'Every morning Nilanjana Roy, the Indian novelist, goes through the same routine in her New Delhi apartment: a few minutes of yoga and meditation, before turning on some Hindustani classical music to drown out the sounds of the traffic, flipping open her laptop, and refreshing Twitter. Roy has 100,000 followers; today there are 300 replies. The first one sets the tone: "You hole who should be raped by a bamboo lathi."..
"Gorakhpur: Fear has gripped Muslims in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh after Hindu goons affiliated to the Hindu Yuva Vahini made provocative speeches on Wednesday in presence of local administration and police and attacked Muslims. The incident occurred in Gainsetry Thana. The situation is tense but under control, claimed said police which reportedly remained as mute spectator during whole episode and slapped cases against six Muslims under various stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code..."
"Books published by the education wing of the RSS in Gujarat have made it to the curriculum of students studying in the 105-odd primary schools being run by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). These books have been introduced for the first time for classes I to VIII during the current academic year.
"Barely a month in office and three big appointments in the Prime Minister's Office - National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra and Additional Principal Secretary PK Mishra- have been picked from a little-known Delhi think tank, Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF). On its website, the organisation, located in Delhi's diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, describes itself as an independent, non-partisan institution, but it is a project of the Vivekanada Kendra, an organisation set up by RSS idealogue Eknath Ranade.
"The Maharashtra police are at it again. They have linked the Pune murder of Mohsin Shaikh by Hindu Rashtra Sena goons to the actions of Muslims from the Nationalist Congress Party. The 'Hindu backlash' theory is at work again. Shaikh's murder was a pure and simple hate crime, one would have thought. But not so for the Maharashtra police, who believe in the theory of 'action-reaction'. All Hindutvawadis describe their violence as 'defensive' or a 'reaction' to violence by Muslims. The latter are always the initiators -- this is an article of faith for Hindutvawadis.
"...The Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in the subcontinent. It is owned by the Bennett & Coleman Co. Ltd, a group that also publishes Femina. Before release, the filmmakers were asked to remove a promotional clip posted online that focused on the Botox session from the pageant. The original news story at Scoopwhoop still stands, but the YouTube link no longer works. Things only became worse. Perhaps infuriated by the ugly truths tumbling out of their closet because of "The World Before Her," the group apparently boycotted the film on release.
"A case has been registered in a Bangalore court against Kannada writers U R Ananthamurthy and M M Kalburgi for allegedly offending religious sentiments. The allegedly offensive incident in question happened decades ago, when Ananthamurthy was a child and the book in which he wrote about it, was published 18 years ago... In an essay in the book, Ananthamurthy recounts a childhood experience in which he urinates on a particular deity of the village, in a bid to challenge his traditional upbringing that everything was sacred.
'...I may not any longer visit temples, but I do regard myself a Hindu, in the broad sense of tradition, pride and culture, a position not far from the fashionable position of the newly triumphant religious Right. Where I tend to be unfashionable is in holding the view that India should never be a Hindu nation, a religious counter to Pakistan, and that religion should remain a personal matter, scrupulously scrubbed from government offices and the public sphere...
" With the BJP having come to power, Hindu outfits the VHP, the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) and the ABVP, the RSS students’ wing, are going for an organisational expansion in Uttar Pradesh. Separate efforts by the three organisations had helped the BJP win 71 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where assembly elections are due in 2016. In a recent meeting, HYV head Yogi Adityanath, a BJP MP, set a target of at least one lakh volunteers in each district by September-end. The HYV has 90 units in 75 districts, with an average 7,000 volunteers in each.
"Lok Sabha witnessed ruckus today after a Shiv Sena member remarked that saffron flag would be hoisted atop the Red Fort leading to a brief adjournment. Opposition members protested when Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav (SS) said they would unfurl saffron flag on the Red Fort in Delhi. Jadhav was speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address to Parliament. Opposing the remark, members from Congress, Trinamool Congress and Left parties urged the Speaker to remove it from the records..."
