'When Hindus converted through inducements there was no hue and cry, but when reconversions took place, everyone cried foul. If re-conversions are bad, so are conversions.' 'Our government is not getting involved either in conversions or re-conversions. The BJP has nothing to do with it.' Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in a candid interview.
Gandhi said "cultural imperialism" of the BJP was not acceptable to the people of the country.
Strongly condemning the heckling of opposition chief ministers at events featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress on Thursday alleged that an "orchestrated" and "well-planned conspiracy by BJP and RSS" is on which is "hurting" the spirit of federalism.
Addressing a gathering at the Delhi border as the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Gandhi entered Delhi, he said, "They spread hatred, we spread love and embrace all Indians".
The Congress on Sunday gave a call to party leaders in poll-bound states to work with unity to ensure victory that will 'set the tone' for 2024 Lok Sabha polls even as it showed willingness to forge an alliance of 'like-minded' parties.
Amidst the fanfare over Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's plans to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary in Kolkata on January 23, his daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff has said that the organisation's ideology and the nationalist leader's ideas of secularism and inclusiveness are 'poles apart and do not coincide'.
The Narendra Modi wave seems to have reached the Bengal shores, indicated by the more than two-fold increase in the membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit.
Teen Murti Bhavan served as the official residence of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
If Kerala wants to sustain its room for independent thinking and talk back to Delhi when needed, it should put its finances in order. Or - if one takes the North East example - Kerala's political posturing may end up commensurate with its financial dependence on others, suggests Shyam G Menon.
The opposition leaders also accused the government of violating Constitutional norms by not inviting President Droupadi Murmu to the event.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has warned the people against the "communal designs" of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party and urged them not to lose their cool in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
A day after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani withdrew his resignation following the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief's call to him, the Sangh on Wednesday said that it is not interfering or managing the affairs of the right-wing party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh top brass on Tuesday held a meeting, lasting over five hours, to discuss issues of mutual concern but the prime ministerial candidate and the Ram temple at Ayodhya issues did not come up during the parleys.
Senior leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from Madhya Pradesh met officials in Indore following the arrest of a few people, allegedly linked with the Sangh, in Malwa region. Leading the delegation, BJP Member of Parliament Sumitra Mahajan, along with local Members of Legislative Assembly and RSS leaders, went to the Officers' Mess of Police on Sunday night to meet the NIA officials, party sources said on Monday.
Udayanidhi has handed over to the BJP one real issue to draw the line between it and the INDIA alliance, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Days after the turf war in the Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Janata party spilled out into the open, Leader of Opposition in state assembly Vasundhara Raje on Friday reached the capital and held meetings with top leaders of the party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Soon after she reached Delhi, BJP secretary (Organisation) Saudan Singh, who is the RSS linkman in the party, met the former chief minister at her residence.
Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Syed Kirmani was captured by the Gujarat police at Hyderabad airport.
ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare told PTI that the police have also taken into custody a person suspected to be involved in the killing of RSS leader Sanjith in the district in November last year.
His fresh attack came a day after he said the government is coming up with 'excuses' to stop the Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir yatra, which is currently in Haryana and will enter the national capital on Saturday.
The colourful rally galvanised the BRS workers who shouted slogans hailing the party-led regime's welfare schemes in Telangana and peppy political songs praised Rao's 'national' emergence.
"This river-like journey will persist and in this river you will not find any trace of hate or violence. There will only be love and brotherhood as this is India's history and DNA," Gandhi told the gathering.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who has often been accused of playing to the gallery on minority issues, on Tuesday accused Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party of spreading "blatant lies" and painting him as "anti Hindu".
'Where you change the law and then say, we are following the law.' 'The fact is, the law is not meeting any international standards.' 'How can you call UAPA or PMLA a law when you are guilty until proven innocent?'
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said the Narendra Modi led-NDA Government has formed a new definition of IPC, under which any opposition to the BJP and the RSS is biggest crime.
RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya, apparently referring to the Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra, described it as a "political gimmick" that will not serve its stated purpose of uniting masses.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has reiterated that there were no differences within the Bharatiya Janata Party and that its leaders were capable of sorting out differences.
Virtually giving credence to reports that top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Rajnath Singh may have to give up their posts, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday said they will decide on their role within the party.
Taking a dig at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said if the 'Iron Man' had become the nation's first prime minister then both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh would have been non-existent.
A veritable political `storm in a tea cup' has arisen over Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's assertions on Wednesday that all in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were "not bad" and there are many who "do not support the BJP".
Shah also attacked the Congress and said "the party was finished in the country due to corruption and family rule."
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that after fulfilling Bharatiya Janata Party's poll promise on Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya, work has begun in Mathura and Vrindavan as well.
With elections elsewhere in India showing that multi-pronged contests usually work to the BJP's favour, the party can gain if it hangs on stubbornly. In the meantime, any additional support helps. That is why the archbishop's comment attracted political traction in Kerala, observes Shyam G Menon.
If we accept that there is a challenge in Punjab today, any realistic progress can only be made if the rest of the country, especially the government and the ruling party, engage with this sense of grievance, points out Shekhar Gupta
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking 'constitutionally appropriate' action against Finance Minister K N Balagopal for making a speech 'undermining unity', a demand turned down by the CM.
All the 13 accused in a bomb attack on a house in 2000, in which three members of a family including a six-year old girl were injured, were found guilty by a local court in Kannur on Friday.The activists had assumed that some Congressmen were hiding in the house, a fall-out of the dispute between the rival Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress over electoral malpractices.the incident occurred during panchayat polls on September 27, 2000.
The Congress' central election authority on Thursday issued a notification for the All India Congress Committee president polls, setting the ball rolling for electing the successor to the longest-serving party chief Sonia Gandhi.
'Both the people have a perspective and are people of stature and people of understanding'
Let us contain this raging fire, this tsunami of hate, appeals Sonia Gandhi.
'According to the survey, ideological issues like Article 370 and Ayodhya received only 14 and 12 per cent voter-backing, respectively.' 'It could well imply that hardline Hindutva issues have only that much voter-purchase, compared to Modi's overall popularity of 52 per cent -- putting the man way above the mission,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amid the ongoing farmers' protest against the new farm laws, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said India's reputation has taken a 'massive hit' and its biggest strength, its soft power, has been 'shattered' by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
