View: Why Jayalalithaa and not Sasikala is the central character in the Tamil Nadu corruption saga
The Supreme Court has found VK Sasikala guilty of amassing disproportionate assets and conspiracy to acquire such assets. No breathless TV reporter has shown us even a single crocodile shedding tears for Sasikala. But the chief conspirator and the lead character in the saga of corruption denounced by the Supreme Court is not Sasikala but her friend and mentor, late TN chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Sasikala supporters say they will challenge the verdict. Naturally. But Panneerselvam has not opened his mouth to defend his dear leader’s reputation by challenging the Court’s verdict. Panneerselvam finds himself on the horns of a dilemma. As heir to Amma’s legacy and recipient of her blessing to hold office, Panneerselvam is duty-bound to defend Amma’s fair name and challenge the Supreme Court’s verdict, not just in the abstract but through any legal means available, such as a curative petition. But as claimant to the chief minister’s office on behalf of the AIADMK, he gains immensely from his opponent Sasikala’s judicial disqualification.
Should he welcome the court’s finding and prevail over the rival who has cast him out of the party, but, in the process, betray his late leader by accepting her guilt? Or should he place Amma’s honour first and challenge the court’s guilty verdict, thus also exonerating Sasikala? In either case, his claim to be Jayalalithaa’s successor to the chief minister’s office stands undermined. There is a simple explanation for this Panneerselvam paradox. His mandate is fundamentally flawed. The people voted an AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa, not by any one of those bowed heads which could align properly with their torsos in the late leader’s presence only when they were prostrate. They voted for her after the Karnataka high court had acquitted her. Now that her acquittal stands overturned and only her death has saved her from being sent to jail, that mandate stands vitiated.
The spirit of democracy calls for fresh elections to the Tamil Nadu assembly. Technical propriety can still make do with the elected legislators. The governor should convene the House and ask it to elect a leader, whom he should appoint as chief minister. That would be the least undesirable course in Tamil Nadu but the most unlikely one. As Dravidian politics goes into a tizzy, it is natural for the big, pan-India parties to gain a foothold. It would be amazing restraint, indeed, if the ruling party at the Centre did not use the power vacuum in Tamil Nadu to use the office of the governor to win friends and influence people for itself, even as OPS and VKS rack their brains on the morality of Jayalalithaa’s legal legacy.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.
Sasikala supporters say they will challenge the verdict. Naturally. But Panneerselvam has not opened his mouth to defend his dear leader’s reputation by challenging the Court’s verdict. Panneerselvam finds himself on the horns of a dilemma. As heir to Amma’s legacy and recipient of her blessing to hold office, Panneerselvam is duty-bound to defend Amma’s fair name and challenge the Supreme Court’s verdict, not just in the abstract but through any legal means available, such as a curative petition. But as claimant to the chief minister’s office on behalf of the AIADMK, he gains immensely from his opponent Sasikala’s judicial disqualification.
Should he welcome the court’s finding and prevail over the rival who has cast him out of the party, but, in the process, betray his late leader by accepting her guilt? Or should he place Amma’s honour first and challenge the court’s guilty verdict, thus also exonerating Sasikala? In either case, his claim to be Jayalalithaa’s successor to the chief minister’s office stands undermined. There is a simple explanation for this Panneerselvam paradox. His mandate is fundamentally flawed. The people voted an AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa, not by any one of those bowed heads which could align properly with their torsos in the late leader’s presence only when they were prostrate. They voted for her after the Karnataka high court had acquitted her. Now that her acquittal stands overturned and only her death has saved her from being sent to jail, that mandate stands vitiated.
The spirit of democracy calls for fresh elections to the Tamil Nadu assembly. Technical propriety can still make do with the elected legislators. The governor should convene the House and ask it to elect a leader, whom he should appoint as chief minister. That would be the least undesirable course in Tamil Nadu but the most unlikely one. As Dravidian politics goes into a tizzy, it is natural for the big, pan-India parties to gain a foothold. It would be amazing restraint, indeed, if the ruling party at the Centre did not use the power vacuum in Tamil Nadu to use the office of the governor to win friends and influence people for itself, even as OPS and VKS rack their brains on the morality of Jayalalithaa’s legal legacy.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.
