There is a hidden hand behind the political developments in Tamil Nadu...
Though EPS has sworn peace for now, or so it seems, his camp is said to be considering the possibility of calling an early meeting of the party's general council, to get a mandate in his favour before things went out of control. Ground-level indications are that OPS had lost his limited base, which alone had forced him to patch up with the other, reportedly at the instance of the BJP ally at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Normalcy was returning to Tamil Nadu on Sunday, a day after sporadic violence erupted in several parts of the state in the wake of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
A court in Andhra Pradesh has dismissed the bail pleas of YSR Congress MP P Mithun Reddy and another party leader who were arrested for allegedly assaulting an Air India official in November last year.
Will just sit back and see, said Dinakaran over AIADMK merger.
'There will be significant political traction for him. But how much, we don't know yet'
'As she has been sentenced to 4 years in prison, her disqualification period begins after that for 6 years, totaling the next 10 years of her life, which may indicate that her legislative career in politics is over for the time being.'
The 'Raj Bhavan/Nakkeeran Gopal case', in which editor S Gopal was arrested in the morning and set free by the court in the afternoon, is not the first one where the Tamil Nadu's once-reputed police force is seen as faltering in the eye of the law, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The prime minister said the opposition's hatred against him was reaching new levels daily and they have a competition over who abused him the most.
It remains to be seen whether the Governor goes by the AG's advice for a floor test by the two competing claimants for chief ministership or invites Palanisami to form the government.
The public discourse surrounding the murder of Infosys techie Swathi begs for sanity. Sadly, there are no takers for it in Tamil Nadu as conspiracy theories -- some communally explosive -- keep cropping up. R Ramasubramanian reports.
'A precedent in the Rajv killers' plea for freedom may flow from slain brigand Veerappan's 2000 demand for the release of 109 associates languishing in prisons in Karnataka for him to release abducted Kannada matinee icon, the late Rajkumar.' 'Acting on a petition filed by the father of a Karnataka cadre IPS officer killed by Veerappan, the Supreme Court reversed the orders of lower court orders in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.' 'If democratically-elected governments give an impression to the citizens of this country of being law-breakers, would it not breed contempt for the law? Would it not invite citizens to become a law unto themselves?' the Supreme Court had observed on the occasion, recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
A report released by Human Rights Watch states that police regularly disregard arrest procedures and torture suspects in custody to death. The police often blame the deaths on suicide or illness.
The apex court also rejected her plea for an open court hearing of the review petitions.
After a high-level party meet in Chennai, Vaiko said his party has unanimously decided to support the DMK in the by-election.
Asserting that there was no split in the party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader from Sasikala camp M Thambidurai on Thursday requested the Election Commission "not to entertain" the dissenting cadres, who have staked claim to AIADMK symbol and sought fresh election to the general secretary's post.
The apex court said it was duty-bound by the seven-judge bench's order in the case and 'cannot override it'.
Given the history of the trial proceedings, and the documents that the judges and lawyers in the appeal courts have to read at every stage, Jayalalithaa's bail plea, when moved, will take time to be decided, placing a question mark over the party's electoral prospects in 2016.
'So when they come for you tomorrow morning, papa, make a dash for freedom.' 'Please, please, don't let anything hold you back.' 'Run, run, run, run, run, run, run.'
During the arguments, the ASG said FIPB officials have also been interrogated and all of them are holding high offices in their respective fields.
OPS is just now friendless in the party's second-line, but the situation could change as and when Governor Rao arrives in the state capital, and sets the constitutional ball rolling, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Will the AIADMK acknowledge the role of CAA and the anti-CAA protests, both inside the state and outside, as among the causes for the current electoral reversal, as many in the party now want? It is unlikely to be so, but then the pressure will increase on the leadership to reassess the BJP alliance at one level and the 'blind support' for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial policies on the other, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Since the demise of former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo and chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last year, Tamil Nadu's political scenario has witnessed unprecedented drama. Following is the chronology of major events in the southern state's ruling party.
'It is not a merger. It is a commercial agreement reached for self-interest,' he said.
He said his faction will formally file a petition with the Election Commission of India on Friday.
In the post Jayalalithaa Tamil Nadu, Sasikala is the person to be watched in the coming days, weeks and months, writes R Ramasubramanian.
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.
Protester Sasi Perumal's death has given a new fillip to the pro-prohibition movement, which was beginning to draw attention across Tamil Nadu after different political parties began to make it a part of their poll manifesto for next year, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The National Human Rights Commission sought a report from the Tamil Nadu government.
In the video, the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo is seen holding a glass and drinking from it, while reportedly watching TV.
Four fishermen who traveled to the Middle East, dreaming of earning more money, instead ended in an Iranian jail.
Anupam Pahuja, General Manager for Technology at PayPal Asia-Pacific in Singapore tells us what makes a successful start-up different from an average one.
As political rivals clamour to retain their pan-Tamil credentials, the BJP may use the 'nationalist' card to even the odds in its favour, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
If a students fails an examination, first s/he applies for revaluation. The student then approaches 'brokers', either from among the teachers or outside the university. A student pays Rs 10,000 for the broker's assistance, which ensures that marks will be upwardly revised in the revalution.
For now, Edappadi K Palaniswami is in the saddle in Tamil Nadu, and firmly so. Both inside the party and the government, he has made OPS a yes-man, as the latter used to be under Jayalalithaa, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The deaths of Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi within months of each other neutralises any sympathy factor their parties may hope to gain from. What's more, by removing charismatic leaders from the fray, it also levels the field for others, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP will be the obvious gainer while the DMK will lose a major chunk of its vote bank.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday told the Madras high court that fresh probe into Rajiv Gandhi assassination case could be not done based "only on allegations without fresh materials supporting them."
The two rival factions of the AIADMK may have merged, but there are problems staring at it on all fronts -- governmental, political, electoral and organisational, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The food the Sri Lankans gave us was horrible. It used to stink. We used to throw most of it away... In the night my legs used to be in someone's face and his legs used to be in my lap. There was no space... There was no toilet... Both our bathing water and drinking water were salty. We had to beg the guards for clean drinking water.' Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar speaks to Indian fishermen just released from Sri Lankan custody.
