summit, to be held in Ahmedabad next week, through a recorded message. While Garcetti is believed to have expressed interest in attending the event, he is unlikely to be able to attend in person, and is said to be planning on recording a video message. Before becoming the US Ambassador to India, Garcetti was the LA mayor for nearly a decade since 2013. He was also the chair of C40, a global network of mayors of big cities for climate action. The two-day summit of U20, which is one of the G20 engagement groups, will bring together mayors from different cities in G20 countries to deliberate on climate financing, among other topics.
Temple Focus
With the Ram Temple in Ayodhya going to be a key issue in the run-up to the General Election next year, it seems there are more attempts by the BJP to focus public attention on temples. On Tuesday, a new app, Templesnet.com, was launched to introduce temples — with their unique nature and history — to devotees. The launch ceremony was attended by leaders including former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and VHP secretary general Milind Parande, besides religious leaders such as Swami Jitendranand Saraswati of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti. More leaders were expected to be present, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the party event in Bhopal, which was to be attended virtually by Union ministers and party leaders, meant that many dropped out at the last minute. Given the push to religious tourism by governments led by NDA, the app is expected to help devotees discover temples “that are blurred from the national horizon”. BJP leaders have already been advised to promote such ventures, it is learnt.
