Why did we go into nationwide lockdown when we were adding 100 cases a day and why are we not going into lockdown but allowing cricket stadiums, political rallies and Kumbh Melas when we are adding 40,000 cases a day? asks Aakar Patel.
Simhastha Kumbh Mela, the largest congregation of faith in the world, began on Tuesday with the traditional ceremony of hoisting of flags and thousands of people taking a holy dip in Kushawart and Ramkund in Godavari river in the two towns.
The court asked the civic body to file an affidavit on this.
Four people were reportedly killed after a stampede broke out during a procession at the Kumbh Mela's Juna Akhada in Haridwar on Wednesday morning.It has been reported that the stampede took place following a brawl between the priests and the devotees over the removal of a vehicle.There are reports that two women were among the devotees killed in the ensuing stampede and several others were injured. The stampede took place on the last day of the Shahi Snan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered prayers at a Matua temple in Bangladesh's Orakandi, the birthplace of Hindu mystic figure and Matua community's spiritual guru Harichand Thakur.
'What was the message that was going to them?' 'The message was, we are a great country and we have beaten Covid!' 'No one talked about the precautions to be taken.'
The ancient Ganga-Godavari-temple on the bank of river Godavari was later closed till next Kumbh mela to be held in 2027-28.
By any standards, the crowd was far bigger than what the festival has witnessed ever since it began on January 3.
Nepal on Friday recalled its ambassador to India over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.
Rarely have we seen such intoxication over power, which ignores the cries of those dying, notes Jyoti Punwani.
Thousands of sadhus have already reached the holy town of Trimbakeshwar, which enshrines one of the 12 jyotirlingas.
The VHP will focus on non-religious topics and give the Ram temple a miss at the three-day Vaicharik Kumbh, to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shashikant Trivedi reports.
As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday sent a general advisory to all the states and Union territories asking them to deploy adequate security personnel at all sensitive places, political leaders made fresh calls to people not to indulge in making provocative remarks or spreading rumours.
Rediff.com takes a look at the devout flock that attends the Simhastha Kumbh Mela to take a dip into the holy waters and purify themselves.
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
He said he spoke whatever he felt from within and added 'neither I dream it, nor there is any liaisoning, nor any PR'.
"Seven people have been killed and 90 injured in and around the Mela area," district collector Kavindra Kiyawat told PTI. The second Shahi-Snan is due on May 9.
The festival is billed as the largest gathering of humanity on earth, with 110 million people expected to attend over 49 days. But for the thousands who get lost among the crowds, help is at hand and has been since 1946.
The lack of proper coordination and disaster management plan on the part of railways resulted in the stampede at Allahabad station during last year's Maha Kumbh Mela in which 37 persons were killed, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said.
Controversial godwoman Radhe Maa has often been slammed for her ostentatious lifestyle. Yet her ardent devotees have chosen to ignore critics and immerse themselves in her 'aura'. But recent developments may have left them shocked... and contemplating!
'No other country other than India can do it on this scale.'
A public interest litigation has been filed in the Bombay high court stating that IPL matches must be shifted out of Maharashtra owing to the acute shortage of water in the state. Advocate Ankita Verma, Partner, DM Legal Associates, advocates for the petitioners, tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf how hosting the IPL in Maharashtra is tantamount to wasting huge amounts of water.
The question being silently telegraphed around the court room was: When did this happen? Wasn't this trial about Indrani murdering her daughter to prevent her from marrying Rahul Mukerjea, her husband Peter Mukerjea's son from his first marriage?
Sheela Bhatt meets Bharti Patel, a truly exceptional mother of our times whose son Dr Vikram Patel was recently ranked among Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015, to find out her recipe for a remarkable upbringing.
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