Sections of our media and elites take Western reports/judgements at face value and are ready to condemn the targets without understanding the deeper power linkages behind such actions, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (Retd).
"Bapu, I am here today not as a Prime Minister, but as a Hindu," said Sunak, opening his address at the gathering.
South Africa's premier left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj is confident that slow bowlers will play a vital role on flat decks expected to be on offer during the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the Americas in June.
'I stood in the line for potty. So there was no extraordinary feeling that I had become a hero.'
The push to develop Ayodhya as a tourism centre, accompanied by large-scale infrastructure projects, comes on the back of years of limited income growth and tourist inflows.
Rediff readers tell us how they celebrated the festival.
'It is entirely possible that there are many treasures of our history and our faith buried deep underground,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
'When our daughters, wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Vignesh Phogat, were protesting at the Jantar Mantar, the police kicked them with their shoes.'
'Why were they silent when over 128 temples and shrines including Shivlings were broken down at the time of the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor?' a Varanasi resident asks Rashme Sehgal.
No one wants to curb the enthusiasm being seen among the people, but at the same time officials feel nothing should be left to chance, as the flood of humanity thronging the temple area poses problems for security personnel.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
The temple was totally destroyed by the Pakistani Army's operation codenamed 'Operation Searchlight' in 1971, targeting the resistance movement in the country.
The Ram Mandir issue continues to be on Bharatiya Janata Party's "core agenda", the party said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Bhagwat presented Sangh's views on a number of contentious issue while answering wide-ranging written questions on the last day of the three-day conclave, including on matters like inter-caste marriages, education policy, crimes against women, cow vigilantism.
Mayur Munde said the temple was his tribute to the PM who "built Ram temple at Ayodhya".
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
'If we want real democracy, the economy itself will need to be democratised.'
Invitees to the 'pran pratishtha' consecration ceremony at the Ram temple started arriving Sunday in Ayodhya -- once a sleepy town now resplendent with new infrastructure and gripped by heightened religious fervour on the eve of a seminal event in India's political and religious history.
The PM urged all citizens to light diyas in their houses on January 22 so that the whole country basks in glory.
Stepping up pressure for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre cannot afford to fail its electors on the "core issue" and must deliver on it.
The main road that leads from Sitapur Road side to the airport has been decked up with several posters carrying images of Prime Minister Modi, and a welcome message.
With Ayodhya issue stuck in the quicksand of political and legal quagmire, a retired high court judge is spearheading a movement to resolve the issue peacefully and has claimed to have got the backing of over seven thousand locals -- both Hindus and Muslims.
Banners terming Kejriwal "anti-Hindu" and showing him wearing a skull cap surfaced in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara cities on Saturday.
By all yardsticks 2024 isn't expected to be like 2014 or 2019. But with the mandir expected to be ready in time for the next Lok Sabha polls, Modi will have a new ally in Ram to see him through, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Mahesh Sharma Lord Ram looked set to occupy political centre-stage in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh despite the Bharatiya Janata Party's claim of a temple to the deity not being on its agenda
Participating in the eighth edition of Deepotsav in Ayodhya - the first since the consecration of Ram temple on January 22, Adityanath said, "This is a historic first as after 500 years, Lord Ram is now in his abode in Ayodhya for Diwali."
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
Prasad said the Bharatiya Janata Party never linked the Ram Mandir issue with polls.
Asked if he is joining the BJP, Nath said, "If there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."
'His way of communication is different than the first yatra.' 'Maybe his anger and frustration stems from the fact that no one is asking hard questions to the government and he is trying to do that.'
Tharoor said that if the "omission" was inadvertent, "a correction would be reassuring".
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Ms Sanon flew to Nashik to pray at the Sita Gufa Mandir there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the Congress over Patil's remarks and accused it of playing vote bank politics.
The Congress leader said he believes that democracy is derailed and "we are becoming too authoritarian". "It's all about one-man show," he said.
Political parties have slammed Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto especially over inclusion of Ram temple and other 'Hindutva' issues, saying it was only aimed at hoodwinking voters.
'The haste which PM showed for the temple should also be shown for giving house and pension to poor'
Meanwhile, the Sena said that Lord Ram was a matter of faith for his party, and that it will not indulge in any politics over the issue.
