Tamil Nadu Governor RV Arlekar announced that the TVK regime, led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, will take steps to ensure fair financial devolution from the Centre, including pursuing the matter in the Supreme Court. The government also plans to conduct a 'Social Justice Survey' and address the state's severe financial deterioration.
Whether Vijay has the political spine to stitch together a stable government from this patchwork of conditions, demands, and midnight drama is the question Tamil Nadu is living through right now.
A look at the profiles of the ministers in the new Tamil Nadu government led by Joseph C Vijay of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).
The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and the Congress Legislature Party have decided to extend its full support to the TVK to form the government, AICC Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar said in a statement citing TVK chief Vijay's request seeking support.
Vice President V V Giri's resignation in 1969 triggered political upheavals that saw the ruling party defy its own presidential nominee, the expulsion of a sitting prime minister by her party president, and a historic split in the Indian National Congress, recounts Utkarsh Mishra.
New Delhi looks to be testing Omar's endurance with unconcealed glee, never feeling shy to bite whenever a moment comes its way. After all, ruling the country's only Muslim-majority UT/state has been the BJP's burning desire, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Only in the event of the RSS managing to force Modi into accepting a consensual candidate, will the party not continue to 'being' the 'next Congress', observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Newly-crowned World chess champion D Gukesh returned to Chennai on Monday to an enthusiastic reception his fans.
Disproportionate assets of Kamaraj stood at Rs 58.44 crore and he has been booked for criminal conspiracy and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, according to the FIR.
According to state government sources, not only did the governor insert some corrections, but he also initialled the final draft after those corrections had been made, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
Transferring to itself a habeas corpus petition of a man alleging that his two daughters were held captive inside the premises of the Foundation, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the Tamil Nadu police to not take any further action in pursuance of the Madras high court's direction asking it to inquire into the alleged illegal confinement of the women.
State school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi assured that action will be taken against the speaker for his controversial speech at a government school in Chennai.
Rahul's rage was not directed against the prime minister, but at his mother';s advisors who continue to thwart the Baba Army, feels Kamaraj Gopalan.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a letter to Murmu, Stalin said that Ravi has violated the oath of office he took under Article 159 of the Constitution, the government said in an official release.
Medical seats for under-graduates and post-graduates remaining vacant in the NEET era, together with the Centre 'freezing' the number of medical colleges and seats in (Dravidian) Tamil Nadu and the launch of the PM's 'Vishwakarma Scheme' for the nation's craftsmen, are all seen as a bid to further reverse the state's progressive socio-economic agenda of and its achievements of the past hundred-plus years, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Thursday staged an unprecedented walkout from the state assembly following a face-off with Chief Minister M K Stalin over the former's customary address to members of the house in its first session of the year.
Also, with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not in the running for the party president's post, a non-Gandhi would be at the helm after over 24 years following the polling on Monday and counting on Wednesday.
Launching his "Vetri Kodi Eandhi Tamizhagam Velvom" (Will Win Tamil Nadu Carrying the flag of victory) campaign from Suseendiram in this district, Shah said he was confident that a coalition government of the NDA will come to power in the state after the April 6 assembly polls.
Words and actions like those of R N Ravi and a vocal section of the state BJP have only added to Tamil fears and suspicions, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The message for 2024 is that the man on the street is not going to be euphoric if the G-20 crowns Modi as king-emperor for 2023, or if India sends its first man to space just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Even a 'temple consecration' in Ayodhya, or a Uniform Civil Code, or both of them together, may not have enough electoral purchase if fuel and commodity prices are not rolled back, and money-in-the-pocket does not fatten, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Madurai Kamaraj University in Tamil Nadu, which has been rocked by student protests over the last few days, closed down two days ago. A Ganesh Nadar visits the campus to find out what went wrong.
Farm loan waivers should not be regarded as expenditure but as incentive and investment, argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
'Whatever good he did, all his achievements were overshadowed by the perception of corruption and other things.'
'Since the two successive drubbings of the Congress have rung the alarm bells about the party's future, the need to chart a new course cannot be delayed any further,' says Amulya Ganguli.
A students-versus-vice chancellor battle has thrown the Madurai Kamaraj University into a flux, finds A Ganesh Nadar.
The fact remains that in the present-day Tamil Nadu, GenX and GenY voters, born and/or growing up after the end of 'Kamaraj rule' in the '60s and 'MGR rule', respectively, constitute an absolute majority of the electorate. If they still vote for a Rajini or Kamal, in preference to the established 'Dravidian voters', it is despite the MGR imagery, not because of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Just for a moment, says Kamaraj Gopalan, consider the possibility: Dawood Ibrahim captured a few days before the next general election. It would be Dr Singh and the Congress's Osama moment. What answer could Narendra Modi possibly have to that?
'Modi has lost a great opportunity to show himself to be a leader, mentor and path-setter, capable of rising above narrow party interests,', says B S Raghavan, the distringuished civil servant.
The veshti controversy in Tamil Nadu is not about the dress -- but a dress-code, which seems permissible in private homes and offices, but not in private clubs that are open only to well-heeled, and well-paying private members, observes N Sathiya Moorthy
'Those days, none of the leaders thought of amassing wealth.' 'All of them wanted to sacrifice their all for the country.' 'There are many who didn't have any money, but sacrificed their lives for the country.' 'There are many who spent their own money and worked for the country.' 'There are many more about whom we do not even know what they had done; they did everything so silently and selflessly.'
'One big leader said you might get 3 lakh votes and still lose.' 'I said if I do I will make sure you are sleepless because it will be me and three lakh people.'
B S Gnanadesikan, who resigned as Tamil Nadu state Congress chief, tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com what is wrong with the party in the state.
Even as plans to redevelop Dharavi continue to gather dust in government files, its young residents have chalked their own course and chosen to fly high. Hepzi Anthony recounts a few inspiring tales.
In private, AIADMK spokespersons say that the raid on Chief Secretary P Ramamohana Rao might be aimed at weakening the AIADMK, and demotivating the party from selecting/electing Jayalalithaa's confidante, Sasikala Natarajan, as her successor -- first as party head then possibly in the government, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Fearlessness, courtesy, humour, wide interests and wisdom, deep commitment to science and technology, passion for the environment, objectivity and the ability to see many things through not only a national but also an international prism.'
