'Constitutional values will remain vibrant and strong as long as the checks and balances on Executive Power are not weakened,' says Constitution expert Anil B Divan.
Over four days all of Tamil Nadu is caught up in celebrating Pongal, the state's harvest festival. From a bonfire to worshipping cattle, it is a throwback to a time when society was agrarian, says A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com.
'All we are asking is that the Forest Rights Act be fully implemented. It is there in the Constitution of India. For this we have been regularly called anti-national,' says Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai, who was debarred from flying overseas on Sunday.
A Ganesh Nadar visits the village in Tamil Nadu that shot into national prominence in 1981 when half the Dalits there converted to Islam. He spoke to the Hindus and Muslims and came back with two very different stories.
'I told the lady I was two months pregnant, but that did not seem to bother her.' A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com visits the infamous cages of Mumbai's oldest red light district, Kamathipura, to find out how human trafficking has given India the awful reputation of the nation with the highest slavery rates in the world.
For him going into the Taj was his duty just as it was controlling angry rioters at Azad Maidan in August 2012.
'26/11 taught us we have to be ready for a direct attack. Today if anyone launches a similar attack we are more than prepared.'
A Ganesh Nadar meets Daniston Litten, a sailor from India, who was held captive by Somali pirates for four years. While the pirates may have harmed him physically, his spirit is unbroken.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com meets the shattered families of the five Tamil fishermen sentenced to death by a Sri Lankan court for alleged drug smuggling. Most feel the men are being made an example of to scare off other fishermen from straying into Sri Lankan waters.
'I didn't get the ticket because I am a Tamil and this is a Tamil area. I work for all people and that is why the majority voted for me.'
'The biggest loser is Raj Thackeray's MNS. The MNS may inspire fear, but fear doesn't fetch votes.'
Megha smiles for the camera. Her smile hides the trauma this child faced, of being abducted, begging on the streets of Kashmir, escaping a flood, and coming back home.
'He has destroyed the Youth Congress. Now he is trying to destroy the National Students Union of India. Next he will destroy the Congress. Whatever responsibility you give him he will destroy that.'
In Dharavi, Koliwada, Antop Hill, Chembur, Nahur, Ramabhai Colony, the enthusiasm for voting was most in the poorer areas. These are the people who vote in every election and they do it so happily.
'The Constitution allows me the Right to Freedom of Speech and Religious Freedom. But this is not religion... this is spiritual discourse,' says IAS officer C Umashankar, who is being prosecuted in the Madras high court for hurting the feelings of Hindus.
'We had not seen any fighting, but we could hear guns and bombs exploding.' A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com and Reuben N V/Rediff.com traveled to Kerala to meet some of the nurses who have returned from civil-war ravaged Libya.
Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com and A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com boarded the Himsagar Express that runs between Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and Jammu Tawi in Jammu and Kashmir. Check out the scenes they witnessed...
Heading to Kanyakumari? You won't regret a visit to the Thirparappu waterfalls.
Even as the government moves heaven and earth to free the Indians trapped in Iraq and Libya, Father Alexis Prem Kumar, who was abducted in Afghanistan on June 2, appears to have been forgotten.
The Lankans had to pay Indian human smugglers Rs 50,000 per head for the arduous and risky journey to Australia.
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