On June 26, for the likes of me, the music died. Any impression of potential change held forth by the outcome of the 2024 general election, was vaporised, reveals Shyam G Menon.
The submissions were made during the eighth day hearing in the case before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The Special Bench of the Allahabad high court is likely to pronounce the verdict on the Ayodhya title suit at 3.30 pm on Thursday, September 30.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The bench on October 16 had reserved the judgment after marathon hearing of 40 days.
The Union home ministry, from its North Block office atop the Raisina Hill in New Delhi, kept a 'constant and engaging' vigil across the country with central paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies and state police forces in toe.
'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.'
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Four persons, including a 53-year-old bedridden paralysed woman, died due to flooding after heavy rains in Nagpur, the police said on Saturday.
The statement of the 86-year-old leader was recorded in the court of Special Judge S K Yadav through video conference.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said he will attend the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in January if he is invited to the programme.
He will take oath on November 9, a day after incumbent CJI Justice Uday Umesh Lalit demits office on attaining the age of 65.
Earlier on Wednesday, the district court ruled that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in a cellar of the Gyanvapi Masjid, a significant development in the legal battle over the mosque adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
'The decision by this Hon'ble Court, whichever way it goes, will impact future generations.'
While the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the MLA and the Congress government, Shivakumar seeking to clarify, said no guarantee scheme will be stopped and it will be continued for five years.
Advani denied his involvement in the alleged conspiracy along with 'kar sevaks' to demolish the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. He pleaded he was completely innocent and was unnecessarily dragged in the case owing to political reasons.
Key infrastructure sectors -- from railways to power, and from coal to petroleum -- will not only be part of the achievements but promises too, as the BJP fights to get a third term at the Centre.
Rizvi along with some Mahantas from Ayodhya will also approach the Supreme Court before December 5 with a solution to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are among the top leaders participating in the meet, which is also expected to discuss the situation in the Kashmir valley
'India has moved on in other ways, but the common man in the streets still has a lot of links attached to religion. And till such a time there is a separation of religion from politics we will not be able to move on,' feels former Union home secretary Madhav Godbole.
The verdict in the Ayodhya case has evoked reactions from various quarters. We compile some of them here.
If Tamil Nadu voters preferred the DMK combine, it owed to the Modi-Annamalai combo's ideological battle which often crossed the line of political decency and also challenged 'Tamil pride', argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The PM who is first among equals, who has to listen to others, take their point of view into account and who would have to be a good manager'
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have announced that they will mark the day as Shaurya Diwas and Vijay Diwas (day of victory) and have asked the people to light earthen lamps as on Diwali.
He also accused the Congress of delaying a solution to the Kashmir issue for seven decades.
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."
Giving a clarion call to defeat the Mamata Banerjee-led party in West Bengal, the prime minister while addressing a mega rally in Siliguri said, "The road to oust the corrupt TMC government from West Bengal will open from the Lok Sabha polls."
The state government has sanctioned Rs 72.5 crore for large-scale purchase of 'lathis' to deal with unruly mobs in case they hit the streets in the wake of the Allahabad high court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute slated for September 24, a senior police officer told PTI
"If the Central government wants to establish communal harmony in the country, it has to become a party in the case," BJP vice-president Vinay Katiyar told media persons in Lucknow.
The educated, respectable and established Muslims voices, that were on the modernising side on the Shah Bano issue, are fighting on the opposite side now, mostly because they worry about Narendra Modi, observes Shekhar Gupta.
There can be no communal harmony unless Muslims forgo their claim on Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi, where there are temple-mosque disputes, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal said today and asked Sunni Central Board and All India Muslim Personal Law Board to take initiative.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The fresh initiative for settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, led by a former High Court judge, has been signed by more than 10,000 Hindu and Muslims.
By clinging to the past misdeeds of some Islamic rulers, present day Muslims are making reconciliation of communities an impossibility, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that even if one per cent chance of mediation exists in the politically sensitive land dispute matter, it should be done.
The latest petitions have been filed by Akhil Bhartiya Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Samiti and one Farooq Ahmed challenging the high court judgement, which the apex court had dubbed as "strange" as none of the parties had demanded partition of the land.
Booked in two cases for allegedly disturbing communal harmony and committing other electoral offences during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was on Monday granted bail by a special court for lawmakers in Sultanpur.
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
Anger cannot be an end in itself to Rahul Gandhi's politics -- it must instead catalyse a new political strategy, argues Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
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