The five-state assembly elections are seen as a now-or-never, no-holds battle for the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress has been in the crosshairs after demeaning remarks on Ranaut and Mandi were posted on the social media handles of its leaders Supriya Shrinate and H S Ahir.
'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
Shah made the announcement while addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly constituted Assam Police Commando battalions in Guwahati.
'This is an emotional issue and cannot be resolved by law alone.' 'This can be resolved only by creating trust again.' 'So much bloodletting has taken place, there is no point in going on and on.' 'Let us sit together and negotiate'
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh virtually ruled out any enactment of law for building the much debated Ram temple in Ayodhya on Sunday.
On the eve of 22nd anniversary of Babri mosque demolition, the temple town has turned into a fortress with nearly 10,000 security personnel deployed amid calls by Muslim outfits to mark the day by hoisting black flags even as Hindu bodies seek to commemorate it.
The high court has dismissed the Gyanvapi mosque management committee's appeal.
Is it is necessary to play divisive politics to succeed in the next general elections? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
'How can someone who has never been associated with the movement and never had darshan of Ram Lalla mediate on the matter of temple construction? We have gone to jail for it, faced house arrest and have been fighting court cases. Sri Sri does not qualify to mediate on the matter.'
Security has been stepped up across Uttar Pradesh to check any law and order problem that may arise after the court verdict on Ayodhya title suits is pronounced on September 24.
Prayers were performed in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi on Wednesday night following court orders allowing the resumption of a practice said to have been discontinued three decades back, Kashi Vishwanath temple trust president said.
Two main litigants of the Ayodhya title suit case, Mahant Gyan Das and Hashim Ansari, on Friday said they would put forth a formula before the Supreme Court to resolve the vexed issue.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, which started the day-to-day proceedings on August 6 after mediation proceedings failed to find an amicable solution to the vexatious dispute, has revised the deadline for wrapping up the proceedings and has fixed it on October 17.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the proceedings before the Allahabad high court on suits related to the Sri Krishna Janambhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute, saying it will not be fair to interfere with the high court order without hearing both the sides.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
'The Congress is trying to reinvent itself -- the caste census demand, OBC emphasis, the anti-corporate thrust, especially on Adani etc -- all this is not standard Congress strategy.'
The litigants and their counsels -- altogether over 50 people -- met the three-member mediation panel on the Avadh University premises in Faizabad.
In his report, Justice Liberhan said the senior police officers were at hand to ensure that their men toed the line and that the demolition of the disputed structure was allowed to go ahead with "military precision as orchestrated by the leaders present at the spot and carried out by their henchmen."
The 74-year-old senior advocate had given up practice following his courtroom spat with then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
Six decades and more later, we are now captives of our identities. Every poll is based on elaborate calculations of electability of candidates on the basis of their castes and other narrow definers. That, along with voter promiscuity, is what defines our political culture, which remains stubbornly resistant to any change, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Ayodhya attackers get 14-day judicial remand
In a series of restrictions, district magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha on Saturday ordered against the use of social media to "insult" deities or to install idols and hold processions related to Ram Janmabhoomi.
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
During initial investigation, the CBI has found at least six files might be buried under a heap of official papers stored in the record room, they said.
'Modigate is snowballing into a huge thing with the electorate. The BJP is in for huge punishment by the electorate.'
He also sought to know why Modi had not visited Ayodhya in the past four-and-a-half years, after becoming the prime minister.
The transmogrification of Prime Minister Modi to Saint Modi began with the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. By identifying himself with Lord Ram, Modi raised himself in popular imagination to a saintly person.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court to nominate two additional district judges within ten days as observers to deal with the upkeep and maintenance of the disputed Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.
'Hindus have fought for almost 500 years for the land and today our dream has been realised.'
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and P S Narasimha made the important observation during an hour-long hearing of the Gyanvapi mosque dispute and said that it has dealt with provisions of the Places of Worship Act in its 2019 Ayodhya verdict and section 3 does not expressly bar ascertaining of the religious character of the place of worship.
The oldest litigant in the Ayodhya title suit case, Mohammad Hashim Ansari, has claimed a threat to his life, saying people playing politics over the issue were plotting to kill him. "When I started to talk about peace with Mahant Gyandas Ansari (president of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad), those doing politics on this issue felt their shops will get closed and are issuing threats and plotting to eliminate me," Ansari claimed
The Supreme Court refused to stay Allahabad high court's December 14 order which allowed the primary survey of the Shahi Idgah complex adjacent to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura by a court-monitored three-member team of advocate commissioners.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute by a three-member panel comprising of Justice Kalifulla, advocate Sriram Panchu and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar. The panel has been given eight weeks by the Supreme Court to arrive at a conclusion and four weeks to give a status report. Here's all you need to know about the panel of mediators:
The Samajwadi Party government went overboard in deploying nearly 10,000 policemen to patrol the streets of Ayodhya to prevent the VHP from carrying out its 84-kosi parikrama, reports Sharat Pradhan
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani felt 'vindicated' about his Ayodhya 'rath yatra' in the wake of the Allahabad high court verdict and preferred a negotiated settlement for building a Ram temple at the place where the makeshift now stands.
Attorney General K K Venugopal has refused his consent for initiating criminal contempt of court proceedings against Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar for her alleged 'derogatory and scandalous' statements against the Supreme Court over the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid case verdict.
The meeting is seen as part of efforts by the RSS and the BJP to reach out to the Muslim community and send out a message of peace and harmony.
"We need more people who do not have a direct interest in the Ayodhya title suit coming up to fight the case out in the Supreme Court to clear the misconception that my client has been set up by someone to defer the verdict," Prashanth Chandra, senior counsel, who represented Ramesh Chandra Tripathi at the High Court and the Supreme Court, told rediff.com.
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