A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar will decide if 'triple talaq' among Muslims is fundamental to the religion.
'Will the new government, largely of the BJP, whose manifesto proclaimed "India shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus and they shall be welcome to seek refuge here" and whose patrons never tire of the glories of our civilisation in antiquity, stand up for these long-lost cousins, the Yazidis in Iraq?'
'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.
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Throughout a quarter century of proxy war, India has shown tremendous restraint in the face of grave provocation. It is inconceivable that any other nation would have refrained from launching trans-LoC operations to eliminate terrorist training camps and interdict known routes of infiltration, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Has New Delhi internalised the truth that it does not matter, asks Saeed Naqvi. Such deafening silence from the government, principal opposition, even the pundits!
The application has been filed to oppose a batch of petitions on which the apex court had in 2018 issued notices to the Centre and other stakeholders while referring the matter to a 5-judge Constitution bench.
Those who have already joined the ISIS have the potential to create a network of similarly motivated youth. It is from this breed of self-radicalised, semi-skilled professionals that a potential attacker is likely to emerge, reports R S Chauhan.
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
'Who are these people on the streets?' 'They are youth and students who were hoodwinked, bluffed by Modi for the last seven years, with a promise of 2 crore jobs every year.' 'And Mamata sings the same tune.' 'But the youth can see that as long as there is Mamata or Modi, there is no hope.'
The apex court said the faith of Hindus that Lord Ram was born at the site was undisputed, and he is symbolically the owner of the land.
A senior BJP leader said its top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is 'upset' with the sixth-term Lok Sabha MP, who was a minister in the first Modi government, and the Karnataka leader has been asked to take remedial measures, including tendering an apology.
'There are major implications for India. Though there was a transparently thin attempt to project the troop reduction as intended to promote peace, the downsizing is actually part of plans to streamline and strengthen the PLA, capable of defending China's national interests at home and abroad,' says Jayadev Ranade.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday tore into Narendra Modi government, accusing it of bulldozing the federal structure and running a Presidential form of government, drawing sharp reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Giving economic aid to Kashmir is like giving TB medicine to a patient suffering from cancer and expecting it to work, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Anti-conversion laws are needed since thrusting the idea of a competitive battlefield of religion onto India's pluralistic traditions can only lead to greater communal conflict, says Sankrant Sanu
For now, the BJP's strategy for Khushbu seems to be one of denial -- denying the rival Congress in the state and also at the national-level a Muslim voice acceptable to Hindu audiences and TV news-watchers. This is much less than the induction of DMK veterans like Duraiswamy and Selvam, who still have a greater chances of winning assembly seats,, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
It seems China is ready to cooperate with India in the central Asian region through the SCO framework, the reasons for which are manifold, says Sana Hashmi.
20 years ago this day, May 11, 1998, India conducted its second nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan. In a fascinating interview on Rediff.com, K Subrahmanyam revealed how Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions.
From Chief Minister EK Palaniswami to Seeman to TTV Dhinakaran to elder brother M K Azhagiri, everyone's favourite target these days seems to the DMK chief Stalin, which is good news in an election year, but that doesn't mean he is going to sweep the polls, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed May 11 for commencement of hearing on pleas challenging the validity of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy practices among Muslims.
India wants more business and closer engagement with ASEAN even as China's influence spreads in the region. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, who is travelling with the prime minister on his visit to Brunei, reports from Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of the tiny oil-rich country.
'There is a compulsion to look hard, decisive, and risk-taking; start something; and then conclude it in a way you can claim victory.' 'That is not such an easy option against China,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Many leaders argued that as the elections got over, Muslims and their problems were forgotten. Their anti-BJP stance is beneficial only for the party opposing the BJP and not to Muslims, they pointed out
A risk assessment by the board's security team concluded the situation in the country was stable enough for the tour to go ahead.
A group of Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community members had earlier told the apex court that the female circumcision is practised by a few sects of Islam.
'The existence of Section 295A on the Indian statute books sits uneasily with India's ambitions to be seen as a progressive democracy,' says Kanika Datta.
According to Som, he received a call on a private number from an unidentified man who claimed that the MLA will be 'killed soon'.
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Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and said his state is ready to bear all expenses for the safe return of Punjabis kidnapped presumably by Islamic militants in oil-rich Mosul town of strife-torn Iraq.
Six Kashmiri Muslim students belonging to Sarhad, an organisation which brings semi-orphans from strife-torn regions to live and study at their school and college in Pune, share their hopes for their state and their experiences outside it. Jyoti Punwani reports.
Countries in the region like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Maldives face serious existential threats from a mix of terrorist groups active in the region and elsewhere
'Trump's new discovery is that Pakistan and its army are virtually god's gift to mankind.' 'They are required to facilitate a relatively orderly American exit from Afghanistan,' points out Ambassador G Parthasarathy, who served as India's high commissioner to Pakistan.
'The Modi government is about privatising profits and nationalising losses.'
The family of the Bengaluru blast victim Bhavani is shattered by her death and has asked the state government and Centre to take steps to stop recurrence of such terror attacks.
Police seized dangerous chemicals and arms from the training centres following the arrest of six SIMI activists in the Mulund bomb blast case.
The first batch of 44 Keralite nurses, stranded in strife torn Libya, would arrive in India on Tuesday. The nurses, working in various hospitals in Libya, had reached Tunisia, from where they will be reaching Dubai to take the scheduled flight to Kochi and arrive Tuesday morning, chief executive officer of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs department P Sudeep said.
'India and China have to make concrete progress with regard to the border issue, addressing the trade deficit, and facilitating people-to-people interactions. This has to happen in the next two, three years.' China expert Tansen Sen tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com how India and China can take their relations to the next level.
Today, hour-long, high-pitched 'debates' at prime time, replete with inflammatory visuals and captions, using half-truths, insinuations and lies, pour venom against Muslims and seek to divide Hindus and Muslims, notes Jyoti Punwani.
'Many people thought that a Hindu nationalist party's government would take bold steps vis-a-vis Kashmir. But sadly their approach has been led by military and security priorities.' 'We would suggest to India that she initiate the dialogue following the Vajpayee model. That is the way forward. Otherwise, there is a looming threat. We are seeing educated youth joining militancy.'
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy to intervene in the pending matters relating to the Ayodhya title dispute with his plea seeking construction of Ram temple at the site of demolished disputed structure.
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