Key political parties in Tamil Nadu have severely criticised Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for meeting Jayalalitha at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai on Jan 18. While none of the dailies dared to question the impropriety of an important Union Minister calling on a person convicted and sentenced in a criminal corruption case and remains out on bail, some of them like ‘Dinamani’ did not even publish the statements of parties which had condemned the meeting.
Though there was no official announcement from the BJP but the ADMK was quick to publicise the meet. “It was a courtesy call and Jayalalitha extended a warm welcome to the visiting leader,” ADMK said in the party press release, issued along with a photograph.
Jayalalitha, who was convicted by a Bangalore special court in a disproportionate assets case, was sent to jail on last September 27 and spent 22 days at the Parapana Agrahara prison there. The special court sentenced her to four years of simple imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs. 100 crore. Along with Jayalalitha, her close aide Sasikala and the latter’s relatives V.N Sudhagaran and J Ilavarasi were also sent to jail and were fined Rs.10 crore each. Jayalalitha and others were granted bail by the Supreme Court on October 17 and all of them got released and reached Chennai on October 18. The Supreme Court, while granting bail to all four, had directed the Karnataka High Court to finish off their appeals within five months. Accordingly, a single judge special bench was constituted and Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy is hearing the arguments on a day-to-day basis. Ever since October 18, Jayalalitha has not ventured out of her Poes Garden residence even once. It was exactly on the 90th day of her self-made exile that Jayalalitha gave appointment to Jaitley.
The 40-minute meeting, described by ADMK as a courtesy call, came in the wake of the Centre’s move to drum up support for ordinances, including coal block allocation in a likely Joint Parliamentary session. The ADMK headquarters released the photograph of the meeting to the media, signifying its ‘importance’ to the party and its supremo. Incidentally, Jayalalitha, at least on record, has not met any others including her own party functionaries since her release from prison and return to Chennai on Sep 27 last.
Viewed from the ADMK’s side, Jaitley’s visit was a morale-booster to Jayalalitha, since he was the first Union Minister to meet her since her conviction recently in a disproportional assets case which led to her stepping down from office.
The former Tamil Nadu CM came out of her home to receive Jaitley, who was three hours behind schedule due to fog in Delhi delaying flights. In fact, the Finance Minister had to take an international flight to Chennai as domestic airlines were delayed by four hours.
However, Jaitley avoided questions by reporters on his meeting with Jayalalitha during a CII-organised meet in Chennai on Jan 19 .Several senior BJP leaders, including Union Minister Jaitley , had arrived in the city on Jan 18 to attend a wedding in the family of RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy.
The parties in Tamil Nadu questioned the propriety of the Minister’s action in the backdrop of the on-going hearing into the assets case against her by a special bench of the Karnataka High Court.
While the Jaitley-Jayalalitha meeting was reportedly to seek the ADMK’s cooperation to help pass crucial bills in the Rajya Sabha in the ensuing budget session of Parliament, political leaders here refused to lend credence to it.
The first to react vehemently was as always DMK President Kalaignar (His statement published elsewhere in this issue). DMK Treasurer Thalapathi M.K.Stalin correctly pointed out in his posting on the Facebook that, “For the first time in the history of a democratic nation we have seen the Finance Minister of a country going to the house of a person convicted for corruption. Calling it a disgrace would be understating the issue, is there any integrity left in the Union government headed by the BJP? Is this what they promised to the people of India when they said they will give a clean and corruption free government? What next? Will the entire Central government work towards getting her acquitted in her corruption case in the High Court of Karnataka? These are questions that need answers. The people of Tamil Nadu will not watch this absolute mockery of democracy in silence”.
The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, said Jaitley calling on Jayalalitha has “unmasked the BJP’s true face when it comes to opposing corruption.” The ADMK, on its part, after a resounding Lok Sabha victory with 37 MPs from the State, had now “surrendered” before the BJP regime following her conviction by the trial court in Bengaluru in the assets case, he said. Elangovan alleged that Jayalalitha had `surrendered’ to BJP for personal gains and is betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu. Criticising Jayalalitha for her “politics of opportunism“, he wanted to know the reason behind her supporting BJP in Parliament when she had earlier opposed the party. He alleged that the BJP had been ‘masquerading’ as an anti-graft party and stands exposed now and accused Jaitley of “trampling political ethics” by calling on Jayalalitha.
Pattali Makkal Katchi leader Ramadoss has said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should come out and explain what transpired in the 40-minute meeting he had with the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha.
Dr. Ramadoss told reporters in Salem that there was nothing to blame a meeting between two political leaders but Jayalalitha was convicted in a disproportionate assets case and her appeal was being heard in the High Court of Karnataka.
Jayalalitha had not met any outsiders, including her party men for the past three months. “In such a situation, a Union Minister, ranked three in the Cabinet, meeting her is no ordinary issue,” Dr. Ramadoss said. “Jaitley should have avoided it. Doubts over the meeting are unavoidable. He should explain the objective of the meeting,” Dr. Ramadoss said.
Alleging that the meeting between Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Chief Minister Jayalalitha had taken place to achieve selfish agenda and mutual political benefits, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said Jaitely owed an explanation to the people of the country.
In a statement, he said the meeting should be viewed in the light of her conviction in the disproportionate assets case and no one was able to get bail in such cases as quickly as she was able to get it.
“We should also take into consideration that she was allowed to pay fine in the income tax case after she met Jaitley in Delhi and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad appeared on her behalf in the Supreme Court. People suspect that the two leaders had met to achieve an undisclosed agreement,” he said. Ramakrishnan said the meeting had given room for suspicion that law could be bent to suit mutual benefit. “As the meeting has ulterior motives, it is not acceptable,” he said.
Of late, Jayalalitha and her ‘benami’ Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam had been conspicuous by their silence over anti-people and anti-Tamil Nadu measures of the Modi government like increase in excise duty on petroleum products, ordinances, FDI in insurance sector, privatization of railways, permitting Kerala government to conduct environmental impact assessment study for constructing new dam at Mullaiperiyar dam site etc.,
The unexpected decision Arun Jaitely to call on Jayalalitha has sent shockwaves through the Tamil Nadu BJP unit, some leaders of which want the party to reconsider decision to contest the Srirangam by-poll.
The high-profile meeting between the two leaders, which Jaitely termed as a “courtesy call,” took the Tamil Nadu BJP by surprise at a time when it was gearing to field a candidate in the by-poll. The constituency was of significance as it was vacated by Jayalalitha following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
A senior BJP leader lamented that the BJP Central leadership was now acting like that of the Congress, which hardly ever consulted the Pradesh committees before making important decisions. “None of us were informed that Jaitely would meet the ADMK leader. We have been mounting severe criticism on the ADMK government over the last four months. All that has crashed with this one meeting,” the leader said, requesting anonymity.
A state general secretary of the BJP said the idea of contesting the Srirangam by-poll was to send a strong message to the electorate that the party wanted to be a formidable alternative to the two Dravidian parties. “But now that a senior Union Minister has met Jayalalitha, it has reiterated a notion that the two parties were always friends,” the functionary said, calling the timing of the meeting as most “unfortunate.”
The leader added that not only would it be difficult to face the voters in Srirangam, the party organisation too would be demoralised by this “constant shift in position.”
“On Sunday morning, our national president gave a very positive signal about contesting the by-poll. In the evening, a senior leader goes and meets Jayalalitha. All of us are totally confused. There has to be some clarity on what our position in the State should be,” the leader pointed out.
The growing opinion in the party since that day was that entering the fray in Sririangam should be avoided. Rather, a candidate of one of the allies could be supported. But this line seemed unviable on Jan 20 with the PMK openly declaring that it would neither field a candidate nor would support anyone in the by-poll.
The meeting, as stated in the statement released by the ADMK, was a “courtesy” meeting but party sources said that the Minister discussed about the bills the Union government was to introduce in the next session of the Parliament and that he sought Jayalalitha’s support to get the bills passed in the Rajya Sabha.
The meeting has churned a debate in the political and journalistic circles. Many viewpoints emerge from the discussions.
Foremost is that of propriety. Enticing support in this manner by a senior Minister like Jaitley would have been perfectly fine but for the fact that Jayalalitha is currently a convict, that too in a serious case. She is neither a Chief Minister nor even an MLA. Following conviction, she was disqualified from being both, but despite that she continues to be, by virtue of sheer sycophancy, ADMK’s “Makkal Mudalvar.” (People’s CM)
Jaitley is a representative of the people, a senior Minister in the Union Cabinet, and considered to be a respectable voice in the BJP. He represents the Union government and his meeting a politician convicted in a corruption charge was grossly incorrect, and was in complete violation of the basic principle of morality expected out of people holding high Constitutional offices. And this is precisely what the DMK too has pointed out.
But then some others ask could it be ignored that the two have been friends for long? Should the society ostracize a person convicted of a crime? Jaitley being a friend and having come to Chennai, why should he not call on his friend? But the ‘secrecy’ surrounding the plan of meeting till it took place, kept under wraps even to the State unit of the BJP, speaks more than what meets the eye. Moreover Jaitley had no guts to say that he called on her as his old pal and hence it could not be questioned.
The Election Commission has also announced the by-election to the Srirangam constituency which now remains vacant following her disqualification. Will there be an open or covert understanding between the two parties in the election to fill this vacancy?
There is one more angle to this debate, and that pertains to the media coverage about the issue. Would the media have taken it as a casual “courtesy” meeting had a Minister in the UPA government went to the residences of and met a A. Raja or a Suresh Kalmadi, though they were only accused in cases and trials were still on, unlike in the case of Jayalalitha against whom the charges were proved and convicted and sentenced to imprisonment by a competent court? Once when Pranab Mukherjee, as a Union Minister, had met DMK President Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, when his daughter Kanimozhi, an accused in a case, happened to be there, the media had made it a big issue.
Similarly, in November when Pakistan Prime Minister’s advisor had met Kashmiri separatists in Delhi the BJP made a lot of noise and said that it was a “diplomatic blunder.” Terrorism and corruption is not being equated but both are grave mistakes. The same government cannot react to similar situations differently.
Finally, there is a question about BJP’s hypocrisy. During the general election campaign and after coming to power it kept saying that it will not tolerate corruption. Now, it wants to seek parliamentary support from a person who has been convicted for amassing wealth illegally. Does it not show that the government would go to any extreme extent to have its way through? And for the media, is their freedom selectively applicable?
Though there was no official announcement from the BJP but the ADMK was quick to publicise the meet. “It was a courtesy call and Jayalalitha extended a warm welcome to the visiting leader,” ADMK said in the party press release, issued along with a photograph.
Jayalalitha, who was convicted by a Bangalore special court in a disproportionate assets case, was sent to jail on last September 27 and spent 22 days at the Parapana Agrahara prison there. The special court sentenced her to four years of simple imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs. 100 crore. Along with Jayalalitha, her close aide Sasikala and the latter’s relatives V.N Sudhagaran and J Ilavarasi were also sent to jail and were fined Rs.10 crore each. Jayalalitha and others were granted bail by the Supreme Court on October 17 and all of them got released and reached Chennai on October 18. The Supreme Court, while granting bail to all four, had directed the Karnataka High Court to finish off their appeals within five months. Accordingly, a single judge special bench was constituted and Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy is hearing the arguments on a day-to-day basis. Ever since October 18, Jayalalitha has not ventured out of her Poes Garden residence even once. It was exactly on the 90th day of her self-made exile that Jayalalitha gave appointment to Jaitley.
The 40-minute meeting, described by ADMK as a courtesy call, came in the wake of the Centre’s move to drum up support for ordinances, including coal block allocation in a likely Joint Parliamentary session. The ADMK headquarters released the photograph of the meeting to the media, signifying its ‘importance’ to the party and its supremo. Incidentally, Jayalalitha, at least on record, has not met any others including her own party functionaries since her release from prison and return to Chennai on Sep 27 last.
Viewed from the ADMK’s side, Jaitley’s visit was a morale-booster to Jayalalitha, since he was the first Union Minister to meet her since her conviction recently in a disproportional assets case which led to her stepping down from office.
The former Tamil Nadu CM came out of her home to receive Jaitley, who was three hours behind schedule due to fog in Delhi delaying flights. In fact, the Finance Minister had to take an international flight to Chennai as domestic airlines were delayed by four hours.
However, Jaitley avoided questions by reporters on his meeting with Jayalalitha during a CII-organised meet in Chennai on Jan 19 .Several senior BJP leaders, including Union Minister Jaitley , had arrived in the city on Jan 18 to attend a wedding in the family of RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy.
The parties in Tamil Nadu questioned the propriety of the Minister’s action in the backdrop of the on-going hearing into the assets case against her by a special bench of the Karnataka High Court.
While the Jaitley-Jayalalitha meeting was reportedly to seek the ADMK’s cooperation to help pass crucial bills in the Rajya Sabha in the ensuing budget session of Parliament, political leaders here refused to lend credence to it.
The first to react vehemently was as always DMK President Kalaignar (His statement published elsewhere in this issue). DMK Treasurer Thalapathi M.K.Stalin correctly pointed out in his posting on the Facebook that, “For the first time in the history of a democratic nation we have seen the Finance Minister of a country going to the house of a person convicted for corruption. Calling it a disgrace would be understating the issue, is there any integrity left in the Union government headed by the BJP? Is this what they promised to the people of India when they said they will give a clean and corruption free government? What next? Will the entire Central government work towards getting her acquitted in her corruption case in the High Court of Karnataka? These are questions that need answers. The people of Tamil Nadu will not watch this absolute mockery of democracy in silence”.
The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, said Jaitley calling on Jayalalitha has “unmasked the BJP’s true face when it comes to opposing corruption.” The ADMK, on its part, after a resounding Lok Sabha victory with 37 MPs from the State, had now “surrendered” before the BJP regime following her conviction by the trial court in Bengaluru in the assets case, he said. Elangovan alleged that Jayalalitha had `surrendered’ to BJP for personal gains and is betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu. Criticising Jayalalitha for her “politics of opportunism“, he wanted to know the reason behind her supporting BJP in Parliament when she had earlier opposed the party. He alleged that the BJP had been ‘masquerading’ as an anti-graft party and stands exposed now and accused Jaitley of “trampling political ethics” by calling on Jayalalitha.
Pattali Makkal Katchi leader Ramadoss has said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should come out and explain what transpired in the 40-minute meeting he had with the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha.
Dr. Ramadoss told reporters in Salem that there was nothing to blame a meeting between two political leaders but Jayalalitha was convicted in a disproportionate assets case and her appeal was being heard in the High Court of Karnataka.
Jayalalitha had not met any outsiders, including her party men for the past three months. “In such a situation, a Union Minister, ranked three in the Cabinet, meeting her is no ordinary issue,” Dr. Ramadoss said. “Jaitley should have avoided it. Doubts over the meeting are unavoidable. He should explain the objective of the meeting,” Dr. Ramadoss said.
Alleging that the meeting between Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Chief Minister Jayalalitha had taken place to achieve selfish agenda and mutual political benefits, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said Jaitely owed an explanation to the people of the country.
In a statement, he said the meeting should be viewed in the light of her conviction in the disproportionate assets case and no one was able to get bail in such cases as quickly as she was able to get it.
“We should also take into consideration that she was allowed to pay fine in the income tax case after she met Jaitley in Delhi and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad appeared on her behalf in the Supreme Court. People suspect that the two leaders had met to achieve an undisclosed agreement,” he said. Ramakrishnan said the meeting had given room for suspicion that law could be bent to suit mutual benefit. “As the meeting has ulterior motives, it is not acceptable,” he said.
Of late, Jayalalitha and her ‘benami’ Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam had been conspicuous by their silence over anti-people and anti-Tamil Nadu measures of the Modi government like increase in excise duty on petroleum products, ordinances, FDI in insurance sector, privatization of railways, permitting Kerala government to conduct environmental impact assessment study for constructing new dam at Mullaiperiyar dam site etc.,
The unexpected decision Arun Jaitely to call on Jayalalitha has sent shockwaves through the Tamil Nadu BJP unit, some leaders of which want the party to reconsider decision to contest the Srirangam by-poll.
The high-profile meeting between the two leaders, which Jaitely termed as a “courtesy call,” took the Tamil Nadu BJP by surprise at a time when it was gearing to field a candidate in the by-poll. The constituency was of significance as it was vacated by Jayalalitha following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
A senior BJP leader lamented that the BJP Central leadership was now acting like that of the Congress, which hardly ever consulted the Pradesh committees before making important decisions. “None of us were informed that Jaitely would meet the ADMK leader. We have been mounting severe criticism on the ADMK government over the last four months. All that has crashed with this one meeting,” the leader said, requesting anonymity.
A state general secretary of the BJP said the idea of contesting the Srirangam by-poll was to send a strong message to the electorate that the party wanted to be a formidable alternative to the two Dravidian parties. “But now that a senior Union Minister has met Jayalalitha, it has reiterated a notion that the two parties were always friends,” the functionary said, calling the timing of the meeting as most “unfortunate.”
The leader added that not only would it be difficult to face the voters in Srirangam, the party organisation too would be demoralised by this “constant shift in position.”
“On Sunday morning, our national president gave a very positive signal about contesting the by-poll. In the evening, a senior leader goes and meets Jayalalitha. All of us are totally confused. There has to be some clarity on what our position in the State should be,” the leader pointed out.
The growing opinion in the party since that day was that entering the fray in Sririangam should be avoided. Rather, a candidate of one of the allies could be supported. But this line seemed unviable on Jan 20 with the PMK openly declaring that it would neither field a candidate nor would support anyone in the by-poll.
The meeting, as stated in the statement released by the ADMK, was a “courtesy” meeting but party sources said that the Minister discussed about the bills the Union government was to introduce in the next session of the Parliament and that he sought Jayalalitha’s support to get the bills passed in the Rajya Sabha.
The meeting has churned a debate in the political and journalistic circles. Many viewpoints emerge from the discussions.
Foremost is that of propriety. Enticing support in this manner by a senior Minister like Jaitley would have been perfectly fine but for the fact that Jayalalitha is currently a convict, that too in a serious case. She is neither a Chief Minister nor even an MLA. Following conviction, she was disqualified from being both, but despite that she continues to be, by virtue of sheer sycophancy, ADMK’s “Makkal Mudalvar.” (People’s CM)
Jaitley is a representative of the people, a senior Minister in the Union Cabinet, and considered to be a respectable voice in the BJP. He represents the Union government and his meeting a politician convicted in a corruption charge was grossly incorrect, and was in complete violation of the basic principle of morality expected out of people holding high Constitutional offices. And this is precisely what the DMK too has pointed out.
But then some others ask could it be ignored that the two have been friends for long? Should the society ostracize a person convicted of a crime? Jaitley being a friend and having come to Chennai, why should he not call on his friend? But the ‘secrecy’ surrounding the plan of meeting till it took place, kept under wraps even to the State unit of the BJP, speaks more than what meets the eye. Moreover Jaitley had no guts to say that he called on her as his old pal and hence it could not be questioned.
The Election Commission has also announced the by-election to the Srirangam constituency which now remains vacant following her disqualification. Will there be an open or covert understanding between the two parties in the election to fill this vacancy?
There is one more angle to this debate, and that pertains to the media coverage about the issue. Would the media have taken it as a casual “courtesy” meeting had a Minister in the UPA government went to the residences of and met a A. Raja or a Suresh Kalmadi, though they were only accused in cases and trials were still on, unlike in the case of Jayalalitha against whom the charges were proved and convicted and sentenced to imprisonment by a competent court? Once when Pranab Mukherjee, as a Union Minister, had met DMK President Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, when his daughter Kanimozhi, an accused in a case, happened to be there, the media had made it a big issue.
Similarly, in November when Pakistan Prime Minister’s advisor had met Kashmiri separatists in Delhi the BJP made a lot of noise and said that it was a “diplomatic blunder.” Terrorism and corruption is not being equated but both are grave mistakes. The same government cannot react to similar situations differently.
Finally, there is a question about BJP’s hypocrisy. During the general election campaign and after coming to power it kept saying that it will not tolerate corruption. Now, it wants to seek parliamentary support from a person who has been convicted for amassing wealth illegally. Does it not show that the government would go to any extreme extent to have its way through? And for the media, is their freedom selectively applicable?
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