Modi speaks to Italian PM Georgia Meloni, thanks her for Italy G7 Summit invitation
The G7 Summit is scheduled to be held in Italy from June 13-15.
Washington, 8 August: A senior lawmaker from President Barack Obama’s Democratic party has compared US Intelligence leaker Edward Snowden with Mahatma Gandhi, saying the controversial whistle-blower was engaged in a “non-violent” act of “civil disobedience”.
Mr John Lewis, one of America’s most revered civil rights leaders, says Mr Snowden, who has come in for some harsh criticism from Obama Administration for leaking details of classified surveillance programmes, was continuing the tradition of civil disobedience. “In keeping with the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence, in keeping with the teaching of Henry David Thoreau and people like Gandhi and others, if you believe something that is not right, something is unjust, and you are willing to defy customs, traditions, bad laws, then you have a conscience. You have a right to defy those laws and be willing to pay the price,” Mr Lewis told the Guardian newspaper. His comments came on the same day Mr Obama cancelled his scheduled meeting with Mr Vladimir Putin after Moscow granted temporary asylum to the CIA contractor.
Mr Lewis, the man whom Mr Obama called the ‘conscience of the US Congress’, said Mr Snowden could claim he was appealing to “a higher law” when he disclosed top secret documents.
The Congressman, (73), and one of the last surviving lieutenants of Martin Luther King said Mr Snowden was “engaged in an act of civil disobedience”.
He was among the majority of Democratic Congressmen who voted for an amendment in the House of Representatives last month that sought to effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of millions of phone records. PTI
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