A man playing Lord Hanuman in a 'Ramlila' fell down at the feet of the person portraying Lord Ram for a bit longer, the audience clapped and it seemed a scene well enacted, except that it turned out to be the last performance of the 62-year-old.
Government officials believe that central bridge projects perform better than state projects due to stricter checks and balances.
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.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on Monday said there was 'nothing wrong' in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to his residence on Ganpati Puja and underscored the need for a 'sense of maturity in political sphere' on such issues.
'While suppression of information is acceptable for the government, the Opposition's efforts at pinning the government and its leaders is labeled anti-national,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Struggling to gain political traction on issues of corruption, the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party is shifting its focus to emotive topics such as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in a bid to achieve its target of securing 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
Not only will Arun Govil, Sunil Lahiri and Deepika Chikhalia attend the Pran Pratistha ceremony, Moti Sagar, Ramanand Sagar's son, also received an invitation.
She said that if she asked to discuss it with Rahul Gandhi, he would not come. He would not be able to stand even in front of an ordinary worker of the BJP.
In a statement, he said it is his belief that the Shri Ram Mandir will represent India as a strong, prosperous, peaceful and harmonious nation with justice for all and exclusion of none to truly usher in 'Ram Rajya, the epitome of good governance'.
Modi referred to the Lok Sabha polls as a "Kurukshetra (battle)" in which "there is development on one hand and 'vote jihad' on the other".
The eagerness of locals and tourists in Ayodhya seems to have peaked with Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reiterating that Wednesday will be the last day of hearings in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid land dispute case.
Besides the not-so-hidden unease between Modi and Adityanath, Modi chose to address the Lok Sabha to ensure that he could personally claim all the kudos, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'Your activities are not in the interest of the nation. Being a public institution, TISS cannot permit or tolerate its students indulging in such activities which are anti-national and bring a bad name to the nation. Hence all such activities fall under the category of serious criminal offence'
More than 3,000 gifts for Lord Ram from Sita's birthplace in Janakpur in Nepal have arrived in Ayodhya.
As dusk fell, volunteers lit up nearly six lakh diyas lined up on the Saryu riverbank. 'Representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records witnessed this grand festival. With 5,84,372 earthen lamps, the event made the world record,' a state government statement said.
With the 'bhoomi pujan' for a temple at the spot where many devout Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, priests are enlivened with the hope that their Badhi Devkaali Mandir too will get footfalls from far and wide.
After dating for almost four years, Rakul Singh and Jackky Bhagnani are set to get married on February 21.
The Ram Mandir being constructed at Ayodhya is a temple of unity of the country and people from different faiths support it, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi on Sunday.
Construction work for Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya would start "soon" and be "completed during this tenure" of the present National Democratic Alliance government, controversial Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sadhvi Prachi said on Friday.
The ancient Shiv Mandir is located at Bisrakh village, believed to be the birthplace of Ravana, the antagonist to the hero of Lord Ram in the epic Ramayana.
'Does a secular nation not believe in its ancestry? The Constitution has a photo of Ram also.'
The posters shared by Australia Today, read "Canada investigates the role of India in June 18th assassination".
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is visiting Karnataka, said he intended to shut all the madrasas (Muslim religious schools) in his state, as they were not needed in "New India".
Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi reacted to the court acquitting them in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
The right-wing outfit also accused the Centre of working on a deal to abandon the Kashi and Mathura temple issue.
Asked about the BJP's claim that its performance in southern states will be exemplary, Tharoor said, "The claim of an 'exemplary' performance is yet another product of the BJP's propaganda mill."
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain was replying to questions by mediapersons on what the party had to say on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's comment that the Ram Mandir movement had helped BJP but the Sangh was not looking for help from anyone to run its movement.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his party was fighting the 'Bharatiya Janata Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Indian state itself', triggering a row with the BJP alleging that everything the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha does or says is in the direction of breaking India and dividing the society.
While the country is gripped by Ram Mandir frenzy, Danish Husain -- without shouting from the rooftops -- silently staged his opinion with this play on one of India's best-known poets, observes Neeta Kolhatkar.
Members from the Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal too were part of the group, their participation seen as another indication that the party is all set to switch sides from the SP to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
You can e-mail your pictures to getahead@rediff.co.in (My Lord Ganesha Pix) with your name, location, details about your Lord Ganesha and what this festival means to you. We will publish the best entries right here on Rediff.com.
'In Independent India's politics you will not find any leader of a political party who has not contested elections or not held a powerful post.' 'It was only Balasaheb who never contested elections or held a post.' On the occasion of Balasaheb Thackeray's 99th birth anniversary, close aide Subhash Desai recalls vignettes about the Shiv Sena founder.
Occasional lovers' tiffs have marked the history of RSS-BJP relations. To think that Nagpur will bring about any change in leadership is a misreading of both its intent and its power, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'It was really difficult for Laluji to expel his son from the party and sever family ties with him.'
Kangana Ranaut spent Gandhi Jayanti visiting a museum in New Delhi and seeing an exhibition with a difference.
Despite the Hindutva issue failing to cut much ice during the Lok Sabha elections, senior BJP leader L K Advani has renewed his commitment to build a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya.
The three-day celebrations began on Saturday with a recital of Yajurveda and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath performing an 'abhishek' on the Ram Lalla idol.
Modi should reveal his 'Mann Ki Baat' on the contentious issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya, said Sena in Saamna
'BJP sarkaar 5 saal mein Ram Mandir bhi nahi bana paayi. Ab Ram Mandir nahi toh Modi nahi'
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