Today is 5th December .. .. .. the road leading to beach – Wallajah road is a sea of cutouts, flex banners and posters .. and this stands out for its appeal !!
On that day 2 years
ago, the much awaited (everyone claiming to know the truth earlier than others
!) announcement came at midnight, confirming what most of Tamil Nadu had been
speaking about — the chief minister Ms J
Jayalalithaa, addressed and referred to by her epithet "Amma" since
the turn of the millennium, had passed away.The oscillation on the status of her health and the mystery drama behind her illness continued to
the end. On Sunday night, Apollo Hospitals began to tweet live updates, for the
first time since she was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit on the night of
September 22-23. On the day the hospital said Jayalalithaa would be going home,
she had a cardiac arrest.It is 2 years
since the passing away of former Tamil
Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa – State would mourn and remember her death.Ms Jayalalithaa, the state’s longest-serving
chief minister, failed to name a successor before her demise. This led to
multiple people staking claim to her legacy, yet things appear to have settled
now.
Following
Jayalalithaa’s death, it took nearly eight months for the warring factions of
the party, led by Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami and his predecessor O
Panneerselvam, to iron out their differences. After multiple rounds of talks,
the two factions struck a deal under which EPS remained CM and OPS his deputy.
They formally ousted Sasikala, who was serving as interim general secretary. Now the CM Mr Edappadi K Palaniswami is firm
in handling many issues and looks another commoner, earning praise of some
quarters too.
Puratchi Thalaivi
of Tamil Nadu - revolutionary leader - and the Amma of AIADMK, late chief
minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram was laid to rest in Chennai's Marina Beach amidst
a sea of humanity, now all the legal disputes too seemingly have been buried,
more with the passing of another former CM, laid to rest closer on the Marina. Thus that part of Marina now has 4 former CMs
interred.When she passed away, a marked characteristic of many of the obituaries
were that they were mostly written by
men about a powerful woman politician who has died in office, visibly at the
peak of her political career.
History may perhaps
remember Jayalalithaa as the Amma of the welfare wagon. Her lasting legacy will
no doubt include her pioneering initiative, the Amma Unavagam, or the Amma
Canteen which continues to sell a plate of idlis at Rs 1.From its launch in 2013, the Amma Canteen has
grown into a chain of low-cost eateries across the state. Its success had not
only ensured electoral victory for the AIADMK supremo, but also got Chief
Ministers from Delhi, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh among others taking notes to
replicate the Amma Unavagam in their respective states.
While Tamil Nadu
has garnered the reputation of being the freebie state of India, thanks to the
competitive politics between Jayalalithaa and her arch-rival M Karunanidhi, the
vision for the “welfare scheme” lies with Congress’ last Chief Minister of
Tamil Nadu, K Kamaraj. It was in the
1960s that Kamaraj introduced the mid-day meal scheme that has since been
implemented in schools across the country. As the story goes, Kamaraj who was
then the Chief Minister, was on a visit to Tirunelveli district, and came
across a boy who was herding cattle. When he asked the boy why he was not in
school, he reportedly asked the Chief Minister if he would give him food to if
he went to school. And thus the mid-day meal scheme became public policy. While
Kamaraj conceived the scheme, its scope was largely limited to rural primary
schools. It was Chief Minister MG Ramachandran who propelled the mid-day meal
scheme in 1982, expanding its base to cover all primary school children in the state,
providing them one square meal a day. It became a benchmark scheme for the rest
of the country.
This populism,
instituted by MGR, has since grown leaps and bounds in the Dravidian state. MGR was considered a darling of the masses and
Jayalalithaa inherited it totally, which perhaps no other leader would become
entitled in that manner.In September
2012, Jayalalithaa was in Delhi for a Cauvery River Authority (CRA) meeting.
The then Karnataka chief minister, Jagadish Shettar, and water resources
minister, Basavaraj Bommai, were present too.The mood in the room was frosty, with the two states at loggerheads as
usual about the issue of water sharing. Bommai tried to break the ice and
introduced himself to Jayalalithaa in Kannada.Soon, the two of them were
chatting comfortably in Kannada but when
it came to business, Jayalalithaa would not budge from her position although
Bommai tried to convince her not to insist on the release of water. Despite her
birthplace and love for the Kannada language, Jayalalithaa identified herself
as a Tamil woman.
It is no wonder
that Amma as she is fondly known, Jayalalithaa still lives in Tamil Nadu. .. .. for rest of us, be wary that there
most likely could be traffic meltdowns with Wallajah road getting cordoned off
with the CM and other factions too holding out rallies and more .. .. the State
remembers passing away of its former CM
With regards – S. Sampathkumar 5th Dec. 2018.
