Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday visited the Akshardham temple here with his wife Akshata Murty and said it is not only a place of worship but also a landmark that portrays India's values.
From the 13th century Konark temple of Odisha to the ancient Nalanda University in Bihar, the G20 Summit venue in New Delhi has put a spotlight on the rich architectural heritage of India.
While that created a stir so did the decision on his penultimate day at work with the Supreme Court rechristening its summer vacation "partial court working days", an issue that has led to criticism that the apex court judges enjoyed long breaks.
He hinted that the same hue and cry is not made about 1984 riots not being in textbooks.
This is Modi's second visit to the temple since he became the prime minister in 2014.
'Bharat is the core value that has to be lived by and if you deny it, then the people will discard you.'
BIf you know this BJP, it will now go forward to Jharkhand and Maharashtra as if June 2024 never happened, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who has been part of several landmark Supreme Court judgements such as scrapping the electoral bonds scheme and upholding abrogation of Article 370, will be sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India on Monday.
After bringing in his 81st birthday with fans at midnight, Amitabh Bachchan stepped out in the afternoon once again to greet them.
Rajesh Karkera/Rediff.com captures scenes from Ayodhya hours before the pran prathishta ceremony.
A senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader has blamed an 'ecosystem of former diplomats, bureaucrats, politicians, and think tanks' for creating a 'bogeyman' to mislead the Indian establishment into believing that Indo-Bangla relations would deteriorate without the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League.
P Varun Raj, the 24-year-old Indian student who was stabbed at a fitness centre in the United States state of Indiana over the weekend, continues to be in a critical condition and is on a life support, sources familiar with his ongoing treatment said.
Addressing reporters at his residence soon after the meeting ended, Chowdhury said six names came up before the panel for the selection of the two ECs and the names of Sandhu and Kumar were finalised by a majority of members of the high-powered panel.
India had been striving for long to get a UNESCO tag for this cultural site located in Birbhum district.
A student of IIT-Benares Hindu University, Varanasi, was allegedly molested and stripped by three motorcycle-borne men, who also recorded a video of the act, near her hostel, the police said on Thursday.
'When the bombing happened in the Taj Mahal hotel in 2008, that was a very sad moment, but he really took care of the people, took care of everybody and that was when you saw some of his best moments.' 'There are some things which we will never forget. That is when the best of a person comes out.'
Reaching out to Dalits and backward classes, the administration of the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirupati has launched several initiatives for the community including training them in performing temple rituals.
Occasional lovers' tiffs have marked the history of RSS-BJP relations. To think that Nagpur will bring about any change in leadership is a misreading of both its intent and its power, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Akhilesh Yadav's stock rose dramatically on Tuesday with his Samajwadi Party cutting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to size in Uttar Pradesh.
Asked about the BJP's claim that its performance in southern states will be exemplary, Tharoor said, "The claim of an 'exemplary' performance is yet another product of the BJP's propaganda mill."
During the Rath Yatra, Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra are carried from their home temple to another temple, located in what is believed to be their aunt's home.
'When the Babri Masjid was demolished, we didn't take permission from anyone.'
'What my Labour government will seek with India is a relationship based on our shared values of democracy and aspiration. That will seek a free trade agreement (FTA), we share that ambition, but also a new strategic partnership for global security, climate security, economic security'
On the night of July 5, the Tigers launched their first kamikaze operation. Miller took the wheels of the explosive-packed truck, smiled at everyone as he turned the ignition key and drove it slowly towards the Sri Lankan military camp. A few moments later all of Jaffna heard a thunderous explosion that brought the complex crashing down in clouds of dust. Miller had given birth to a deadly tactic that Prabhakaran would employ time and again with devastating consequences to Sri Lanka -- and India. A fascinating excerpt from M R Narayan Swamy's must read new book, The Rout Of Prabhakaran.
The fundamental construct of India's neighbourhood policy still needs to be what Vajpayee postulated, Manmohan Singh embraced, and Modi energised. It's just that we need to junk domestic politics and excessive religiosity, while acquiring much humility and a renewed respectfulness towards our neighbours, recommends Shekhar Gupta.
"Bapu, I am here today not as a Prime Minister, but as a Hindu," said Sunak, opening his address at the gathering.
Although the BJP has never been ballistic about the BJD and Narendra Modi has avoided being critical of Naveen Patnaik, the BJP is optimistic that the party can improve its electoral fortunes in Odisha on its own, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Chief Minister-designate Mohan Yadav, an OBC leader and three-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, started his political career when he was a student and rose to become higher education minister of Madhya Pradesh where he announced to make Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas as an optional subject in colleges in 2021.
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
The Sri Ramakrishna Universal Temple has relocated to the Chicago suburb of Homer Glen, honouring the memory of the historic speech made by Swami Vivekananda in the city, 115 years ago.
Nationhood is constituted by people who share a "common sense of their history" and a "common vision of their future", National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said as he released an 11-volume book series that charts different phases of the history of ancient India and its accomplishments.
In the last 9 years, the BJP govt has marked some anniversaries and events with more zeal than Congress-led governments.
An entire nation waited, praying and hoping fervently, as the countdown to touch down on the moon wound to a slow close on Wednesday with many thousands gathering in schools, places of worship and elsewhere and scientists doing last minute checks to ensure Chandrayaan-3 makes a soft landing on the lunar south pole.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday claimed that work on the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya would start before this year-end.
Amid protests outside the Delhi University, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy went ahead with a seminar on the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya where he asserted that nothing will be done forcibly or against the law.
Heavy rains have battered Himachal Pradesh since Sunday, triggering landslides in Shimla's Summer Hill, Krishna Nagar and Fagli.
In an interview, he recalled how Hashim Ansari, one of the original litigants in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, took him to the mosque on his bicycle.
Utkarsh Mishra's impressions of the Narendra Modi roadshow in Varanasi.
There are several other famous temples across India that disallow non-Hindus to enter their place of worship, Rediff.com lists some of them.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
