President Droupadi Murmu will visit the Sabarimala temple on October 22. The Kerala High Court has granted permission for the VVIP convoy movement, and security rehearsals are underway.
President Droupadi Murmu offered prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala, becoming the first woman head of state to visit the shrine. She participated in traditional rituals and ceremonies during her visit.
'Sometime back, there was not much empathy for communal sentiments or traditions in Kerala.' 'The situation is totally different now.' 'The forces which were not so powerful earlier are getting more powerful now.'
'It is wrong to assume that it is only after 1991 that we started following this ritual.' 'Ayyappan himself instructed where the temple had to be built, the rituals that had to followed and the route that had to be taken by devotees to the temple.'
Opposition Congress termed the government's decision as 'unilateral' and said it was against the interest of a majority of Ayyappa devotees in and outside the state.
Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has reacted to Andhra Pradesh counterpart Pawan Kalyan's out-of-turn taunts with a one-liner, 'Let's wait', and thereby hangs a tale, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
What should be made out of the Madras high court order involving non-Hindus' entry into Hindu temples, when many non-Hindus are among the hundreds of thousands that have been worshipping at these temples for generations, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Supreme Court should not have come out with this kind of order and in my opinion, the court should correct it.'
Trupti Desai's fight earned women the right to enter the inner sanctums of the Shani Shingnapur Temple, the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple and the Haji Ali Dargah. Her next target is Sabarimala in Kerala. Aditi Phadnis reports.
It is increasingly clear that for the BJP to try and establish itself as an electoral force in Tamil Nadu, the party has to come out of the old Brahminical mould, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
''This chief minister is so obstinate that he is ready to use the police to attain his goal.' 'Had he been more mature rather than obstinate, Kerala would not have reached a boiling point.'
Ahead of CJI Dipak Misra's final day as the head of the judiciary of India, here's a look at the key judgments that he was a part of.