May 4, 1998

Vajpayee's regime can't live from one Jayalalitha threat to the next.

Tavleen Singh

Like one of those gas balloons that advertise consumer goods and other wares in our city skies, Jayalalitha has loomed over national politics since the BJP-led Government took office in Delhi. If her voluminous presence, obscuring clarity and light, were not bad enough, she has descended to ground level every other week or so to make further trouble. This trouble takes the form of either some malevolent missive disguised as noble advice to the prime minister, or some press conference in Chennai at which, in those dulcet, modulated, convent-school tones, she makes some new and impossible demand.

The last time she got caught out easily. It became public knowledge that the real reason why she had delayed sending her letter of support to the President was because she was making outrageous demands on the BJP Government even before it had been formed. She wanted M. Karunanidhi's scalp to tuck under her Batwoman's cape, we hear. Among other things, she wanted the man Ram Jethmalani called "the insect" to be finance minister.

When she got caught she ennobled the cause. She was not interested in power or ministries, she said, but only in certain things that would benefit the state of Tamil Nadu. Like what? Like more water from the Cauvery for Tamil Nadu and Tamil as a national language. These demands were clearly pulled out of the hat for some last moment face-saving. Nobody was convinced that the delay had been on account of these demands. But they were a good cover for her to back down.

The latest descent of the gas balloon into Delhi's already uncertain climes is, however, being seen by most of the liberal-lefty press as a victory for Jayalalitha. "Jaya has her way, gets Vajpayee to sack Buta" went the newspaper headlines. So the prime minister looks like a wimp and Jayalalitha looks like the real prime minister.

She appears able to achieve anything, prevent anything and put virtually anyone she wants into the Cabinet -- other than, of course, "the insect". Does it make sense? Think of it, would Atal Bihari Vajpayee consider it worth his while clinging on to power at the risk of such bi-monthly public humiliation? Of course not. And, as is often the case, the truth about what happened did not make it to our national newspapers.

The truth, as I have learnt it, is that the Supreme Court decided Buta Singh was liable for prosecution (charges: bribery and corruption) on the same day that Jethmalani and R.K. Hegde, both Union ministers, made some indiscreet remarks in Bangalore. The prime minister asked old Buta to resign gracefully and he asked for time to think.

But by then Empress Jayalalitha, used to AIADMK workers crawling before her on their bellies, had taken offence to the innuendoes in Bangalore. Even before she could get into malevolent missive mode Subramanian Swamy (a.k.a. "the insect") had convinced her of the need to act. Hence, letter in the press and sulks on television. Meanwhile, Swamy had already scuttled off to 10 Janpath for a much-publicised meeting with the empress-in-waiting. So it looked as if the Government had only days to fall.

By this past Monday, Buta had been sacked -- which he would have been anyway -- and the crisis resolved. But the BJP Government ended up looking very bad indeed. Vajpayee cannot be taken seriously if he always seems to be kowtowing in the direction of Chennai. This cannot go on and we can only hope Jayalalitha realises this. She is not the prime minister of India and she must stop deluding herself that she is.

Yet, if there is someone who ended up looking even worse than Jayalalitha and her friend Swamy, it is Shri Buta Singh. His refusal to resign, his leech-like clinging to the Communications Ministry was shameful. It reeked of exactly the motivation that has made politicians such insects (lovely word) in the eyes of the average Indian.

We know that it could not have been Buta's desire to serve humanity that caused him to behave the way he did. We also know that he could not have been motivated by some exalted desire to bring about a communications revolution in India. So what could he have been motivated by? You do not need me to answer that. But perhaps it is worth spelling out again exactly what it is that makes our politicians so desperate to become ministers.

Ministries are fiefdoms, not very different really from feudal estates with mantriji very much lord and master of all he surveys. If the estate is run as a commercial venture, all kinds of benefits accrue -- as we have seen from the money most ministers suddenly seem to come into.

The Communications Ministry has acquired an aura all its own ever since Sukh Ram was found with Rs 3 crore lying around his house. He has never been able to explain exactly where the money came from. But at one point he did remark that it was wrong to go on about a paltry Rs 3 crore when he had made hundreds of crores for the country. We all know what that means.

One day, if the BJP Government ever gets a chance to get down to some real governance it could consider curbing the power and the lifestyle of our ministers. For that to happen the prime minister needs to be able to breathe easily for at least a few weeks. This is something Jayalalitha has so far not allowed him to do.

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