The historic coastal town is witnessing a flurry of activity, including infrastructure development in view of the high-level meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.
On October 23, the top court said people in the country can only burst firecrackers from 8 pm to 10 pm on Diwali and other festivals. It also allowed the manufacture and sale of just "green crackers" which have low emission of light, sound and harmful chemicals. The apex court carved out an exception for Christmas and the New Year's Eve, saying crackers on these days could be burst between 11.55 pm and 12.30 am since the celebrations start at midnight.
In this winter of discontent, in every procession, in every demonstration, in every protest -- from Jawaharlal Nehru University to Jamia to Shaheen Bagh to the streets of Mumbai -- the front rows have been occupied by women. It's been weeks since women have been sitting in protest across the country against the newly-introduced Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. The protests are a nerve centre of unwavering voices against what has been perceived as a discriminatory law. The women -- some housewives, some students with hijabs covering their hair, and others in full-length burqa robes -- are rallying against the 'Man' in what could also be perceived as a revolution for the 'weaker sex' in India.
70-plus years after Independence, 'Hindu India, metamorphosised as 'Hindutva India', is proving the British right -- and for all the wrong reasons. Mohan Bhagwat should have answers for the why of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Besides the sedition charge, police said they had registered cases against him under IPC sections including 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups) and 502 (sale of printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter).
Sonia Gandhi hit out at the BJP for being determined to destroy constitutional values.
'A Muslim is lynched somewhere, and you forward the video of the lynching through WhatsApp.' 'So, you participate in that lynching without actually doing it. You endorse it without being a party to it.'
Protests demanding Jallikattu swelled on the streets of Tamil Nadu after agitators rejected statements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and the state braced for a shutdown on Friday.
The Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday arrested 17 fishermen along with their three boats when they were fishing near Katchatheevu, police said Rameshwaram.
The revived factionalism in the AIADMK, if not curbed now, has the potential to split the party vertically, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
The proposed changes, as per the draft, could continue some of the existing conflict between wildlife protection regulations with the implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006, which gives rights to tribals in all kinds of traditional forest lands -- including the wildlife zones, such as national parks. The new proposed law, just as the original one from 1972, does not explicitly recognise these rights in all wildlife areas.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The nationwide lockdown has transformed many otherwise buzzing streets across the country into tranquil expanses. It is on a few of such streets filled with ghastly echoes that the quaint figure of a female police officer goes about her duty with her colleagues, making sure that movement is restricted amongst the people in order to flatten the proverbial curve. Wearing the traditional khaki uniform of the Tamil Nadu Police -- a surgical mask stretched over her face, and a pair of gloves pulled over her hands for protection, India women's team midfielder Indumathi Kathiresan is barely recognisable to those stopped by her for checking on the streets of Anna Nagar, Chennai.
From Dudhwa to Veppathur and Havelock Island, the Indian tourism market is booming like never before.
By getting the Tamil Nadu assembly to act on his very imaginative public declaration to keep petro-chemical industries out of the Cauvery delta, which has traditionally been a DMK stronghold, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has not only set the ball rolling for the assembly elections due a year later but also sent out a strong message to the BJP government at the Centre, which took a unilateral decision to exempt petro-complexes from environmental clearance, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested another 11 Tamil Nadu fishermen late on Wednesday night, hours after they apprehended 36 fishermen hailing from a village in Pudukottai district while fishing near Neduntheevu and Katchatheevu islet, a fisheries department official said.
'No one in Sri Lanka could afford to stay at home, everyone came onto the street.'
The prime minister says he will bring real change to Bengal. Perhaps he will. The interesting thing is that his party has never defined what this change is, observes Aakar Patel.
The jallikattu issue has revived pan-Tamil political sentiments especially among youths, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In continuing instances of arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan Naval personnel, seven of them from a coastal village in Nagapattinam district were arrested while fishing near Kodiyakari, a fishermen's organisation official said on Friday.
While critics and protestors have multifarious arguments to offer, the defence of CAA has been uni-dimensional and uni-focussed as has been the case with most policies of the Modi government and the political positions of his party. But to be drawn into an issue that has assumed more than local and national dimensions, Rajini has knowingly or otherwise, taken the plunge and in favour of the BJP -- or, so it has come to be seen, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
With the Supreme Court refusing to vacate its order on lifting of a ban on the sport by the Centre.
The police said the women were told that it would be difficult to provide protection to them till the shrine as there was a possibility of protests.
Accompanied by police personnel, the members of Chennai-based women empowerment outfit 'Manithi' could barely move 100 metres through the traditional forest path towards the temple when hundreds of devotees rushed down to the valley to chase them away.
The Congress chief will also be contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
The director general of police said everyone in the force should have to perform their duties irrespective of their religion and politics.
The situation is unlike any other legislation/ordinance that governments at the Centre and states had passed on earlier occasions after the higher judiciary had held certain laws, orders or decisions ultra vires of the Constitution, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In the hands of a majoritarian government, with utter contempt for the cultural plurality and diversity of our great nation, the pipe dream of making Hindi the sole official language takes on nightmarish proportions.'
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Why are the poor turning Right instead of turning toward far-Left parties, ponders Pranab Bardhan.
The National Conference leader remained unfazed and continued with his prayers, saying the jeering and booing were by his 'own people' who were misguided.
'Why don't they suggest artificial intelligence training for SC/STs?' 'Why can't they be trained in computer programming?'
From linking innovation with supply of inputs to providing contract farming, the private sector can help agriculture move to the next stage of development.
DMK blamed the Centre and state government for 'not taking appropriate, timely steps' to ensure conduct of the event and announced a state-wide stir.
'The BJP is so keen to use this opportunity to make its foray in a state where it hardly exists, says Amulya Ganguli, that it has silenced the vociferous animal rights activist in its ranks -- Maneka Gandhi.'
Loud applause and cheers rang out as the first jabs were administered to frontline workers at hospitals and healthcare centres across the country on Saturday at the start of the gargantuan COVID-19 vaccination exercise, hailed as a 'momentous' occasion in India's fight against the pandemic.
The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed its registry to post a PIL seeking regulation of various clubs and questioning the dress code imposed by them in the backdrop of denial of entry to a dhoti-clad Judge by TNCA Club in Chennai to some other bench.
Issuing a travel advisory, the health ministry also called for passengers with travel history to China, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, Malaysia, France, Spain and Germany to undergo self-imposed quarantine for a period of 14 days from the date of their arrival, and their employers to facilitate work-from-home for such employees during this period.
