Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas celebrations at the Statue of Unity, commemorating Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's birth anniversary with a unity pledge and parade.
The Congress party launched a scathing attack on the RSS on its 100th anniversary, citing excerpts from a book claiming Mahatma Gandhi described the Sangh as a "communal body with a totalitarian outlook." The party also referenced Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's criticism of the RSS.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has announced the formation of a special CoBRA battalion for counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. This decision comes 17 years after the jungle warfare unit was established to combat Naxal insurgency. The new battalion, directed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will be deployed in forested areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Jammu region, where recent terrorist incidents have occurred. CoBRA units are known for their specialized jungle warfare and guerilla tactics training, and the new battalion will be equipped with modern weaponry, communication, and surveillance equipment.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has stated that Naxalism, currently confined to just four districts in India, will be completely eradicated by March 31, 2026. He emphasized the crucial role of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), particularly its CoBRA battalion, in achieving this goal. Shah lauded the CRPF's contributions to national security, highlighting their efforts in combating terrorism in Kashmir, maintaining peace in the Northeast, and significantly reducing Naxal violence. He also paid tribute to the CRPF's sacrifices, acknowledging the loss of 2,264 personnel in the line of duty.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has declared that Chhattisgarh will be free from the menace of Naxalism by March 31, 2026. He stated that the Centre and the state government are committed to eradicating Naxalism, highlighting the significant achievements of the Chhattisgarh police in the last year. Shah also appealed to Naxalites to surrender and join the mainstream, emphasizing the government's rehabilitation policy. He further praised the Chhattisgarh police's efforts in curbing organized crime and narcotics.
India should have learnt lessons from the 1962 war but no headway was made in the development of border infrastructure till 2014, he claimed, adding that the Modi government increased the budget for the same from Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 14,500 crore.
Modi warned BJP workers and supporters to be aware of the Congress which, he said, has stopped abusing him and is "working silently" to capture rural votes.
It had organised its 83rd anniversary event last year in Jammu after the government asked all paramilitary or CAPF to hold these events outside the national capital.
'The whole Kashmiri population is seemed to be a suspect community. This status is not good.'
The Narender Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat had banned Jaswant's book alleging that it defamed the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
PM, Advani pay tribute to Vallabhbhai Patel
Take Kashmir but don't talk of Hyderabad, Soz claimed Patel told the then Pak PM.
The minister was asked about the steps taken to prevent damage to Railway property due to CAA related protests.
Shashi Tharoor, who was sacked as Congress party spokesman in the wake of his effusive praise of the prime minister's Swachh Bharat program, on Thursday attacked the Narendra Modi government for "ignoring the martyrdom" of Indira Gandhi, whose death anniversary falls on Friday.
The BJP and TRS took digs at each other over the celebrations marking the annexing of the erstwhile Nizam-ruled Hyderabad state to the Union of India, with the former slamming vote bank politics behind the lack of official commemoration so far while the ruling party warned against communal forces trying to divide the society.
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.
This is for the first time that a state is being converted into two UTs.
Telugu Desam Party MP Naramalli Sivaprasad has been donning various outfits in order to protest and demand special status for Andhra Pradesh.
As Bharatiya Janata Party formed its first government in Maharashtra, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said, had their alliance with Shiv Sena ended at least a fortnight before it did, then his party might have won clear majority in the assembly polls.
The petition has been filed by Mohammad AKbar Lone and Justice (rtd) Hasnain Masoodi, both Lok Sabha members belonging to the NC.
"There is a recent trend of people expecting that everything has to be done by the government," he said.
The transformation of the Modi-Shah baiting Hardik Patel into saffron poster boy.
He also said that although India got independence much before Goa became free, people of the country could not enjoy at that time as they felt uneasy thinking that one part was the country was still under foreign rule.
It is largely due to his vision and efforts that we have almost quadrupled our per capita milk availability in the last 40 years, points out Shailesh Dobhal.
His statement comes two days after Pakistan's Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry admitted his country's role in the Pulwama attack during a debate in their National Assembly (Parliament).
The work order for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project 'Statue of Unity' - the world's tallest statue of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was issued by the Gujarat government on Monday, to leading engineering company Larsen and Toubro (L&T).
A series of events were held across the country to mark the day and government officials, security personnel and others took a pledge 'to preserve the unity, integrity and security of the nation and also strive hard to spread this message'.
Rajnath Singh, under whose stewardship the Bharatiya Janata Party has stormed to power with its highest-ever tally, took charge as the Union home minister.
The total number of states in the country will be now 28 while the total UTs will go up to seven.
The apex court asked Venugopal to file an affidavit indicating steps taken so far in the matter.
An article published by the party's Mumbai unit has caused a stir as it blames Jawaharlal Nehru for the state of affairs in Kashmir, China and Tibet.
We reproduce an appreciation article that Sardar Patel wrote on October 14, 1949, a month before Nehru's 60th birthday, where he heaped praises on Nehru's merits and also went on to elaborate the deep ties he shared with him.
In a sharp attack on Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign centric around him, expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh on Sunday deprecated "veneration" of an individual and said world was full of graveyards of those who are considered indispensable to their nation.
'Patel was more in tune with the popular mood than Jawaharlal Nehru. While the principle that Hindus and Muslims should be able to live together remained central to Nehru's vision for India, the Sardar was less sentimental.' 'Nehru would angrily face down mobs himself, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot. A veritable tent city, filled with Muslim refugees, sprouted on the lawns of his bungalow... Mountbatten feared Nehru's impulsiveness would get him killed, and assigned soldiers to watch over him.' Nisid Hajari's Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition casts fresh light on the events and personalities behind the horrific division of the subcontinent which haunts the India and Pakistan to this day.
The curative petition and other legal remedies still available to Yakub Memon are part of his rights as a prisoner condemned to death. Does the Maharashtra government want to deprive him of these rights, asks Jyoti Punwani.
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