False Statement by PM Modi and Syed Akbaruddin On Canada visit : Read Full In Details

False Statement by PM Modi and Syed Akbaruddin On Canada visit : Read Full In Details

 New Delhi, April 18, 2015

It is not a historical visit because an Indian PM has come here on a stand-alone bilateral visit after 42 years, but because even after these 42 years the interval just melted away in a moment: PM Modi





MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin says, "Visit is historical milestone in our bilateral ties because 1st time in 42 years Indian PM has come for bilateral visit to Canada."

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A long wait ends - PM @narendramodi is in Canada. 1st Indian PM on a stand alone bilateral visit in 42 years. pic.twitter.com/4DrWIqTXGM
— Syed Akbaruddin (@MEAIndia) April 14, 2015

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PM Modi reaches Canada, first visit by Indian PM in 42 years

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  Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Canada on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Canada on Wednesday where the focus will be on cooperation in energy, including civil nuclear, and attracting trade and technology for India's development.This is the first standalone bilateral visit in 42 years.A significant aspect of the three-day visit will be Modi's meeting with top officials of Canada's Pension Fund with focus on inviting them to India.The prime minister flew into Ottawa from Germany where he laid emphasis on attracting technology and investments for Make in India programme.

With his focus on the programme, Modi is expected to invite Canada to partner in this endeavour by sharing technology and pumping in investments."It is a historic milestone in our bilateral ties as in 42 years, this is the first standalone bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister. Therefore, we are focused on setting a trajectory which will reflect in the discussions," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said soon after Modi's arrival.
 The prime minister flew into Ottawa from Germany where he laid emphasis on attracting technology and investments for Make in India programme. Modi will hold talks with his counterpart Stephen Harper to discuss how the relationship could be taken forward. He will also address Canadian business leaders.
"We expect substantive outcomes," Akbaruddin said.

He said the focus will be on several areas like energy, which is "a major aspect", besides agriculture, skill development and education.
"All these have been identified by the prime minister as areas which are necessary for development of India," Akbaruddin said, adding that India sees Canada as a partner in its development efforts.
He said the two leaders will also discuss common approach to security issues and ways to deal with the threats to open societies.

The prime minister will also be meeting officials of the Pension Fund of Canada which has the corpus of 200 million dollars and discuss how to ease the investment opportunities for it.
 This is the first standalone bilateral visit in 42 years.He will also address the Indian community in Toronto, which is billed to be on the lines of the famous Madison Square address in New York last year.
Before winding up his visit, the prime minister will also visit Air India Memorial to pay tributes to those killed in Kanishka bombing incident about three decades ago.
Canada is the third and last leg of his three-nation tour which also covered France.
During his two-day stay in Germany, he inaugurated the Hannover Fair along with Chancellor Angela Merkel, and held talks with her in Berlin on various issues.

Last pm Manmohan singh in canada:

link of proof: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2010/06/27/joint-statement-canada-and-india-occasion-visit-canada-dr-manmohan-singh-prime

Joint Statement by Canada and India on the occasion of the visit to Canada of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

 

Toronto, Ontario

27 June 2010

The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, visited Canada from June 26 to June 28 at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Stephen Harper. During his visit, Prime Minister Singh participated in the G-20 Toronto Summit and held bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Harper. 

The two Prime Ministers, in reviewing the state of bilateral relations, welcomed the enhanced interaction in a broad range of areas, visits and other exchanges between the two countries. They expressed their desire to broaden and deepen economic, diplomatic, educational, scientific and cultural ties between India and Canada.

The two Prime Ministers also solemnly observed the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the bombing of Air India flight 182 “Kanishka” on June 23, 1985, in which 329 lives were tragically lost. They strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and agreed to direct their respective Governments toward greater cooperation in counter-terrorism and security-related matters.

Reiterating the need for intensifying global cooperation in combating international terrorism, they called for an early conclusion and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism within the UN framework.

Prime Ministers Singh and Harper welcomed the signature of the Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, which will help facilitate civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries. They both committed to the ratification of the agreement and the completion of all remaining steps necessary to ensure its early implementation. They underscored the potential for mutually beneficial civil nuclear cooperation and trade.

The two leaders committed to expanding a range of activities and institutional frameworks that will contribute to the shared goal of increasing bilateral trade to $15 billion annually in the next five years.  During Prime Minister Harper’s visit to India in November 2009, both countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a Joint Study Group to explore the possibility of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Canada.  The two Prime Ministers welcomed the conclusion of that report, in which the Joint Study Group identified substantial potential economic gains that both countries could achieve through such an agreement.  The two Prime Ministers noted that the recommendations in the report will be examined by both countries and necessary processes for obtaining approvals will be initiated  immediately and will aim to be completed by the end of October.

The Prime Ministers also announced their commitment to an annual dialogue on trade and investment between Canada’s Minister of International Trade and India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry. They also welcomed the possibility of an India-Canada CEO Roundtable later this year.

The two Prime Ministers looked forward to the early signing followed by ratification and implementation of the Social Security Agreement. They noted that the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement was under negotiation and looked forward to its early conclusion.

These two agreements will make a significant contribution to the commercial and economic interaction between the two countries.

The Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Earth Sciences and Mining and looked forward to signing a Memorandum of Understanding on Transportation, noting the scope for bilateral collaboration, trade and investment in the natural resources and infrastructure sectors.

Agriculture and agri-food cooperation represent another area of enhanced exchange and both leaders looked forward to the progressive implementation of projects identified under the January 2009 MOU.

The Prime Ministers recognized some of the greatest strengths in the relationship lie in the vibrant and longstanding people-to-people ties. In that regard they encouraged the expansion of linkages in key areas including education, academic relations, arts, culture, sports and tourism.

To further enhance the considerable momentum achieved in exchanges and collaboration amongst a broad range of higher education institutions in both countries, the Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Higher Education Cooperation. This framework will facilitate academic exchanges, partnerships and mobility between higher educational institutions in the two countries.

The Prime Ministers also noted initiatives to link Canadian and Indian universities and colleges, including in curriculum development and the creation of Chairs and Centres for Indian studies at a number of Canadian universities, such as, for example, those in the process of being established at Carleton University and McGill University.

They also welcomed the initiative to organize the Festival of India in Canada in 2011, which would present a comprehensive range of Indian culture through performing arts, exhibitions, film festivals, food festivals, among others, as well as the upcoming exhibition of masterworks of Inuit Art from the National Gallery of Canada, which will be presented at the National Museum in New Delhi in the fall of 2010. They look forward to the Commonwealth Games in India in October 2010. To facilitate further co-operation in these areas, the Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of an MOU on Cultural Cooperation.

To achieve the goals set out in this joint statement, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to sustained political engagement and a structured exchange of high-level visits and regular dialogues between their officials. Building on the existing annual India-Canada Foreign Policy Consultations, Strategic Dialogues, Trade Policy Consultations, the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, the Agriculture Working Group, the Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Committee, the Environment Forum and the Energy Forum, they agreed to promote further policy exchanges between ministries and departments of both Governments.

How Syed Akbaruddin made MEA Spokesperson the top govt job

The post of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson, known in the bureaucratic jargon as JS (XP) or Joint Secretary (External Publicity Division), is truly a hot seat. Few other posts in Government of India are as demanding and work-intensive as this one is.

But it depends on the man who occupies this hot seat. Syed Akbaruddin has made this seat hotter than a burning ember by his sheer hard work and the amazingly long working hours-- seven days a week-- consistently for the past three and a quarter years that he has held the post of JS (XP).

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.

His normal day starts at 7 am when he starts getting calls and SMSes from byte-hungry electronic media even while he is getting ready for work. He invariably reaches office around 9 am. From 10 am to 5 pm it is a maddening schedule of back-to-back meetings in his office in Shastri Bhavan, where the headquarters of the MEA are located and in Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan where many MEA divisions are now located. This also happens to be the new venue for in-house as well as international conferences.
After 5 pm, Akbaruddin normally gets back to his office, where he invariably remains till 9 pm or so. He uses this window to attend to piled up official work and talks to the journalists calling him for his perception of the day’s important events.

His phone continues to ring till about 11 pm and he attends to every call or SMS. On a ‘newsy’ day, Akbaruddin responds to an average of 300 calls/SMSes daily. Considering the long work hours he has been putting in (15 hours a day on an average) it works out to 20 calls/SMSes per hour, or one call/SMS every three minutes. Phew!

By the way, hardly a day goes by in MEA when it has not been a ‘newsy’ day.
And if it is a maddening day like a top world leader’s incoming visit – and such days come several times every month – then the work load of JS (XP) increases phenomenally and his working hours stretch further.
Over and above this, Akbaruddin monitors the New Media (a mix of social media and digital media), manages his Twitter account by posting tweets and photos of official engagements and monitors major TV news channels.

The amazing thing is that Akbaruddin has been maintaining this rigorous schedule consistently throughout the three and a quarter years he has been occupying this hot seat.
Added to all of the above is the hectic traveling he has to undertake. He undertakes about two dozen foreign visits every year, accompanying the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister. It is not only since Narendra Modi took over as PM that the prime ministerial visits have become frequent. It has always been so particularly for last one decade.
As India’s global profile is on the rise and the role of international diplomacy is getting incrementally important with each passing year, the number of foreign visits by the PM and the EAM are consistently on the rise. One of the jobs of JS (XP) is to accompany the PM and the EAM on their foreign visits and brief the media during such visits.

This should convey the vital importance of the office that Syed Akbaruddin has been so ably handling all these years. It would not be wrong in this context to say that Akbaruddin has made this hot seat even hotter by his workaholic nature.
Narendra Modi had been watching Akbaruddin very closely since he was made the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in September 2013. When he took over as PM on 26 May, 2014 he came to know about the workhorse called Akbaruddin. This was the quality Modi had wanted to see in each of his ministers and officials. This is how Modi became a fan of Akbaruddin.

Left to him, Modi would have never let an asset like Akbaruddin go. When he failed to convince Akbaruddin to become the PMO spokesperson – Akbaruddin expressed his unavailability for the honour as wanted his maiden ambassadorial posting now, when he is just six years away from retirement – Modi understood.
But since Modi’s advent, Akbaruddin increasingly took Government of India related questions, which were not MEA-specific. A burning example of this was his hour-long live chat on Facebook, a first for any ministry in Indian government. He answered hundreds of questions, many on bullet trains and infrastructure.
PM Modi had to reluctantly agree to relieve him and appoint a new spokesperson as Akbaruddin is now due for promotion as additional secretary and the spokesman’s post is of joint secretary-level.

It was against this backdrop that Vikas Swarup, a highly competent and articulate diplomat, was named as Akbaruddin’s successor. The daunting task for Swarup is clearly cut out. He will be face to face with this challenge when he joins the PM’s official delegation on his three-nation tour to France, Germany and Canada (9-17 April) and finally takes over as the new spokesperson of the MEA on 18 April.