A meeting of Tamil Nadu MPs, led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, unanimously decided to oppose the Union government's proposed delimitation exercise, demanding its complete withdrawal and an extension of the delimitation freeze for another 25 years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to opposition parties to support the delimitation-linked Women's Reservation Bill, highlighting its 40-year struggle. The bill aims to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures and increase Lok Sabha seats, requiring a two-thirds majority for passage. Despite previous setbacks and ongoing efforts to secure numbers, the government continues to push for this crucial legislation.
Small parties have the capacity to play both ends against the middle. Puducherry could be heading that way, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Several opposition MPs have submitted a notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker to move a motion for the removal of Madras High Court Judge G R Swaminathan over his order regarding a temple lamp.
The Madurai Bench of the high court will on Friday hear the case related to the Karur stampede incident, which claimed the lives of at least 41 people and over 100 were injured.
"We did not know that a CBI inquiry was requested on our behalf regarding the Karur tragedy. It has been nine years since my husband Panneerselvam, who had signed the petition, abandoned us," says Sharmila, mother of the 9-year-old boy who had lost his life in the stampede during a political rally addressed by actor-politician Vijay.
Referring to the fatal incident that has so far claimed 41 lives, head of the panel and Bharatiya Janata Party MP, Hema Malini said that political rallies should be properly organised and conducted with full security.
Vijay, despite the loud message from his delayed arrival at the road-show/stampede venue, and more so his continued inaccessibility for fans-turned-cadres after graduating from a super-star to a political party leader with electoral ambitions, refuses to change. Or, so it seems, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP MP and actor Ravi Kishan has been awarded the Sansad Ratna for his outstanding performance in the Lok Sabha, becoming the first actor-turned-politician to receive the honour.
'Earlier, we used to talk about a deficit economy. There is a deficit in democracy' 'If you read superficially Gandhi and Ambedkar and Nehru, some misconceptions and misunderstanding come to mind, as if they were at loggerheads and they differed radically in their views' 'India is one nation. There is only one citizenship. No citizenship for South India and no citizenship for North India and another for the Northeast'
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
There is no guarantee that if we speak in only Indian languages, all our faults will be washed away and India will shine. Why then do they bully and belittle the English-speaking? asks Shyam G Menon.
Already, there is a feeling even within the BJP's AIADMK ally that the BJP is overdoing things on the ED/I-T front, as corruption is not an election issue in the state -- as long as the people are otherwise not excessively unhappy with the governing party, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
If the BJP has to work as a junior partner of Vijay's TVK, then either the party will have to change the state leader, or the latter should change himself. Incidentally, ever since Vijay started talking politics and elections, the pro-BJP/Hindutva social media had stopped dragging his name into any non-existing issue.' In particular, they have stopped referring to him by his Christian name, 'Joseph Vijay', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Nearly half of the MPs elected in the 2019 general elections in India were first-timers.
'Omar Abdullah presented Delhi as a villain in front of the people of Jammu Kashmir before elections and now is shaking hands with them.'
As of now, there is nothing to suggest that the 'Michaelpatti episode' has the potential to polarise Dravidian Tamil Nadu on religious lines, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The DMK feels its genuine gestures have had no bearing on the governor's politico-administrative conduct, which is 'more political and politicised than administrative and Constitutional', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A bill to modify the list of scheduled castes in Tamil Nadu by grouping of seven castes which presently exist as separate castes, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Friday.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
The CPI-M leader was fluent in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bangla, and also Malayalam. He was also well-versed in Hindu mythology, and often used those references in his speeches especially to attack the BJP.
'The people of Tamil Nadu in particular Chennai know about the double standards of the BJP. Nothing will work for them here.'
An FIR was filed on Tuesday against ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP S Gnanathiraviam and several others in connection with an assault on a pastor in Thirunelveli, the police said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday took a swipe at the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam over dynasty politics and alleged corruption, calling them "2G, 3G, 4G" parties and said the time has come in Tamil Nadu to throw away these and give the power to a "son of the soil".
The BJP seems wanting to return to a 'Tamil Hindutva' agenda for elections in Tamil Nadu, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP leads with 23 percent of its 90 Rajya Sabha members having declared criminal cases against themselves.
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.
Union Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday came down heavily on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his 'murder of India in Manipur' remark in Lok Sabha, saying this is for the first time in parliamentary democracy that someone has made such a statement.
CM Stalin has a procedural problem. Nominating new ministers would entail his having to seek formal permission from governor R N Ravi. Stalin does not want to interact with the person of this governor, as far as possible, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Women politicians bring to politics and policy a sensitivity that most of their male counterparts, at least until a generation back, lacked.
The campaign will reach a high decibel level next week when BJP state chief K Annamalai is expected to take up a blitzkrieg campaign against the ruling DMK.
'This is the Dravidian model of governance. The government is for people belonging to all faiths'
Bharatiya Janata Party national president J P Nadda on Thursday constituted a four-member committee to ascertain the facts leading to a 17-year-old girl student's death by suicide in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu earlier this month, and submit a report to him soon.
Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaaran claimed that Raja Raja Cholan was depicted as a Hindu king and already attempts were made to take away Tamil saint poet Tiruvalluvar's identity as well.
Like, Share, Subscribe, Vote: The 2024 polls may be dubbed 'YouTube election'.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The all-women panel, which concluded its interaction with the affected family members and officials on Tuesday, called upon the state government to be neutral and bring those responsible for the 17-year-old plus two student's death, to book.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav died in Medanta hospital of Gurugram on Monday. He was 82.
