Shobha Warrier has been associated with Rediff from its inception and currently works as Senior Editorial Director. She is also the author of five books in English, Battlefield India: 25 years of Politricks and Economix, Dreamchasers: Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas, Dreamchaers: Women Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas, His Days with Bapu, and The Little Flower girl and Others- A diary of a journalist. Her three Malayalam short story collections include Jalavidya, Meghana and Ramakundam. She won the Lalitambika Antharjanam special award in 1996 for her book, Jalavidya. She likes talking to people and listening to their stories! You can e-mail the author at shobhaw@rediff.co.in
'You will have the President's rule for 7 to 8 months, And Annamalai will be the hero in those 7 months.'
'You empower a man, you are not necessarily empowering a family, you are just empowering him.'
'It will take a long time to recover from the impact of this war.'
'The generational shift belongs to Vijay, Udhayanidhi and Annamalai.' 'The BJP cannot fit into the shift.' 'So they threw Annamalai into the situation where he is comparable with Vijay and Udhayanidhi.'
'Once the numbers come out, they fear that the OBCs would start to demand, and articulate what they are lacking, why they are lacking and what should be done to go forward.'
'In the (election) affidavit, he had declared Rs 1,400 crores as his assets. He has educational institutions, real estate, malls, etc.'
'It all depends on how Shivakumar uses him and treats him.'
'You have seen the retrenchments by big corporates in the IT industry because they are not getting enough offers.' 'MSMEs in the manufacturing sector are really struggling. They do not know what to do. They are not able to predict what will happen tomorrow.'
'Unfortunately, today most ministers are busy with either election duty or praising duty. They are not interested in serving duty.' 'Ministers have become relaxed like retired people still holding onto jobs.' 'Look at how the NEET paper leaked. But there is no accountability.' 'After 12 years, they have become saturated. They are short of ideas.'
'We should expect extreme heat, extreme rains, floods, landslides and maybe cyclones. Not just this year, in the coming year as well.'
'The most enduring part of Satheesan's personality is he is good at heart. That is the reason why everybody, from the old to small children, get attracted to him.'
'On the day of the results itself, Vijay personally requested Rahul Gandhi for support from the Congress.'
'If Congress had aligned with the TVK before the election, we would have won almost a two-thirds majority.'
'Look at the way SIR that was implemented in Bengal. They wanted to entirely curate the voter list in order to suit their purposes and victory.' 'Look at the targeted deletions and the targeted voting list.' 'The difference between the TMC and the BJP was only about 4% but that 4% vote was done so selectively that the difference ultimately showed up as 100 seats!'
'98 lakhs in Bengal, 97 lakhs in Tamil Nadu, 2.83 crores in Uttar Pradesh.'
'Unfortunately the treasury is empty, in zero. So we have to first make money for the development activities of the state, and also to continue the welfare measures.'
'...the enormous responsibility and faith the youth has put on his shoulders, that he is going to solve their problems.'
'Among the leaders whose names are going around, V D Satheesan is the leader who will fit this kind of situation.'
'If you read the TVK manifesto, it is doles and much more doles. But the state has been habituated to this.' 'In no way is he distinct or different from the DMK regime.'
'They will have to adjust themselves to the new reality. Because if they don't understand this changed political perception, their future will be difficult.'
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