Divya Chandrababu
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.
Articles by Divya Chandrababu
Sasikala to visit Jayalalithaa memorial to mark AIADMK’s 50th founding day
Before she was sent to the prison in February 2017, Sasikala stopped at Jayalalithaa’s grave, where the mausoleum has come up now, and dramatically thumped her palm to the ground taking a vow
Updated on Oct 10, 2021 05:28 PM IST
TN police challenge IAF’s custody of flight lieutenant accused of rape on campus
Chennai: The Coimbatore city police have said that their department has filed a petition before the district court seeking custody of the flight lieutenant accused of raping his colleague and challenging a lower court’s order that handed him over to the Indian Air Force (IAF)
Published on Oct 09, 2021 12:28 AM IST
TN sero survey shows 70% have antibodies against Covid-19
Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s third survey shows a sero-prevalence of 70% across the state, with the districts of Virudhunagar, Tenkasi and Chennai recording the highest exposure to the coronavirus at 88%, 83% and 82%
Published on Oct 09, 2021 12:25 AM IST
Kavitha paves way for differently abled candidates in Tamil Nadu
Kavitha’s father, V R Thangarasu is also a candidate with a disability contesting from the adjacent ward number 3 in the Tamil Nadu village.
Published on Oct 07, 2021 12:31 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Madras high court asks Tamil Nadu forest dept to capture Nilgiris’ tiger alive
More than 75 forest officials are on the ground to capture the tiger alive without harming him by using tranquillizer darts in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu
Published on Oct 06, 2021 12:40 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Phase 1 of rural local body polls in 9 new Tamil Nadu distts begins today
Though political experts say that the trend indicates that the ruling party has an advantage in local polls, DMK leaders are taking all caution, considering the elections as a referendum for the five-month-old government under chief minister M K Stalin.
Published on Oct 06, 2021 12:38 AM IST
Two-finger test not done on woman officer, claims IAF chief
The woman officer has accused IAF of subjecting her to an illegal two-finger test to confirm rape, of adopting a hostile attitude towards her during the inquiry, and of tampering with the evidence
Updated on Oct 06, 2021 02:56 AM IST
By Rahul Singh and Divya Chandrababu, Hindustan Times, New Delhi/chennai
Mass outreach key in building Stalin as a ‘people’s leader’
Tamil Nadu CM Stalin has also managed to successfully subvert BJP’s criticism that DMK is anti-Hindu by positioning his close aide Sekar Babu as the minister of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments and has partaken in several announcements for the welfare of temples.
Published on Oct 04, 2021 01:04 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Plan to catch Mudhumalai tiger alive even as it evades traps
The tiger has not been declared as a man-eater but as “problematic” and as an animal that has “become very dangerous to human life in the area”
Updated on Oct 03, 2021 05:05 PM IST
Tamil Nadu plans to vaccinate 15mn against Covid in October mega drive: Govt
Tamil Nadu has so far conducted three mega-vaccinations camps on Sundays and a total of 14.2 million people were given Covid vaccines in September
Published on Oct 02, 2021 12:28 AM IST
Run off the road, Ford workers face up to a grim reality
The sense of an impending layoff seems surreal because of what Ford stood for in Tamil Nadu.
Updated on Oct 02, 2021 04:36 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Cop injured in attack on Rajiv gets blood-stained cap back on last day of work
Prateep Philip was 30 years old when as ASP of Kancheepuram district he was part of the police detail for Gandhi who arrived in Sriperumbudur for an election rally to campaign for Congress candidate Maragatham Chandrasekar.
Updated on Oct 02, 2021 04:33 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Revenge killings linked to caste rattle Tamil Nadu again
The latest beheading happened on September 23 borne out of a rivalry that dates back to the early 1990s in Dindigul district near Madurai
Published on Oct 01, 2021 01:49 AM IST
Traumatised by two-finger test after rape, says IAF officer
According to the first information report (FIR) filed by the Tamil Nadu Police on September 20, seen by HT on Wednesday, the woman officer said she was raped on campus at the Air Force Administrative College in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district.
Updated on Sep 30, 2021 12:50 PM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
IAF seeks to take over rape case against officer
The lawyer of the accused Indian Air Force officer has contented that his trial should happen before the air force authorities and local courts and police have no jurisdiction in the matter
Updated on Sep 28, 2021 05:37 PM IST
After four beheadings, Tamil Nadu police arrest 3k in 52 hrs
The Tamil Nadu crackdown, called ‘Storming Operation’, started on Thursday on directions of Tamil Nadu DGP Sylendra Babu, in which 21,592 people with criminal backgrounds were questioned, of whom 3,325 were arrested, and 1,117 weapons seized from them, the police said.
Published on Sep 28, 2021 12:41 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Pole dancing emerges as the latest fitness trend to sweep Chennai
Anusha Swamy, a choreographer for Tamil movies, is at the forefront of the pole dance movement in Chennai.
Published on Sep 27, 2021 12:13 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
18 years after hate crime, 1 gets death; 12 sentenced for life in Tamil Nadu
The hate crime dates back to May of 2003, when a 25-year-old Dalit man, S Murugesan, and D Kannagi (22) – of the locally powerful Vanniyar community – eloped and secretly got married in a sub-registrar’s office in Vriddhachalam, Cuddalore. Fearing for their safety, the couple did not stay together but found refuge separately in their relatives’ houses in the district.
Updated on Sep 25, 2021 01:22 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, workers stand up for the ‘right to sit’
Earlier this month, Tamil Nadu government became the second state in the country to mandate seemingly the most basic of rights, the right to sit, for workers in commercial establishments.
Updated on Sep 24, 2021 04:21 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu and Ramesh Babu, Chennai/kochi
NEET adversely impacts government school students: Tamil Nadu panel report
Much of the reports’ findings cement Tamil Nadu’s arguments against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which the state government feels favours the privileged, and is against social justice.
Published on Sep 21, 2021 12:42 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai
Another former AIADMK minister booked in DA case
Veeramani is the third former AIADMK minister, besides MR Vijayabaskar and SP Velumani, to come under the DVAC net after MK Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government came to power in May this year.
Published on Sep 17, 2021 12:16 AM IST
IT rules rob press of its freedom: HC
The IT Rules, notified in February, contain a host of new directions and liabilities for social media companies (also known as intermediaries), news websites and streaming content providers (also known as OTT services) such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Updated on Sep 17, 2021 04:16 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Ex-AIADMK minister Veermani raided; FIR says his assets 650% more than income
The FIR by Tamil Nadu DVAC said AIADMK leader KC Veeramani was “involved in corrupt activities” and acquired assets disproportionate to his income by 654 per cent between 2016 and 2021
Published on Sep 16, 2021 06:35 PM IST
Crime rate against women lowest in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, Chennai: NCRB data
In Coimbatore, the number of crimes against women was 107 in 2018 which dipped to 85 in 2019 and went up to 97 in 2020 with a charge-sheeting rate of 97.9%, the data shows.
Published on Sep 16, 2021 12:45 AM IST
PMK to contest rural body polls alone, to remain in NDA
On late Tuesday night, PMK chief GK Mani released a statement announcing that they will go alone in the polls to be held on October 6 and October 9. He added that this was being made with approval of PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss and youth wing secretary Anbumani Ramadoss
Published on Sep 16, 2021 12:41 AM IST
Crime rate against women lowest in Coimbatore, Chennai: NCRB data
In Chennai, the crimes against women have been declining -- 761 in 2018; 729 in 2019; and 576 in 2020. In Coimbatore, the number of crimes against women was 107 in 2018 which dipped to 85 in 2019 and went up to 97 in 2020, according to NCRB data
Published on Sep 16, 2021 12:38 AM IST
8.3% dip in crimes against women in 2020: NCRB report
The NCRB, which functions under the Union home ministry, said that a total of 371,503 cases of crime against women were reported across the country last year in comparison to 405,326 in 2019 and 378,236 in 2018.
Updated on Sep 16, 2021 03:32 AM IST
3rd NEET aspirant dies by suicide in 4 days across Tamil Nadu
This is the third suspected suicide of a NEET aspirant in four days, and adds to the dozens of deaths since the common entrance exam for medical courses was first introduced in 2017.
Updated on Sep 16, 2021 04:49 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Hindustan Times, Chennai
The story behind the Tamil Nadu-NEET controversy
The Tamil Nadu assembly, on Monday, passed a bill to scrap NEET and admit students to undergraduate programmes in medicine on the basis of their performance in their Class 12 examinations — a move that the state government said was in the interests of “social justice”
Updated on Sep 15, 2021 10:23 AM IST
I don’t want to fit into the Dravidian political mould, says TN BJP president Annamalai
Annamalai is confident that the BJP will rule Tamil Nadu in a few years, and as a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, he doesn’t want to fit into a mould as a Dravidian politician.
Published on Sep 15, 2021 12:09 AM IST
By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai