Meanwhile, the state protocol officer said there was no room for a controversy over the issue as it had been ascertained from Colombo that Rajapakse's wife is a Buddhist.
"This year, I was honoured to kindle the first-ever diya in the Oval Office -- a lamp that symbolises how darkness will always be overcome by light. It is a tradition that I hope future presidents will continue," Obama said on the White House Facebook page, which became viral on social media.
Shah assured members of minority communities that none of them will lose citizenship due to the CAA.
Nadda asked party workers to go to people and 'expose' the Congress's 'slander campaign' against the government.
An intricately carved gateway, built at a cost of over $1 million and representing hundreds of years of Buddhist and Islamic art forms in India, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 'Little India' in Kuala Lumpur during his visit to Malaysia this week.
Sounding the Congress' poll bugle in the state, Gandhi attacked the Modi government repeatedly alleging that it was working with an approach of 'Hum do, Hamare do' -- a term he recently used while speaking in Lok Sabha to claim that the country is being run by only four people.
Banerjee has held five rallies in Kolkata in 11 days against the CAA.
Japan Bank for International Cooperation has approved a loan of 7331 million yen for the development of Ajanta Ellora Phase II.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condemned the terror attack on Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya district.
No one had been caught in the trap until Thursday, when police were informed that the body of the young monk in his saffron-coloured robe was discovered near the bathroom and an autopsy found that he had been electrocuted.
'The need of the hour is to build on the positives and control the negatives,' says Colonel (Dr) Anil A Athale (retd).
In an attempt to preserve a crucial piece of Indian history, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's followers have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in buying the London apartment, which was once the social crusader's home.
Congress leader Anand Sharma on Wednesday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is an "assault" on the foundations of the Constitution and fails the morality test while asserting that it was wrong to blame his party for the Partition.
In a statement issued on Monday, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom said that it was deeply troubled over the passage of the bill in Lok Sabha.
Can compassion, common courtesy or an 'emotional connect' win seats in the harsh realpolitik of UP, a state riddled with divisions of caste and religion, and confronted with a seemingly impregnable BSP-SP alliance? asks Sunil Sethi.
Continuing its crackdown against people allegedly involved in inciting self immolation protests in Tibet, Chinese police today arrested five Tibetans, including a 21-year-old Buddhist monk, for trying to motivate three people to set themselves on fire.
Like thousands of Indians and non-Indians I have been touched by, and am a beneficiary, of Satya Narayan Goenka's single biggest contribution to humanity: the Vipassana brand of meditation.
The new service will travel through 18 countries and each bus will accommodate 20 passengers.
Check out this collection of smashing images of Buddhist monks in a protest rally, military parade at the Zocalo square in Mexico City and much more.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday targeted its former ally Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the serial blasts in Bodh Gaya, questioning why his government had not acted on specific intelligence inputs that the Buddhist temple may be targeted by terrorists.
Lauding Japan's deep historical ties with India, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday said he was looking forward to a summit meeting with his counterpart Narendra Modi in Tokyo on Monday after the two leaders spent time together in ancient Kyoto city visiting Buddhist temples.
The meetings with the chief ministers will be held on Saturday, an official said.
In a Sri Lankan House of 225 members, the cut-off figure comes to 113. With Wickremesinghe side touching 102 and Rajapaksa's team at 101, the three-party Tamil National Alliance with 16 members and the left-leaning Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna with 6 members hold the key. But with the latter declaring that they will not support either formation in a vote count,that leaves the TNA as the deciding factor, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The editorial termed the decline in Sikhs and Buddhists numbers in religious data of Census as "worrisome" and said whenever indigenous faiths have declined separatist tendencies increase and called for concrete policy measures to correct it.
The makers of the film didn't want to hurt the feelings of Buddhists and that is the reason the title was changed.
Tourism Minister Jagmohan on Thursday asked the Bihar government to improve infrastructure facilities at important Buddhist sites to attract pilgrim tourists to the state.
The US lawmakers, describing themselves as "longtime friends of India", wrote in the letter that "more than six months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government unilaterally revoked the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, the government continues to block most internet in the region".
We present some of the most dramatic photographs clicked across the globe in the past 48 hours.
Today is Guru Purnima. Here is everything you should know about the Hindu festival.
'China is monitoring films like ours and making sure it doesn't get a platform.'
'You cannot achieve peace if your objective is not to make political accommodations,' notes Dr Nyla Ali Khan, Sheikh Abdullah's grand-daughter, Dr Farooq Abdullah's niece and Omar Abdullah's cousin.
A year after serial bomb blasts hit the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar still awaits a security beef up. Central Industrial Security Force personnel are yet to be deployed at the shire, a police official said.
Mahabodhi temple, the target of serial blasts, has been closed for the general public but the prayers will continue to be held as usual, Bihar police chief Abhayanand said on Sunday. The director general of police said no harm has come to the sanctum sanctorum of the famous Buddhist temple, but some peripheral damage has occurred.
Colonel (retd) Anil Athale on how India can learn from the way many Muslim-majority countries in south-east Asia have protected their Hindu and Buddhist heritage.
Regardless of how the stalemate ends, the government needs to learn that regardless of its parliamentary strength it cannot take people for granted. A little bit of humility would do it a lot of good, recommends Virendra Kapoor.
Government banks have repeatedly failed to take quick action against defaulters. They only raise an alarm when the loan turns into a non-performing asset. A fitting example of this attitude is Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher.
Count among The Light of Asia's many, many admirers over 132 years: Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, Nehru and Ambedkar, Tolstoy and Kipling, Yeats and Eliot, Alfred Nobel, Dmitri Mendeleev and C V Raman. Jairam Ramesh reveals why he decided to write a book on Edwin Arnold, who wrote The Light of Asia.
In recognition of the award for Sharma, the Asia Society said the officer "has led the investigation and prosecution of several high-profile crimes in India, including the infamous Delhi gang rape case that earlier this year turned into a television series. She has transformed police work and the roles of policewomen in India."
Speaking at the Annual Prime Minister's National Cadet Corps Rally 2020, Modi said the problem in Jammu and Kashmir persisted since Independence and some families and political parties kept issues in the region "alive", as a result of which terrorism thrived there.
