MDMK leader Vaiko condemns political parties for holding events in the name of gods
The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko said on Sunday it was wrong for political parties to hold conferences in the name of any god.
Speaking to reporters after the party's general council meeting in Erode, he said, 'Using the name of any god for a party conference is inappropriate, irrespective of which deity it is.'
Referring to the Lord Muruga devotees conference held in Madurai on Sunday, he alleged the BJP, RSS, and Hindutva forces were behind the event. 'This will not help consolidate the Hindu vote bank in Tamil Nadu,' he felt.
At the general council meeting, which saw the participation of around 1,800 members from across Tamil Nadu, the party adopted 28 resolutions, including one that called for the MDMK to contest in a higher number of seats in the alliance [headed by DMK] in the 2026 Assembly elections to secure Election Commission 'recognition' as a political party.
Another resolution emphasised the need to counter what it described as ongoing efforts by the Union government to undermine Tamil language and identity. The council also demanded the withdrawal of a circular that mandates the disbursal of cooperative loans based on CIBIL score.
Mr. Vaiko said the MDMK joined the DMK alliance in 2017 to protect the ideals of the Dravidian movement, which he said were under threat from attempts to impose Hindi and to alienate religious minorities. 'We are part of the alliance not out of convenience, but to uphold ideological goals,' he said. The MDMK would work to ensure the alliance's victory in future elections.
Responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent comment that a day would come when those speaking in English in India would be made to feel ashamed of it, Mr Vaiko said, 'He is an expert in making shameful comments.'
Dismissing speculation about discussions with the BJP, he clarified that the MDMK had not held any talks and would not do so. He criticised BJP leaders Tamilisai Soundararajan and Nainar Nagendran for making baseless and irresponsible statements.
He said the DMK-led alliance remained strong and would comfortably win future elections. While the DMK had fulfilled many of its promises despite financial constraints, the Union government had withheld funds and Governor R.N. Ravi had blocked key Bills, acting as an agent of the BJP, he alleged.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
24 minutes ago
- Indian Express
AAP retains Ludhiana West against odds, a Rajya Sabha seat for Arvind Kejriwal may be next
In a significant boost for the embattled Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, the party's Sanjeev Arora won the bitter Ludhiana West bypoll Monday by a decent margin of over 10,637 votes. Arora, a prominent industrialist, who is a sitting Rajya Sabha MP of the AAP, defeated the Congress's Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a former minister and two-time MLA. It was the second consecutive defeat for Ashu from Ludhiana West, an urban constituency dominated by Hindu voters. The Akali Dal's slide continues, with the party finishing even behind the BJP to end up fourth. In the 2022 Assembly elections, the AAP's Gurpreet Bassi Gogi had won from Ludhiana West, defeating Ashu. The bypoll was necessitated due to Gogi's death. The speculation all through the campaign was that if Arora won, the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by him would be filled by AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal. Even if that does not happen, the Ludhiana West victory will come as a breather for the party that lost power to the BJP in Delhi, with even Kejriwal losing his seat, and whose Punjab government has been beset with problems. The takeaways from Monday's result: The Ludhiana West bypoll, coming soon after the AAP defeat in Delhi for the first time since its formation, was seen as a test of if the party could bounce back. Leaving nothing to chance, the AAP was the first to declare Arora as its candidate – doing so in February itself, long before the elections were even announced – and deployed an array of star leaders to campaign. In a major action, a protest by farmers on the Shambhu and Khanauri borders of Punjab, blocking highways for months and inconveniencing movement, was removed overnight, as the business community and industrialists, including from Ludhiana, complained to the AAP government over their mounting losses. During the campaign, Kejriwal made tall promises for Ludhiana and told voters to pick 'the humble and hardworking' Arora, not 'the angry and arrogant' Ashu, and to go with the ruling party in the state. If Arora won, Kejriwal said, he would be made a minister and 'get several projects to Ludhiana'. A defeat in Ludhiana West would have emboldened the Opposition, which has been accusing the AAP Delhi leadership of holding the reins of the Punjab government, including in appointments to government postings, of indulging in 'VVIP culture', and of failure to tackle the drug menace and meet pre-poll promises such as its cash scheme for women. One barb the AAP would have found it difficult to dodge was how it had 'used' Arora, just to get Kejriwal to Parliament. A two-time MLA from Ludhiana West (2012, 2017), Ashu hoped to make a comeback in the bypoll after his defeat to the AAP's Gogi in 2022. A victory would have also been a nice payback for the AAP government imprisoning him for nearly a year in an alleged corruption case. However, again, the Congress's campaign remained fragmented. The faction led by party Punjab chief and Ludhiana Lok Sabha MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and, including Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, stayed away from Ashu's campaign. The faction led by former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, and senior MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh and Pargat Singh threw its weight behind him. The AAP repeatedly raised the fact that Ashu and Warring were not on talking terms with each other. The BJP could not repeat its performance from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when it had led other parties in the Ludhiana West Assembly segment. However, BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta, whose candidature was announced at the fag end of nomination filing, managed a decent share of 22% votes. That is a contrast to its former ally SAD, whose existential crisis continues. The party's Ludhiana West candidate, Advocate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, got just 9% of the votes, even though SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal camped in Ludhiana for days and headed the party's campaign in the bypolls. The ruling AAP faced massive allegations of distributing cash, freebies, ration etc to the voters during the bypoll, and several complaints were filed against it by the Opposition parties. The party also faced allegations of brazenly using administrative power and machinery in its campaigning. After the results were declared, CM Mann said: 'This victory shows that the people of Punjab are extremely happy with the working of our government. We are working day and night for the progress and development of Punjab. We will fulfill every promise made during the bypoll.' Ashu said he took 'the entire responsibility for this defeat'. 'I believe that the entire Congress was always with me. I will wholeheartedly support Arora whenever he needs me for Ludhiana's development. I congratulate him for the win.'
Mint
30 minutes ago
- Mint
Sun TV's real worries go beyond the family feud—its business woes run deep
Investors of Sun TV Network Ltd got spooked last week when news of a family feud surfaced. Dayanidhi Maran, a former member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party, in a 10 June legal notice accused his brother Kalanithi Maran, chairman of Sun Group, of fraudulently acquiring control of Sun TV. Since then, the Sun TV stock has corrected by more than 3%. Is this a personal matter that will resolve itself in due time, or should investors be worried? Family feud ranks low in Sun TV's list of worries The issue raised by Dayanidhi Maran dates back more than two decades. According to his legal notice, Kalanithi Maran allegedly acquired a controlling stake in Sun TV following their father Murasoli Maran's demise in 2003. He had no stake in the media company prior to that. Dayanidhi has accused Kalanithi of abusing the family's emotional state at the time to transfer Sun TV shares to his name at sharply discounted prices. He has called for the company's shareholding to be reverted to its earlier state. That would cut Kalanithi's estimated ₹18,000 crore (about $2 billion) stake in Sun TV to zero and shift the company's control to Dayanidhi and their cousin M.K. Stalin (Tamil Nadu's chief minister) as well as their siblings. The politically charged family feud caught investors off guard when news reports surfaced on Thursday evening, 20 June. The stock, however, recovered from its intraday low on Friday after Sun TV's management assured investors that the family feud was not expected to have any bearing on the business. But in the larger scheme of things, the media business has bigger worries to grapple with. Since Sun TV's listing in 2006, the midcap stock has appreciated at a compound annual growth rate of just 3.3%, while the broader index delivered a 13.8% annualized return in that period. Also read | Mint Explainer: How Kalanithi Maran spent ₹37 crore to take control of Sun TV A legacy in trouble Sun TV is one of India's largest media conglomerates. With 37 TV channels in seven languages, DTH (direct-to-home) service, 69 FM radio stations, six magazines, and three daily newspapers, the company's reach extends to more than 140 million households in India, particularly in southern states. More than 80% of Sun TV's business comes from ad revenues and domestic subscriptions. The remaining is attributed to its cricket franchises. The company owns the Indian Premium League's Sunrisers Hyderabad cricket team as well as Sunrisers Eastern Cape, a team in South Africa's T20 cricket league. Between 2005-06 and 2018-19 (FY 2006-19), Sun TV expanded its revenues and profits at a robust CAGR of 20%. But in recent years, Sun TV has struggled to keep up with competition. Industry consolidation has made matters worse. Sun TV attempted to expand in north India by operating a Hindi channel through DD Free Dish, but met with lukewarm response. Meanwhile, north-focused media channels such as Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd found better acceptance in south India. Sun TV is also falling behind because of the growing popularity of video streaming platforms or OTT (over-the-top) platforms. Unlike other media houses that focused on securing exclusive OTT rights and creating originals, Sun TV has been rerouting traditional movies and satellite and cable TV serials towards its OTT platform, Sun NXT. The company's DTH offering, Sun Direct, has also seen growth stall in a challenging operating environment. As a result, Sun TV has been reporting stagnant revenues and profits for more than half a decade. Between FY19 and FY25, its standalone revenues have grown at a CAGR of just about 1%, while profits have expanded by less than 3% annually. The company's cricket franchises have been performing better than its media business. But for the cricket business to scale to its full potential, and for investor value to be unlocked, the franchises would need to be demerged into a separate listed entity. Making matters worse, a shift in advertisement spending towards sports channels and news coverage of the 2024 national election affected Sun TV's ad revenue in FY25. While the company's domestic subscription revenue increased slightly from ₹1,710 crore in FY24 to ₹1,725 crore in FY25, it fell short of expectations as price hikes played out slower than anticipated. Its cricket franchise income also dropped, from ₹659 crore in FY24 to ₹642 crore in FY25. Meanwhile, costs continued to increase as the company tried to keep up with competition. The result: a 6% decline in FY25 revenue to ₹4,015 crore and a sharper 11.5% drop in profit to ₹1,704 crore. Technical analysis The Sun TV stock managed to largely keep pace with the midcap index until 2018. But when its fundamentals started disappointing, the counter started going downhill. From an all-time high of more than ₹1,000 per share in early 2018, the stock crashed to ₹266 by 2020. The lower highs and lower lows formed along the way held up as critical levels in subsequent years. The latest bout of corrections in the stock came after it hit a 52-week high of ₹921 in August 2024. On breaching the ₹777 level, in an echo of the fall seen in 2018 the counter saw a monotonic fall down to around ₹580. This is also the level where the stock found support following the family feud news last week. If the stock manages to sustain above ₹580 apiece, it is expected to face resistance at the previous high of ₹650. But a sustained breach below ₹580 can keep the counter rangebound between ₹400 and ₹580 per share. Silver linings Over the years, Sun TV's revenues and profits have grown at a CAGR of around 14%. Its stock, however, has lagged behind. Consequently, the counter is available at attractive valuations. Following the 20% correction seen over the past year, Sun TV's valuation has moderated further. The stock is now trading at barely 14 times its trailing-12-month earnings. Over the near term, Sun TV's ad revenues can be expected to improve on a low base, particularly as consumer goods companies ramp up advertising. Its cricketing franchises can also support growth going forward. Factoring in a recovery in growth and a multiple of 18x, Sun TV's target price has been pegged at ₹865 apiece. This reflects more than a 40% upside from current levels. But any negative surprises on the company's fundamentals can extend the negative sentiment around the counter. When diversification backfires: Four Indian companies walking a fine line Why some Indian companies are paying dividends despite posting losses JM Financial stock rebounds 60% from its low. Will the clean-up rally sustain? Ananya Roy is the founder of Credibull Capital, a Sebi-registered investment adviser. X: @ananyaroycfa Disclosure: The author does not hold shares of the companies discussed. The views expressed are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Time of India
33 minutes ago
- Time of India
"Why are you wasting time on a quack?": Pawan Khera hits out at Nishikant Dubey for questioning Indira Gandhi over Shimla Agreement
Congress leader Pawan Khera on Monday slammed BJP MP Nishikant Dubey , who questioned former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi over the Shimla agreement . Pawan Khera called Nishikant Dubey a "quack" and urged the media not to pay attention to him. Taking a dig at Nishikant Dubey, the Congress leader said that he is not even a student from " WhatsApp University " but of "WhatsApp Nursery". Khera further asked Dubey to go to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and discontinue the Shimla Agreement. "Why are you (the media) wasting time on a quack? These are not even students of WhatsApp University but of WhatsApp nursery. Ask him to go to the PMO and tell them to discontinue the Simla Agreement. Why is he wasting time?", Pawan Khera told ANI. Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey targeted former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, alleging that she signed the Shimla Agreement between India and Pakistan under the pressure of the United States. Sharing a document of a Rajya Sabha debate on 'X', Nishikant Dubey questioned why Indian governed 5000 square mile territory was given to Pakistan by India's "iron lady".The BJP MP further queried why 57 Indian soldiers killed in Pakistan's jail dispute were returning the 93000 Pakistsoldiers, who had surrendered after the 1971 war. Live Events Nishikant Dubey mentioned that former Defence Minister Mahavir Tyagi had raised these questions, but former Indian PM Indira Gandhi left them unanswered. Earlier on Sunday, Nishikant Dubey slammed Rahul Gandhi , questioning the motives of the Congress leader to encourage learning English rather than local languages while also alluding to the "hypocrisy" of opposing the National Education Police (NEP) 2020 for language choice, stating that the 1986 NEP had similar goals. "Rahul Gandhi ji, your investigative advisor is hell bent on destroying you. This is the education policy of 1986 given by your father to the country. in this, your father is promising the country to promote Hindi, teach the Sanskrit language and translate English into regional languages. This same education policy is almost in place now. Students should also grow with regional languages, changes in this have been made by Prime Minister Modi ji in 2020," Dubey said in a post on X in Hindi.
