Gadkari pins blame on arithmetic addition for BJP’s defeat in Bihar

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday that it would be “unjust” to blame PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for party’s defeat in the Bihar assembly election.

Investment and defence will be the key sectors that will be in focus during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Britain starting Thursday while the issues of climate change, black money and International Monetary Fund quota reforms will be taken up by India at the G-20 summit in Turkey immediately thereafter.

1- After lunch, Narendra Modi will meet British Prime Minister David Cameron in London and then at Chequers.

In his by now trademark public interactions with the Indian diaspora, Modi will address around 70,000 people of Indian origin at the iconic Wembley Stadium in London.

About forty five British lawmakers, together with opposition chief Jeremy Corbyn, just lately signed a parliamentary movement to debate India’s human rights document.

Defense manufacturing is expected to be the “prime focus” of Modi’s visit to Britain, he said.

Modi will also address the British Parliament, which according to the foreign secretary, will be the first by an Indian prime minister.

“My message to the business community is clear – come, make use of the opportunities India is offering and invest in India”, he said in a Facebook post. In a statement last night, the BJP said the healthy precedent of collective responsibility for poll victories and defeats was set by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.

“The main thrust will be on leveraging investors”, said Sreeram Chaulia, Dean of the Jindal School of global Affairs. In 2000, it was India’s third-largest trading partner.

He said expanding defence cooperation will be another focus area.

That will likely feature on the agenda, as will Indian plans to market rupee-denominated “masala bonds” in London.

Modi’s bilateral visit, the first by an Indian prime minister since 2006, follows a pomp-laden visit the British government gave China’s President Xi Jinping last month that yielded US$62 billion (£41 billion) of deals.

Defence deals are also on the cards as India undertakes a multi-billion-dollar upgrade of its ageing military hardware.

Several teams have been planning demonstrations outdoors Wembley Stadium in the course of the rally and close to Cameron’s Downing Street workplace to coincide with Modi’s go to there.

“There is a sense of things being jaded between the two countries”, said Neelam Deo, a former diplomat and director of Gateway House.

An invitation to speak at the University of Cambridge has reportedly triggered a letter of protest from scholars concerned by those attacks.

4- Modi will address the City of London at an event at The Old Library, Guildhall. I think it’s going to be spectacular.