'As CIC, you have the power to comment on policy matters. 'If you have very strong beliefs and you know your rulings will be reported, you will express your beliefs.'
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T S Tirumurti, said on Tuesday that India condemns all forms of anti-semitism and all forms of discrimination on religious grounds anywhere in the world.
India is the birthplace of four major world religions -- Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is home to the world's third largest Muslim population, a diverse community of sects that includes Sufis, Shia, and Bohra. Roughly three per cent of India's citizens are Christian, and notably, Christians are the religious majority in three of India's 29 states, she said.
'The Sabarimala issue is no longer in splendid isolation.'
The restoration work, held up for more than 200 years, took nine months to be completed.
Ahead of CJI Dipak Misra's final day as the head of the judiciary of India, here's a look at the key judgments that he was a part of.
Amid the worst economic recession in decades, a nondenominational church in the US is pushing ahead with "faith stimulus" to help struggling families and laid-off workers.
Should the Income-Tax Act have been simultaneously amended to exclude Sikhs and Jains from the definition of HUF once they were declared a minority by the government? Sanjeev Nayyar discusses the curious dichotomies in our laws.
'Gods of different religions haven't warred, so we shouldn't either.'
'When the BJP first came to power in the late 1990s we heard of anti- Christian incidents perpetrated by members of the Sangh Parivar, the majority of which proved to be blatant falsehoods.' 'We need to recall those events to give a reality check to a similar campaign of unsubstantiated calumny that is raising its head again to discredit the BJP government.'
Although earlier reports indicated that five people had been detained in connection with the case, Nadia SPsaid no arrests or detention have so far been made in the case.
Hundreds of Muslims chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai and unfurled the national flag, in a historic gesture that will only strengthen the country's religious fabric.
For those who think India's democracy is just fine and there has been no change in the last few years, perhaps it would be instructive to see what has happened on a few issues, observes Aakar Patel.
The annual Amarnath yatra to the 3,880-metre high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas will commence on June 28 and culminate, as per the tradition, on the day of Raskha Bandhan festival on August 22, officials said.
A new West Asia is emerging and India must engage at the highest level and help shape this change, says Saeed Naqvi
Two unidentified men armed with sharp-edged weapons barged into a church in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district and allegedly set ablaze a Bible.
'Whatever the BJP tries to do, they will not be able to make a big mark in Kerala.'
'The government must covertly eliminate the leaders of terrorist organisations abroad so as to eliminate the problem at its roots,' recommends Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It is not the duty of government to protect minority religions or promote it.'
Simhastha Kumbh Mela, the largest congregation of faith in the world, began on Tuesday with the traditional ceremony of hoisting of flags and thousands of people taking a holy dip in Kushawart and Ramkund in Godavari river in the two towns.
'One one hand, the BJP puts Uniform Civil Code as a goal in its manifesto, and on the other, it pushes massive discrimination against Hindus.' 'This is not sabka saath, sabka vikas. Rather it is "Haj ka saath, church ka vikas",' argues Sankrant Sanu.
'If standard protocols are meticulously followed and hospital facilities remain on high alert, direct COVID-19 deaths should be kept to less than 7,500-8,000 in the present pandemic'
Those who always talk of 'samajwad' and 'bahujan' are extremely selfish, he said in an apparent reference to Bharatiya Janata Party's key rivals in Uttar Pradesh - the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.
Chief Minister Stalin seems to have drawn a line between his personal beliefs and those of others in the family, beginning with wife Durga Stalin, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is time the current leaders who swear by 'cultural nationalism', that is religion neutral, assert that Bharatiyata is at the core of our nationalism and India was never a 'Hindu Rashtra', argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Adityanath, who had in the past lashed out at a section of Muslims for terming the practice of 'surya namaskar' as un-Islamic, said the sun salutation was a beautiful example of religious harmony. "The namaz offered by Muslims resembles different postures and asanas of surya namaskar including pranayam.
In a U-turn, the Left Democratic Front government of Kerala on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it favoured the entry of women of all age groups in the historic Sabarimala temple in the state.
Govt sets up task force to monitor circulation of fake currency; suspicious Jan Dhan accounts under scanner.
'People are getting admitted to hospital two to three days before their death in a very serious respiratory compromise state and they are passing away within 48 hours.' 'Those who are coming early in the disease, the minute they are suspicious that they have COVID-19, the recovery rate has been much, much, higher.' 'The moral of the story is: We must destigmatise COVID-19.' 'People should be told: 'Look, if you have anything like this, please come immediately'.'
A seven-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur said the secular ethos of the Constitution had to be maintained by keeping elections a secular exercise.
Somebody should ask Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump their views on tipping, says Kishore Singh.
'No civilised nation can thrive if it is possessed with the spirit of Hindutva.'
'The Constitution allows me the Right to Freedom of Speech and Religious Freedom. But this is not religion... this is spiritual discourse,' says IAS officer C Umashankar, who is being prosecuted in the Madras high court for hurting the feelings of Hindus.
'There has to be an 18-month transition.' 'But if the government had some prior knowledge that the high value notes were being used for an imminent terrorist activity in the country, then we have to accept the step.'
The capital's ever-shifting power class remains unsettled and unnerved seeing the power, favour, nepotistic and quid pro quo pillared superstructure gradually crumble under Narendra Modi's watch -- the only mantra that seems to be taking centre stage is that of performance, implementation and delivery, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
The rationalist has proved to be a greater voice of reason in death than he was during his lifetime.
'...because we are truer to the spirit of the Hindu faith.' 'There is absolutely no question that the Hinduism of the mob lynchers, the people who have killed others because of what they are eating or how they are worshipping or the faith they belong to or what they're doing professionally, those are, to my mind, not Hindus at all.'
'The monumental first Modi wrought in 2014, followed by the miracle in Uttar Pradesh, is not a matter for celebration, but an ominous warning of the perils ahead.' 'There are 5 areas which Modi has to address immediately and relentlessly if he has to live up to all that the people are taking him for,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
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