Defectors should be banned from holding public office for 5 years, fighting next poll: Kapil Sibal

Ayodhya, Jul 18: The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya either on August 3 or 5, both auspicious dates, said a spokesperson.

PM Modi had announced the formation of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust on February 5.

Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, the spokesperson of Ram Mandir Trust president Nritya Gopal Das said, "We have suggested two auspicious dates -- August 3 and 5 -- for the prime minister's visit based on calculations of movements of stars and planets."

After a protracted legal tussle, the Supreme Court had on November 9 last year paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple by a Trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot an alternative 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi, Jul 26: Nidan Singh Sachdeva, the Afghan Sikh who was kidnapped a month ago and released recently, arrived here earlier in the day and narrated the ordeals that he faced at the hands of abductors and also thanked the Indian government for bringing him back to his 'motherland'.

Facing threats from Pakistan-backed Taliban, eleven members of Sikh community from Afghanistan, who were granted short-term visas by Indian Embassy in Kabul, including Sachdeva, who was abducted from a gurudwara in Paktia province last month, touched down in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking to news agency on his return, an emotional Sachdeva, said, "I don't know what to call Hindustan -- whether it is my mother or my father -- Hindustan is Hindustan."

"I was abducted from the gurudwara and 20 hours later, I was covered with blood. I was tied to a tree as well. They used to beat me and ask me to convert into a Muslim. I repeatedly told them that why should I convert, I have my own religion," he said while describing
Nidan Singh thanked Government of India for bringing him here.

"I am more than thankful to the Indian government for bringing us here to our motherland. I have no words to describe my feelings here. I arrived here after much struggle. The atmosphere of fear prevails there.

Gurudwara is where we can be safe but a step outside the Gurdwara is fearful," he said.
"They used to beat me every day and every night," he said further and added, "It is because of sheer happiness, I am speechless. I am very grateful to them."

Ministry of External Affairs recently announced that India has decided to facilitate the return of Afghan Hindu and Sikh community members facing security threats in Afghanistan to India.
The decision comes four months after a terror attack at a gurdwara in Kabul's Shor Bazaar killed at least 25 members of the community.

India has condemned the "targeting and persecution" of minority community members by terrorists in Afghanistan at the behest of their external supporters remains a matter of grave concern.

Leaders of the Afghan Sikh community have appealed to the Indian government to accommodate the Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan and grant them legal entry with long term residency multiple entry visas.

Once a community of nearly 250,000 people, the Sikh and Hindu community in Afghanistan has endured years of discrimination and violence from extremists, and the community is now estimated to comprise fewer than 100 families across the country.

Chennai, Apr 25: Civic authorities on Saturday turned down a plea for exhuming the body of a doctor who died of COVID-19 here and burying it in another cemetery, citing health experts' view that it was unsafe to do so. Citing a request from the wife of the deceased doctor to allow exhumation and then re-burial at a cemetery in Kilpauk, the Greater Chennai Corporation said it sought a report from a committee of public health experts to ascertain the feasibility of entertaining her plea.

The spouse of the doctor had appealed to the GCC on April 22 to exhume and bury again her husband's body. She had said that burial in the Kilpauk cemetery here was her husband's last wish and he had conveyed it to her before he was put on a ventilator.

The report of experts has said that "it is not safe" to exhume and again bury the body of a COVID-19 victim and hence "it is not possible to accept her request," the GCC said in an official release. On April 19, a city-based 55-year-old neurosurgeon died of coronavirus and his burial at the Velangadu crematorium here was marred by violence.

A mob which falsely feared that the burial may lead to the spread of contagion had attacked the corporation health employees and associates of the deceased doctor. The doctor's wife and son also had to leave the burial ground in view of the violence.

The body was brought to Velangadu as people of Kilpauk area had opposed his burial there. Over a dozen men involved allegedly in violence were arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Later, in a video message, the surgeon's wife had said that it was her husband's last wish to be interred at the Kilpauk cemetery as per Christian rituals

Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK president M K Stalin had spoken to her on Wednesday over the phone and condoled her husband's death.