Sunday Times 2
Jayalalithaa’s Diwali shock
Several eyebrows were raised as former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa has desisted from issuing Diwali greetings this year. Jayalalithaa was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment by a Bangalore Special Court on September 27 in a Rs. 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case.
The Supreme Court granted her bail on October 17 and she returned to Chennai the next day. On October 19 Jayalalithaa in fact issued a
Jayalalithaa
statement announcing a solatium of Rs.3 lakh to the families of those who lost their lives either by way of suicide or by shock following the judgment. She announced a solatium to 193 people and this include over 60 families who lost one of their family members after September 27 and the rest were financial assistance to those who were injured while attempting suicide or by shock following her incarceration.
In fact Jayalalithaa also wrote two letters on October 20 separately to Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and film star Rajinikanth thanking them for their support letters to her after her release.
Observers here in Tamil Nadu are surprised by Jayalalithaa’s refusal to issue Diwali greetings. Ever since she took over as the General Secretary of the AIADMK in January 1988 following the death of her mentor and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran or MGR as he was fondly called, Jayalalithaa not even once in these 25 years had missed to issue Diwali greetings. “Though Jayalalithaa is not in the office, she issued Diwali greetings to the people and to the party cadres. Infact Diwali is the favorite festival of Jayalalithaa.
But I don’t know what happened this time and this is really saddening and shocking”, says Durai Karuna, writer and one of the founding members of the AIADMK since its inception, in 1972. The funny part of it is that there were no Diwali greetings from Chief Minister O Panneerselvam this time.
Jayalalithaa who returned to Chennai after 22 days of prison life had not met anyone since then.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Jayalalithaa gave audience to Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam for a brief while, but there was no confirmation for this news either from the Tamil Nadu govt or from the AIADMK. Repeated calls to Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence and to the Chief Miniser’s office did not yield any result as the officials at both places refuse to say anything on record.
Political analysts in the state are predicting that Tamil Nadu is heading for a long period of political instability and governance paralysis. “This is a strange situation. The administrative powers are extremely concentrated and even smaller things are done in the name of the Chief Minister. Now that Chief Minister who is the only powerful leader is disqualified, sent to jail and only now out on bail. So you can imagine what jolt the governance would had taken”, says RAR Kannan a senior journalist and political observer.
The Supreme Court while granting bail to Jayalalithaa and three others in the case also directed them to prepare the appeal papers by December 18 and told them that not a single day will be granted more and warned that if the convicts did not prepare the appeal papers by that date their bail will be cancelled. The Supreme Court also said that after December 18 th appeal against the trial court order must be disposed of in the Karnataka High Court within three months.
Senior Advocate Fali S Nariman who appeared for Jayalalithaa assured the Court that they will not take any adjournments in the Karnataka High Court. The Supreme Court gave these strong directions as the case was dragging for 18 years. Infact influential lawyers who are well aware of things say that the situtation is extremely hard for Jayalalithaa now.
“I don’t think that there is anything for either Jayalalithaa or her party cadres to celebrate after her release on bail. The Supreme Court had issued strong guidelines for the disposal of the appeals and this is the main issue. In Lalu Prasad Yadav and Om Prakash Chaoutala cases the Supreme Court had granted them bail but did not issued any guidelines to the respective High Courts to dispose of their appeals in a stipulated period.
More over the Supreme Court had not disposed off Jayalalithaa’s Special Leave Petition or SLP and posted it for further hearing on December 18. This is very, very important, as the Supreme Court is almost now taking control of the case and the convicts cannot dodge the judicial proceedings as they did it in the past 18 years” says a senior lawyer of the Madras High Court who did not want to be named.
Courtesy indiatoday.in