In a major victory for the Hindu side, a Varanasi court on Wednesday allowed Hindu devotees to offer prayers inside the 'Vyas ka Tekhana' area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Top VHP leaders, including Ashok Singhal, Pravin Togadia and Giriraj Kishore, have already in Kolkata for the event.
If the government plan goes through, the trustees will have no say in temple affairs.
At a function in Salem on Friday, Karunanidhi had stated that Lord Ram was an imaginary character.
With the Allahabad High Court likely to deliver its verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque title suit next month, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad rooted for a legislation to pave the way for construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested Gujarat police officer G L Singhal in connection with the alleged fake encounter of 19-year old student Ishrat Jahan by a team of Ahmedabad crime branch officers in 2004.
Activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal staged a demonstration in New Delhi on Saturday against the ban on their leader Praveen Togadia's visit to Orissa's Kandhamal district. The Orissa government has imposed a ban on VHP leader Togadia from entering the communally sensitive Kandhamal district."The state government didn't stop foreign missionaries from going to tribal areas of Kandhamal and other parts of Orissa," said a VHP leader.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday backed the BVishwa Hindu parishad's resolution for building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying its construction is like establishing the 'Indian identity'.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Wednesday backed the Shiv Sena's protest against Shah Rukh Khan, saying there was 'nothing wrong' in it as the country is not prepared to tolerate a 'Pakistani sympathiser'. VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia, however, opposed Sena's 'Mumbai for Marathis' campaign. "Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, belongs to the entire country," he said.
The Gujarat high court has stayed the release of Maharaj, Aamir Khan's son Junaid's debut film, on Netflix after followers of Pushtimarg, a Vaishnava sect of Hinduism, claimed that it would hurt their religious sentiments.
It's intriguing that the prime minister now wants his American partner to help protect the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. That's conceding to the Americans a pre-eminence India has always contested, resented and feared, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The country needs to form a pro-Hindu Parliament which is strong enough to protect the rights of Hindus instead of a government which works against the interest of the community, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has said. "We want a Parliament which can protect the rights of Hindus and the next 2014 general elections will be on this line," VHP leader Ashok Singhal said.
Once Ram temple is built it will become a 'ghoshit (declared) Hindu Rashtra', a VHP leader told the gathering.
Bharti had been in the forefront of the 'Hindu andolan' especially during the Ayyodhya movement, he said.
Normal life was affected across Orissa on Monday due to the 12-hour bandh call given by saffron outfits, including ruling coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party, to protest the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.There were reports of stray incidents of violence from communally-sensitive Kandhamal, where the VHP leader and four others were gunned down by a group of armed persons on Saturday.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday demanded that all roads and monuments named after Mughal emperors be re-christened, claiming that the country should not drag on with "signs of slavery".
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday asked Art of Living founder and Shri Amarnath Shrine Board member, Sri Sri Ravishankar, to keep away from the "boiling issue" of curtailment of Amarnath yatra, saying otherwise he will "burn his hands"
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Thursday appealed to Indians to boycott Chinese goods in view of the 'repeated' incursions by the neighbouring country along the Line of Actual Control. "We appeal to people to boycott Chinese toys, edibles and electronics and other material in our country as China is daily violating our territory on the ground and in the air in Ladakh and North-East," said VHP president Ramakant Dubey.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Thursday refused to accept the date fixed by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for the annual pilgrimage to the cave temple in south Kashmir Himalayas, saying the yatra this year will commence on June 4 for which it will begin registering pilgrims from Friday.
The demand for imposing a ban on Sangh Parivar outfits Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishas on Monday gained momentum with the Congress saying these organisations were a "suitable case" for such action. "Bajrang Dal is a suitable case for ban... Also the VHP," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said in Delhi.
As the 240-seater prime minister attempts to moderate his image of hardline hero, he has made room for others to elbow in and that is what is happening. And that it what will continue to happen from inside the BJP, notes Aakar Patel.
Expressing doubts over the Maoists' claim of having killed leader Lakshmananda Saraswati, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday insisted that 'a sect of Christians' was behind the murder that has sparked widespread rioting in Orissa.VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia said his organisation and the Maoists have no reasons for confrontation and the Maoists could have made the claims under 'Communist Influence' to divert attention.
Vehicular movement was badly affected on the busy Vikas Marg, Akshardham, Deepali Chowk, Wazirpur, Moolchand and the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. Carrying VHP flags, slogan-shouting supporters of the Sangh Parivar started assembling at various intersections at about 0900 hours for their two-hour nationwide road blockade stir.
Sonal Shah, the first Indian-American to be inducted in United States President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, has formally renounced her affiliation with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which has been accused of fomenting violence against Muslims and Christians in India.Shah, former member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has said if she could have anticipated the outfit's role in the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, she would have never associated with its US branch.
The VHP is trying to gain political mileage through its October 17 programme in Ayodhya, Gyan Das, mahant of the Hanumangarhi Temple, said.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday warned that the country will be plunged into violence if Ram bhakts were prevented from reaching Ayodhya for an October 17 mass darshan.
The special Rae Bareli court on September 19 had framed charges against them in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
The shooting of Kathryn Bigelow's film on Osama bin Laden in Chandigarh to depict the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad was stalled on Friday by Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists, who objected to the hoisting of Pakistani flags.
Joseph Cooper was carrying out religious propaganda in violation of Indian laws, it said.
It was called to discuss the future course of action of the temple movement.
The judiciary cannot decide about issues related to Hindus, Pravin Togadia said.
Advani met RSS chief K Sudarshan and VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Parveen Togadia to discuss current political situation in the country. At least 15 top leaders of the RSS and the VHP were also present.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday accused the Vajpayee government of failure to put pressure on the Khaleda Zia regime to save minority Hindus from 'growing torture' and threatened to organise a economic blockade of Bangladesh.
Union Minister Salman Khurshid said that the decision to ban VHP's 84 Kosi yatra has been taken by the Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh and Congress had nothing to do with it.
After Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks that rapes were prevalent in India and not in Bharat, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad blamed the 'western model' of lifestyle for growing incidents of sexual assault on women including rape, saying cities were losing the values.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has sought a ban on the upcoming Kamal Hassan Tamil flick 'Uttama Villain', claiming it would offend the religious sensibilities of Hindus.
