At 9:21 am, the BSE Sensex gained marginally, trading at 8.73 points or 0.01 per cent higher to 59,728, whereas the Nifty 50 index was trading 0.45 points at 17,816

Why was it so important for the Karnataka government to hold Ganesh Chaturthi puja in an Idgah maidan somewhere in the state? Was it something to do with the fact that assembly elections are around the corner?

With the tide of majoritarian appeasement, fuelled by the ruling political establishment, there are efforts now to even exempt the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri dispute in Varanasi from the ambit of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

If the Ram Temple movement established the saffron outfit in the Hindi belt, the Hubballi campaign catapulted it to power in the state

PFI came into being in response to violence against Muslims. Political silence on it only helped the fundamentalist outfit grow in coastal Karnataka

The 1990s decade was dominated by the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid row. Now, the Gyanvapi mosque row has added another chapter to the country’s history of disputes over religious structures and the spaces they occupy.

The Indian equities benchmark opened on a negative note in early trade as indicated by the Nifty Futures traded on Singapore Exchange. The BSE slipped as much as 113.95 points. At 9:21 am, the BSE Sensex gained marginally, trading at 8.73 points or 0.01 per cent higher to 59,728, whereas the Nifty 50 index was trading 0.45 points at 17,816.

Amongst the broader sectoral indices, Nifty Midcap 50 index was trading 0.51 per cent at 8,724, whereas the Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading 0.61 per cent at 32,151. Barring the stocks of banking, financial services, and IT, all other sectoral indices were trading in green. 

On Tuesday, the US stocks ended lower as investors fear the key rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. The S&P500 index was trading 43.96 points or 1.1 per cent lower at 3,855, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 313.45 points or 1 per cent at 30,706. While the Nasdaq declined by 109.97 points or 1 per cent to 11,425, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies slipped 25.34 points or 1.4 per cent at 1,787.50.

The Asian stocks were trading lower in early trade on Wednesday. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.39 per cent, whereas South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.90 per cent. Singapore’s Hang Seng index was trading 1.48  per cent lower. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.43 per cent, whereas Shenzhen Component slipped 0.91 per cent. 

Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Nestle India, Maruti, Tata Steel Limited, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid, Titan, and Dr. Reddy were amongst the top gainers, whereas IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, NTPC and HCL Tech were amongst the top losers. 

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