Sangeetha

🚨IMPORTANT🚨 The Delhi Police has taken Abhijeet Dipke to an undisclosed location. We have lost contact with him. He is not being allowed to talk to lawyers. Why does this government treat youth like terrorists? We are equal citizens of India and we deserve all the protections and rights of the Constitution! @DelhiPolice where have you taken Abhijeet? You owe an answer to us. Abhijeet was just walking out of his home with a Tiranga in his hand! HOW CAN WALKING WITH A TIRANGA BE A CRIME?

I celebrate my very dear and valued friend and former @UN Under-Secretary-General @ShashiTharoor as he turns 70 today! A Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) @LokSabhaSectt of India since 2009 , former Minister of State of India for External Affairs, and currently Chairman of the Indian Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Shashi was a mentor and an inspiration in my earlier years in the UN Secretariat in New York in the 1990s, where he also served as Director and Executive Assistant to late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. An acclaimed author and public intellectual, Shashi was my first and most important connection to India, his native country of which he has written passionately in 28 books of fiction and nonfiction including The Great Indian Novel, one of his early works and a masterpiece. A prolific columnist, Shashi writes 5 separate newspaper columns EVERY WEEK for several prestigious Indian newspapers and magazines, and has maintained this routine for many years! We also share the bond of both being alums @FletcherSchool @TuftsUniversity , and we were both awarded the prestigious Joan Gillespie Fellowship at the premier graduate school of international affairs - he, 15 years before me. On a visit to India to speak @BrookingsInst in New Delhi,in December 2014, after I had completed my tenure as Deputy Governor @cenbank , Shashi very warmly hosted me to a sumptuous Indian lunch (even better and more original than the ones we often shared in Indian restaurants in New York in the mid-1990s!) at his home in New Delhi. I have fond memories. Tharoor was a strong candidate for UN Secretary-General in 2006, losing narrowly to the South Korean Foreign Minister at the time, Ban Ki Moon. I venture to say that, had he won, he would have more successfully maintained the UN’s standing and influence in world affairs as Kofi Annan did in his own tenure. Shashi, 70 cheers to you on your 70th birthday, and may you live long and in health my dear friend. Thank you for your support in my early years. I will never forget!