Weekend wrap: PM Modi’s US visit for Quad summit; Atishi to become Delhi CM

This week saw important events in the realm of politics as well as in international diplomacy. Here is the top news for the week from 15 September to 21 September.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with other world leaders, is set to arrive in Wilmington on Saturday morning (local time) for the Quad Summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden in his hometown of Delaware. Biden will host leaders from India, Australia, and Japan and will hold bilateral meetings with them, ANI reported.
This marks the first time Biden has invited a foreign leader to Wilmington as President, highlighting his strong relationships with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Biden has also welcomed each of these Prime Ministers for official state visits to the White House, a distinction typically reserved for the closest allies.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh alleged foreign involvement in the ongoing Manipur crisis following the arrest of a Myanmar national. The individual — identified as Thanglinkap — is a member of the Kuki National Army (Burma) and accused of carrying out reconnaissance missions. He was recently apprehended by the Assam Rifles from the Chandel district of Manipur.
“I appreciate the actions of the Assam Rifles, who arrested a Burmese national. As a Chief Minister, I have been consistently claiming from the beginning that the current crisis in Manipur is due to outsiders, foreign hand. But some people believe, some do not. But I appreciate the Assam Rifles, who arrested foreign nationals with evidence of supply of weapons to militants operating in Manipur,” Singh reiterated on Monday.
Manoj Kumar Verma, an officer of the 1998 batch, was the Additional Director General of Police (ADG) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) (Law & Order) in his last assignment.
Verma is a decorated IPS officer, who was awarded the Police medal for Meritorious Service (PMMS) on Independence Day in 2017 when he was posted as Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Traffic headquarters. Read here.
Simultaneous polls at the central, state and local levels took a step closer to reality on Wednesday, with the Union cabinet approving a top panel’s Arvind Kejriwal submitted his resignation as chief minister of Delhi to Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena on Tuesday, September 17. Kejriwal’s confidant, Atishi – nominated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators to succeed Kejriwal, – has staked a claim to form the next government in the national capital.
The churn in Delhi politics comes four days after Kejriwal walked out of Tihar jail following a Supreme Court order granting him bail in the excise policy-linked money laundering case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Kejriwal also got bail in another case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the central agency that arrested him in March.in this respect. The government also unwrapped a spending bonanza of nearly ₹1.8 trillion to make fertilizers available at subsidized rates, ensure welfare schemes reach all tribal-majority and backward areas, and support projects in space, biotechnology and entertainment.
Junior doctors in Kolkata have partially lifted their ongoing cease-work agitation following assurances from the West Bengal government. The protesting medicos indicated on Thursday evening that emergency services would resume from Saturday.
The doctors will end their agitation with a rally from their recent protest site in front of the health department headquarters to the CBI office at CGO Complex in Kolkata. The decision was also taken in light of the “flood situation in West Bengal”. Read here.
The official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India was taken down on Friday afternoon after it began flashing cryptocurrency videos. The channel had begun showing clips promoting a cryptocurrency developed by US-based company Ripple Labs in the middle of court proceedings.
YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy countered allegations of ghee adulteration at the Tirupati temple on Friday amid an escalating political row.
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The development came even as Union Ministers JP Nadda and Pralhad Joshi sought an investigation into the matter. The YSRCP also moved to the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking a probe into the claims made by the ruling party.
India has extended budgetary support to the Maldives government in the form of a rollover of the USD 50 million Treasury Bill for another year on the Maldivian government’s request, the Indian High Commission in the Maldives announced on Thursday.
“At the request of the Maldivian government, the State Bank of India (SBI) has subscribed the USD 50 million government Treasury Bills (T-bills) issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Maldives for a period of one more year upon the maturity of the previous subscription on September 19,” the Indian High Commission in the Maldives said in a press release.
(With inputs from agencies)