There are several books that Aakar Patel wishes were being written but aren't. Fortunately, there's plenty coming up this year that he's eagerly awaiting.
Army gave three good reasons why it could not build the bridges for Ravi Shankar's event. Defence ministry overruled the army's objections, reveals Ajai Shukla.
The Vivekananda Yoga University was jointly launched on Tuesday by minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan and chairperson of the standing committee on external affairs P P Chaudhary during a virtual event held at the Consulate General of India in New York.
Seen as one-of-its-kind event, the festival offers a platform for spiritual and religious leaders, politicians, business leaders, peacemakers and artists to spread the message of global peace and harmony in diversity.
Home Minister also said CDs of Naik's speeches are being examined and asserted that the government will not compromise on the issue of terrorism.
'Prince' Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy likes to introduce himself as a great-great grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar.
The main event, which is being held at Capitol Complex, is likely to be attended by around 30,000 people out of the total 1,20,000 who have registered themselves.
He claimed that his foundation has already received invitation from Australia, Mexico and other nations for holding the next edition of the event.
He launched the "cleanliness is service" exercise to push for greater public participation in one of his government's centrepiece programmes launched on October 2, 2015.
The green tribunal noted that the Art of Living would have to pay a Rs 5 crore penalty and develop the entire area into a biodiversity zone.
'A small number of players like Sadhguru and Ravi Shankar claims to possess high wisdom attributes, allowing them to unplug from the game, like in The Matrix,' says Ashish Sharma.
Following Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam's death, Twitter was flooded with tributes to the late president.
Archis Mohan tells us how the event came to be celebrated on June 21
The expert panel has suggested that there would be two components of rehabilitation plan -- physical and biological, and they would cost Rs 28.73 crore and Rs l3.29 crore respectively, besides additional ancillary expenses.
The tribunal also refused to give an urgent hearing on a fresh plea seeking stay on the three-day event on the banks of river Yamuna from Friday, alleging that AOL has not taken permissions from the competent authority as directed by the tribunal.
Concerns have been raised about the likely damage to the environment caused by holding it on the flood plains of the already polluted river in east Delhi.
Voicing concern over violent non-state actors controlling large territories across the world and unleashing "barbaric violence", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that ideologies should give way to dialogue to resolve conflicts.
The letter says Maoists want to assassinate Modi the way former PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed, say Maharashtra CM and the state police.
'When the government says the army will make a bridge, what does it mean?' 'If this is not stopped here, then there is no telling where and for what all the army will be employed or deployed in the future,' says Veenu Sandhu
No untoward incident has been reported from the district over the past three days.
The Art of Living case will go down as a test for environment activism in the country, notes M Rajaque Rahman.
The water resources ministry told the NGT panel it has not granted permission for 'World Cultural Festival' being organised by Art of Living foundation.
Ahmednagar police stopped the activists of 'Ranaragini Bhoomata Brigade' protesting against the alleged gender bias by the temple authorities, led by Trupti Desai, at Supa, about 70 km from the temple premises, foiling their bid to offer worship at the sacred platform.
The bench directed that the mediation will be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and the process should start within a week from Friday.
The Green Panel also questioned the building up of pontoon bridge by the army on river Yamuna for the festival, and asked the Delhi Development Authority counsel as who gave the permission for setting it up.
The disagreements over what needs to be done on floodplains allows for illegal takeover by land mafia till nothing is left, observes Sunita Narain
'What the BJP will have to ensure in order to score an ideological victory is to demonstrate not only its commitment to the rule of law -- which is the first prerequisite -- but to introduce a sense of compassion,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The strategies that the gurus adopted to build their successful business empires over the past two decades could hardly be adopted by businesses that openly claim to be businesses, points out Somasekhar Sundaresan.
'Few practitioners of yoga doing the Surya Namaskar, including lakhs of Americans and Europeans, see it as a form of worshipping the sun. They do it because it is good exercise.' 'In my view Muslim groups need to be more flexible on such things and not present their problem in terms that are confrontational.' 'Having said that, are they over-reacting? The history and the background of the government and its ministers would lead us to believe otherwise,' says Aakar Patel.
The stage is now set for the controversial three-day cultural event opening on Friday on the Yamuna flood plains even as Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar struck a defiant note that he will not pay Rs 5 crore fine imposed by Green Tribunal and would rather go to jail.
'The locals want a permanent solution to the perennial Mandir-Masjid issue. They have realised political parties will lose relevance if a temple is built.'
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing the Muslim parties in the case, tore up a pictorial map.
Yoga, wellness, meditation, Ayurveda, software and ... toothpaste - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has successfully merged business with spirituality
It refuted the allegations that its three-day mega event had damaged Yamuna floodplains and hinted that it may approach the Supreme Court against the NGT's order which asked it to pay Rs 5 crore as compensation.
The foundations of the army's own peculiar secularism are potentially being destabilised
It is mischievous to imply that the proposed bill to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists from other nations implies that Muslims and Christians are not Indians, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Here was an Indian like you and me, who reached the country's highest office without compromising on his integrity or values. Here was a politician who was not a Muslim, or Tamil, or a boatman's son -- but an Indian president, who opened his office to all Indians, says Sriram Karri.
It was almost 10 years ago that the idea of a Yoga Day was mooted by some NGOs, but it had no takers till Prime Minister Narendra Modi realised its potential, probably at the instance of Sri Sri Ravishankar, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'The irresistible charm of Indian politics is it can always throw up surprises -- even when it looks as predictable as in Tamil Nadu,' discovers Shekhar Gupta.
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