Convict Queen
Though AIADMK leader Jayalalitha was debarred from contesting the elections on grounds of her conviction in a corruption case, she was sworn in as chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Will her aggressive game plan work? And should popular mandate overrule judicial verdicts?

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The land once considered forbidden has suddenly become
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Stalinist methods played a vital role in the humiliating finale of M. Karunanidhi's dynastic ambition.

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COVER STORY: JAYALALITHA

Was The Governor Correct?

For a lady whose party won precisely four seats in the 1996 assembly election, Jayalalitha approached this year's poll with unusual confidence. "The people," she now says, "have given an overwhelming mandate for the AIADMK because they wanted me to be the chief minister. Any decision against swearing me in would have been an insult to the people's verdict."

The argument that the "people's court" has somehow overwhelmed the legal court has been heard repeatedly over the past week. Its usage is certainly not unique to Tamil Nadu. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad proffered it in Ayodhya. When his Rashtriya Janata Dal was re-elected last year, Laloo Yadav said the people of Bihar had exonerated him-whatever the courts may have to say about the fodder swindle.

Jayalalitha has claimed that the special courts were Karunanidhi's means of political persecution for which he's been punished.

A.G. Noorani, constitutional lawyer, says there is no scope for confusion, "There is the people's verdict and there is the rule of law." The first cannot override the second. So did Fathima Beevi err? Under Article 164 of the Constitution, the governor is free to ask any person to be chief minister, even a non-MLA, provided the candidate gets elected to the House within six months. The courts cannot intervene when "the governor calls a person to be the chief minister and to form the ministry".

So is Raj Bhavan's authority unfettered? Krishnamurthy doesn't think so, "Can a murderer imprisoned for 15 years be invited? In the eyes of the law, this person is as guilty as one sent to jail for two years for corruption. Can the governor invite a convicted killer or a mentally unsound person?" Taken to its logical conclusion, Fathima Beevi's decision implies so. From Veerappan to Chhota Shakeel, anybody can lawfully and without a personal mandate become chief minister-and by extension prime minister-for at least six months.

Democracy is a confluence of many streams-law, popular will, morality. It would confound the most seasoned political scientist to resolve a paradox of the type Jayalalitha has thrown up. The AIADMK is virtually synonymous with her. It is futile to argue that the people have not voted for her. Yet, as one jurist puts it, "If one has to get down to the subtleties, one can say that the people have chosen her as their representative. But has the state chosen her as its representative?" This is where realpolitik ends and political philosophy begins.

Perhaps Jayalalitha will find a kindred spirit in an American who, to his people, was as much a cult figure as Amma is to hers. Adam Clayton Powell was the "Darling of Harlem", representing it in the US Congress from 1945 to 1968, the first black to do so. In 1966, a House committee indicted him for corruption and embezzlement. When Harlem's voters re-elected him, the Congress voted to "deny him a seat". He went to the Supreme Court which, in 1969, said that the legislature could not refuse a seat to someone duly elected. The legal court upheld the right of the people's court to do as it deemed fit; even promote the unfit.

MetroScape

Delhi Cinema:
"Flicks Down Under"

Mumbai Restaurant:
Karma

Kolkata Restaurant:
Teej

The Madhya Pradesh governor orders a CBI inquiry into a land allotment by the chief minister to the Nai Duniya group, kicking off a constitutional crisis. INDIA TODAY Special Correspondent Neeraj Mishra reports in
Conflict Of Interest.