A substantial part of a catholic church in northeast Delhi's Tahirpur area was gutted when a fire broke out at its premises on Monday morning with the Christian community suspecting foul play in the incident.
'It is less polarising than Hindutva.'
'For the BJP, development is nothing more than a jumla,' says Tejaswi Yadav.
"You have an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. You worked in a bank in New York. What made you give up all that and pursue acting?" 'A little bit of courage and a lot of stupidity.'
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Sakshi Maharaj's comments have once again put the Narendra Modi government in a jam. Though the party swiftly slapped a show cause notice on Maharaj, asking him to explain why action should not be initiated against him for his controversial remarks in the recent past, the man denied it, saying it was the 'BJP's internal matter.'
'Modi remains the most popular politician in India; the BJP's organisational and fundraising prowess is considerable; and the Opposition, while newly collaborative, has no leader or clear economic messaging as of yet.'
The prime minister highlighted the gains made during his last four years vis-a-vis the previous governments to suggest that he has lived up to the promise of hope he had offered to the electorate in 2014.
'Suicide rates among Indian farmers were a chilling 47 per cent higher than they were for the rest of the population in 2011. In some of the states worst hit by the agrarian crisis, they were well over 100 per cent higher. In Maharashtra, farmers were killing themselves at a rate that was 162 per cent higher than that for any other Indians excluding farmers. A farmer in this state is two-and-a-half times more likely to commit suicide than anyone else in the country, other than farmers,' says P Sainath.
"It makes me angry that people are running shops in the name of cow protection. Most of them are anti-social elements hiding behind the mask of cow protection," the PM said.
With all its ups and downs, 2015 is now concluding. And the New Year will bring new expectations to all of us. So tell us your expectations from 2016:
'...that it cannot accommodate dissent and objection.' 'Are its foundations so delicate that it feels endangered even in instances outside of armed rebellions?' 'The question that needs to be asked of the political supporters of such laws is not why they are confident of the importance of the law on sedition.' 'It is instead why they are lacking in such confidence about India.'
'He gave this 'gaali' (abuse) to me or you? Did he abuse me or Gujarat? Did he abuse the cultured society of India or me?' Modi asked the people at a rally in Banaskantha.
'If you look at the entire protest on April 2, you will find it was not only about the Atrocities Act dilution, but the accumulated anger of the Dalit community against the BJP over the last four years.'
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
Rahul exuded confidence that his party will emerge victorious in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly polls and defeat the BJP in the 2019 general polls.
It is becoming more and more apparent that Shyamvar Rai is like an onion. And a pretty pungent one at that. As layer after layer of his life gets peeled off, in full view of the court, new layers of his character are exposed.
Photojournalist Chandu Mhatre, one of the first to reach Bhopal after India's worst industrial disaster ravaged the city, remembers his worst seven days, in a conversation with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com.
#Not In My Name, said ordinary citizens, as they took to the streets to reclaim the India they believed in.
Nitish 'sent his emissary, Prashant Kishor, to me on five different occasions.' 'Kishor seemed to indicate that if I were to assure in writing my party's support to the JD-U, the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan.' A revealing excerpt from Lalu Prasad Yadav's Gopalganj To Raisina: My Political Journey.
Incidents of arson, firing and vandalism were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab as protesters agitated against the dilution of the SC/ST Act.
The National Investigation Agency has accused the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad of planting evidence and coercing witnesses, but its own investigation is incomplete and leaves many questions unanswered.
A look at few gurus who have attracted controversy in recent times.
In 1954, a bench of eight Supreme Court judges declared that the Constitution-makers did not recognise the Fundamental Right to Privacy. It is hoped that a larger bench as and when constituted will uphold the Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right overruling the 1954 decision, says the distinguished lawyer, P P Rao.
'There is nothing traitorous about highlighting the poor record of your own government. If the Indian government does something wrong, we all have the right to point this out at any forum, international or national.'
'Is Rahul turning the Congress' covert soft-Hindutva support into overt support now?' 'And if so, following in the BJP's footsteps, is the Congress going to abandon Indian Muslims and Muslim causes altogether?' asks Dr Najid Hussain whose father-in-law former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
A pregnant woman is murdered in cold blood in the heart of suburban Mumbai. By her father who didn't want her to marry the man she did.
'There are hundreds of items from Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Rajasthan, Gujarat in Subhash Kapoor's loot. The Tamil Nadu Idol Wing wants to just prosecute Kapoor for three cases and close it. To me that's myopic.'
Repealing the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and passing an anti-torture bill consonant with the Convention against Torture would have a more durable impact on malicious prosecutions than providing 'legal aid' or setting up special courts, according to rights groups, says Vicky Nanjappa
The calculated playing up of confidence by Amit Shah and his team obviously means that the BJP has a strong counter-strategy in place to turn the tables on the Congress before the monsoon session is over, reports Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
A look at few gurus who have attracted controversy in recent times.
'Counter terrorism does not appear to be good guys fighting the bad ones; it is about people being picked up, detained and charged with crimes they did not commit.'
Out to prove his critics wrong, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda says it's not anti-incumbency but pro-incumbency that will work in his favour and give him a third term.
'Mardaani has become a kind of movement. It is beyond being a film.' Rani Mukerji loves the response to her latest film.
Maruti Warke's basic understanding illustrated how far outside the system most less privileged Indians are -- simple, innocent people barely but admirably eking out an existence, with almost no knowledge of their surroundings or owning even the basic smarts to go about life. The same people who instinctively and often astutely vote governments into and out of office in New Delhi without knowing the entire reality of this country. The folks who are actually the essence of India.
Transcript of the political resolution adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party in its national executive meeting in Panaji, Goa on Sunday.
Though the list of superstitious beliefs is long, often dissolving distinctions of class, caste, religion and education, Karnataka's anti-superstition bill is seen as a big step ahead.
'My husband will never forget the torture nor forgive those responsible for it.'
The Mukerjeas' former driver could remember every detail of Sheena Bora's alleged murder five years ago, including on what day he took Indrani to the beauty parlour, and the brands of liquor he bought, but was unable to recall anything subsequently or more recently...
'If the money we spend on importing pulses reach our farmers, there won't be any suicides'
