'Whenever a new film of his releases, he uses politics to hype his film.' 'Her party can manage for a short period without Jayalalithaa as the chief minister but if her absence is for a long term, the AIADMK will start crumbling and disintegrating.' 'What keeps the DMK going despite its corrupt image is it is a democratic party in comparison to the AIADMK... Also, many social welfare measures in Tamil Nadu were brought in by the DMK. So they do have a place in the political scene despite corruption.' Gnani Sankaran, the well-known political analyst, discusses the fallout of Jayalalithaa's conviction on Tamil Nadu politics with Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
For 'a person who has dedicated his life to teaching students, guiding them to restoring monuments and preserving our built heritage, I never dreamt that my home will one day be demolished.'
The BJP government is no better than the Congress -- as wretched and anti-people. In addition, it is explicitly and aggressively communal, says Venkatesh B Athreya, in a hard-hitting interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
'Social distancing, wearing masks and hygiene should be practised more strictly.'' 'People should not assemble in close spaces as the micro droplets may hang in the air and can last for a longer time.'
'The administration started intruding into the kitchens and bedrooms of the local community.'
'For the first time in 50 years the people of Lakshadweep who have till now never raised their hands, got out on the streets and started raising their voices.'
'When you start distributing wealth, you end up distributing poverty.'
'They feel if they join a union, it will have a negative impact on their appraisals.'
'Hindu unity is possible without any external forces playing any role if their faith is questioned.'
'By taking fingerprints, iris scans and other details of citizens, the State is becoming the custodian of its people.' 'The State can use this data according to its whims and fancies, which is not good in a democracy.' 'When the State looks at all the activities of its citizens, it becomes a police State.'
'The first time a ban on women aged between 10 and 50 entering Sabarimala came was in 1991 and was by a high court judgment.' 'So, it is only a 27-year-old ban.' 'The high court can fix customs and the Supreme Court can overturn it.' 'I don't see this as an attack on religious freedom or the practice of a religion.'
'How can anyone ask me to stop what I have been doing since I was 6?'
'We are going ahead with the trials assuming what we have is the vaccine.' 'There is also a chance that what you have is not the vaccine. Then, you have to go back to the drawing board again.' 'So far, there has been no success in developing a good vaccine against coronaviruses.' 'That's why there are hundreds of trials going on at different stages in different parts of the world.'
'If at all there is going to be a second wave, it will not be very strong unlike in the US and Europe.'
'Every person has two identities in India, that of his caste and nation.' 'It is understandable in a multi-caste, multi-religious society and I don't mind this.' 'What I mind is the State has failed in doing enough to melt these two identities in such a way that everybody has access to citizenship which is more important than your caste.' 'That is why people remain in the narrow identities of his caste or religion.'
'Everything will be decided by the Centre.' 'Universities will have no autonomy to start a new course or introduce a new syllabus.'
'The Centre is using Panneerselvam.' 'He is not known for standing up for his own rights, let alone for the state.' 'He spoke only after he saw huge protests against Sasikala; otherwise, he would have just complied and continued to walk down the aisle.'
'It is not going to be a fight between the AIADMK and the DMK; that fight is over.' 'The fight is going to be between the BJP's attempt to finish the Dravidian era and the DMK and the others trying to prevent the BJP from doing so.'
Like many such cases, this case too would have remained under wraps had the survivor not exposed the villains and the crime they had commited.
'It will be like this: If you use the window seat in the first row, next will be the aisle in the second row, to maintain social distancing.' 'So, two-thirds of the aircraft is not going to be used.'
'Nobody expected the slowdown to go for these many days. Unfortunately, it is an unbelievably bad slow down.'
'Art has no religion. An artist is an artist.'
'The economy needed 3 or 4 major fixes. The major one was, of course, the direct tax structure, but we ended up complicating the existing convoluted tax structure,' says M R Venkatesh, chartered accountant and lawyer.
'The BJP had ruled earlier too, but nothing of this sort happened then... I don't say the government is behind the attacks, but they don't do anything to stop the attacks.' 'The prime minister has to tell the perpetrators that it is not in the interest of the government that such incidents happen.' 'When somebody says all Indians are Hindus, responsible people should ask him to stop and assure the country that this is not the opinion of the government. But it is not happening and it is quite unfortunate,' Cardinal Baselios Cleemis tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
J Sandhya, member, Child Rights Commission, speaks to Shobha Warrier about the recent incident where more than five hundred poor children from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal were being sent to Kerala orphanages, and why children's rights need to be protected with vigour.
'In the name of cultural nationalism, Modi wants to impose another ideology on Muslims.' 'His agenda, we feel, is saffronisation of Indian culture.'
'A person who came to take care of Jayalalithaa's personal needs slowly took control of her political life.'
'Families look after the elderly. And these families are facing a lot of problems now.'
'When an individual becomes authoritarian, you can overthrow the individual easily. 'When the system becomes authoritarian, whoever challenges the system will be called a criminal or an anti-national.'
'Whatever Kamala is today, it is because of my sister.' 'My sister inculcated South Indian culture and values in her,' Dr Sarala Gopalan, US Senator-electKamala Harris' maternal aunt, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in Chennai.
'We know the situation has worsened in the valley, but we are taking the first step.' 'We have lost 30 years of our life. We do not want to wait any longer.' 'The political class always said, you come down to Kashmir.' 'So, we are going to be there and we are going to demand a place to stay.' 'After all, it is our own land.'
'The Tata group will need for its new leader to show the same foresight and willingness to go against conventional wisdom at times to keep the group's aspirations high and uphold the values of innovation, ethics, corporate responsibility, trust and leadership that are frequently associated with the Tata name.'
'Walmart will source globally and more from China and will dump these cheap goods in India, making our country a dumping yard.'
'Social isolation itself can create panic among people. So, stay connected.'
'When you oppose a policy, you are labelled anti-government.' 'The problem is, the policymakers have never done any business in their lives.'
Ghatam exponent T H Subash Chandran recalls his association with the Carnatic great who passed into the ages on Monday.
'Instead of doing reforms and restructuring, the present government is busy with the perception that everything is fine and the economy is hunky-dory.' 'Such hollow perceptions are very dangerous for the Indian economy in the long run.' 'The real risk to India is the lack of decent employment opportunities for youth in general and educated youth in particular.'
'The younger generation may be hip, modern and Westernised outside, but there is something very Indian and traditional in them.' 'It's debatable just how good the concept of marriage is, but this is the only system that has survived over centuries.'
'When restaurants are open, pubs are open and people are moving around, a second wave will happen because you are giving a chance for the virus to spread.'
'It is a droplet infection and the virus is not airborne.; 'As it cannot stay in the air, the infection will pass from one person to another.' 'It also means, it is easy to prevent.'
'The first two months of monsoon are not looking good.' 'In case both the halves fail, it is going to be misery.'
