Monday, December 5, 2016

A daughter to two, a mother to millions

Today marks an end of an era in the politics of the great state of Tamil Nadu in India.  Jayalalithaa Jayaram (or more popularly called as ‘Amma’ (Mother) by the millions in that state), a leader of a major political party, and the current chief minister of Tamil Nadu has passed away at the age of 68 following a cardiac arrest. When I heard the news this afternoon, there were no mixed feelings. Instead, I had just one feeling – a feeling of sadness. Or more appropriately, a feeling of loss.


I don’t associate myself with any political party in any part of the world and I frankly am not a fan of any politician. And when it comes to Indian politics, it can be written in stone that almost every politician in India is corrupt in one form or the other. Jayalalithaa was not an exception. I have lived under her administration in Tamil Nadu and things were not always clean (though under these circumstances one cannot say for sure if anything directly relates to her. She was convicted of corruption in some court cases, acquitted in many, and acquitted in few through appeals and some cases and appeals still pending before the courts). That being said, one also cannot deny the fact that she has been a force – of some good and some bad – in the lives of nearly 70 million Tamils who live in that state. She entered politics in early 1980s and has administered that state for nearly 15 years in four different terms (sworn 5 times as Chief Minister (akin to a Governor in the United States)).


Of the nearly 70 million people in Tamil Nadu, there will not be a single person who wasn’t affected by her or influenced by her. Affected – by the various policies she put forth during the many years of her administration; Influenced – by the courage, perseverance, grit and political calculation she displayed over the course of her lifetime. 


For all the court cases before her, and for all the judgments against her, people continued to elect her to represent them as the top elected official of the state – as recently as 2016 when she beat the anti-incumbency wave and rode to electoral victory for a second consecutive term in the state (the only politician in the state to have done that in 30+ years). She had a mass following. She was looked upon with awe and inspiration by her followers, and with fear by people who stood opposite to her. Even her arch political enemies have at times praised her courage and boldness with which she carried on her government. 


This is not to say that I liked everything about her. In fact, I hated so much about her. Corruption was still rife in the society and government under her administration. Work and progress in the state was slow at times because of the iron grip she had on all sections of the government. The ministers who worked under her were terrified of her. So terrified that they would literally fall at her feet and get her blessings when they see her. It was frankly disgusting to watch. But at the same time, the same iron grip quality of her is the quality that maintained law and order in the state far better than many other administrations. The courage she displayed was the quality that made her make bold political calculations where today 37 seats in the Indian parliament, the second largest by a single party in the whole of India, are being held by her party. And this came at a time when the nation was swept by the ‘Modi’ wave (when Mr. Modi became the prime minister of India).  The grit that seemed like an inborn quality of her was the quality that made her daringly take neighboring state governments of Kerala and Karnataka to courts to make sure that the people of Tamil Nadu get their fair share of water from various water and dam treaties. The boldness that radiated from her like a light from the sun is the quality that made her the strongest voice of the time against the plight of the innocent Tamil civilian population in Srilanka at the height of the final civil war there.


Yes, she had her flaws. She was no more than a shrewd politician. Every policy she put forth had an electoral calculation in her mind. But that’s not to say that many of her policies – though politically calculated they might be – hadn't actually helped the people who needed help the most.  Take the ‘Amma canteen’ policy for example that she implemented few years back. On one hand, it was a huge waste of tax payers’ money because it provided subsidized meals to all people of Tamil Nadu in various canteens setup across the state. But on the other, in a state where millions go hungry everyday, it was a Godsend. This policy literally eliminated hunger in the state. 


Or take the fact that under her administration, Tamil Nadu, which was an electricity deficit state, turned into a surplus state. Or the fact that in 2016, under her administration, Tamil Nadu exceeded the ‘Renewable Purchase Obligation’ target from the central government, and was looking for ways to sell surplus wind power to other states where they haven’t met the requirements. At a time of rising nationalism in India, she pushed against the ‘Sanskrit week’ initiative by the central government, and strongly voiced against the central government directive that called for the compulsory use of Hindi in twitter by all central government officials - a group that included officials from Tamil Nadu and other non-Hindi speaking regions.  


And when many people and frankly many leaders across the country were busy trying to (or not) understand the details and complexities behind the bills like the anti-corruption ‘Lokpal’ bill, she displayed her brilliance by calling for an exclusion of the office of the Prime Minister in the Lokpal bill, even when she was in the opposition to the then prime minister's party, citing reasons of dangers involved in foreign powers using such a national law to undermine the office of the Prime Minister at critical times. Or when the entire country stood behind the recently passed Goods and Services tax bill, that completely revamped India’s age-old tax system, she displayed her courage and brilliance by being the sole voice in opposing some fine sections of the bill – by citing the disadvantages and potential loss of revenue and state autonomy in fiscal policies that she considered her state, which she rightly pointed out as a ‘producer’ or ‘manufacturing state’, would incur due to the fact that Tamil Nadu consumes less than what it manufactures. And as much as her political life was filled with complaints of corruption and what-not, it was equally filled with many such brilliant endeavors. 


Jayalalithaa was born to an actress, she herself was an actress, never married, spoke six languages, was a topper in her school, well-read, a lady of immense knowledge on various state and global matters, a ‘lioness’ to her opponents, an ‘Iron Lady’ to her supporters, ‘Amma’ to her followers, and a stateswoman to many people, including me, who saw her objectively within the Indian context. Given the times, it is a huge loss to Tamil Nadu and frankly to India itself.  


She will be missed. May her soul rest in peace. 


Further references:

1.      http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/jayalalithaa-passes-away-tamil-nadu-chief-minister-biography-see-pics-3059429/

2.      http://indianexpress.com/article/india/jayalalithaa-dead-heart-attack-amma-tamil-nadu-4412542/



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