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
Expelled DMK leader joins BJP in Tamil Nadu
Chennai: Expelled Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader K P Ramalingam joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Chennai on Saturday. “It is a great sign Ramalingam joined today which will not only weaken the DMK but strengthen the BJP’s base,” said BJP’s Tamil Nadu in-charge CT Ravi.
Published on Nov 21, 2020 01:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Day before Amit Shah’s visit, AIADMK holds meet
The timing of the consultative meet of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) with Palaniswami, his deputy O Paneerselvam (OPS), senior ministers, district secretaries and zonal in-charges at the party headquarters holds significance as it comes a day ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Chennai to participate in government programmes and hold internal meetings with the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit.
Updated on Nov 21, 2020 05:10 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
DMK chief’s son, Udhayanidhi Stalin detained while launching poll campaign, released later
DMK on Friday introduced a 75-day long statewide campaign called ‘Stalin’s voice towards a new dawn’ in the run-up to the assembly elections in early 2021 in Tamil Nadu.
Updated on Nov 20, 2020 11:51 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Tamil Nadu: As parties jostle for political mileage on NEET, 7.5% quota takes centre stage
The “sub-quota” will provide undergraduate courses in medicine and dentistry to meritorious poor and marginalised government school students who face multiple disadvantages in clearing NEET
Updated on Nov 20, 2020 02:25 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Top AIADMK leaders to discuss poll strategy before Amit Shah’s Saturday visit
“We will discuss field work like organising booth committees and vote canvassing. We won’t be discussing alliances,” said AIADMK spokesperson and former minister, Vaigaichelvan. Vaigaichelvan had, a few days back, dismissed senior BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan’s suggestion of an alliance government in the state.
Published on Nov 19, 2020 08:20 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Sasikala release may spice up Tamil Nadu polls
The term of Sasikala, who is serving four years in a disproportionate assets case, was anyway expected to end in February, but her lawyer said she could be out even in January. She has paid the Rs 10 crore and ten thousand fine levied on her by the court as part of her punishment.
Updated on Nov 19, 2020 08:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Centre imposes one-month moratorium on TN-based Lakshmi Vilas Bank
However, depositors will be allowed to withdraw more than Rs25,000 to “meet unforeseen expenses”
Published on Nov 18, 2020 02:20 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Looking to make a mark in TN, BJP says Alagiri free to join party
Alagiri has been on the fringes of TN politics after he was expelled from DMK by his father M Karunanidhi
Updated on Nov 17, 2020 06:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
Veteran Tamil publisher S Ramakrishnan dies of Covid-19 in Chennai
Ramakrishnan founded Cre-A, a Tamil publishing house in 1974, which published eminent Tamil writers such as M Ashokamitran, Sundara Ramaswamy, Sa Kandasamy, and translated classics from French, German, Hindi, Bengali, and Kannada into Tamil
Updated on Nov 17, 2020 05:59 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
After Bihar, it is now focus Bengal and Tamil Nadu for the BJP
Preparations are afoot in these states with home minister Amit Shah visiting West Bengal earlier this month and planning a trip to Tamil Nadu on Saturday (November 21) to take stock of the party’s preparedness.
Updated on Nov 17, 2020 07:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata/Chennai | Joydeep Thakur and Divya Chandrababu
Tamil Nadu: BJP’s Vetrivel Yatra divisive, says ally AIADMK
Tamil Nadu will not allow any procession or yatra that seeks to divide people in the name of caste or religion, said a column published in the party’s mouthpiece, Namadhu Amma, on Monday
Updated on Nov 16, 2020 02:13 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Lower air pollution, noise recorded in Chennai on Diwali compared to earlier years
The considerable reduction of pollution level and the noise level are mainly due to public co-operation following the Supreme Court’s guidelines, a statement from TNPCB said, adding awareness amid the Covid-19 pandemic could also be a factor. Studies have shown a link between poor air quality and lowered ability to recover from the coronavirus.
Updated on Nov 16, 2020 08:23 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Madras HC orders removal of Tamil movie teaser from social media, ‘obscene’ ads from TV
The court said that ‘obscene’ content has to be removed from social media sites and television, otherwise it will affect young minds amid a rise in crimes against women and children.
Updated on Nov 14, 2020 12:07 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Chennai triple murder case solved with arrest of 3 persons over 900 km away
Police spotted their vehicle near Solapur and gave it a chase. Though the accused tried to escape, they were eventually caught.
Published on Nov 13, 2020 10:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
TN govt orders inquiry against Anna University’s vice chancellor
VC Surappa said the government should have checked with him before launching an inquiry into the allegations received anonymously.
Updated on Nov 13, 2020 06:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu | Posted by Abhinav Sahay
Celine Gounder, member of Biden’s Covid-19 taskforce runs trust for kids in dad’s TN village
Besides supporting her father’s school, the trust also provides daily meals to an adjacent special school that includes children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Updated on Nov 12, 2020 04:52 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Chennai triple murder: Police question victim’s estranged wife, her brothers
The bodies of Dileep Chand, wife Pushpa Bai and son Shrishith were found dead after their eldest daughter Pinki went to check on them, as they had not responded to her persistent telephone calls.
Updated on Nov 12, 2020 04:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Tamil Nadu university withdraws Arundhati Roy’s book after ABVP complaint
Walking with the Comrades has been removed from the postgraduate English syllabus and replaced with essays from M Krishnan’s My Native Land
Updated on Nov 13, 2020 12:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Chennai’s Metropolitan Transport Corporation MD arrested in connection with fake job racket
MTC director K Ganesan was arrested late on Wednesday on charges of sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
Updated on Nov 12, 2020 10:37 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
TN Health Minister to sue opposition leader Stalin for defamation
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar claimed that DMK leader MK Stalin had made “false remarks” about agriculture minister R Doraikkannu who died on October 21 due to Covid-19.
Published on Nov 11, 2020 01:27 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
My husband’s and son’s deaths should be the last: Selvarani on Thoothukudi custodial deaths trial
Police had picked up Jeyaraj in the evening on June 19 from his mobile phone shop and Bennicks followed him to the Sathankulam police station to seek his father’s release. The father and son were tortured by the policemen through the night
Updated on Nov 12, 2020 01:48 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Former IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil joins Congress in Tamil Nadu
Senthil said that he is joining Congress, which he views as a forerunner of a larger people’s movement in fighting against the “hate politics of BJP” across the country
Updated on Nov 09, 2020 05:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
BJP continues Vetrivel yatra, defies ally AIADMK in TN
Leaders of both parties believe that the tensions in Tamil Nadu between the allies will not impact their ties at the national level.
Updated on Nov 08, 2020 10:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
One-third of Chennai residents wear masks correctly: Survey
The survey teams randomly selected 60 streets across all 15 zones in Chennai and “observed 30 individuals consecutively at each point twice a day in the morning (8-10 am) and evening (4-6 pm)”
Published on Nov 08, 2020 12:30 PM IST
Divya Chandrababu
TN Congress chief opposes release of convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case
Tamil Nadu’s Congress chief K S Alagiri said it is up to the court to decide whether to release the seven prisoners convicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandh.
Published on Nov 08, 2020 12:07 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Ban by states cripple nerve-centre of firecracker industry in Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi
Manufacturers in Sivakasi say that they face a threat of closure. Since the pandemic induced lockdown on March 24, the firecrackers industry brought their shutters down for 55 days.
Updated on Nov 06, 2020 10:14 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu | Edited by Sparshita Saxena
‘Lord Murugan gave permission’: BJP launches vetrival yatra, defies AIADMK
BJP’s national general secretary CT Ravi and former national secretary H Raja, along with the national party’s state unit president L Murugan, are on their way from Chennai to Tiruttani temple in Tiruvallur district.
Published on Nov 06, 2020 02:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
TN preps to avoid 2015-flood like situation as northeast monsoon intensifies
The enhanced rainfall is expected in coastal and south Tamil Nadu from the second week of November until mid- December.
Updated on Nov 06, 2020 01:07 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
Covid-19: Tamil Nadu first state to test 10 million people, all RT PCR
Every morning at 8, Sugitha Munuswamy, 30, a Covid-19 sample collector walks from her home in Kannagi Nagar (a resettlement slum colony in Chennai) to the primary healthcare centre, 15 minutes away.
Updated on Nov 06, 2020 05:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu
TN govt shows rule book to BJP, cites Covid-19 to denies permission for yatra
Opposition parties had demanded that the yatra be banned because it could lead to religious tensions in the state.
Updated on Nov 05, 2020 02:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Chennai | Divya Chandrababu