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India-Bhutan border gates at Samdrup Jongkhar and Gelephu along the Assam frontier will reopen for tourists on September 23 after a two-and-half-year hiatus induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The Government of Bhutan has officially announced that the international border with India will be opened on Sept 23 as Covid cases have subsided. We are preparing to open the border and give visitors a good experience,” said Tashi Penjore, the Himalayan kingdom's Director (law and order) of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs.

"Over the last two-and-half years, many officials on both sides have changed and we were not able to meet and establish friendship and person-to-person contacts which are essential for people residing along the border areas of the two countries. We look forward to more such visits," he added.

Streets of West Bengal turned into a battlefield on Tuesday with BJP workers clashing with the Bengal Police during their ‘Nabanna Cholo’ march to the state secretariat to protest against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.

Several police officers and saffron camp members, including leaders Mina Devi Purohit and Swapan Dasgupta, were reportedly injured in the clashes between BJP and the Bengal Police during the protest march while top Bengal BJP leaders were also detained on Tuesday. Sources say Mina Devi Purohit is critical.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said an atmosphere of hatred generated by a particular ideology is prevailing in the country. he addressed a gathering in Thiruvananthapuram as part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Rahul Gandhi, who is spearheading the grand old party's Bharat Jodi Yatra, on Monday spoke about the need of the campaign that aims to united the nation. He said that while India has many critical goals to achieve, including reducing the sufferings of millions of poor people, it would not be possible if the country remained divided, angry and full of hatred for itself.

The court of Varanasi's seniormost judge is expected to decide today whether a case filed by five Hindu women seeking the right to worship inside the city's Gyanvapi mosque, located next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple, is "maintainable" or not.

District judge AK Vishvesha is likely to pronounce orders on whether the case by the women -- that led to a survey inside the Gyanvapi mosque -- will continue to be heard or whether it will cease to have any legal standing.

In May, the Supreme Court assigned the case to the Varanasi district judge's court, shifting it from a lower court where it was being heard till then.

With BJP launching a relentless attack on Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, party leader Rahul Gandhi took a sharp aim at the ruling camp by saying that the very aim of the Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir march is to “undo the damage done by RSS and BJP” to community amity in the country. He also said that desertions from Congress and the opposition from within (G-23) are part of compromises struck by individuals to avoid confronting BJP’s “misuse of agencies”, but “that is not my character”.

Rahul told a press conference, “Everybody has an opinion, BJP has one, RSS has its opinion. For Congress, this is an attempt at understanding what is going on in India and an attempt at undoing the damages that have been done by BJP and RSS by spreading hate in the country.”