All 13 accused in a case regarding bomb attack on a house in 2000, in which three members of a family including a six-year old girl were injured, were found guilty by a local court on November 14. Additional Sessions Court (Fast Track-3) Judge B Ramakanth found the activists of RSS and BJP guilty. The court found them guilty under various IPC sections including IPC 307 (attempt to murder) and section 3 and 5 of Explosives Substance Act. However, it dropped charges against sixth accused K...

Following the report released by the State Minorities Commission, the Andhra Pradesh government has admitted that the 21 Muslim youth were illegally detained and tortured by the police. “Now compensation worth Rs 30,000 is being paid to them in the form of auto-rickshaw,” said Minister for Minorities Welfare, Mohammad Ali Shabbir. Another step the State Government is likely to take is to start a 24-hour helpline which will specifically record arrests made by the police after ...

“Only a united force of the Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Sikhs and others who have been wronged and disinherited by the advocates of Hindu Rashtra, can defeat the Hindu communal forces which are hell-bent to annihilate the minorities”, said Harinder Singh Khalsa, former MP and Member of National Presidium of Akali Dal Panch Pardhani. According to Khalsa, the political machinations of both BJP and Congress have during the last 61 years not only harmed the interests of minorities an...

As many as 54 Muslim organisations from in and around Mumbai passed a resolution not to vote for the Congress-NCP alliance in the upcoming polls. The representatives and Ulama met at Islam Gymkhana at Marine Drive and took the decision. They decided to form their own party known as the Maharashtra United Front. A state-wide meeting of prominent Muslims will be held on November 30 to fine-tune the decision to form the third front. The participants made it clear that their effort was to form a ...

After four years the Gujarat Assembly passed the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) Bill, 2003, and sent it to the Union Government for Presidential assent, sources said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has forwarded the Bill to President Pratibha Patil with the recommendation to send it back to the Assembly without signing it. The communication also advises the President to ask the Gujarat Assembly to re-work the Bill in order to remove provisions that are susceptible to misuse by ...

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan has asked the Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh to set up a regulatory mechanism to screen books before being introduced in schools outside the government. He blamed the RSS of “fabricating and distorting history” and the RSS-run schools are the places were the young minds are brainwashed. In a letter to Mr. Singh, Mr. Paswan claimed that a book ‘RSS, school text books and the murder of Mahatma Gandhi&rsquo...

The Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, is planning a national policy on health hazards of alcohol. The policy is in its preliminary stage and is about to come very soon. But the national policy on alcohol will be recommendatory and not mandatory in nature, said the union health ministry. On the issue of “surrogate” advertisement of alcohol, Dr Ramadoss feels the situation is going out of control and as a corrective step has written to the Aviation Ministry and will also tak...