All people deserve to have a voice in their government and be treated with respect no matter who they are, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday while noting that Indians and Americans believe in human dignity, in equality of opportunity, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion and belief.
In the document, the global body expressed concerns over the increasing use of Internet and other information and communications technologies, including social media platforms, for terrorist purposes.
'When there was no crime committed, everything had to be fabricated. They see it as a war, and everything is fair in love and war.'
'I welcome Droupadi Murmu as the first Adivasi woman President of India, but her track record has not been good as a politician and governor of Jharkhand when it came to helping Adivasis,' points out activist Gladson Dungdung.
A senior State Department official, on condition of anonymity, said that he has met with officials in India about what is taking place in the nation and expressed concern. The US has also 'expressed desire first to try to help and work through some of these issues', the official said.
'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.'
Qatar is trying to strike between respecting religious traditions and accommodating the raucous exuberance of more than a million visiting soccer fans.
Observing that the final NRC list, which validates bona fide Indian citizens of Assam, has excluded 19 lakh residents, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on Friday said that a number of domestic and international organisations have expressed concern that the NRC is a "targeted mechanism to disenfranchise Assam's Bengali Muslim community, implicitly establishing a religious requirement for citizenship and potentially rendering large numbers of Muslims stateless."
A bit of economic reforms stalled and decisions delayed -- what Narayana Murthy spoke of -- don't hurt if a country's compassionate and inclusive social fabric has survived intact; if the country is happy, observes Shyam G Menon.
'And Joshimath has already shown the dangers ahead.' 'We have to acknowledge that our mountains are still young babies.' 'You don't put an extra load on the back of a growing child!'
A key United States Congressional committee has called for a public hearing on the rights and freedoms of religious minorities in India to be held early next month.
Rainbow flags could be taken from fans at the World Cup in Qatar to protect them from being attacked for promoting gay rights
The National Judicial Commission Bill, 2022, was introduced after the majority of voice votes were in its favour.
'Absolute non-violence is not only sinful, but immoral.' 'This doctrine of non-violence benumbed the revolutionary fervor, softened the limbs and hearts of the Hindus, and stiffened the bones of enemies.' A revealing excerpt from Vikram Sampath's Savarkar (Part 2): A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966.
The Indian govt has been slow to react when violence has taken place, the US said.
The US lawmakers, describing themselves as "longtime friends of India", wrote in the letter that "more than six months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government unilaterally revoked the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, the government continues to block most internet in the region".
The price for pushing the envelope beyond the comfort zone that the land of storytelling is used to is a hefty one, observes Meghna Chadha.
Dr Lobsang Sangay entered the United States White House on Friday -- a historic feat. This is the first time in the last six decades the head of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has been invited into the White House, the CTA said in a statement.
In an address at a leading think-tank in Paris, Shringla mentioned two recent terrorist incidents in France, one of which he said had its origins in Pakistan, noting that the civilised world needs to act with firmness to address the threat of terrorism.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday decided to launch a nationwide campaign against making 'Surya Namaskar' and Yoga compulsory in schools.
To resist external pressure, it could use India's inherent assets and try and make democracy stronger by giving more space to human rights and minority rights, advises Aakar Patel.
India summoned the Pakistani charge d'affaires in New Delhi and lodged a firm protest, expressing grave concerns at this reprehensible incident and the continued attacks on the freedom of religion of the minority communities and their places of religious worship in Pakistan.
China is acutely conscious of the need for the next Dalai Lama to be under its control. It was for this reason that China recently stressed their claim on Arunachal Pradesh. There were rumours that the next Dalai Lama may be found in Tawang. If that happens, India-China relations will become tense and there may be demands for the child to be handed over to the Chinese, points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'The government may backpedal for now to stave off bad international press and diplomatic demarches, but that it will go ahead with putting religion at the centre of citizenship rules is certain.' 'For it is convinced that this is the magic bullet that will ensure its return to power in 2024,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'... while leaving the dirty work he orders to his subordinates.'
The Taliban has its backers, notably Pakistan and China. Their purpose is to have a monstrous entity near India's northern borders to keep democratic, secular India off-guard, observes Amulya Ganguli.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The apex court took suo motu notice of the case after patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council Dr Ramesh Kumar met the Chief Justice on Thursday.
Scholars and students have cautioned that the proposed divisive and discriminatory changes would harm the country.
'There is a discomfort among many of us at the fact that the Republic is not more Hindu than it could or should be.' 'This discomfort is producing laws such as the one we now have in Gujarat,' says Aakar Patel.
'The protests have forced the government to announce that the NRC is not an immediate priority.' 'Even if they are trying to pursue this policy in a different guise, through the NPR, the fact that they have been forced to pause and backtrack at least temporarily shows the positive impact of the protests.' 'Moreover, various state governments have opposed the NPR which cannot be carried out without their cooperation. That is also a success of the protests.' 'The state governments would not have taken this stance against the central government if their hand had not been forced by the popular mood.'
They also inked a pact for cultural exchanges through 2018-2020.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Several eminent officials and experts from both India and the United States have told American lawmakers that a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre would be detrimental to the basic rights of the religious minorities in India.
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
'We have done majoritarianism through other means.' 'The Citizenship Amendment Act, read together with the National Register of Citizens, will prove what I mean,' notes Aakar Patel.
Vowing to continue its "strong" response against perpetrators of Paris attack, France on Friday said India was on the "same boat" in fighting terrorism and will cooperate with each other in dealing with the "major" challenge facing the world.
'These protests are not just about the CAA. It is against allowing fascism and religious discrimination to creep into our legal system.'
'Criticism that Amnesty is interested in those in favour of independence for Kashmir is unfounded.'
'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.'
