India's dream to be in the forefront of international politics has come true. India has placed itself firmly as a major player in the shaping of a new world order, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Nepal's constituent assembly on Monday rejected calls to remove the key term secularism from the new constitution and revert the Himalayan nation to a Hindu state, triggering protests by Hindu activists.
"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and friends of those affected by the shocking situation in Christchurch. A joint decision between NZC and the @BCBtigers has been made to cancel the Hagley Oval Test. Again both teams and support staff groups are safe," the New Zealand cricket board tweeted on their Twitter handle.
Indians supposedly have the right to freedom, and the right to equality, which cuts across gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc, observes Devangshu Datta.
Indian-American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has criticised the US Supreme Court over its two landmark rulings of legalising same-sex marriage and upholding the healthcare law, and has called for "getting rid" of the apex judicial body.
The letter, to maintain the current policy of denying Narendra Modi a visa to the United States, was released just as the BJP president arrived in Washington DC for a round of meetings with US lawmakers. Aziz Haniffa reports
'... while leaving the dirty work he orders to his subordinates.'
'I am pleased to announce that I have chose Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate,' Donald Trump wrote on his Twitter handle.
The aim is to ensure that such crimes are checked and effective action is taken against the culprits.
The test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be to convince not just friends in the media with crisp sound bytes but the very people most affected by the politics of hate through concerted action, says Shehzad Poonawala.
To a query on the possibility of approaching court, Machado said that has not been decided, but it would be one of the options to stop the promulgation of the ordinance.
The Karnataka high court, which dismissed a batch of petitions by some Muslim girls from Udupi seeking permission to wear the hijab inside classrooms of educational institutions, framed the entire case in the form of four questions and answered them accordingly.
A group of 72 former civil servants has sought Attorney General K K Venugopal's intervention to advise the government to check the witch-hunt of people exercising their right to free speech by the police.
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.
These are obviously not 'organic' desertions but brought about under intense military pressure, post the 9/5 arrests. It seemed as if the party was being dismantled the same way it was brought into power!, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
What we have in the Congress is a useful glue to hold a non-cultural, unified Opposition together. That is the sacrifice the Congress must be willing to live with if showing the BJP the door is what the collective Opposition wants, observes Shyam G Menon.
Samajwadi Party member of Parliament Shafiqur Rehman Barq has been booked for sedition following his recent remarks allegedly defending the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and equating it with India's own freedom struggle, police said on Wednesday.
The SC is dealing with legal and constitutional issues relating to discrimination against women in various religions and at religious places including Kerala's Sabarimala Temple.
Tamil Nadu is the celebrated home of the 'social justice' movement in the country, yet caste differences and violence has only been increasing in numbers and becoming more brutal in recent years, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A day before the crucial talks between the Centre and the protesting farmer unions, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday said the government is ready to consider any proposal other than repeal of three farm laws, the key demand of the farmers.
Both countries are closer than before due to these two leaders's public display of mutual connectivity and warm exchanges of words, but how it will help India to serve its interests will be known on Tuesday.
A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Riyaz Chagla noted that while Goswami's comments targeted the Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi, he did not make any statement that would cause public disharmony or incite violence between different religious groups.
"The consequence of the demand to declare Hijab as an essential religious practice is huge because there is an element of compulsion or else you will be expelled from the community," Navadgi told the court.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to grant interim protection from arrest to Ali Abbas Zafar, director of the web series Tandav, and others seeking the quashing of FIRs against them for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus, and issued notices Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other states on their pleas.
Economic stagnation is the advance payment for polarisation, which extracts a terrible price.
She further said that the religious dress codes should not be imposed on players.
'Nehru's inability to take religion seriously as a category led to serious errors of judgement in his dealings with the Muslim League, and later, also with the Hindu right.'
The inaugural Sangamam turned out to be a political Hindutva function than a gathering on the Hindu religion, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the leaders on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.
In a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said divisive ideologies anchored in hate and prejudice were making every effort to weaken the strong foundation of India.
No nation is fully sovereign to do what it wants to do in the face of opposition from others, points out Aakar Patel.
World over, pluralism is in retreat. Luckily for us, Indian pluralism and its consequent tolerance of diversity is rooted in our basic values. As long as we remain faithful to these values and keep our institutions in good health, the Indian miracle of last 75 years is likely to last centuries, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
China remains the elephant in the room and has to be tamed, which the United States alone is unable to do and therefore calls allies to come on board.
China is acutely conscious of the need for the next Dalai Lama to be under its control. It was for this reason that China recently stressed their claim on Arunachal Pradesh. There were rumours that the next Dalai Lama may be found in Tawang. If that happens, India-China relations will become tense and there may be demands for the child to be handed over to the Chinese, points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'You will see more laws that treat Hindus and non-Hindus, especially Muslims, quite unequally.' 'Once you see this kind of erosion of secularism, it will be very hard to get it back.'
The State Department condemns the recent reports of attacks on the Hindu community in Bangladesh, a spokesman said.
Andhra Pradesh home minister Mekathoti Sucharitha hoisted the National Flag at the Jinnah Tower.
Appearing before cheering fans at the star-studded opening ceremony of the Kolkata International Film Festival in Kolkata on Thursday, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan spoke of staying positive and alive, and on the new crop of historical films being steeped in 'fictionalised jingoism'.
'What was predictable, but entirely missed by Modi's strident critics, is that the excessive and intemperate demonisation of Modi allowed him to assume his own metaphor -- the underdog, the martyr, the marginalised,' says Dr Aseem Shukla.
'Islam is the oldest religion among all religions. India is the best country for Hindi Muslims'
