The ‘Amma’ looks quite mellowed for all her political toughness of the past and the knocks she has had, but is still prone to making arbitrary decisions, some of which have been judicially overturned, as in her move to defer introduction of the Karunanidhi Government’s uniform system of education in schools, while a few others had been stayed by the higher courts. A succession of quick changes in postings of IAS and IPS officers and subsequent reversals, and a third reshuffle in the Cabinet, dropping out six ministers and inducting new faces over short period have been true to her old style..

All these could over time begin to erode gradually the goodwill and appeal she evoked when she came back on a landslide victory in May, ousting DMK, and reducing this powerful ally of Congress to an insignificant minority in the new Assembly. But Ms. Jayalalithaa has established greater credibility with the masses, having made a determined start implementing her electoral promises including a monthly quota of free rice to poor families across the state and distribution of laptops to students and other consumer durables.

What is more, she has consolidated her political hold with another sweeping victory in the local body elections in October, the AIADMK gaining control of most of the municipal bodies and taking over all the ten corporations, including, for the first time, Chennai. DMK men are left to stew in their own juice. The new Government took on land grabbers on “genuine” complaints and those arrested included several DMK activists and half-a-dozen ex-Ministers, all facing trial. Land was restored to legitimate holders in scores of cases.

Drawing strength from her mandate, the Chief Minister made a surprise TV appearance to explain the state’s fiscal stress and the build-up of losses in public undertakings as a prelude to announcing stiff hikes in bus fares, milk price and power tariff. These would together make for rs.10,000 crores and provide some relief to cash-starved, loss-making public undertakings. From day one, she has held DMK “misrule” as the cause for the plight of power and other service utilities especially the TN electricity board which is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Bus fares relatively cheaper had not been revised for a decade nor electricity tariffs for some years, and Ms. Jayalalithaa appealed to the people to accept these “unavoidable hikes”, to help reduce the burden on the state budget. Peeved by lack of response by the Centre to her requests for special assistance of over Rs. two lakhs to provide succor to debt-distressed Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa charged UPA-II with giving step-motherly treatment for non-Congress-ruled states while obligingly making a special allocation of Rs. 21,614 crore to West Bengal Government, run by its ally TMC.

The AIADMK Government had presented a tax-free Rs.100,000 crore budget on August 4, after a pre-budget revision of sales tax on luxuries and increase in excise duty on liquor, the most buoyant source of revenue for this state, calculated to yield Rs.4,000 crores. The budget was packed with the promised welfare schemes besides large provisions for power (over Rs.22,000) and other sectors. It promised end to the power shutdowns state-wide by the end of August 2012.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said DMK Government’s total neglect of the power sector led to under-generation, a severe shortage and power cuts and mounting losses for TNEB totaling Rs.45,000 crores till March 2011. Though she also lambasted the Karunanidhi Government for the State’s Rs. 100,000 crore debt, her government’s budget also left a gap of Rs.17,000 crores to be met by borrowings which would hence raise the debt level further.

Contrary to her post-poll soundings, Ms Jayalalithaa indulged in vendetta politics upturning most welfare schemes of DMK Chief Mr Karunanidhi and rejecting use of the massive edifice he had created as a new Assembly-Secretariat complex at a cost of Rs.500 crores. She also recently decided to shift the hugely popular and centrally-located Anna Memorial Library and instead locate a speciality hospital there. The planned shift has been stayed by the Madras High Court on a batch of public interest petitions.


Ms. Jayalalithaa has opted to function from the historic Fort St. George, which houses both the Assembly and Secretariat. Politically, she has deftly handled highly sensitive and volatile issues over the last few months such as the agitation against the commissioning of the Rs.13,000 crore Koodankulam nuclear plant agitation on safety grounds and the issue of changing to life imprisonment the death sentences for three Rajiv Gandhi murder convicts. The Dravidian outfits are also backing the anti-nuclear demonstration.

By a Cabinet resolution, the Jayalalithaa Government urged the Centre to halt the commissioning of the Rs.13,000-crore Koodankulam nuclear power plant until the local people’s fears are allayed. In the case of the three Sri Lankan Tamils with death sentences, whom the Dravidian parties want to save from gallows, Ms. Jayalalithaa got a resolution adopted in the Assembly referring the matter to the Centre for possible commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment Her own view is that the state government has no power to do anything after the President’s rejection of the mercy petitions of convicts.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has deputed a panel of experts to Koodankulam, scene of mass demonstrations, to talk to the people, study their grievances and assure them of the safety precautions built into the plant. Several experts besides former President Mr Abdul Kalam, a nuclear scientist himself, have visited the area and certified the plant is fully safe. He, however, suggested a plan for developing infrastructure and other facilities for the benefit of people living in areas around the plant site. The Centre has sought the cooperation of Tamil Nadu Government as the state itself would get 925 MW of power as its share.

In the civic elections, DMK distanced itself from the Congress and confronted AIADMK but lost most of the local bodies it had controlled and the Chennai and other corporations. AIADMK, which made the maximum gains, secured 39 per cent of the votes polled, the DMK coming next with 26 per cent while Capt. Vijaykanth’s DMDK was left behind with 10.11 per cent of votes. The Congress (5.71 per cent) did not win a single municipality while it lost deposits at most places. The party has a new President in Mr B S Gnanadesikan, whose main job is to unite all the factions and rejuvenate the organization to reclaim its place and face up to the challenging times ahead of the Parliamentary elections in 2014. (IPA Service)