NEW DELHI: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Italy for the G7 summit, it was not diplomatic meetings that dominated headlines back in India — but the relationship with his Italian counterpart.
“Hello from the ‘Melodi’ team,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a video posted to social media on Saturday, waving next to her fellow right-wing leader Modi, beaming a wide grin.
The duo have a close public friendship, seen during the G20 summit in India last year and the COP28 climate talks in Dubai.
Modi, who reposted Meloni’s video on X and praised ties between Rome and New Delhi in Italian, was in the resort of Borgo Egnazia on the sidelines of the G7 summit, which brings together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
He wrote he had meetings with Meloni to bolster ties “in areas like commerce, energy, defense, telecoms and more.”
But in India, it was the short Modi-Meloni video that grabbed attention on Sunday — fueling a flurry of memes and videos on social media dedicated to the fictional relationship between the two leaders.
In that make-believe world, the leaders have become central characters of an Internet love story that has betrayals and heartaches as well as happy moments.
AI-generated videos watched by millions show Modi crooning a love song every time Meloni appears with a political leader other than him.
But newspapers were also deeply critical and swift to cool temperatures down.
“Like other women in high offices, Meloni is being seen through a male prism — hot or not?” the Times of India’s editorial read.
“No matter how influential she is, no matter what she knows or becomes, a woman can always be subjected to such demeaning framing,” it added.
“As the Meloni discourse shows, old-fashioned misogyny dies hard.”
Team ‘Melodi’ woos India as Meloni-Modi video goes viral
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Team ‘Melodi’ woos India as Meloni-Modi video goes viral
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
