Can ordinary citizens counter this backward march? Can peace activists ensure that the two communities retain their bonds? Do they have a choice, asks Jyoti Punwani.
A plea was on Friday filed in a Delhi court to seek its nod to examine Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as witnesses in a private complaint case filed against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his alleged "Hindu terror" remarks made at Jaipur.
The BJP's victory in the desert state was so absolute that the Congress failed to open its electoral account in 17 of Rajasthan's 33 districts! P B Chandra reports.
With the assembly poll results in three states being a disappointment for the Congress, some rumblings have begun among the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) ahead of their meeting on December 6, with many leaders alleging that the grand old party ignored others, but was unable to win elections on its own.
Congress leaders claim the land Bill stir is an opportunity to shake off despair and serve as return vehicle for Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress on Wednesday released a list of 40 leaders who would be the party's star campaigners for the May 10 assembly elections.
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
Newly appointed Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has taken yet another leaf out of Arvind Kejriwal's book.
There are concerns within the Congress with respect to the articulation of the party's demand for the caste census, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently accusing the grand old party of attempting to divide Hindus through its push for the Other Backward Classes.
Gehlot said he has the proof that horse trading was being committed to topple his government.
In instructions for polling issued on Saturday, Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry had said Pradesh Congress Committee members 'will mark '1' on the ballot paper against the name of the candidate and fold the ballot paper to put it into the ballot box'.
Voting began on Monday in the Congress presidential polls as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor face-off for the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief.
Strengthening the party's communication strategy to improve public engagement is foremost on the Congress agenda after Rahul Gandhi had stressed that they "have to go back to the people" at the Udaipur meeting.
The BJP has fielded 18 MPs, including four Union ministers, for the latest round of assembly polls so far -- seven each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and four in Chhattisgarh.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has said the party cannot afford the spectacle of its ministers and state presidents running away from a tough contest. Anita Katyal reports
'Who has given how much money to which party, the people of India must know this fact.'
The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
The controversy has sparked reactions across states. The famous Mankameshwar temple in Uttar Pradesh has now banned offerings of 'prasad' bought by devotees from outside and said they can offer homemade 'prasad' or fruits.
Asked about him sticking with the Congress since he got the parliamentary polls ticket from Moradabad in 2009, he said loyalty is very important to him since the beginning.
An inchoate anger is brewing within the party against the central leadership after the poor show in the assembly polls.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.
The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as 'transformative' as his earlier cross-country march.
He also said his equation with the Gandhi family will remain the same as it has been for the last 50 years.
Called "Babuji", the former chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh and former Governor of Uttar Pradesh in the post-Babri Masjid demolition era was considered as a people's man and was accessible to all.
The electoral contest would take place between Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, and voting will take place on October 17 in every state capital through secret ballot.
Over the past week, Rahul Gandhi has replaced office-bearers in charge of party units in Gujarat and Karnataka and Goa, and brought in young leaders as secretaries. These changes are unlikely to be a one-time exercise and poll-bound states would get the primary attention.
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
Kharge said that while there are very responsible people in the party who were doing their duty, some people had assumed that lack of responsibility will be ignored.
Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva will be sworn-in as Governor of Goa on Saturday after predecessor B V Wanchoo resigned last week. Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Mohit Shantilal Shah will administer the oath of office to the Governor at Durbar hall of the Raj Bhavan at 6 pm on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the state government.
State leaders have emerged as the biggest road block for Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi who is trying to give young leaders bigger responsibilities, says Renu Mittal
The party is very much united and working together, the AICC general secretary organisation said.
The CPI-M leader was fluent in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bangla, and also Malayalam. He was also well-versed in Hindu mythology, and often used those references in his speeches especially to attack the BJP.
A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said both Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot were "assets to the party", the CM on Tuesday suggested that the matter rests there.
The leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc are meeting on Monday morning ostensibly to redraw their strategies to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP both inside the Parliament and in the electoral arena.
In a major exercise ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Congress on Thursday night constituted screening committees for all states and union territories for early selection of candidates.
After Arunachal Pradesh slipped out of its control and Uttarakhand was placed under President's rule, the Congress president took matters into her own hands.
While the Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Mizoram by the Mizo National Front.
Mukesh Agnihotri, the leader of opposition in the outgoing assembly, was administered the oath as the deputy chief minister.
' These youngsters don't have patience, which is a key trait in politics'
Buoyed by the exit polls projections, the party has sent its senior leaders including general secretary Randeep Surjewala and Avinash Pande, chairman of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee screening committee, to Patna for proper coordination with the allies and possibly also to keep its flock together after the results are declared.
