Marumalarchi Dravida Munntera Kazhagam General Secretary Vaiko on Friday said repeated attacks on Indian fishermen, allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, has made the livelihood of over one crore fishermen in Tamil Nadu quite uncertain.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko will undertake one-day token fast on April 22 in Chennai in protest against the deportation of slain LTTE chief Prabhakaran's mother.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The revived factionalism in the AIADMK, if not curbed now, has the potential to split the party vertically, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
MDMK chief Vaiko today charged the UPA Government with helping Sri Lanka by giving arms, which enabled that country's army to capture the "deserted" Killinochi and said the LTTE will win the war ultimately.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko has convened a two-day international seminar on the alleged atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils in New Delhi on January 10-11, 2009.
With the dates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls announced, election fever has gripped Tamil Nadu with the two main political parties holding parleys with their allies on seat-sharing.
Mounting pressure on the Centre over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi will lead an all-party delegation to Delhi on December 4, seeking the prime minister's intervention for an immediate ceasefire in the island nation.
In a statement in Chennai, he said the MDMK would not have "any issue in sacrificing two of its MP posts over the Sri Lankan Tamil issue." "The Centre should stop all military assistance to the island nation and ask the Lankan Government to continue peace talks (with LTTE) with the help of the Norwegian government to end the ethnic strife and establish a United Nations Office at Colombo," he said.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko, on a tour of the US, met Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, at a function at Chicago. In a brief meeting with Obama on Friday, Vaiko discussed about a book being authored by him on Obama and lauded the Democrat for his dynamism.
After filing the nomination paper, the leaders posed for photographs seeking to put up a united face, a day after MPs from AIADMK, MDMK and SP participated in the voting for electing the successor to A P J Abdul Kalam.
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
About 300 protestors from parties like MDMK, Indian National League and Tamil National Movement courted arrest along with the two leaders near the Munroe statue in Chennai while trying to go ahead with the rally.
Part two of an exclusive interview with the MDMK leader.
Party leaders say Vaiko's credibility will take a beating now.
Sri Lanka is seeking naval assistance from India to curb the influx of arms into the island nation.
With Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam joining hands with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, rumours had it that DMDK will follow suit.
The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's support to the formation of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka was only moral in nature and "to show the world that Eelam Tamils are not orphans," party leader Vaiko said on Thursday night.
MDMK General Secretary Vaiko meets Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and gets 10 seats more than what he wanted from DMK
A two-judge bench upheld the validity of section 14 of POTA, which made it mandatory for every person to divulge knowledge about terrorist activities to the police immediately.
Udhayanidhi's ascension in the party is seen as a precursor to him being given key roles in the DMK in future which is now helmed by his 66-year old father Stalin.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has made application to the POTA Review Committee.
The detained MDMK leader wants to attend Parliament.
MDMK sources said Vaiko tentatively plans to leave for the US on June 3 and return on June 20
The outfit was banned in 1991 soon after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.
It is the third party in Tamil Nadu, after DMK and MDMK, to quit the BJP-led alliance.
The decision comes after the May 7, 2004, instruction of the state government to the public prosecutor to consider withdrawal of the cases.
Tamil Nadu has around 30 per cent or more of 'swing voters', and it is this segment that will swing the pre-poll alliance decision, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko had demanded the lifting of the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister said MDMK's Kannappan was openly supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Taking strong exception to Central Board of Secondary Education's Sanskrit Week celebrations in schools under its ambit next month, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said it would be appropriate to have organised a 'Classical Language Week' in each state based on its linguistic heritage.
Ahead of VK Sasikala's return to Tamil Nadu on February 8, there are some important questions facing her. One, does she carry electoral weight more now than her brainchild AMMK had in the 2019 LS polls? Two, can she retain or build upon the five per cent vote-share from that time? And finally, is there space for Sasikala to retrieve, first within the AIADMK and then across the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In the midst of huge job losses as a fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has signed 17 MoUs for an investment of Rs 15,100 crores that aim to provide 47,100 jobs. But a clearer picture on where the projects stand will emerge only after the Covid-19 induced fear psychosis ends, to see if popular protests will derail them like they have done so many others, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Protester Sasi Perumal's death has given a new fillip to the pro-prohibition movement, which was beginning to draw attention across Tamil Nadu after different political parties began to make it a part of their poll manifesto for next year, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Known for its fireworks and printing units, Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency in southern Tamil Nadu is witnessing an absorbing battle of ballot in a five-cornered contest featuring among others Vaiko of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Second-line AIADMK leaders and cadres alike say that by starting the talks first with the BJP and committing the party to an alliance without discussing seat-sharing, the leadership might have commenced the coalition discourse at the wrong end. According to them, even 20 seats for the BJP may be too many, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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