In a tweet on Sunday, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said, 'Recent developments in our volatile neighbourhood & the way Sikhs & Hindus are going through a harrowing time are precisely why it was necessary to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act.'
The families that were affected by the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar district have no hope of their homes being restored to them. Is the government really unable to reassure them of a safe return?
'What was said about Muslims was the most important part of the three-day RSS 'seminar'.'
The objective of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, enacted in 2019, is to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted minorities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after talks in Beijing between officials from the two rival Middle East powers, Iranian state media reported on Friday.
A video showing the incident involving school teacher, Tripta Tyagi, and the Class 2 boy in Muzaffarnagar has gone viral on social media eliciting strong words from several political parties.
On Jawaharlal Nehru's 134th birth anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra recounts incidents where the first prime minister showed exemplary courage, bravery and integrity.
Authorities asserted that lunch is served to students of any religion 'on demand' during the holy month.
A government-run law college in Indore has taken six teachers, including four Muslims, off duty temporarily after the ABVP accused them of promoting fundamentalism and 'negative thoughts' about the government and Army.
'Compared to other social groups, managing the Muslim constituency has always been easier for the secularists.' 'Just some symbolic measures and window-dressing would keep the Muslim flock together.' 'Having been betrayed by all the supposedly 'secular' political parties, Muslims should turn into citizens without any ascriptive identity marks,'says Mohammad Sajjad.
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also recommended to the Congress to raise the issue of religious freedom during US-India bilateral meetings, and hold hearings on it.
A prominent Islamic shrine in Bareilly has issued a decree banning religious conversion by force or allurement, endorsing Uttar Pradesh's recent ordinance aimed at curbing inter-faith marriages as an alleged ploy for conversion.
In a searing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government, Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut also said that in view of Kashmiri Pandits once again fleeing from the Valley, 'Kashmir Files 2' should be made to show who is responsible for their current plight.
Against the backdrop of the allegations that Anna Hazare has links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Arvind Kejriwal, a key Team Anna member on Monday met representatives of Muslim organisations to clear the 'misconceptions'.
'The state government does not believe in disallowing non-Hindus to do business outside Hindu temples.'
''Even today, after 63 years, I'm still looking forward to a new release.'
At least 10 Indian-Americans, almost all of them Democrats, have won local and state level elections held in several parts of the country, reflecting the growing political empowerment of the ethnic community that constitutes a little over one percent of the United States' population.
It is a pity that he does not take his youth influencer role more seriously and align his brand endorsements more responsibly, notes Kanika Datta.
'The mobilisation is nothing but a political ploy -- a sort of a fixed match between Hindu and Muslim communal forces, towards polarisation, in a run-up to the next election,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
"Our only solace is that Modi will win Varanasi, but there will be a by-election here. Modi will not be able to cobble 272 seats to become prime minister so he will remain the chief minister of Gujarat. He will resign from Varanasi and then we will ensure Kerjiwal's handsome win." Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reports on how Varanasi's 300,000 Muslim voters are strategising their vote.
According to the data released in Patna by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the state's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the EBCs (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the OBCs at 27.13 per cent.
The US state department in its annual report to the Congress on international religious freedom has alleged that in India in 2021, attacks on members of the minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year.
Slamming Congress president Sonia Gandhi's meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid to prevent split in secular votes, Shiv Sena on Thursday said it was akin to "fox and wolf" discussing non-violence and vegetarianism.
It's a sad fact that non-Muslim minorities, who are represented by the white portion in the Pakistani national flag, have been reduced to abnormally low numbers. If the situation remains as bad as it is and Hindus keep on migrating to other countries, this ratio may further reduce, notes Shiraz Hassan.
In the 2020 edition of its annual report on International Religious Freedom, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) alleged that religious freedom in India witnessed a drastic downward turn.
'The Bodos and the Assamese were at each other's throats, the Assamese Muslims and the Bengali Muslims were at each other's throats, the Bengali speaking Muslims and Hindus were coming together against the Assamese speaking caste Hindus and the plains tribes and vice versa.'
Cautioning against the presence of Jihadis, who try to cultivate communalism, religious disharmony, intolerance and contempt across the world, in Kerala also, the Bishop said they were using different means to destroy other religions.
'If you prove that a mandir was demolished and a mosque was constructed there, we will leave the place.'
'You are dealing with a small gang of semi-literate terrorists. These are guys flying kites.' 'There is huge difference between flying kites and actually having a deliverable, executable, plan.'
The leader also said the Congress would also intensify its protests against the Lakshadweep administration's move to permit liquor outlets in the archipelago.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday suspended party MLA Rama Bai for supporting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Rama Bai, who represents Patheriya Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district, on Saturday evening supported the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at a function held in her constituency where Union minister Prahlad Patel was present.
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
'The Congress wants to eat the cake, but does not want to share it.'
If the government is able to deliver the promised projects, the large number of youth will be taken off the streets and that is not acceptable to the Pakistan army nor the terrorists hiding in Pakistan, notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
The Tablighi Jamaat avoided confrontation, stayed clear of conversion of non-Muslims, abjured politics and focused only on religious attainment. >A fascinating excerpt from Ziya Us Salam's Inside The Tablighi Jamaat.
The opposition INDIA bloc has written to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai over their social media platforms' alleged role in "aiding communal hatred" in the country and demanded that the platforms maintain neutrality in the upcoming elections.
The former external affairs minister said, ""It was a problem of communication. But diplomacy is all about communication and if you are not able to communicate properly, what kind of diplomacy you are having."
The protests over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act notwithstanding, the players' auction for the Indian Premier League will go ahead in Kolkata as scheduled on Thursday. There have been reports of violence in West Bengal but Kolkata hasn't exactly been affected.
According to sources, Singh also asked party MPs to be present in large numbers when Home Minister Amit Shah tables the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, as he asserted that this draft legislation is as important as the move to abrogate Article 370.
'Religion is being deprived of its spirituality and is being used for strife and war.' 'The task right now is to keep raising a voice in favour of the 'Real Hindustan', its democracy, its composite culture, its people and their welfare.'
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