Asserting that India will never be intolerant, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday rejected the Congress' pitch on the issue, saying opponents must fight political battles politically, and wondered "where is the intolerance".
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will lead a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan to appeal to President Pranab Mukherjee to use his constitutional powers to end the "atmosphere of intolerance".
A United States court has denied a request made by a Sikh rights group to file an amended complaint against Congress party president Sonia Gandhi in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
Noted writer Nayantara Sahgal, who recently returned her 'Sahitya Akademi' Award over the Dadri lynching case, has said secularism is under threat like never before and that individual freedom and rights have to be protected even these are guaranteed in the Constitution.
'When a woman gets married, she leaves her village, her friends and family.' 'In her new home, she will make friends, but they can never replace those she left behind.'
For this dispensation, ideas are dangerous. Those who propagate liberalism and democratic traditions are even more dangerous, observes Rashme Sehgal.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed pleas of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and two others -- challenging the framing of murder and rioting charges against them -- in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the city. Justice Suresh Kait refused to quash the charges framed against Kumar and the other accused by a trial court in the case related to the killings of six people in Delhi's Sultanpuri area.
Terming the rise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the helm would be a disaster for communal harmony, Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee alleged that Trinamool Congress was also trying to hitch an alliance once again with the BJP.
Culture Minister Prahlad Patel asserted that national memorials cannot be 'political memorials' and they should be kept away from politics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again led the BJP's campaign holding several rallies and stepping up his attack on Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.
Justice S Muralidhar on Thursday apprised judges and lawyers of the Delhi high court about the sequence of communication on his transfer to Punjab and Haryana high court, saying that he was informed about it on February 17 and had no problem with it.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has been able to overcome a sustained campaign against him over the 2012 Gujarat riots, in which a section of the media had also targeted him, believes senior party leader Arun Jaitley.
The AAP bagged 20 seats in Punjab while losing all seats in Goa
The 39-second video of Singh, a California resident, has been viewed over 83,000 times since it was posted on YouTube on December 9.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hailed a Gujarat court's rejection of the protest petition against the clean chit given to Narendra Modi by the Special Investigation Team in 2002 riots as a moral victory for him and the party.
The lower house has been witnessing daily disruptions since the winter session began last week. It had passed a bill on transgender rights on Monday.
In 2017, the former Union minister called Modi "neech aadmi" following which he was suspended from the Congress party.
'As a student of history, I am no pessimist, but regardless of which party/coalitions comes to power on May 23, the space for secularism, pluralism and minority rights has shrunk significantly,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
The prime minister pointed out that such infamous incidents occurred during the Congress rule.
The court has now fixed the case for July 30 for filing of protest petition against CBI's third closure report giving clean chit to Tytler in the case.
Opposition parties ask the government to listen to the concern of the intellectuals returning awards.
'If the Modi government does not waive farm loans, we guarantee to waive farm loans if voted to power in 2019'
In a setback to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed his plea for quashing of charges against him in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
'The involvement of policemen in either committing the crime or shielding the accused in Kathua and Unna points to a crumbling civil and moral order,' says Amulya Ganguli.
"Nobody other than Modi can give a strong government," Shah said.
High Commissioner of Canada Nadir Patel said the language in the document 'does not reflect the government of Canada's policy toward India'.
A Delhi Police head constable, Ratan Lal, was among the nine killed in the violence that erupted on Monday over the amended citizenship law.
'The BJP's election campaign promise of development isn't dead, it just doesn't look anything like what was promised.' 'The results are plain to see, which is why so many of us wake up with a knot in our stomachs, wondering what fresh new hell the day's news cycle will bring,' says Mitali Saran.
'In UP, the CM actually announced that his administration would 'take revenge' against rioters.' 'That must have been music to his police force's ears for it substantiated what the police always do: Take revenge on an entire community for the violence of a few,' points out Jyoti Punwani.
The agency had earlier given a clean chit to the Congress leader in the case.
In an interview to Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Shambhu Srivastava speaks about the need of breaking out of the communal-secular paradigm and focusing on the Congress party's poor performance and its track record in fuelling communalism.
A united opposition on Friday forced Bharatiya Janata Party member Sakshi Maharaj to express regret in Lok Sabha and withdraw his remarks terming Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot.
Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla has rejected the contention that Muslims are feeling insecure under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led regime and said the community has felt alienated since Independence because of the policies of successive Congress governments.
'If you look through the optics of BJP leader Kapil Mishra, he was standing with a deputy commissioner of police while giving a hate speech.' 'Immediately, the message goes down that the police is 'with us' so let's start rioting.'
Purists may balk at this level of public discourse, but no one can deny its ability to marshal opinion.
A bench of justices G S Sistani and G P Mittal also asked Kumar to appear before the Registrar General of the high court to furnish bail bonds on September 2 in the case.
The President in his book,The Turbulent Years:1980-9, has written about the conversation he had with Rajiv Gandhi in a bathroom about prime ministership.
'They were the leaders of my country and the children of Mother India, but they didn't die as martyrs.' 'They were killed, most unfortunately, by a well planned enemy plot, and they were victims of political violence,' states Sudhir Bisht.
Hitting out at the intellectuals attacking the Centre over "the climate of intolerance", they said a section of nation's intelligentsia was dismayed by Narendra Modi's victory in the Lok Sabha polls and "failure in the elections is now sought to be avenged by other means".
Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being 'casteist' and 'anti-Dalit', and said his party will always stand against the BJP's 'oppressive' ideology.
