New Delhi, Dec 12: The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking review of its November 9 Ayodhya land dispute case verdict, which cleared the way for construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, which took these review pleas for consideration in-chamber, rejected them after finding no merits.
Washington, Feb 5: Experts warned a US government panel last night that India's Muslims face risks of expulsion and persecution under the country’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which has triggered major protests.
The hearing held inside Congress was called by the US Commission on International Freedom, which has been denounced by the Indian government as biased.
Ashutosh Varshney, a prominent scholar of sectarian violence in India, told the panel that the law championed by prime minister Narendra Modi's government amounted to a move to narrow the democracy's historically inclusive and secular definition of citizenship.
"The threat is serious, and the implications quite horrendous," said Varshney, a professor at Brown University.
"Something deeply injurious to the Muslim minority can happen once their citizenship rights are taken away," he said.
Varshney warned that the law could ultimately lead to expulsion or detention -- but, even if not, contributes to marginalization.
"It creates an enabling atmosphere for violence once you say that a particular community is not fully Indian or its Indianness in grave doubt," he said.
India's parliament in December passed a law that fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities from neighboring countries.
Responding to criticism at the time from the US commission, which advises but does not set policy, India's External Affairs Ministry said the law does not strip anyone's citizenship and "should be welcomed, not criticized, by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom."
Fears are particularly acute in Assam, where a citizens' register finalized last year left 1.9 million people, many of them Muslims, facing possible statelessness.
Aman Wadud, a human rights lawyer from Assam who traveled to Washington for the hearing, said that many Indians lacked birth certificates or other documentation to prove citizenship and were only seeking "a dignified life."
The hearing did not exclusively focus on India, with commissioners and witnesses voicing grave concern over Myanmar's refusal to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, the mostly Muslim minority that has faced widespread violence.
Gayle Manchin, the vice chair of the commission, also voiced concern over Bahrain's stripping of citizenship from activists of the Shiite majority as well as a new digital ID system in Kenya that she said risks excluding minorities.
More than 40 people were killed last week in New Delhi in sectarian violence sparked by the citizenship law.
India on Tuesday lodged another protest after the UN human rights chief, Michele Bachelet, sought to join a lawsuit in India that challenges the citizenship law's constitutionality.
New Delhi, Apr 2: With 437 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the tally of COVID-19 positive cases in India shot up to 1,834 on Wednesday night.
The number of deaths in the country due to COVID-19 has risen to 41.
The total number of active cases in the country is 1,649. 143 persons have been cured and discharged from the hospitals. One person has migrated, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Earlier on Wednesday, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla urged all state governments and Union Territory administrations to ensure the lockdown measures issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs are strictly implemented.
"All the state governments/UT administrations are requested to strictly implement the lockdown measures issued by MHA in the exercise of the powers under Disaster Management Act, 2005 in letter and spirit," Bhalla said.
Prime Minister Modi had earlier announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.
Kochi, Feb 9: P Parameswaran, one of the senior-most "pracharaks" of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and former leader of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, died at 91 in the early hours today, Sangh Parivar sources said.
The founder director of the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram died at 12.10 am while undergoing Ayurvedic treatment at Ottappalam in Kerala's Palakkad district, according to sources.
P Parameswaran, who had worked with leaders like Deendayal Upadhyaya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani during the Jana Sangh days, was honoured with Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award in 2018 and Padma Shri in 2004.
Fondly called as Parameswar ji by Sangh Parivar and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, he was a prolific writer, poet, researcher and a widely-respected RSS ideologue. He was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh's secretary (1967-1971) and vice0president (1971-1977), as well as the director of the Deendayal Research Institute (1977-1982) in New Delhi.
Born in 1927 in Muhamma, Alappuzha district, he joined the RSS during his student days.
His body will be brought to the RSS headquarters in Kochi this morning for people to pay their last respects. The cremation will be held in Muhamma in the evening, sources said.
During the days of Emergency between 1975-77, he courted arrest as part of the all India Satyagraha against it and was jailed for 16 months.
Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram was established by P Parameswaran in 1982 "to promote nationalist thoughts among Keralites".
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