The proposed 18-day Bharat Gaurav Tourist train tour has its first stop at Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram, where tourists will visit Shri Ram Janmabhumi temple and Hanuman temple.
The government has identified three circuits -- Ramayana Circuit, Krishna Circuit and Buddhist Circuit - to boost religious tourism. The Ram museum will be a part of the Ramayana Circuit for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 225 crore, with Rs 151 crore exclusively for Ayodhya, which is the hub of the circuit.
In his media statement after the meeting, Modi said he and Prachanda have taken many important decisions to make the partnership between the two countries a 'super hit' in the future.
With the Ramayana as the central element, the coming together of Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh and Tiger Shroff along with Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone upped the superstar quotient further.
He accused the previous governments of being sluggish on implementing railway projects and said the work of ambitious eastern and western dedicated freight corridors expedited only in the last six-seven years.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's areas close to the borders (seemant) will become 'infested with infiltrators' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday clarified that the remarks made by Prime Minister Oli 'are not linked to any political subject and have no intention at all to hurt the feelings and sentiments of anyone'.
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
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
The meeting came days after Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to greet him on India's 74th Independence Day, in the first high-level contact after bilateral ties came under severe strain following issuance of a new political map by Nepal in May.
The construction of the temple is expected to be completed by December 2023 and Lord Ram is expected to be seated in the sanctum sanctorum by the Makar Sankranti festival in January 2024.
Kovind, who is on his first visit to Ayodhya after the landmark 2019 Supreme Court verdict paved the way for the construction of the temple, also offered prayers at the Hanumangarhi shrine, about 2 km away.
The two countries also signed memoranda of understanding in education and health sectors after visiting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera co-chaired the 9th Indo-Lanka Joint Commission meeting in Colombo.
'He never went to the Bombay industry.'
'It is best that an amicable solution to the dispute is found outside the precincts of the courts of law,' says former Union home secretary Dr Madhav Godbole.
'Nawaz Sharif knows a coup in 2016-2017 will not only complete Pakistan's isolation, but even a whiff of instability will frighten the world into imagining another Islamic State-zone, and this in a fully nuclearised subcontinent,' says Shekhar Gupta.
One of India's greatest actors -- someone who acted in 14 Satyajit Ray films -- doesn't get good movie roles anymore.
People from all walks of life and political inclinations, budding and aspiring poets and lyricists, looked at Vaali for inspiration, writes N Sathiya Moorthy.
