'I don't know who is deciding Indian foreign policy today. I don't know who is deciding how India deals with Pakistan,' former Union minister Ram Jethmalani takes on the Modi government.
The Lankans had to pay Indian human smugglers Rs 50,000 per head for the arduous and risky journey to Australia.
'I don't think after Amma, the cult of personality will endure.' 'I think there will be a shift back to the politics of ideology and principles rather than a cult of personality.'
Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar, mingles with the unceasing flow of people outside Rajaji Hall in Cjhennai, that come for one last look at J Jayalalithaa.
Large number of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supporters have been waiting anxiously outside the Apollo Hospital in Chennai since Sunday night for information on ailing chief minister and party supremo Jayalaithaa who suffered a cardiac arrest after days of showing improvement.
'You have to get past the phobia that Math is difficult.' 'The brain is exercising when you do arithmetic.'
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com recalls how Kanyakumari MP H Vasanthakumar, the first parliamentarin to die of Covid-related complications, would address his constituents by their names, making it a point to ask after their work and family.
'The AIADMK gets votes from all sections of the minorities.' 'By aligning with the BJP the AIADMK stands to lose that vote'
'The prime minister bought spectacles from Germany to see the eclipse, but he cannot see that an eclipse has fallen on the country.'
'Our clients need business. For business you need workers and so we decided to help'
'Everyone was talking about migrants, frontline workers and cops...' 'Nobody was talking about sex workers during the pandemic.'
'We have created fear in the minds of villagers so that they don't indulge in wrongdoing. We have already seized Rs 1 crore of bribe money,' Madurai Superintendent of Police Vijayendra Bidari tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
'The Galwan crisis involves the security of the nation, can't we spend eight hours on that?' 'Why are you scared? Why are you running away from that?
'In spite of her superstar status, she was always polite and soft spoken.'
'If I had earned money as an MLA, I would have been sad to lose my seat.' 'But I have not earned money. Instead, I have earned respect.'
I&B ministry refuses to respond to striking FTII students, who insist that Gajendra Chauhan has to go.
B V Srinivas and his team of volunteers are able to procure and pass medical supplies, including oxygen cylinders delivery at doorsteps and securing hospital admissions for COVID patients.
'The people who stay with us were not born orphans; they have been abandoned.'
Former supercop Rakesh Maria on the challenges of fighting crime.
'People will vote for Rajinikanth without expecting any money.'
To escape charges in a rape case, a man in Tamil Nadu commits a murder.
Indian Council of Historical Research Member-Secretary Gopinath Ravindran was heckled last week after he sought to differ from views expressed by David Frawley, an American who stressed on extensive Vedic studies in India at a lecture series in New Delhi.
While the crowds outside the AIADMK HQ seem to have taken victory for granted, a small crowd out the DMK HQ refuses to concede. A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com reports from Chennai.
Rajinikanth will win the elections whenever they are held, predicts A Ganesh Nadar.
'When you can use Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar's names why can't you use Dr Kalam's name?' 'The idea is to take Dr Kalam's vision to the people. Elections will come and go, but the vision will stand.'
Riyaaz Amlani, who owns 40 restaurants, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com what readers need to do to get ahead.
A Ganesh Nadar, who once met V Prabhakaran at the LTTE's press conference in Jaffna, feels Madras Cafe is not at all about the Tigers.
'I must have done a lot of good deeds because of which I was getting the chance to talk to such a mahapurush.'
'The DMK may get a little more than 50% of the minority vote.' 'The AIADMK always gets over 10% of the minority vote.'
'All I want the government to do is to make sure that the children whose parents are seriously ill don't lose their jobs for looking after their parents.'
Farming and debt go together in Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur district. There are those who have learnt to live with it and others like Alagar who could not cope with the loss.
There are three Vijays! Each Vijay has his own heroine and each couple gets a song. Otherwise, it's the same old songs and the same old Vijay, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
Migrant workers. Poor students. School dropouts. Impoverished women. Daniel Ponraj and his Shubh Sandesh Foundation are helping them all.
'Jail was very crowded, we were 56 people crammed together. All 56 of us had to use only one toilet'
'It is only natural that in such a national crisis, we should lend a helping hand to the less privileged members of our communities.'
'The biggest agitation in Tamil Nadu -- after the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965 -- were the Jallikattu protests. The anti-Hindi agitations had the backing of a political party but this one does not. No famous actor is involved in it either. It was an incredible agitation.'
'We would have joined them if they wanted to develop the college, but their motive is political.'
'Thousands of people were stoning us, but we never fired back.'
'There are Rs 90 crore worth of medicines in government hospitals, which is sufficient for the next three months.'
'The song says that liquor should not be sold by the government. The government should stop people from drinking.' 'I am working for a social cause. I am not doing anything wrong. We have moved a petition in the high court to quash the FIR against me.' 'It is a people's movement. There is no Naxalite involvement here.' Singer Kovan, who was arrested on sedition charges for protesting against the Tamil Nadu governments liquor policy, speaks out.
