It said AMU is not and cannot be a university of any particular religion or religious denomination as any university which has been declared an institution of national importance cannot be a minority institution.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
"One of the main principles of the Congress has been its commitment to secularism. This is particularly important in Gujarat where communal politics has polarised society and undermined the pluralist and tolerant ethos of our nation," Gandhi said in the latest issue of Congress Sandesh.
Advani said Golwalkar, who took over the reins of the RSS after the death of its founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, firmly believed that rule on the basis of religion is not possible in India and RSS does not approve of such a system.
Apparently aimed at keeping the flock together ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, all ruling Congress MLAs in Karnataka will stay put together at a hotel in Bengaluru on Monday after the budget session of the state legislature concludes and will later also travel together for voting the next day.
Over 260 eminent citizens, including former judges and bureaucrats, have written to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud urging him to take cognisance of DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's 'eradicate Sanatan Dharma' comment, calling it "hate speech".
Shivpal refused to comment on whether the SSM will eventually part ways with the Samajwadi Party.
According to party sources, the Congress leadership has been making efforts to convince some ministers and lawmakers to contest, as they have faced problems in identifying winnable candidates in several segments.
Ashok Singhal asks the prime minister to mend his "secular" ways.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 19 the pleas seeking a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 till the apex court has decided the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
The interim budget 2024-25 on Thursday allocated Rs 202868.70 crore to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) with the highest share of funds going to the paramilitary forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Secular Force (CISF), showing priority on internal security and border guarding.
'Mohan Bhagwat's reaffirmation of the RSS's Hindu rashtra ideal has shown that nothing has changed, that it remains firmly rooted in its fundamental beliefs, that the willingness to listen to voices from outside its fold was a pretence about being openminded,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Will January 22 mark a point of no return for our Constitutional secularism? asks Shekhar Gupta.
With changes to Delhi's architectural map, a re-naming rash, and more Hindu symbolism in secular spaces, the government is making it clear it wants a clean break with post-colonial India, asserts T N Ninan.
'Are we expected to merely sit outside and applaud when the prime minister installs the idol of Ram Lalla?
"A lot of people in this country have given different definitions of secularism. I too have a right to give my own definition," Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said at a session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Delhi on Sunday, while replying to a query by New Yorker Sanjay Sinha."For me the definition of secularism is very simple: India first. That's it," Modi said, getting a huge round of applause from the NRIs.
The rulers of the day need to be sensitive and involved in managing the identities of sacred spaces and the ongoing dialogues about the past in diverse societies, suggests Colonel Nikhil Apte (retd).
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue K N Govindacharya on Friday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was pursuing opportunistic politics by demanding secular-nationa Democratic Alliance prime ministerial candidate.
Was Ajay Rai put up just to hobble Kejriwal in Varanasi?
Pawar said PM Modi's charisma is seen all over the country and hoped Maharashtra which follows secular thoughts will benefit from this charisma.
'Whether it was a bureaucratic or the translator's mistake, it had to be corrected as Indian Republic was based on separation of religion from the state.
From melodrama to mockery (remember Amar and Prem's phony separated-at-Kumbh Mela reunion in a gag of Andaz Apna Apna?), there are numerous instances of its presence.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday said that only Shatrughan Sinha and Shahnawaz Hussain are secular leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Claiming that a wave was blowing across the country in favour of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Paswan said, "Secularism aur communalism sirf chunaavi hathkande hain (secularism and communalism are poll ploys)."
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
While Rajnath Singh said secularism was the most misused word in politics, Sonia alleged that ideals and principles of the Constitution were under threat and being attacked deliberately
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Thursday said Narendra Modi could change the secular credentials of the Constitution on the pretext of reviewing it and give it "Hindutva colour", if he came to power.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti said the apex court has already defined hate speech and the question now is of implementation of its directions.
The opposition party also said that it would like to remind the BJP that Hindu Mahasabha president Syama Prasad Mookerjee aligned with Jinnah's Muslim League to form the government in Bengal during the British rule.
Seeking to reassert Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said secularism is a compelling necessity for a country as diverse as India.
'Once the common man realises that living in harmony, respecting, loving and protecting each other is the real meaning of secularism, and treating everyone equally to safeguard our Constitution and motherland is patriotism, there will be no opportunity for communalism.'
Nazimuddin Samad, a masters student of the state-run Jagannath University's law department, was killed by suspected Islamist militants in Old Dhaka's Sutrapur area on Wednesday night.
As cracks appeared in NDA over Narendra Modi, Congress on Wednesday sought to drive a wedge in the Opposition alliance in the wake of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's call for a "secular" prime ministerial candidate in 2014 general elections.
'Unfortunately, the judges chose not to address the issue of whether Hindutva is an appeal to religion.' 'From the moment the judgment is delivered, it is the law of the land.'
'There will be no compromise with someone who has betrayed the party at this stage even if she is my sister,' Congress MP K Muraleedharan told reporters.
The Left leader said the NCERT, which was set up on the basis of the 2005 National Curriculum Framework, has been demolishing the very goals of the NCF through the removal of such passages from textbooks.
The former Congress president alleged that PM Modi had a "monopoly over corruption".
Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen on Tuesday expressed scepticism about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea of secularism, asserting he would like to see "more action" in reaching out to the minorities.
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