'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.'
'In the last three to four months the BJP vote share in Tamil Nadu, which was 2.86% in 2016, has gone up to about 5%-6%.' 'The AIADMK will lose the minority votes and others who don't like the BJP and Modi.' 'The AIADMK decided to take the risk to get the 5%-6% votes that the BJP will bring in.'
It may well be possible to defeat Modi. But nobody seems to know how, points out Vir Sanghvi.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin described his party-led coalition as the "Secular Progressive Alliance."
The CM said the state government has been extending grant for the Hindus and the Christians for their overseas pilgrimage.
The 74-year-old leader, who describe himself as "a rebel with a cause", earlier served as the country's president from 2005-2015, becoming South Asia's longest-serving leader. He was also prime minister for a brief period in 2018.
As the island heads for elections, two major factors worry Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. One is the division in the Sinhala vote and the other is the prospect of the Tamils and Muslims voting heavily against him.
The tripartite talks to break the impasse over the screening of Tamil movie 'Vishwaroopam' will take place on Saturday with the participation of actor-director Kamal Haasan, who returned to Chennai from Mumbai.
Violence erupted on Monday following which police imposed curfew in the Theldeniya area.
Dear Mr Rajinikanth, please read Mahabharat again, please go through it again properly
Ultimately, whether the UP ordinance is struck down by the courts or not, it will be the courage of young Hindu and Muslim women and men that will act as a foil to the UP police-cum-mobs who will be out to get them.
Chief Minister Stalin seems to have drawn a line between his personal beliefs and those of others in the family, beginning with wife Durga Stalin, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
After a 6.5-hour debate, the upper house clears the bill. Amit Shah said the bill is not anti-Muslim and Indian minorities have nothing to fear from its passage.
The motion takes note of the UNHCR statement last month, which described the CAA as 'fundamentally discriminatory in nature', and also of other United Nations as well as the EU guidelines on human rights as it calls on the Indian government to 'repeal the discriminatory amendments'.
Rajinikanth's visible electoral strength is his constant mouthing of the term, 'aanmiga arasiyal', or 'spiritual politics', without he having to explain what it is. By implication, it is all that what Dravidian politics is not about. It may imply anti-corruption, being against Periyar's forgotten anti-god, anti-Brahmin dictum, but also ends up covering 'Tamil pride', which begins with Tamil language where, as a Maratha from Karnataka, he has more to defend himself. However, in the contemporary national context, aanmiga arasiyal is seen as a front for Rajini to market his brand of 'soft Hindutva' but identified even more with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in political terms, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
At this time, sixty years ago, Brigadier John Parshuram Dalvi and a majority of his men were captured as prisoners of war by the Chinese during the 1962 war. His son Michael Dalvi, 77, has preserved his father's memory and the story of the gallant men of the 7th Infantry Brigade with honour.
Ranjith Madduma Bandara, a senior politician from Wickremesinghe's United National Party was sworn in on Thursday morning as the new minister in charge of the police.
It looks like Hindi, which faces political opposition at the front door, is entering Tamil Nadu through the kitchen, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
But the report also said that early marriage has been declining over time.
The SLPP, led by prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has won in 145 constituencies, bagging a total of 150 seats with its allies, a two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament, according to the results announced by the election commission.
Sri Lankans on Thursday voted in large numbers in the bitterly contested presidential election in which incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking a record third term against his friend-turned-foe Maithripala Sirisena, with an unusually high voter turnout in Tamil and Muslim areas.
A special court in Ahmedabad on Friday awarded death sentence to 38 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case, which had claimed 56 lives and left over 200 injured.
There are laws that are as out of time and place today as the Rowlatt Act was a century ago, explains Aakar Patel.
The sources said friends of India prevailed over those of Pakistan in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
Beloved movies, brand new shows, must-watch documentaries and feel-good fare, it's all there on OTT this week. Sukanya Verma offers a peek.
He questioned why only migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given citizenship under the amended law and not the Sri Lankan Tamils.
The National Tawheed Jamath is suspected of plotting the deadly Easter blasts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Sunday were set to share the honours in the Lok Sabha and assembly bye-elections in 13 states.
Thousands of people marched on the streets with Dravida Munnetra Kazagham president MK Stalin to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Chennai on Monday. Several senior leaders of opposition parties including that of Congress, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam participated in the mega rally to register their protest against the new law.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sri Lanka's newly elected president Mithripala Sirisena waves at media as he leaves the election commission in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/ Reuters
The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
Scholars and students have cautioned that the proposed divisive and discriminatory changes would harm the country.
'He just said that those who cannot control the violence should go. He did not name the BJP.'
Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit won't be afraid to tangle with the toughest of them.
This theory of 'Hindus vs the rest' sees the two communities as two separate blocs. Isn't that the two-nation theory? What of the deep bonds that the communities have on the ground? asks Jyoti Punwani.
"There was absolutely no need or necessity to mount a visceral attack on the religious beliefs of the Hindus. It was unwarranted and utterly unrelated to the occasion. That is what makes it deliberate and malicious," Justice G R Swaminathan of Madras High Court said.
It does not stop here, though. According to field information, state ministers, AIADMK candidates and campaigners are asking BJP cadres accompanying them not to carry party flags at common rallies and also avoid their saffron shawl on those occasions. BJP cadres are also asked to stay out of the common campaign when it enters a minority-dominated areas, especially of Muslims, and re-join later, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday unveiled his cabinet that included members from a cross-section of parties and announced fresh parliamentary polls in 100 days, two years ahead of schedule.
