Setting negative model!

One of the many ‘reverential’ accolades the ADMK minions heap on their ‘Amma’ is that she is setting a model for the rest of India in each and everything conceivable for them. They and the media too were enthusiastically showcasing delegations from some other States and said to be even from Egypt visiting the subsidised food outlets opened here and there and hailing the measure. But they were conspicuous in not publicising and showcasing another visit of a delegation of Odisha government officials to TASMAC retail liquor shops and attached bars to find out the ‘successful’ functioning of them.
At present, through 6,823 TASMAC retail liquor shops the government itself is selling various brands of liquor netting Rs.21,641crore last year and with the hike in excise duty on liquor the government expects to earn Rs 3,000 more this year.
At this juncture, the team of higher level government officers from Odisha visited some of the liquor shops and attached bars in Chennai on Aug 21 to find out in person how the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation is operating retail liquor shops, how they procure liquor varieties, how they distribute to these shops, working timings of the shops, what are all the brands and varieties sold, the facilities provided in the bars etc., They were reported to have spoken to ‘customers’ about the facilities they get and then visited TASMAC headquarters for discussions with the Managing Director and higher officials.
Can Jayalalitha and her cohorts boast about this model she has set for other States to emulate? Incidentally, when a Congress member in the State Assembly asked the regime to introduce prohibition in Tamil Nadu, the ADMK Minister to advise the Congress Chief Ministers of the neighbouring States to introduce prohibition first. Now the Congress government in Kerala has decided to introduce prohibition in stages and in the first stage decided to shut down 730 two, three, and four-star bars, go in for more ‘dry’ days, and bring down the retail outlets of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco) by 10 per cent every year.  The first year loss of revenue would be Rs.9,000 crore, it is estimated. What will the response of the Jayalalitha regime, which makes tall claims about supplying idlis for one rupee a piece to few thousand people even as it swindles thousands of crore rupees from millions of people?
Now Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has declared that he would emulate his Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha and hereafter would not meet the media. This is another negative example set by her. Immediately after assuming office in May 2011, Jayalalitha addressed a Press Meet at the secretariat and told them that she would regularly meet them every week and they need not wait at the entrance of her residence or the secretariat. But thereafter the assurance was thrown to winds and she met the media only on the occasion of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the controversy over the film ‘Viswaroopam’, and for claiming credit for the notification of the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal in the Central gazette. But, never minding the insult, the media in Tamil Nadu go out of the way in pampering the anti-democratic regime of her and singing paeans for her. Probably, Siddaramaiah wanted to neutralise the media following her way!