From the standoff with China to the government's response to the farmers' protest, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh holds a freewheeling talk.
Have we been allowed to forget Partition? Isn't Partition the reason many Hindus cannot bring themselves to trust Muslims? So many Muslims born after 1947 have told me with anguish: "How long will we be blamed for Partition?" notes Jyoti Punwani.
'Faith, and the notion that it has been 'outraged', is used to justify the most outrageous, illiberal and regressive acts,' notes Shuma Raha.
Stoking yet another controversy, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala on Friday described social reformer and Dalit icon Sree Narayana Guru, who belonged to the backward Ezhava caste, as the greatest "Hindu sanyasi" the state has ever seen.
The development is being seen as a sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America. Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the US, representing approximately one per cent of the US population in 2016.
The ruling party sharply countered the comment, saying the Congress had "demeaned and defamed" Hindus of India.
A 32-year-old Muslim woman has accused a United States department store of discrimination after she was asked to leave the retail outlet for wearing the traditional Islamic veil or the 'niqab'.
If we don't want a Hindu version of our neighbour, we must keep open minds -- even when what we hear or see is not what we like.
It will be heard by a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The two Indian Americans on the White House inter-faith council, Eboo Patel, a Muslim, and Anju Bhargava, a Hindu, have strongly endorsed United States President Barack Obama's support for the proposed mosque cum community and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York, saying it was a constitutional issue with regard to freedom of religion that had to be protected zealously
'The BJP had ruled earlier too, but nothing of this sort happened then... I don't say the government is behind the attacks, but they don't do anything to stop the attacks.' 'The prime minister has to tell the perpetrators that it is not in the interest of the government that such incidents happen.' 'When somebody says all Indians are Hindus, responsible people should ask him to stop and assure the country that this is not the opinion of the government. But it is not happening and it is quite unfortunate,' Cardinal Baselios Cleemis tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
'You can't go on creating division and rhetoric of hate.' 'It comes to roost. We are seeing the first glimpses of that in the state elections.'
Even Muslim critics of the face veil, who insist that it has no sanction in their reading of Islam, do not necessarily support the French ban, says Yoginder Sikand
'Thank God I don't live in a country governed by religious contractors,' Irrfan bursts out on Twitter.
'Why should she involve Islam in it?' 'We are living in a secular democracy and she has the right to do what she wants. but why bring Islam into it?'
The two channels -- Media One and Asianet News TV -- were earlier issued a show cause notice and after they filed their replies, the ministry found them to be in violation of the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
The actor's arrest had sparked social media outrage with people calling it an attack on the freedom of speech.
BJP general secretary and in-charge of Karnataka's party affairs P Muralidhar Rao alleged that the problem of the Congress was looking at schemes through the prism of religion which is reflected in promising benefits to autorickshaw owners, "who in majority belong to the minority community."
The BJP knows the CAA, combined with a fresh nationwide NRC process, is an idea that's dead on arrival. Where it lives on is as a divisive, polarising instrument as its rivals have to take a position against it and thereby be exposed to the charge of 'Muslim appeasement' again, points out Shekhar Gupta.
An influential lawmaker from New York congratulated Captain Tejdeep Singh Rattan for graduating from the Army Officer Course, making him the first turbaned Sikh officer to complete basic training in over two decades.
About 200 people were inside the conference centre at the time and were moved to the back of the building before being evacuated using school buses.
'Whatever the BJP tries to do, they will not be able to make a big mark in Kerala.'
France is under a wave of cyberattacks since the Paris rampage that killed 17, with about 19,000 French websites being targeted, said a top French cyberdefense official.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill would possibly be the first piece of legislation that is perniciously discriminatory on the basis of religion/faith, says Mohammad Sajjad.
"They say I am anti-Hindu. No. I am anti-(Narendra) Modi, I am anti-Hegde, I am anti-Amit Shah. According to me, they are not Hindus. Mr Anant Kumar Hegde, who says he wants to wipe out an 'ism', a religion from the face of this earth cannot be a Hindu," Prakash Raj said.
Bollywood celebrated 70 years of Independence by telling us what it means to them, and posting interesting pictures on social media.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Meet Joya Nandy Kazi, Hollywood's go-to-choreographer for Indian traditional dance and Bollywood style dance routines.
Recently, several Twitter users began migrating to the social networking platform after a protest that began with Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde's Twitter account suspension, and moved on to a larger conversation about Twitter's policies being allegedly anti-Dalit and certain castes and religion.
About 90 per cent of the workers at this delivery service facility are said to be Indian-Americans, mostly from the Sikh community.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday decided to launch a nationwide campaign against making 'Surya Namaskar' and Yoga compulsory in schools.
'There is a discomfort among many of us at the fact that the Republic is not more Hindu than it could or should be.' 'This discomfort is producing laws such as the one we now have in Gujarat,' says Aakar Patel.
'The idea of a 'Hindu Rashtra' only emerged in the 1920s and 1930s.' 'The context at that time was the clear British attempt at 'divide and rule' between Hindus and Muslims and within Hindus on caste lines,' argues military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde at the outset said that it will only deal with the issues referred to it by a five-judge bench on November 14 in the Sabarimala case, and asked the lawyers to convene a meeting on January 17 to decide on 're-framing' or adding additional issues to be deliberated upon by it.
'It is a travesty that I have to prove my commitment to Gandhi and to this country.'
Television anchor and actress Mini Mathur, husband Director Kabir Khan (whose film '83 on India's first cricket World Cup win releases on April 10) and their children Sarah and Vivaan are currently holidaying in the Maldives.
The last time a prime minister attended an event at AMU was Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964. Before him, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had visited the AMU four times.
'It seems we will get an NRC which will include the names of illegal foreigners and exclude genuine Indian citizens'
'He was always opposed to a form of nationalism that was narrow, selfish and arrogant.' 'He will always remain a beacon of inspiration for freedom-loving people across the world and for movements of resistance against oppressive State power.'
'The protests have forced the government to announce that the NRC is not an immediate priority.' 'Even if they are trying to pursue this policy in a different guise, through the NPR, the fact that they have been forced to pause and backtrack at least temporarily shows the positive impact of the protests.' 'Moreover, various state governments have opposed the NPR which cannot be carried out without their cooperation. That is also a success of the protests.' 'The state governments would not have taken this stance against the central government if their hand had not been forced by the popular mood.'
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