IN the passing away of J. Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu chief minister, Indians and Tamils, wherever they are, have lost one of the most charismatic personalities.
She excelled in whatever she did and ruled the hearts and minds of her people for close to six decades. For someone who died at 68, she spent a phenomenally long time in public life. She has left behind a legacy of long years as a film actor-dancer, who began very young and who transformed into a popular politician and ruled one of India’s frontline states.
She went through the rough-and- tumbles of public life, rode through its adversities and lived the lonely life of a single woman wielding enormous power that had its source in mass popularity.
The Jayalalithaa phenomenon is unique even in Tamil Nadu, where cinema celebrities have been worshipped and trusted with political office. It surpasses what the Telugu-speaking people bestowed on N.T. Rama Rao (NTR).
In riding the mass appeal and bouncing back to power not once but four times, Jayalalithaa would surpass by many a mile fellow actors-turned-politicians Ronald Reagan of the United States and Joseph Estrada of the Philippines.
“To run a large party is not easy. One has to be strong, even reckless, but also compassionate… I am all of these,” she once said.
Debuting as a child artiste in an English film in 1961, her film career blossomed in Madras (Chennai) in all four South Indian languages. She did several in Hindi in Bollywood. I for one remember her prancing around he-man Dharmendra in Izzat (1968).
Most of her films were in Tamil with M.G. Ramachandran (MGR). Besides pairing with him in several hits, she was also his muse.
A populist par excellence, Jayalalithaa resented being reminded of the “mixer-grinder” populism, about the kitchen gadgets she doled out prior to elections while targeting women voters.
Women, indeed, were her vote-bank. From being Ammu of her childhood days and with a film celebrity aura, she gracefully transformed into “Amma”, the mother. She knew better than her other women contemporaries in politics that nothing appeals more to Indians than being a mother figure. Her “Amma” canteen, where food is served for a pittance, and numerous other projects remain among the most successful public welfare measures in India.
Jayalalithaa lived through many contradictions.
With all the popularity and power that she enjoyed, she was perceived as terribly insecure — which woman is not? Think of South Asia’s Indira Gandhi, Sheikh Hasina and Benazir Bhutto or even Hillary Clinton. Living in a man’s world would make them that, perhaps.
Her relationship with MGR was deeply layered: the dot on her forehead was not just a beauty mark that Indian women display.
She never wavered in her loyalty to him even as those around him did everything to separate the two. Being kicked off MGR’s funeral pyre, literally, and bouncing back to return and lead his party was no mean achievement.
The party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), has as its basic philosophy atheism as enunciated by the original founder of the Dravidian movement, E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, the movement that spawned the DK, the DMK, and the AIDMK, the DMK headed by her arch rival, Muthuvel Karunanidhi.
Jayalalithaa, the first Brahmin to head AIADMK, lent more than just a touch of spiritualism to the atheistic creed. The ultimate irony, of course, is that she herself became the goddess of the atheistic dispensation.
Despite all the mass adulation, she was a loner. That, perhaps, explains the rise of Sasikala, her confidante for long years.
For someone who swore by democracy, Jayalalithaa nurtured this extra-constitutional authority and power centre. She bore the cross of the graft and nepotism that Sasikala’s family was allegedly involved in. She threw her out of her Poes Garden home two decades back, but brought her back from the backdoor.
Not having held any office in the party or in the government, Sasikala is poised to succeed Jaya as the party general-secretary. This is an all-powerful post and Chief Minister O. Pannerselvam (OPS), a loyalist among loyalists, will have to form a working relationship akin to what Congress President Sonia Gandhi had with prime minister Manmohan Singh for 10 years.
Given Jayalalithaa’s overwhelming presence, OPS is unlikely to move away from her shadow — indeed, he stands to benefit from it. She is gone, but her charisma promises to last for long.
Jayalalithaa knew of her failing health. But she never left behind a line of succession before she entered Chennai’s Apollo Hospital 75 days ago, or during her brief spells of recovery.
There were genuine concerns about the succession issue. During her hospitalisation, the administrative drift and indecision were sought to be arrested by drafting retired chief secretary Shila Balakrishnan.
Considering these uncertainties, it is remarkable the way the party legislators met during what turned out to be her dying hours. OPS was promptly sworn in. This augurs well for Tamil Nadu.
The party, having won a huge majority in elections last year, would be a stable government. There is little chance of it going in for a fresh mandate.
To say that an era has ended would be a cliché, but so be it.
As one who shared her day of birth, though not the hour and minute, and certainly not her life of name, fame, charisma, popularity and agony and ecstasy of being in and out of power, I have always nursed certain empathy for Jayalalithaa.
I have joked about our being different: that I have 10 shirts and trousers while she reputedly had 10,000 sarees. To friends who asked if I had ever told her of this little accident-by-birth, my reply was, “Well, no. But some day, I hope to.”
She has left without my telling her. I can only imagine a benign smile on that moon-like face.
MAHENDRA VED is NST's New Delhi correspondent, president of the Commonwealth Journalists Association 2016-2018 and a consultant with ‘Power Politics’ monthly magazines.