No member of the Congress' first family has visited Ayodhya since the demolition of the Babri Masjid 24 years ago, in December 1992.
Here is Rediff.com's selection of some stories from Thursday that you may not have read in the morning newspaper.
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath and 24 others accompanying him to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's 'Sankalap Diwas' rally in Ayodhya were on Friday arrested at the railway station in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, as a preventive measure, police said.
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan appealed to people to boycott products from China and also directed officials of his ministry not to procure any Chinese products for day-to-day office use while his ministerial colleague Ramdas Athawale said all restaurants and hotels that sell Chinese food in India should be closed down.
'He couldn't hold himself from chanting 'Siyavar Ramchandra ki Jai'.'
A First Information Report has been registered against Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia for inciting communal passions after he allegedly asked locals of a society in Bhavnagar, Gujarat to forcibly occupy a house purchased by a Muslim man in a Hindu-dominated locality.
Two days after Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia reportedly told people that those from a minority community should be stopped from buying properties in Hindu-dominated localities, the Election Commission has sought the recording of the speech he had made in Bhavnagar.
'What the long term repercussions of the Ayodhya judgment are will unfold in time.' 'And I hope the consequences are not going to be as damaging to us as they were to Pakistan,' says Aakar Patel.
As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday sent a general advisory to all the states and Union territories asking them to deploy adequate security personnel at all sensitive places, political leaders made fresh calls to people not to indulge in making provocative remarks or spreading rumours.
The carving work by artisans had been carried out uninterrupted since 1990 when Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Police have issued an order, prohibiting organisers from transmitting his speech
The VHP has felicitated parents who have more than half a dozen children.
Amidst protests by some Hindu groups in parts of Karnataka, American evangelist Benny Hinn has cancelled his visit to Bangalore on Wednesday.
Top ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders joined a crucial three-day meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates that began in New Delhi on Wednesday to brainstorm over key social and economic issues including those confronting the Modi government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party announced a major organisational reshuffle in the party, appointing Hindu hardliner Keshav Maurya and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa as state party presidents in Uttar Pradesh and Karntaka respectively.
Samajwadi Party's senior leader Mohammad Azam Khan was on Wednesday conspicuous by his absence at its National Executive meet in Agra.
The curfew that had been relaxed for two hours in Rajouri town on Wednesday was reimposed for a second consecutive day.
The green panel ordered removal of iron grills in front of the ice stalagmite resembling the 'Shiva Linga' so that devotees could get a better view of it and said there should be no noise pollution near the sacred structure.
The coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada have been reporting cases of cow vigilantism in the last several years.
'The BJP is the most progressive force within Hinduism today.'
Zia-ul Haq, manager of MA Convent School in Baghara locality, was booked under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and arrested
A special court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the 2003 encounter of Sadik Jamal, after allowing a petition by his brother seeking further investigation in the case, including that of the "role" played by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Clashes were reported from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, Narayanpur in North 24 Parganas, and Alipurduar town in north Bengal, among others.
'Certainly if Advani had agreed to Vajpayee in sacking Modi, then we would never have been talking of Modi today.'
Already in the eye of a raging controversy over the 'Ghar Wapsi' programme, fiery Hindutva mascot and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath has now launched a campaign for declaring cow as 'Rashtra Mata', claiming his demand "embodies the sentiment of every Indian".
The fresh violence happened a day after a 16-year-old boy was killed and two others were injured in clashes in the city.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday launched a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government and announced a nationwide campaign to counter right wing forces.
The Rajasthan Police has also set up a high-level committee to probe the allegations of delay against the Alwar police in taking Khan to a hospital.
Complying with the orders of the Election Commission, the Bhavnagar police have started an inquiry into the alleged hate speech given by Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Pravin Togadia in which he said Muslims should be stopped from buying property in Hindu-majority areas.
Lashing out at Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia for allegedly targeting a Muslim businessman for buying properties in certain areas, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday demanded action against the right-wing group leader for "vitiating the peaceful atmosphere" during elections.
Without naming the BJP, Joshi added, "We are not begging for it. We are expressing our emotions. The country wants 'Ram rajya'."
'And this mirror imaging is the most dangerous thing because it leads to tremendous misunderstandings.'
Dismissing the role of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy as negotiator for the Ram temple issue, the main parties to the case on Thursday demanded setting up a panel of Supreme Court judges to initiate the talks in the vexed matter.
A report by IndiaSpend shows that 97 per cent (68 of 70) of such incidents were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government came to power in May 2014.
On the eve of 22nd anniversary of Babri mosque demolition, the temple town has turned into a fortress with nearly 10,000 security personnel deployed amid calls by Muslim outfits to mark the day by hoisting black flags even as Hindu bodies seek to commemorate it.
Although conventional political wisdom would decree that the construction of a 'magnificent' Ram temple at his 'birth-place' would bring the BJP a big yield of votes in the prospective elections, its leaders know by now that the mandir must not exist in isolation in its game plan, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Since the historic judgment of the apex court that paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town, a large number of devotees have been flocking to Ayodhya, several among them making their maiden visit to the city.
The participants lauded the government and the people for ensuring harmony after the apex court verdict on Saturday.
While Ayodhya resembled a city under seige earlier during the day, the scene was no different elsewhere in the state with police and central forces keeping an eye over the security situation and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally monitoring it from a hi-tech control room in the state capital.
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