Indian-Americans line New York’s streets to cheer PM before speech

NEWYORK: AsPrimeMinisterNarendra Modi reached the United NationsforhisspeechonFriday, a gathering of thousands of people from the Indian-American community gathered outside with festivecheertowelcomethe PM for his third address to the General Assembly.

Theturnoutwasinadditionto protestsagainstPakistan,which includeda fly-by of a small plane aroundtheStatueofLibertywith a trailing banner urging the United Nations to stop human rightsabusesbyPakistaninBalochistan. The protests coincided with the speech of Pakistani PM Imran Khan, who spoke shortly after Modi.“Modi came out with a higher-profile, looked well-behaved and a gentleman,” said BharatBarai, anIllinoismedical practitioner who had helped organise the demonstration by theIndian-Americancommunity to show support to the PM. MUMBAI: In a day of dramatic developmentsfortheNationalist Congress Party (NCP), its chief SharadPawarhadtoaddressthe media twice within a span of few hours on Friday — first to announce the cancellation of his visit to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai, and then toclarifywhyhisnephew,former Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar, had quit as a legislator.

Ajit Pawar, who along with Sharad Pawar and others, has beennamedbytheEDinitsprobe intheMaharashtraStateCooperative(MSC)Bankfraudcase,resig-nedasamemberoftheLegislativeAssemblyonFridayevening, fuellingspeculationofadividein NCP and the Pawar family.

Sharad Pawar, however, said that dragging his name into the MSC Bank case had upset Ajit. “Ajithasnotspokentome.Ihave gathered from his son and other familymembersthatheisdeeply disturbedthatmynamehasbeen draggedintothecase,evenwhen Iwasnotamember,”saidPawar. “I need to talk to him to understand what’s on his mind.”

The NCP chief said Ajit was hurtandmayevenconsiderquitting politics and taking up some farming-related work. “He told hissonthatitisbettertoquitpolitics rather than be part of such lowpolitics,” saidPawar, adding that there was no rift in the family. “Ajit has always listened to me as the head of the family.”

Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth, too, confirmed his father was hurt with the kind of politics in the state, but said the latter was not quittingpolitics.“Headvisedme to avoid politics,” said Parth.