The Supreme Court Friday set aside a Madras High Court direction that the Centre must seek the top court's approval before implementing 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections in all-India quota seats of medical colleges.
'I am confused about which one to choose.' 'All the girls are really beautiful.'
Claims over leadership became the focal point at the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa's death anniversary event held in Chennai on Sunday with the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, led by O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami, asserting that it is a 'fortress' that cannot be shaken by anyone.
'The BJP wants an AIADMK government so that they can implement their policies.' 'All the policies implemented in UP are being implemented in Tamil Nadu.'
Three of the 23 MLAs are cabinet ministers. Another minister who had tested positive earlier has recovered. The chief minister gave the number during a video conference with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had held a virtual meeting with CMs of opposition-ruled states to discuss a range of issues faced by them.
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
Unlike the regimes of Jayalalitha, Palaniswami and Karunanidhi, ministers are actually getting to make decisions on their own, with the unmentioned rider that they would be held responsible and accountable, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
''He had given tools to fight all forms of homogenisation.'
Stalin owes his victory this time, like in 2019, to the hate-campaign of the local Hindutva forces, which kept haranguing him, and even his dead father, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
From being the third largest party in the outgoing Lok Sabha with 37 seats, the AIADMK has to now contend with single digit tally, pushed to the third spot behind arch rival DMK and Congress despite fighting the polls as part of a "mega alliance" with parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party.
If not for Palaniswami, it is hard to guess if the AIADMK would have been able to garner 33.3 per cent vote share as against the DMK's 37.7 per cent. AIADMK won 66 seats, its allies Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bharatiya Janata Party five and four seats respectively and proved yet again that the western region was its fortress.
Interlinking of rivers, retrieval of Katchatheevu island and inclusion of fishermen in the Scheduled Tribes list are also listed in the memorandum.
Candidates appearing for the exam in Kolkata were seen standing in queues while abiding by the social distancing norms.
Neither emotions nor a structured approach to addressing critical issues came out in Kamal Hassan's inaugural speech on Wednesday, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The board is prepared to conduct the exams for class 10 and 12 for crucial 29 subjects, while the Human Resource Development Ministry has directed states to start the evaluation process for the exams already conducted and facilitate the CBSE in evaluation of answer sheets.
In the absence of the over-arching 'Jaya charisma', EPS has to convince the AIADMK's traditional constituencies, including those in his western districts, that his leadership would stand up against the BJP-led Centre even in a post-poll scenario, a la Jayalalithaa, and would not yield as much as party founder MGR had done, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'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.'
The DMK has been alleging that the AIADMK government was being controlled by the BJP government at the Centre.
'The feeling is that Rajinikanth is pro-Modi than anti-Modi.'
To understand the problem with public examinations we need to understand the different objectives they serve and how they interact and conflict with each other.
Terming the BJP-led Maharashtra government a "total failure", Congress accused Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of giving clean chits to several tainted ministers.
Former Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir says he's being wrongly indicted by his successor CJI P Sathasivam and demands an apology. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, the former CJI also denies any leak of the National Eligibilty cum Entrance Test judgment.
Class 10 to NEET, student suicides expose flaws in result-oriented education system.
'I don't think I can go back home before the lockdown is lifted because Nitishji has said he will not allow students from Kota to return.'
Allegations of strains on democratic and constitutional institutions across the board, security threats from outside, a greedy Opposition inside, were all a part of the package then as now, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The CBSE had announced that it had rationalised the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 for the 2020-21 session by up to 30 per cent to make up for the academic loss caused due to COVID-19. However, it was the decision to drop topics related to Social Sciences which drew sharp reaction from opposition parties like the Congress, Left, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena.
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'To them, the day may not be far off when the state BJP starts claiming and propagating that Modi is next only to AIADMK's late boss Jayalalithaa,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A time has thus come when state encouragement for rural students led to empowerment of the socio-economically marginalised sections of the population. It included women. Today, with greater exposure and consequent enlightenment, it has gone beyond 'empowerment' to become 'entitlement', says N Sathiya Moorthy.
With both the factions pledging their support, the BJP believes that the natural corollary is for them to now merge and retain the two-leaves election symbol, a view shared by the prime minister as well.
Rediff.com does a quick checklist on what the two manifestos have to say on hot-button issues of the day.
'This government wants to keep control of everything in its hands.' 'If they have their stooges sitting on the National Medical Commission, they will do only the government's bidding.' 'Imagine a scary situation where people who have no knowledge about medicine sit on a commission that will take decisions on matters related to medical education, doctors and medical ethics.'
In the circumstances, an independent probe alone would establish the truth, starting from Koodangulam. It is more so in the case of Marina violence, which may even at this late hour hold a candle to the events and developments in Thoothukudi, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Post-Jayalalithaa AIADMK cannot take on the Narendra Modi dispensation like their late charismatic leader did it on several occasions in the past, says R Ramasubramanian.
'What we see here is puppetry. The string is with the BJP.' 'All the puppets here are dancing to the direction the BJP pulls the strings.'
