The case involving an inter-faith couple was filed in Vadodara under the amended Gujarat Religious Freedom Act and the interim relief granted by the court to the four, including the main accused, will be pending the disposal of a petition filed by them seeking quashing of the FIR against them.
Love Hostel stays focused on the murky present and revelling in its increasingly dark outcome. Despite the reach of social media and technology, this isn't the cushy, liberal India of mainstream culture. It's a lawless, ruthless, endless minefield where uncertainty and bigotry go hand in hand and patriarchy is a foregone conclusion, observes Sukanya Verma.
'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.
'The BJP will not be able to create dictatorship of the kind it is perhaps dreaming of.' 'We have Bengal as the biggest example.'
The HYV describes itself as "a fierce cultural and social organisation dedicated to Hindutva and nationalism". Alongside cow protection, its stated objectives are "complete abolishment of the differentiation between touchable-untouchable and high-low, promote the harmonious development of society".
Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Thursday generated another controversy when he suggested to 2 senior Muslim Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to marry Muslim women.
They alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance was being used to "victimise especially those Indian men who are Muslim and women who dare to exercise their freedom of choice".
'...It won't help the party run a peaceful and equitable India,' warns Vir Sanghvi.
It is unusual in democratic countries two decades into the 21st century for laws to become regressive instead of progressive. But that is clearly what is happening in India today and more of this is ahead, asserts Aakar Patel.
The actor said the film industry has the power to stay independent and wished they had enough courage to do so.
'If Mayawati had performed better, then the BJP would have had a much tougher time to win UP.' 'The present gap in number of seats between the BJP and SP would have got reduced.'
Is the Bharatiya Janata Party back to its hackneyed Hindutva agenda? The question is being raised following the party's decision to entrust the leadership of the party's campaign for the forthcoming state bye-election in Uttar Pradesh to the saffron clad rabble-rouser Mahant Adityanath.
The Bharatiya Janata Party lined up several promises, including a legislation to protect traditions of the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala and a law against "love jihad", while assuring employment for at least one person from each family and free laptops to high school students, in its manifesto for the assembly polls unveiled in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
This divisiveness is upsetting social cohesion and can throw the bright young people thronging to Bengaluru with billion dollar ideas in their creative minds off balance, warns Shekhar Gupta.
The dean said: "She appeared to be relieved from depression after talking to him (husband). There is no restriction imposed on her to talk or to meet anybody."
The Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance, which fought the April 2 assembly polls with the fancy claim of winning at least 35 seats in Kerala, on Sunday came a cropper as it failed to retain even its lone segment Nemom, even as all its major contestants, including 'Metroman' E Sreedharan and party state chief K Surendran, fell by the wayside.
In an affidavit filed before the top court, 25-year-old Hadiya also said that she had married Shafin Jahan on her own and sought the court's permission to "live as his wife".
'Just keep telling people that we have fixed the Muslims, and they will not be bothered about their empty stomachs or empty wallets.'
Indians supposedly have the right to freedom, and the right to equality, which cuts across gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc, observes Devangshu Datta.
In the Marxists-ruled Kerala, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Kerala chapter has launched a helpline offering assistance to "Hindus in distress". Named Shivaji Hindu Helpline, the service particularly offers "help for Hindu girls who are being lured into what they call the trap of "love-jihad".
Since 2014, India has left its moorings as a pluralist, modern, secular State because that is how the BJP wants it to be, notes Aakar Patel.
'In politics, not everything is spoken and there are a lot of messaging done very discreetly.'
New Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Monday said controlling the 'alarming' COVID-19 situation in the state is his first priority and his aim will be to make the state one of the top five in the country in the next five years.
With the controversy over 'love and narcotic jihad' remark by Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt refusing to die down, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday engaged in a fresh round of verbal sparring.
Since the nation is now paying the price of such behaviour in terms of the long queues at the crematoriums and graveyards, the anxiety of the RSS is natural, especially if the BJP's main support base of the middle class turns away from it, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Some important simple truths about the issue may be more helpful than high sounding debates, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
The Modi leadership could lose Election 2024 if a communal flare-up becomes cause for all-round catastrophe, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
Born in a Hindu family as Akhila Asokan, the woman converted to Islam and adopted the name 'Hadiya' after entering into wedlock with a Muslim man Shefin Jahan in 2016.
A u-turn by the BJP will be an apocalyptic occurrence in Indian politics and society, argues Amulya Ganguli.
'The prime minister spoke of inclusive growth and being representative of the aspirations of 125 crore people of this country but clearly, he is not being allowed to play that role,' All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Kamal Faruqui tells rediff.com's Upasna Pandey.
Here's a look at some of the hashtags that trended during the first year of the Modi regime.
Shazia Ilmi, one of the Aam Aadmi Party's founder members who left that party after the Lok Sabha elections in May 2014, was recently nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi unit to join the Swachh Bharat campaign. After she came out in favour of the campaign and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there has been speculation about Ilmi planning to join the saffron party. She speaks about her views on BJP, love jihad and her fallout with AAP.
Singer Abhijeet is at the centre of a controversy for hurling abuses on a female journalist after he got involved in a Twitter fight with her and other media persons.
'It is difficult to pin down any singular factor but marriage does invite the emotional investment of viewers,' observes Chintan Girish Modi.
Nothing would suit the BJP better than to let Rajinikanth be the chief minister and pretend to abide by his spiritual path while quietly consolidating its vote bank, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Making such publication mandatory would invade in the fundamental rights of liberty and privacy, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court said.
It is entirely conceivable that Modi began realising at some point that it will be a liability for India if he is seen as Trump's fellow traveller, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Tamil Nadu is a paradox. We have more places of Hindu worship per square kilometres than any other place in the world. 'We break more coconuts for religious reasons everyday than any other place in the world.' 'At the same time, we also have a very strong Periyar-infused movement of rationalism.'
It is likely that the party's allies in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, two of the five states going to the polls in April-May, might insist on allocating fewer seats than they did in 2016, reports Archis Mohan.
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