This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

The Morning Wrap: Church Says Bihar Polls A 'Defeat' Of Sectarian Politics; No Sign Taj Mahal Was A Temple, Says Mahesh Sharma

The Morning Wrap: Church Says Bihar Polls A 'Defeat' Of Sectarian Politics; No Sign Taj Mahal Was A Temple, Says Mahesh Sharma
An Indian flag is waved near Pope Francis at the end of the Canonization mass for Eufrasia Eluvathingal, Amato Ronconi, Antonio Farina, Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Nicola Saggio da Longobardi and Ludovico da Casoria, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. Pope Francis has canonized six new saints, including a priest and a nun from the Indian state of Kerala, in a packed ceremony in St. Peter's Square. The Pope offered prayers Sunday for the saints, four Italians from disparate regions and two Indians from the Syro-Malabar Church, one of 22 Eastern rite churches that operates in full communion with Rome. Some 5,000 faithful traveled from Kerala state for the event, which was also streamed live onto screens set up outside churches in the southern region of India. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Indian flag is waved near Pope Francis at the end of the Canonization mass for Eufrasia Eluvathingal, Amato Ronconi, Antonio Farina, Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Nicola Saggio da Longobardi and Ludovico da Casoria, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. Pope Francis has canonized six new saints, including a priest and a nun from the Indian state of Kerala, in a packed ceremony in St. Peter's Square. The Pope offered prayers Sunday for the saints, four Italians from disparate regions and two Indians from the Syro-Malabar Church, one of 22 Eastern rite churches that operates in full communion with Rome. Some 5,000 faithful traveled from Kerala state for the event, which was also streamed live onto screens set up outside churches in the southern region of India. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

Essential HuffPost

In his first remarks at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the tone for India's line of negotiations over the course of the next two weeks: "India's progress is our destiny and right of our people. But we must also lead in combating climate change."

Parliament has been adjourned after CPI(M)'s Mohammed Salim attributed a contentious remark to home minister Rajnath Singh: Of Modi being the first Hindu Prime Minister in 800 years. It's certainly a strange thing to say in a country that has only had Hindu and Sikh prime ministers.

India's pavilion at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, equipped with a waterfall with spelling patterns, an iPad village, and an interactive display of its challenges to counter global warming, has created quite a buzz.

Author Vikram Sampath is finding an outpouring of support after he announced his decision to step down as the organizer of the Bangalore Lit Fest.

Main News

Making the statement that he had come to Paris for, Modi said the developed countries needed to do much more not only because they had the “historical responsibility,” but also because they had more they had much more resources to take action on climate change.

Delhi Police has claimed that an employee at the Pakistan High Commission was involved in the alleged espionage network that was busted Sunday.

What is the law and legal precedent on standing up for the national anthem?

A prominent church, which had earlier this year invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to celebrate the elevation to sainthood of two of its members, has said that the victory of the Grand Alliance in Bihar is a verdict against "sectarian politics" and a "declaration by Indian conscience that it will not support political parties' attempts to use caste divisions, religious intolerance and sectarian mindset as campaign tools.'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today unveiled a quietly planned, fresh gambit for a thaw with Islamabad, walking up to his counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Paris, firmly shaking hands and sitting down for a chat three months after the nations aborted a planned dialogue.

Off The Front Page

Old sarees, which were lying unused in the storage, are in demand in Begva village in Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad district. The sarees have come to the rescue of farmers, who are harassed by marauding black bucks and neelgais (blue bulls) and wild boars.

Culture minister, Mahesh Sharma, on Monday told Lok Sabha on Monday, the government has not found any evidence that the Taj Mahal in Agra was a Hindu temple.

Opinion

Criticizing journalists who wanted to take a selfie with Narendra Modi, Pamela Phillipose says, "There have been reams written about how the fourth estate must necessarily firewall itself from the other three estates of the executive, judiciary and legislature in order to hold them to account for the sake of a vibrant, functioning democracy, and yet, here the only thing we are holding up, it seems, is a smartphone."

Mehboob Jeelani ponders if we are seeing the emergence of a new Rahul Gandhi or he has succumbed to the system he allegedly repelled. "Perhaps the thought of being no-longer-so-young dynast is making him desperate, pushing him to take short cuts. The older system, which he’s dismissed as “rotten”, is roping him back in".

Ajith Balakrishnan explains the paradox of expensive education. "There is a global auction for professional middle-class jobs and that middle class parents have no choice but to use their financial and cultural assets to get their children the marketable knowledge, certificates and networks that the credentials of a brand-name university provides. If they don't do this, their children face the threat of downward social mobility."

Contact HuffPost India

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.