In a historic move, Pakistan's parliament has passed the much-delayed bill to enable the country's minority Hindu community to register their marriages.
At a time when Pakistan is plagued by terrorism, its official academia has been unable to stop the inclusion of hate material targeting Hindus, Christians and Sikhs and fanning sectarian hatred in school curriculum.
'India's reputation is not and cannot be dependent on the whimsical opinions of some obscure foreign advisory committee packed with Hindu-phobic acolytes,' declares Vivek Gumaste.
'If robbery was their motive, they would have run away with the money.' 'After taking the money, they gang-raped the nun, desecrated the chapel, threw the Holy Communion, broke the statue and ran away with Mother Mary's crown.' 'We must not forget that vandalising churches and dishonouring Christians has become a regular affair in India in the past few months. This incident is a part of such destructive patterns.'
'If the BJP doesn't want to accept the will of the people, then we will show them what a majority means.'
Universally practiced forms of discrimination and exclusion include social and cultural segregation, expressed in various forms of refusal to have any social interaction; endogamy, expressed through the universal prohibitions on Dalit-non-Dalit marriages and through severe social sanctions on both Dalits and non-Dalits, who break this taboo.'In short, in most social contexts, Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians are Dalits first and Muslims and Christians only second,' it said.
The banned Chinese apps, which include TikTok, Shareit and UC Browser, earn revenue mainly from online advertisements, subscriptions, and commissions for selling products. India is the biggest driver of these Chinese apps due to the population. The ban on the 59 Chinese apps will negatively affect the valuations of the companies, especially those going for IPO.
'Putting Yogi Adityanath in the CM's seat two years before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is something to be read carefully.' 'Opposition parties would be dishonest themselves and unfair to secular people if they failed to unite and work as a single force to defeat the BJP.'
Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday drew flak from the Opposition for his remarks on minorities sub-quota and alleged defiance of Election Commission with Bharatiya Janata Party demanding his sacking and accusing Congress of working on a well "scripted conspiracy" to "communalise" Uttar Pradesh polls.
Justice Ghose, the former Supreme Court judge, was on March 19 appointed as the country's first Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman.
'The rhetoric of the right wing is creating such a situation. They are inspiring youngsters to such action by their speeches.'
Naxalites in Chhattisgarh are interfering in the day-to-day life of tribals, forcing them to support the movement, indulge in human trafficking and enroll minors in their organisation, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said.
Secularism as a principle and practice in India is in "danger", but "forces of hatred" cannot alter the country's secular character, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said during an interview on his new book 'The Battle of Belonging'. In the book, Tharoor makes a stinging critique of the Hindutva doctrine, asserting that it is a political doctrine, not a religious one.
One's religious faith is a private affair, and the government had no business to make laws on it, the Congress said.
'With English the most rapidly growing medium of instruction in India's schools and accounting now for more than one-sixth of the total (next only to Hindi, which accounts for a half), India is not about to turn its face away from a language that has global currency,' notes T N Ninan.<
Earlier on July 30, Khan, 65, had expressed his desire to take the oath of prime minister on August 11, as his party announced that it had acquired enough seats in the lower house through coalition talks to form a majority government.
A bipartisan Congressional resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives calling on the US government to continue the policy of denying a visa to BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on the grounds of religious freedom violations.
The expelled BJP MLA is accused of raping the woman in 2017. He is also facing murder charges as the woman was hit by a truck in July. Her two aunts were killed in the accident.
'No country or society ever prospered or remained secure by marginalising more than one-sixth of its own,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
The child, whose parents work as labourers in a factory, was beaten and brutalised with a sharp object. She is critical and on oxygen support, said a senior doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where she is admitted.
The commission was told that the police did not give women the location of their arrested relatives, and they had to run from pillar to the post to know in which jail they had been put up.
The term of the previous commission, headed by Mohammed Shamim, had expired on January 24, 2003.
Modi is seen as exceptional not only on account of his acts but also owing to his style. He appears to sacrifice his life for the people -- like a fakir, a figure he came to epitomize even more in 2020 by growing a long white beard. Charisma is above accountability, and Modi has grasped these dynamics.
Our precipitous decline is being noticed and recorded abroad with alarm. It is strange that within India we are carrying on as if it is business as usual, observes Aakar Patel.
Unfazed by the protests against the Act, Shah challenged protesters to oppose the legislation as much as they can. He also asked students who are opposing the legislation to read it properly and understand its meaning.
'I have full faith in the judicial system and eventually the truth will prevail. In the interim I would appreciate that my privacy is respected,' Papon tweeted.
In Gujarat's political circles, the appeal was seen as an indirect call to vote against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Co-education can hamper education of Muslim girls as it would "distract" the students. This is the view of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions set up to assess the status of literacy among Muslims and devise ways to improve it.
The DGP has been directed to inform NHRC about steps being taken to ensure safety of citizens, especially women.
More than four years after they were "falsely implicated" in criminal cases in the aftermath of the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, 70 Muslim youth will now get a sum of Rs 70 lakh from the Andhra Pradesh government as "compensation" in line with the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities.
Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam, meanwhile, 'rejected outright' the NCW's recommendation
The Rajya Sabha on Monday saw high drama and embarrassment for the government as a Constitution amendment bill on backward classes was changed after some amendments moved by the Opposition were passed by the House.
Notwithstanding reservations of judiciary, Parliament on Thursday took cleared two bills providing for a new mechanism for appointment of judges to higher judiciary by scrapping the collegium system that had come under attack from political parties and others.
No nation is fully sovereign to do what it wants to do in the face of opposition from others, points out Aakar Patel.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
The daughter of a tea-shop owner, Sudiksha Bhati died on Monday morning near Aurangabad when she was riding pillion on a motorcycle with her younger brother, a minor, they said. The two were en route to their maternal uncle's home in Bulandshahr's Khanpur area from their house at Deri Scanar village in Gautam Buddh Nagar's Dadri tehsil, the officials said.
The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO have expressed concern on the new law and warned of retaliatory measures.
Tiktok and Helo in a joint statement said they have plans to invest $1 billion over the period of next three years to develop technology infrastructure and owns responsibility of local community.
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