The winners of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2024 have been revealed.
In a historic move, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has signed legislation making Diwali a holiday for public schools in the major American city.
The Bharat Ratna for him comes nine years after the honour was bestowed on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The two leaders together spearheaded the journey of the Jana Sangh and then the BJP for over five decades.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea on a dispute involving the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi on November 10.
The road leading from Hanumangarhi to Naya Ghat wore an illuminated look in the evening, with several earthen lamps lit outside shops, houses, guest houses and dharamshalas.
Roads are being expanded, bridges are being built, hotels are springing up, and the crowds are pouring in. Bringing with them promise of unforeseen economic boom. Ayodhya, it seems, has opened up its heart, Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com discovers on his first day in the city.
Banners terming Kejriwal "anti-Hindu" and showing him wearing a skull cap surfaced in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara cities on Saturday.
The Islamic State has claimed the gruesome killing of a Hindu head priest in Bangladesh using guns and cleavers at a temple in an area bordering India.
The new Ram Lalla idol was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on Monday, an event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and watched by lakhs of people on television at their homes and in temples across the country.
According to the Hindu calendar, Dev Uthani Ekadashi is the day in the month of Kartik, the 11th lunar day (a period between new moon and full moon, also known as shukla paksha).
Interestingly, the choice of August 5 as the day of the bhoomi pujan coincides with the abolition of Kashmir's special status on the same day a year ago. Perhaps the RSS-BJP wants August 5 to be remembered as the date on which the foundation stone of their cherished Hindu rashtra was laid, notes Amulya Ganguli.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala took note of the submissions of lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain that the district judge of Varanasi has deferred five times the decision on a plea seeking clubbing of all civil suits pertaining to the dispute.
Our problem is that we look at these words from a non-Indic perspective, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaaran claimed that Raja Raja Cholan was depicted as a Hindu king and already attempts were made to take away Tamil saint poet Tiruvalluvar's identity as well.
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.
Is 2024 a done deal for the BJP? It was a done deal five years ago itself, but it did not have a guarantee.
Now, with the temple consecration, it seems to have acquired a Ramji Ki Guarantee, notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'Modi's power rests on the Hindu vote.' 'It is this vote bank that sees the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala as an intrusion into its religious practice and is frothing at the mouth.' 'History shows us the ill-fated consequences of a strong government buckling before street power,' cautions Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Since the Supreme Court has banned the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu, normally conducted on Mattu Pongal day, the festival is expected to be low-key in Madurai and neighbouring districts, where it is widely popular.
Officials said security personnel, including those from paramilitary forces, have been deployed to keep a strict vigil. Security at inter-state and inter-district borders has also been tightened, they said.
Modi believes that the Congress leadership does not have the political sagacity to undertake a course correction because of its preoccupation about not losing its current gains in the voter base, observes Shekhar Iyer.
These images from across the globe tell us that it is a bizarre world out there!
Narendra Modi has proved through execution of this event in Ayodhya that amongst all his contemporaries in politics he knows ordinary Indians like none other, notes Sheela Bhatt.
January 22, 2024 is not merely a date but marks the advent of a new era, PM Modi declared.
The police sources said around a dozen kanwariyas suffered minor injuries and were discharged after treatment.
The Muslim side in the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri complex case on Thursday filed an objection in the court against the Hindu plaintiffs' plea for the carbon dating of the "Shivling" claimed to be found on the masjid premises.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on April 14 a plea by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee seeking permission for wazu (ritual ablution) at the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi during the month of Ramzan.
If Saudi Arabia, with just two Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, can create a huge tourism-based ecosystem beyond oil, Ayodhya is sure to become the world's hottest religious tourism site in less than a decade, predicts R Jagannathan.
The Opposition's stand on the Ayodhya consecration is puzzling. Their only objection seems to be that the BJP has hijacked a religious event for political benefit. In saying this, the Opposition is either being naive or hypocritical, argues Jyoti Punwani.
The trust members had earlier said they would be sending an official invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the event.
The Allahabad high court on Wednesday fixed December 5 for further hearing on a Gyanvapi masjid management's revision petition challenging a Varanasi court order on the maintainability of a plea seeking permission to offer regular prayers to idols of deities in the mosque complex.
Bihar has been cleaning its homes and surroundings, including the narrowest of lanes, and especially the roads leading to the Ganga ghats and the ponds. Devotional songs can be heard every where you go during Chhath, says M I Khan.
The temple trust took the decision to stop using the loudspeakers on Wednesday.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prima facie, the advertisement video being circulated on social media seems morphed, Mishra told reporters in Bhopal on Sunday.
According to the committee, the structure in question was part of a fountain in the "wazookhana", a small reservoir used by devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering namaz.
They all seem to forget that the Music Academy is as much an independent institution as T M Krishna is an individual musician. In drawing those red lines for the Academy management, they do not even seem to recognise that they too have crossed a red line themselves, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The RSS does not mind playing politics with religion-based census data despite knowing well that it is completely flawed, says Syed Firduas Ashraf.
As the campaign peaked, AAP leaders evidently realised they had to deflect their chief opponent's attempts to polarise the electorate over religious identity, explains David Devadas.
Walking, cycling and even skating! Covering long distances amid bone-chilling cold, people from all over the country and cutting across religions are flocking to the temple town of Ayodhya ahead of the consecration ceremony on January 22.
The court then asked Prasaran if question of this nature about birth of a religious figure has ever arisen in any court.
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