Amid ongoing tension at borders with China in Eastern Ladakh, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Leh and forward locations on Friday morning to review the ground security situation, barely 18 days after a violent stand-off.

Sources said that Modi reached Ladakh early morning and briefied by the Army, Air Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police at one of the forward locations in Nimu. Located at 11,000 feet above sea level, Nimu is among the tough terrains, surrounded by the Zanskar range and on the banks of the Indus.

The Prime Minister, accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, will also interact with injured soldiers at the military hospital in Leh, in what will be a morale booster for the forces.

General Rawat will review the tri-services preparedness against the aggressive People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as well as understand the proposed de-escalation and disengagement process at the four stand-off points.

Modi’s visit comes just a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called off his own visit to Ladakh. Singh was to visit Eastern Ladakh region to interact with soldiers deployed at the hostile border on Friday. He had plans to interact with the soldiers injured during the barbaric attack carried out by Chinese People’s Liberation Army on June 15. In the attack, India lost 20 soldiers and Chinese Army too had casualties, figures still unknown.

On June 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated that the sacrifice made by 20 soldiers who went down fighting against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Galwan Valley on June 15 night “will not go in vain”.

He also said that while India wants peace, it will give a “befitting reply” if provoked. “India’s integrity and sovereignty is supreme for us, and no one can stop us from defending it. Nobody should have any iota of doubt about this,” said Modi. “Indian troops went down fighting (maarte, maarte mare hain),” he had said.

Modi also said that the whole country is with the families of those who sacrificed their lives for the country. “India will defend every stone every inch of its territory. India is a peace-loving country which has always tried to maintain cooperative and friendly relations with neighbours.”

As the total corona positive cases in India climbed to 5,48,318 and fatalities rose to 16,475, the central government has issued fresh guidelines on Monday to contain the spread of the virus.

Night curfew will continue from 10 pm to 5 am from July 1. Schools, colleges and coaching institutes will remain closed till July 31. Similarly, metro rail, cinema halls, gyms, swimming pools will also remain closed. Entertainment parks, theatres, bars and pubs will also be closed. No curbs on inter and intra state movement of goods. No religious congregations and sporting events will be allowed. However, more domestic flights and trains will be allowed.

Across India, coronavirus cases are increasing in Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation tomorrow at 4 pm. In his first televised address to the nation, Modi had urged the nation to impose ‘Janata Curfew’, a curfew imposed by the people, for the people, on themselves to protect the nation against Coronavirus.

In his second address to the nation, the PM had urged the nation to come together to thank the emergency service workers for working through the novel coronavirus outbreak. He had asked every Indian to come out of their houses, stand in their balconies at exactly 5 pm on March 22 and clap or ring a bell to salute people who are serving the nation tirelessly. In the third televised address, the PM had appealed to the citizens to switch off lights in their houses and light candles or diyas on April 5 at 9 pm for nine minutes to dispel the darkness and gloom brought by the outbreak of the deadly novel Coronavirus.

“Those who dared Bharat Mata were taught a lesson,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said while asserting that no one can take even an “inch of the land”.

Addressing the all-party meeting to discuss India-China border situation after 20 Indian soldiers were martyred in a hand-to-hand combat with the Chinese troops, the Prime Minister said Chinese neither entered Indian territory nor has any post been taken over by them. “They have not intruded into our border, nor has any post been taken over by them (China). India possesses the capability that no one can eye even one inch of our land. Our armed forces have the capability to move into multiple sectors at one go,” Modi noted.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, his Andhra Pradesh counter part Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, BJP president J P Nadda, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader MK Stalin, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray were among those who attended the meeting.

In the video-conference addressed by Modi on the corona situation in the country on Wednesday, the Telangana CM had already pledged in no uncertain terms his support to the Modi government stating that internal security should not be compromised at any cost. “This is the time when everyone should be united and speak in one voice. No one should politicise the issue. We should give a befitting reply to any country that questions the sovereignty and integrity of India,” KCR had told the Prime Minister.

Jagan had passed a condolence resolution in the Assembly and observed a two-minute silence with his colleagues as a mark of respect to the martyred soldiers. “I am deeply distressed after hearing the news of the attack on our soldiers. I read in the newspapers that 20 jawans were killed, including Santosh Babu from Suryapet. The sacrifice of Colonel Santosh Babu will forever be remembered by the Telugu people. I express deep condolences to the bereaved families,” he had told the Assembly while passing the condolence resolution.

On his part, former CM Chandrababu Naidu had expressed his party’s solidarity to the central government. At a recent TDLP video-conference, Naidu had paid tribute to the 20 Army personnel who laid down their lives in hand-to-hand combat with the Chinese troops. The TDLP condemned China for its provocative bid to ingress into the Indian territory.

A nett 65.69 per cent Indian are satisfied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says IANS-C Voter State of the Nation 2020 Survey. At a time when the pandemic has plunged approval ratings of many world leaders, 58.36 per cent Indians across all states and union territories maintain they are “very satisfied” with the performance of Modi.

A 24.01 per cent Indians, across states, say they are “somewhat satisfied”, while 16.71 per cent are not satisfied with him at all.

Among the states, PM’s approval ratings tops in a non BJP ruled state Odisha. With 95.6 per cent Odias saying they are satisfied with him, 84.87 per cent “very satisfied” and just a 2.2 per cent of them disapprove of Modi.

Odisha is followed by Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, where his popularity is extremely high with nett approval ratings of 93.95 per cent, 92.73 and 83.6 respectively. Interestingly, like Odisha, even two among these three states are ruled by non BJP parties – Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

Jharkahnd, where the BJP was recently outmaneuvered in the election, also has pretty significant approval ratings for the Prime Minister. 64.26 per cent of them say they are “very satisfied” with PM Modi, while the nett approval rating from the state is a whopping 82.97 per cent.

While it’s hardly a surprise that states like BJP ruled Karnataka and Modi’s own state Gujarat gives thumbs up to him, he has a soaring popularity even in Maharashtra which is being ruled by the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena combine. 71.48 per cent of the respondents from the state say they are satisfied with the performance of the Indian Prime Minister, according to the survey. Even in the Northeast 69.45 per cent gives him a thumbs up.

However, what should worry the BJP, given the Bihar election is later this year, Modi’s nett approval rating is 58.48 per cent in this Hindi heartland state, which is low in comparison to other states.

In West Bengal, where election is due next year, Modi’s nett approval rating is 64.06 per cent, which may be some reason for concern for the ruling TMC and Mamata Banerjee. Contrary to public beliefs, even in J&K, 50.84 per cent say they are very satisfied with him.

Three BJP-ruled states – Uttarakhand, Goa and Haryana are at the bottom of the approval chart. They have given a nett approval of the PM as 53.53, 52.54 and 51.25 per cent respectively.

However, it’s Kerala and Tamil Nadu which are in the red zone when it comes to his approval ratings. The Communist ruled Kerala has given a mere 32.89 per cent while the AIADMK ruled Tamil Nadu gave 32.15 per cent nett approval for Modi’s performance.

May 2009 onwards, the IANS-CVoter Tracker has been carried out each and every week, 52 waves in a calendar year, in 11 national languages, across all States in UTs in India, with a target sample size of 3,000 samples each wave. The average response rate is 55%. This survey is based on CATI interviews of adult (18+) respondents across all segments.

“For the analytics we are using our proprietary algorithm to calculate the Provincial and Regional Vote share based on the Split-Voter phenomenon,” said C Voter.

The Modi government seems to be slowly moving from ‘lockdown’ to unlock path. On Saturday, the Union government further extended the lockdown till June 30 in containment zones, but relaxed several lockdown regulations in non-containment zones.

In phase one of Unlock 1, the central government has allowed restaurants, hotels and places of worship can open from June 8.

Night curfew has been eased. Curfew in the nights will be from 9 pm to 5 pm as against earlier 7 pm to 6 am. No permits are required for inter-state movement, and unrestricted movement of goods and people has been permitted.

With the central government permitting places of worships to open from June 8, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) could formulate a strategy for reopening the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara for ‘darshans’ to devotees in the first phase. Initially, the TTD may allow only the residents of Tirumala and Tirupati to have darshan.

The prime minister has convened a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority at his residence in New Delhi at 11 am in wake of the gas leak in Vizag.

“In the wake of the situation in Visakhapatnam, PM Narendra Modi has called for a meeting of the NDMA at 11 am,” stated the Prime Minister”s Office.

Modi will will interact with Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy and senior officers of the National Disaster Management Authority and is likely to direct them to lay down policies for disaster management.

Eight persons, including a minor, dead while hundreds of others reported sick after a gas leaked from the LG Polymers India plant at R.R. Venkatapuram village on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam.

Modi expressed his condolences for the families of the deceased and issued instructions for proper treatment and assistance to be given to those who have taken ill. Modi also spoke to Union home ministry and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to take stock of the situation in Vizag arising out of the gas leak.

The prime minister wrote on Twitter that he spoke with Union Home Ministry officials and National Disaster Management Authority regarding the situation “which is being monitored closely.” “Spoke to officials of MHA and NDMA regarding the situation in Visakhapatnam, which is being monitored closely. I pray for everyone’s safety and well-being in Visakhapatnam,” tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi @narendramodi.

Responding to the Vizag gas leak incident on Thursday, Home Minister Amit Shah said that he has spoken to the officials of MHA and NDMA regarding the situation in Visakhapatnam, “which is being monitored closely.” “The incident in Vizag is disturbing. Have spoken to the NDMA officials and concerned authorities. We are continuously and closely monitoring the situation. I pray for the well-being of the people of Visakhapatnam,” tweeted Amit Shah.