Damu Nagar -- a shanty colony built around a hillock in Mumbai's northern suburb of Kandivali, abutting the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, was engulfed in an inferno Monday, December 7, that left more than 2,000 homes gutted and thousands homeless. Residents displayed exemplary courage, camaraderie and chutzpah as they grappled with ways and means to overcome their personal catastrophes when Rediff.com visited them.
The BJP's losses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the UP CM had addressed nearly 75 rallies, has put a big question mark on his ability to deliver in high-octane contests, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The mood was subdued with roads deserted across large swathes of the Valley, the silence broken only by police sirens and Indian Air Force helicopters hovering overhead.
Army was called in on Wednesday to help control widespread violence sparked by quota agitation by Patel community in Gujarat which has claimed seven lives even as curfew was clamped in several areas.
'When you have a village which is controlled by the BJP, who are the people likely to perpetrate the attack?'
'Just tell me who gave you the money and how much. I won't tell anyone that you told me,' the policemen tells the young lady voter. 'You think they give their name and address when they give you money?' she replies.
Shops, schools and other commercial establishments were closed in parts of Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab but the shutdown call by anti-reservation bodies had little impact elsewhere in the country.
'Information trickled in that these phone numbers were switched off when there were blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and at the time of the Delhi blasts.
Over 2.26 lakh people have been rescued in Jammu and Kashmir so far as the rescue and relief operations in the flood-ravaged state entered 14th day on Monday.
Party's state unit chiefs of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat were also detained along with the workers during the protests.
The two constables were arrested and dismissed from the job and a first information report was registered in the matter on the basis of a complaint by Sana Khan.
Protests were held outside the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan, Rajghat, India Gate, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Assam Bhawan and Delhi University where people voiced their opposition to the controversial changes introduced in the law.
Two Indian-Americans running a grocery store in the state of Indiana have been shot dead by masked men, sending shock waves among the Sikh community in the United States.
'I expect normalcy to return in one or two days,' says Tuticorin's new Collector Sandeep Nandur.
The National Disaster Response Force has mounted the rescue operation along with the police and the fire department.
In a poll related advisory, the cops have been asked not to be seen or perceived as favouring a particular political party or candidate through their social media updates.
Defying prohibitory orders, protests were held in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and several other cities. Protesters, mostly students and activists, were detained on a large scale in national capital and other places.
CM Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences and directed DGP Sulkhan Singh to immediately follow up on the investigations to nab the culprits.
The lone alleged Indian Mujahideen militant facing trial in the 2008 Batla House encounter case in New Delhi has pleaded innocent before a Delhi court while refuting police's claim that he had confessed to his role.
At least 12 labourers were in the under-construction building and all of them are feared trapped, Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said.
Prohibitory orders were imposed in Delhi and parts of Karnataka. Police kept tight vigil in Kerala. In Gujarat, 50 people were arrested for Thursday's violence.
The groups clashed over the installation of a board and renaming of a chowk (intersection) in Phagwara, police said.
Mumbaikars searched for ways to get out of the many traffic snarls, reports Rediff.com's Hemant Waje who was caught in the traffic blockade for hours during Wednesday's Maharashtra bandh.
'We are alive only because of these border bunkers,' say residents.
"If we (the Kashmiris) don't talk about it (dialogue), who will? Not a Bihari, not a Punjabi," she said.
Two women doctors were injured in Indore when a five-member team of health officials was pelted with stones in Taatpatti Bakhal area on Wednesday while they were trying to trace a person who had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient, police said.
Army was on Friday called in for deployment in eight districts of Haryana after one person was killed and 21 were injured in police action as Jat stir for quota turned violent and the rampaging mobs set ablaze the house of state's Finance Minister besides several government and private properties.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial Narendra Modi on Thursday brought Robert Vadra in the line of fire on controversial land deals, asking Rahul Gandhi whether his brother-in-law would be asked to act as 'chowkidar' (watchman) to guard peoples' land.
With the national capital witnessing a spurt in dengue cases, the role of civic bodies is being questioned by residents who feel the outbreak of the vector-borne disease has exposed the "ill-preparedness" of the MCD in dealing with the menace.
Left parties and Kolkata police were on Tuesday involved in a tussle over the cremation of the body of a 16-year-old gangrape victim, who died in a city hospital after attempting suicide.
At places in the border districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer, people walked miles through the desert to cast their votes.
Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday claimed that terrorists involved in Wednesday's Udhampur attack on a BSF convoy were trained 'fidayeens' and backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
Despite being hailed as one of India's most progressive and most developed states, it is witnessing the fallout of lopsided progress.
A few incidents of protests were reported in Jammu city even as mobile Internet services remained suspended and policemen deployed in strength to thwart any flare up.
'The Modi government thinks that once the CAA protests are over, they will bring in the NPR that will help to get the NRC.'
Calculated or otherwise, if Azhagiri's firing of the first salvo after Karunanidhi's death does not create some space for him to politico-electorally exploit at a later date, there may not be any space left for him at all, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'These are challenging times and we get energised by that.' 'I don't feel that 'I am tired now and I should relax', because even if someone calls us at 12 o'clock I have to answer his call.'
A large number of Muslims have been evacuated by security forces to a relief camp, while some have themselves moved out of their native villages fearing the onslaught of Hindu Jats in the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Two days of unabated communal violence claimed 30 lives.
The journey of a pottery enthusiast, Rekha Bajpe Aggarwal, who is working to prevent the death of the traditional art
Rajinikanth's personal trait can become a political issue if he enters politics and could get translated as sympathy if not support for the BJP, which can cut both ways, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
