While describing LeT's plan to project the 26/11 attack as "Hindu Terror", Maria wrote, "If everything went according to plan, Kasab would have died as Chaudhari and the media would have blamed 'Hindu terrorists' for the attack."
'Potent nationalism doesn't just distract from the economic task at hand; it actively undermines it.'
'The biggest change that the BJP can initiate in the run-up to 2024 is appointing new faces as chief ministers.' 'In doing so, it will send a message well beyond 2024.'
Pakistan wanted to be constitutionally communal, India wanted to be secular but is communalising itself. All three nations share a penal code, but they have amended their laws to enable the State to specifically target minorities, points out Aakar Patel.
Crucial reforms in Muslim personal law, especially laws related to inheritance and adoption, need to be initiated forthwith; historically speaking, without the State's backing, hardly has any reform taken place or allowed to prevail, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
According to several media reports, gunshots were fired at the residence of the son of Satish Kumar, the president of Lakshmi Narayan Mandir, in Surrey on Wednesday.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday came under attack from political parties for his controversial remarks that India is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is its identity.
'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Great Indian Family, observes Sukanya Verma, is a cheerful fable that points out the absurdity of discrimination as a tool employed by power hungry opportunists.
'Nobody will be saved if you don't stop this ideological and political-strategic bulldozer.'
The Election Commission Wednesday directed the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to refrain from making speeches on religious and communal lines, and opposition Congress from potentially divisive statements on the socioeconomic composition of the armed forces.
The governor's move has been welcomed by a large segment of the Indian-American community who were opposing the bill.
The rulers of the day need to be sensitive and involved in managing the identities of sacred spaces and the ongoing dialogues about the past in diverse societies, suggests Colonel Nikhil Apte (retd).
A student of IIT-Benares Hindu University, Varanasi, was allegedly molested and stripped by three motorcycle-borne men, who also recorded a video of the act, near her hostel, the police said on Thursday.
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.
The Madhya Pradesh government has asked garba organisers to check the identity cards of people before allowing them entry into the dance pandals, days after a state minister claimed such events had become a means of "Love Jihad".
With changes to Delhi's architectural map, a re-naming rash, and more Hindu symbolism in secular spaces, the government is making it clear it wants a clean break with post-colonial India, asserts T N Ninan.
Congress MLA from Nuh Aftab Ahmed on Thursday demanded strict action against those village panchayats in Haryana that have allegedly 'banned' entry of Muslim traders into their villages.
"Which foreign powers may be interested in taking advantage of unrest and instability in Manipur? Does the geopolitics of south east Asia also have a role in these events," he asked.
Gujarat was labelled Hindutva's crucible and Modi was to become the chief 'chemist'. A revealing political saga excerpted from Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay's The Demolition, the Verdict and the Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project.
In what could be a landmark moment for the minority Hindu community of Pakistan, Hindus will get Computerised National Identity Cards if the amended Bill is passed, something they have not been entitled to so far, reports Amir Mir
In Delhi, Kumar's family lives in the Majnu Ka Tila area and they are engaged in small-time business. He said a total of five people got Indian citizenship in his locality on Wednesday. Over a hundred had applied for it, he said.
'Unlike in other states, minorities form a significant number in Kerala. They have money and political power. In such a society, the emergence of a new communal power is not a healthy thing.'
Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
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.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday invoked the "exodus" of Hindus from Kairana a few years back, telling people in the western Uttar Pradesh town that those who shoot at traders now will be dispatched to the "next world".
...close to the 2024 general election. The BJP calling the Congress 'seasonal Hindu' is as laughable as the saffron party sparing itself the title of 'seasonal extreme Hindu.'
How else should one describe its election campaigns of the past years?
It was typically obsessive religion and personality cult with economic development for fig leaf, asserts Shyam G Menon.
Wouldn't it be better to join the celebrations with the vast Hindu majority while at the same time criticising Mr Modi/BJP/RSS for politicising it? notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Kejriwal took political steps and micro level care at every level not to allow the consolidation of Hindu votes behind the BJP,' observes Sheela Bhatt, the distinguished political commentator.
In their counter-letter, the group of former IFS officers acknowledged that the remarks made at the Haridwar event should be condemned by all right thinking, before adding that when the import of these is "exaggerated out of all proportion and the rantings by fringe elements" are seen as representative of the sentiments prevailing in ruling circles, then the political leanings and moral integrity of the critics can be rightly questioned.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
A Hindu religious congregation at a International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple in Bangladesh was attacked by unidentified gunmen who hurled bombs and fired gunshots at the worshippers, injuring two people in the second such incident in the same area in less than a week.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday and maintained there is no provision of stripping of anyone's citizenship in the new law.
'Bharat is a name that is 7000 years old.' 'We are not saying the name of the country should be changed from India to Bharat; we only recommended that the stress should be on Bharat.'
"The nakli Shiv Sena wants to bury me alive. They abuse me in such a way that it will be liked by their favourite vote bank," Modi said.
A division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Abhay Waghwase in an order of February 26 granted anticipatory bail to the accused who were denied relief by the local court.
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Nine people including three women were killed and 33 injured as a bus carrying pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi plunged into a deep gorge after an ambush by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district on Sunday evening, police said, as political leaders cutting across party lines strongly condemn the dastardly attack.
