June 22, 1998

Irked by the BJP-led Government's failure to come to Jayalalitha's aid, AIADMK leaders mount fresh pressure for the dismissal of the DMK government.

By K M Thomas

For long, J. Jayalalitha was used to making news. But the news last week had the potential to unmake the aiadmk supremo. When the Special Court in Chennai ordered on June 4 that movable properties worth Rs 11.59 crore belonging to Jayalalitha and her friends be attached, party leaders were, predictably, in a tizzy. In an apparent move to force the BJP-led Union Government to bail out Jayalalitha, party Mps began to step up the pressure.

Last week, Parliament witnessed the curious sight of AIADMK MPs of the ruling coalition walking out of both houses to protest the Centre's failure to dismiss the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. That the AIADMK would settle for nothing less than the ouster of the M. Karunanidhi Government became clear when, shortly after an "accord" was reportedly reached at a breakfast meeting last Wednesday with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the party MPs once again embarrassed the government by staging walkouts. Party sources say it was Jaya-lalitha's way of asking Vajpayee to choose between his ally and the DMK Government. Said aiadmk leader and Union minister for Personnel and Public Grievances R. Janarthanam: "We suspect there is some clandestine understanding between the BJP and the DMK."

Jayalalitha's pack of faithfuls has reason to be angry with the BJP. Though she was able to obtain a stay on the attachment order issued by the special court, AIADMK leaders are livid that the Government, which depends on the party's support for a parliamentary majority, has done nothing to sort out her problems. She is helpless when it comes to countering her portrayal in the press as "one of the most corrupt politicians of the country". Her fear is that if this impression is allowed to linger, even her possible conviction would be taken as routine by the people, like her arrest in December 1996, when the public reaction mostly was that "she deserved it".

This perhaps explains her recent shrillness. When the new government was formed in March, she tried to bargain the finance portfolio for Subramanian Swamy, once her most trenchant critic, in the hope that he would fix all the cases against her. When that didn't happen, she sulked for some time, though her nominee and Union Law Minister M. Thambi Durai managed to appoint 72 central government standing counsels in Tamil Nadu. But this has little bearing on the cases against her, most of which have been filed by the state government. Besides, these cases cannot be withdrawn without permission of the courts. The only respite she can expect is from a friendly state administration which could soft-pedal the cases by putting up a weak prosecution. With 14 criminal cases against her -- charge-sheets have been filed in seven of them -- it is clear that the odds are stacked heavily against her. Although senior AIADMK leader V.R. Nedunchezhian has declared that court cases could be prolonged for decades by filing appeals -- the tansi land scam case alone has seen 78 adjournments in the past 17 months -- a single conviction is enough to bring Jayalalitha's political career to a premature end. "A person would stand disqualified from contesting any election or holding public office once he or she is convicted," says M. Soundra Rajan, a Madras High Court advocate.

The new line of thinking in the AIADMK camp is that if the BJP cannot be pressured into submission during the course of the current Parliament session, it will never be possible. The instructions to the MPs, therefore, are "to bend the government, but not to break it". During the session, AIADMK MPs met nearly every morning to revise their strategies and though the BJP leadership always makes it a point to lend a sympathetic ear, the Tamil leaders' grouse is that, so far, their actions have not matched their words. That explains why less than 24 hours after they lifted their boycott to return to Parliament last Tuesday -- and three hours after the breakfast meeting with vajpayee -- they staged yet another walkout in Parliament. AIADMK leaders believe that periodic statements of BJP leaders like M. Venkaiah Naidu, Rangarajan Kumaramangalam and the state unit general secretary L. ganesan hinting at the DMK government's imminent dismissal is only a ploy to buy time. There was some euphoria in the AIADMK camp after Jayalalitha met Tamil Nadu Governor Fatima Beevi for the first time on May 31. That, however, evaporated when a few days later Beevi went on record that there was no law and order problem in the state. Jayalalitha then pinned her hopes on a meeting that Beevi had with Home Minister L.K. Advani in Delhi last week. Only to be disappointed once again. While Advani preferred to remain silent when asked about the chances of the DMK's removal, the governor once again stated there was no law and order problem in the state.

But all that could change if the AIADMK, as is reported, takes to the streets. The party has already announced that the stir against the continuance of the DMK Government would be intensified and protest demonstrations are scheduled across the state next week. Karunanidhi, who is yet to complete a term in office despite having been chief minister on three previous occasions, is bracing for the onslaught. he is confident that his Government will not be dismissed a fourth time. "We know they will create law and order problems in the state and use it as a ploy to dismiss the state government. We know how to deal with such situations," he said last week. His confidence partly stems from the fact that he knows if his Government is dismissed, the Centre will then be faced with similar demands from BJP's alliance partners in Bihar and West Bengal. Besides, in case of dismissal, Karunanidhi has the option of approaching the courts, as was done by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The Centre could then be left with a lot of egg on its face. Little wonder then that despite

Jayalalitha's tantrums, Karunanidhi appears smug. When a reporter recently asked him if the DMK would support the BJP at the Centre in the event of the AIADMK pulling out, Karunanidhi's reply was characteristically enigmatic: "The question should come from Vajpayee, not you." That perhaps is Jayalalitha's biggest fear.

Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions

© Living Media India Ltd