The Sant Rampal episode has exposed the dark underbelly of the flourishing network of so-called spiritual gurus in Haryana and Punjab.
Goons trained as commandos by former military and police personnel, mind-numbing affluence that is in clear conflict with the message of simplicity they preach, bloody property disputes, thousands of devotes in rural areas, political leaders at their beck and finally, that audacious assertion that they are above the law – a potent mix of religion, con act, muscle and money power continues to dominate the lives of people in the states.
Amid ongoing controversy, Shaban Bukhari, the son of Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari, was on Saturday formally anointed the Naib Imam (deputy Imam) of the 17th century mosque at a ceremony in New Delhi.
"I announce Shaban Bukhari as the Naib Imam of Jama Masjid. I hope that he will live up to the expectations," Syed Ahmed Bukhari said during the ceremony.
The 19-year-old Shaban Bukhari, who is pursuing his bachelor's degree in social work at Amity University, is now in line to become the Shahi Imam of the country's largest mosque.
The Delhi High court on Friday has said the ceremony by Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari to annoint his son as his successor has no legal sanctity.
The tappa lyric with its narrative of love, separation and union, is intricately woven with the melodic line that displays dramatic twists and turns on vowels and consonants.
Tappa, one of the Hindustani music forms, is said to have its origins in the songs of the camel-drivers from Punjab. Ghulam Nabi, a musician in the court of Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah of Awadh (1775-1797), incorporated elements of these songs and created the tappa form as we now know it. In fact, many traditional tappas have been composed by Ghulam Nabi in dialects of Punjabi and his pseudonym Shori Miyan appears in the song-text.
It is to state the obvious that Narendra Modi is now emerging as a significant global leader in his own right and that the prestige of India has soared in the six months he has been our Prime Minister. This is the kind of prestige we have not commanded since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, and if we play our cards right, India will be the world's sixth powerhouse - after the US, China, Germany, Japan and Russia - over the next decade.
From directors to film-stars, no one was immune to the terror posed by the Dubai-based gangster.
Back in the 1990s, Bollywood was nothing like the sanitised, studio-controlled, corporate-financed industry it is today. Tinsel town had its moguls and its mandarins who, along with Mumbai’s realty players, controlled incredible sums of black money. So it was only natural that when Salem decided to go beyond the construction business, it would be to the veritable gold mine of Bollywood.
The first target would be Subhash Ghai, one of the reigning maharajas of superstardom. Ghai’s cash registers had been ringing and coffers overflowing ever since his 1993 box office superhit Khalnayak, starring Salem’s now-on, now-off friend Sanjay Dutt. The director’s stock had soared so much that he could even sign Shah Rukh Khan for a film.
Best cities 2014: Post-bifurcation, Hyderabad is regaining its place as a big player on the realty scene
When Rajesh Nathani, 25, bought his two bedroom apartment in Hyderabad, price was not the only consideration. For the workforce planning analyst at GE Money, it's the 'priceless conveniences' that matter more. His top-floor home, in a five-storeyed 10-apartment block, is neither a typical high-rise in a packed locality nor an expensive one. At Kompally in north Hyderabad, it is far away from his workplace in west Hyderabad's Madhapur, where most IT firms operate out of impressive buildings.
The conduct of election of members to the Medical Council of India in 2013 and its subsequent actions over the past year have underlined the brazen corruption in the regulatory body. Developments in the health ministry raise doubts over whether these issues will be tackled at all.
The removal of Dr Harshvardhan from the helm of the health ministry may merely be to give him more room to focus on the Delhi assembly election campaign for the BJP, but there appears to be an apprehension in several quarters that the shift, whether intentionally or otherwise, will be a setback to the attempts to free the medical sector from corruption.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pulled off a diplomatic heist; or shall we call it a diplomatic coup?
The man is known for thinking out of the box and stunning his friends and rivals alike with his unconventional ideas and approach.
For somebody who has always been tied down to a state – Gujarat in this context – Modi has stunned the world once again with his unconventional diplomacy.
