The Bharatiya Janata Party is an outfit with a difference. All political parties sweat to find out ways and means to augment their growth. But the BJP searches for methods to denude its avenues for progress and insists on treading that path. It has done that again for yet another time now. Narendra Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister has been removed from the BJP\’s Parliamentary Board and its election committee for reasons that haven\’t been disclosed. While The Hindu has said in an editorial that Modi is the blue-eyed boy of the
Indifferent difference
February 17, 2007
Q & A by Cho Ramaswamy
February 17, 2007K Sampath, Thirukkazhukkunram Question: Has Karunanidhi finally begun believing in religion? Answer: Kalaignar\’s rationalism has always been weak. He has often rued his fate, horoscope and stars in the past. So his rationalism has been a question mark for ages. Therefore instead of believing that he has become a believer, one needs to only comprehend the fact that he has begun flaunting his beliefs. P Shivashakti, Pachaiyapuram Question: \”Cho\’s single point agenda is bringing down the DMK government. But we also hope to create a good government
A Dangerous Trend
February 9, 2007The Governor of Tamil Nadu has read out a statement prepared by the government demanding, \”the Constitution should be freshly written according to the needs arising out of changing times.\”The reasons trotted out by the government for this were also clarified in the Governor\’s address. The government said that it is doing a tightrope walk while \”protecting the causes of social justice (in other words – reservation) for minorities and women\’s rights.\” Apart from altering the statute\’s status quo, the new Constitution will \”establish the principles of federalism, meaningfully devolve powers vested with the
Q & A by Cho Ramaswamy
February 9, 2007A Mukundan, Palayamkottai
Question: What will be the opinion of our political leaders, who undertake fasts under various pretexts from time to time, about Mamta Bannerjee\’s 25-day long hunger strike?
Answer: Our politicians never fast for a whole day. Every one of such efforts of the politicians lasts for a mere 12 hours. Therefore they would be sympathetic towards Mamta Bannerjee. \”She has wasted an effort that would have served the cause of 50 demonstrations. What kind of political knowledge does she have?\” would be the refrain of our politicians.
Kudos to Karunanidhi
February 2, 2007DMK President and Chief Minister Karunanidhi\’s ordering 99 Chennai Corporation Councillors to resign – and getting them to comply is no mean feat. Following the misdemeanours of the ruling party during the [October 2006] Corporation polls the Madras High Court failed to give a final ruling in a litigation that was its consequence. One judge on the Division Bench constituted to hear the case (Justice Mukhopadhyaya) said that the court could not interfere as per the clauses in the Constitution. Another judge (Justice Khalifulla) severely criticised the state election commission and the police. He
Q & A by Cho Ramaswamy
February 2, 2007KG Dhanalakshmi, Maraimalainagar Question: Tamil Nadu\’s total reservation of 69% and 27% reservation for Backward Class students in matters of higher education will not be affected in any manner by the Supreme Court\’s recent ruling, says Veerappa Moily. How true is this statement? Answer: It is a half-truth. Temporarily the reservation regime is not affected. But it can be reviewed by the courts and nobody can predict what would be the end result. What was beyond judicial review is now subject to it. On that count, Moily\’s averment is wrong.
Apex Court shows discretion in two tricky cases
January 28, 2007The recent judgements pronounced by the Supreme Court are worth taking note of by the people. The first, of course, concerns the denouement about Ninth Schedule introduced into the Constitution. This schedule was created through Amendment 31B. One of the salient clauses of 31B clearly states that if the Parliament includes any law under this schedule it would go beyond the purview of the Supreme Court. Already over 280 laws have been included into the Ninth Schedule. When Supreme Court began taking a close look at this, we had commented as under
Q & A by Cho Ramaswamy
January 28, 2007Kollam S Krishnamurthy, Chennai 61Question: What is your take on the Assamese ULFA terrorists who have murdered more than 60 Hindi-speaking people in cold blood in the north eastern state? Answer: The Central Government began \”talking\” to ULFA on this issue. Whatever be their colour, if a government begins talks with extremists, the ultras would use the opportunity to increase their strengths. To avoid this, all governments should mercilessly crush all extremists. Under such circumstances, they will be more malleable and powerless to dictate terms. The Central and state
The \’Sixth Sense\’ of the cops
January 22, 2007In the recently concluded 150th anniversary of Chennai City Police, President APJ Abdul Kalam requested the uniformed fraternity to repeat nine oaths after him. Cops obeyed him implicitly till the sixth one. \”We will proceed against all those who err against the law with great diligence and speed,\” was the sixth oath pronounced by the President. The cops seemed to be in some difficulty in repeating after the President. Since the policemen\’s voices were almost a whisper, the President in complete innocence requested them to raise their audibility. \”Why are
Q & A by Cho Ramaswamy
January 22, 2007P Ravichandran, Pattukkottai Question: An opinion poll conducted by Loyola College students has found that the majority of the people interviewed by them advised actor turned politician Vijaykanth to go it alone. Comment. Answer: Those who have given their answers haven\’t expressed any view as to who would benefit from this isolation. Therefore, I am filling that void and commenting that it would help the DMK greatly. P Narayanan, Madurai 18 Question: In the light of the election scene heating up in Uttar Pradesh, what
RamasamyC 