As the campaign peaked, AAP leaders evidently realised they had to deflect their chief opponent's attempts to polarise the electorate over religious identity, explains David Devadas.
'I know from my two brothers and many cousins and friends how difficult it is to be an Indian male,' novelist Samina Ali tells Arthur J Pais.
The one-minute-long ad features a young Hindu girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, who chooses to get stained in Holi colours in order to protect her young Muslim friend who has to go to the nearby mosque to pray. The advertisement ends with its classic tagline, 'Daag achche hain' (stains are good).
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.
'We have gathered the ECG details from different stages of Gandhiji's life and recreated his heartbeat on the digital medium. This will be a very interesting feature for the public,' says museum director A Annamalai.
'Gujaratis need not be ashamed of the lack of martial tradition.' 'They contribute to their country in other ways.' 'And, of course, they can also claim that while they may not have produced many martyrs, they produced the greatest one: Gandhi.'
'Certainly if Advani had agreed to Vajpayee in sacking Modi, then we would never have been talking of Modi today.'
The mohalla committee movement in Mumbai celebrated its 25th anniversary last weekend. The movement, which was born in the wake of the horrific Mumbai riots of 1992-1993, has played an important role in ensuring that Hindu-Muslim riots do not recur in the Maximum City.
While, Mahasabha plea seeks 'limited review' of the verdict, another review plea has been filed by activists.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday decided to launch a nationwide campaign against making 'Surya Namaskar' and Yoga compulsory in schools.
Aseem Chhabra picks Indian and other South Asian gems at the Toronto International Film Festival.
'We have finished that fear.'
Addressing BJP's campaign rallies for the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly elections at Pune, Satara and Parli, Modi also said that despite a lot of talk in the last 70 years, it was only his government which dared abrogate Article 370.
The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has objections to Totally Siyappa and its dialogues.
The Congress general secretary was joined by leaders like Ahmed Patel, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Randeep Singh Surjewala, besides hundreds of party workers at the India Gate on Monday in a show of solidarity with the students from Jamia Millia Islamia and several other universities across the country protesting the contentious amended citizenship law.
The promise of achhe din is only meant for the PM's industrialist friends and not for the poor, said the Gandhi scion.
As Mumbaities bids adieu to Lord Ganesha on the final day of the festival, Rediff's Hitesh Harisinghani and Satish Bordes speak to lifeguards of city's beaches.
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
The participants lauded the government and the people for ensuring harmony after the apex court verdict on Saturday.
Taking on the Adityanath government over handling of protests against the amended Citizenship Act, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said it has "crossed all limits of inhumanity" and claimed party worker Sadaf Zafar was arrested on "baseless" charges.
'The government's job is to enable people to live together, not tear them apart.' 'It is supposed to create spaces to work, live and survive -- this country is struggling and this government is saying you have no right of being.' 'It wants to declare human beings illegal. It is the most bizarre nonsense in the world.'
'This is what Hindu Rashtra looks like, which has been enabled by conditions of democracy.'
'Both Pavan Varma and Prashant Kishor questioned the party president in a public forum.' 'That is why we had to show them the door.'
'A perception has been built in our country that whatever Modi says you cannot challenge that.'
The party hopes that the multiple road projects, schools, canals, and water projects which have come up in the Meo-Muslim-dominated area will be able to sway the votes in its favour.
Mounting pressure on the Modi government to act against journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik for meeting 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Bharatiya Janata Party ally Shiv Sena on Wednesday said the Centre cannot just shrug off its responsibility in the matter.
'China was a relationship from which Mr Modi had expected the most it seems.' 'It showed in a string of summits, and somewhat breathless celebration of Xi Jinping.' 'It was hasty and simplistic,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Shia Waqf Board is drafting the terms and conditions of a mutual agreement.
'Amit Shah needs to understand that we are not against Hindus. But we need to preserve our ethnic character.'
As the countdown to her big day begins, we look at her bridal avatars on reel and ramp.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday slammed Narendra Modi for his statement vowing to cleanse Parliament from criminal elements, saying it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Delhi was just one riot. Add Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and you can count a few scores dead. It could, regrettably, be just the beginning of a very long, dark phase for India, notes Shekhar Gupta.
In the shock after Nathuram Godse murdered Mahatma Gandhi that January evening 72 years ago today, a young American diplomat rushed to capture the assassin. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel traces the memorable life of Herbert Reiner, who History has sadly relegated to a footnote.
'The biggest danger is that majoritarianism is getting normalised, insidiously and overtly... We are bringing the worst, not the best in us... We are looking for new enemies - Muslims, urban Naxals, tukde tukde gang, some enemy or the other which keeps this majoritarian wheel turning,' says journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
'As we reach 2022 we are creating a very new, different India where the Citizenship Amendment Act will be passed, NRC will be pushed through, Article 370 scrapped...'
'Modi and BJP have fooled us enough by creating a Hindu-Muslim divide. Our anger is about jobs and farmers getting a good price, but Shah needs to be taught a lesson for betraying us.'
The Shiv Sena also demanded that those who allowed the concert to take place should be booked for anti-national activities.
Observing that Hindu-Muslims ties are under "severe test" lately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday appeared to target Narendra Modi as he asked the countrymen to be vigilant of those who work against India's secular thought by attempting to "redefine secularism".
The AAP won in 62 with a total vote share of 53.58 per cent. The BJP recorded victory in eight seats, receiving 38.49 per cent of the total votes. The Congress could not even manage a single seat and ended with 4.27 per cent vote share.
'He always avoided eating non-vegetarian food in presence of his deputies if they were fasting for the month of Shravan.' 'There were no Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Swaminarayan festivals he would forget.' 'He was a conservative Muslim and therefore could get along well with conservative Hindus.'
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