The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of Classes 6 to 10 in the state for this academic year by removing the chapters on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder K B Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar among others.
"BJP has always been cruel and unjust towards Muslims. Then how can a true Muslim vote for the BJP? When Mulayam Singh was the chief minister, he saved the Babri Masjid from getting demolished," Azmi told news agency Press Trust of India over phone.
India's trade with the Gulf-Arab region stands at $180 billion. India needs the Gulf region more in terms of trade, investments and employment than the other way round. When it comes to faith, the Gulf-Arab nations have not been found wanting at any point in time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
At an Onam celebration that took place recently at the Indian consulate in Dubai, Muraleedharan said nobody knows how legendary king Mahabali got linked with the celebrations.
As vice president and ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankar is inheriting a troubled legacy. Although the government faces no real numerical challenges in the Upper House, political and legal challenges are there aplenty.
'I am as Bengali as they come in my cultural and personal orientation and I think probably all the BJP candidates who are contesting are pretty non-vegetarian in their food and as Bengali in their cultural orientation.'
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Protecting the leadership from any attack, the Bharatiya Janata Party has ruled out holding anyone responsible for the rout in the Bihar assembly elections and rejected criticism even from within that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's quota remarks was one of the major reasons for the defeat.
It is clearly a sign of the changing times that Rajnath Singh is now working in tandem with both Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley, says Poornima Joshi
While critics and protestors have multifarious arguments to offer, the defence of CAA has been uni-dimensional and uni-focussed as has been the case with most policies of the Modi government and the political positions of his party. But to be drawn into an issue that has assumed more than local and national dimensions, Rajini has knowingly or otherwise, taken the plunge and in favour of the BJP -- or, so it has come to be seen, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
"Desh ke chowikdar ki pehredari mein, sansadhono ki chori karai ja rahi hai (the country's resources are being looted under the watch of the country's gateman)," she said in a derisive reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Of late, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been concentrating on Uttar Pradesh, where he has held four rallies over a span of one month. Clearly, this was a departure from the routine as UP was not even among the states where assembly elections were being held currently.
Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sakshi Maharaj on Sunday declared the Ram temple at Ayodhya will be built under the Centre's BJP government, which has "four more years to go", drawing sharp criticism from opposition Congress party.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday alleged that the Indian Army was using caste as a factor for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme, drawing a swift rebuttal from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who rejected the charge as a "rumour".
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress hit out at the BJP, demanding the immediate arrest of those who have defamed India at the international level instead of enacting a "drama of action".
'I am certainly not an employee of Sebi.'
The raging row over nationalism was at the centre of Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah's inaugural address at the party's national executive meeting on Saturday as he asserted that it will not tolerate criticism against the country and that freedom of expression cannot be a plea for shouting anti-national slogans.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party, under fire by detractors for centring its whole poll campaign on Narendra Modi, found itself in a spot on Monday with its chief Rajnath Singh first projecting the party in a tweet and retweeting minutes later "Ab Ki Baar, Modi Sarkar (Time for a Modi government).
'If the platform is public, then every Indian regardless of his ideology and commitment has got the right to convey his view'
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirodi Lal Meena moved for leave to introduce the bill to provide for the constitution of the national inspection and investigation committee for preparation of a Uniform Civil Code and its implementation throughout India and for matters connected therewith during the private member's business.
11 BJP members in the Joint Committee of Parliament on land bill moved amendments seeking to bring back the social impact assessment and consent clause.
If it doesn't do that, what Uddhav Thackeray postpones addressing today will be there on the table to confront, for whoever anchors the Sena in the years ahead, observes Shyam G Menon.
If the TMC doesn't stop violence, then the children of TMC workers would become orphans, he said.
He may be only 28, but the now-chosen candidate for Bengaluru South has handled the party's IT cell and campaigned for several party candidates during the state polls last year.
'If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will campaign here, the BJP's defeat will be bigger.'
If Rahul's yatra makes a political statement from the other side of the aisle and Shah Rukh's success underlines a more relaxed popular mood, Mr Modi and Mr Bhagwat's cues to their followers are coming from another place, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Allies, Opposition increase volume of criticism; hope in Kashmir, Assam
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday took a dig at Congress President Sonia Gandhi, saying everyone was aware of her "love for her son, National Herald and 2G".
'There are dark sheep all over. But can we have any other form of governance other than democracy?'... 'There cannot be two sets of rules -- one for the common man and one for the privileged political person.' Digvijaya Singh in a candid interaction with Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
A controversy has erupted over a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist and accused in a murder case placing a turban on the head of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Thiruvananthapuram last week. The incident, which has also raised security issues, happened when Singh visited the SreePadmanabhaswamyTemple last Saturday.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modiji must personally intervene in the matter to make it clear to his officials and the rank-and-file that communal abuse should now stop'
"After pulling down the statue, slogans of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' were raised,'' Datta told PTI.
70-plus years after Independence, 'Hindu India, metamorphosised as 'Hindutva India', is proving the British right -- and for all the wrong reasons. Mohan Bhagwat should have answers for the why of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Shiv Sena on Thursday hit out at the Congress for describing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat as 'Hitler' for his controversial 'Hindu nation' remarks saying it is the same party which appeased Muslims to derive political mileage while ignoring Hindus.
In his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Tharoor took strong objection to Dubey's remarks on Twitter that 'the Chairman of Standing Committee does not have the authority to do anything without discussion of the agenda with its members'.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Govindacharya said that Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje should quit on moral grounds in the wake of the Lalit Modi controversy as from common man's perception they are "guilty".
The new Lokpal Bill was on Thursday at the centre of a fresh controversy before its introduction in the Lok Sabha, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen members protesting exclusion of minorities from the anti-graft bench of the proposed ombudsman.
Amid a controversy over a Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party leader describing tennis star Sania Mirza as a "non-local" and "daughter-in-law" of Pakistan, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said the tennis ace is a pride and brand ambassador of India.