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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...

A north Indian town is preparing for a mega event next week, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a grand Hindu temple that symbolizes the country’s surging Hindu cultural nationalism, a movement also known as Hindutva. The inauguration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, India is set for Monday, January 22. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Ram and stands on the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque. Some Hindu leaders have begun calling the town a "Hindu Vatican." Many Hindus claim that Ram was born in Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh — exactly...

[Uncompromising condemnation of the Hamas attack at the beginning of the war - Narendra Modi] Since 1948, India has not supported Israel's wars even once. In the past, it supported its enemies, and even sent Arab countries aid. A few hours since the images of the massacre taking place in the south of Israel began to flow on the morning of October 7, a series of condemnations from world leaders began to accumulate. One condemnation was particularly historic: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the world's largest democracy and one of its most popular leaders, tweeted his uncompromising...

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...

The fabled power of anti-incumbency was expected to pose a challenge to Narendra Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the world's largest local election - 150 million voters spread over more than 400 seats - in India's northern Uttar Pradesh or UP state. After all, no party had managed to retain its majority in the state's legislative assembly since 1985. The average tenure of a chief minister during a five-year-term in this politically volatile state has been two years and 19 days. No incumbent chief minister has ruled UP for two successive terms since 1947. Mr Modi's party and...

An Indian MP has caused outrage after she claimed that she is protected from coronavirus because she drinks cow urine every day. Pragya Thakur, a controversial MP from Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also claimed that the urine can cure lung infections caused by the virus. Her bizarre comments come just days after Indian doctors urged people not to cover themselves in cow dung and urine as a treatment for Covid, saying it risks spreading the disease faster.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to unite the country on Thursday after a big election win, with his party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of business-friendly policies and a tough stand on national security. Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 300 of the 542 seats being contested, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament. That would give it the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. “Together...

Indian officials have begun relocating some 300 crocodiles from a reservoir next to the world's tallest statue to allow a seaplane service for visitors. The animals, some around 3m (9ft 9in) long, are being lured into metal cages and sent elsewhere in the western state of Gujarat. The 182m statue of independence hero Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was inaugurated last October. The bronze-clad statue sculpture, located some 200km (125 miles) from the state's main city of Ahmedabad, has become a popular attraction. Indian farmers fume at cost of statue But there are no train services and most tourists reach the site,...

Supporters of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been accused of pulling down a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in Tripura state. Monday's incident happened days after the party swept elections in the north-eastern state, dislodging the Communist government after 25 years. The five-year-old statue in Belonia town was removed with the help of an excavator as supporters cheered. There have been clashes between BJP and Communist party workers in the state. The NDTV news channel quoted eyewitnesses as saying the excavator which brought down the statue was hired by BJP workers.

Victims are a group of Sikh individuals from Punjab, India who were actively and peacefully advocating the call given by SFJ to hold referendum for Sikhs' right to self determination and to liberate Indian Occupied Punjab. The demand for referendum is based on the right to self determination guaranteed by the UN Charter and International Convent on Civil and Political Rights on the basis that Sikhs are indigenous people of Punjab, with a separate and distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity. Sikh Referendum Campaigners were actively involved in "Referendum 2020" campaign by coordinating, participating and holding gatherings in the villages...

NEW DELHI: Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has pledged to kick off one project every week in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh as part of the central government's ambitious development agenda for the state. This will add up to new road projects worth Rs 1.3 lakh crore in the state, where elections are scheduled to be held early next year. Gadkari and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will formally announce the road plans on Friday in Lucknow. "I will lay foundation stones for highway projects across UP every week from now," Gadkari told ET. "My ministry will complete highway construction projects...

Pakistan's leading Islamist daily Roznama Ummat has alleged that extremist Hindu groups have taken over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and argued that that extremist Hindu organizations are forging close alliances with Zionist groups with the aim of establishing a new world order. .....

After five weeks, and more than 800 million ballots cast, the largest election in the history of mankind ended with a landslide win—announced on Sunday—for India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. The bjp is now set to form a new government under Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi. Modi’s mammoth victory means he has something no ruler of India has had for over 30 years: an absolute majority in the lower house of Parliament. This gives him powers his predecessors could only have dreamed of—and the indications are that he will use it. “Good days are coming,” Modi said in a victory speech....

WASHINGTON — The United States' top naval officer said the Navy’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region is beginning to show results and shape events, but acknowledges it will be ‘a long-term effort.’ Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations, said he hopes the U.S. Navy will be able to expand cooperation with India once its new government takes its place. Speaking Monday at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Greenert said the growing military-to-military dialogue with China is beginning to show results, especially in the South China Sea, where maritime tensions between China and its...

The majority party and its leader Narenda Modi have ridden the wave of religious fanaticism. Minorities are appealing to the legacy of democracy and pluralism India is officially in the hands of the Hindu right wing. The Catholic Church and other religious minorities are concerned but they are grinning and bearing it, grasping onto the old and deep-rooted legacy of democratic values and pluralism that characterizes the Indian nation. Their concerns stem from the contiguity of India’s leaders with groups of Hindu fanatics. This is the landscape that has been emerging in the Indian sub-continent since the official general election...

The results of India's election, which are rapidly appearing today, seem to show a huge win for the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A victory had been expected, but this looks like a massive landslide. The next prime minister is almost certain to be Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, a state in western India. He is known for his economic agenda, which is seen to be relatively business-friendly (expect stocks to react very positively to the news), and his controversial brand of Hinduism. Modi's ideology is certainly going to be important over the next several years, but his...

Narendra Modi is the only person ever denied a U.S. visa based on a little-known law on religious freedom.Well-intentioned U.S. policies sometimes work out in absurd ways, but this is hard to top: In a few weeks, India, the world's largest democracy, will probably elect as its next prime minister a politician who for nearly a decade has been prohibited from setting foot on U.S. soil. The banned Indian official is Narendra Modi, a longtime Hindu nationalist who is the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. Nine years ago, U.S. officials denied Mr. Modi a...

NEW DELHI (AP) — Opposition leader Narendra Modi won India's election by a landslide Friday, according to preliminary results that showed his party easily driving out the long-dominant Congress party in the most commanding election victory India has seen in more than a quarter century.

BJP has reached the half-way mark and it is for the first time since 1984 that a single party seems set to get a simple majority. According to recent trends, NDA is leading in 321 seats while the UPA is leading in only 67 seats. Counting of votes, the grand finale in the nine-phased Lok Sabha elections, began today across the country. Election Commission said the counting exercise to be held at 989 counting centres is likely to be completed by 4 PM. By noon, a final picture should emerge on who would be the major players in the 16th...

A deal with Moscow makes clear that India has no plans to abandon Afghanistan post 2014.In a recent deal with Moscow, India has agreed to pay for military equipment sourced from Russia to Afghanistan. The equipment will include artillery, helicopters, tanks, and armored vehicles. India will also pay to repair old Soviet hardware left behind after the Russian withdrawal in 1989. The scale and exact composition of the deal have yet to be announced, but it is known that the first order has already been placed. India had so far hesitated to provide lethal weapons to Afghanistan for fear of...