TN Muslim jamaaths welcome anti-terrorist action
Alarmed by the growth of extremist tendencies in a section of Muslim youth in south India, the clergy and jamaaths from all over Tamil Nadu have urged members of the community to extend all possible Cupertino to the government in weeding out "anti-national forces acting in the name of Islam." An appeal is being made through mosques and different jamaaths, asking people not to shelter religious extremists and not to resist police entry into their premises if they came in search of suspected fugitives or explosives. Muslims are being told to live with their neighbours in a spirit of mutual love and respect as enjoined by the Quran. The Indian Council of Islamic Shariah has asked every jamaath to publicly declare after Friday prayers that mosques were out of bounds for ‘rabid extremists’.

Takht bans Sikh marriages in hotels, halls
On March 16, Bhai Ranjit Singh and four other Jathedars of the Akal Takht — the supreme temporal and religious seat of Sikhs — prohibited members of the community, in India and everywhere in the world, from holding or attending any marriage in a hotel or a hall. The reason given for the edict was the disrespect shown to the holy book of the Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, on such occasions. The Takht warned that anyone found to be violating the order shall invite punitive action.

Priyanka’s saffron burden
The fact that the RSS runs a school within the premises of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s in-laws family house at Moradabad made headlines last month. Not insignificant was the response of her uncle-in-law responsible for the decision who told the media that he identified with the RSS ideology and spirit and saw nothing controversial about it.

Priyanka’s own response to the media was evocative and direct: "I find the ideology of the RSS and the sangh parivar anathema to all that I believe in, and I would not associate with it or with institutions which propagate it regardless of who owns or sponsors them."

Widows are ‘barren land’: Shankaracharya
Acharya Jayendra Saraswathi, the spiritual head of the Kanchipuram mutt, told the Tamil daily Dina Mani in an interview in mid-March that "widow remarriage is wrong and will be detrimental to society at present and in the future". In his Diwali address last year, he had described widows as "barren land" which was "useless to the community." The seer’s remarks sparked widespread protest. A spate of letters to the Dina Mani, from prominent citizens and commoners alike, condemned the statement, while over 1,000 women members of the Dravida Kazhagam (D.K.) demonstrated outside the mutt and shouted slogans. "This is reinforcing the Hindutva hegemony, its a throwback to the Dark Ages", fumed the D.K. leader, K. Veeramani. Like his predecessors, the Acharya continues the policy of keeping the mutt out of bounds for widows.