(Article published in Indian Express about Jayalalithaa)
In her tumultuous
political career, J Jayalalithaa has always had one constant
quality—steadfastness. Among the prominent women chief ministers and former
chief ministers in the country who came to power riding on their own charisma
such as Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalithaa has a singularity. She is
unburdened by an ideology that is neither casteist nor parochial like her
political sisters. Instead, as she challenges the UPA on the Sri Lankan issue,
which is being transformed into a national debate in Parliament from mere
protest politics in her state, the transformation from the undisputed Joan of
Arc of Tamil Nadu to a national challenger is becoming complete. Amma knows
that successful political strategy depends on timing—and when she opened her
guns on the beleaguered Congress-led Union government on India’s diplomatic
relationship with its southern neighbour and its refusal to internationally
oppose the Sri Lankan government that is widely accused of war crimes, she
reduced her bête noire and UPA ally, the DMK, to a weak and opportunistic
champion of Tamil rights. There is no doubt that in Jayalalithaa’s present
incarnation as chief minister, her political theatre not only goes beyond Fort
St. George, but also encompasses the vistas of national politics where
alliances are being forged and dismantled in preparation for the 2014 General
Elections. Jayalalithaa’s political acumen is apparent in the way she is
consolidating her base in the state where she has come to power the third time
in May 2011. Gone are the blatant signs of sycophancy that typified Tamil Nadu
politics—she has chided partymen for being obsequious on many occasions and
asked them to carry on with administrative and legislative business—and the
motto is simply development. The slew of welfare schemes the AIADMK government
has launched for all sections worth `30,331 crore during the year 2012-13 is
reaffirming her status as a politician committed to development. Whether it is
the Sri Lankan issue, the Cauvery crisis or handling the major power shortage
over which she has been at odds with the Centre, Amma has acquired the mojo of
being the Tamil champion fighting an anti-Tamil Central Government. Meanwhile,
the DMK is perceived as a weak UPA ally that can’t protect the state’s
interests while its house—politically, literally and domestically—is in
disarray.
Jayalalithaa’s next
big moment is the Parliamentary elections. She is working towards the AIADMK
winning all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in 2014. If
this happens, she will become a formidable force in Delhi and will clearly have a strong say in
the next government formation. Her meeting venues in the myriad towns and
cities in the state are already festooned with banners, hailing her as the
‘future prime minister’.
On her part,
Jayalalithaa has always opposed any form of stagnation. Recalling an incident,
former state election commissioner K Malaisamy, who subsequently went on to
become an AIADMK MP, said in an interview to a television channel about a
specific occasion when he found himself stuck, unable to move further, when
Jayalalithaa told him: “Mr Malaisamy, if this can’t be done in this way, it can
be done in some other way. Don’t stagnate. Move further...”
Jayalalithaa-watchers
have always been impressed about her meticulous precision of thought and
action—be it in her film career or later, in public life. Even when writing
down her comments after inaugurating a new institution, she would ensure that
not one word is rewritten.
An uphill legacy:
This obstinacy
against yielding to roadblocks has remade Jayalalithaa’s image as a firm
decision-maker. When she took over the reins at Fort St. George, it was not an
easy road ahead. She inherited a weak economy, a demoralised police force and
rampant lawlessness—especially land grabbing and liquor contracts cornered by
DMK satraps. Her first priority was to put the state economy on track; the next was to tackle the power
shortage—both were legacies left behind by the DMK regime. In her first year as
CM, cyclone Thane devastated the coastal district of Cuddalore. The damage was worse
than during the 2004 tsunami. The Centre refused to help. A source in New Delhi says it was then
that she first realised the need for her party to wield influence at the
Centre.
Subsequently, when
she called for her party cadre, rather early, to gear up for the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections, it took the Centre by surprise. Addressing the party’s general
council meeting on December 30, 2011, Jayalalithaa confidently said the AIADMK
would be part of the next government at the Centre and exhorted the party to
prepare for the Lok Sabha elections right from that day. “We still have the
responsibility of realising many more golden eras in politics. If we complete
them perfectly, we’ll be the deciding force. At that time, without causing any
harm to the sovereignty of the country, we can facilitate an atmosphere wherein
decisions to ensure the rights of Tamil Nadu can be taken without any loss to
the state.”
At odds with Delhi:
The atmosphere in
Tamil Nadu, at least, is vehemently pro-Amma. After a long spell of the DMK
being an ally of both the NDA and UPA for over 14 years, Tamil Nadu has never
had an opposition champion willing to challenge the Central Government.
Ironically, the only time the DMK had turned against the Congress was when its
own ministers had to be jailed or had to resign on corruption charges: the peak
of the freeze came when Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi went to Tihar Jail for
her involvement in the 2G scam. The Maran telephone scandal and his alleged
role in the spectrum scam further damaged the DMK’s image. After coming to power,
Jayalalithaa increased her tempo of taking on the Centre with regard to the
issues emotive to Tamil Nadu. But the manner of defiance she has chosen to
champion Tamil regionalism has been as a national leader, like her stringent
and continuous opposition to the formation of National Centre for Counter
Terrorism (NCTC). Since the AIADMK government assumed charge in May 2011,
Jayalalithaa has written over 80 letters to the prime minister. In 2012 alone,
on many issues, she has written over 50 letters to PM—an average of four
letters per month.
“For all the letters
I write to the prime minister on various issues, I just get a formal
reply—‘received your letter’—from the PMO and nothing more than that,” the
chief minister said, and observed that the Centre kept mum on her demand for
convening the meeting of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee. After the Tamil Nadu
Government moved the Supreme Court on January 17, 2013, to her credit some
volume of water was received from Karnataka.
The carrots and
sticks that the Centre has been offering Tamil Nadu Government in exchange for
support on many bills in the House have boomeranged: its refusal to re-allocate
the power surrendered by the Delhi Government to Tamil Nadu has only made Tamil
voters more hostile. The state had to approach the Supreme Court eventually in
this regard. Jayalalithaa has accused the Centre of taking a ‘negative
approach’ on the Mullaiperiyar issue towards Tamil Nadu. “I will not be cowed
down by the stumbling blocks put forth by the Centre. I have taken a vow to
accomplish the needs of Tamil Nadu overcoming the problems created by the
Centre,” she said.
The important issues
Tamil Nadu has taken up with the prime minister are the Cauvery water dispute,
NCTC, power, fishermen issue, training to Lankan defence personnel, Common
Entrance Test to medical courses and kerosene allocation. But there has been
little response.
Tamil Champion:
The response from
Tamils, however, on Jayalalithaa’s stand on Sri Lanka has boosted her standing
further. Her refusal to host the 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Chennai
in July 2013, if athletes from the island nation were to participate, saw her
appropriating the Tamil cause that was hitherto espoused by fringe groups. “The
participation of Sri Lankan athletes in the 20th Asian Athletics Championships
that were scheduled to be held in Chennai in July would have hurt the
sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu. So, the Tamil Nadu Government, through
its chief secretary, had communicated to the general secretary of the Asian
Athletics Association in Singapore
that Sri Lanka
be barred from taking part in the games,” read her statement.
On the issue,
Jayalalithaa has been unequivocal in demanding status for Lankan Tamils on par
with their Sinhala counterparts. She had moved a resolution in the Assembly
urging the Centre to impose an economic embargo on the island nation, until the
Lankan government ensured equal status to Lankan Tamils and resettled the
internally displaced Tamils. When the Centre attempted to train the Lankan
soldiers at Tambaram and then at Ooty, she asked the Centre to send them back.
She also opposed their training in any other place in India.
Jayalalithaa has strongly condemned the killing of Balachandran, son of late
LTTE chief V Prabhakaran, “as an unpardonable crime”, to strengthen her demand
to impose an economic embargo on Sri Lanka.
The reformer:
While opposing the
Centre tooth and nail on all ‘anti-state policies’ introduced by the UPA, she
has been concentrating on implementing the welfare measures in Tamil Nadu. For
the first time in the history of the state, she had created a separate
department for ensuring foolproof implementation of all her electoral promises.
On February 8, 2013, she announced in the
state Assembly: “I made 177 promises during my campaign for 2011 Assembly
elections. During the past 20 months, 140 promises have been fulfilled while
initial works are on for 21, and 16 are under the consideration of the
government.” Officials say the chief minister diligently monitors the
fulfillment of AIADMK’s poll promises. She convened a conference of the
district collectors and police officers twice. In the first meeting, she rolled
out a mini budget of sorts with 77 announcements at the grassroots level. In
her second meeting, Jayalalithaa made history by announcing an unprecedented
343 ground-level schemes, with the intention of laying a strong foundation to
make Tamil Nadu a model welfare state. And she wants to reap the benefits for
the AIADMK. “There will be no truck with either national parties, the Congress
or the BJP, in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections since both have been
betraying Tamil Nadu on the lifeline issue of the state: the Cauvery water
dispute.” The BJP government in Karnataka has been opposing the Centre’s directions
to release water to Tamil Nadu, creating a hostile situation in the state.
Irrespective of her political and personal equation with Narendra Modi—she was
one of the chief ministers to attend the Gujarat CM’s swearing-in—she knows
that the BJP is a non-entity in her state. The Congress has been decimated long
ago, and it was merely its alliance with the DMK that had given it a few MPs
from Tamil Nadu in the last General Elections.
Jayalalithaa’s reform
measures demonstrate her keen understanding of public issues. Until she came to
power for the third time, people had to approach government offices for various
services. She decided to reverse the process by declaring that the objective of
her government would be to “provide services to the people at their doorstep”.
On May 15, 2012, she announced the introduction of an ‘Online Demonstrative
Services Directory’ on the state government’s website which held all
information regarding the services offered by various departments. The chief
minister has also ordered that information technology should be used in all
departments for all practical purposes. She announced e-governance awards for
government departments. To create awareness on e-governance among the youth,
students and e-governance enthusiasts, a yearly competition for development of
innovative e-governance software was announced for the “Chief Minister’s Award
for Excellence in e-Governance”.
Besides, the
government would also develop a Scheme Monitoring Application Software to help
the officials in monitoring the progress of the schemes. On June 20, 2012, the
chief minister launched the Electronic Project, Administration, Traffic,
Highway Assets and Information Management System (e-Pathai) for the efficient
maintenance of the 62,017 km of roads under the State Highways Department.
Using this, the general public too can access details on infra-projects of the
highways department. To avoid heavy rush for employment exchange registration,
Jayalalithaa ordered that students can register virtually from their schools
within 15 days from the day of issue of marksheets, and get their employment
office registration card and seniority immediately. Around 12 lakh students
were benefited through this initiative in 2011.
The welfare schemes
rolled out by Jayalalithaa has clearly shown that she has laid a firm charter
for her party’s growth in the state that would enable her to climb the national
ladder. Amma has changed the national political equations: it’s no longer AIADMK
vs DMK. It’s now AIADMK vs UPA.
The road ahead:
Her strategy is
paying off. After winning 150 seats of 234 in the 2011 state polls, the AIADMK
swept the local body elections held in May 2011. Of the 20,000 posts, the
ruling party bagged over 9,600 institutions, including 10 corporations, 89
municipalities and 285 town panchayats. In 2006, the AIADMK could not win even
a single municipal corporation poll. Moreover, for the first time in its
electoral history, the party won the mayoral election for the important Chennai
Corporation on October 17, 2011. It also emerged as the party which secured
largest percentage of votes—over 39 per cent.
The wheels of the
Jayalalithaa juggernaut have started to raise dust on the roads of Tamil Nadu.
The political GPS, meanwhile, shows that its ultimate destination is Delhi. With a newly
minted national image as a development-oriented, reformist politician, Amma
stands to be a force to reckon with at the Centre, irrespective of who wins
Indraprastha next year.
Jayalalithaa Vs
Centre
“Perhaps, the Central government, which is in
the grip of the problems posed by the alliance parties almost on a daily basis,
has no time to turn its attention towards issues of people like this The
Central Government which is suffering from policy paralysis is unable to look
at the lifeline issue of the people of Tamil Nadu—the Cauvery water dispute.”
“The deliberate non-issuance of DAS licence to the state government-owned
Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation is only to facilitate the business
interests of a particular family which forms part of the ruling coalition at the Centre. This
vindictive and discriminative act of the Government of India is highly
condemnable and is yet another example of subverting the interest of the common
people and the ruling dispensation’s perpetual pandering to allies to ensure the survival of the
Central Government.”
“Predatory tendencies poaching on the powers
and resources of the states notwithstanding, solutions available with the
Government of India are wilfully withheld. The federal nature of our existence
demands that the Government of India discharge its obligations to the states.”
“For all the letters I write to the Prime
Minister on various issues, I just get a formal reply—‘received your
letter’—from the PMO and nothing more than that.” (Jayalalithaa observed that
the Centre kept mum on her demand for convening the meeting of the Cauvery
Monitoring Committee. After the Tamil Nadu government moved the Supreme Court,
some volume of water could be received from Karnataka, that too after a long
struggle.)
* Opposed the National Commission for Human
Resources for Health (NCHRH) Bill, which has been referred to the Standing
Committee on Health and Family Welfare by the Rajya Sabha. “The NCHRH Bill
usurps the power of the states in the critical area of health human resources
by creating new structures which hit at the very root of federalism,” the chief
minister said in her letter to the Prime Minister.
* Opposed the setting up of National Centre
for Counter Terrorism and wrote many letters to the Prime Minister, and
succeeded in organising a separate session on the issue in New Delhi.
* Opposed the Centre’s move to do away with
Government Railway Police of state governments which serve as the link between
the Railway Protection Force and the district police.
* Attacked the Centre on implementing the
General Sales Tax stating that it would interfere with the fiscal autonomy of
the states. Besides, she dashed letters to all non-Congress chief ministers
asking them to take up the matter with the Centre in a coordinated manner.
* Waged a war against the Centre for keeping
silent on her demand for notifying the final award of the Cauvery Water
Disputes Tribunal given on February 5, 2007. Ultimately, the Centre had to bow
to the order of the Supreme Court and notify the award on February 19, 2013.
* Slammed the Central government for
imparting training to Lankan defence personnel at Tambaram air base and at Wellington, showing scant
regard for the views of her government as well as the sentiments of the people
of Tamil Nadu. She requested the Prime Minister to instruct the defence
ministry to halt the training and arrange to send the personnel back to Lanka
immediately.
* Accused the Centre of penalising the people
of Tamil Nadu for electing the AIADMK to power with regard to the reduction of
allocation of kerosene for the state.
* Took on the Centre for pursuing dual
pricing policy for diesel which severely affected the State Public Transport
Corporations.
A welfare state
20 Kg Free rice scheme
Launched on June 1, 2011
Distribution of 20 kg rice free of
cost to all family card-holders (1.83 crore)
and 35 kg free rice to the
Antyodaya Anna Yojana card-holders (poorest
of the poor) through PDS. As a
special scheme, the state government is
also supplying tur dal, urad dal,
palm oil and fortified atta at subsidised
rates.
Budget: Rs 4,900 crore for 2012-2013
Distribution of laptops to class XI and XII students
Launched on September 15, 2011
Under this scheme, free laptops
are being distributed to all college
students and class XII students of
government and government-
aided institutions.
Budget: Rs 912 crore for 2011-12, targeting 9.07 lakh
students.
For 2012-13, Rs 1,500 crore ; will benefit
7.84 lakh students.
Distribution of Mixer-grinders and Fans to family
card holders
Launched on September 15, 2011
Distribution of fans,
mixer-grinders to 1.83 crore families to improve
the standard of living of
the poor women. During 2012-13, 35 lakh
women would be covered. During
2011-12, 25 lakh households were covered.
Budget: Rs 2,000 crore for 2012-13
Free Distribution of goats/sheep
Launched on September 15, 2011
Four goats/sheep are to be given
free of cost to seven lakh poorest of
poor families over a period of five
years. During 2012-13, four goats/
sheep each will be distributed to another
1.5 lakh poor women.
Budget: Rs 244 crore for 2012-2013
Milch cows scheme
Announced on September 15, 2011
In order to usher in another
‘White Revolution’ in Tamil Nadu,
the government would distribute free
milch cows to 60,000 beneficiaries
over a period of five years.
Budget: Rs 244 crore for 2012-13.
Distribution of four grams gold for Thirumangalya
(Mangalasutra)
Launched on June 6, 2011
Rs 25,000 and 22-kt four grams
gold to be given to needy girls. If the girl
is a degree- or
diploma-holder, she’ll be given Rs 50,000.
Budget: Rs 350 crore for 2012-13
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