Playing Opposition
It's a joke, says Jaya. She must be right because it’s probably the first time that a ruling party is planning to organise state-wide agitations against an opposition leader (AIADMK chief Jayalalitha) on August 4. As she says, its “laughable” because usually opposition parties, powerless to do anything else against the ruling party, resort to bands/protests/agitation. But why would the DMK, seen here as invincible as the state hurtles towards an assembly election, instead of taking Jaya on politically choose to go the agitation route? And it is not too difficult to take her on considering desertions from her party, her long absences over the last few years because she escaped to the hills in Kodanadu, her imperiousness with her allies, not to mention her very black and white perspective in an arena where grey rules...
Deputy CM Stalin’s justification is that Jaya is trying to project herself as clean and non-corrupt despite a rash of statements exposing her by CM Karunanidhi. She has stalled the courts for 13 years in the disproportionate wealth case, her latest ploy being to blame "incorrect translation" and she therefore sought – and even got – an adjournment. “Her only aim is to escape punishment by dragging the case,” says Stalin. Duh, no justifications here, but that’s what politicians do. Has his father not dug his heels in, refusing to drop Union Minister Raja, although he has been accused of scamming the country of Rs 29,000 crore?
Stalin says the DMK wants to focus the spotlight on Jaya for the court’s benefit (incidentally, it must be in Stalin’s genes to mess with the court because his father also tried to defy the Apex Court on the Sethusamudram issue three years ago). Really, or has Amma’s Coimbatore rally, which surprised everyone ready to write her political obituary, has the DMK running scared? Because while she may appear friendless (she is not even sure of the Congress being on her side at the moment), Jayalalitha already has the left and MDMK on her side and if she and Vijayakant sink their egos and align then there should be cause for worry for the DMK.
About A Shrine
A national newspaper carried a picture of CM praying before a photograph of his mother, Anjugam Ammal, during his visit to " his native Thiruvarur" (near Tiruchi) this week – where he inaugurated the state’s 17th medical college built at a cost of Rs 110 crore – which carried the caption: “CM at the shrine of his mother.” Shrine? The dictionary defines a shrine as a “holy or sacred place”. Even if the CM considers the place where his mother’s photograph is kept as a shrine, should the rest of us?