Two Leaves, One state and that Romance -( Off topic)

Some ten months after I was born, the man closest to her heart (her only moral support and her political mentor) died. All that she wanted to do was to have a look at his dead body. She wasn't allowed. She somehow survived the trauma and went to the state assembly where some men headed by one of India's 'greatest' hypocrites ran out of arguments against her and resorted to physical assault. They tried to pull off her Saree. She survived this third grade act too. She would go on to survive a lot more in her way to create Tamil history. On June 24 , 1991 - J Jayalalitha became the first elected women chief minister in the history of Tamil Nadu.

From that very day it has been a very romantic tale. The people love her and she loves them back. And suddenly they are angry with her and she is angry too. They irritate her by going on a blind date with the sad guy and his family for five long years and they are too bored of his false promises by then. So they come back and she accepts the love of her life with open arms. This article goes back in the "sands" of time to reason out why she is definitely the better of the two things to have happened to Tamil Nadu.

To start off with, it is completely undeniable and a fact that Jaya would only be proud to accept that most of her even now growing popularity is thanks to her association with M.G.R. who for many other Tamilians means another three letter word staring with G and ending with D. In fact there are still remote villages in Tamil Nadu where people believe M.G.R. is alive and every time they vote, they vote for their 'thalaivar'. But there has to be something in the work and effort that politicians put in, in order to sustain the already available support of the people. And it is this extra effort that Jaya has put in without which it would have been impossible for her to be so popular despite being the target of a witch hunting of an unimaginably huge scale launched by the sad man who despite being in the political scenario for almost twice as many years as Jayalalitha is still not sure of holding on to his government for two consecutive terms.

Her first term as chief minister saw some of the most interesting ways of misusing power. We need pioneers in all fields and here was a very independent lady with complete control over a very important state of the country. She did do a lot for development but not a lot enough to attract the controversy addicted media. The most infamous among her notorious activities of those times were making Balu Jewellers go down under, causing a huge stampede in the kumbakonam mahamaagam, indulging in excessive corruption and owning a special 'collectors version' of 'wealth' :) [something which sun news (an open insult to unbiased news making) went on to publicly display a million times as soon as Jaya was arrested after being voted out of power]

But why did the media not look at the fact that during this very first term of her government, she banned high interest private loans, almost completed the Veeranam Water Supply Scheme for Chennai,banned lottery tickets to encourage savings, set up All women police stations, installed 'Rural Women Self Help Programme benefitting lakhs of ladies in villages, initiated the 'thottil Kuzhandai Thittam' which definitely is the work of an administrative genius.

Well one can't expect the people to take notice unless its told to them, and Jaya did not do this properly. More over there were multiple factors like the minds of Rajinikanth (offered a Padma Bhushan in exchange of campaigning - how lame) and Cho Ramasamy ( who genuinely wanted change and now repents ) which voiced for a change of governance and unfortunately led the people into a whole family of brilliant squanderers. Also known as the cement pirates, these men in charge of the state from 1996 to 2001 built more subways than necessary and took more commission than they could possibly handle.

But by the end of those treacherous five years from 1996 to 2001, an entire state was nodding in
disagreement with the way they were being governed. Jaya was in a pre-poll agreement with some similar minded parties. She went from district to district in break neck speed. Campaigning hard. Getting to the grass roots, speaking about the real issues. And what the 'makkal' gave her back was what she called the 'maghesan theerpu' - an absolute rout. Independent majority and complete power. And this time it truly was a golden era. Where there was a lot more right than most of the wrong. She wasn't allowed to be CM for some time, but she used puppets to continue administering the state with some great courage and caution at the same time.

Very good things happened to Tamil Nadu during this second term. The New Veeranam project was completed. The revolutionary 'Rain Water Harvesting scheme' was introduced. Veerappan was caught and killed. Video Piracy was brought to a minimum. She also carried out some very innovative acts like introduction of video conferencing in Jails and Courts, thus eliminating the need to bring the accused to extend the remand every time.

The best part, however was the mighty display of the iron hand during the teachers' strike. Though all political analysts say, it is this act of tough and near-oppressive administration that helped the DMK alliance come back to power in the next elections, I personally feel it is probably the best way of curbing chaos in a state where millions of people reside. 'Nethi Adi' is what they call it in tamil - she hit the nail on the head. And the people on strike had to comely come back to work.

But as it happened, an alliance of discomfort came together just for the sake of setting up their kids as union ministers and are presently ruling this state with the worst ways one can ever use to rule the place.

And you should see how the people, midway through this dreadful phase yearn for their mother. You should see how they react to her calls for support in the meetings. There is bliss and poetic silence in the multiple ruptures of noise that they make when she says "karunanidhiya thooki poduveengala? seiveergala?". The way she is campaigning and getting closer to HER state for these Lok Sabha elections are only a sign of things to come. The real romance will start in 2011. When the state will run back and jump into the arms of the real mother of theirs and the mummy will return. Again.