Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has described the Ayodhya Ram temple ‘Pran Pratishtha’ or consecration ceremony as an event for the Bharatiya Janata Party to get political mileage and if the Congress participates, it will become a political choice, and not just a personal one. Congress bigwigs – national president Mallikarjun Kharge, former president Sonia Gandhi and the party’s Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury – have turned down the invitation to the grand Ram temple opening on January 22, calling it a “BJP-RSS” event. “Our party has many members who believe in many faiths and they are welcome to practice them. Hindus in the party have every right to offer prayers to Ram Lalla. But the party felt that going for a political event – for an incomplete temple because the work is not over (for the grand temple of Ayodhya)… The timing of this (‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony) appears to be designed to benefit the political interests of the ruling party (BJP)…” Tharoor told reporters. Dig Deeper

India’s affluent class is expected to be 100 million by 2027, a report by Goldman Sachs stated on Friday, adding that the indigenous companies selling premium goods will outperform the broad-based rivals. According to the Goldman report, the purchasing power of top earning Indians has increased in the past decade, due to a strong economic growth, stable monetary policy and high credit growth. As a result, the number of affluent Indians who earn above $10,000 ( ₹8.28 lakh) a year has skyrocketed from 24 million in 2015 to 60 million now. India, currently, the world’s fifth largest economy, is set to become the third largest by 2027, as per the International Monetary Fund. Dig Deeper

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India News

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‘Hindus in Congress…’: Shashi Tharoor explains why party will not attend Ayodhya’s Ram temple event. Dig Deeper

Nagpur engineer builds 11-feet replica of Ayodhya’s Ram Temple to mark ‘pran pratishtha’. Watch. Dig Deeper

Global Matters

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Entertainment Focus

HanuMan box office collection day 1: Helmed by Prasanth Varma, the film released in theatres on Friday. As per Sacnilk.com, HanuMan minted nearly ₹8 crore on day one. The film stars Teja Sajja, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Amritha Aiyer and Vinay Rai in the lead roles. According to the report, HanuMan earned ₹7.56 crore nett in India on its first day for all languages, as per early estimates. The film minted ₹5.50 crore nett in Telugu and ₹2 crore nett in Hindi, as per early estimates. In other languages, the film earned ₹6 lakh as per early estimates. Recently, Teja Sajja talked about his superhero sci-fi film. Talking to news agency ANI about the film, Teja Sajja had said, “The very idea of doing a superhero film is very exciting for me, has been exciting throughout the process. In this film, a young boy gets superpowers by the grace of Lord Hanuman and then how he fights for his people and his religion.” Dig Deeper

Sports Goings

September 11, 2021. The world was at Emma Raducanu’s feet. She had done something out of the ordinary. She had beaten Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez in the US Open final to become the first qualifier to win a grand slam in the Open era. In the process, she had also ended Britain’s 44-year wait for a women’s grand slam singles champion. At the time she was just 18 years old. She appealed to the world like few had done before. Overnight she became the toast of the town. Teenage boys were particularly smitten by her. She brought beauty as well as talent to the table. It appeared the game had found its new star that was going to shine bright in the tennis firmament for a very long time. Dig Deeper