Special police teams have been formed to trace the assailants who hacked to death Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu unit general secretary V Ramesh, even as a state-wide bandh has been called by the party on July 22 to protest the murder.
Rajinikanth said he stood by his comments made on Periyar, maintaining that they were factual and refused to apologise as demanded by fringe Dravidian outfits. DMK chief advised him to exercise caution while expressing views on Periyar.
Members of the right-wing outfit burn PK posters.
Many anticipate that by the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP may come to power, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Azad, who recently announced that he would float his own political outfit was present in solidarity with the anti-CAA protesters. He led his supporters during the protest at the historic mosque. Tens of hundreds of people turned up in Jama Masjid area of Old Delhi on Friday in a major protest against the CAA and raised slogans denouncing the newly-enacted law.
Lakshmanan contracted polio when he was only three months old. 'I didn't want to go for the swayamvar, but my uncle convinced me to attend.' He sat close to the door at the swayamvar. And then, Rohini walked in. Both her legs, too, were afflicted with polio.
Already in the eye of a raging controversy over the 'Ghar Wapsi' programme, fiery Hindutva mascot and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath has now launched a campaign for declaring cow as 'Rashtra Mata', claiming his demand "embodies the sentiment of every Indian".
The Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the chief minister was manhandled during the "pre-planned" protest.
Dear Friend is for those who idealised Dil Chahta Hai all out of proportion, and then warmed up to the premise that friendship could be a lot more complicated, and transient, observes Sreehari Nair.
On May 2, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will step into Bihar and challenge the Nitish-Lalu order in the state.
With the terror trail leading to Hindu right-wing groups in 2006 Malegaon bombings, the Central Bureau of Investigation is now planning to question members of such outfits including those arrested in connection with the blasts in Maharashtra's power-loom city two years later.
'Should the Congress take Jyotiraditya's departure as good riddance?', asks Mohammad Sajjad.
The carving work by artisans had been carried out uninterrupted since 1990 when Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Amid mounting criticism of right wing outfits over Dadri lynching incident, Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Thursday hit back and said it has become "fashion" for "some people" to abuse Hindus or else they contract "diarrhoea".
Togadia said he would go on an indefinite fast from Tuesday to push the Hindutva cause.
The Muslim Law Board contended that Uniform Civil Code, if implemented, will paint all people in "one colour" which will threaten the country's pluralism and diversity.
The hijab-row triggered protests in Karnataka spread across the state on Tuesday, with campuses witnessing 'conflict-like' situations marked by stone-pelting incidents, use of force by police and the Muslim girls standing their ground for wearing the headscarves, prompting calls for peace and calm both by the government and the high court, which is now looking into the students' plea for their right to their hijab.
A small step in this direction was taken with making triple talaq a punishable offence in the last Parliament session. But UCC is difficult to implement, reports Archis Mohan.
A video clip, purportedly showing some Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers kicking a cow during immersion of ashes of Ashok Singhal in Lucknow.
Bindu and Kanakadurga, who broke centuries-old tradition by entering the holy shrine, said there were no objections from the devotees and called those who were protesting riot-mongers.
Life virtually came to a grinding halt across Tamil Nadu as the state woke up to deserted streets with shops, including eateries, remaining shut in the wake of the demise of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
"The sanctity of the temple will be revived by cleaning it with the water from the holy Ganga and Yamuna," temple priest said.
The CPM leader claimed that the recent incidents in Orissa have highlighted the use of violence by these outfits against Christians, including the use of weapons and inflammatory materials to burn houses and churches
Thakur, 48, also set the tone for her high-profile poll battle in Bhopal againt Congress candidate Digvijay Singh, whom she accused of using words like 'Hindu' and 'saffron' terror.
As many as 2,128 people have been arrested on the second day of a nationwide anti-terror crackdown, police said, adding 48 of them belonged to various militant outfits.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
"We strongly condemn the allegation levelled by Shyam Manav... Hypnotism does not possess the power to make a person do violent act," said the spokesperson of the Sanstha, Abhay Vartak, at a press conference in Mumbai.
In the backdrop of threats by the Sri Ram Sene to disrupt Valentine's day celebrations and marry off couples dating on the day, police have beefed up security in Bangalore and kept leaders of the outfit under the scanner. Leaders of outfits like Sri Ram Sene and Rashtriya Hindu Sene are under the scanner. "We are keeping a close watch on their activities,' the additional director general of police-law and order, R Infant told PTI in Bangalore.
Once Ram temple is built it will become a 'ghoshit (declared) Hindu Rashtra', a VHP leader told the gathering.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal on Wednesday warned that they will not allow pilgrims to reach the Ajmer Dargah, where the annual Urs has begun, unless the Jammu and Kashmir government withdraws its latest order revoking the transfer of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.Bajrang Dal Rajasthan unit's convenor Mahendra Singh Meena said that Hindu activists of the saffron outfits would block buses carrying pilgrims in Rajasthan during the two-day bandh.
Tipu Sultan is a controversial figure in Kodagu district as Kodavas (Coorgis), a martial race, believe thousands of their men and women were seized and held captive during his occupation and subjected to torture, death and forcible conversion to Islam.
VHP has cancelled its 18-day 'Chaturved Swahakar Yajna' that was scheduled to start from Monday.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has often been mocked by opponents for not having a well-defined ideological plank, seems to have finally found its calling in Bengali sub-nationalism, as a section of top party leaders feel only an 'inclusive message of regionalism, which the Bengalis can identify with, will counter the aggressive nationalism and Hindutva practised by the saffron camp'.
The Sangh has let it be known that a 'social' outfit called the Hindu Yuva Vahini, set up years ago by Yogi, did not have its approval.
The alleged forced reconversion of about 100 people to Hinduism in Agra by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate set off a chorus of criticism against the government today by the opposition inside and outside Parliament with its leaders calling it illegal and demanding 'strict' action.
Adityanath says there is no scope for political violence in democracy.
A large number of people took out a 'solidarity march' in South Delhi on Sunday in support of Jamia Millia Islamia students and those facing police action during protests against the contentious law.
The Emergency greatly influenced the RSS' makeover from a fringe force in the Indian political imagination to one that could have its own man sworn in as prime minister in two decades' time. A riveting excerpt from Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil's India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975-1977.
"Whether it is Togadia or (VHP president Ashok) Singhal's statement... the entry of VHP leaders should be banned in Rajasthan if communal harmony is to be maintained," he said.
Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit was not authorised to infiltrate into any right wing group including 'Abhinav Bharat' as a military intelligence officer, army officials said on Wednesday rejecting his claims in this regard.
