Madrasa managements across the country are keenly watching the budget session of Parliament. No, they are not looking forward to the kind of budget that will be presented by the Finance Minister. Their anxiety is to see the promised relief coming in the Right to Education (RTE) Act for minority institutions. The government has promised to bring amendments to certain sections of the Act seen as having a ‘negative impact'...

-The Indian Express Gay rights activists today submitted in Supreme Court that criminalising homosexual acts is against constitutional values and that the law should not interfere when consenting adults are involved. Naz Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare and rehabilitation of HIV infected people, contended that homosexuals face social ostracism with gay sex being declared as an offence. Appearing before a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya, the...

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), the apex body of Indian Muslims, is venting its ire against the Congress-led UPA government after it got no response to its demands for amendments in Right to Education (RTE) Act, Waqf Property and Direct Taxes Code Bills. Though the board has been holding meetings across the country to mobilise public opinion since June 2011, the campaign has been intensified in the poll-bound...

-The Hindustan Times   The Darul-Uloom Deoband’s demand to ban the entry of writer Salman Rushdie into the country took a political turn in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. With an eye on the 17% Muslim electorate in the state, leaders of most parties quickly took poll position. But leaders of the ruling BSP were unavailable for comment. Rushdie, who earned the wrath of Muslims worldwide for his book The Satanic Verses, is scheduled to...

-The Economic Times In what could come in the way of the Congress' Muslim outreach, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has come down heavily against the Right to Education Act. The Muslim body has alleged that minority institutions, including Madrasas, will lose their identity on account of the Act. This is not the first time that AIMPLB has come out against the central elementary education law. Over the last...