New Delhi: Congress demands evidence for Parrikar’s remarks
The Congress on Friday took offence at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s remarks that some former Prime Ministers had compromised its "deep assets", asking him to prove his allegations or tender a public apology. Parrikar had made the allegations at an event in Mumbai while making a reference to the Coast Guard’s operations involving a boat from Pakistan. The Congress also demanded to know what assets had been compromised and whether they were strategic or intelligence assets.
Uttar Pradesh: Hindu Mahasabha accuses Bollywood’s Khans of inspiring ‘love-jihad’
On Friday, the Hindu Mahasabha challenged Bollywood challenged actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan to convert to Hinduism if they really loved their wives. The salvo came in an editorial in its weekly publication Hindu Sabha Varta. The editorial said that filmmakers are pressurised to pair Muslim men up with Hindu women, making role-models of the men and helping wage so-called love-jihad in the country. The editor and publisher of the weekly, Munna Kumar Singh, asked, “If these Muslim actors love their wives, why do their wives have to convert to Islam and adopt Muslim culture?”
Gujarat: School board asks all schools to mandate ‘Saraswati Vandana’ prayers
The Ahmedabad School Board issued a circular earlier this week asking all schools to hold Saraswati Vandana prayers on Vasant Panchami on Saturday, drawing accusations of promoting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva agenda. On Saturday, the Congress accused the BJP of attacking the fundamental rights of Muslims, as all forms of idolatry are prohibited in Islam. Threatening legal action, Congress members said the order should not be made compulsory in schools where Muslims studied.
Jammu and Kashmir: Valley shuts down in protest of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons
Government offices, businesses and public transport services in the Kashmir Valley were shut on Friday in protest against the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The call for the shutdown had been issued by senior Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik. The state administration intensified security and imposing unannounced curfews in several areas. The people who participated felt the cartoons were an attack on their faith as well as their political identity.
Kerala: KM Mani lampooned for accepting bribes to renew bar licenses
Kerala Finance Minister and senior Kerala Congress leader KM Mani came under fire on Friday for allegations that he accepted hefty bribes to renew the licenses of bar owners as well as kickbacks from various businesses that he had threatened with higher tax burdens in his budgets. A campaign called "youth begging for Mani" was called for on the social media on Sunday, with a Facebook post specifying that youngsters would line up in a street in Kochi and beg so they could "meet Mani’s greed".
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The Congress on Friday took offence at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s remarks that some former Prime Ministers had compromised its "deep assets", asking him to prove his allegations or tender a public apology. Parrikar had made the allegations at an event in Mumbai while making a reference to the Coast Guard’s operations involving a boat from Pakistan. The Congress also demanded to know what assets had been compromised and whether they were strategic or intelligence assets.
Uttar Pradesh: Hindu Mahasabha accuses Bollywood’s Khans of inspiring ‘love-jihad’
On Friday, the Hindu Mahasabha challenged Bollywood challenged actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan to convert to Hinduism if they really loved their wives. The salvo came in an editorial in its weekly publication Hindu Sabha Varta. The editorial said that filmmakers are pressurised to pair Muslim men up with Hindu women, making role-models of the men and helping wage so-called love-jihad in the country. The editor and publisher of the weekly, Munna Kumar Singh, asked, “If these Muslim actors love their wives, why do their wives have to convert to Islam and adopt Muslim culture?”
Gujarat: School board asks all schools to mandate ‘Saraswati Vandana’ prayers
The Ahmedabad School Board issued a circular earlier this week asking all schools to hold Saraswati Vandana prayers on Vasant Panchami on Saturday, drawing accusations of promoting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva agenda. On Saturday, the Congress accused the BJP of attacking the fundamental rights of Muslims, as all forms of idolatry are prohibited in Islam. Threatening legal action, Congress members said the order should not be made compulsory in schools where Muslims studied.
Jammu and Kashmir: Valley shuts down in protest of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons
Government offices, businesses and public transport services in the Kashmir Valley were shut on Friday in protest against the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The call for the shutdown had been issued by senior Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik. The state administration intensified security and imposing unannounced curfews in several areas. The people who participated felt the cartoons were an attack on their faith as well as their political identity.
Kerala: KM Mani lampooned for accepting bribes to renew bar licenses
Kerala Finance Minister and senior Kerala Congress leader KM Mani came under fire on Friday for allegations that he accepted hefty bribes to renew the licenses of bar owners as well as kickbacks from various businesses that he had threatened with higher tax burdens in his budgets. A campaign called "youth begging for Mani" was called for on the social media on Sunday, with a Facebook post specifying that youngsters would line up in a street in Kochi and beg so they could "meet Mani’s greed".
