Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge were among the top leaders who paid homage to former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his home in New Delhi on Friday.
After a breakfast meeting between Mohan Bhagwat and L K Advani, the RSS today said that it has been assured by BJP that its leaders will resolve all problems faced by the party, including the leadership crisis, unitedly.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday stepped up efforts to rescue the Bharatiya Janata Party from its current crisis, by possibly discussing a road map ahead, as he held hectic parleys with L K Advani and top leaders including Murli Manohar Joshi.There were indications that the BJP could come out with some statement on Sunday but Sangh Parivar sources said nothing spectacular could be expected.
Ahead of the party's brainstorming session next week, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat amidst clear indications that the Shimla meet may skip the issue of who and what exactly were the reasons behind the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
'The Congress backstabbed us and the BJP frontstabbed us.' 'This is the only difference between the two parties.'
The event brings to fruition the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'mandir' movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.
Narendra Modi may be virtually an unquestioned leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party but Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh feels that its cadres need not get into the personality-driven campaign of the party during the current election.
Though Nitin Gadkari's appointment has been almost approved by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, a senior leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party said there might be revolt against the RSS leadership in the next few hours.
The government has to specify what it intends to do with caste census data. It will be closely tracked if the government would simultaneously move towards removing the present 50% bar on reservations using means which are permitted in law. If this is not done, the entire exercise will become meaningless and could boomerang on the BJP, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The outfit suggested that the government amend the Information Technology Act to classify all such content as pornography, which people should only be able to access by punching in their Aadhaar details or their fingerprints. Archis Mohan reports
Irrespective of whether the BJP survives in its present for or not, which Bhagwat believes it will, the RSS chief has set a time frame of 25 to 30 years to bring the Hindu Samaj together. For the moment, the task appears to be to bring the Sangh Parivar together.
'In India, legal advocates and faith leaders from across the country's diverse religious communities condemned a case of extreme hate speech against Muslims in the city of Haridwar, calling for the country to uphold its historical traditions of pluralism and tolerance'
The police have booked her under sections 124 A(sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion), 500(defamation) and 505 (intent to incite) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of the IT Act, he said.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has sent invitations to 7,000 people, including 3,000 VVIPs, for the consecration.
The plan to relieve NSG from VIP security tasks has been in the making since 2012 when NSG commanders foresaw an event where simultaneous terror attacks could be witnessed at one time on multiple centres in the country and the commandos will have to be rushed in different directions.
A day after senior BJP leader L K Advani spoke of an "inclusive Hindutva", RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today said Hindutva believes in peaceful co-existence of all communities.
A group of religious leaders met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarkaryawaha (General Secretary) Mohan Bhagwat at the organisation's headquarters here on Thursday.
Speaking at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Dussehra rally in Nagpur, Bhagwat said community-based population imbalance is an important subject and should not be ignored.
General secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Champat Rai on Monday announced that the idol of Lord Ram will be placed at its position at the 'garbh griha' of the temple on January 18 and Pran Pratishtha will take place at 12.20 pm on January 22.
'A person of the stature of the RSS Sarsanghachalak would like to stick to changing social mores and social traditions and uniting society, which is much more important than politics.'
A day after Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh's English bashing, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said it is an "illusion" that English is the only means of progress.
Bharatiya Janata Party Tuesday reached a truce with sulking patriarch L K Advani who agreed not to press for his resignation from key party posts after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh intervened to end the two-day crisis triggered by his opposition to Narendra Modi's elevation.
Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela today criticised the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and some religious leaders for supporting Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate.
After Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks that rapes were prevalent in India and not in Bharat, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad blamed the 'western model' of lifestyle for growing incidents of sexual assault on women including rape, saying cities were losing the values.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has sparked outrage with his statement that when he said rape is mainly prevalent in urban India due to western influence and that such crimes against women do not happen in rural areas of the country.The remark that came against the backdrop of the Delhi gangrape incident was slammed by the Congress, CPI-M and women's bodies while the BJP and RSS defended it saying the comment should be taken in proper perspective.
'He was a nobody then.' 'And whatever little his contribution was there, it was restricted to Gujarat.'
When Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's name was floated as Venkaiah Naidu's successor as vice president, the RSS instead suggested Jagdeep Dhankar, indicating that he was also Mohan Bhagwat's choice, states Prakash Bhandari.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said that no dialogue should be held with the outlawed Maoists who carried out a deadly attack recently in Chhattisgarh against Congress party leaders.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh top brass, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, but brushed aside suggestions that the issue of projecting him as prime ministerial candidate for 2014 general elections was discussed.
Raking up the issue of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Team Anna "nexus", Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday alleged that Mohan Bhagwat, Anna Hazare and Govindacharya are "contradicting" one another over the issue.
The RSS chief also asserted that the Hindutva organisation never asks its volunteers to work for any particular party but does advise them to back those working in the national interest.
"Since RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other leaders are not scheduled to visit Delhi in the immediate future, I decided to meet them in Nagpur," Advani told media persons on arriving at the Nagpur airport.
The permission is subject to some restrictions including a cap of 4,000 on the number of attendees.
On a day when Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party's Parliamentary Board, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's chief Mohan Bhagwat raked up the issue of Ram Mandir in Ahmedabad, expressing the desire to build a glorious 'Shree Ram Mandir'.
Dr S Q R Ilyas, head of the BMAC and a senior member of the board, feels that the Sangh Parivar should not have raked up the Ram temple issue. In a candid chat with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Dr Ilyas said the recent proclamation by the RSS, VHP and BJP was a desperate measure to rake up the issue of Hindutva once again
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday backed the BVishwa Hindu parishad's resolution for building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying its construction is like establishing the 'Indian identity'.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Monday lashed at the Centre for its midnight crackdown on protesters, including women and children, at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, while admitting that it "extended" support to yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation.
Joining a list of leaders who made controversial remarks following the Delhi gangrape incident, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi on Tuesday said women should not go out with men other than relatives and agreed with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's view that most rapes take place in cities and not villages.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Tuesday said the revolt by B S Yeddyurappa seeking reinstatement as Karnataka chief minister was "very serious", even as the Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari went into a huddle with Mohan Bhagwat and other top leaders of the organisation in Nagpur.
Congress member of parliament Kalpana Parulekar on Monday created ruckus in the Madhya Pradesh assembly during question hour by raising the issue of her arrest in the previous session.
