NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has replaced independence hero Mahatma Gandhi as the 2017 face of the government’s traditional handloom and cotton industry, triggering criticism on Friday.
The image of the bespectacled Gandhi, wearing a loincloth and sitting cross-legged at a spinning wheel, is one of India’s most iconic and has long been used to promote the khadi, or homespun cotton, industry.
The government-run Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC) defended its decision to use a photo of Modi, sitting in an almost identical pose while spinning cotton, on the cover of its 2017 calendar and diary.
“He is khadi’s biggest brand ambassador,” Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena told media.
Saxena said figures other than Gandhi had been used as the faces of the calendar before, and that Modi deserved the honor because he had helped boost cotton sales.
Some KVIC workers staged a silent protest after seeing the new calendar, media reported.
Opposition leaders were quick to ridicule the image.
“Becoming Gandhi requires years of self-sacrifice,” Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and a political opponent of Modi, tweeted in Hindi.
“You cannot become Gandhi by acting as if you can spin the charkha (spinning wheel) — this will only make you a laughing stock.”
Modi in a spin as he replaces Gandhi as face of India’s homespun cotton
Modi in a spin as he replaces Gandhi as face of India’s homespun cotton
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
