The Supreme Court of India will likely hear a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 on April 15. The Act, which came into force on April 8, has been met with widespread criticism from various stakeholders, including politicians, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind. They argue that the law is discriminatory and violates the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution. The petitions allege that the amendments give the government more control over the administration of Waqf, effectively sidelining the Muslim minority from managing their own religious endowments.
'The southern states will have no voice.' 'Political parties in future need to focus only on one region, the northern region, to win the general election.'
The BJP state unit hailed Vasan and said his advice will be used in the coming days to guide the alliance.
Opposition MPs, some of whom have given their dissent, slammed the exercise as undemocratic, claiming that they were given little time to study the final report and frame their dissent notes.
The BJP leader said his party was committed to fighting against corruption and it would reflect in its proposed statewide yatra titled En Mann En Makkal (my soil, my people), ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In further signs of fissures within DMK, party chief M Karunanidhi's son M K Alagiri on Monday skipped the crucial executive committee meet, which is likely to take key decisions in the wake of the party's pullout from the United Progressive Alliance.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
Former Union Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M K Alagiri was on Friday suspended from the party headed by his father M Karunanidhi on charges of going against the party's stand and airing divergent views on the issue of stitching an alliance with Vijaykant's Desiya Morpukku Dravida Kazhagam.
The BJP cited the amendments to the Representation of People Act, 1951 and the relevant portions of the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Income Tax Act for not revealing its donors.
What does Udhayanidhi's induction as minister mean? For the DMK, it indicates the future course, direction and leadership. It is continuity with change, and change with continuity, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
India's Parliament is set to begin its Budget session on Friday, with opposition parties poised to demand a discussion on the alleged mismanagement of the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, where 30 pilgrims died in a stampede. The opposition also accused the government of politicising parliamentary committees and pushing its agenda through its majority. The session will start with President Droupadi Murmu addressing both houses of Parliament. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on Saturday for the eighth consecutive time.
Opposition parties in the Indian Parliament walked out of the Rajya Sabha after their demand for an immediate discussion on the alleged mismanagement at the Maha Kumbh, where a stampede led to several deaths, was rejected. The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, declined to suspend the scheduled business of the day to take up the issue, citing his previous rulings regarding notices under Rule 267.
Rahul Gandhi said that instead of getting involved in the Sanatan dharma row, the leaders should focus on the poor and their issues as they have been the party's traditional vote bank, the sources said.
Hailing the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi assembly polls victory as 'historic', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a stinging attack on the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, saying the country needs a serious political transformation and not politics of 'dhoort-ta (deceit) and moorkhta (foolishness)'.
Actor-politician Vijay has urged Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi to take steps to ensure the safety of women in the state, amid outrage over the sexual assault of a woman student at a technical varsity. Vijay, the founder of the Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), met with the Governor and submitted a memorandum, calling for "protecting" law and order and ensuring women's safety in all places. Vijay's move was lauded by BJP state chief K Annamalai, who called for justice for the victim and urged functionaries of all parties to come forward. The TVK also pressed for the release of Central funds towards Cyclone Fenjal relief.
Notwithstanding his suspension from the party, three Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MPs met former Union Minister M K Alagiri at his residence in Madurai even as the rebel leader's supporters put up posters praising him on the occasion of his 63rd birthday on Thursday.
S Kuppusamy will be the leader of the DMK group in the Lok Sabha and R Shanumugasundram in the Rajya Sabha.
Always interesting, DMK politics is going to get even more absorbing in the days to come, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
A Raja said panel's chairman Jagdambika Pal has been conducting the panel's meetings in haste, raising doubts that it will not be able to serve justice.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday, with the opposition terming the move 'dictatorial' and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asserting that the legislation would not tamper with the powers enjoyed by states.
It is increasingly clear that for the BJP to try and establish itself as an electoral force in Tamil Nadu, the party has to come out of the old Brahminical mould, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dismissing media reports suggesting DMK would align with BJP, party chief M Karunanidhi on Friday clarified that his party would contest the Lok Sabha polls with existing partners in the alliance.
An Indian Army soldier, who was severely thrashed by a DMK functionary and his accomplices, succumbed and six people have been arrested in connection with the crime, the police said on Wednesday.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted searches against Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji and some others as part of a money laundering investigation and held multi-city searches, official sources said.
The Tamil Nadu voter may not be in the mood to test new talent, not when the state and the people are going through unprecedented and unanticipated crises, of which coronavirus is only the first. All of it boils down to an election between the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK next year, with small-timers, had-been parties and promised parties left on the sidelines, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Balaji was arrested on June 14 last year by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged cash-for-jobs scam when he was the transport minister in an earlier AIADMK government.
At the same time VK Sasikala, confidante of late party matriarch J Jayalalithaa is staking claim to the late leader's legacy.
The two 'One Nation One Election' (ONOE) bills, including one requiring an amendment in the Constitution, that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday after a fiery debate.
Party insiders concede statements of the Raja kind have the potential to hurt the DMK's electoral chances in closely-fought seats in 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The parliamentary panel's meetings have become a virtual battleground between the opposition and the ruling party members, who have been vociferously debating the changes to the Waqf Bill proposed by the government.
With the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and allies far ahead in all the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and 1 in neighbouring Puducherry, it appears the outcome, for the Stalin-led Dravidian party will be similar to the success of the popular flick Baahubali.
According to DMK, the voters are already consolidated on ideological lines, hence the impact of anti-incumbency, whether against the BJP Centre or the DMK state may not be too much, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
DMK party cadres and leaders want Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's son Udhayanidhi to be elevated as deputy CM, a move which will be a 'huge advantage' for the party in the 2026 assembly elections, a senior party leader said on Thursday.
Amid different voices within the Congress and INDIA bloc on DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's remarks against Sanatan Dharma, the principal opposition party on Monday said it respects all religions and stressed that others also have the freedom to express their views.
Wednesday's Vikravandi by-election has become a referendum on the Stalin government, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'We are not opposed to any Indian language. We are against Hindi imposition.'
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam sponsored Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation conference in Delhi was a dud with major opposition parties like the Janata Dal-United, Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party staying away.
All set to take over as the Leader of the Opposition in the 15th Tamil Nadu sssembly, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam scion M K Stalin on Tuesday vowed to do justice to the post and take up people's issues in a constructive way in the legislature.
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