COMMENT The ‘immortal’ Amma (mother) or Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, died on Dec 5, 2016, following a cardiac arrest at the Apollo Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. A month ago she was admitted at the hospital for health reasons.

India is a land of extremes. While women do not enjoy the same status as men, however, under certain political, social and economic circumstances their popularity might even edge men. This is the case for Jayalalithaa who governed the state for five terms.

Jayalalithaa started her career in the Tamil film industry, but within a short span of time she rose to stardom. She acted with M Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) in many films and when the latter turned to politics, she followed suit. Without the guidance and advice of Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa would have not made it in the political world.

But she was not passive participant in the turbulent world of Tamil Nadu politics. Ramachandran, who was then the chief minister, having sensed her abilities and charisma, gave her important political posts that eventually catapulted her to be a star in the political world.

Jayalalithaa soon landed a top post in the AIADMK (Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) after the death of Ramachandran due to illness. There was no stopping Jayalalithaa after the death of her mentor; she even overshadowed his widow in winning successive state elections in the state of Tamil Nadu.

In many ways, Jayalalithaa was no different from her main rival, M Karunanidhi, the chief of the DMK party (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). Despite building up her cult of personality, surrounding herself with sycophants and a throwing a lavish wedding celebration for her adopted son, she is considered as a more effective administrator than Karunanidhi.

While Karunanidhi provided lip service to the plight of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, Jayalalithaa in her later part of her political career took up the cause of these people. It was she who was responsible for the passage of a number of resolutions in the Tamil Nadu state assembly that condemned the alleged atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan state against Tamils. It was she who urged a referendum for Tamil to decide their political future in Sri Lanka.

Jayalalithaa was no ‘Mother Theresa’, she was accused of amassing wealth beyond her means. There were a number of corruption charges that were leveled against her. A few years back she was convicted by a Karnataka High Court for corruption and jailed. However, in a matter of a few days, she appealed the matter and was released on bail. The matter of her corruption is still pending in Karnataka.

Given a new political mandate

Allegations of wrongdoings and corruption charges did not prevent Jayalalithaa from being a ‘star’ politician in Tamil Nadu. Tamils being easily given to emotions considered allegations against her as the work of her political enemies and went to the extent of giving her a new political mandate in the recently-concluded Tamil Nadu state assembly elections.

As long as Ramachandran was in office, nobody could dislodge him from power. Similarly, Jayalalithaa having inherited the political mantle from Ramachandran was quite ‘invincible’ in the arena of Tamil Nadu politics.

While Jayalalithaa could have earned kudos at the global level in championing the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils, she was unable to bring about a major social and economic transformation to the lives of ordinary Tamils. Given the political divide between the centre and state, there nothing much she could do except to show her displeasure from time to time about the inertia of the centre.

Even on the issue of water-sharing, there was nothing much that Jayalalithaa could do to stem the opposition from the state of Karnataka.

Jayalalithaa could have brought much changes to the ordinary people in Tamil Nadu. However, by relying on the mechanisms that centre-staged her personality and cult, she failed to inject the much-needed vitality for the emergence of new politics in Tamil Nadu.

In terms of bringing social change, Tamils will not remember Ramachandran or Karunanidhi or Jayalalithaa, but the good work done by Thantai Periyar and to some extent Anna during the initial period of the Dravidian movement.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the state assemblyperson for Perai.