The Bharatiya Shiksha Niti Aayog will study the present education system and suggest corrective steps to make it Bharat-centric. G Sreedathan reports
'The people of the state can be won over by love, and not by swords.'
Eminent Punjabi writer and Padma Shri winner Dalip Kaur Tiwana decided to return her award protesting "recurrent atrocities" on Muslims in the country, as another Kannada writer joined authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi Awards against "growing intolerance".
In the midst of a raging row over the conversions in Agra by Hindutva outfits, the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Friday favoured a strong law to stop forcible conversions.
'It is a great misfortune that the Nehruvian Stalinists of India have colluded with the grand project of demeaning and destroying Sanskrit. Today, the number of Sanskritists in India is low, and falling,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Rediff.com lists a few instances when BJP leaders and ministers shot their mouth off.
'What his minions do, we are not sure, but he has got to keep them under control. Pogroms against Muslims in India -- I don't think that is going to be his policy.'
During his visit, Mukherjee visited the hotbed of Madhesi protests Janakpur and met ex-servicemen of Gurkha regiments in Pokhra.
What does Pakistan mean for a young Indian? Devanik Saha attempts an answer.
This is just a brief reminder, dear fellow citizens, that none of us needs permission or sanction to be Indian, in whatever way we choose, as long as it doesn't break the law.
Cows are required for milk and as producer goods for breeding cows and bulls for the future.
Sharpening his attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Narendra Modi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused them of trying to usurp the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and recalled the Congress stalwart's description of the RSS as "a venomous organisation" which could "finish" the country.
Rajiv Malhotra's plagiarism may not be as horrifying as impersonating an exam candidate in Indore -- but they're both forms of cheating.
'In Kerala, if the Left had worked on stopping fascism the BJP would not have become a force today.'
'When you are returning your award you are commenting on the country and not the government.' 'Can we actually say that a vast majority of Indians have become communal? The data shows actually no. That is not true.' 'In religious terms India has a lot to teach the world because we are genuinely liberal, but in gender terms we have to learn lot from the West. In gender terms, we are terrible.'
In an interview to HarmonyIndia.org, the artist, who had famously said that he lived to paint and painted to live, spoke of what the 'bindu' meant to him, about his friend M F Husain and the legacy that he will leave behind.
Devdutt Pattanaik responds to the decision by Penguin to withdraw and pulp Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus: An Alternative History.
'The BJP has failed to protect cows.' Why doesn't the government say it is a government for cows, mandir and the Ganga?' 'Why don't they declare the cow as a national animal?
'This is the first time a majority ruling government is nominating a Dalit for President.' 'So, the moral credibility definitely will go with the BJP, particularly Narendra Modi.'
'We have Hindu values, Hindu customs, Hindu philosophy, Hindu way of looking at all religions as acceptable.' 'These are all great assets of India.'
G Sreedathan interviews Dinanath Batra, president of Siksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas and national convener of Siksha Bacho Andolan, who shot to fame after he was instrumental in getting American scholar Wendy Doniger's book on Hinduism pulped.
'The fabric of democracy is fraying,' says T V R Shenoy. 'It is being attacked not just by terrorists in Kashmir or by zealots in the North-East, but is being ripped apart even in Allahabad, in the Hindi heartland.'
'The strange thing about the Karnataka election is that the BJP looks more like the Congress of the past and vice versa.' 'Siddaramaiah has been able to out think the BJP almost every single day on every single issue.'
Can you even imagine the fear that must have passed through Kiran Rao's mind, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The public discourse surrounding the murder of Infosys techie Swathi begs for sanity. Sadly, there are no takers for it in Tamil Nadu as conspiracy theories -- some communally explosive -- keep cropping up. R Ramasubramanian reports.
'It is important to destroy, to undermine, to debunk the narrative of ISIS,' Olivier Roy -- one of the world's leading experts on radical Islam -- tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel in an exclusive interview.
The Hindu right-wing body in its mouthpiece taunts "liberals" protesting the Dadri lynching incident, asking what exactly is their idea of India.
The BJP's defeat in Delhi could turn into a larger national swing, but Prime Minister Modi and his party have enough time to tweak the party's policy agenda and project a more humble, secular, and inclusive image, say Ravi Agrawal and Harmeet Shah Singh
'He was getting weaker and weaker, but his mind was all there... He was quite a strict father, in many ways... He was quite a strict person, not as liberal as it was made out to be.' Rahul Singh, editor and columnist, reveals the Khushwant Singh few knew.
The only thing more dangerous than a killer who thinks he is acting to protect his faith or community is the killer who knows he is acting with the sanction of his faith or community
The hypocrisies of high-caste Hindus have cost their followers very dear. Millions have left their dharma, their great religion which boasts of the loftiest philosophical ideas, says Tarun Vijay.
'Muslim actors like Dilip Kumar thought they had to give themselves Hindu names to be acceptable. Was their caution justified?' 'My view is that Indians, of all faiths, are tolerant. Secular is a complicated word and I do not know if I can use it in this instance. Tolerance is something that is inherently Subcontinental.'
'Growing up in Karnataka, in middle-class and forward-caste background, Ambedkar did not enter our consciousness at all, I realised.' 'The 'exclusion' of sections of our society was not only physical; it was comprehensive in the sense that all aspects of their lives including the life of an exceptional intellectual and stalwart had been under-understood by people of my class, I thought,' says B S Prakash.
'My problem is that these people are calling themselves God. Godmen are becoming bigger than God.' Former Big Boss contestant Rahul Mahajan tell Syed Firdaus Ashraf why he made public photographs of Radhe Ma in a mini skirt.
Facebook's reaction to Barkha Dutt's child abuse proves we know absolutely nothing about rape.
'The Sanatan Sanstha does not believe in violence. The concept of violence and threatening people doesn't fit into our ideology and principles.' 'There are some people who are opposed to Hindu religion. They think propagating the tenets of the Hindu religion is a sign of backwardness.' 'While the RSS and Sanatan Sanstha propagate Hindutvavad and cultural nationalism, we do have our differences, which in a democratic society is absolutely normal and required.'
'Disturbingly, the dissenting judgment of the Supreme Court has raised doubts whether religion, race, caste, community, language etc can be separated from politics at all. It has rightly underlined that this question should to be addressed by Parliament rather than the Supreme Court,' says Dr Madhav Godbole, the former Union home secretary.
'Who is the government to decide about my religion?' 'We are governed by the Constitution. The Constitution has given me the independence to follow my religion.'
While the BJP believes that Muthalik will help the party secure more votes in northern Karnakata, many of the party's supporters in urban areas are uncomfortable with his induction, says Vicky Nanjappa
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