'Savarkar was the closest the RSS had to a freedom movement icon, however flawed.' 'Indira Gandhi wasn't going to gift him to them.' 'And a non-career politician like Dr Singh understands it.' 'It is just that his party never listened to him,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Ignoring Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warning to the Bharatiya Janta Party leaders not to cross the 'lakshman rekha' with controversial remarks, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal on Wednesday claimed the reconversion programme was an ongoing process and asserted that it will continue by spreading love and on consent of such people.
Arrested in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, she was given a clean chit by the National Investigation Agency, but the trial court refused to discharge her from the case.
A group formed by controversial Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Yogi Adityanath --known for his interest in religious conversions dubbed "ghar wapasi" -- offered all possible help "including guns" to the Hindus of Dadri's Bisada village.
"We direct the government to either bring in a law or an ordinance (for the construction of the Ram temple). There will be no compromise on this," Ramanandacharya Hansdevacharya, the patron of the ABSS, said in his concluding remarks at the conclave.
Cameron, on the last leg of campaigning for the May 7 general election, also hailed Modi as a 'dynamic' leader who is 'taking India forward'.
With BJP workers staging agitations across the state demanding that Thol Thirumavalavan apologise for his remark allegedly denigrating women, the VCK cadres countered it by flash protests and they allegedly attacked saffron party office-bearers at Madurai.
Party insiders concede statements of the Raja kind have the potential to hurt the DMK's electoral chances in closely-fought seats in 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'India has always been a land of acceptance of diversity. But if the evangelical activities continue unabated, there is no doubt this will cause a backlash.' 'One exclusive ideology begets another. The hit list will spread. The more strident the evangelists, the more strident the voices for Ghar Wapsi will grow.'
'The Goddesses were a good example to depict how women were looked upon with so much respect which has gradually vanished somewhere.' 'People don't think or believe that whom they are worshipping are like the real women in their lives.'
The apex court said banning entry of women to Kerala's Sabrimala temple is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women.
Penguin Books India has decided to withdraw copies of United States Indologist Wendy Doniger's book "The Hindus: An Alternative History" following a court-backed settlement with a Delhi-based voluntary group which had objected to several "inaccuracies and biases" in it.
Virtually reopening its Hindutva judgement, the Supreme Court has decided to expedite hearing by a seven judge-bench for an authoritative pronouncement on electoral law categorising misuse of religion for electoral gains as "corrupt practices".
'The message from those in power is clear. Either agree with us or suffer the consequences'
'Modi is the first BJP leader to try to include Dalits in its fold.' 'But the rank and file of his party is backward and want to bash up Muslims and Dalits whenever they have a chance.'
'One has to move with the times to stay relevant.'
'If Rahul wants to pick up the sacred thread where his 'daadi' left it, especially when the BJP, which reduced his party to 44 in 2014, claims monopoly over Hinduism, it's smart politics.' 'Why cede your Gods to your rival?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
BJP's Sadhvi Prachi also asked all Hindus to have 4 children.
"There have been many stamps on Lord Ram, but this is the first of its kind stamp, which depicts different aspects of his life. This has not been done in the past. I am happy that I have got the opportunity to do this from the holy soil of Manas," he said.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T S Tirumurti, said on Tuesday that India condemns all forms of anti-semitism and all forms of discrimination on religious grounds anywhere in the world.
The Uttar Pradesh State Minority Commission on Sunday described the mass conversion of Muslims in Agra as 'an act of fraud and a dubious exercise which has no connection with the serious business of change of faith'.
Yechury recounted the non-violent traditions of the country citing the Maurya Empire's acceptance of the Buddhist philosophy.
Bhagwat said a sense of idealism is good and described himself not as 'anti-modern', but as 'pro-future'.
'Amit Shah and his fellow travellers need to realise that India was divided because of competitive communalism of forces like Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League, prodded, aided and abetted by the colonial power,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Indian claims to the Ram story and ownership could be challenged from more places than one, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The bench said it was only the woman who can decide about her religious identity by exercising her right to choice.
'In 2019, in Modi we have a leader who has not shied away from showcasing a robust and aggressive response to the Pulwama and Uri attacks,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Gandhi was ambivalent about the RSS; the Sangh, for their part, actively distrusted him.'
Pranav Pandya, head and mentor, All World Gayatri Pariwar, says he's not inclined to accept
Count among The Light of Asia's many, many admirers over 132 years: Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, Nehru and Ambedkar, Tolstoy and Kipling, Yeats and Eliot, Alfred Nobel, Dmitri Mendeleev and C V Raman. Jairam Ramesh reveals why he decided to write a book on Edwin Arnold, who wrote The Light of Asia.
'Tipu Sultan may have had his flaws, but that does not mean he can be axed from textbooks.' 'Besides, if it is Tipu today, who will it be tomorrow?' asks Shuma Raha.
Hitting out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 'Didi-Bhaipo' jibes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday challenged him to contest an election against her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and then think of fighting her.
'The ruling provides a Constitutional template, it draws boundaries, and there is this expectation that henceforth political parties will not make crude appeals to religion for electoral gains.'
Devdutt Pattanaik, who has simplified the ancient Indian scriptures for millions of readers, highlights what our scriptures have to say about homosexuals and transgenders.
The contemporary problem with the BJP in Tamil Nadu is that it has been trying hard to package the DMK especially as anti-god and anti-Hinduism, and seeking it to link to Periyar and M Karunanidhi, and by extension to Stalin, the latter's son and successor to the party mantle. Their hope was to consolidate the perceived 'pro-god, pro-religion votes', which they saw returning to the fold post-MGR, post-Jayalalithaa. But no such substantial vote-bank existed even in Periyar's time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The green panel ordered removal of iron grills in front of the ice stalagmite resembling the 'Shiva Linga' so that devotees could get a better view of it and said there should be no noise pollution near the sacred structure.
'More so, if it is their daughters wanting to marry someone of their own choosing.' 'Children are seen as property. That's why the problem is so messy.' For young Indians wanting to marry outside their religion, expressing their right to love and live as they choose is becoming increasingly hazardous.
Our Hindutva fanatics are actually making Hindu society more like Islamists are changing Muslim societies, says Shivam Vij.
'A little old man who has renounced personal possessions, walking with bare feet on the cold earth in search of a great human ideal'.
