Rest In Peace
The 17th century Fort St George played host to the 14th Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on Monday when the process of swearing in 234 newly-minted legislators began. The day was marred by the death of environment minister, Mariam Pitchai, who took oath of office one week ago, and was killed in a road accident.
The last time an assembly sitting was held there was in January last year when Karunanidhi was the chief minister. In May 2007, the idea of a new Assembly-Secretariat was mooted. It was his gift to himself — paid by all of us, of course — on finishing 50 years as an MLA.
By the time the budget session had come around, Karunanidhi had got the Rs 1100 crore assembly-secretariat complex hurriedly inaugurated — although it was barely ready — by the PM Manmohan Singh in the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi on March 13, 2010. A former IAS officer says that the occupancy certificate may have been “managed” because the building was far from ready then and even 14 months down the line construction is still continuing.
Now, with CM Jayalalitha saying her government cannot function in an incomplete complex — only six of the 30 departments were shifted — and she could not have ministers sitting in Fort St George while their officers were two kms away, it seems to be R.I.P. for the new complex: March 16, 2010—May 15, 2011.
If Jayalalitha refused to step into that Green building — calling it once a “circus tent” and one time the headgear of a Puducherry policemen — Karunanidhi too has not so far come back to Fort St George. It was always expected that he would not but the question was how he would get around oath taking. Apparently, he has kept it for another day, heading to Delhi on the morning when MLAs took their oath. He went to Delhi to see daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP, who has been sent to Tihar jail as a co-conspirator in the 2G scam. Meanwhile, he’s made son Stalin the leader of the party in the assembly.
Hoary history
Interestingly, it is the fifth time that the assembly has moved back to the UNESCO precinct since the first legislative council was held there in 1921. The legislature was shifted for the first time from the fort on July 14, 1937 to the Senate house on Madras University campus (where Jayalalitha was sworn in as the CM) after the acceptance of the Government of India Act, 1935, introducing bicameral legislature, and was shifted to Banqueting Hall (Rajaji Hall), on Jan. 27, 1938 when Rajaji became the CM. But, the legislature came back to the fort on May 24, 1946, only to be shifted four years later to Omandurar estate (Kalaivanar Arangam) because it was too small to hold 375 members.
But it functioned there only till December 27, 1956. Four months later, on April 29, 1957, the legislature was moved back to the fort for the third time and it functioned there till March 30, 1959. Again on August 31, 1959, the legislature was brought back to Fort St. George for the fourth time and continued there for a little over 50 years till Jan. 11, 2010. One can only hope the fifth time will spell a change where as IAS officer C Umashankar put it, “The CM should only work for public interest.”
The Numbers they did
Incidentally, Karunanidhi won a record 12th time as an MLA recently when Tiruvarur constituency elected him by a margin of over 50,000 votes. This was his best victory margin ever. It is an irony that the DMK sank under the Jayalalitha tsunami winning a mere 23 seats, losing even its opposition party status, ceding it to Vijaykanth’s DMDK which won 29 seats.
Another irony is that Jayalalitha swept the elections in the state but her vote margin of victory from Srirangam was only about 42,000 and that too against DMK first timer N Anand, who is half her age, and who got over 63,000 votes.
The youth vote proved decisive for Jayalalitha’s victory. Not only should she thank alliance partner Vijaykanth but also actor Vijay, who was one of the early ones to congratulate her on May 13, because they brought in the youth votes. Vijay had signalled his Illayathalapathy Makkal Iyakkam to throw their weight behind the AIADMK. After the “tough time” he had releasing Kavaalan is it any wonder that the actor is happy the DMK was “decimated” and is still “savouring Amma’s victory.”
The benefits of backing the winning side has already paid off. He got to premiere the promo of his next film, Velayudham, on Jaya TV even as Jayalalitha’s victory march was on. No wonder it was the most watched trailer on the Internet. Now, word is that Jayalalitha has been invited to the launch of Velayudham by Vijay and his director-father S A Chandrasekharan. She should bear in mind her constant criticism of Karunanidhi — that he spent more time at film functions than in governing the state!
Reshuffling babus
There are about 300 IAS and about 175 IPS officers in the state. And like all new CMs Jayalalitha too is reshuffling them. In the first 10 days in office, she has reversed three major decisions of Karunanidhi — brought the administration back to Fort St George, put on hold the Uniform School Syllabus ( so what if textbooks costing Rs 200 crore are already printed), scrapped the proposal to have a legislative council quoting her mentor MGR as being against it and given marching orders to some officers seen as “close” to the earlier government and resurrected those who were languishing. In one day last week, the government transferred 52 officers —a full pack of cards, if you please. And it’s a mixed bag, there are those who say she has accorded prominence to young and upright officers, there are those who say “same old, same old.”
There is always collateral damage or as Congress leader E V K S Elangovan put it (in the context of the Congress-DMK alliance) eloquently “sahavasa dosham” (the effect of bad company). So Ashok Vardhan Shetty, who worked closely with former deputy CM Stalin, and is known for his commitment and integrity has been shunted to archives.
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Boondocks of postings
But no tears are being shed for a cop who has literally been sent off to land’s end. The cop is the former intelligence chief, Jaffer Sait, who was transferred by the Election Commission because he was too closely identified with the Karunanidhi administration. Incidentally, he chose to go on long leave then rather than go to West Bengal as the poll observer. He is the new Special Officer for the Mandapam Refugees Camp where the militant Sri Lankan refugees are kept. And there is nothing special about the post (in his case particularly because his rank is Additional Director General of Police) and in fact is treated as being equivalent of being sent to Siberia.
The office building has seen better days and he will have just one Inspector, a Sub-Inspector and four constables as subordinates. A far cry from his office as intelligence chief in the sea-facing heritage building on Marina. His ignominy will be that he will have to approach a junior officer (in this case the SP, Ramanathapuram) for a vehicle. As to where he will stay — he will have to rent a house or seek the government’s permission to stay in the colonial building at Mandapam. Sources say Sait has opted to rent a house.
Till 2001, the post was being looked after by a mere inspector. But that year, another additional DGP, A X Alexander, was sent there on punishment. Rather than sulk or get depressed, Alexander chose to get going and converted what used to be a ignored, lowly camp into what came to be called the golden period. Not only did Alexander decide to get the children of refugees educated, he ordered and got them textbooks and even tutored them!
Since Alexander other officers including then DIG Christopher Nelson — who arrested former CM Karunanidhi in a midnight drama that brought the then 78-year-old DMK chief much sympathy because of the callous way he was treated — have done tenures at Mandapam. But did not make a mark like Alexander. Also, is it any surprise that the Karunanidhi government sent Nelson there?
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Tihar Tourism
After the dramatic scenes at Tihar jail where the children of the former CM Karunanidhi’s second wife Dayalu — Azhagiri and wife Kanthi, Stalin and his wife Durga, Tamizharasu and wife Mohana and daughter Selvi — made nice with step-sister and 2G accused Kanimozhi, the daughter of Karunanidhi’s third wife Rajathi Ammal, a wag suggested it was time to start Tihar Tourism Tours. Yet another wag said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhamad had now become Tihar Munnetra Kazhagam!
