Opinion Reading Ammas mind
Jayalalithaas biography reveals that she doesnt make the same mistake twice
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Penguin had timed the release of a biography of J. Jayalalithaa to coincide with the declaration of election results. Publishers are not psephologists. Nor are Indian biographers the most insightful on public figures. That Jayalalithaa went to the Chennai high court just before it went on vacation,effectively scuttling its publication,probably tells us more about her than what the biography itself could have.
Jayalalithaas public career has been long and chequered and,to put it mildly,an eventful roller-coaster ride. From her unsure beginnings in the film world,she became a star,the most successful of MGRs heroines. In the early 1980s,as a prelude to her investiture in politics,and a Rajya Sabha membership,she projected herself as an intellectual in the print media through columns and serials. In the post-MGR period,physically pushed out of his hearse,Jayalalithaa emerged as a street-fighter,battling for the mantle of MGR,to be the inheritor of his legacy and vote bank.
The tragic assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 on Tamil soil proved a windfall,with the AIADMK-Congress sweeping the elections and leaving only a clutch of seats for the opposition. Jayalalithaa became the youngest ever chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Floral cape,the attire that she chose to appear in in public,barely concealed the many sins of commission and omission. The 1991-96 misrule turned out to be a nightmare that was eclipsed only by the DMK rule that has just now been booted out.
In what can be termed a reverse sweep,in 1996,the DMK alliance swept away the AIADMK-Congress combine,with Jayalalithaa herself losing to a greenhorn. The five years that followed were probably the most difficult,as she battled court cases and imprisonment. Following the appearance of photographs of her bedecked with jewels,she swore to eschew adornments,and only recently is she seen wearing a watch.
The fragmentation of the national polity since 1989 provided much elbow room to regional parties,with national parties at their mercy. Jayalalithaa seized the opportunity to arm-twist the BJP-led NDA government,and Atal Bihari Vajpayee would not easily forget those times. This pushed the DMK to align with the BJP,thus eroding its secular image,effectively making the DMK and the AIADMK the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Tamil Nadu politics.
In the seesaw battle at the hustings,the trajectory of which has again been confirmed,Jayalalithaa won in 2001. Within weeks of this victory came the dramatic midnight arrest of M. Karunanidhi. This overreaching had the paradoxical effect of putting a full stop to vendetta politics. The 10 years since have been quiet on this front. The noises after this victory notwithstanding,this quietude may continue,with Jayalalithaa trusting the CBI and the Supreme Court to pursue the 2G scam cases to its logical end.
Jayalalithaa’s second ministry was in marked contrast to the first. Gone were the ostentation and hubris. Never mind the dismissal of lakhs of striking government employees overnight,and her ill-advised move to push through an anti-conversion law. This was the time that prime-ministerial ambitions flickered in the horizon. The drubbing in the 2004 parliamentary elections defeated in all 39 seats imposed the need for course correction. But the losses continued. The 2006 state elections and the 2009 parliamentary elections were decided more by electoral arithmetic than by a swayed electorate.
What,then,explains this landslide? Unprecedented and brazen corruption. Nepotism. Necessary conditions? Yes. Sufficient? No. Unmindful of reverses and debacles,Jayalalithaa has projected herself as the only alternative to the DMK. Long periods of political hibernation have been punctuated by spikes of spectacular activity. When all the opposition members were evicted from the assembly,Jayalalithaa,in her only appearance in the last assembly,flung the sling at the Goliath. Barely weeks after the massive tamasha of the World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore last year,she organised a mammoth public meeting in the same city. And followed it up with equally impressive meetings in Madurai and Tiruchy. Chills ran down the DMK spine. At Madurai,when she promised liberation from Alagiri,crowds went rapturous. The untapped anger of the electorate at the betrayal of the Sri Lankan Tamils accentuated the groundswell of resentment against the DMK-Congress.
Sensing a winning combination in allying with Vijayakanths DMDK,she contested 160 seats to DMKs 119 thus projecting the AIADMK as the only party which could form a government of its own. In this,she risked letting down the trusted Vaiko. This also effectively made her the sole campaigner,a mantle she donned well,covering every micro region in the state.
What can one expect in the coming five years? District secretaryship and ministerial positions being analogous in the DMK party structure,administration was a casualty. District collectors are a happier lot under Amma. The stranglehold of the DMK family could well be dismantled in various spheres. There has already been a change of guard in the Tamil film producers association. The media is already heaving a sigh of relief. But on larger issues the alarming power situation,illegal sand quarrying one will have to wait and watch.
Ironically,the real opposition will perhaps be from within her own alliance. As the DMK fights a rearguard action,Vijayakanth may overshadow it to become Jayalalithaas rival.
In an exclusive interview to Jaya TV barely hours after the election results,Jayalalithaa called it my victory,but immediately corrected it to our victory. One hopes this is a good augury. At the press conference she further declared that this was not just a mandate against the DMK,but a positive mandate in her favour. The Tamil Nadu electorate is hoping that this would be borne out,if not in the promised year-and-a-half,at least in the next five years.
A.R. Venkatachalapathy is a Chennai-based historian and Tamil writer
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