When Mr. Prabhu Chawla took over as the Editorial Director
of the Chennai-based ‘The New Indian Express’, taking over charge from rabidly communal
yellow journalist Aditya Sinha, hopes abounded with possible whiff of fresh air
in the daily, terribly contaminated by his predecessor. Before coming to
Chennai, he was editor of language publications in ‘India Today’, leading
weekly news magazine of India Today group. Before holding this post he worked as
Editorial Director of the magazine. During his days with India Today group, he
hosted a famous talk show on Aaj Tak called Seedhi Baat where he interviewed
prominent personalities. Now he hosts a new talk show on ETV ‘Sachi Baat’. He
was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2003. According to his profile in Wikipedia, “He
is one of India’s better-known political journalists, known for his sharp
political analysis and investigative reports. Today he is an authoritative
voice in print.”
It was because of his profile that there was some
expectation that there could be some change for the better in the output of the
daily, that had sunk to the depths of vicious campaign journalism and
incorrigible sycophancy. But as editorial director he seems to have no
influence on the editorial policy of the group and the prevailing contagion was
so strong that it inflicted on him.
Under his weekly column, ‘Power & Politics’ in the TNIE
on April 15, what Mr. Chawla has written under the caption ‘The Arrogance of
Few Leaders Threatens the Democracy of All’ shows that, he suffers from
long-sighted outlook because of the contagion in the atmosphere of assignment .
Following are some of the excerpts from the article.
“Arrogance and intolerance only bring agony, sooner or
later. But new age political leaders see only virtue in hubris…. Mamata
Banerjee is no different. She acquired front page space legitimately, thanks to
her historic victory over the Left Front in West Bengal. Perhaps, it may be her
last achievement as a political leader. For the past few months, Didi has been
in the news for all the wrong reasons. Her government arrests and slaps a
criminal case against an academic for lampooning her. Earlier, she ordered that
no public library or school in West Bengal can buy English newspapers. If that
wasn’t enough, she went to the extent of conducting a roll call during a
meeting of top industrialists and chief executives of many multinational
corporations….. The corporate leaders, not used to such
grilling and earthy persuasion, went back to their homes and offices with the
resolve never to return to Kolkata for such scolding sessions…..
None of the elitist coconuts (brown from outside but white
inside) could ever imagine that one day they would have to sit meekly before
Mamata and listen to her lessons on governance and social conduct… It’s a
tragedy that political leaders are now taking democratic mandate as an
unconditional licence to silence their critics and promote cronyism in their
political outfits. They expect others to
either fall in line or fall by the wayside. They will use any pretence in the
dirty tricks department to destroy, defame and derail those who question their
wily wisdom and baneful brilliance…. Mamata is not the only one. The
membership of the Club of Arrogant Leaders is expanding very fast. Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar, Jammu and Kashmir’s Omar Abdullah, Gujarat’s Narendra
Modi, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati as well as many current
leaders of national parties now expect their partyworkers and the ‘aam aadmi’
to prostrate before them. Nitish’s critics claim that he goes so ballistic on
any criticism that he even withdraws advertisements from newspapers and refuses
plum posts to those who don’t seemingly share his leadership acumen and
qualities. Since most of these leaders have either electorally defeated
national parties or have captured power through devious methods, they are the
ones who show a stronger level of intolerance. No doubt, some of them are
personally clean. But they kill internal democracy and eliminate those who they
feel can pose a threat to their leadership in the future…. The
rise and rise of our egoistic leaders is dangerous for the democratic
functioning of both political parties and the government. The nation still
remembers leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Govind Ballabh Pant, K Kamraj, Indira
Gandhi, EMS Namboodiripad and Atal Bihari Vajpayee who were symbols of
substance and tolerance. Now they have been replaced by the Mamatas, Nitish
Kumars, Mayawatis and Omar Abdullahs for whom political power is an instrument
of authority and autocratic conduct, and not of public service.”
But for the particular names of chief ministers mentioned by
Mr. Chawla, the other contents of his essay on arrogance, intolerance etc., and
their fallout on democracy are undisputable. The only shortcoming in his write-up
is that, while he has seen faraway places, Srinagar in the north, Kolkata in
the east, Ahmedabad in the east and Patna and Allahabad in the upcountry, he
has either failed (highly unlikely) or wantonly refused to see around him in
Chennai.
In arrogance, intolerance, scolding, taking democratic mandate
as an unconditional licence to silence their critics and promote cronyism in
their political outfits, using any pretence in the dirty tricks department to destroy,
defame and derail those who question their wily wisdom and baneful brilliance,
expecting their party workers and the ‘aam aadmi’ to prostrate before them,
capturing power through devious methods, egoism etc., Mamatas, Nitishkumars, Narendra
Modis, Mayawatis and Omar Abdullahs et al will be apprentices, or probationers
or sub-juniors to the veteran in all these traits in Chennai, Jayalalitha!
Jayalalitha is the epitome of arrogance, intolerance, corruption etc., Mr.
Chawla should be aware of Jayalalitha’s inglorious tenures as Chief Minister in
the past and will be having direct experience now. If he is not fully informed
of the notoriety of her regimes in the past, he can seek them from his cousin
editor of the sister publication ‘Dinamani’ to confide him (Chawla) although he
(Dinamani editor) bluffs in his daily.
The record of Jayalalitha’s arrogant, intolerant, notorious,
authoritarian, corrupt, anti-people and anti-democratic regime will run into
volumes. Here is a brief account:
Jayalalitha uses police as a tool to silence her critics and
opponents and take vengeful and reprisal actions on them. She uses the
following:
Intimidation: This is her favorite tool. ADMK Goons would assault
anyone the party leader wants. Their house would be ransacked. The police
officials will be instructed to conveniently turn a blind eye to it.
Protection: In all Goonda Raj systems, with intimidation
comes protection. In the olden days, it used to be payment of money in return
for protection. Today, Police Officials and party members are protected,
promoted and pampered in return for servicing illegal goals.
Foisting false cases: This is a method that Jayalalitha
seems to be perfecting with every passing day. You cannot see any other chief
minister use this so expertly as Jayalalitha does. Lots of people are under the
misunderstanding that the police need evidence to arrest you. WRONG. They don't
need evidence to arrest you, they only need to produce the evidence partially
during bail hearings and completely under Trial hearings. Here is how the law
works against an accused:
The police
don't need evidence to arrest you. This is a huge misunderstanding
that the common man has. The discussion of evidence is done only at the trial
stage which will be many years away.
Arrests are
often done on a Friday week-end. The reason is that the judiciary does not
operate on the weekend and this means that you cannot apply for bail.
Many Higher court rulings have been passed restrictions to stop the Friday
week-end arrest, but the police always find ways to work around the
restrictions.
A warrant is
not needed for cognizable offences like Murder. So the police try
to arrest you only for these kinds of offences.
Magistrates
are supposed to be neutral and they are the first line of counter-balance to
the police. However it never works that way. Remands (that is
detaining an accused) and remand extensions are routine. No discussion of the
evidence and no cross-questioning of the police is ever done. Since it is the
prerogative of the government to transfer magistrates, they rarely act in a
neutral way and are overwhelmingly biased towards the police.
The bail
application can be easily delayed by the prosecution team. Some standard
excuses are that the senior prosecutor is busy with something else, the papers
are not ready, investigation has turned up new evidence etc. Each time a bail
application is delayed, the case is postponed by the courts by 2 or more weeks.
The Police demolish
your reputation by saying whatever they want in courts, in press meetings and
by leaking to the press. They can say anything they want without fear of
consequences such as you have confessed or incriminating documents have been
found in your house or they have proof that other women have confessed to
having a relationship with you etc. Please note here that proof need not be
shown. The mere statement by the police has a devastating effect on the
individual and his family.
They can
invoke Goondas Law if they feel the courts will release you on bail. The law is
written in such a way that it is highly slanted against the accused. You will
have to represent your case by yourself. All of this makes your chance of being
freed remote.
The police
will apply arrest warrants on you on a staggered basis, very slowly, one at a
time. If you are freed on bail in one case, you will be served with an
arrest warrant on the second case. You cannot come out of jail until you get
bail on all your arrests. This is yet another commonly used strategy to prolong
your stay in jail.
They can
call you / your friends / relatives for questioning at any time of the day, at
any police station they want without providing reasons. They can arrest /
threaten to arrest (even under a non-bailable section of the
law) claiming that you have withheld evidence during questioning.
Delay your
case in trial by deliberately increasing the witness list. This requires more
time to cross-question each witness thus prolonging the case and your misery.
The
prosecution could appeal in higher courts any lower court judgement in your
favour thus prolonging your case even further.
The police
can plant evidence and tamper with evidence. They can claim that they the seized
murder weapon along with the accused' fingerprint in your
house. They retrieved wads of money from your house etc etc. It would be the
job of the defence to disprove such claims and you will need to have a top
class law team to be able to do that.
As you can
see, the case will go on for decades. In the meantime, the judge may retire or
be retired or even pass away in which case, the whole case will be tried again
from scratch further prolonging the judgement.
Fighting the
police requires lot of money, time and patience. Each bail application costs
25,000 Rs with 2 sureties. Filing anticipatory bail requires similar amounts of
money. Your travel will become highly restricted. You must present yourself for
every court hearing. If you miss even one hearing, the prosecution could demand
for cancellation of your bail. The bail restrictions will be stifling. You will
be asked to present yourself in front of a police station every week. The
police could insult you, taunt you and treat you like dirt. However, If you
make the mistake of losing your temper, a case of misdemeanour will be slapped
on you.
Violent retaliations: Acid was thrown at the face of
K.K.S.S.R Ramachandran for not toeing her line.
Since Advocate Muthu Vijayan of ‘Voice Consumer Forum' filed
public interest litigations in Chennai High Court against her misdeeds, he was
attacked by auto-bound gangs, causing 27 fractures to him.
Since Advocate Shanmugha Sundaram was preparing the petition
on behalf of the then Alandur Municipal Chairman R S Bharathi against the
purchase of TANSI land by Jayalalitha and Sasikala, auto-bound gangs caused
grievous hurt to him, including 9 punctures in his lungs. Her henchman Adhi
Rajaram was rewarded with Rajya Sabha seat and by public protest, the move was
given up. He is the South Chennai District Secretary now. Since Chief Election
Commissioner T N Seshan, was not abetting her anti-democratic methods in the
poll process, he was refused room in the State Guest House and Taj Coromandel
Hotel was ransacked by her auto-bound hooligans, just because Taj allotted him
room to stay!
As Chief Election Commissioner Seshan visited Chennai
despite her warnings to him, the entire GST Road in front of the Chennai
Airport was blocked by thousands of her party men virtually laying a siege of
the Airport. The Chief Secretary and the DGP refused to clear them from the
Road, even when the Chief Election Commissioner told them to clear! The people
from various parts of the State who were on the way to Chennai could not enter
Chennai for five hours, because of this!! She did not hesitate to put her own
citizens to hardship and miseries, just because T N Seshan was firm in the
performance of his duties!!!
She approved the SPIC divestment, much against the advice of
the then Industries Secretary, Chandralekha. Chandralekha was transferred as
Archives Commissioner. That was not enough. Jayalalitha hired hooligans and
acid was thrown at Chandralekha's face! Surla of Mumbai who was accused,
allegedly died of Aids inside the prison?
Inside the Assembly, Thamaraikani an MLA punched the then
Minister Veerapandi S Arumugham, at the behest of Jayalalitha.
At the inauguration of the Coimbatore New Air terminal, the
then Coimbatore M.P. (Congress-I) C.K.Kuppuswamy in his speech, first addressed
the President of the said function and then only uttered the words ‘Hon'ble
Chief minister Ms Jayalalitha’. She felt ‘humiliated' by this ‘sinful' act
because her name was not mentioned first. So her men attacked the M.P even as
he was returning home from the very same function.
P.Chidambaram was waylaid and attacked by more than six MLAs
of ADMK at Tiruchi as he had opposed Jayalalitha in 1996 elections, as TMC
functionary.
Three Coimbatore Agricultural College girls were burnt to
death inside their bus in Dharmapuri, as fallout of her conviction in the
Pleasant Stay Hotel case.
• She has the
dubious distinction of arresting even the Union Cabinet ministers. Her Police
arrested Kalaignar (then 79 years old) at the dead of night, dragged through
the stair case as he was not walking as fast as the agile Policemen in his own
residence! Justice Ashok Kumar (then Principal Sessions Judge) questioned the
prosecution on the methods of arrest of Kalaignar, Union Ministers Maran and T
R Baalu, he was threatened with death.
The DMK procession to condemn the arrest of Kalaignar was
brutally attacked by organised Goondas, with the full aid and abetment of the
Police, but she meticulously planned a judicial enquiry and cleared all her
misdeeds of any legal allegations. Curiously, none of the Hooligans who caused
death and grievous injury to hundreds of DMK men was ever booked under Goondas
Act!
VN Sudhakaran, her foster son was booked under Narcotics Act
as he went against her with lot of money.
Two Muslim brothers (Jalaluddin and Ziauddin of Silicon
Valley Company, 14 Jagannathan Street, Nungambakkam) were booked under
Narcotics Act as they were friendly with Sudhakaran. Their sister was reported
to be friendly with Sudhakaran.
Sherija Banu of Madurai, reported to be friendly with
Natarajan, was booked under Narcotics Act.
Vaiko was incarcerated for over eighteen months under POTA,
on the charge that he spoke in favour of banned LTTE. Even as the Review
Committee ruled that there was no ground under law that would be attracted by
the said speech, she took every step under her powers to stall his release,
that he ultimately was released only after one and half years.
She misused the Police force fully so that Vaiko would not
be allowed to complete the Pada Yatra that he took peacefully with over 1000
volunteers.
Mayiladuthurai M.P.Mani Shankar Iyer differed with Jayalalitha's
views on Sonia Gandhi at a Government function to commence certain welfare
schemes in Nagapattinam, he was waylaid as he was returning from the function,
by her men led by the Party's Organising Secretary.
Her auditor Rajashekar was attacked severely inside Poes
Garden premises itself because of difference of opinion between them. What
takes the cake is after viciously attacking him, she sends him a bouquet of
flowers and a get-well-soon card. She also releases an ironic statement that is
characteristic of her: " ' 'I am too cultured to indulge in such an
uncivilised act ''!!! That is vintage Jayalalitha. First commit the crime, then
blame it on your opponents, then boast about yourself sky high. This pattern
can be seen repeatedly over and over.
Attempt to use the parliament to arrest the editors of the
"Hindu". The attacks on media and journalists is a big story.
An old couple in Dr. Rangachari road Alwarpet were attacked
by goondas in their house because they refused to sell their house to her.
Gangai Amaran had to sell his Paiyanoor farm house because
Jayalalitha took a fancy to that .
Intimidatory tactics: Since Justice A R Lakshmanan (then
Madras High Court) gave judgments uncomfortable to her Government, she arrested
his Son-in-law Kumar under Narcotics Act.
Since Justice M Srinivasan (Madras High Court) was not
inclined to give judgments as she wanted, his house was attacked by auto-bound
hooligans; electricity and water supply to his house were disconnected.
The Amrutanjan Residence in Nageswara Rao Park Road,
Mylapore was forcibly taken possession by her men.
The Kodai International School was forcibly occupied by her
men, throwing out school children at the dead of night. It was Justice Ashok Kumar
(then District Judge, Dindigul) who restored it to the School by judicial
intervention. For this reason he was transferred to Dharmapuri and
Tiruvannamalai, to cause personal inconvenience to him. He faced physical
threats too.
Acting childishly : Electricity was cut for the KJ hospital
in Poonamalee High Road when the injured advocate shanmughasundaram was taken
for emergency treatment.
When Subramaniam Swamy was interviewed by Rabi Bernard for
"Face To Face" programme at the height of TANSI case and Chandralekha
acid case her government cut off the electricity in Sun TV area for 15 to 20
min.
Union Minister Arunachalam was forced to get down from the
plane in order to make way for Jayalalitha.
Total Disregard for common man : The notorious wedding that
paralysed the City of Chennai for over a week
She dismissed at one stroke, over 1,00,000 striking
Government employees and teachers, their protest was not for any increase in
wages but because their present benefits were cut. She went up to Supreme Court
to prove her powers to so dismiss, got a three member judges panel constituted
and held enquiries for nearly nine months and finally reinstated all but about
9000 employees. After the 2004 parliamentary elections, she reinstated all of
them, What happened to all the judicial exercise that went through even
postponing many other cases pending before various courts and the costs
involved in the three member judicial panel exercise? Does not the State lose
money for the whims and fancies of a CM? Is she above law and justice?
Wild-allegations: As soon as MGR died, she publicly accused
that Janaki Ramachandran administered poison in buttermilk and murdered MGR.
In May 1991, as soon as Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, she
accused that it was the DMK which organised the assassination. She organised,
through her ADMK party, attacks on all DMK offices and party men's residences
so as to create terror in their minds and thereby prevented them to effectively
canvass in the elections and manage the booths. The insinuation she made to her
party cadres at the time of Rajiv's death is very much recorded in the print
media, the statement she released on the occasion (nearly three-fourth of a
page in Dina Thanthi) contained the word "Blood" more than few
hundred times! Her first poll victory was only on this platform and for this
purpose she did not even bother about basic human decency and printed life size
posters of Rajiv Gandhi's body with his entire torso and back fully exposed.
This we state here to show as to what indecent extent she will go to secure
political victory.
In the 1996 assembly elections, as Mooppanar aligned with
DMK, she accused Mooppanar of conspiring with Kalaignar in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination.
In the 2004 parliamentary elections, as Congress(I) formed
an alliance with DMK, she questioned the ‘Pathi Bhakthi' of Sonia Gandhi since
she is hobnobbing with the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi.
On 25 January 1989, she masterminded the ‘war' inside the
Assembly premises. She accused and made the whole world believe, ably supported
by the gullible media, that it was Durai Murugan who pulled her Sari inside the
Assembly premises, whereas in fact it was she who threw the Budget Speech at
the then CM Kalaignar and in the melee that followed, Durai Murugan just
stamped on the Sari that was left to flow on the floor! The entire show was
preplanned.
In the floor of the Assembly, she accused the then Governor
Channa Reddy of misbehaving with her during a meeting in Raj Bhavan.
Wild Claims : During SPIC divestment trial proceedings in
the Court, she denied her own signature in the Government files in approval!
During the wealth case trial proceedings in the Court, she
stated that the Maharaja of Mysore out of love and affection gifted the jewels
to her mother! It is another matter that she declared in the floor of the
Legislative Assembly that she was a Brahmin (Naan Paapaathithaan)!! Ironically
both the platforms were constitutionally honourable ones!
Mandating her party functionaries, cadre, ministers and
people to prostrate before her. Jayalalitha was the one, who introduced this
disgraceful culture in Indian politics. She is such a megalomaniac that she
relishes, revels and feels proud in her ministers and MLAs refer to her with
all reverential epithets in every sentence they speak in the Assembly. It will
be very difficult for civilized and cultured people to sit through in the
House. Her speeches and statements are always dotted with the words ‘I’, ‘me’
and ‘my’.
Now in her third tenure as Chief Minister, how much
Jayalalitha’s arrogance, egoism, vindictiveness etc., had cost the government
exchequer, and people’s distress – are there for Mr. Prabhu Chawla to see and
hear for himself of he takes a drive through Anna Salai in Chennai. The high
rise majestic buildings of New Secretariat /Assembly complex constructed at a
cost of over Rs.1,000 crore and hailed by one and all including internationally
renowned architects and the media as whole, was abandoned to decay by her
immediately on coming to power just because she ridiculed it looking like a
circus tent. It was she who proposed shifting of the Secretariat from Fort St.
George, which she called then as ‘unfit for human habitation.’
The she tried to abandon Samacheer Kalvi scheme for school
students. When challenged in courts she went on appeals after appeals to High
Court and Supreme Court repeatedly and finally the scheme was saved. Still they
adopted mean methods of removing some pages and covering some with stickers.
Newly the government had to spend nearly Rs.100 crore on litigation and around
Rs.200 crore in printing books under old syllabus causing agony and waste of public
money and nearly three months of 1.30 crore students and parents.
Despite strong strictures by the Supreme Court wondering
whether there is rule of law in Tamil Nadu, her regime is stubborn in not
reinstating 13,000 Makkal Nala Paniyalargal.
Jayalalitha wanted to abandon classical language park near
Anna Flyover and attempted to handover the prime area government land to
private party, which was again failed by court order. Now they have abandoned
maintenance of the park.
The attempt to shift Anna Centenary Library, biggest in
Asia, has also been stalled following public outcry and court orders. So far
all the adamant moves of her regime till the latest cancellation of the
government order for shifting the Kolathur constituency legislator’s office of
M.K.Stalin, all the illegal attempts of the ADMK regime were stalled/ cancelled
by courts.
If the first term of Jayalalitha as Chief Minister from
1991-96 was worst, the second term between 2001-06 was very worst and now in
her third term it is proving to be very very very worst in every manner.
Can Mr. Prabhu Chawla
point out any other state government in the history of Independent India
which had faced so much ignominy in courts within one year? Has he ever heard
about such a mockery of democracy and legislature as Tamil Nadu Assembly under
Jaya’s regime? Still sitting in Chennai how did he miss Jayalalitha from the
membership of the club of Arrogant Leaders? Did he miss or willfully omit her
name in tune with ‘the editorial policy’ of his boss in the present assignment?
If Mr. Prabhu Chawla is true to the salt of the description
in his profile as ‘one of India’s better known political journalists, known for
his sharp political analysis and investigative reports and authoritative voice
in print’, he must first look around in Chennai for the prevalence of the most
arrogant and authoritarian, nay dictatorial regime of Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu and dare
to lay bare her arrogance, intolerance, temerity, megalomania etc., - with the
same spirit of boldness with which he wrote on other members of the Club of
Arrogant Leaders.
