India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been within the limelight again ever since a party’s leading active leader allegedly made controversial remarks about Prophet Mohammad throughout a TV debate.
The provocative remarks made by BJP’s Nupur Sharma has additionally created an uproar within the Arab world. Adding fuel to fire one other saffron occasion another BJP chief Naveen Jindal allegedly made remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
With the growing opposition within the country itself and further in regional and Arab countries over the controversial remarks, the BJP had to suspend Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal from the first membership of the party, which is the one and only major step taken by Prime Minister Modi’s party against them ever since the controversial made by Sharma on May 28 throughout a TV debate.
And also, BJP additionally distanced itself from the controversy and issued a press release “strongly condemning” the insult to any non-secular particular person of any faith and underlined the fitting of each citizen to observe any faith of their selection.
In a letter to Nupur Sharma, the BJP’s Central Disciplinary Committee said that she has expressed opposite views on the occasion’s place on numerous issues, and therefore, she has been suspended from the occasion with speedy impact.
After Nupur Sharma was suspended she unconditionally withdrew the remarks that she had made on Prophet Muhammad.
Nupur stated in a press release that ‘Mahadev’ is being insulted and insulted constantly for the final number of days. “It was being jokingly stated that it was not a ‘Shivling’ however a fountain. The (Gyanvapi) Shivling was even in comparison with roadside indicators and sticks in Delhi,” he stated.
“I couldn’t bear this fixed insult and disrespect in the direction of my Mahadev and I stated a few issues in response to it. If my phrases have harmed anybody’s non-secular sentiments or harm anybody’s non-secular sentiments, I’ll without Situation withdraw my assertion. It was by no means my intention. To harm anybody’s non-secular sentiments,” Sharma stated in her apology.
A case was registered against Nupur on May 28 for making objectionable remarks following a complaint lodged by Irfan Sheikh, joint secretary of Raza Academy, an Islamist group based in Maharashtra.
Nupur was charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and 505(2) (statements conducing to public mischief), police had said.
The protests were sparked in many parts of India including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Kanpur areas over the remarks.
Meanwhile, Nupur and her family were provided security by the Delhi Police today after she filed a complaint for allegedly being harassed and getting death threats.
When a case against Sharma was taken up at India’s Supreme Court, the Court criticised Nupur Sharma for her remarks about the Prophet Muhammad, declaring that her “loose tongue” had “put the entire country on fire,” and requiring her to make an instant public apology.
“She actually has a loose tongue and has made all kinds of irresponsible statements on TV and set the entire country on fire. Yet, she claims to be a lawyer of 10 years standing… She should have immediately apologised for her comments to the whole country,” the court said.
Modi’s government’s lethargy approach to settle the issue will eventually damage India’s ties with the Arab world and Iran.
The UAE, Oman, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Jordan, Libya and Bahrain have joined with a few other Muslim nations to condemn the remarks. Kuwait, Iran and Qatar had called Indian ambassadors to register their protest while Saudi Arabia had issued a strongly worded statement.
Although the Indian diplomats were trying to placate these countries but no signs of ending the crisis.
“Allowing such Islamophobic remarks to continue without punishment, constitutes a grave danger to the protection of human rights and may lead to further prejudice and marginalisation, which will create a cycle of violence and hate,” Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the statements made by the spokeswoman of the BJP,” Saudi Arabia said.
The 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Pakistan have also criticised India. But the Delhi government criticised both, saying their comments were “unwarranted and narrow-minded”.
India’s ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, said the remarks from some fringe elements did not represent the views of the Indian government. However, Qatar said it expected a public apology from India.
However, analysts say that BJP is not taking the matter seriously because the party’s response may not be enough to stop the growing opposition to Modi’s government. The party and the government should make responsible public statements on the issue without giving a ‘just’ statement over the issue, analysts say.
In another aspect, the BJP government’s lethargy approach to solving the crisis will also risk having an unstable situation in the region due to the presence of the Muslim population in these countries mainly in the South Asian countries. Already the Maldives had condemned the remarks and Pakistan strongly criticised the remarks.
Although the Muslim community in some of the major countries in the Asian region have not publicly shown their opposition to the controversial remarks, the time is not too far to come out them considering the growing global opposition against India’s silence over the issue.
At a time when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) was trying to gain its lost ground as well as to spread its ideology, issues like the Nupur Sharma controversy will help such groups to re-emerge their lost image.
Using such issues, terrorist organisations ability to win the hearts of frustrated Muslims, especially the youth from varied socio-demographic backgrounds has only posed a major threat to international security as well as regional security. Although in India, ISIS has failed to make any meaningful entry, letting growing opposition to the issue will open new entry into India.
In a latest development, a suicide bomber from ISIS, detained in Russia was given the sole task of killing Nupur Sharma, Indian media recently reported quoting top intelligence sources. That was one of the outcomes of the issue.
Analysts say that hate speech and attacks against Muslims have risen since the BJP came to power in 2014. In this background, Sharma’s comments reflect the deep religious polarisation that the country has been witnessing over the past few years.
Sri Lanka is set to relax a ban on some vehicle imports in a sign the country is returning to normal after a severe economic crisis that toppled a president.
From 1 February, imports of buses, trucks and utility vehicles will be allowed to resume, while restrictions on other vehicles are expected to be gradually lifted.
Many Sri Lankans are waiting for authorities to also drop an import ban on private cars, sport utility vehicles and three-wheeled trishaws – which are commonly used as taxis.
But with prices of vehicles forced up by a scarcity of new ones to buy, a weak currency and high taxes, some are asking who will be able to afford a new car.
In 2022, Sri Lanka faced a severe foreign currency shortage, which meant it was unable to meet its obligations to creditors for the first time in its history.
The island nation of 22 million people was thrown into turmoil as it faced crippling shortages of fuel, food and medicines.
Massive anti-government protests toppled then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa just months later.
Colombo negotiated a $2.9bn (£2.3bn) bailout from the International Monetary Fund, while Rajapaksa’s successor introduced austerity measures including hiking taxes and ending energy subsidies.
The country’s finances have since improved and the economy is gradually returning from the brink.
The announcement to lift the import ban on vehicles has triggered a buzz among Sri Lankans who have been waiting for years to buy a new car or a van.
Murtaza Jafeerjee, chair of Advocata, an economic think tank based in Colombo, told the BBC he thought the move was long overdue.
“The vehicle imports will not only increase the government’s revenue but will also trigger other economic activities like car financing, dealer revenue, car servicing and other related activities, creating jobs,” he said.
But Nalinda Jayatissa, the country’s information minister told a media briefing on Tuesday that the country was “moving very cautiously because we don’t want a surge of imports that will deplete our foreign reserves”
Gayan Indika says he has lost money as he struggled to buy a new car
‘We’ve been waiting for a long time’
The country, which doesn’t have any major factories producing cars and trucks, imports almost all its vehicles, many of them from countries like Japan and India. Now there’s a also lot of interest in Chinese cars, particularly electric vehicles.
Prices of used cars in Sri Lanka have soared, with some models now costing two or three times as much as they did before the ban.
The restrictions have been particularly difficult for people like Gayan Indika, who provides vehicles for weddings and is a part-time cab driver.
“I want to buy a new car so that I can do my work and resume my private cab rental. Without a car, without mobility, I am losing a lot of my revenue,” he said.
In a country with poor public transport, a car can be vital, Sasikumar, a software professional from the central city of Kandy explained.
“As we don’t have a good public transport system, a car is essential to travel to other parts of the country. Either the government should lift the ban on cars or improve the public transport.”
Sri Lanka imported about $1.4bn worth of vehicles in the year before the ban was imposed. This year the central bank says it’s planning to allocate up to a billion dollars for vehicle imports, but said the money will be released gradually.
Arosha Rodrigo, from the Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka, and his family have been running a car dealership for more than four decades.
The firm was importing about 100 vehicles a month before the ban. Since the restrictions came into force they have not been unable to import a single vehicle.
He points out that even if the ban is relaxed further, to allow passenger cars and other vehicles to be imported, many people won’t be able to afford them because of increased taxes and Sri Lanka’s weak currency.
The government has sharply raised excise duties on imported vehicles, both new and second hand, to 200% and 300% depending on engine size.
On top of excise duty, there is also 18% Value Added Tax (VAT) for any vehicle brought from abroad.
The price of imported vehicles will also be impacted by the weakness of the Sri Lankan rupee against major world currencies like the US dollar.
Those soaring costs are putting off people like school teacher R Yasodha.
“We have been waiting to purchase a vehicle for a long time. But if we calculate the tax and the price, the cost of an average sized car has doubled from 2.5 million rupees ($8,450; £6,800) to five million rupees,” she told the BBC.
“It would cost a fortune for us.”
– Anbarasan Ethirajan South Asia Regional Editor, BBC
Stargazers are in for a treat early this new year, as the sky is full of stars – quite literally so!
January is set to witness an alignment of not one, not two – but six planets in the night sky! As they sang in the song – A Sky Full of Stars!
Although this time – it’s not stars, it’s the planets; the event being called ‘Planet Parade’.
What is Planet Parade? Three or more planets coming together in the sky, usually in the same area, to form a visually spectacular alignment is known as a ‘planet parade’. Because of their orbits and our perspective from Earth, the planets appear to be grouped together even if they may not form a perfectly straight line. As John Conafay, CEO of Integrate Space, told TODAY.com, “A parade of planets, also sometimes referred to as a planetary alignment, is when several planets in our solar system appear to line up in the sky from our perspective here on Earth.” The planet parade occurs when the planets’ positions in their elliptical orbit around the sun line make them seem like they are close in the sky. As per Conafay, “It’s happening because of the specific orbital speeds and paths of the planets around the sun.” Earlier EarthSky astronomer John Goss revealed that Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will align in the night sky. Goss shared in a video on the platform, “The whole month of January is a great time to see the planets.”
When to watch the planet parade? Beginning on January 21 and reaching its peak around January 29, this breathtaking phenomenon will continue to be visible until mid-February. Although the six planets – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – can be best viewed on January 25, the alignment is taking over the sky for two months, with Mercury joining the parade of planets by the end of February; which eventually will make a planet parade of seven planets. Mercury will reach its peak visibility from February 28 to March 12, completing the cosmic display of seven planets. While the planets won’t be perfectly aligned, their placement will follow the orbital plane of our solar system.
How to watch the planet parade? To witness a planet parade, you can primarily use your naked eyes to see the brighter planets like Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; however, for a better view of fainter planets like Uranus and Neptune, you’ll need binoculars or a telescope. Choose a place darker and away from the city lights for a better view. This celestial event, visible to the naked eye, offers a rare chance for everyone to marvel at the wonders of our solar system! And you shouldn’t miss it.
What’s so special about the planet parade? What makes this event noteworthy? The fact that six planets will be visible, four of them with the naked eye. However, such events are not just a spectacle for stargazers – they can also have a real impact on our Solar System and offer the potential to gain new insights into our place within it. The eight major planets of our Solar System orbit the Sun in the same flat plane, and all at different speeds. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, completes an orbit – a year for the planet – in 88 days. Earth’s year, of course, is 365 days, while at the upper end, Neptune takes a whopping 60,190 days, or about 165 Earth years, to complete a single revolution of our star.
The different speeds of the planets mean that, on occasion, several of them can be roughly lined up on the same side of the Sun.
From Earth, if the orbits line up just right, we can see multiple planets in our night sky at the same time. In rare events, all the planets will line up such that they all appear in our night sky together along the ecliptic, the path traced by the Sun.
On the other hand, while, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, Uranus and Neptune require binoculars or a telescope to spot.
In January and February, you can witness the rare event of the planet parade taking place.
The planets are not exactly lined up, so they will appear in an arc across the sky due to their orbital plane in the Solar System. During clear nights in January and February, all of the planets except Mercury will be visible. On 28 February, all seven planets will be visible, a great spectacle for observers on the ground. According to Jenifer Millard, a science communicator and astronomer at Fifth Star Labs in the UK, “There is something special about looking at the planets with your own eyes. Yes, you can go on Google and get a more spectacular view of all these planets. But when you’re looking at these objects, these are photons that have travelled millions or billions of miles through space to hit your retinas.”
What is the best time to watch? The best time to catch the event is about 45-90 minutes after sunset. The four planets – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – will be visible to the naked eye just after the sun goes down, but Uranus and Neptune will require a telescope.
Apps that can be handy:
If you wish to witness the celestial spectacle but are unable to attend a session, there are some apps as well that can help you navigate on your own. Popular options include Star Walk, Star Tracker, and Sky Map, which provide easy-to-use tools for identifying planets and stars, ensuring you don’t miss out on the planet parade.
Sky gazers, do not miss this rare opportunity to witness the wonders of our universe.
In conclusion, the Planet Parade is a rare and spectacular event, with six planets visible in the sky during January and February 2025. This cosmic display offers a unique opportunity for stargazers to marvel at the alignment of planets like Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Whether viewed with the naked eye or through a telescope, this celestial event promises to be a memorable experience for all. Don’t miss out on this chance to witness the beauty of our solar system!
On a chilly December morning, a group of women wrapped in colourful saris, warm shawls and woollen caps huddled outside a three-storey building in a busy neighbourhood in Delhi.
Within the walls of the building ran a unit of one of India’s oldest social enterprises, owned and run by women.
The co-operative – now called Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad – was started in 1959 in Mumbai (then Bombay) by seven housewives who made the humble papad or poppadoms, a crispy, savoury snack that is a staple of Indian meals.
Sixty-five years later, the co-operative – headquartered in Mumbai – has spread across India with more than 45,000 women members. It has an annual turnover of 16bn rupees ($186m; £150m) and exports products to countries including the UK and US.
Working mostly from home, the women in this co-operative produce items including detergents, spices and chapatis (flatbreads), but their most-loved product is the Lijjat brand of poppadoms.
“Lijjat is a temple for us. It helps us earn money and feed our families,” says Lakshmi, 70, who manages the Delhi centre.
Ms Lakshmi, who uses only one name, joined the co-operative about four decades ago after her husband died, which forced her to look for work.
“I hadn’t finished my studies and didn’t know what else to do. That’s when my neighbour told me about Lijjat,” she says.
The decision to join the women’s co-operative transformed her life, she says. She now manages 150 women at the centre.
For women like Ms Lakshmi, the co-operative offers a chance to earn a decent income while balancing their work at home.
The women produce spices and detergents among other products
Every morning, the women members take a bus hired by the co-operative to the nearest Lijjat centre. There, they collect their share of pre-mixed dough made with lentils and spices, which they take home to roll into poppadoms.
“I used to go home with this dough and do all my housework, feed my children and sit with my chakla [a flat wooden board] and a belan [rolling pin] in the afternoon to make small round thin papads,” says Ms Lakshmi.
Initially, it took her four-five hours to make 1kg of dried lentil papad, but she says she can now produce that amount in just half an hour.
The head office in Mumbai buys raw materials like lentils, spices and oil in bulk, mixes the flour and sends it to Lijjat offices around the country.
Once the women make and dry the poppadoms at home, they deliver them back to the centre for packaging. Lijjat’s distributor network then transports the products to retail shops.
The enterprise has come a long way since it was founded.
In the 1950s, a newly independent India was focusing on rebuilding itself, trying to strike a balance between promoting small-scale, rural industries and pushing for large urban factories.
It was also a time when the government owned most of the factories in the country. Life for women was especially challenging as they had to negotiate a deeply conservative and patriarchal society to get educated and work.
The group of women who founded Lijjat – Jaswantiben Jamnadas Poppat, Parvatiben Ramdas Thodani, Ujamben Narandas Kundalia, Banuben N Tanna, Laguben Amritlal Gokani, Jayaben V Vithalani and Diwaliben Lukka – were in their 20s and 30s, living in a crowded tenement in Mumbai and looking for ways to support their families.
Their idea was simple – work from home and earn money by using the cooking skills passed down to them through generations of women.
The Lijjat brand of poppadoms is much-loved in many parts of India
But they did not have money to buy ingredients and sought financial assistance from Chhaganlal Karamshi Parekh, a social worker.
He offered them a loan of 80 rupees ($0.93; £0.75 at today’s rates), which was enough to get started at the time.
But the women soon realised that there were no takers for their poppadoms. Narrating the story, Swati Paradkar, the current president of the co-operative, says that the women had to return to Parekh for help.
He again lent them 80 rupees, but this time with the condition that they would repay 200 rupees to him. Parekh – whom the women called Bappa (meaning father) – and other social workers took the poppadoms to local shopkeepers, who agreed to stock them only if they could pay after the products were sold.
Only one shopkeeper agreed to pay the women immediately. “He began purchasing four to six packets daily and gradually the poppadoms became quite popular,” Ms Paradkar says.
As the business grew, more women joined the co-operative – not as employees, but as co-owners with a say in decision-making. The women call each other ben or sister in Gujarati.
“We are like a co-operative and not a company. Even though I am the president, I am not the owner. We are all co-owners and have equal rights. We all share profits and even losses,” Ms Paradkar says. “I think that’s the secret of our success.”
For decades, the co-operative produced its poppadoms without the iconic Lijjat brand name.
In 1966, the Khadi Development And Village Industries Commission, a government organisation to promote small rural industries, suggested that they come up with a brand name.
The co-operative placed an advertisement in newspapers asking for suggestions. “We received a lot of entries but one of our own sisters suggested Lajjat. We tweaked it to Lijjat, which means taste in Gujarati”, Ms Paradkar says.
Over the decades, the co-operative has allowed generations of women to attain financial independence.
“Today I have put my children through school, built a house and got them married,” says Ms Lakshmi.
“Working here, I have found not just an income but respect.”