Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh, whose book eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the Sangh parivar, was on Wednesday expelled from the BJP.
The Jinnah House figured in the joint press conference by Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri at the end of the external affairs minister's visit to Islamabad on October 4.
The BJP and its senior leader L K Advani may have closed the chapter on the Jinnah controversy, but for the VHP, a key member of the Sangh Parivar, the issue is not yet "clear". "Things have to be made clearer by him (Advani)," senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal said on Thursday.
Crucial reforms in Muslim personal law, especially laws related to inheritance and adoption, need to be initiated forthwith; historically speaking, without the State's backing, hardly has any reform taken place or allowed to prevail, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has said that the founder of Pakistan, Mohamed Ali Jinnah had hoped that India-Pakistan relations would be like the cordial US-Canada relations, and also had hankered nostalgically to return one day to his beloved Mumbai.
Delivering a thinly veiled message to Pakistan from its soil, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said activities across borders characterised by the 'three evils' of terrorism, extremism and separatism are unlikely to encourage trade, energy flows and connectivity.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party taking Jaswant Singh back into its fold, the Congress on Thursday said the opposition party should explain to the country whether it endorses his views on Pakistan founder M A Jinnah. "The BJP has become like a revolving door of a hotel. It throws out people outside at one time and brings them inside the next time," said party spokesman Manish Tewari. Tewari added that the BJP should give an explanation to the country on the issue.
Apparently reflecting their discomfort, no BJP leader today showed up at a function in which Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah was released and where his view that Nehru was responsible for the Partition was contested.
Saeed claimed, "Kashmiris had announced before the partition that it wanted to remain with Pakistan. But after partition India forcibly sent army to Jammu and Kashmir."
Lokmanya Tilak lived a life replete with contradictions, although he modified many of his positions later in life.
The former Deputy Prime Minister told PTI that his remarks on Jinnah had helped to bring back the spotlight back to Pakistan founder's address to the 1947 constituent assembly.
On a tour to the US, Gandhi told reporters in Washington that the Muslim League is a completely secular party and there is nothing non-secular about it.
"Is the current government a government for a particular community? Is it a government only for Hindutva?" Owaisi said.
A newspaper in Pakistan has reported that BJP Chief Advani was 'not involved' in the conspiracy to kill Jinnah.
A daily in Pakistan has reported that BJP Chief L K Advani was not involved in a conspiracy to kill Jinnah.
Lashing out at Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Rashid on Wednesday alleged that they have "destroyed" Kashmir.
Khan, 71, has been lodged at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on account of multiple cases against him.
They try to hide behind the smokescreen that these are works of fiction inspired by real events. So, you can pick and choose from facts and fictionalise to push the right triggers with your audience or appease the powers that be, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Gandhiji asked me if I had sufficient warm clothes in view of the coming cold season. I said yes. But he verified my statement by asking Miraben to search my bag to make sure. Such was Gandhiji.
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday called Mahatma Gandhi 'a great strategist' and said that the revered Indian leader knew the importance of utilising soft power against the brute forces during the freedom struggle.
Tamba was attacked by motorcycle-borne assailants at his residence in Sanant Nagar, a thickly populated area of old Lahore in the afternoon.
Several BJP leaders in the past have raised a demand for changing the name of the country from "India" to "Bharat".
With the kind of money and talent that has gone into making this movie, a really good biopic of a personality like Savarkar could be made. But this film is lost in polemics, as is the case with almost every biopic and period drama today, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
A delegation of Congress leaders met EC officials and raised several issues, including the use of pictures and large cut-outs of the prime minister in government buildings and colleges and demanded that those be removed to maintain a level-playing field in the upcoming parliamentary election.
'We could of course call ourselves the Alliance for Betterment, Harmony And Responsible Advancement for Tomorrow (BHARAT). Then perhaps the ruling party might stop this fatuous game of changing names'
'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.
Pakistan's Punjab police have booked former prime minister Imran Khan and 1,500 of his party workers for attacking and setting on fire a top army officer's house in Lahore.
There are a total of 12,611 establishments called enemy property, roughly estimated to be worth over Rs 1 lakh crore, in the country.
'...It is important for you to take a stand.' 'It is a sin to remain silent when the basic structure of the Constitution is being attacked.'
The festering dispute over the accession of Jammu and Kashmir stands out as one of the world's most volatile fault lines that divides regions, countries, societies, communities and ethnic groups, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs, on Sheikh Abdullah's 39th death anniversary.
The Bharat Ratna for him comes nine years after the honour was bestowed on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The two leaders together spearheaded the journey of the Jana Sangh and then the BJP for over five decades.
The flight was operating from Delhi to Doha in Qatar and was diverted to Karachi in Pakistan.
'There is a song that fits my father. It is from the Dev Anand film Hum Dono, which goes Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya...'
Siddharth Anand's artistry bespeaks an upbringing filled with GI Joes, plastic combat boots and plastic bayonets, fake punching noises and fake sounds of gunshots, rudely interrupted by an adult voice saying, 'Beta, all this is good, but try bringing in some feelings too', observes Sreehari Nair.
The ISI was taking no chances and wanted no repeat of Pulwama; it wanted to make it clear at a political level it was not involved with the revenge attack being planned, but was only giving India a friendly tip-off. A stunning excerpt from Ambassador Ajay Bisaria's Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan.
Citing sources within the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), the Geo News reported that the names of the PTI leaders and its party chief have been added for their involvement in the May 9 violence and desecration of martyrs' monuments.
Pratinav Anil is able to foresee some agency and assertion on the part of India's Muslims. His hope emanates from the citizenship rights movement of Muslims in 2019-2020, notes Mohammad Sajjad.
An alternate aircraft of Indian budget carrier SpiceJet flew to Dubai from Karachi's Jinnah International Airport on Tuesday night, ending a wait of nearly 11 hours for 138 passengers who got stranded there after taking off from New Delhi in the morning.
A Qatar Airways Delhi-Doha passenger plane was diverted to Karachi on Monday after it declared an emergency due to indication of smoke in the cargo hold, the airline said.
