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STATES: TAMIL NADU
Rising Rage
The crackdown on Karunanidhi and now terror on the street
— but Jayalalitha remains unfazed
By Arun Ram
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NO REMORSE: Jayalalitha's return has been marked by police excesses
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When Sun TV ran its
non-stop telecast of the "disturbing" footage of DMK leader
M. Karunanidhi's arrest on June 30, Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha is said
to have sat watching it for hours. Sources close to her say Amma remained
emotionless, soaking in the visuals.
The AIADMK prima donna is increasingly becoming
a political Mona Lisa. She makes statements, but explanations are not
in her scheme of things. Jayalalitha was Sphinx-like after five people
were killed in the DMK-police street fight on August 12. The DMK cadres,
taking out a rally in protest against the midnight-arrest of Karunanidhi,
were provocative. As the police smashed press cameras and beat up reporters
in front of the DGP's Office off Marina beach, hardly a kilometre away,
at Ayodhyakuppam, DMK cadres fought pitched battles with a group of miscreants,
alleged to be AIADMK cadres. The violence left five dead and about 100
people, including 32 policemen and 14 journalists, injured.
The police attack on journalists covering the
rally looked planned. Policemen were heard asking reporters their names
and organisations before beating them up. Aaj Tak correspondent Jayashree,
while trying to shoot the scene in front of the DGP's office, was manhandled.
"A police constable snatched away my camera. As I protested, he smashed
it. Even as I tried to collect the broken camera and cassette, two other
policemen hit me with lathis," says Jayashree. Even those reporters
who took refuge inside the DGP's office were rounded up and assaulted.
The journalists have demanded inquiries by the CBI and a team each of
the Union Home and Information & Broadcasting ministries into the
police attack.
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STATE OF WAR: Policemen line up to maintain peace
(top); an injured DMK worker
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"Karunanidhi
wanted a few people killed. The AIADMK had nothing to do with the
violence."
J. Jayalalitha, Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu
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Jayalalitha remains unfazed. "Karunanidhi
wanted a few people killed. The AIADMK has nothing to do with the violence,"
was her reaction. On the police attack on journalists, she is "distressed".
On the failure of the 40,000-strong police force deployed that day "to
maintain law and order" in preventing a clash between two groups
at Ayodhyakuppam, she is silent.
Karunanidhi, after talking to Prime Minister
A.B. Vajpayee on the phone, called on Governor C. Rangarajan on August
13. The governor later had a 45-minute talk with Jayalalitha. "It
was a courtesy call," she told reporters after meeting Rangarajan.
The last thing she would admit would be that she was summoned by Raj Bhavan.
In addition to a report by Chief Secretary P. Shankar, she gave a detailed
note on the incidents to the governor. Before the DMK could press for
a judicial probe, Jayalalitha constituted a commission headed by K.S.
Bhakthavatsalam, a retired high court judge, to probe the matter.
Jayalalitha has an uncanny knack for inviting
trouble. When journalists tried to give her a memorandum demanding the
release of a Sun TV reporter who was arrested for covering a former minister's
visit to government godowns a couple of months ago, Jayalalitha said journalists
had been bought over by the DMK. When 150 of them trying to take out a
procession demanding press freedom were arrested, Jaya TV called them
"fake journalists".
"Amma has nothing against journalists though
the damage her image suffered at the hands of the media is immense,"
says a retired bureaucrat close to Jayalalitha. "It is just that
she doesn't take any grilling from anybody." That "anybody"
doesn't end with journalists. When Principal Sessions Judge Ashok Kumar
made observations on the hasty arrest of Karunanidhi, the Government moved
the high court, appealing that the judge's remarks be expunged. Finally,
Jayalalitha had her way. No comments, no expression, this time, too.
The tumult around Jayalalitha becomes gripping
as she approaches the November deadline for getting elected to the Assembly
to remain chief minister. She was disqualified from contesting the May
assembly polls following her conviction in the TANSI land deal case. A
special court had given its judgement after the prosecution proved that
government land was bought by firms owned by Jayalalitha and Sasikala
at prices far lower than the guideline value, thereby causing a loss of
Rs 3 crore to the exchequer.
The tansi case took a curious turn on August
9 as a key witness changed his testimony. Thangavelu, a sub-registrar
who valued the land bought by Jaya Publications and Sasi Enterprises,
gave an affidavit saying the undervaluing of the land was his mistake.
The sub-registrar's new version goes something like this: The land bought
by the two companies was supposed to be near a highway, which meant high
guideline value. But actually, the plot was at a distance from the highway.
"The whole case was initiated by my applying a wrong guideline value,"
he says, "I entertained documents without verifying the location,
block numbers and survey numbers."
Owning up the responsibility of "wrongful
undervaluation," the official says there was no loss to the state
government and therefore no corruption involved. "My non-application
of mind has served as a handle for the former DMK regime and its investigation
officers to initiate a case," he says, adding that he is not under
any pressure from Jayalalitha.
The ruling party is understandably upbeat. Says
AIADMK advocates' wing office-bearer Philip Thomas: "The sub- registrar's
affidavit will have a great impact on the TANSI case. Now Jayalalitha
has the option of appealing for a fresh trial. The official's version
at this stage can even reverse the verdict." Senior lawyer K.M. Vijayan
disagrees. "There is no scope for a revision. The sub-registrar should
have said all this at the time of the trial. The affidavit can have no
effect at the appeal stage. Once the assessment is made, the authorities
cannot say it was undervalued." Vijayan adds that the judge can even
grill the sub-registrar as to why he kept silent all through the trial
and came out with the new version only after Jayalalitha became chief
minister.
Jayalalitha's studied silence on the case came
into focus on August 3 when the Madras High Court registry "recalled"
Jayalalitha's petitions against her conviction in the TANSI case at the
last moment. The case found a mention in the list prepared the previous
evening, but it was removed following an "abrupt direction".
The "recall" looked significant in the wake of former advocate-general
K.V. Venkatapathy (who was attorney-general during the Karunanidhi regime)
being appointed to conduct the appeals. The speculation that Justice S.
Jagadeesan, before whom the case was posted, was not willing to sit in
judgement appeared true when Jayalalitha's appeals were transferred to
Justice R. Balasubramanian. Jayalalitha's best efforts to wriggle out
of the case will come to the fore when her appeals are heard on August
27. The enigma of Amma, meanwhile, remains.
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