NEWS

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress launched protest marches through the state in support of traditions of the hilltop temple days before the Supreme Court takes up review petitions against its Sabarimala judgment allowing entry of women of all ages.

With the annual pilgrimage season to the temple in Pathanamthitta starting November 16, the apex court will November 13 hear a set of petitions challenging its verdict, and many in Kerala, including police, hope that it will give the state reasonable time for implementing the order.

The temple had witnessed violent protests when it opened twice after the verdict for monthly pooja on October 17 and just-concluded one-day Sree Chithirayattam festival, with devotees foiling various women’s attempts to trek to the hilltop temple. The state crime branch and other security agencies have warned if the protests continued during the pilgrimage season, it may lead to a disaster. “Sabarimala is a ticking bomb. If it continues to burn, it is a recipe for a major disaster,” said a senior crime branch official who did not want to be identified.

New Delhi: A media report says quoting a senior official of the Pakistan’s top strategic body that the country has “cost effective solutions” to India’s latest ballistic missile defence system. It would also find a counter to its nuclear capable submarine.

Addressing a conference on ‘Nuclear Deterrence and Strategic Stability in South Asia’ hosted by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), Adviser to the National Command Authority (NCA) Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Kidwai also said that Pakistan will remain unfazed as it has adequate response options that would disallow any disturbance of the strategic balance or strategic stability.

New Delhi: With the state government sitting over the proposal of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP), its Bengal unit has decided to move Calcutta High Court against the Mamata Banerjee government. The BJP has alleged that the state home secretary has not responded to the party’s letters seeking an appointment to discuss the route and programme of the party’s rath yatra scheduled in December and January.

The rally of three raths that has been labelled as Ganatantra Bachao Yatra (Rally for Saving Democracy) is so far the most high-profile political programme to be undertaken by the saffron party in the state. Bengal is a focus state where the party wants to win at least 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections and is depending on this programme to rally public opinion in the state.+

New Delhi: India and China will consider linking up military headquarters and regional commands with hotlines during the Defence Secretary level dialogue in an attempt to prevent any adventurism along the 3,488 kilometre Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries.

Sources said that the issue could be discussed in the two-day dialogue Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra is to hold with Lt General Shao Yuanming, the deputy chief of Joint Staff department, central military commission of Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on November 13 and 14.