It was indeed a prized catch for the English daily ‘Deccan Chronicle’. Their News Bureau Chief R.Bhagwan Singh could succeed in getting an exclusive interview with Jayalalitha, a rare privilege she concedes once in five years in the run-up for elections. Wittingly or unwittingly, the daily had rightly called it as a ‘freewheeling’ interview as the adjective means “free of restraints or rules in organizations, methods or procedures; heedless of consequences, carefree.” Is there are any better way of making a subtle dig at her for her total non-performance as Leader of the Opposition during the past four years and instead sojourning at her estates in Kodanadu in the hills of Nilgiris and Siruthavur near the city, unavailable even to her party functionaries.
There is nothing new in this interview other than the vague, generalized and unsubstantiated charges against the DMK government and Kalaignar that she made at the rallies in Coimbatore and Tiruchy recently. On her party’s prospects in the State Assembly elections next year, Jayalalitha had said, “If the elections are free and fair, it will be a sweep for the ADMK and its allies, but as I say, if the elections are fair.” Refuting the interviewer’s observations ‘people seem to be happy, there are so many welfare measures, freebies….” she had said, “That’s not true. If the elections are free and fair and if the vote is truly a reflection of the people’s will, we will come back to power. But that is a big if.” She seems to be searching for excuses to justify her party’s imminent defeat in the ensuing Assembly elections.
But the people of Tamil Nadu have repeatedly inflicted defeat on Jayalalitha and her allies and she has the ‘unique distinction’ in the 43 years’ political history of Tamil Nadu since 1967 of being defeated in three successive general elections for Parliament and Assembly. Even during the so-called height of popularity of late MGR, the DMK did not face such humiliation and swept Parliament polls in 1980 when MGR’s ADMK secured only two seats. Leaving alone the 11 by-elections since 2006, as not being ‘free and fair’ as she had alleged, the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and Assembly elections in 2006 were conducted under her rule only when also her ADMK faced the worst drubbing. In the 2004 Parliament elections the DMK alliance won with thumping majority in all the 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry. The DMK alliance secured 1,64,83,290 votes as against ADMK alliance’s votes of 1,00,03,813. In the 2006 State Assembly elections the DMK alliance secured 1,61,88,868 as against 1,27,40,124 of ADMK alliances. Neither could Jayalalitha explain these reverses her party suffered in the totally ‘free and fair elections’ conducted under her ‘nonpartisan and upright’ regime. Nor do Bhagwans point this out to her and seek her explanation.
In all the by-elections to the State Assembly held in eleven constituencies since 2006 (of which the ADMK did not contest in five) Jayalalitha’s party was mauled by the electorate. In Madurai Central constituency the DMK secured 50,994 votes and the ADMK just 19,109 closely followed by the new outfit DMDK. In Madurai West constituency the votes polled by the DMK was 60,933 while the ADMK polled 29,818; Tirumangalam DMK – 75,223, ADMK – 28,362; Vandavasi DMK – 78,827, ADMK 40,820; Pennagaram DMK – 77,637, PMK – 41,288 and ADMK – 28,782. ADMK candidate lost deposit.
In the five by-elections from Bargur, Thondamuthur, Ilayangudi, Srivaikuntam and Cumbum constituencies the ADMK did not contest calling the elections are ‘farce’. But her allies the CPM and CPI contested in two seats each and supported an independent candidate from the fifth. Despite their fervent appeals for support, Jayalalitha did not extend her party’s support to their candidates, all of whom lost miserably. But for the subsequent by-elections from Vandavasi and Pennagaram constituencies, she changed her stand and fielded her party’s candidates. The leaders of the CPM and CPI brooked no self-respect and indignity and went out of the way to extend support to the ADMK even without any formal request from her.
Large scale bribing of voters and misuse of official machinery were first resorted to in Tamil Nadu by the ADMK in the five by-elections held during the ADMK regime. The Andipatti by-election was held under extraordinary circumstances to facilitate Jayalalitha assume Chief Minister’s post. The holding of that election itself was mired in controversies with all political parties except the ADMK demanding its postponement and conducting it along with by-elections for Saidapet and Vaniyambadi constituencies, which fell vacant due to the death of those MLAs even prior to the resignation of the sitting ADMK MLA of Andipatti to facilitate Jayalalitha’s election. All sorts of malpractices were employed. Just two days prior to the polling the Election Commission approved certificates issued by VAOs and Postal Savings Bank account pass books as proof of identity of voters besides 16 others already announced. On the polling day VAOs were brought and seated near the booths and were seen issuing certificates to bogus voters. The charge of the opposition that 17,000 bogus votes were included in the voters list got confirmed when Jayalalitha was declared elected polling 78,000 votes against 60,000 votes polled by her party candidate in the general election held a few months back. In Saidapet constituency rowdyism was let loose by the ADMK and large number of thugs from southern districts were brought and deployed. For the first time in the state, booth capturing and bulk casting of votes were resorted to by the ADMK. Money was flowing like perennial river during the by-election for Gummidipoondi and Kancheepuram constituencies. Gold ornaments for women, cricket kits and other sports kits for youths, sarees, dhotis and cash were distributed. Menfolk were issued tokens in the mornings and evenings for getting free liquor bottles from TASMAC shops. With such worst track record during her regime, Jayalalitha has no moral standing to preach about ‘free and fair elections’.
As the media in Tamil Nadu is accustomed to during the last one year, the ‘Deccan Chronicle’, on its part, for the n+1th time had run the headline “Congress ties not ruled out :Jaya” for publishing her interview. Jayalalitha’s shameless yearning to woo the Congress Party for an alliance or at least to wean it away from the DMK alliance in spite of being repeatedly rubbished by Congress leaders at the national and state levels, expose her desperation and political despondency. Her anxious solicitations are systematically buttressed by the media by their perverted reports and columns. She keeps kindling the hopes of her dispirited cadre of ‘an alliance of their liking’ (with the Congress, of course). After all, hope is merely disappointment deferred, as the saying goes. Poor ADMK ranks!
It is understandable that Jayalalitha has a political axe to grind in trying to wean the Congress away from the DMK. But why is it that the so-called neutral newspapers and periodicals (barring one English and Two Tamil dailies and one periodical journal) which puts up a semblance of neutrality and objectivity) so enthusiastic in creating a rift between the Congress and DMK and trying to take the former into the fold of ADMK? These authors of subjective stories are not laymen and know very well that the DMK as the second largest constituent of the UPA government at the Centre, just one seat short of Trinamool Congress, is a time-tested and trusted ally of the Congress, which cannot afford to lose it and opt for the recalcitrant Jayalalitha’s party. The Congress leadership is not so naïve to forget the tortuous experience of the former Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee tottering in the hands of Jayalalitha or to forgive her uncharitable remarks against Tmt. Sonia Gandhi during the 2004 Lok Sabha election campaign. If, in spite of all these objective conditions, these Moguls of Journalism go out of the way to prop up Jayalalitha and cajole the Congress for an alliance with her, it only showed their antipathy for the DMK and Kalaignar and the discomfort of Bhagwans, Aditya Sinhas, Cho Ramaswamys, Srinivasans, Vaidyanathans and likes in having a leader hailing from a Most Backward caste at the helm. While the media in Tamil Nadu by and large is avowedly anti-Kalaignar and profusely pro-Jayalalitha, her accusation that ‘The entire Press is intimidated’ is far from true.
Stating that her speeches (rather, reading out articles prepared by her aides) at Coimbatore and Tiruchi would be the theme of her election campaign, she had repeated ad nauseam the same unsubstantiated charges, for which Kalaignar had given detailed replies point by point, which were also briefly reported in these dailies including the ‘Deccan Chronicle’. But the ‘learned’ journalists, who dissect speeches and affairs of the Congress and DMK and make out perverted observations, do not think it fit to pose sensible questions to Jayalalitha or bring out her fallacies to enlighten their readers.
While giving an eight-column headline as ‘state has reached abysmal depths’ and quoting in bold letters her babbles like ‘There is no governance; Every democratic institution has been subverted; the bureaucracy and police have been totally corrupted; elections are just a sham; there is no freedom of speech.’ ‘The State is facing bankruptcy; Economy is ruined…. there will be no agriculture in another five years’ etc… Will not this daily or for that reason the others which give wide coverage to her statements and ‘speeches’, recall to their memory reports published in the very same dailies earlier, though briefly, of the accolades for the DMK rule by trade and industry besides like CII and FICCI, prestigious US based business daily ‘Wall Street Journal’, Planning Commission Vice Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Reserve Bank Governor S.Venkitaramanan, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Union Ministers, top executives of MNCs et al – on the sound health of economy, industrial developments, social progress, fiscal prudence, excellent infrastructural facilities, public health care, human resources development etc..? They are all very well aware of the excellent progress the State had made during the last four-and-a-half years under the DMK rule and the decline during the 5 years of previous ADMK regime. But still they attempt to cover up the positive performances of the DMK rule and the past misgovernance of the ADMK regime from their readers on the eve of elections, thus serving as unpaid agents of Jayalalitha.
What do she and the media consider as governance, freedom of speech, freedom of Press etc.!
If, canceling all welfare measures, excluding vast majority of families in the state from the supply of PDS rice, cutting most of the benefits enjoyed by government employees and teachers, banning recruitment in government offices and state PSUs, dismissing overnight nearly two lakh government employees and teachers, recruiting teachers on paltry consolidated pays, filing over 100 defamation cases against dailies and periodicals, raiding the office of a leading English daily and the residences of a senior journalist and a woman journalist, arresting the Editor of a periodical under POTA and lodging him in prison, arresting political leaders like Vaiko and Nedumaran under POTA and putting them behind bars for 18 months, demanding 15 percent commission from foreign investors for setting up their units in Tamil Nadu and spurning away those who did not oblige (a Russian firm which wanted to set up desalination plant filed a case in Madras High Court for protesting the demand of commission and foreign firms like Nokia, Adidas etc., went to neighbouring states) and letting loose a reign of terror on all sections of the society – are considered by them as acts of governance, Kalaignar and the DMK cannot be parties to such a design, which in the perception of people then was only ‘misgovernance’, as reflected in their verdict in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Now also the people of the State would only see Jayalalitha’s alibis like ‘The State is facing bankruptcy, Economy is ruined’ etc., only as her ruse to impose anti-people measures in the name of fiscal prudence ‘if only’ she gets elected to power.
With nearly six decades of experience in electoral politics, the people of India have come of age; the so-called anti-incumbency factor is no more operative, if they are satisfied with the performance of the existing rule and do not necessarily opt change for the sake of it. This was evident in the return of the UPA back to power again at the Centre and elsewhere in States like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Delhi and even in Gujarat the ruling parties were returned to power. Jayalalitha’s notoriety, corruption, autocracy etc., need no reminder for the people who experienced 10 years of her misrule and howsoever the media try to project her, the chances of her election back to power – will only remain as a ‘Big If’!
There is nothing new in this interview other than the vague, generalized and unsubstantiated charges against the DMK government and Kalaignar that she made at the rallies in Coimbatore and Tiruchy recently. On her party’s prospects in the State Assembly elections next year, Jayalalitha had said, “If the elections are free and fair, it will be a sweep for the ADMK and its allies, but as I say, if the elections are fair.” Refuting the interviewer’s observations ‘people seem to be happy, there are so many welfare measures, freebies….” she had said, “That’s not true. If the elections are free and fair and if the vote is truly a reflection of the people’s will, we will come back to power. But that is a big if.” She seems to be searching for excuses to justify her party’s imminent defeat in the ensuing Assembly elections.
But the people of Tamil Nadu have repeatedly inflicted defeat on Jayalalitha and her allies and she has the ‘unique distinction’ in the 43 years’ political history of Tamil Nadu since 1967 of being defeated in three successive general elections for Parliament and Assembly. Even during the so-called height of popularity of late MGR, the DMK did not face such humiliation and swept Parliament polls in 1980 when MGR’s ADMK secured only two seats. Leaving alone the 11 by-elections since 2006, as not being ‘free and fair’ as she had alleged, the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and Assembly elections in 2006 were conducted under her rule only when also her ADMK faced the worst drubbing. In the 2004 Parliament elections the DMK alliance won with thumping majority in all the 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry. The DMK alliance secured 1,64,83,290 votes as against ADMK alliance’s votes of 1,00,03,813. In the 2006 State Assembly elections the DMK alliance secured 1,61,88,868 as against 1,27,40,124 of ADMK alliances. Neither could Jayalalitha explain these reverses her party suffered in the totally ‘free and fair elections’ conducted under her ‘nonpartisan and upright’ regime. Nor do Bhagwans point this out to her and seek her explanation.
In all the by-elections to the State Assembly held in eleven constituencies since 2006 (of which the ADMK did not contest in five) Jayalalitha’s party was mauled by the electorate. In Madurai Central constituency the DMK secured 50,994 votes and the ADMK just 19,109 closely followed by the new outfit DMDK. In Madurai West constituency the votes polled by the DMK was 60,933 while the ADMK polled 29,818; Tirumangalam DMK – 75,223, ADMK – 28,362; Vandavasi DMK – 78,827, ADMK 40,820; Pennagaram DMK – 77,637, PMK – 41,288 and ADMK – 28,782. ADMK candidate lost deposit.
In the five by-elections from Bargur, Thondamuthur, Ilayangudi, Srivaikuntam and Cumbum constituencies the ADMK did not contest calling the elections are ‘farce’. But her allies the CPM and CPI contested in two seats each and supported an independent candidate from the fifth. Despite their fervent appeals for support, Jayalalitha did not extend her party’s support to their candidates, all of whom lost miserably. But for the subsequent by-elections from Vandavasi and Pennagaram constituencies, she changed her stand and fielded her party’s candidates. The leaders of the CPM and CPI brooked no self-respect and indignity and went out of the way to extend support to the ADMK even without any formal request from her.
Large scale bribing of voters and misuse of official machinery were first resorted to in Tamil Nadu by the ADMK in the five by-elections held during the ADMK regime. The Andipatti by-election was held under extraordinary circumstances to facilitate Jayalalitha assume Chief Minister’s post. The holding of that election itself was mired in controversies with all political parties except the ADMK demanding its postponement and conducting it along with by-elections for Saidapet and Vaniyambadi constituencies, which fell vacant due to the death of those MLAs even prior to the resignation of the sitting ADMK MLA of Andipatti to facilitate Jayalalitha’s election. All sorts of malpractices were employed. Just two days prior to the polling the Election Commission approved certificates issued by VAOs and Postal Savings Bank account pass books as proof of identity of voters besides 16 others already announced. On the polling day VAOs were brought and seated near the booths and were seen issuing certificates to bogus voters. The charge of the opposition that 17,000 bogus votes were included in the voters list got confirmed when Jayalalitha was declared elected polling 78,000 votes against 60,000 votes polled by her party candidate in the general election held a few months back. In Saidapet constituency rowdyism was let loose by the ADMK and large number of thugs from southern districts were brought and deployed. For the first time in the state, booth capturing and bulk casting of votes were resorted to by the ADMK. Money was flowing like perennial river during the by-election for Gummidipoondi and Kancheepuram constituencies. Gold ornaments for women, cricket kits and other sports kits for youths, sarees, dhotis and cash were distributed. Menfolk were issued tokens in the mornings and evenings for getting free liquor bottles from TASMAC shops. With such worst track record during her regime, Jayalalitha has no moral standing to preach about ‘free and fair elections’.
As the media in Tamil Nadu is accustomed to during the last one year, the ‘Deccan Chronicle’, on its part, for the n+1th time had run the headline “Congress ties not ruled out :Jaya” for publishing her interview. Jayalalitha’s shameless yearning to woo the Congress Party for an alliance or at least to wean it away from the DMK alliance in spite of being repeatedly rubbished by Congress leaders at the national and state levels, expose her desperation and political despondency. Her anxious solicitations are systematically buttressed by the media by their perverted reports and columns. She keeps kindling the hopes of her dispirited cadre of ‘an alliance of their liking’ (with the Congress, of course). After all, hope is merely disappointment deferred, as the saying goes. Poor ADMK ranks!
It is understandable that Jayalalitha has a political axe to grind in trying to wean the Congress away from the DMK. But why is it that the so-called neutral newspapers and periodicals (barring one English and Two Tamil dailies and one periodical journal) which puts up a semblance of neutrality and objectivity) so enthusiastic in creating a rift between the Congress and DMK and trying to take the former into the fold of ADMK? These authors of subjective stories are not laymen and know very well that the DMK as the second largest constituent of the UPA government at the Centre, just one seat short of Trinamool Congress, is a time-tested and trusted ally of the Congress, which cannot afford to lose it and opt for the recalcitrant Jayalalitha’s party. The Congress leadership is not so naïve to forget the tortuous experience of the former Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee tottering in the hands of Jayalalitha or to forgive her uncharitable remarks against Tmt. Sonia Gandhi during the 2004 Lok Sabha election campaign. If, in spite of all these objective conditions, these Moguls of Journalism go out of the way to prop up Jayalalitha and cajole the Congress for an alliance with her, it only showed their antipathy for the DMK and Kalaignar and the discomfort of Bhagwans, Aditya Sinhas, Cho Ramaswamys, Srinivasans, Vaidyanathans and likes in having a leader hailing from a Most Backward caste at the helm. While the media in Tamil Nadu by and large is avowedly anti-Kalaignar and profusely pro-Jayalalitha, her accusation that ‘The entire Press is intimidated’ is far from true.
Stating that her speeches (rather, reading out articles prepared by her aides) at Coimbatore and Tiruchi would be the theme of her election campaign, she had repeated ad nauseam the same unsubstantiated charges, for which Kalaignar had given detailed replies point by point, which were also briefly reported in these dailies including the ‘Deccan Chronicle’. But the ‘learned’ journalists, who dissect speeches and affairs of the Congress and DMK and make out perverted observations, do not think it fit to pose sensible questions to Jayalalitha or bring out her fallacies to enlighten their readers.
While giving an eight-column headline as ‘state has reached abysmal depths’ and quoting in bold letters her babbles like ‘There is no governance; Every democratic institution has been subverted; the bureaucracy and police have been totally corrupted; elections are just a sham; there is no freedom of speech.’ ‘The State is facing bankruptcy; Economy is ruined…. there will be no agriculture in another five years’ etc… Will not this daily or for that reason the others which give wide coverage to her statements and ‘speeches’, recall to their memory reports published in the very same dailies earlier, though briefly, of the accolades for the DMK rule by trade and industry besides like CII and FICCI, prestigious US based business daily ‘Wall Street Journal’, Planning Commission Vice Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Reserve Bank Governor S.Venkitaramanan, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Union Ministers, top executives of MNCs et al – on the sound health of economy, industrial developments, social progress, fiscal prudence, excellent infrastructural facilities, public health care, human resources development etc..? They are all very well aware of the excellent progress the State had made during the last four-and-a-half years under the DMK rule and the decline during the 5 years of previous ADMK regime. But still they attempt to cover up the positive performances of the DMK rule and the past misgovernance of the ADMK regime from their readers on the eve of elections, thus serving as unpaid agents of Jayalalitha.
What do she and the media consider as governance, freedom of speech, freedom of Press etc.!
If, canceling all welfare measures, excluding vast majority of families in the state from the supply of PDS rice, cutting most of the benefits enjoyed by government employees and teachers, banning recruitment in government offices and state PSUs, dismissing overnight nearly two lakh government employees and teachers, recruiting teachers on paltry consolidated pays, filing over 100 defamation cases against dailies and periodicals, raiding the office of a leading English daily and the residences of a senior journalist and a woman journalist, arresting the Editor of a periodical under POTA and lodging him in prison, arresting political leaders like Vaiko and Nedumaran under POTA and putting them behind bars for 18 months, demanding 15 percent commission from foreign investors for setting up their units in Tamil Nadu and spurning away those who did not oblige (a Russian firm which wanted to set up desalination plant filed a case in Madras High Court for protesting the demand of commission and foreign firms like Nokia, Adidas etc., went to neighbouring states) and letting loose a reign of terror on all sections of the society – are considered by them as acts of governance, Kalaignar and the DMK cannot be parties to such a design, which in the perception of people then was only ‘misgovernance’, as reflected in their verdict in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Now also the people of the State would only see Jayalalitha’s alibis like ‘The State is facing bankruptcy, Economy is ruined’ etc., only as her ruse to impose anti-people measures in the name of fiscal prudence ‘if only’ she gets elected to power.
With nearly six decades of experience in electoral politics, the people of India have come of age; the so-called anti-incumbency factor is no more operative, if they are satisfied with the performance of the existing rule and do not necessarily opt change for the sake of it. This was evident in the return of the UPA back to power again at the Centre and elsewhere in States like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Delhi and even in Gujarat the ruling parties were returned to power. Jayalalitha’s notoriety, corruption, autocracy etc., need no reminder for the people who experienced 10 years of her misrule and howsoever the media try to project her, the chances of her election back to power – will only remain as a ‘Big If’!
(17-10-10)
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