A REMAKE or a rerun may be good for a film made in Chennai’s ever-busy movie studios. But, a repeat in political life of Tamil Nadu surrounding the prolonged illness of its charismatic and powerful chief minister is not.
Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa has been sick, reportedly due to fever and dehydration, since Sept 22. Although there is an acting chief minister in charge and a retired bureaucrat close to her is said to be issuing orders to keep the administration moving, something is sorely missing in one of India’s more important states.
In effect, there is no full-time chief minister, not even a full-time governor, since Maharashtra’s governor is holding additional charge, performing his constitutional responsibility by reporting to the federal government in New Delhi.
There is no visible successor to Jaya, should something happen to her. As celebrated medical specialists from New Delhi and London fly in and out of Chennai and uncertainty over the chief minister’s health continues, question remains as to why there is no automatic standard operating proc edure established in India that kicks in whenever a constitutional functionary is temporarily out of action.
It has happened elsewhere and at other times, too. But in Tamil Nadu, this is a grim reminder of 1984 when Jayalalithaa’s mentor and then chief minister M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) was sick. He was 68 then, so is Jayalalithaa now, not in the pink of health after her 2014 imprisonment.
She did win the last election, trouncing rival Muthuvel Karunanidhi despite what observers thought was a lacklustre campaign. She has been in the saddle, playing Amma (mother), the popular benefactor to her people. Her administration runs several welfare schemes in her name. But, the personal touch of this enigmatic woman, turned a recluse by sickness, is missing.
In India’s political firmament, Tamil Nadu has always been special. When MGR was sick and eventually passed away, New Delhi was benign to Madras, just as it is now to Chennai. This is because the Bharatiya Janata Party, currently at the helm at the federal level, has never ruled it. Its predecessor, the Indian National Congress, lost power in 1967 and has never regained it. But for both, Jaya is a potential ally, a pivot that could tilt the scales their way in future.
For close to half a century, Tamil Nadu is ruled by Dravidian rivals, Karunanidhi’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Jaya’s Anna DMK, carrying piggy-back smaller parties in and out of power.
Unsurprisingly, if the Congress wooed Tamil Nadu when MGR was sick (both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi now make anxious inquiries for Jaya), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dispatched to Chennai by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing the same.
Jaya is in the intensive care unit of Chennai’s Apollo Hospital, which had treated MGR. Dignitaries are received by the hospital’s founder-chief, Prathap C. Reddy, and his daughter and vice-president, Preetha Reddy, responds to their concerned queries.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi came calling, apparently at the behest of his mother and party chief, Sonia. So did Nita Ambani, the wife of top corporate honcho Mukesh Ambani. And last weekend, megastar Rajinikanth was there. Modi is also expected to visit.
None have been able to meet Jaya though. This is understandable since she must be kept in isolation. But, many a dignitary emerges from the hospital and “informs” the media waiting in droves outside that the CM is “improving”, “responding well to treatment” and so on, and wish her a speedy recovery.
For the media, although having undergone a sea change since it reported on MGR, with numerous technology-driven newspapers and television channels keeping a 24/7 vigil and social media in toe, the dilemma is still the same: no credible information is available, save official bulletins. Even these bulletins are scarce on days.
A question is being asked whether the public has a right to know of the health condition of people in power. It was asked when Sonia Gandhi, her party in power, was sick some years back and travelled to an unknown destination, ostensibly for treatment.
It is asked if a state chief minister is a public servant under the law of the land, whose wellbeing should be of public interest. There are no answers, and both the messenger and the public it is supposed to serve remain clueless.
In the absence of hard information, mass sentiments abound. Prayer meetings are held and special pujas are performed. Crowds gather not just outside Greams Road, where the hospital is, but elsewhere
in Tamil Nadu as well, praying for Jayalalithaa’s recovery.
While this is ennobling and may be cathartic, it cannot be a substitute for governance. Tamil Nadu’s case for its share of Cauvery river water has suffered in her absence. Even her party’s 45th anniversary celebrations were a muted affair.
Politics and politicians do not like vacuum. After raising concerns over speculations and demanding to know “facts” about Jaya’s wellbeing, Karunanidhi sent his wife, Rajathi Ammal, to the hospital to make inquiries. Another surprise visitor was his son, M.K. Stalin.
These being political visits, the political adversaries were warmly received by Sasikala, the chief minister’s close aide.
Come to think of it, Karunanidhi is the constant between MGR who split the DMK to form the Anna DMK and Jaya, who heads the latter. The nonagenarian has survived long years of being in power twice and then out of it.
While Jaya, too, has grown politically, being in and out of power for 25 years, widening in the process her political support base, as evident from the last election’s outcome, her illness accentuates the see-saw battle between the rival Dravidian parties.
In sum, Karunanidhi, although he battles pressure groups within his family that eye future political succession, has not only outlived his bête noire MGR, while he continues to pose a challenge to Jaya, and is still in reckoning for a shot at power.
Mahendra Ved, NST's New Delhi correspondent, is the president of the Commonwealth Journalists Association and a consultant with ‘Power Politics’ monthly magazine