Mysuru, Mar 2: Vidwan T P Vaidyanathan, renowned vocalist and a front-line artiste in the musical lineage of Mysore Vasudevacharya, died here in a private hospital following age related illness.
He was 85.
Born in 1934, Vaidyanathan was attracted to music at a very early age and his musical talents were nurtured by Vidwan B K Padmanabha Rao, a direct disciple of Vasudevacharya.
New Delhi, Jun 22: Amidst a strain in the ties between India and Nepal, actor Manisha Koirala, a Nepali national, on Monday urged people of both the countries to be not "aggressive and disrespectful" towards each other.
Koirala, a leading Bollywood actor of her times, took to Twitter to request people to let the respective government resolve the issues and stay "civil."
"A heartfelt request please let's not be aggressive and disrespectful..we are in this situation together..our respective Gov's will resolve the issue. In the meantime we can be civil ..I remain hopeful," she tweeted.
Earlier last week, Nepal 's Upper House of Parliament endorsed a proposal to discuss the Constitution amendment bill to update the country's map that incorporates parts of Indian territory.
Nepal's House of Representatives had on June 10 endorsed a proposal seeking consideration of a constitution amendment bill for change of country's map after a lengthy discussion. Nepal has made offers to India to hold "diplomatic talks to resolve the territorial issue" between the two countries.
New Delhi has said that the updated map is "not based on historical facts and evidence" and termed the claims by Nepal as artificial enlargement.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also said that the move is violative of the current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues.
Chennai, Jan 15: Superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday called for neutrality in journalism and urged media outlets to report the truth.
Addressing an event organised by Tamil magazine ''Thuglak' in Chennai, the superstar-turned-politician said that the country needs a journalist like the late Cho S Ramaswamy, who helmed the publication for decades.
"The times, politics and society are going bad. In such a scenario, the media had a huge responsibility towards the people," he said.
Some television channels are biased towards political parties, Rajinikanth said. He added that media, critics and journalists must report the truth impartially.
Comparing true news to milk and fake reportage to water, Rajinikanth said people will not be able to distinguish between the two if they are mixed.
"Only journalists need to tell which portion is milk and which is water...write the truth and don't make a lie seem like truth," he said, amid applause.
Washington, Jun 11: Observing that historically India has been a tolerant, respectful country for all religions, a top Trump administration official has said the US is "very concerned" about what is happening in India over religious freedom.
The comments by Samuel Brownback, Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom, came hours after the release of the "2019 International Religious Freedom Report" on Wednesday.
Mandated by the US Congress, the report documenting major instances of violation of religious freedom across the world was released by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department.
India has previously rejected the US religious freedom report, saying it sees no locus standi for a foreign government to pronounce on the state of its citizens' constitutionally protected rights.
"We do remain very concerned about what's taking place in India. It's historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of religions, of all religions," Mr Brownback said during a phone call with foreign journalists on Wednesday.
The trend lines have been troubling in India because it is such a religious subcontinent and seeing a lot more communal violence, Mr Brownback said. "We're seeing a lot more difficulty. I think really they need to have a - I would hope they would have an - interfaith dialogue starting to get developed at a very high level in India, and then also deal with the specific issues that we identified as well," he said.
"It really needs a lot more effort on this topic in India, and my concern is, too, that if those efforts are not put forward, you're going to see a growth in violence and increased difficulty within the society writ large," said the top American diplomat.
Responding to a question, Mr Brownback said he hoped minority faiths are not blamed for the COVID-19 spread and that they would have access to healthcare amid the crisis.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised any form of discrimination, saying the COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone equally. "COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or border before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood," PM Modi said in a post on LinkedIn in February.
The government, while previously rejecting the US religious freedom report, had said: "India is proud of its secular credentials, its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion".
"The Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities… We see no locus standi for a foreign entity/government to pronounce on the state of our citizens' constitutionally protected rights," the Foreign Ministry said in June last year.
According to the Home Ministry, 7,484 incidents of communal violence took place between 2008 and 2017, in which more than 1,100 people were killed.
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