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Polls in the world’s largest democracy India will open on April 19, the country’s election commissioner announced on Saturday, setting the stage for a nationwide election expected to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi clinch a rare third consecutive term. An estimated 960 million people in a country of 1.4 billion are eligible to vote in the widely anticipated polls that will take a month to complete. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to secure another five years in power, ruling an India that has become increasingly polarized along religious lines. Polling will unfold over seven phases around the country...

NEW DELHI: Invites sent by Indian President Droupadi Murmu calling herself "President of Bharat" for a dinner on the sidelines of the G20 summit have stirred speculation that the government may be about to change the country's name. WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT INDIA'S NAME? By convention, invitations issued by Indian constitutional bodies have always mentioned the name India when the text is in English, and the name Bharat when the text is in Hindi. However, the invites - in English - for the G20 dinner called Murmu the President of Bharat. An official at the president's office said they...

NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has replaced the name India with a Sanskrit word in dinner invitations sent to guests attending this week’s Group of 20 summit, in a move that reflects his Hindu nationalist party’s efforts to eliminate what it sees as colonial-era names. Indian President Droupadi Murmu is referred to as “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India” in the invitation sent to G20 attendees. The nation of more than 1.4 billion people is officially known by two names, India and Bharat, but the former is most commonly used, both domestically and internationally....

Muslim countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia condemn remarks about Prophet Mohammed made by top officials in India's Bharatiya Janata Party, as calls grow on social media for boycott of Indian goods in Muslim countries. Qatar, Kuwait and Iran have summoned their Indian envoys over insulting remarks on Islam's Prophet Muhammad by two officials of India's ruling party. In a statement on Sunday the Qatari Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Indian envoy to "voice disappointment of Qatar and its total rejection and condemnation to the controversial remarks." Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Soltan bin Saaad Al Muraikhi handed...

A monk known for his incendiary anti-Muslim rhetoric leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party into elections in India's most populous state Thursday, where a strong win could put him in pole position to succeed Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yogi Adityanath, 49, has stirred controversy since his surprise appointment in 2017 as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India home to over 200 million people -- more than the entire population of Brazil. Office has done nothing to temper his views, and as he seeks a second term he is exhorting Hindu voters to back the BJP...

A member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party offered a $1.5 million bounty Sunday for anyone who beheads the lead actress and the director of a yet-to-be released Bollywood film that's sparked controversy for depicting a romance between a Hindu queen and Muslim ruler. Suraj Pal Amu, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from the northern state of Haryana, offered the bounty against actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali... The movie "Padmavati" is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem, "Padmavat," a fictional account of a brave and beautiful Rajput queen who chose to kill herself rather than...

July 7, 2005 Thousands Are Arrested in India in Unrest Over Temple SiteBy SOMINI SENGUPTA NEW DELHI, July 6 - The police on Wednesday fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in the center of this city, the Indian capital, who were protesting an attack on a disputed religious site that has emerged as India's most potent symbol of sectarian strife. A day after the attack on the site, the temple compound in the northern town of Ayodhya, protesters led by the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and their allied organizations, also stormed the airport and hurled potted plants...