Category: India

25 Years On, India has still to live down the shame of the Babri Masjid’s Demolition

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The CBI is deliberately prolonging the criminal trial while the BJP does its best to use the Ayodhya dispute to once again stoke the flames of hatred. Twenty five years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, The Wire, through a series of articles and videos captures how the act of destruction changed India forever. India is perhaps the only country in the world where a real crime – committed in broad daylight, with evidence recorded by video cameras and presented in court by prosecutors – counts for less than an imaginary transgression that…

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How a Journalist was Sexually Assaulted the Day Babri Masjid Fell

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When activist and documentary filmmaker Ruchira Gupta saw the first dome of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya come down just after noon on 6 December 1992, she knew she had to go inside the dispute site. At 24, Gupta was reporting for Business India from Ayodhya. Many journalists thought the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal cadre would only perform a ‘symbolic’ kar seva at the disputed site they believed was the ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’. Gupta had to go see for herself what was happening on the ground instead of…

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Wife’s religion does not merge with husband’s after marriage: Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court disagreed on Thursday with the Bombay high court’s ruling that a woman’s religion merges with her husband’s faith after marriage and requested the Valsad Zoroastrian Trust to reconsider its decision to bar a Parsi woman from entering the Tower of Silence to perform the last rites of her parents only because she married outside the community. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan said it appeared to be manifestly arbitrary that a Parsi…

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25 Years after Babri Masjid demolition, VHP organises ‘Day of Bravery’ while muslims observe ‘Black Day’ in Ayodhya

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Bajrang Dal members in the city were booked for breaching prohibitory orders. Ayodhya: While the Muslim community in Ayodhya today demanded that the government reconstruct the Babri Masjid, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pass a law in parliament for the construction of a Ram mandir on the site if the Supreme Court delays disposing off the issue. Muslim groups observed the 25th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition as a ‘day of sorrow (yaum e gham)’ and a ‘black day (yaum e syah)’. In a public meeting organised by Muslim groups in…

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Reprisal for Love Jihad? Muslim man burnt alive over ‘Love Jihad’ in Rajasthan

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The attacker, identified as Shambhu Lal Regar, was arrested after a series of video clips purportedly show him hitting and stabbing a man, burning the body and warning “jihadis” to leave India The Rajasthan Police on Thursday arrested an unemployed man who in a series of video clips was purportedly seen hitting and stabbing a man, burning the body and warning “jihadis” to leave India or meet a similar fate. Police were yet to share the details of circumstances surrounding the Shambhu Lal Regar’s arrest. The clips, circulated on WhatsApp,…

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Mani Shankar Aiyar stokes fresh row, calls Modi a ‘Neech Aadmi’

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After Chaiwala dig in 2014 and Aurangzeb barb that backfired on the party, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has triggered another row. Aiyar, who had tried to humiliate Narendra Modi for selling tea+ ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has yet again attacked the Prime Minister using derogatory language. “Mujhko lagta hai ki ye aadmi bahut neech kisam ka aadmi hai, isme koi sabhyata nahi hai, or aise mauke par is kisam ki gandi rajniti karne ki kya avashyakta hai?” Mani Shankar Aiyar was quoted as saying by…

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60% of Modi’s speech was about Congress, not future of Gujarat: Rahul Gandhi

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Gujarat election 2017: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticising the Congress and the party’s policies in his home state. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he mostly talked about the Congress in his speeches as he had no plans for poll-bound Gujarat’s future. Gandhi also promised a “golden future” for the people of Gujarat, and said if the Congress forms government in the western state, it will not take decisions like the (GST) “Gabbar Singh Tax” and demonetisation. Modi has been strongly…

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‘Beti Bachao, Bahu Lao’ Hindu outfit plans campaign to counter Love Jihad

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Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), affiliated to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), plans to convince in six months 2,100 educated Muslim girls to marry Hindu boys. Announcing a campaign to counter ‘love jihad’, Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), affiliated to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), plans to convince in six months 2,100 educated Muslim girls to marry Hindu boys. State president of ‘Bahu Beti’ cell of HJM Ajju Chauhan and HJM city unit president Jitendra Pratap Singh told media persons that 15 Muslim girls had been convinced in the last one year and their…

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India must ‘Cherish and Nurture’ its Muslims: Obama to Modi

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India needs to “cherish and nurture” its Muslim population, which is integrated and considers itself Indian, former US president Barack Obama said on Friday. It is an idea that needs to be reinforced, he emphasised at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here. Obama touched on a host of topics, including his relationship with Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh, terrorism, Pakistan, the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his love for Indian ‘dal’ and ‘keema’, during his address and the question-answer session that followed. Obama, the first African American president of…

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Congress fields most candidates with criminal cases, BJP has more crorepatis in Gujarat elections: ADR

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An analysis of affidavits of 923 candidates by ADR shows that Congress has 31 (36%) candidates having criminal cases whereas ruling BJP which has fielded 22 (25%) candidates with criminal record. The Congress has more candidates with criminal records than the BJP in 89 seats that is going to polls in the first phase on December 9, says a report of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released on Friday. An analysis of affidavits of 923 candidates by ADR shows that Congress has 31 (36%) candidates having criminal cases whereas ruling BJP which…

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