It is just as well that the BBC has decided to expand its shortwave radio service in Kashmir to beat the communications blackout. This is not the first time the BBC has played this role - and for good reason. Because the supine, mainstream media in L.K. Advanis words crawls when it is asked to bend.

NEW DELHI:  When the names of Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Mukul Wasnik and Jyotiraditya Scindia were proposed at the sub-group discussions, very few hands came up in agreement. Worried at the prospect of a split in the party ranks, the Congress fell back on Sonia Gandhi to lead the party.

It is the most regretful, that the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee), PGPC ( Pakistan GUrdwara Parbandhak Committee) and DSGMC ( Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee) has completely omitted the noble persona of Rai Bular Bhatti in the entire narrative of commemorative observance of the 550th Birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

NEW DELHI: Even as the new BJP government explores all options to bring an end to the brutal cage match taking place in Kashmir, with the setting up of a Delimitation Commission as one of the prongs available on the table to correct the regional disparity, it is actively taking a view on the contentious Article 35A which prevents mobility and greater integration with the Union of India.

NEW DELHI: He is the Man Who Knows Too Much, Dr Karan Singh or Tiger as his father Maharaja Hari Singh used to call him fondly, formerly Regent of J&K (from June 20, 1949, he acted as Regent), then Sadr e Riyasat (from November 17, 1952 to March 30, 1965, Karan Singh was the elected head of state of Jammu and Kashmir). On 30 March 1965, Karan Singh, who became the first Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (till May 15, 1967) and the last residual link between feudal and monarchial Kashmir and its evolution to a democratic set-up, wants the government to tread cautiously on constitutional issues related to J& K.

NEW DELHI: The saga surrounding the resignation of 16 MLAs of the ruling Congress and JD(S) in Karnataka has zeroed down to the question of whether they can face disqualification.

SHIMLA: The breathtaking locales of the State have always attracted renowned film makers but still the State is full of popular, scenic, cultural, heritage and spiritual sites which are yet to be explored. Many artists/creative persons of the State have made their mark in various departments of film making both at national and international level.

CHANDIGARH: The thumping victory of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president Bhagwant Mann from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat has revived the hopes of third political alternative in Punjab. The split in the AAP and defection by its MLAs had frustrated the people who wanted to see a government with good governance.

As Jet Airways temporarily suspended its operations after its debt resolution plans hit a roadblock and lenders refused to disburse emergency funds, the airline joined a litany of Indian businesses that have gone belly up in the recent past or are on the brink of collapse.

The current national mood -- the sense of nationalism -- stirred by events in Kashmir in the recent past, has driven the success of films with patriotic themes.

The wounds of 1947 partition, during which approximately one million lives were lost and twenty million were made to abandon their homes and hearths and migrate penniless to newer lands, that the 1947-48 Kashmir War started. During those days more than 50% of the Indian Army consisted of Punjab soldiers from among the Dogras of Pathankot and Kangra, the Jatts of Gurgaon, Rohtak and Hissar and the Sikhs of all districts of Punjab. They were deployed in Kashmir.

NEW DELHI: As China's Two Sessions - the country's biggest political meetings of the year - kicked off on Sunday, state-run news agency Xinhua chose "Xin Xiaomeng" to make a one-minute video presentation, debuting the agency's first female Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered news anchor and triggering renewed concerns among journalists.

CHANDIGARH: The people of Punjab particularly the Sikh community has set an example for others in India to follow-highlighting the humanity and secularism while giving protection and extending helping hand to students from Kashmir who were hounded from BJP ruled Uttrakhand and Haryana states after the Pulwama terror attack.

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh is turning into a haven for drug addicts due to easy availability of charas, a form of cannabis, in remote villages.

CHANDIGARH: Facing flak from the Sikh community due to blot of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, the Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) finds an opportunity in an appeal made by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh not to hold any political conference at religious festivals of Sikhs. Earlier

MUMBAI: An actor-writer-comedian and Quranic scholar, the multi-talented Kader Khan, who died early on Tuesday (IST) in Toronto aged 81, has left behind a vast oeuvre of work from a career spanning over four decades and will be remembered as much for his contribution to Hindu filmdom as for deciphering Islam for the laity across the religious spectrum.

NEW DELHI: The results in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan came as a major shock for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has won all the major states barring Delhi, Bihar, Punjab and Karnataka in elections held after the sweeping 2014 Lok Sabha victory.

NEW DELHI: In a severe jolt to the BJP in the Hindi heartland in the "semi finals" ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Tuesday knocked the saffron party out of power in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and was slightly ahead in Madhya Pradesh where the two parties were engaged in a see-saw battle throughout the day.

CHANDIGARH: The decision by Badal family to atone their 'sins' and perform 'religious service' (sewa) in Sri Harmandir Sahib Amritsar has brought the role of Sikh clergy under scanner for ignoring the 'sins' of Badal family and allowing them to bypass the authority of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs.

Nanak was born into a middle-class Hindu family in 1469 in a small village near Lahore, Pakistan. As a boy, he rejected commonly held spiritual conventions and spent as much time as he could in the company of traveling sadhus, mystics, and spiritual teachers. Although well versed in Sanskrit, Persian, and the sacred texts of both Hinduism and Islam, young Nanak never embraced only one religious tradition.