Angela Merkel’s book has been launched simultaneously in 30 languages. The book was launched this week in the market under the name ‘Freiheit’ in German and ‘Freedom’ in English. It has been published in 30 languages. It was awaited for a long time. Angela Merkel was the Chancellor of Germany, Europe’s largest economy, for 16 years. In this 736-page book, Merkel has given a detailed account of her policies, decisions and experiences and also defended herself.
According to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recently published book Freedom: Memoirs 1951-2021, she had expressed concern that since Modi became Prime Minister, “attacks on people of other religions, mainly Muslims and Christians, by Hindu nationalists have increased.” She says she had made Modi aware of her concerns.
Merkel wrote that when she raised the issue with Modi, according to Merkel, Modi strongly denied it and insisted that India is and will remain a religiously tolerant country. Her denial was strongly opposed by the former German Chancellor, who said that unfortunately, the facts say otherwise. According to these facts, minorities in India are unsafe. She adds that her concerns still remain – after all, religious freedom is a core part of every democracy. Recalling her initial meeting with Modi in Germany in April 2015, Merkel said, “Modi liked visual effects, videos, photos. That is, he likes praise and photos in the media. Modi has used this strategy in his election campaigns, in which he gave speeches in a studio and projected his image live at more than 50 different locations, with thousands of people listening to him at each event. Modi used it extensively during the 2014 general elections.
About Dr. Manmohan Singh The former German Chancellor also spoke about her meeting with former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. She says that Manmohan Singh was “the country’s first non-Hindu Prime Minister” and that his “main objective was to improve the living standards of two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people who lived in rural areas.” Singh was a qualified international economist with extensive international experience. This figure was equivalent to 800 million people, which is 10 times the total population of Germany.
Angela Merkel wrote about Dr. Manmohan Singh – “I learned a lot from him during our discussions about the growing concerns of the rich countries. According to her, we thought that he would be very interested in our issues, but we were not ready. To pay much attention to him, Merkel writes – “I understood what the doctor said and started studying the challenges facing emerging countries.” The former German Chancellor told Merkel that rich countries do not think much about helping poor countries like India. She said that he was a capable Prime Minister and a world-class economist.
Dr. Manmohan Singh told Merkel about the cultural richness of his country with a history of more than 5,000 years. Under the Indian Constitution alone, 22 official languages have been recognized. Its diversity contributes to the unity of the country. In this respect, India is more like the European Union than its neighboring countries. Singh and he first met in 2006.
