LIVING DEITY

This article appeared on The Economic Times, Bangalore edition, on July 5, 1992.
The anointing of a Living Deity

Chennai

If popularity is a game of numbers, the Tamil Nadu chief minister Ms. Jayalalitha has clearly emerged a winner at the AIADMK conference at Madurai. Despite the overwhelming mandate received last year, the party supremo felt the need for a fresh referendum to revive public memory and silence the critics, all in a stroke.

She achieved all this and more. Ms. Jayalalitha used Madurai to install her most trusted stalwarts-K. Sengotaiyan, S. Kannappan, and Azhagu Thirunavukkarasu- in the second tier of power, which is all secondary leaders in this State can hope for.

Madurai is the seat of the Goddess Meenakshi -the giver of power and strength. Judging by the deification of Ms. Jayalalitha by the mesmerized masses, it appears that she has found a place in the pantheon of Gods. All the stops were pulled out while she was being anointed as the new leader of the Dravidians. Nothing really new in a State where making cult figures out of mere film stars and politicians is a part of life.

Ms. Jayalalitha's 130-minute speech at Madurai had all the ingredients used in the past to arouse Dravidian passions, and was programmed to obliterate the memory of MG Ramachandran, her mentor since her entry into politics in 1984. No less than an unceremonious dismissal was accorded to Mr. Karunanidhi, the former chief minister.

She did not spare the two ministers (K Rajaram and RM Veerappan) whom she had jettisoned from her Cabinet. Both are veterans from the MGR era. But her best was reserved to paint the picture of a lady in distress. If Ms Jayalalitha flawed during her delivery, it showed up in the quiet tone and lack of histrionics her predecessors used. But the message was clear -the lady had been cheated in the past of her rightful place in the Dravidian movement, and, on occasions, even humiliated.

Even Lord Balaji at Tirupathi, it would seem, could have reason to envy the offerings made at the feet of Idhaya Theivam (the living deity, as she is often referred to.) The offerings included a Rs12,00,000 silver coated throne replete with a silver foot-rest and crown, a four and a half feet high replica of the rock fort (a popular temple in Trichy.) The 13- kilogram model is plated with gold and reportedly costs Rs52000. A 9-kilogram model Ashoka sword costing Rs41000, was also gifted to her.

Of the 60-odd giant cut-outs that towered over Madurai, only a handful were of MGR. The millions of maroon and red party flags made of paper had sketches only of the DMK (the party's precursor) founder-leader CN Annadurai.

The emergence of the Purathchi Thalaivi Peravai (forum) staffed with former conscripts of the MGR Fans Association, and a car and truck in which she was involved in an accident in the late 80s put on display at the exhibition of Dravidian culture, were other powerful reminders to enforce the view that Ms Jayalalitha brooked no usurpers.

The two-day mega meet has established that Purathi Thalaivi or revolutionary leader (with doctor prefixed to the legend, no other title was used to invoke her name in Madurai) is the ultimate overseer of the State's politics. With the World Tamil Sangham conference planned as the next fixture in Jayalalitha's calendar, both the Congress and the Opposition parties will find it difficult to extricate themselves from the pulverizing effects of the Jayalalitha juggernaut.

The Congress party has acknowleged both the success of the two-day conference, and her ascendancy to the throne as monarch of the Dravidian movement. This unsolicited certification has come from the TNCC president K Ramamurthi, despite the fact that the Congress MLAs and MPs were not invited to Madurai (the AIADMK sent a large delegation to the AICC conference at Tirupati on being officially invited.)

However, by showing her distain for anything that looks like opposition, she kept the door to New Delhi slightly ajar by permitting the conference to adopt a resolution hailing the new economic policy of the Union government. However, Ms Jayalalitha made it known in her address, that she, and not the death of Rajiv Gandhi was the sole factor behind the sweeping victory of the AIADMK-Congress alliance in the 1991 elections. With the Congress only too eager to please and the opposition fragmented for the time being, Ms. Jayalalitha is all set to rule Tamil Nadu at her whim and fancy.