Narendra Modi Facts

'A day after finance minister Arun Jaitley and his Congress predecessor P Chidambaram claimed that the Supreme Court should reconsider its 2013 decision to criminalise gay sex, Delhi's queer community on Sunday showed up for the city's annual Pride March with strong views about their statements. Speaking at the Times LitFest in Delhi on November 28, Jaitley said that the court's view on homosexuality was not in sync with laws in many other parts of the world.

'For all its rhetoric, the two-day special discussion in Parliament on “Commitment to the Constitution” has done little to dispel the concerns of civil society over growing intolerance. But it should be no surprise, for in his earlier avatar as chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi has a record of disclaiming knowledge of such a warning even from one of his own trusted police officers.

'Police made a huge haul of explosives, including 1.50 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, 2,680 detonators, 1,200 gelatin sticks, 1,200 metres of fuse wire and 180 boosters, from a van and arrested two persons at Atmakur in Kurnool district. An accused in a previous case of seizure of explosives, Aithwa Srinivas, and the van driver Boya Suresh were arrested in vehicle checking on a tip-off, Atmakur DSP K. Supraja told media persons at Atmakur. It is learnt that both the arrested are activists of a radical Hindu outfit...'

“Perumal Murugan, the writer is dead. As he is no God, he is not going to resurrect himself. He has no faith in rebirth. As an ordinary teacher, he will live as P Murugan. Leave him alone.” With this post on Facebook almost year ago, in January 2015, Murugan bowed out of the literary world that had been his passion. Hounded, abused and threatened by right wing groups in Chennai this writer decided to stop writing and announced his “death.”

'Prominent Sunni Muslim leader Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musliyar Saturday said gender equality was “against Islam”. Addressing a Sunni students’ camp in Kozhikode, the orthodox Sunni leader said, “Where has man-woman equality taken place? It is not going to happen. Gender equality is against Islam, society and human kindness.” “The world is controlled by men. Women have strength in other areas… They can deliver babies. Only women can nurture babies. Her duty is to rear children and feed the husband,’’ Musliyar said...'

'Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday continued his campaign against state governor PB Acharya, and shot off a letter to the President, requesting him to immediately replace him because of “making no distinction between his constitutional functioning as Governor of a state and his political and ideological instincts.” Acharya had also converted the Guwahati Raj Bhavan into an annexe of the BJP office, he alleged.

'The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has taken cognizance of the "indecent" remarks made by Haryana's Health Minister Anil Vij against IPS officer Sangeeta Kalia and has sought a report from the state Chief Secretary in the matter. Slamming Vij's "get out" remarks against the woman officer, the Commission's member Ishwar Singh said on Saturday that he has sought a report from the Haryana government within a week.

'The chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, has quit the post just 16 months into his term. Although the reason for his resignation is not clear, government sources attributed the move to the chairman’s unhappiness over being denied an honorarium of Rs 1.5 lakh per month. When contacted, Rao confirmed that he put in his papers on November 24, but denied that the move was linked to the honorarium. “I am waiting for the communication from the government. I have nothing to say at the moment.

'Former Maharashtra inspector general of police SM Mushrif on Thursday described the activists of RSS as 'India's number one terrorist organisation'. Mushrif was quoted saying at an event in Kolkata: “RSS activists have been chargesheeted in at least 13 cases of terror acts in which RDX has been used. If organisations like Bajrang Dal are taken into the account, then the number of such cases goes up to 17.”

'The debate on intolerance in the country has now hit the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) as well. Kannada writer TK Dayanand and poet Arif Raja have boycotted the Bangalore Lit festival that is being held in the city on December 5 and 6. One of the Directors of the BLF, author Vikram Sampath, had recently written an article where he stated that he was against writers returning their awards. This statement hasn’t gone down well with many writers who have now taken a stand against the BLF.