Dussehra festivities returned to their usual grandeur after two years of muted celebrations as Covid fears subsided and people came out in their millions to watch the burning of Ravana effigies across the country on Wednesday to mark the victory of good over evil.
'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Trump started his inaugural address with a sentence that echoed Modi's coinage some years ago, notes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Asked whether Ajit Pawar gave any offer to Sharad Pawar during the meeting, Raut said, "When did Ajit Pawar become so big to give an offer to Sharad Pawar."
A red alert was sounded in the national capital over intelligence inputs of a possible terror strike which threw Delhi Police and other security agencies into a tizzy on a day when multiple attacks by militants in Jammu and Kashmir left several persons dead.
Asking the party leadership to take strict action against those involved, Surendra Singh alleged, "There is foreign hand behind the violence. The incident had taken place on directions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Congress leaders not expressing any regret over the incident proves that."
This is the first conversation between Modi and Yunus after he assumed the responsibility following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government.
Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also said all Indians should ask the government this Independence Day what it was doing to protect the country and push China back.
His comments came in the midst of India's bitter border row with China along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
We present a word cloud of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech to the nation on the occasion of 67th Independence Day:
The Delhi Police has asked commuters to avoid Rajpath and its connecting roads on Friday morning as nearly 30,000 people are expected to throng the Red Fort on the occasion of International Day of Yoga, traffic officials said.
Here's a glimpse of how India celebrated the festival marking the triumph of good over evil.
Crowds expected from Gujarat and other states
Vishvaraj Singh Mewar, the newly anointed titular head of the erstwhile Royal family of Mewar, visited the Eklingnathji temple and Udaipur City Palace to complete his father's mourning rituals. The visit to the city palace was met with a deadlock as the property is under the control of his uncle Arvind Singh Mewar, who warned of legal action on trespass. However, after a consensus was reached, Vishvaraj Singh and four others were allowed to enter the palace premises for darshan. The visit comes after violent clashes in the city following the coronation ceremony of Vishvaraj Singh in Chittorgarh fort.
Makki and other LeT/JUD operatives "have been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youth to violence and planning attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)," the sanctions committee said, providing a statement for the reasons of Makki's listing.
Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's aspirations to be prime minister seem entirely logical with more multi-cornered contests, uncertainty in Andhra Pradesh and the winner-takes-all history of elections in Tamil Nadu. Praveen Chakravarty explains.
"In his childhood, my dad and my uncle would hoist National Flag at our ancestral home in village. Since then, he never missed a year to hoist tri-colour on Independence Day. Sharing some memories from last year's celebration at home. I'm sure he'll do the same next year. Jai Hind," the 54-year-old daughter of the former president wrote and shared some old pictures of Mukherjee.
Modi broke away from the Special Protection Group security cover to meet a group of school children.
In the wake of farmers' tractor rally turning violent, the Centre on Tuesday decided to deploy additional paramilitary troops in Delhi to restore peace and maintain law and order, officials said.
The Congress on Sunday took a strong exception to the exclusion of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the Karnataka government's newspaper advertisement on freedom fighters and termed the Bharatiya Janata Party action 'pathetic'.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday announced to provide Rs 2 lakh as compensation to 83 people arrested by Delhi Police for carrying out a tractor rally in the national capital on January 26.
The city's air quality index stood at 385 at 9.05 am, while that of Noida, Gurgaon and Greater Noida was recorded at 406, 363, 296, respectively.
August 15, 2023 became for me, an extraordinary Independence Day. I will remember it as the day the country's largest political party -- one that struts around like a colossus and tutors us in apt behaviour -- suddenly looked bankrupt in terms of ideas and had to take out a personal guarantee from the prime minister to underscore its capacity to deliver our future, observes Shyam G Menon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce a host of initiatives for the health sector on Independence Day with the highlights being the 'Heal in India' and 'Heal by India' projects and a roadmap to eliminate sickle cell disease by 2047, official sources said.
From Agra Fort and Red Fort to Sabarmati Ashram, Jallianwala Bagh and Kirti Mandir, these sites have had played an important role in India's freedom struggle.
The protesting students claimed that when they reached Red Fort, police did not allow them to take out the march but they did not budge and said they would make their voices heard.
Baloch leaders have paid a heavy price for supporting PM Modi, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said.
The Yamuna surged to a record 208.48 metres at 8 am, the Central Water Commission said on Thursday, adding that it is likely to rise to 208.75 metres by 4 pm.
Arrows were fired to set the effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhakaran ablaze at the Parade Ground on Saturday, an event that was attended by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi among a host of other dignitaries.
In his radio address 'Mann Ki Baat' last month, Modi said he had received letters from people complaining that his Independence Day speeches were "a little too long" and promised to make a shorter speech.
A look at the celebration of the 74th Independence Day.
In its response, the Ministry of Defence issued a statement saying tableaux proposals from states and Union territories and central ministries or departments are evaluated by an 'expert committee' comprising eminent persons in the fields of art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture and choreography among others.
Two farmer unions on Wednesday withdrew from the ongoing agitation on Delhi's borders against the three farm laws, a day after violence broke out in the national capital during the tractor parade.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday did an hour-long session of yoga exercises in the open air as he led corporate India to join the International Day of Yoga celebrations. Several public and private sector companies held yoga sessions at their offices to promote the adoption of exercise in daily routines to stay fit and healthy. Adani, chairman of logistics-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, and his wife Priti, who heads the Adani Foundation, "participated with more than 1,000 members of the Adani Parivaar team to celebrate health, mindfulness and meditation," the group said in a statement. The session was held at a football ground at Adani Shantigram in Ahmedabad. Several other business leaders tweeted pictures of their yoga sessions.
Hours after the Joe Biden Administration reacted to the farmer protests, India on Thursday said the comments must be seen in their entirety and compared reactions to the violence at the Red Fort with those seen after storming of the United States Capitol.
Thousands of protesting farmers who reached ITO from the Ghazipur border clashed with police. Many of them driving tractors reached the Red Fort and entered the monument.
Looking for fun things to do as family during this sunny season?
The right path for the two sides is to respect and support each other as this serves our long-term interests, Chinese foreign minister said.
"They (opposition parties) are not concerned about the development of the children of the country's poor. Their common minimum programme is to increase corruption for their family. Democracy means 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. But these dynastic parties have the mantra of 'of the family, by the family, for the family'. For them, their family is first, and the nation is nothing," he said.
Check out which monuments make the most money for the government.
