The anxiety of the ADMK members of the Assembly to
placate their Amma’s ego by suggesting that Jayalalitha will be returned to
power after the ensuing elections and assume charge as Chief Minister, led to
sharp exchanges and their walk out on the last day of the session of the 13th
Assembly. Although the Deputy Leader of the ADMK group O.Panneerselvam and
others took serious objection to Finance Minister Prof. K.Anbazhagan saying,
‘If the former Chief Minister remaining
in complete rest can aspire to become the next Chief Minister, why not active
Kalaignar retain the post?” by pointing out the resolution moved by the ADMK
and approved by the House exempting her attendance owing to her ill-health and
advised ‘complete rest’ by doctors, Jayalalitha herself has been conspicuous by
her silence. Later outside the House, Kalaignar openly charged her of playing a
trick, by using DMK members to get the said resolution passed in the Assembly
only to facilitate her get another adjournment in the Disproportionate Assets
case in the Special Court
in Bengaluru. He even taunted Jayalalitha by accusing her of fear of facing the
case, which is at a crucial point. But
her statement writers, in perennial quest for some crumb to make out a statement,
also did not respond, obviously as directed by her. So either ‘she had been
advised complete rest’ or ‘she misled the Assembly to get another adjournment
in the case’ must be correct. Either way it will spell a doom on her ambition!
The ADMK deputy leader, on that day, went on to
state that she would assume charge as CM at Fort St George, the old premises of
the Assembly and Secretariat. Jayalalitha herself had made a statement like
that earlier. Addressing her party executive council in March last year, she
described the design of the new Assembly building as repulsive and ‘announced’
that her party would form the next government at Fort St George. ‘The building
is being called Karunanidhi’s fort. We don’t need this Assembly building. We
will form out next government at Fort St George.”
Jayalalitha’s statement not only divulge her morbid
antipathy for Kalaignar and everything associated with him, but also unmasks
her imperious and ‘trading’ mentality. Fort St George is a British Fort built
in 1639 by the East India Company, the trading body which came to India in 1600
and later the citadel of power of the British imperialist rulers. It is
reminiscent of alien ruler. Now it is the property of the Central government
which leased it to Tamil Nadu government. Being an alien rule, the British
required a highly protected fort segregated from the people. Kalaignar’s
intention was to build Tamil Nadu government’s own Assembly and Secretariat complex.
Reflecting the spirit of democratic governance, he brought the citadel of power
from the fort to the people at the heart of Chennai city on the busy
thoroughfare Anna Salai. As a symbol of power being brought to the people the Public Plaza
is the biggest of all structures in the complex. Incidentally, on either side of
the new Assembly – Chief Secretariat Complex are situated the statues of
Thanthai Periyar and Arignar Anna.
On the contrary Jayalalitha abhors masses, except
at the time of elections. During her previous five year regime, she hardly went
out of Chennai or met the people. Her enslaved Ministers could neither dare to
meet the people because they had virtually no say in the administration and had
to refer everything to their Amma. So by the very nature of it, Jayalalitha’s
was an alien rule.
By administration, Jayalalitha proved to be as
alien as the British, perhaps even more. Even the British rulers did not think
of such oppressive measures like dismissing from service overnight nearly two
lakh government employees and lodging in jails thousands of them including
women by arresting in the midnight, banning recruitments in government offices,
filing hundreds of defamation cases against journals and journalists, police
raiding the offices of newspapers and residences of journalists using draconian
laws to detain in prisons political opponents and journalists, stopping supply
of rice and other essential commodities under PDS to sizeable sections of the
people by introducing different ration cards, withholding all benefits to
government employees and social welfare schemes to the poor and downtrodden
etc.,
Almost all newspapers and journals, experts,
architects and international bodies had hailed the design and structure of the
complex as an amalgamation of traditional Dravidian architecture and high tech
facilities. Himself an acclaimed artist Kalaignar strained every nerve of his
to make it monumental. People who witness the structure would cursingly laugh
at Jayalalitha’s description of repulsive design. If the complex is not
required for ADMK as mentioned by her, why did she send her MLAs to attend
Assembly sessions in it?
If she avoids this complex because it is built by
Kalaignar, can she come out of her residence and move around Chennai city
because on either side of the main road from her Poes Garden residence are
situated two flyovers constructed during DMK rules. Can she undertake her
election campaign around the state traveling on road because most of the
highways, bypass roads and bridges in Tamil Nadu were laid or constructed
during his rules. During her regimes she avoided Valluvar Kottam for government
function because it was built by Kalaignar. But she used Kalaivanar Arangam
which too was remodeled and built by Kalaignar.
In the run-up to the Assembly elections in a few
months, the electoral scene is almost similar to what existed in 2001. The
parties that have aligned with the ADMK now were also part of the ADMK alliance
then. They promised the people that Jayalalitha would provide a better rule
than the most corrupt and autocratic one during her earlier tenure between 1991
and 1996. But within months after she assumed power, they had to come out of
the alliance and seek pardon from the people – as she turned most oppressive,
fascist and anti-people. Now they are again carrying her to the people in palanquin.
During the last five years, Jayalalitha had been
ridiculing and condemning every social welfare scheme and measure of the DMK
government – from one rupee a kg. rice scheme to Kalaignar Housing Scheme of
free concrete houses, Health Insurance scheme etc., With her track record of
canceling or withholding all schemes introduced by Kalaignar, can the allies of
the ADMK now promise people that she will not cancel the present schemes if she
is elected to power?
But people are very wise.
They say ‘once bitten, twice shy.’ People of Tamil Nadu were twice bitten and
hence they will be four times shy. They will not again buy an alien rule!
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