Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday launched a financial assistance scheme for 'Udasin Bhakats', providing monthly support of 1,500 to celibate Vaishnavite monks associated with Satras across the state.
Devanshi Patel turned her passion for storytelling and celebrations into Shreem Events, one of India's sought-after wedding planning companies.
Opposition parties have accused the state government of using force and ignoring rehabilitation concerns.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Please continue to e-mail your festive pictures and stories to getahead@rediff.co.in (Subjectline: Navratri, Durga Puja, Golu 2025). Don't forget to include your name and location. We will publish the best photographs on Rediff.
Award-winning Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu's recent remarks on Lord Ram have sparked controversy, drawing condemnation from the BJP and VHP.
He said his government will share details of these people with local authorities from where they claim to have come, so that it can be verified that they are not actually from "across the border".
Tamil Nadu Ministers V Senthil Balaji and K Ponmudy have resigned from the M K Stalin-led state cabinet. Senthil Balaji, facing an ED probe, was asked by the Supreme Court to choose between his post and freedom, while Ponmudy courted controversy over his Shaivite-Vaishnavite remarks. The Governor has accepted their resignations and a new minister will be sworn in on Monday.
Jorhat has many attraction to offer for the discerning and offbeat traveller.
People from the Hindu community blocked roads in Hojai during the day, alleging that some pieces of meat were thrown by miscreants on Saturday night, and while Muslims also held another roadblock and the police had to use batons to disperse protesters, a senior officer said.
While acknowledging that they needed strong allies for a chance in the assembly polls, AIADMK cadres seemingly prefer actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to the BJP, owing to the latter's 'communal agenda' and consequent hardline Hindutva image, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
The solution to Manipur's problems lies in the government giving concessions to Meitis in jobs and education and to accept autonomy for the tribal dominated areas inhibited by the Kukis, suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The film has nothing objectionable or derogatory, the court said after watching it, and allowed its release on streaming platform Netflix.
Sarma also claimed that marriages of minors were registered by the Kazis earlier, but the proposed bill will prohibit any such move.
Manish Tripathi who designed the outfit adorned by the Ram Lalla idol in the newly constructed temple in Ayodhya said a divine connection with the deity helped him achieve the task.
Maharaj's mediocre social drama lacks the spine and spunk to recreate the relevance of revolutionary decisions in the face of religious fanaticism, observes Sukanya Verma.
The Gujarat high court has stayed the release of Maharaj, Aamir Khan's son Junaid's debut film, on Netflix after followers of Pushtimarg, a Vaishnava sect of Hinduism, claimed that it would hurt their religious sentiments.
He was trolled during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, but despite the tactics by his rivals, action hero Suresh Gopi rose to national stardom in cinema style on June 4, winning the Thrissur seat on a BJP ticket and scripting history for the saffron party in Kerala.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should avoid visiting the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva at Batadrava on January 22, as there can be no competition between Lord Ram and the medieval age Vaishnav saint revered as an icon in the state.
Several states declared a holiday for schools, while government offices, other establishments and public sector banks remained closed for half a day.
The Indian Constitution's survival hinges on the nation's demographic profile and if it is altered, then it would cease to exist, Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras high court has said.
The MV Ganga Vilas will traverse through 27 rivers over 52 days, covering over 3,200 km.
Stoutly defending Sanatan Dharma, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Thursday dubbed the ruling DMK a casteist party that must be decimated, and questioned its track record on Dalit empowerment.
The Madras high court on Tuesday held that the devotees of Thenkalai sect must be given the first two or three rows inside the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram and behind them the Vadakalai sect, and ordinary devotees shall be permitted to sit in the remaining available space.
What should be made out of the Madras high court order involving non-Hindus' entry into Hindu temples, when many non-Hindus are among the hundreds of thousands that have been worshipping at these temples for generations, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The inaugural Sangamam turned out to be a political Hindutva function than a gathering on the Hindu religion, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
While Governor Ravi's speeches have put the local BJP supporters on the defensive in matters of religion and social justice, his add-on 'attack on the constitutional scheme' in the 'Senthil Balaji case', has been condemned squarely by many legal experts and editorial writers across the country, thus adding weight to CM Stalin's position -- at least until the courts come up with their binding views, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Meiteis started feeling insecure stating that the illegal immigrant population is growing in the valley, and that the majority community would become a minority.'
Ajmal in an interview to a media house on Friday had commented on women and Hindu men as well as Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, purportedly as a rejoinder to his remarks on 'love jihad'.
Stalin's personal intervention in the Adheenam row may have contained the avoidable political damage and social tensions at least for now, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The drive met with opposition in Tinsukia in upper Assam leading to lathicharge by the security forces, while in Sonitpur the alleged illegal settlers claimed that it was launched about a week before the stipulated date.
Faced with a problem of suitable brides, Thamizhnadu Brahmin Association to cast net in UP and Bihar.
Legal experts and opposition parties in Assam have slammed the police for arresting the teacher and the judiciary for sending her to jail as consumption of beef, even in public places, is not illegal in the state.
The BJP seems wanting to return to a 'Tamil Hindutva' agenda for elections in Tamil Nadu, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
A bench of Justice N Kirubakaran, since retired, and Justice B Pugalendhi, in a recent order also said that in our country 'it is made to believe that Sanskrit alone is Gods' language'.
The revocation comes a day after heads of 4 Shaivite maths called on Chief Minister MK Stalin in Chennai and following an outcry against the ban by devotees, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu outfits.
With the Presidential nomination of legal luminary K Parasaran -- a decision by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- the Rajya Sabha has now four Iyengar Vaishnavites, beginning from Jairam Ramesh, Dr V Maitreyan and Communist Party of India-Marxist MP T K Rangarajan.
Majuli -- the seat of neo-Vaishnavite Bhakti renaissance -- on Thursday became India's first island district with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurating it as the 35th district of Assam.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.