Gujarat was labelled Hindutva's crucible and Modi was to become the chief 'chemist'. A revealing political saga excerpted from Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay's The Demolition, the Verdict and the Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project.
While the Congress top brass has declined an invitation to the January 22 consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit stuck to its plan to offer prayers in the holy city on Makar Sankranti.
The Muslim groups alleged that bulldozers have become a symbol of hate crime, and claimed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath uses these machines selectively to target certain communities.
While main events throughout the country were organised on Sunday by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, several community members gathered at the iconic Times Square in New York to celebrate the historic event.
Jawaharlal Nehru did not unfurl the Tricolour at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947. But, in a gesture of nationalistic symbolism -- one that has endured by repetition over the 76 years of independent India -- Nehru took to the ramparts at Red Fort's Lahori Gate on August 16, 1947, unfurled the Tricolour there and delivered his first Independence Day speech.
A prominent Hindu temple in Sydney was defaced by "anti-social elements" on Friday with anti-India graffiti on the walls, in the latest incident of vandalism against Hindu temples in Australia ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country later this month.
India has also taken note of reports of Saeed's son Talha contesting elections in Pakistan and said the "mainstreaming" of radical terror outfits in the neighbouring country is nothing new and that it has been part of its State policy for a long time.
The Khalistan movement leader is trying to provoke Hindu Canadians to react and divide the Hindu and Sikh communities in Canada, Arya said.
The enduring legacy of trade routes lies in shared stories and religious diversity. Can the India-Middle East-Europe Economic corridor harness this legacy to empower nations, asks Arundhuti Dasgupta.
Tokyo -- the songs Japan, Love In Tokyo and Sayonara from the 1966 Hindi film automatically pop up in the mind -- is buzzing and crowded like any other metropolis, discovers Deepa Gahlot. The modern apartment blocks are built cheek by jowl, so close together that one can open the window and borrow sugar from the neighbour in the next building. One of the fears of the Indian traveller is the unavailability of vegetarian food. Every city and town in Japan has an array of Indian restaurants that serve every variety of cuisine, right from Gujarati to Punjabi to Andhra and Kerala meals.
The BJP enters challenging times where it has been given a task to hold onto the values of Ram in running the country as defined by Narendra Modi in Ayodhya, notes Sheela Bhatt.
The new idol of Lord Ram was placed in the sanctum sanctorum of Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi temple on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the January 22 consecration ceremony.
The battle started after Sandhu successfully completed her state exams and started a traineeship with the Bavarian judicial system.
Modi believes that the Congress leadership does not have the political sagacity to undertake a course correction because of its preoccupation about not losing its current gains in the voter base, observes Shekhar Iyer.
The investigation identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated.
The BJP's Karnataka unit shared photographs of the artworks inside the new Parliament House, including the murals of ancient India, Chanakya, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and B R Ambedkar and the cultural diversity of the country.
Anweshipin Kandettum is a fascinating genre exercise let down by its incessant attention to details, observes Arjun Menon.
Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com decodes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech after the Pran Prathistha ceremony at Ram Temple in Ayodha.
India on Monday hit out at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for its criticism of the country in the wake of the alleged derogatory remarks made against Prophet Mohammed by two Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries.
'The Muslim identity of the family appears incidental to the subject of the film...' 'The self-sacrificing, suffering mother film could have belonged to any religion.' 'The abusive father, who prefers his son to his daughter, could have followed any religion.' 'That the Muslim household is remarkably free from religious symbolism is also the strength of the film,' feels Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
If Team Rajini expected Kaala to carry the superstar's political message off-screen, it may have proved counter-productive. If the not-so-infrequent presence of Muslim residents of Dharavi, including that of Kaala's ex-love Zarina, in many scenes is expected to convey a political message, it is a no-brainer, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Reiterating that the secularism for Congress meant building trust among various communities, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of creating divisions among Hindus and Muslims.
Charles will be crowned the King of the United Kingdom amid spectacular pomp and pageantry at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday in a solemn religious ceremony that dates back almost a thousand years.
A string of populist promises, including extension of the free ration scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Mahadev betting app issue and the Hindutva card are among key factors that have catapulted the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Chhattisgarh after five years.
The king and his wife, Camilla, the queen consort, travelled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey -- a distance of 2.2-km -- at a stately pace in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach bearing a gilded crown, which was commissioned for Queen Elizabeth II in 2012.
More than 3,000 gifts for Lord Ram from Sita's birthplace in Janakpur in Nepal have arrived in Ayodhya.
A student cannot wear hijab to a secular school as a matter of right, Supreme Court judge Justice Hemant Gupta said on Thursday, insisting that they are required to follow the discipline of the school in the matter of uniform.
The decision to keep the pilgrimage symbolic was taken after discussions with members of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, officials said.
There is an impression within the Tamil Nadu BJP -- although no one is airing it -- that over-exposure for Narendra Modi over the past months may work against party candidates, as they have triggered a near-continuous social media debate on his achievements and failures, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Police have booked more than 10 people for 'promoting enmity' after they allegedly burnt photocopies of the pages of Ramcharitmanas in the Vrindavan area of Lucknow on Sunday.
The actor made us believe in the power of a glamorous black lehenga as she strode the runway for Manav Gangwani at the India Couture Week.
Shamshera's problem is a shocking inability to support its bombastic ideas with gripping drama. The result is the wastage of not one but two Ranbir Kapoors, observes Sukanya Verma.
He said the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of three parties -- Sena-UBT, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party -- was formed to protect democracy and it was necessary to work unitedly for it.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has expressed hope that the Centre will take an appropriate decision to ban cow slaughter and declare it as a 'protected national animal'.
The transmogrification of Prime Minister Modi to Saint Modi began with the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. By identifying himself with Lord Ram, Modi raised himself in popular imagination to a saintly person.
Seeking to allay any apprehensions among Muslims, Narendra Modi on Monday ruled out scrapping any existing constitutional and statutory mechanisms meant for their welfare and said he would instead work to strengthen them.
The visiting England cricket team paid tribute to their nation's war dead on Armistice Day, wearing the red flower symbol 'poppy' and observing a minute's silence before the start of the third day's play in the first Test against India in Rajkot on Friday.
In the ancient world there is a great deal of give and take and reciprocal learning. India was an integral and important constituent of such interchanges of goods and ideas.
Will Vijay will go the most successful MGR/Jayalalithaa way, or that of Vijayakanth, Seeman or Kamalahaasan, or will he end up as another Rajinikanth who cries wolf at the last minute and quits the scene even before it all had really begun, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday gifted a sandalwood Buddha statue encased in a 'kadamwood jali box' to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida who is in India on a state visit, officials said.
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