'They are saying my petition is an attack on Hindu religion.' 'You pray in your home, there is no problem, but the school is a public institution run by government funds.'
'India's reputation is not and cannot be dependent on the whimsical opinions of some obscure foreign advisory committee packed with Hindu-phobic acolytes,' declares Vivek Gumaste.
A group of Hindus in Uttar Pradesh's Mahoba district has decided to observe Roza with their Muslim neighbours.
'The politics of Goa is moving around a sole entity, which is land.'
Scholars and students have cautioned that the proposed divisive and discriminatory changes would harm the country.
'One one hand, the BJP puts Uniform Civil Code as a goal in its manifesto, and on the other, it pushes massive discrimination against Hindus.' 'This is not sabka saath, sabka vikas. Rather it is "Haj ka saath, church ka vikas",' argues Sankrant Sanu.
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.
'Siddaramaiah was openly taking on the BJP's communal agenda, which very few non-BJP politicians do.'
'Now that the Ram mandir is done, we need to move on. And grapple with COVID-19, a sputtering economy, a belligerent China...' 'The temple may win a few more elections for the BJP, but by itself it won't solve the nation's growing problems of economic and social distress,' notes Virendra Kapoor.
The Padma Bhushan was conferred on 17 personalities including N Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, Krishna and Suchita Ella of Bharat Biotech, Cyrus Poonawalla, Satya Nadella, chairman of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai, chairman of Google.
Archbishop Anil Couto's instructions, though politically charged, are not unusual or unprecedented.
Internal strife and tribalism is endemic to Afghanistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Assam assembly on Friday passed a bill to regulate the slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle, notwithstanding the walkout staged by the opposition parties in protest against the government's refusal to forward the legislation to a select committee.
'Whom do I want to marry and what decisions I make for marrying the person I love are totally personal decisions, in which neither the State nor the courts have any right to interfere.'
'Anyone can come and anyone can go.' 'There is no ideology or vision that differentiates one party from another.'
Former Aligarh Muslim University student Sharjeel Usmani, accused of hurting religious sentiments with his comments at last week's Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune, will be arrested from whichever state he is in, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Wednesday.
'Mamata is campaigning hard and not giving the BJP a walkover.'
'Many times when Khalistan slogans are raised, it is from those who feel alienated, not because they want a separate state.'
This divisiveness is upsetting social cohesion and can throw the bright young people thronging to Bengaluru with billion dollar ideas in their creative minds off balance, warns Shekhar Gupta.
The Shankaracharya said the sadhus will begin their march to Ayodhya from Allahabad after Basant Panchami, which falls on February 10.
Is it a divine, sacrosanct university, a holy cow, prohibiting human intervention?
"Bhagwat has done national service by speaking the truth on what missionaries do," the Sena said.
A cartoon of Lord Ganesha depicting the tussle between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Cricket South Africa has outraged South Africa's Hindu community, which termed it a denigration of their faith.
'Ram Sene or Bajrang Dal were supposed to be fringe elements, but with the BJP in power, they have become mainstream elements.' 'The government is either keeping quiet or indirectly supporting them.'
'He was always opposed to a form of nationalism that was narrow, selfish and arrogant.' 'He will always remain a beacon of inspiration for freedom-loving people across the world and for movements of resistance against oppressive State power.'
Indians supposedly have the right to freedom, and the right to equality, which cuts across gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc, observes Devangshu Datta.
The state doesn't only have religious and spiritual significance, but also electoral significance as it is the last Yoga Day celebrations before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, reports Archis Mohan.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that meaning of Sanskrit 'shlokas' is a universal truth and merely because it is written in Sanskrit, it does not make it communal.
'Hinduism is not a religion, but a way of life, a philosophy.'
The citizens urged the central government to look into the ongoing protests with all seriousness and safeguard the democratic institutions of the country, and take stern action against those people behind them.
Meanwhile, noted artists, including Padma Shree awardee Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh and Surendra Nair have criticised the police action.
'We will talk to Muslim, Christian organisations and form a broad alliance so that every temple, church and mosque will have freedom to manage their affairs and not to be intervened upon.'
'It was more than ego.' 'It carried with it a sincere belief that he was the quintessence of the country, that the country's destiny was irrevocably intertwined with his destiny.' An excerpt from T J S George's The Dismantling of India: In 35 Portraits.
The Constitution is a terrific document, but it is also one that has suppressed the Hindu majoritarian sentiment. We are living through times when this suppression is being popularly rejected, notes Aakar Patel.
It is astonishing, even for many of us who may have wide exposure to music, to see how such world-class performers are so little known in their own land, notes Aakar Patel.
The VHP leadership notes that 'ghar wapsi' wasn't something started after the Modi govt took over. Archis Mohan reports
Joseph Cooper was carrying out religious propaganda in violation of Indian laws, it said.
Recent attacks on religious places led to a verbal clash in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
A church in the Cantonment area in Agra was allegedly vandalised by unknown miscreants in the wee hours of Thursday, triggering outrage among the members of the local Christian community.
