Jayalalithaa’s First Term - a recap
One need not be well versed with Indian politics to know Jayalalithaa Jayaram. The mercurial actress-turned-politician is a very well known figure all through India and sometimes to the surprise of her opponents finds a mention in the International media.
Jayalalithaa (the last letter was added to her name only about few years back) was a political novice until about 1982, when she was brought into active politics by her mentor and yesteryear Chief Minister of TN, M.G.Ramachandran. Thanks to her attractive personality, she drew crowds in public meetings that also turned into votes in the polling stations, which soon saw her nominated to the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. When M.G.Ramachandran passed away in late 1987, the party he headed AIADMK split into two - one of which was headed by Jayalalithaa, who later patched up with the leader of the other division & the widow of her mentor, Janaki Ramachandran.
Though the spotlight was clearly on her ever since the death of M.G.Ramachandran, Jaya's moment of fame came in 1991 when she became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on a brutal majority riding on the sympathy wave due to the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi. Her initial few days in office were a talking point for the people of Tamil Nadu. The promptness with which she turned up to the office, her fluency in many languages including English, the free hand she gave the police to contain the LTTE menace, the confident stride with which she asserted the state's cause in National Integration Council meetings won her quite a lot of admirers. She was the state's most educated Chief Minister after C.N.Annadurai in mid-1960s.
As months passed, Jayalalithaa's tenure became something that people of Tamil Nadu best wanted to forget. While she kept a tight control over her party men, who including her Ministers often prostrated before her in public without any shame, she could barely control the goonda raj, let loose by her friend Sasikala's family, more popularly known as 'Mannargudi family', Mannargudi being the town from where the family hailed. Law & order deteriorated that at one point of time, unable to stomach the criticisms, she held the then Union Home Minister S.B.Chavan for organising highway robberies in Tamil Nadu. She didn’t even spare the then Governor Channa Reddy of behaving improperly with her at the Raj Bhavan. That both these statements were made at the State Assembly makes it more interesting. Though her stand against LTTE was tough & consistent, the fact that as many as 50 LTTE terrorists escaped from the prison between 1993 & 1996 didn’t augur well.
If law & order was a point of concern, the way the then Speaker of the TN assembly, Sedapatti R. Muthiah conducted the legislative assembly would even put to shame, the current Governor of Jharkand. As for the common man, he would have to put up with the rudeness of persons, starting from the milk booth guy. If half the state’s prime real estate were rounded up by Jayalalithaa & Sasikala, the press which exposed them were attacked mercilessly with the killing of two staff of the Tamil weekly ‘Tharasu’, being the prime example of the state of affairs. Violence wasn’t just confined to lesser mortals. Even the popular Chief Election Commissioner T.N.Seshan was targeted, though he had moved away from the hotel when the attack was launched. However, the current Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram was not so lucky. His car was attacked near Trichy (he was a Union Minister then in the P.V.Narasimha Rao government) and he escaped with bruises. But the seriousness of the situation would be best understood, if one were to see the acid washed face of IAS officer Chandralekha.
Not that Jayalalithaa’s tenure comprised only of violence. There were some positive aspects of that tenure too. The construction of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, organisation of South Asian Federation Games, construction of the tennis stadium, hockey stadium, modern swimming pool still stand as proof for the few good work done during that time. What hurt everyone was the arrogance, the arrogance that had no parallels. The prime example of her arrogance was exemplified towards the end of her first term in 1995 when she conducted the wedding of her now-disowned foster son Sudhakaran’s wedding, best described as ‘mother of all marriages’. The money that was pumped for the lavish show was anybody’s guess. If there was one single event, that made even the proud fans of Jayalalithaa among the public turn against her, it was that wedding.
In the election that followed, Jayalalithaa’s party was routed in all the constituencies with Jaya herself losing heavily to an unknown Sugavanam of DMK in Bargur constituency. That marked the end of her first term (1991 - 96) as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalithaa (the last letter was added to her name only about few years back) was a political novice until about 1982, when she was brought into active politics by her mentor and yesteryear Chief Minister of TN, M.G.Ramachandran. Thanks to her attractive personality, she drew crowds in public meetings that also turned into votes in the polling stations, which soon saw her nominated to the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. When M.G.Ramachandran passed away in late 1987, the party he headed AIADMK split into two - one of which was headed by Jayalalithaa, who later patched up with the leader of the other division & the widow of her mentor, Janaki Ramachandran.
Though the spotlight was clearly on her ever since the death of M.G.Ramachandran, Jaya's moment of fame came in 1991 when she became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on a brutal majority riding on the sympathy wave due to the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi. Her initial few days in office were a talking point for the people of Tamil Nadu. The promptness with which she turned up to the office, her fluency in many languages including English, the free hand she gave the police to contain the LTTE menace, the confident stride with which she asserted the state's cause in National Integration Council meetings won her quite a lot of admirers. She was the state's most educated Chief Minister after C.N.Annadurai in mid-1960s.
As months passed, Jayalalithaa's tenure became something that people of Tamil Nadu best wanted to forget. While she kept a tight control over her party men, who including her Ministers often prostrated before her in public without any shame, she could barely control the goonda raj, let loose by her friend Sasikala's family, more popularly known as 'Mannargudi family', Mannargudi being the town from where the family hailed. Law & order deteriorated that at one point of time, unable to stomach the criticisms, she held the then Union Home Minister S.B.Chavan for organising highway robberies in Tamil Nadu. She didn’t even spare the then Governor Channa Reddy of behaving improperly with her at the Raj Bhavan. That both these statements were made at the State Assembly makes it more interesting. Though her stand against LTTE was tough & consistent, the fact that as many as 50 LTTE terrorists escaped from the prison between 1993 & 1996 didn’t augur well.
If law & order was a point of concern, the way the then Speaker of the TN assembly, Sedapatti R. Muthiah conducted the legislative assembly would even put to shame, the current Governor of Jharkand. As for the common man, he would have to put up with the rudeness of persons, starting from the milk booth guy. If half the state’s prime real estate were rounded up by Jayalalithaa & Sasikala, the press which exposed them were attacked mercilessly with the killing of two staff of the Tamil weekly ‘Tharasu’, being the prime example of the state of affairs. Violence wasn’t just confined to lesser mortals. Even the popular Chief Election Commissioner T.N.Seshan was targeted, though he had moved away from the hotel when the attack was launched. However, the current Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram was not so lucky. His car was attacked near Trichy (he was a Union Minister then in the P.V.Narasimha Rao government) and he escaped with bruises. But the seriousness of the situation would be best understood, if one were to see the acid washed face of IAS officer Chandralekha.
Not that Jayalalithaa’s tenure comprised only of violence. There were some positive aspects of that tenure too. The construction of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, organisation of South Asian Federation Games, construction of the tennis stadium, hockey stadium, modern swimming pool still stand as proof for the few good work done during that time. What hurt everyone was the arrogance, the arrogance that had no parallels. The prime example of her arrogance was exemplified towards the end of her first term in 1995 when she conducted the wedding of her now-disowned foster son Sudhakaran’s wedding, best described as ‘mother of all marriages’. The money that was pumped for the lavish show was anybody’s guess. If there was one single event, that made even the proud fans of Jayalalithaa among the public turn against her, it was that wedding.
In the election that followed, Jayalalithaa’s party was routed in all the constituencies with Jaya herself losing heavily to an unknown Sugavanam of DMK in Bargur constituency. That marked the end of her first term (1991 - 96) as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
posted by Indian Voter at 3:40:00 AM
10 Comments:
Hi IV, good analysis and recap. Althou my family used to shy away from politics, it was during this period that there were heated discussions at home about the current state. Especially, the times when press men and lawyers were hit. Also not to forget the mahamaham incident.
When she first came to power, she was considered as THE PERSON to liberate TN...she and her battalion of highly educated MLAs...she had a few doctors, engineers and lawyers in her team...we did expect a lot from her. But ended up pretty disappointed.
Now, we cant say how a person would behave once he gets to power!!!
Interesting..waiting for Part II
Paathu ezuthunga..Amma aalunga itha padika poraanga!!
nice recap, there are lots of law and order issues on those days. We TN need some reforms to fluorish as the No1 state in India. We hav that potential.
May be the answer to Jaganlee's query, of who's there next in row, might be perhaps to look at the box office??? ;)
Ofcourse, alternative is to make people think twice before voting for another shiny movie star in next election.
Jagan:: Have you forgotten the guy in the line - Vijayakanth? :P
PVS:: Jaya missed a golden opportunity in 1991 to carve a niche for herself. I would try to analyse her second term soon.
Adengappa!:: Thanks for the warning. That is much needed.
Chitra:: Every party is pretty much the same. Actually, I tried to analyse Jaya's individual characteristics & ability rather than her party's. About the party, as far as TN is concerned, the partymen are worth only for organising crowds and nothing else.
REFLEX:: I think we have come a long way from those days. Would discuss about that in future.
Anonymous & Jagan:: When a doctor (Ramadoss), cartoonist (Bal Thackray) & people from various professions participate in politics and still turn bad, it is wrong to accuse the movie stars alone. Everyone has a right to jump into politics. If people chose to look at their charisma than their administrative skills, it is stupid of them. Any human being would try to capitalise on his/her charisma and that is what the movie stars are doing.
Rajini example is a good one. He could never be a good administrator. But at the same time, it is very much possible for a right thinking citizen to come from the sets of Kodambakkam.
I am an aredent Thalaivar fan but he should stick to acting and not try his hand at becoming the CM. I guess he can surely try to become a MLA, improve his constituency and then see whether he is tuned to the bigger job ahead. But directly, for the CM post, my opinion would be a huge "NO-NO"
I think another term for Jayalalitha is very much in the cards as an aging Kalaignar can do very little to pass on the legacy to his son, Stalin.
Congress in TN is more or less dead. Vaiko is a good politician but his policies towards LTTE scare me.
2011, I am planning to stand, people vote for me :-)
Yep .
Actually Vaiko Left DMK Long time before and he is still doing same stuff like get in to DMK intenal issues..
I don't know
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