The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
Pakistani police have arrested 15 Christians and booked 45 other members of the minority community under the controversial blasphemy law for allegedly desecrating Muslim graves in a village in Punjab province, sparking tension in the area.
AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi's first rally in Kolkata, scheduled to be held on Thursday, has been cancelled as the city police denied permission for it, party sources claimed.
A key suspect and his accomplice accused of fanning communal hatred on social media and instigating the recent violence against the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh have confessed to their crime in a pre-trial hearing, a court official has said.
A central leader of radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, Rehmat Salam Khattak, is among 30 arrested in raids following the attack on the temple in Terri village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Karak district on Wednesday, Station House Officer Rehmatullah Khan told PTI.
Never before in the history of the Republic has an election in the state mattered so much as it does now, observes Virendra Kapoor.
After his failed misadventure in Kargil, Musharraf deposed the then Prime Minister Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 in various positions.
Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of being an "opportunist", prominent cleric Maulana Barkati on Tuesday asked Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to be more critical of Modi in order to prove her secular credentials.
'Doesn't matter if two film olds are ungrateful to the industry that have given them all. Just wish they'd exit gracefully and keep their regressive views to themselves.'
Thousands of Muslims posing in front of holy sites for a selfie during the Haj, has angered some conservative clerics and sparking a debate over legitimacy of such actions during the annual pilgrimage.
Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliar's controversial remarks against gender equality have triggered a strong reaction from parties.
Women behind the wheel, movie theatres and now snowmen! Everyday things in the outside world are prohibited in Saudi Arabia's incredibly conservative society. Rediff.com compiles a list
The first World Cup in the Middle East has been anything but insulated from the troubles of the volatile region, set against a backdrop of anti-government protests in Iran and an upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The 700-odd clerics of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas were in agreement that yoga exercises included Hindu religious rituals that were haram (forbidden in Islam). During the weekend talks in Padang Panjang, a village in West Sumatra province, the clerics and scholars felt that practising rituals will erode and weaken Islamic faith.
Vice President Hamid Ansari's wife Salma Ansari has said that uttering 'talaq' thrice does not amount to divorce and asked Muslim women to read the Quran thoroughly instead of relying on clerics.
By maintaining that all Indians are tolerant, the Pew centre appears to have skimmed over the surface of its subject matter without delving deep, asserts Amulya Ganguli.
'Why should she involve Islam in it?' 'We are living in a secular democracy and she has the right to do what she wants. but why bring Islam into it?'
'I've never been more nervous about any of my own films. I can't eat, sleep or speak. I can barely breathe.'
India witnessed religiously motivated killings, arrests, riots and coerced religious conversions and the police in some cases failed to respond effectively to communal violence, according to the US State Department report on International Religious Freedom.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
It claimed that the Act is violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution and thus, is liable to be struck down.
He said going through the court was a loss for both Hindus and Muslims and an out-of-court settlement would be a 'win-win situation' for both the communities.
Many anticipate that by the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP may come to power, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
"The visit of Obama will not benefit the country in anyway and linking it with progress is baseless," Jawwad said.
Religious places including mosques have been closed for over a month now. And with clerics advising all to stay home and social distancing becoming the norm, people are unable to get together for prayers and Iftar, a ritual of breaking fast every evening, that are a key part of Islam's holiest month.
Bukhari had expressed strong resentment and sought to know why Hazare and his campaign managers had not done more to involve Muslims in their anti-graft movement.
Learning perhaps from the Kargil debacle, Musharraf tried hard to evolve as a statesman in his dealings with India, recalls Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
By presenting the battle in Bengal as one between Mamata on one side and Modi-Shah on the other, the saffron camp has projected the former as a larger-than-life figure, a portrayal which has the potential of turning her into Modi's main competitor in 2024, predicts Amulya Ganguli.
The participants lauded the government and the people for ensuring harmony after the apex court verdict on Saturday.
The timing of these transfers, while being projected as routine, is significant in both strategic and political terms, asserts Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
The Union home ministry on Wednesday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the investigation of 'brutal murder' of a tailor in Udaipur and probe involvement of any organisation and international links.
Mee Raqsam touches on the sensitive issue of a Muslim girl's determination to learn Bharata Natyam.
Sources in the prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind said it was not in favour of filing a review petition and wants the matter to end.
Terming the Batla House encounter "totally fake", the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Ahmed Bukhari has accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre of harassing Muslims.
'We will not accept this lollypop. They must make clear that where they want to give us the land'
Tens of thousands of white-clad pilgrims, including Indians, thronged Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia just outside Mecca, for the climax of the Hajj.
The controversial remarks made by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in 2005, has been taken out of context, a US official has said. During a 2005 conference in Australia's Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, Rauf had said, "We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than Al Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims."
With influential cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri descending on Islamabad with swarms of his supporters, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday lobbied with top political leaders, including Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif, to uphold the democratic system.
'The minorities are determined to prove Modi wrong in 2019, and the only way he can counter their mobilisation against his government is to get a bigger share of the Hindu vote,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
