Category Archives: Leaders

Army chief Upendra Dwivedi inducted into International Hall of Fame at U.S. Army War College

General Dwivedi, a distinguished fellow of the U.S. Army War College, is the third Indian Chief of Armed Forces to be inducted into the International Hall of Fame after General V.K. Singh and General Bikram Singh.

cted into the International Hall of Fame of the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania. Photo: X/@adgpi.

India’s Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi , was inducted into the International Hall of Fame of the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, becoming the third Indian head of the Army to receive such an honour.

General Dwivedi, a distinguished fellow of the U.S. Army War College, is the third Indian Chief of Armed Forces to be inducted into the International Hall of Fame after General V.K. Singh and General Bikram Singh.

“General Upendra Dwivedi, COAS, visited the Army War College (AWC), Carlisle Barracks, USA, where he was inducted into the International Hall of Fame – the third Indian Army Chief to receive this honour, after General V.K. Singh and General Bikram Singh,” the Indian Army said in a post on X.

General Dwivedi, who was on a visit to the U.S., also addressed the faculty and international student officers’ leadership, professional military education and evolving security dynamics.

An alumnus of the prestigious college, General Dwivedi toured key facilities and participated in academic engagements, including panel discussions, reviewing advanced study projects of the scholars program and interacting with distinguished members of the institution.

Earlier this week, the Army chief began his U.S. visit in Hawaii, where he was accorded a Guard of Honour at Fort Shafter, the headquarters of the United States Army Pacific.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Eric Gonsalves (1928-2026): one of India’s first diplomats who drafted foreign service rule book

Gonsalves negotiated with the CIA for reviving India-U.S. relations after the 1971 war.

At the peak of India’s preparation for the war of 1971, Indira Gandhi visited Washington DC for meeting U.S. President Richard Nixon. However, the meeting did not help in changing the Nixon administration’s orientation towards the Pakistan government that was carrying out atrocities against civilians in East Pakistan. Next month, Bangladesh was liberated but India-U.S. relation nosedived as the Nixon administration’s policy on Pakistan did not deliver expected results.

Indira Gandhi had a difficult task at hand as the U.S. was one of the major partners of India and ties had to be repaired. It was at this point that Eric Gonsalves, a mid-career Indian Foreign Service Officer of 1950 cadre was sent to the Indian Embassy in Washington DC as the Minister (Political) of the Embassy.

Gonsalves started a back channel talk with important emissaries of the U.S. in a coffee shop in Washington. One of the officials he met was Vernon A. Walters, the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. These back channel informal talks in those critical months of 1972-‘74 kept India-U.S. relation alive though the political warmth was not missing.

Born in May 1928, Gonsalves, 97, passed away on Sunday (March 22, 2026) in a hospital in Bengaluru.

Gonsalves joined the newly launched Indian Foreign Service through a competitive examination on May 24, 1950. He received probationary training till March 1953 and was sent as an attache to the Neutral National Repatriation Commission that was chaired by India and was tasked with overseeing repatriation of the PoWs of the Korean war.

Gonsalves next was posted as Vice Consul in New York from March 1954 to August 1955 at the height of the Cold War witch hunt marked by McCarthyism. As the Deputy Secretary of Establishment division of the MEA, Gonsalves during 1958-’61 drafted the Indian Foreign Service PLCA (Pay, Leave, and Compensatory Allowances) Rules of 1961 that remains in use even in the twenty-first century. The first edition of that PLCA book carried his signature, Gonsalves told his oral history interviewer Kishan S. Rana at the Indian Council of World Affairs.

Gonsalves had his brush with history during 1962-’64 when he was posted as a First Secretary of the Indian Embassy in Myanmar. This was the tense phase in Myanmar’s history when under the rule of General Ne Win, Myanmar (then Burma) undertook radical measures to fix economic problems and as part of that Burma began expelling Indians.

In an oral history documentation with the Indian Council of World Affairs, Gonsalves said that around 3,00,000 Indians were repatriated from Myanmar between 1962-’64 and he and his colleagues, junior officials at that time had to manage the crowd who came to deposit gold and precious items with the Embassy for safe keeping as they were worried of being robbed by the Myanmar authorities.

As the Secretary East of MEA from 1979 to 1982, Gonsalves brought his contacts into good effect when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted to revive relations with the U.S. to send a message to the Soviet Union that India did not appreciate the invasion of Afghanistan that had created a spill over security impact for India in Punjab and Kashmir.

Gonsalves retired in 1986 after serving as India’s Ambassador to Belgium, EEC and Luxembourg. He remained a regular visitor to the India International Centre in Delhi after retirement but had shifted to Bengaluru some years ago.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

India and EU launch first security and defence partnership amid global strategic shift

Pact opens annual dialogue, joint naval exercises, space security talks and defence industry collaboration as both sides seek resilient supply chains.

India and the European Union on Tuesday signed a landmark security and defence partnership, covering maritime security, cybersecurity and counter-terrorism, similar to the tie-ups the EU has with two other Asian countries — Japan and South Korea.

The partnership comes at a time India is trying to reduce its dependence on Russia for military hardware by diversifying imports and pushing its domestic manufacturing. Europe is also trying to reduce its dependence on the US and deepen its diplomatic and economic ties with other regions.

Speaking about the defence and security partnership, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “We are not only making our economy stronger, we are also delivering security for our people in an increasingly insecure world. And today, the world’s two largest economies and democracies launched their first-ever security and defence partnership. This is a landmark departure and a trust-based platform for cooperation on the strategic issues that matter most.”

“In doing so, we will help to build each other’s resilience. Europe and India have a long history of cooperation in the defence industry. Now we will enhance this teamwork even further. We will deepen our cooperation on maritime security, for example, joint naval exercises, to tackle piracy,”
she said.

“And we will step up our work on countering cyber and hybrid threats, which are getting more sophisticated by the day. Our partnership includes a dedicated dialogue on space security, from situational awareness to secure connectivity and stronger cooperation on counterterrorism. Finally, we are launching negotiations on a Security of Information Agreement. Europe and India have chosen to be reliable partners to one another, and this is how we demonstrate the trust we share,” she added.

Earlier in the day, defence minister Rajnath Singh said he discussed a range of bilateral security and defence issues with European Commission vice-president Kaja Kallas, including opportunities to integrate supply chains to build trusted defence ecosystems and develop future-ready capabilities.

He said India’s defence industry “can play a meaningful role in the EU’s ‘ReArm initiative’, especially when the EU was seeking to rapidly diversify suppliers and derisk dependencies”.

Kallas, after signing the defence partnership, said the pact “launches an annual security and defence dialogue and deepens cooperation on maritime security, cyber issues, and counterterrorism”.

Rajnath emphasised that Indian and EU defence industries must synergise their efforts for the larger global good as it “complements India’s vision of self-reliance while aligning with the EU’s pursuit of strategic autonomy”.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Rajnath, Yogi flag off first BrahMos missiles made in Lucknow, boost for ‘Make in India’

This state-of-the-art unit, which was inaugurated on May 11, 2025, houses all modern facilities for missile integration, testing and final quality checks.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath flagged off the first batch of BrahMos missiles manufactured at the BrahMos Aerospace unit here on Saturday, officials said.

According to an official statement, this is not only a milestone for the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) but will also provide a new energy to India’s resolve to achieve self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

BrahMos Aerospace, the manufacturer of the BrahMos supersonic missile system, has successfully produced the first batch of the missile system from its new integration and test facility in Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow, the statement said.

This state-of-the-art unit, which was inaugurated on May 11, 2025, houses all modern facilities for missile integration, testing and final quality checks. After successful testing, the missiles are prepared for deployment by the Indian armed forces.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, Minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi and various officials were present on the occasion.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Sriram Krishnan – The Indian-American who could decide the AI arms race

Sriram Krishnan is the 6ft 6in tech guru steering US policy in the battle for AI supremacy with China.

Who’s the most powerful Indian-American on the planet right now? Toss the big names into a hat and pull them out one by one.

Could it be Microsoft’s quietly effective Satya Nadella, who turned the software giant into an AI powerhouse? Or Sundar Pichai, steering the Google juggernaut from one innovation to the next? Or Vinod Khosla, billionaire and Silicon Valley oracle for decades, though a vocal anti-Trumper, which rules him out for Washington’s inner circle.

Still wondering? There’s a newer star already ensconced in the White House. Enter Sriram Krishnan, 41, the White House policy adviser on Artificial Intelligence – and at 6ft 6in, a man who literally towers over his rivals.

He’s at the cutting edge of the most transformative technologies of our time that are about to change the world beyond recognition.

Krishnan sees AI not just as an innovation but as the new frontier of world domination.

‘If we don’t win the AI race with China, the consequences are catastrophic,’ he warned on a podcast. To him, AI is the new 21st-century arms race – one that will decide who runs the world in the decades ahead and who becomes the next superpower.

Krishnan has been in the thick of AI action ever since he parachuted into the upper ranks of the US government. Soon after the Trump administration took charge, he was at the Paris AI Summit in February, where he made his presence felt by pushing aggressively for the adoption of US AI technology with the message: buy American AI or get left behind.

His firm conviction that the US must dominate AI technology was once again on display, though more controversially, when Trump struck a string of chip deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, under which the US would sell cutting-edge AI chips to the Gulf kingdoms in huge quantities.

The deals sparked strong criticism, with detractors pointing out that the Chinese could quickly get their hands on the advanced chips being sold. Krishnan disagrees, arguing that it’s a win if US companies are selling billions of dollars’ worth of hardware.

Krishnan had already been a technology evangelist long before entering the White House. Together with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy, he has hosted one of Silicon Valley’s most popular podcasts, The Aarthi and Sriram Show.

Drawing on their deep tech-world contacts, they have pulled in industry mega-stars like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Andreessen (of Andreessen Horowitz fame, Silicon Valley’s ‘super-angel’ venture capitalist). Elon Musk’s appearance on the podcast sent listenership numbers soaring, pushing it into tech stratosphere mode.

The couple like to joke they’re ‘outsiders who crashed the gates’ of Silicon Valley through sheer drive and talent. Recently, they chatted with Aravind Srinivas, the 31-year-old CEO of Perplexity, which calls itself a ‘free AI-powered answer engine.’ At one point, Krishnan joked to his wife about Srinivas: ‘He’s calling us old!’ – a reminder that even tech veterans age fast in a world moving at warp speed.

A Chennai native, Krishnan studied at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, earning a Bachelor of Technology in IT, before moving to the US in 2007. He went on to lead engineering teams at Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and Snap.

His name even surfaced as a potential CEO for Twitter when Musk took over the platform for a staggering $44 billion. Of Musk, he says admiringly: ‘He tries to push things to the absolute simplest. His ability to take risk is beyond what most human beings are capable of.’

When the Trump government moved into office and his transition team began building its tech roster, Krishnan received a call from the government’s new AI czar, David Sacks, who offered him a chance to shape the ‘right’ AI policies.

Krishnan didn’t hesitate when Sacks came knocking. He told Politico: ‘I thought we were heading in the wrong direction with AI. I thought we were in a precarious position when it came to all things China.’ That sense of urgency and rivalry continues to define his approach to policy.

Krishnan doesn’t toe the MAGA line on everything. He has opposed country-based Green Card quotas, arguing that the rule works against skilled migrants from populous countries like India. His call for a global merit-based system that attracts ‘the very best talent from around the world’ hasn’t sat well with Trump’s anti-immigration supporters, who vociferously opposed his hiring as AI adviser.

MAGA stalwarts believe no outside talent is needed and that America has more than enough homemade talent to get ahead in the world of technology. But Krishnan’s not backing down.

To him, it’s simple: innovation wins wars, and talent wins innovation.

It’s impossible to talk about Krishnan without mentioning his wife Ramamurthy. They met online – but not on a dating app, as they like to joke. They both pride themselves on their nerdiness and were discussing coding issues online.

Ramamurthy was a prodigy at Coimbatore’s PSG College of Technology and was hired by Microsoft before she finished college. Later, she joined Netflix before striking out as a venture capitalist. This year, she launched Schema Ventures, which has a $20 million kitty and has made bold early investments in the start-up world.

Together, Aarthi and Sriram are something of a power couple for the digital age: entrepreneurs, podcast influencers and policy-shapers all rolled into one.

With their success, they’re also eager to ‘give back’ and believe they have valuable counsel to offer youngsters looking to make it big in technology. Two years ago, they hosted a seminar in Chennai for college students keen to make their mark in the ‘big bad world of tech’, offering tips from two people who know what it takes to make the leap from outsider to insider.

For now, though, Krishnan’s focus remains squarely on the race that could define the next century. He has one goal in mind: keeping the US on top in the AI age.

As the man helping steer US AI policy from the White House, his decisions could help determine whether America or China rules the future of artificial intelligence. If Krishnan gets his way, that future won’t just be ‘Made in America’ – it’ll be powered by it.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Valmik Thapar, tiger conservation trailblazer, passes away at 73

Thapar worked mainly with tigers in the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan where he championed community-based conservation efforts, while simultaneously advocating for stronger nationwide government initiatives to protect tigers and their ecosystem.

Valmik Thapar, an anthropology graduate who became one of India’s leading wildlife conservationists, shaping government policies on tiger conservation efforts and drawing global attention to the big cats through books and films, died on Saturday. He was 73.

Thapar worked mainly with tigers in the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan where he championed community-based conservation efforts, while simultaneously advocating for stronger nationwide government initiatives to protect tigers and their ecosystem.

Former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh described Thapar as “a legendary figure” in the conservation domain. “Today’s Ranthambore, particularly, is a testimony to his deep commitment and indefatigable zeal,” Ramesh posted on X on Saturday. He was uncommonly knowledgeable on a variety of issues relating to biodiversity and not a day passed during my ministerial tenure without our talking to each other —with me almost always at the receiving end.”

Thapar was among a generation of conservationists who had the opportunity to witness the evolution of India’s Project Tiger — launched in 1972-73 — which is widely regarded as among the world’s most successful conservation programmes.

“His passion arose purely from his heart, inspired by the charisma of the big cat,” said Ullas Karanth, emeritus director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bangalore, who has himself focused on tiger ecology and the fate of tiger populations since the 1970s.

Thapar was only 23 when he went to Ranthambore in 1976. Over the next four decades, he studied nearly 200 tigers, spending hours in the forests in close proximity to the animals, observing their behaviour, even naming some of them — Broken Tooth, Genghis, Laxmi, Machli, Padmini.

Thapar had played a key role in “pushing for” regulatory initiatives such as the establishment of a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to curb poaching and amendments to wildlife regulations. “I was amazed by Valmik’s incredible drive and a shrewd understanding of how political systems worked,” Karanth said.

Ravi Chellam, a wildlife biologist and a specialist on India’s lions, said Thapar had some “very strong views on what needed to be done”, which he would not be shy of expressing.

“He was also a prolific author, lucid presenter and narrator of films and documentaries who built a global reputation as one of the foremost spokespersons for India’s wilderness,” Chellam said.

Among his earliest books was With Tigers in the Wild, published in 1983 and co-authored with Fateh Singh Rathore, a Ranthambore forest officer, and tiger conservation advocate Tejbir Singh. “This was among the first books with outstanding photographs of tigers in the wild from India,” Karanth said.

Thapar, while seeking to influence government policy through memberships in over 150 panels or task forces, also wrote or edited more than 30 books, including The Secret Life of Tigers in 2016, which documents the lives of three tigresses and their cubs from birth to adulthood. He also helped produce multiple films and documentaries on tigers.

Thapar was married to theatre artist Sanjana Kapoor, daughter of actor Shashi Kapoor, and they have a son.

Thapar, appointed a member of the country’s tiger task force in 2005, had written a dissent note, expressing concern that the task force’s report was overly optimistic about the coexistence of tigers and humans, a PTI report said on Saturday. Thapar argued that for tigers to survive in the long run, certain areas needed to be kept entirely free from human interference.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Army chief awards felicitates woman BSF officer Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari for exceptional courage during Operation Sindoor

Commanding a border outpost within eyeball-to-eyeball contact of a Pakistani post along the International Border, the assistant commandant led her troops to silence three forward hostile posts across the zero line (the area closest to enemy territory) by giving a befitting reply.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Upendra Dwivedi, on Friday (May 30, 2025) awarded Border Security Force (BSF) Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari with the Commendation Disc for her exceptional courage and operational proficiency during Operation Sindoor in the Jammu frontier.

Commanding a border outpost within eyeball-to-eyeball contact of a Pakistani post along the International Border, the assistant commandant led her troops to silence three forward hostile posts across the zero line (the area closest to enemy territory) by giving a befitting reply.

“On 30 May 2025, COAS General Upendra Dwivedi, PVSM, AVSM, felicitated Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari of BSF Jammu with the Commendation Disc for her exceptional courage and operational proficiency during Operation Sindoor,” BSF Jammu said on X.

She gallantly commanded a forward-deployed BSF company under challenging conditions, it said.

Apart from Neha, six women constables held gun positions at a forward border post, with their “josh” rising with every bullet they fired at the enemy positions across the IB in the Samba, R S Pura and Akhnoor sectors.

Neha, a third-generation officer from her family in Uttarakhand, takes pride in being a part of the BSF and commanding a border outpost in the Pargwal forward area of Akhnoor sector in Jammu district during Operation Sindoor.

“I feel proud to be manning a post along the International Border with my troops. It is approximately 150 meters away from the Pakistani post in the Akhnoor–Pargwal area,” she told PTI here on Wednesday.

Neha’s grandfather served in the Indian Army and her parents are from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), making her a third-generation officer in the family.

“My grandfather served in the Army. My father was in the CRPF. My mother is in the CRPF. I am a third-generation officer in the force,” she said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

UoH faculty member elected as Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry

G.S. Vaitheeswaran from University of Hyderabad’s (UoH) School of Physics has been elected as a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry for his contributions to understanding the electronic structure of solids, particularly in the field of energetic materials.

The fellowship will enable Prof Vaitheeswaran to expand his research network and collaborations with universities worldwide, facilitating international funding and participation in conferences.

He has received several notable awards, including the DAE Young Achiever Award, B.M. Birla Science Prize in Physics, and the Chancellor Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research, as per a press release on Friday (May 1, 2025).

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Ex-SC judge Sanjay Kaul appointed member of Bahrain International Commercial Court

The BICC is a part of the Bahrain government’s “Team Bahrain” to enhance private sector investment in the country by providing a forum for dispute resolution between parties.

Retired Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul has been appointed a member of the Bahrain International Commercial Court by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

He is among the nine members appointed to the newly established BICC. Leading arbitrator Jan Paulsson has been appointed as BICC president and former British judge Sir Christopher Greenwood as its vice president.

The BICC is a part of the Bahrain government’s “Team Bahrain” to enhance private sector investment in the country by providing a forum for dispute resolution between parties.

The BICC will have exclusive jurisdiction within the country to hear international commercial disputes and will also be empowered to hear arbitration-related matters.

Justice Kaul retired on December 25, 2023, after serving as a judge of the apex court for over six years. During his tenure he authored decisions in several important rulings, including a concurring opinion in the landmark nine-judge bench case recognising the right to privacy as a fundamental right in 2017.

In December 2023, he was a part of the seven-judge bench that ruled in favour of upholding the validity of an ‘unstamped’ arbitration agreement — where the parties had not paid the necessary stamp duty for the contract to be admissible before a court of law. The court held that the “defect” could be rectified at a later date, noting that the purpose of the Indian Arbitration Act was to provide “speedy and efficient resolution” to disputes.

In his final year as an SC judge, Justice Kaul authored decisions rejecting the Centre’s curative petition to enhance compensation for victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy and upheld the Bar Council of India’s power to conduct the All India Bar Examination.

Justice Kaul’s legal career began in 1982 after graduating from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. He became an advocate-on-record in 1987 and was given the coveted senior advocate designation in 1999. He was appointed as senior counsel for the Delhi High Court and Delhi University, and served as additional senior standing counsel for Delhi Development Authority.

His career in the judiciary began in May 2001 when he was appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court. In September 2012, he served a brief 2-day stint as Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi HC. In June 2013, he was appointed the Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana HC before being transferred to the Madras HC in July 2014, where he served as the Chief Justice until February 2017.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

Trump nominates Indian American Kash Patel as FBI Director

Mr. Trump said Mr. Patel played a pivotal role in uncovering “the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax,” standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday (November 30, 2024) nominated close confidante Kash Patel for the powerful position of Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, making him the highest-ranking Indian American in his incoming administration.

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Mr. Trump announced on Truth Social, a social media platform he owns.

Mr. Trump said Mr. Patel played a pivotal role in uncovering “the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax,” standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution. Mr. Patel, 44, served as chief of staff to the Acting United States Secretary of Defense in the last few weeks of the Trump Administration in 2017.

“Mr. Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defence, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Mr. Kash has also tried over 60 jury trials,” he said.

“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Mr. Kash will work under our great Attorney General Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI,” Mr. Trump said.

Who is Kash Patel?

New York-born Mr. Patel has his roots in Gujarat. However, his parents are from East Africa — mother from Tanzania and father from Uganda. They came to the U.S. from Canada in 1970. “We are Gujarati,” he had told PTI in an earlier interview.

The family moved to Queens in New York — often called as Little India — in the late 70s. It is here that Mr. Patel was born and grew. Mr. Patel’s parents are retired now and spend their time in both the U.S. and Gujarat. After his schooling in New York and college in Richmond, Virginia, and law school in New York, Patel went to Florida where he was a state public defender for four years and then federal public defender for another four years.

“So, lots of trials, lots of international investigations, lots of time in court, understanding the federal system and trying cases and learning how to run investigations,” he said.

From Florida he moved to Washington DC as a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice. Here he was an international terrorism prosecutor for about three and a half years. During this period, he worked on cases all over the world, in America in East Africa as well as in Uganda and Kenya.

While still employed by the Department of Justice, he went as a civilian to join Special Operations Command at the Department of Defense. At the Pentagon, he sat as the Department of Justice’s lawyer with Special Forces people and worked interagency collaborative targeting operations around the world.

After a year in the position, Congressman Davin Nunes, Chairman of the House Permanent Select on Intelligence Committee, pulled him as senior counsel on counterterrorism. After April 2017, he spearheaded the Russia investigation of the House Intelligence Committee. It was here where he attracted media attention and played a key role in drafting a GOP memo, which, according to then-President Donald Trump, exposed the role of Democratic party and its leadership in the Russian investigation.

The New York Times described this as a “Kash Memo.” Patel said that this was a “great team effort.”

Mr. Patel is an Ice hockey fan and has been playing the sport since he was six. “I still play and I spend a lot of time volunteering coaching youth hockey in the area.”

Mr. Patel, who attended both the Houston and Ahmedabad rallies of Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019 and February 2020, had earlier told PTI that the bilateral relationship had deteriorated under the Biden Administration.

“President Trump and Prime Minister Modi had an extraordinary relationship with respect. And they were working together to counteract the things like Chinese aggression, not just on the Indian border but on the global stage. They were also working together to counteract things in Pakistan when it came to counterterrorism matters and hostage situations,” MR. Patel said.

The two leaders knew that not only the strong relationship but also allowing the economies of scale to be built in India and America were mutually beneficial, Mr. Patel said.

Last fall he wrote the book ‘Government Gangster’ which argued that there is a severe lack of accountability. The book talks about the deep state and is highly critical of the U.S. bureaucracy, which he claims is highly infiltrated or dominated by lawbreakers.

Responding to a question, Mr. Patel then told PTI that the Biden Administration and the deep state are interwoven.

“The Biden administration is filled by these corrupt government gangsters who I list in the back of my book by name and title. It’s not a Democrat or Republican thing. It’s an apolitical thing that these individuals, whether they’re Trump appointees like Christopher W Ray or Biden appointees like Merrick Garland, they are led to this two-tier system of justice where they weaponise government and intelligence and law enforcement to target either conservatives or Trump supporters or call people on January 6th, domestic terrorists,” he said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)