'My son is not against anybody. For him Desh Prem is more important than anything else in life'
The veteran socialist leader, who ended his long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party last year, was responding to queries from journalists about the 'Hindu Rashtra' clamour, which was openly endorsed earlier this week by his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath.
Against the backdrop of Kerala's appetite for commonsense, it was assumed that this controversy would pass. Respect for rationalism and scientific outlook is strong in the state despite political forces gnawing at it for their own goals, observes Shyam G Menon.
A day after the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) sought a ban on staging of the Malayalam play Kakkukali, its director Job Madathil on Tuesday accused the critics of having an agenda behind their charges and urged them to watch the drama first.
He also targeted the Congress government in Rajasthan, saying that had it set up a special court in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case, which happened in Udaipur last year, the accused would have been hanged by now.
Party sources said the BJP national executive will also deliberate over the strategy for the upcoming state assembly polls and review the ongoing organisational exercise.
'In the course of my interactions with him, Modi insisted that he does not believe charisma alone can sustain people's trust for long.' 'That is why Modi consistently refers to Mahatma Gandhi to contextualise his politics.' 'He believes in taking his ideas to the masses and getting their acceptance as an index of approval.'
A revealing excerpt from Ajay Singh's The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party.
August 15, 2023 became for me, an extraordinary Independence Day. I will remember it as the day the country's largest political party -- one that struts around like a colossus and tutors us in apt behaviour -- suddenly looked bankrupt in terms of ideas and had to take out a personal guarantee from the prime minister to underscore its capacity to deliver our future, observes Shyam G Menon.
A vistarak is assigned to convince voters of the 'far-reaching benefits' of the schemes and doles handed out by the Centre and the UP government.
It is a 165 MW run-of-the-river scheme proposed in Dhauli Ganga river in Darma valley.
The SERT, an autonomous body of the general education department, is considering a decision by its curriculum steering committee to include these deleted portions in the state syllabus.
Seeking the extension of police custody of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, arrested on charges of providing confidential information to a Pakistani agent, the prosecution told a special court on Tuesday they have received the forensic report of devices seized from him and some images, videos and files that were deleted earlier have been retrieved now.
Politicians bid farewell to Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu as India's vice-president at the G M C Balayogi auditorium in the Parliament house complex on Monday, August 8, 2022, evening.
It should announce its candidates 45 days before the elections; trust rooted leaders; start its campaign focused on five guarantees six months before elections.
A government-run law college in Indore has taken six teachers, including four Muslims, off duty temporarily after the ABVP accused them of promoting fundamentalism and 'negative thoughts' about the government and Army.
Hailing former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, calling him a "role model", he also advocated for more women representation in the assembly.
The milestone broadcast was an occasion for Modi to walk down the memory lane as he asserted that it was not merely a programme but a matter of faith and spiritual journey for him.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday claimed that contrary to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's "false propaganda" that the population of Muslim community was increasing in the country, the number of the minority community members vis-a-vis Hindus was fast declining, and added that he could prove it.
The opposition MLAs staged a demonstration in front of the premises before the commencement of assembly proceedings condemning the arrest of Vaishali resident Raj Kapoor Singh, whose son Army jawan Jai Kishore Singh had died fighting Chinese troops in Galwan.
Success in Karnataka's assembly polls will hinge on two factors: Drop a large number of incumbent MLAs and project Modi and not the state leaders, least of all Bommai.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend.
The Kerala Story is among a long list of films that invited bans and censorship.
Speaking at the event, Khattar said, "Some people who have a hobby of social media go to sleep at night after changing the chief minister. They say that this chief minister is going, he is going and a new chief minister will come tomorrow. Whether the new CM comes or not, you just need work to be done."
Raut said Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, a mass contact initiative underway from September 7, is getting a massive response because he is 'focussing on love and compassion'.
'We will win all the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.'
'They have been pursuing their agenda of bulldozing everything and everybody on their way.' 'They suddenly see Rahul Gandhi standing in front of them without fear and fighting against them aggressively.' 'He doesn't show any compromise in his attitude towards fascism.'
The BJP lashed out at the Congress for its "promotion of violence" and dubbed its yatra as "Bharat Todo Yatra".
The Emergency greatly influenced the RSS' makeover from a fringe force in the Indian political imagination to one that could have its own man sworn in as prime minister in two decades' time. A riveting excerpt from Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil's India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975-1977.
Teen Murti Bhavan served as the official residence of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Police escorted the rally all the way, at one point standing in a row to prevent the rallyists from entering a side road where stood a huge mosque. Across the road, an old Muslim woman asked her Hindu neighbour what the rally was all about. The latter shrugged her ignorance, looking on in bewilderment at the young men with their saffron flags, all of them wearing Bajrang Dal T-shirts.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee makes momos at a local stall in Darjeeling.
Fadnavis recently said the previous MVA government had given a target to then Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey to put me in jail, but the police officer could not succeed as he had done nothing wrong.
'Lalu understands that his words can be used by rivals to consolidate Hindu votes which may damage the prospects of his party's social support base.'
'If they don't make Ajit Pawar chief minister, what can he do?'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created such an atmosphere in Kashmir that any Indian can hoist the national flag with pride at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, the Bharatiya Janata Party said on Sunday and asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to thank him for the change in the Valley.
I suggest we build a Vigyan Mandir (Temple of Science) with the ambience of a place of worship, so that it becomes a destination for pilgrims. We should embed on its walls bronze plaques describing each scientist mentioned here along with about a dozen of our ancient mathematicians, recommends Professor Kalyan Singhal, historian of science and technology.
'The BJP has ordered the AIMIM to defame the Shiv Sena, to raise questions on Shiv Sena's Hindutva'
Social media giant Twitter on Saturday removed the blue verification tick from the accounts of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and other senior functionaries only to restore it after a lot of hue and cry by Sangh sympathisers on social media.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Also, the RSS was asked to ensure strict discipline and make sure there is no provocation or incitement on their part during the march.
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