Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will create history when he addresses the People's Majlis -- the 77-member Maldivian Parliament -- sometime on Saturday after 11.45 am local time (IST 12.15 pm). He will be the first head of state to have addressed the Majlis in its 78-year-old existence. Majlis Speaker Abdullah Nashid had formally invited the Indian prime minister to address the Majlis during the latter's visit to attend the 17th SAARC Summit that concluded on Friday.
"People are being beaten up if they do not say 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Vande Mataram.' These incidents are not going to stop. Only Muslims and Dalits are being targeted. There are organisations behind such incidents and all of them are linked to the Sangh Parivar," he said while speaking to media persons.
Interestingly, the Muslim representation in West Bengal assembly has dropped this time when compared to what it was in 2016, even as members of the community voted en masse for the Mamata Banerjee camp.
"We have to move together. We have to take Azadi (freedom), things that we don't get by asking, we have to take it by force, remember it," the AIMIM leader can be purportedly heard saying in Hindi.
In a discussion in Lok Sabha on the COVID pandemic, members called for ban on international flights in view of the outbreak of the Omicron strain and demanded that the government 'accept responsibility' for deaths of lakhs of people during the outbreak.
The hijab-row triggered protests in Karnataka spread across the state on Tuesday, with campuses witnessing 'conflict-like' situations marked by stone-pelting incidents, use of force by police and the Muslim girls standing their ground for wearing the headscarves, prompting calls for peace and calm both by the government and the high court, which is now looking into the students' plea for their right to their hijab.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief said that even if the bill is passed by Parliament, he will "knock on all doors" in the country and keep his point of view in front of the people.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".
With the election results on a knife's edge earlier in the day, many thought AIMIM could play a key role in the formation of the next government in case there was a hung assembly, having captured a sizeable number of seats in the state's Seemanchal region, which was being seen as a stronghold of the grand opposition alliance.
The main contest is between the BJP, which has ruled the six corporations for last several terms, and the main opposition Congress.
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore witnessed history being written when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the Maldivian parliament -- the first foreign dignitary to do so since it came into being in 2009
Protests broke out in some states on Friday, including Delhi's Jama Masjid and stone-petling at policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj and Saharanpur, over the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad by two now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries with demonstrators in Jharkhand injuring a few policemen while authorities in Jammu imposed a curfew in few areas and parts of Kashmir observed a shutdown.
In the backdrop of the ongoing farm protests, back into public consciousness in the aftermath of the recent Lakhimpur Kheri episode, smaller parties are expected to not only enliven the election theatre, but also queer the pitch for the Opposition.
Political analyst and former MLC Prof Nageshwar said that by frequently visiting the temple the BJP is trying to polarise votes which unfortunately MIM also wants.
Official sources told PTI that Speaker of the Peoples' Majlis Abdullah Shahid has sent a formal invitation to the prime minister to address the Majlis during his official visit to Maldives for the two-day SAARC Summit on November 10-11, which has been accepted.
The TRS emerged victorious in the Telangana assembly elections on Tuesday, bagging 88 seats out of the 119-member assembly.
In a first, seat number 64 of coach B5 in the Kashi-Mahakal Express, that connects three Jyotirlingas in two states, had been turned into a mini-temple devoted to Lord Shiva.
The parties also said that the decision has come in late and had the Modi government shed its 'arrogance earlier' and repealed the laws opposed by farmers, a number of precious lives lost during the nearly year-long agitation could have been saved.
Prime Minister Modi will be conferred with the Maldives' highest honour "Rule of Nishan Izzuddeen".
The Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and some smaller parties will contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls together, and an announcement in this regard would be made soon, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday.
Demonstrators took to the streets to protest against what they called the rigged election in which Pakistan ruling party is said to be winning, and erected barricades to block the movement, Dawn reported.
Senior state BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde don't find a place in the list, which instead has lesser-known faces like Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade.
The pirzada said that the newly launched outfit might contest state elections from all 294 assembly seats.
The GMC poll was being seen as a litmus test for the BJP in the backdrop of its sudden and surprising decision to change the state's chief minister and the entire cabinet recently, ahead of the state Assembly polls due next year.
As results pour in for the four states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam -- and one Union Territory -- Puducherry - here's a glimpse at the leaders who are trailing and those who are leading.
"We got a lot of confidence from our success in Bihar, and we will continue that momentum," Owaisi told reporters after their meeting in Lucknow.
'They tell us that we have kept our women in the front. Only the lionesses have come out and you are already sweating. You can understand what would happen if all of us come together'
Though the run-up to the poll saw a high pitched campaign by the parties, the turnout of the voters on December 1 was an unimpressive 46.55 per cent (34.50 lakh) out of the total 74.67 lakh voters.
Noting that CAA was brought in on humanitarian grounds, Union minister G Kishan Reddy said some political parties were demanding that citizenship be given to Muslims of those countries also.
The Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal MPs, including his daughter Misa Bharti and Manoj Jha, also staged a protest at Mahatma Gandhi's statue inside the Parliament complex and contended that despite being the chief opposition party in Bihar and the single largest party in the Assembly, it was not invited.
The ethics committee of Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly will make necessary recommendations to Speaker Nadendla Manohar for initiating disciplinary action against Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi over the alleged "hate speech" he delivered in Adilabad district.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, president, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, a non-political body of prominent Muslim organiastions, and Lateef Mohammad Khan, general secretary, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Hyderabad discuss hate speeches and their repercussions, in an interview with Vicky Nanjappa.
Bhim denotes Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar, while Mim denotes the letter 'M' in the Urdu alphabet; the party used the slogan effectively in the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections
A local court in Andhra Pradesh on Monday extended till February 5 the judicial remand of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi, accused of sedition and criminal conspiracy for his "hate speech."
The Majlis Mashawarat, an amalgamation of several separatist groups, on Sunday issued the weekly protest calendar in support of their demand for handing over of mortal remains of Mohammad Afzal Guru and Mohammad Maqbool Bhat to their families.
Like the last time, Ghulam Nabi Azad is believed to have taken the lead in preparing and despatching the letter this time too.
Most exit polls have predicted a clear victory for the BJP both in Maharashtra and in Haryana, even though they have differed in their projection on the number of seats.
The party's decision to pullout from the Centre and the Andhra government will spell big trouble for the Congress. Mohammed Siddique reports
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Editor in chief of the popular Urdu daily, Siasat, Zahid Ali Khan, says that the speech was a desperate attempt to garner Muslim votes.
The Allahabad high court on Monday asked the district administration of Allahabad to explain the rationale behind repeatedly denying permission to All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi for addressing public rally in the city.
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