In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Proprietors Yadgar Marker and his daughter Phiroza launched a "Save India Club" appeal as they fought to keep it going but have now announced its impending closure.
'He has emerged as a formidable leader who cannot be ignored anymore, who cannot be mocked.'
On Monday, a new chapter will be written in Ayodhya's and the country's history with the consecration ceremony at the newly-built Ram temple which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and over 7,000 guests.
A day earlier, the properties of two people accused of rioting were demolished in Saharanpur where stone-pelting had taken place as well.
The district magistrate said that a central team will survey the damage to properties due to the land subsidence and suggest a way forward while coordinating with the local administration in relief and rescue efforts.
The police and administration officials were present in large numbers as the demolition progressed.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday urged the Bombay high court to dismiss actor Sonu Sood's petition seeking to restrain the civic body from carrying out demolition at his property in Mumbai.
Chidambaram came down hard on the Jahangirpuri demolitions and those in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone earlier, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders' justification of the bulldozer-enabled demolitions 'flies in the face of the law'.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
"India risks becoming one of the world's main generators of instability, atrocities and violence because of the massive scale and gravity of the violations and abuses targeting mainly religious and other minorities such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others. It is not just individual or local, it is systematic and a reflection of religious nationalism," he said.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed authorities to remove a mosque from the premises of the Allahabad high court within three months, telling the petitioners that opposing the demolition that the structure stood on a terminated lease property and they can't claim it as a matter of right to continue.
Authorities on Thursday bulldozed the house of an aide of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed here amid heavy police presence, the second such action in two days.
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
While hearing a matter relating to encroachment on railway land in Gujarat, the apex court observed that when the Constitution recognises rule of law, it has to be adhered to by one and all.
In a controversial move, the district police in Aligarh included bulldozers in some of the flag marches in the city after the violence over the Centre's Agnipath scheme.
'Javed Ahmed was no mastermind of the riots, and this is not mentioned in the FIR against him either.'
Uttar Pradesh government officials on Monday morning used a bulldozer to remove encroachment done by absconding politician Shrikant Tyagi outside his Noida residence.
Police officials conceded that Shahbaz, the accused, was in fact in prison on April 10, but justified the demolition claiming he was a 'listed criminal of the area'.
In a crackdown on associates of gangster Atiq Ahmed named in the sensational Umesh Pal murder case, the Prayagraj Development Authority on Wednesday demolished the house of a close aide of Ahmed.
A lawyer has filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court seeking impleadment in the Gyanvapi mosque case, stating that a mosque constructed on temple land cannot be a mosque.
The anti-encroachment drive by Jammu and Kashmir administration intensified on Saturday as the land illegally occupied by 'influential persons' was retrieved at many places in the valley, officials said.
In a relief to thousands of people facing imminent threat of demolition of their houses in winter, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Uttarakhand high court order for removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land claimed by the railways in Haldwani, terming it a 'human issue' and saying 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight.
Police on Wednesday arrested a man accused of urinating on a tribal youth in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district, an official said.
During the questioning, the bench noted that in cases of similar illegalities in buildings close to Ranauts, the BMC had waited for several days to carry out the demolition.
Ranaut filed a plea in the high court on September 9, seeking that the court declare the demolition of a part of her bungalow in Pali Hill area here by the BMC as illegal. She subsequently amended her plea to demand Rs 2 crore as damages from the civic body and its officials for the demolition.
Religious freedom and related human rights in India are under ongoing threat, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom alleged on Tuesday in an unusual year-end update of the status of its assessment of religious freedom in the country.
The authorities have received the opinion of structural engineers, and would start removing exotic fittings, valuable fixtures, window grills and other utensils, as per their advice. They also found cushions, glass frames, a plush swimming pool and a spa, furniture made from Burma teak.
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also recommended to the Congress to raise the issue of religious freedom during US-India bilateral meetings, and hold hearings on it.
Recently she has been "at loggerheads with the Government of Maharashtra regarding her views over the handling of certain issues which impact the public in general," it added.
While the fixtures from the bungalow will be up for auction, three items, a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue, have been kept aside for handing over to the ED.
Ranaut's lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui claimed that the BMC had damaged the property, leading to water and electricity connections getting disrupted.
No casualties had been reported among the residents of the area, while a fire brigade personnel was injured, the official said.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said that it could not entertain prayers like these.
Alleging discrimination between protesters on the basis of religion by the administration, the Jamiat Uleme-e-Hind on Monday said if Muslims protest then it is an "unforgivable crime" while those involved in violent protests over the Centre's Agnipath scheme were let off lightly.
Ranaut has been making headlines with her bold statements and revelations about Bollywood after actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai residence in June.
Former judges of the Supreme Court and high courts and some senior advocates have written a letter to the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana requesting the top court to take suo motu cognisance of the detention of protestors and demolition of their houses by the Uttar Pradesh authorities following protests against objectionable remarks made by BJP spokespersons.
The Babri mosque demolition trial is presently at the stage of the recording of statements of 32 accused in the case under Section 313 of Code of Criminal Procedure during which they also get an opportunity to refute the prosecution evidence against them.
Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested Shrikant Tyagi, who was recently seen in a viral video assaulting and abusing a woman at Grand Omaxe in Noida's Sector 93 and was on the run ever since.
