The Supreme Court today asked the government to produce Fadiya, previously known as Akhila Ashokan, before Nov 27 in the controversial ‘Love Jihad’ case from Kerala. In the petition filed by Fadiya’s ex-husband Shafeen Jahan, the court came to the conclusion that it would need to speak to the girl after conflicting allegations were leveled […]
A group of 39 Islamic missionaries have been arrested for door-to-door distribution of religious pamphlets that said, among other things, that people who worship multiple Gods will burn in hell. The volunteers of ‘Mujahid Wisdom Global Islamic Mission’, who were distributing the material in villages near Kochi, were arrested on complaints by local RSS activists. […]
NDTV, the oldest television news channel in India, was forced to withdraw a headline that portrayed gang violence in Dhule in Maharashtra as yet another case of ‘lynching’ in India after readers objected. Many commenters felt that the channel, which has been attempting to project itself as ‘Liberal’ outfit standing up to a ‘right wing’ […]
When Hussain Rasheed started talking about his son, a sob choked his voice. His feeble reply wasn’t even audible to the small gathering for sometime. When he regained his composure the first question he asked: Why was my son killed? What was his crime? The only crime of Yameen Rasheed,an independent blogger, was that he […]
Facebook has restored ‘Atheist Republic’, by far the biggest page operated by the Atheist community on any social media network, after it was shut down using ‘mass reporting’ by religious people. The move followed a big outcry among atheists and free-speech advocates online. The page was taken down about 24 hours ago, and remained inaccessible […]
Republic TV, the upcoming news channel, will be staunchly nationalist and pro-military, and will attempt to bring back ‘balance’ into a media dominated by a small set of academics and intellectuals in the capital, going by the comments of Arnab Goswami, the head of the channel. “All Indians should be pro military and pro India. If that makes […]
If you thought the fight over net neutrality was over with the sending of 1 mln emails to the TRAI two years ago, think again. The telecom service providers, who lost out that in the first round, are back. This time, however, their demands are more subtle, and focused on getting specific services exempted from […]
After making the National Anthem mandatory in movie halls, the Supreme Court has moved on to the question of whether or not to make Vande Mataram, the national song of India, mandatory in schools. Taking up a petition on the matter, the Supreme Court today issued notice to the central government asking it for its […]
The home ministry has written back to the National Human Rights Commission that non-governmental organizations cannot be allowed to work against India’s strategic or economic interest. In it’s response to the NHRC, the home ministry said it cannot allow organizations that take money from outside India to conduct “activities detrimental to national interest ,including security, strategic, […]
The ministry of human resources development, which oversees educational institutions in the country, today refused to intervene in political protests and incidents in colleges. “These autonomous institutions are established under the respective Acts of Parliament and are competent to take action in the academic and administrative matters of the institutions, including student’s union activities, with […]
Quora, the question and answer app that is very popular in certain pockets of population in India and abroad, said has made three crucial changes to its anonymity policy: installing a mandatory screening process, preventing anonymous users from liking and commenting, and removing direct linkage between anonymous content and their authors on the back-end systems. […]
The Supreme Court today upheld service rules and provisions that impose ‘clean shaven’ rules for the Indian Air Force. Dismissing a petition by a Muslim person, the court said the Air Force was well within its authority to lay down the rule prohibiting the sporting of a beard for its personnel. Many organizations, including the […]
The Press Trust of India reported that the government of India has put on hold its earlier directive to take news channel NDTV India off-air for one day. Quoting unnamed sources, the news agency said the Information & Broadcasting ministry decided to put the move on hold. The move had been roundly condemned by media […]
Almost three months after the tussle between various lawyers associations and journalists first hit the headlines, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today took a stand on the issue, urging lawyers to let the media do their job. “The lawyers should realize that they do wrong in blocking journalists from accessing the court premises,” Vijayan said […]
Online shopping site Myntra.com distanced itself from a controversial poster of Lord Krishna showing him ordering clothes from the retailer as Draupadi was being disrobed. Taking off from the Mahabharata epic, the poster depcits Krishna searching for ‘extra long sarees’ as Dushasana peels off Draupadi’s clothes. According to the epic, Draupadi was pawned by her husbands […]
The administration panel of Kerala’s biggest anti-superstition and rationalist Facebook groups has come under death threats for prompting believers to desert the Islamic faith. The blog, named Mujahir 2015, is written in Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerala. “Those who insult the Prophet must be killed,” the blog said. “To carry out (such an act), […]
Dinkoism, India’s largest parody religion, is holding its first ‘mega congregation’ this Sunday at Calicut in the southern state of Kerala. The religion was floated after rationalists and science activists — tired of holding ‘logical’ arguments with religious fanatics about everything from evolution to abortion to women’s rights — decided exaggeration and caricature was the […]
A Christian man who married a Hindu woman ten years ago has now received a notice from a ‘Special Administrative Tribunal’ of the Catholic Church seeking an explanation. The letter dated six days ago “requests” the man to appear before the ‘tribunal’ to discuss how he ended up getting married and living in a fashion […]
Mathrubhumi, Kerala’s second largest newspaper and one of the top ten in the country, was forced to issue an unconditional apology after religious and political organizations held widespread protests outside its offices for publishing ‘blasphemous’ content about Prophet Mohammed. The newspaper had, on Wednesday, printed audience feedback sourced from social media on another of its […]
The Bar Council of India, the top professional body for lawyers, has instituted a new enquiry into the violence in Patiala House court compound. The panel will consist of three members. If the findings are adverse, the rioting lawyers could lose their advocates’ license, which will prevent them from practicing law. The Bar Council of […]
