Responding to USCIRF's statement on the bill, the MEA said it was guided by 'prejudices and biases'.
In a veiled attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said nobody can claim to be equivalent to the state as such an assertion is detrimental to democracy but admitted the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state is progressing at a "satisfactory" rate.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said that Assam is the 'most complex state' administered in the country as people of various groups live in there.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said the core values of diversity, tolerance and plurality of Indian civilisation must be kept in mind and cannot be wasted, in remarks that come against the backdrop of the Dadri lynching over rumours of beef eating.
Achyut Yagnik, co-author of The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva and Beyond, says, "I am surprised to read that Rahul claims that he is a Brahmin. His grandfather (Feroze Gandhi, husband of former prime minister Indira Gandhi) hails from Gujarat and Parsis are Gujaratis."
Several petitions, including those by Congress MP Jairam Ramesh and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019.
In a statement issued on Monday, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom said that it was deeply troubled over the passage of the bill in Lok Sabha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "no respect" for the culture, language and people of Tamil Nadu, he alleged.
While taking a dig at Donald Trump, the defence minister hails ndia's plurality and diversity.
'Pluralism is a fundamental fact of Indian life,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) tells members of the US Congress. 'Indians created a secular/plural State because that is what the majority believes in and not the other way round.'
'SC is giving us the distinct impression that verdicts, treatment of review petitions are influenced by what pleases/displeases those in power'
During her nearly 17-minute speech, she did not mention Pakistan.
'All-India alliances are not the priority today.' 'Therefore, the CPI-M's political line dovetails with the emergent political reality in the country,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
'As a student of history, I am no pessimist, but regardless of which party/coalitions comes to power on May 23, the space for secularism, pluralism and minority rights has shrunk significantly,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Dalit leader Udit Raj, who is campaigning against Team Anna's version of the Lokpal Bill, on Tuesday demanded that corporates, NGOs and media should be brought under the anti-corruption ombudsman to make the law "more effective". "If there is no representation of plurality, I don't think this law will be successful," the National Chairman of All India Confederation of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Organisations said.
'Although Narendra Modi had no direct participation in the Ayodhya agitation, he would not have been in the dominant position he is now had it not been for the Ram Janambhoomi agitation.'
Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs, who is described by his biographer as being "brittle and very mean to people," had high regards for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and admired his Silicon valley counterpart for "not selling out."
The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. This plurality of our society has come through assimilation of ideas over centuries. Secularism and inclusion are a matter of faith for us. It is our composite culture which makes us into one nation.
India's plurality often teaches politicians lessons that they might not otherwise learn, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Privacy allows people a space where they can refuse to conform. And it is in that space where liberty flourishes.
A black box for automobiles, low-cost solar water heater, power generation from biogas using bike, an improved apparatus for ultrasonography are part of a treasure trove of projects done by college students.
"We are very much engaged in trying to pursue a ambitious agreement for the Doha Round. We're engaged bilaterally with major trading partners. We're engaged in the multilateral process in Geneva. We're engaged plural laterally with various groupings of countries," US Deputy National Security Advisor Mike Froman
The report shows that there has been a deep and disturbing decline in respect for media freedom at both the global and regional levels.
Pluralism, democracy and minority rights were the focus of discussion at the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin's two-day 20th annual convention, held in Detroit.
Software icon N R Narayana Murthy on Saturday backed Anna Hazare's movement against corruption and favoured the Prime Minister's Office and the judiciary coming under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. The chairman and chief mentor of Infosys also supported people's movements taking to the streets to demand an end to corruption."I think in a democracy, pluralism is inevitable. It has to be there. That is what makes democracy stronger," Murthy told reporters.
Addressing a gathering at the launch of a book on Jawaharlal Nehru's works and speeches, Singh said that if India is recognised in the comity of nations as a vibrant democracy and, if it is considered as one of the important world powers, it was the first prime minister, who should be recognised as its main architect.
Tharoor also said that he certainly thinks Rahul Gandhi has the "mettle, capability and aptitude to once again lead the party", but if he does not wish to do so then the party must "take action" to elect a new chief.
A 'Hindu India' would not be Hindu at all, but a 'Sanghi Hindutva state', which is a different country altogether, says Tharoor in his new book The Battle of Belonging that was released on Saturday.
Over 300 eminent personalities from the creative and scholarly community of India, including actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mira Nair, vocalist TM Krishna, author Amitav Ghosh and historian Romila Thapar have expressed solidarity with the students and others protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. Writers Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, actors Ratna Patak Shah, Jaaved Jafferi, Nandita Das, Lillete Dubey, sociologist Ashis Nandy, activists Sohail Hashmi and Shabnam Hashmi were also among the signatories.
'I've never been more nervous about any of my own films. I can't eat, sleep or speak. I can barely breathe.'
The Reverend J Jon Bruno, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, California, was awarded the Hindu American Foundation's annual Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism at the HAF's Sixth Capitol Hill reception in early October.
'Their brave resistance keep our hopes alive that this youth upsurge is strengthening India's democracy and pluralism,' states Mohammad Sajjad.
After five years of wait, Shree Sharadamba Hindu Temple complex, built at a whopping cost of 11 million dollars to stand as "a testament to Canada and India's proud traditions of pluralism," was finally opened for the public in Toronto. The complex which consists of the Sringeri Sharadamba Temple and the Adi Shankara Museum, was consecrated on Sunday in a ritual known as "Kumbhabhishekam." The complex is the first in Canada that is dedicated to Adi Shankaracharya.
'With the deaths of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi, the BJP and Congress thought that they had a chance.' 'They have conceded that power is with the Dravidian parties.'
'It is perhaps a sense of intellectual inadequacy, of an ingrained inferiority complex born of the years when the BJP languished in the margins of Indian politics and society that, when faced with the soaring ideas about Indian pluralism, the Hindutva camp turns its face so resolutely against Nehru,' says Amulya Ganguli.
India is not a full democracy but a flawed one, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2008 Democracy index. The conclusion is drawn on the basis of the country's performance on 60 indicators which measure electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.The Democracy index ranks India 35th out of 167 countries, among other nations considered 'flawed democracies'.
'The BJP will be the ruling party.'
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that India attaches high priority to its relations with the United States. In his departure statement, Dr Singh said, "Our bilateral agenda covers almost all areas of human endeavour. The United States is our largest trading partner in goods and services, and we have deep economic ties."
AASU, Cong MP Jairam Ramesh, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, and several NGOs have filed petitions against the act that was assented to by the President yesterday.
'No civilised nation can thrive if it is possessed with the spirit of Hindutva.'
