Expressing serious concern over "two distinct voices" that have emerged "louder" after the Gujarat election, the prime minister said Hindutva was being projected by "some people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner."
Manmohan Singh represented the finest aspects of India, asserts Aakar Patel.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched a scathing attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks on B.R. Ambedkar in Parliament. Siddaramaiah said Shah would have been a "Gujari" (scrap dealer) if there wasn't Ambedkar's Constitution. He also criticized Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for not taking action against Shah for his comments. The Congress leader further accused the BJP and Sangh Parivar of hating Ambedkar and the Constitution. Siddaramaiah also recalled the RSS's opposition to the Constitution and Ambedkar in the past, citing articles from the RSS mouthpiece 'Organiser' and Golwalkar's book "Bunch of Thought."
BJP leaders say one thing at their brainstorming session and another outside, The Sena chief said.
The Maharashtra minister alleged that Muslim voters were convinced that Uddhav Thackeray had "forsaken" Hindutva ideologies and the ideals of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray which led to them coming together to help the Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT candidates.
'People want to do business in the name of the Kedarnath temple.'
Expressing serious concern over "two distinct voices" that have emerged "louder" after the Gujarat election, the prime minister said Hindutva was being projected by "some people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner."
Uddhav Thackeray, who played the bold gambit of taking on the ally Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 and forged an unlikely alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, was on Saturday left struggling to make sense of his party's rout in the Maharashtra assembly elections.
It is unusual that two leaders are made election in-charge together as, generally, an in-charge is joined by one or more co-incharges.
The lively convention, organised in New Delhi, announced of a long list of plans for practical action to be taken to galvanise the struggle against communal fascism.
I learnt that Yogi was deeply unhappy with the BJP's choice of Lok Sabha candidates. He had proposed a list of names, but hardly any of his suggestions were accepted.
The Maharashtra Assembly elections are set to be a defining moment for several regional heavyweights, including Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, and deputy CM Ajit Pawar. The two Pawars, Shinde, and Thackeray are engaged in a fierce battle for political dominance, with the outcome potentially deciding the fate of their respective parties. The BJP is contesting 149 seats, Shiv Sena 81 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has fielded candidates in 59 constituencies. In the opposition alliance, the Congress has fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95, and the NCP (SP) 86. The election is also marked by intense factional fights, with the two claimants of Shiv Sena's legacy competing in over 50 seats and the two Pawars facing each other in nearly 37 constituencies.
'Hindutva will not win any elections. Hindutva as a political plank never works.'
More than 100 people were booked on charges of stone-pelting and rioting on Thursday night while a man belonging to a right-wing outfit was detained for questioning in connection with the vandalism outside the station.
As Modi takes guard for a third term with trusted and seasoned hands around him, the BJP is hopeful that he will prove his detractors wrong and continue to fuel the party's expansion horizontally and vertically with his inventive policies in government and new set of ideas in politics with the core of Hindutva, development and welfarism remaining intact.
If the BJP has to work as a junior partner of Vijay's TVK, then either the party will have to change the state leader, or the latter should change himself. Incidentally, ever since Vijay started talking politics and elections, the pro-BJP/Hindutva social media had stopped dragging his name into any non-existing issue.' In particular, they have stopped referring to him by his Christian name, 'Joseph Vijay', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
With all the evasions, one assertion made by the Pune (Rural) police stood out: They had found no connection of the Elgar Parishad with the violent incidents of January 1, 2018. Yet, the case against the 'Bhima Koregaon 16', which is based on exactly this alleged connection, continues, and seven of the accused continue to be behind bars under the UAPA, explains Jyoti Punwani.
"We will not go into the larger debate as to what is Hindutva or what is its meaning. We will not re-consider the 1995 judgment and also not examine Hindutva or religion at this stage," a seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized the BJP for claiming to protect the Constitution while citing V D Savarkar's remarks that there was nothing Indian about it. He also drew parallels to the story of 'Eklavya' to illustrate the BJP's alleged economic policies hurting small businesses and farmers. He further supported the removal of the 50 percent cap on reservations and advocated for a caste census.
He alleged Union Home Minister Amit Shah had directed BJP leaders in a "closed-door" meeting to "stop" him (Uddhav) and Sharad Pawar politically.
After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Trump started his inaugural address with a sentence that echoed Modi's coinage some years ago, notes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The final round of voting for the Jharkhand Assembly elections is taking place on Wednesday, with the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition seeking to retain power while the BJP-led NDA aims to take control. The election will decide the fate of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife, and several other candidates. Key issues during the campaign included alleged infiltration from Bangladesh, corruption, and Hindutva.
Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his latest book, argues that Pranab Mukherjee should have been made Prime Minister in 2012 instead of Manmohan Singh, who was then recovering from health issues. Aiyar believes this would have prevented the "paralysis of governance" and "doomed" any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III. He also criticizes the government's handling of the Anna Hazare-led agitation and the Commonwealth Games scandal, which he believes contributed to the party's downfall in the 2014 general elections.
'Under the more strident Modi version of Hindutva, Nehru has almost become a contemporary political figure.' 'The ruling party knows that without total erasure and distortion of Nehru, their fantasies will always be wobbly.'
There was a protest in the university demanding Gandhi's resignation as the chancellor and the students decided to walk down to her residence and paste a memorandum demanding her resignation on the door.
Quite a few film folk turned up at the trailer launch of Dharmaveer 2: Mukkam Post Thane, that continues to tell the tale of the late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe.
The Bharat Ratna for him comes nine years after the honour was bestowed on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The two leaders together spearheaded the journey of the Jana Sangh and then the BJP for over five decades.
The World Hindu Congress on Friday renounced the word Hinduism, contending that the term reflected oppressive and discriminatory and embraced Hindutva and Hindu Dharma to refer to the 'eternal' religion.
Gandhi slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over the collapse of the statue of the warrior king at Rajkot fort in Sindhudurg district, and said the party's ideology is not right.
The programme named -- 'Revisiting Gandhi' -- was organised at Modern College in association with Savitribai Phule Pune University.
However, in 950 booths, voting will end at 4 pm, though people standing in the queue at that time will be able to exercise their franchise.
'A decade ago, even though the sentiment might have been felt in large parts of the media, it was not expressed.' 'There was a reserve and there was a culture that adhered to the principles expressed in the Constitution,' observes Aakar Patel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday apologised to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and those hurt by the collapse of the warrior king's statue in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, an act coming in the backdrop of a huge row over the crash which provided ammunition to the opposition to target the Mahayuti government ahead of assembly polls.
NDA partners will meet on Monday in the backdrop of the controversy generated over the BJP's attempts to revive the Hindutva issue.
'If machines (EVMs) are so reliable, if our electoral system is so reliable, then why has the Election Commission so far not even responded to an ADR plea to share data of 79 (Lok Sabha) constituencies where there's a (alleged) dispute?'
Kejriwal wanted to know if the RSS agreed with the BJP's politics of using central agencies to break up parties and topple opposition governments, and inducting "corrupt" leaders into its fold.
For firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yogi Adityanath, Hindutva and development complement each other and the sitting MP from Gorakhpur is harping on this ideology of political Hinduism, which he says is a "symbol of our nationalism", as he eyes a fifth straight term.
The Supreme Court has sought details from the Allahabad High Court regarding controversial statements made by Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav at a VHP function. The development comes amid calls for action against the judge for his remarks, which have been labeled as hate speech by some. The judge's statements were made at a VHP function on December 8, where he spoke about the Uniform Civil Code and the law working according to the majority. Several individuals and organizations, including lawyer Prashant Bhushan and CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, have called for an inquiry into the judge's conduct and for his removal from judicial duties.
The RSS today said that Hindutva is the "identity" of the country and asked the people to be proud of it. "Our identity is Hindutva and the people should be proud of it. The society should work for removal of evils and the welfare of the country," RSS chief Mohan Rao Bhagwat said while addressing volunteers at a gathering in Jaipur.
The party's executive president Uddhav Thackeray made this clear on the opening day of the two-day conclave of Sena office-bearers in Aurangabad.
