No Fights, Just Work
- For now, Jayalalitha isn’t indulging in vendetta politics
- She’s concentrating on making the administration effective. Law and order is a priority area.
- Promises to end power crisis
- Some freebies she promised are already being rolled out
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Given her history of unpredictability, and considering it’s only about a fortnight since she took office, it’s much too early to reach a definite conclusion about J. Jayalalitha’s behaviour as the new chief minister. Even so, there are many who say that, compared to how she conducted herself during her 1991 and 2001 stints, she comes across so far as mellowed down, far from arrogant, mature, relaxed, even witty.
Significantly, she is keeping in check her proclivity for vendetta. She has, of course, demanded what politicians usually demand—the resignation, for instance, of Union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran of her rival party, the DMK, for involvement in the 2G scam—and taken some jibes at the party itself. But she has not said a word against her No. 1 enemy, DMK supremo and former chief minister M. Karunanidhi, who she had had arrested in 2001, rather roughly and past midnight. Perhaps it’s because his daughter Kanimozhi is in jail in the 2G spectrum scam case and Jayalalitha wants to show she is sensitive to his grief. More likely, it’s because the DMK has been decimated—23 MLAs in a house of 234—and needs no more beating down.
Jayalalitha’s focus instead is on governance. Law and order and letting the police do its job is a priority. On her second day in office, she lectured her 32 ministers, of whom 24 are rookies, on “believing in the development mission”. “We thought she might concentrate on going after corrupt DMK leaders,” says one minister. “But she is focused on her development mission.” These ‘mission’ meetings continued for two weeks, during which she outlined her vision. She has also appointed a minister for implementation of special programmes.
Freebies remain a staple, as with the previous regime. On June 1, she unveiled a flagship programme that promises 20 kg free rice monthly to some 1.86 crore families and will increase the food subsidy by Rs 400 crore from the present Rs 4,000 crore per annum. She has doubled the pension for the aged, the handicapped and deserted or destitute women to Rs 1,000 per month. Other handouts: six months’ maternity leave for government employees; Rs 25,000 plus four grams gold in marriage aid for poor, educated women; Rs 50,000 plus four grams gold in marriage aid for poor women with diplomas; and increased assistance for fisherfolk.
The more-populist-than-thou battle with Karunanidhi, too, continues: free mixies, grinders and fans for women, laptops for Std xi, xii and college students, four sets of uniforms and a pair of shoes for schoolchildren. Manufacturers are gleeful at the thought of the money to be made if they win tenders, as were colour TV makers during the DMK regime. Jayalalitha had also promised in the AIADMK manifesto 300 sq ft houses, each costing Rs 1.8 lakh, to three lakh bpl families, and cows and sheep for certain categories of bpl families.
In the new regime’s early weeks, there’s no end to the shuffling about of the state’s 300 IAS and 175 IPS officers. Thirty of the state’s 32 districts have new collectors. Jayalalitha has made it a point to retain U. Sahayam in Madurai, who was brought in by the Election Commission to curb the influence and muscle of Karunanidhi’s son M.K. Azhagiri before elections. Till the postings are settled, Jayalalitha’s avowed commitment to development and industrial growth might prove difficult to realise.
The chief hindrance, though, comes from the power deficit of some 3,000 MW per month (generation is 7,300 MW), resulting in hours of load-shedding in cities and rural areas. Tamil Nadu’s focus on renewable energy sources has won it prizes—wind power being the biggest such source, and private players the chief contributors—but that’s unlikely to bridge the deficit. Moreover, small plants (800 MW or less) are threatening to stop generation unless tariffs are revised. Solar power is the solution Jayalalitha seems to have hit upon. “Making rainwater harvesting mandatory brought many benefits to the state during her earlier term, and the thrust on solar power will do the same,” says an AIADMK leader. But experts say solar power generation is hugely expensive. Will her promise of three-phase connections across the state in four years prove a tall order? True to her character, she has hinted at a “surprise”, apparently to be revealed in the governor’s address. But this much stands: the power situation is an area of concern; even her electoral ally, Vijayakanth of the dmdk, stresses on this.
The new regime has also rushed into controversy by putting off the Samacheer Kalvi (uniform school curriculum), unifying syllabuses of the state and other school boards, and to be introduced for Std ii-v and Std VII-X from this academic year. Jayalalitha says this DMK government idea won’t improve the quality of education. Her decision is likely to cost the state some Rs 200 crore, for over nine crore textbooks of the unified syllabus have already been printed. Karunanidhi, to whom, or to whose writings, there were references in some textbooks of the new syllabus, says, “If Senmozhi, the song I penned for the World Classical Tamil Conference last year, was the reason for shelving the syllabus, there’s no harm in removing my song and name and retaining the syllabus.”
Already, pils have been filed against the government on the new syllabus and on her working from Fort St George instead of the new Rs 1,100-crore assembly complex that was Karunanidhi’s pet project, saying that both decisions cause losses and much inconvenience. Are these signs of confrontation ahead, in which, badgered by her opponents, she would revert to striking back in overreaction?
Too early to say. For now, the media is charmed by her promise to give the opposition space, which even prompted Karunanidhi to ask his cadres to “cooperate on good endeavours”. The media is also happy with her weekly press conferences. At the one held last week, she answered questions patiently. She has a vote of confidence from her friend Narendra Modi, who too of late has been recasting himself: “There are only two camps in India—those committed to development and those committed to vote banks. Jayalalitha is committed to development.” Five years to prove that.
