After a 6.5-hour debate, the upper house clears the bill. Amit Shah said the bill is not anti-Muslim and Indian minorities have nothing to fear from its passage.
The Bill provides for according Indian citizenship to the the Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 years even if they do not possess any document.
If Dhyan Chand's wizardry was a source of joy in a colonised India, Balbir Singh Sr's artistry was an inspiration for an India trying to find its bearings post-independence.
'India should pledge that it will only target those provinces of Pakistan where nuclear weapons are located,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Interestingly, the choice of August 5 as the day of the bhoomi pujan coincides with the abolition of Kashmir's special status on the same day a year ago. Perhaps the RSS-BJP wants August 5 to be remembered as the date on which the foundation stone of their cherished Hindu rashtra was laid, notes Amulya Ganguli.
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.
Robert Vadra, 42, has evolved from being simply a son-in-law of the Gandhi family to one of India's most successful businessmen. Amid the latest allegations by activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan about his involvement in multi-crore land deals, rediff.com takes a look at the life and times of Vadra and the controversies that he courted.
The Mayawati government's resolution for partitioning Uttar Pradesh and Manmohan Singh's move of allowing FDI in the retail sector are classic diversionary tactics to draw eyeballs away from the real issues that concern people, says T V R Shenoy.
Sujal Kahar is all set to represent India at the Football for Friendship tournament in Russia.
In Seoul, Nikhil Lakshman discovers, fears about North Korea and its bizarre ways are never far away.
Did you know Nargis was to have played the Madhubala role, but opted out because she has reservations about working with Dilip Kumar? Do you know how Naushad and Shakeel Badayuni came up with the words for the immortal Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya?
Shah accused the Congress and other opposition parties of running a misinformation campaign.
"The security relationship between India and Pakistan has consequences for Afghanistan," US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry said on Tuesday to a question from Senator Kay Hagan before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He may have been in the news for all the wrong reasons but the greater irony is that Muslim stand-up comic Munawar Faruqui's best jokes ridicule Muslims, and are wolfed down by Muslims, who form the majority of his 177,000 Instagram followers, notes Jyoti Punwani.
Gandhi noted that lakhs of migrants continue to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach back their homes without food, water, medicines and cash. She also accused the central government and the Railways of completely ignoring the demands made by the Congress for ensuring the safe and free travel of migrant workers and labourers to their homes.
'The biggest advantage for India was its seasoned and experienced political leadership who had spent decades struggling against the Raj and had spent years behind bars.' 'Not a single prominent leader of the Muslim League spent one day in jail.' 'Gandhiji, Nehru and Sardar Patel were intelligent, shrewd men with their hands on the popular pulse.'
About 124 pilgrims on a two day visit arrived at the sacred Katas Raj temples in Chakwal district near capital Islamabad on Friday and were overwhelmed by the official reception.
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.
'All the anti-India groups like LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul Mujahideen have been activated with terrorist camps and launching pads in place.'
Modi took on Gandhi for mocking him for chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' at every meeting. The prime minister said he will continue to do so despite Gandhi's 'fatwa' on it.
However, the minister did not specify a time frame under which the land transfer will be completed.
'Our policy seems to be to give away part of J&K, even though we are entitled to the entire state.' 'The Congress has done so, and the BJP is following the same policy.' 'No one is applying their mind to the legal position.' 'Kashmir is not a part of Pakistan under its own constitution.'
'Much of the Socialism that we attribute to him actually came during Indira Gandhi's time,' says M J Akbar who believes that Nehru's convictions helped shape modern India.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sees his victory in Pakistan's election as a mandate for peace with India, saying an arms race between the two countries must end and they should settle their dispute over Kashmir.
'Without doubt, India's success story will come up for close scrutiny when Modi's prime ministerial legacy is summed up in history.' 'A failure is simply unthinkable.' 'And the success will largely depend on national unity,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
An old fighter pilot remembers the best days of his life.
'Patel was more in tune with the popular mood than Jawaharlal Nehru. While the principle that Hindus and Muslims should be able to live together remained central to Nehru's vision for India, the Sardar was less sentimental.' 'Nehru would angrily face down mobs himself, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot. A veritable tent city, filled with Muslim refugees, sprouted on the lawns of his bungalow... Mountbatten feared Nehru's impulsiveness would get him killed, and assigned soldiers to watch over him.' Nisid Hajari's Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition casts fresh light on the events and personalities behind the horrific division of the subcontinent which haunts the India and Pakistan to this day.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says improving ties with India is "my favourite subject" even as he once again sought America's intervention in the Kashmir issue.
The Mercedes-Maybach S 600 Guard is powered by a 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 petrol engine.
If Muslims face trouble I will be the first person to raise voice for them, says the Tamil superstar.
As the pandemic unfolded, the India-China relationship has come under severe stress. To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable, declares External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Sam Manekshaw led the Indian Army to its greatest military victory this month 46 years ago. Lieutenant Colonel A K Shinde (retd), the field marshal's doctor for 35 years, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih about the charming man behind the soldier's uniform.
She quit her career in financial services to pursue her passion for writing.
'In terms of sheer incompetence, this government has rivaled the Rajiv Gandhi-led government that was derisively called the 'Baba-log' government for its naive handling of many issues,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Till the time we do not remove fear in the minds of Muslims of India, how will we achieve peace?' asks the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Gorakhpur, Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, who says he will resign as a member of the Uttar Pradesh assembly if any Indian Muslim of his constituency is evicted from the country during the Citizenship (Amendment) Act exercise.
He said he wanted to tell those who damaged public property "not to forget that rights and duties go hand in hand".
'The idea behind Kya Dilli Kya Lahore is to once again point out the futility of war as well as highlight why human comes before being. And Vijay Raaz accomplishes that to a reasonable extent in his first filmmaking effort,' says Sukanya Verma.
What does a Muslim in politics do? Where does he go?
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