Jayalalitha Jayaram: A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma. A Life of Tragedies, Hubris, Victories and Downfall.

The conviction of Jayalalitha Jayaram, a sitting Chief Minister, for amassing wealth beyond known sources of income and her subsequent unseating as Chief Minister, is without parallel in Indian political history. The conviction has sent the state into a spiral of constitutional crisis and stirred the political scene just when Jayalalitha seemed to reach the peak of her political career bagging almost all the seats in the just concluded parliamentary elections when Tamil Nadu, contrary to the most of the country, did not vote for BJP.

Jayalalitha had never known peace in her life ever since her idyllic school life was rocked by her mother demanding that she start acting in films lest the family, until then rich, comes to the streets. A nubile teenage girl was thrust into the ugly chauvinist world of films. Her first movie was rated 'Adults only' because she had appeared in sleeveless blouses and drenched under a waterfall, for a song, thus too steamy for the staid and conservative 60s. She, as the story goes, could not watch her own debut movie in theaters because she was not an adult. Also, her character in the movie is that of a young widow, a very inauspicious role for a debut film. One can only imagine the turmoil of a teenager, who scored a state rank in her Matriculate exam, in being subjected to such lecherousness.

In due course the reigning demigods of Tamil filmdom, MGR and Sivaji, had Jayalalitha as heroine in many of their movies. Her pairing with MGR was a hugely successful one with a chemistry that set tongues wagging and was so to later be the reason for a more bitter phase of her life, politics. In those days male chauvinism reigned supreme in the sets of a Tamil movie. Whenever MGR entered the film set all actors, especially the actresses, had to stand up. That was the least bothersome of what the actresses had to endure.

When her movie career started to wane she was in love with an already married fellow actor Shoban Babu. A very famous interview by her in those days had her viewing Babu from the balcony of the her leafy Poes garden bungalow through a binocular. She had, with uncharacteristic candor for those days, told the interviewer that she and Babu were 'going steady'. The photo and quote would be used repeatedly by her political opposition in later years to ridicule her. Yet again her life was not to be decided by her. MGR, who felt his own popularity was waning, decided to rope in his favorite heroine to be his party's propaganda secretary. Jayalalitha came out of a sort of retirement to dance in the World Tamil Conference convened by MGR. In later years her political enemies, all male, would chucklingly ridicule her that she was a 'danseuse'.

Jayalalitha became an extra-constitutional authority as the party's propaganda secretary. Though women politicians have existed in Tamil Nadu, including MGR's own cabinet, none had the charisma, the proximity to MGR and therefore the power as Jayalalitha did. When she addressed meetings no other party functionary, especially a male, would be seated next to her. It was said that camera men from new organizations were instructed on where they could photograph her from lest any unintended  unflattering pose be captured. When Khushbu resigned from DMK a popular photo that did the rounds on Facebook was one of her bending, with folded hands, in front of Karunanidhi in an unedifying angle. Perils of being a woman politician are many.

Again, Jayalalitha's world was rocked when her mentor and protector MGR fell ill suddenly in 1984, barely a few years since her debut into the political world. MGR's old acolytes, none of whom had any inkling of respect or regard for Jayalalitha, became a circle of coterie and she was left out in the cold. MGR returned from Brooklyn USA, a battered man. His oath of office ceremony was held in-camera. Those were Jayalalitha's years of political wilderness. On Dec 24th 1987 MGR passed away in his sleep.

MGR's body was kept in state at Rajaji hall for public display. Jayalalitha planted herself firmly at the head of MGR's corpse in full glare of TV relays. It was rumored that relatives of MGR's wife and others, annoyed at Jaya hugging the limelight and sending a not too subtle message on who will carry on the leadership, tried to dislodge her from the spot by pinching her. Later Jayalalitha committed a snafu by getting onto the gun carriage that was carrying MGR's corpse for the funeral rites. She pushed down headlong, again, in the full glare of TV live relay.

MGR's party was split with one section headed by his wife and yesteryear actress Janaki with the other headed by his protege, and some would say his romantic interest, Jayalalitha. Male political leaders of Janaki's faction freely indulged in innuendoes and insinuations against Jayalalitha that crossed all borders of decency. One Janaki supporters went to the extent of saying "when we see Janaki we feel like folding our hands in respect but not so for Jayalalitha" (the real quote was rumored to be even more objectionable). In the following election Karunanidhi, who had been frozen out of power for over a decade thanks to MGR's legendary charisma, returned to power. Though MGR's fractured party was defeated it was Jayalalitha who emerged victorious with far more seats than Janaki's faction thus eliciting the mantle of MGR to lead his party.

Jayalalitha entered another period of wilderness. During those years she endured withering sexism from her male opponents. Ridiculing her habit of appearing on the balcony of her home and waving to her supporters Kalimuthu coined the phrase "balcony damsel". He'd later grovel before her to become speaker of the assembly. It was during this time that she suffered a serious accident.

When Karunanidhi rose to present the annual budget Jayalalitha objected that a 'criminal should not read out the budget'. In 1979 when Indira Gandhi visited Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi's DMK had staged a black flag demonstration which had turned violent and Indira Gandhi was injured. Asked about Mrs Gandhi's bloody injuries Karunanidhi obscenely retorted that a woman could bleed for other reasons. A case of attempt to murder had been registered against Karunanidhi and was still not closed when he was elected CM in 1988. Enraged by Jayalalitha's charge Karunanidhi reportedly told her to "go speak to Shoban Babu". Now an angered Jayalalitha reportedly charged her  party men to snatch the budget copies from Karunanidhi's hands. At this point bedlam ensued. Jayalaitha exited the assembly disheveled and shaken. She later addressed reporters in the same state setting the rumor mills afire. It was rumored that a senior member of Karunanidhi's party had attempted to disrobe and humiliate her.

Dravidian party members, many of whom, including Karunanidhi, were bigamous were notorious for being disrespectful towards women. Their patron saint C.N. Annathurai, when asked about his dalliance with an actress, gave a repartee "neither is she a chaste woman, nor am I a saint who renounced all". Asked about rumors regarding a woman claiming him to be her husband Karunanidhi gave the famous reply, referring to his second wife Rajathi as "mother of my daughter Kanimozhi". DMK party speaker Vetrokondan and others like him were known to indulge in not just double entendre but plain ribaldry concerning a childless MGR and spinster Jayalalitha in their speeches (see a sample of Vetrikondan speech here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XIvFJaLJ0. It was a culture that both principal parties indulged in freely. ADMK party speakers then repaid in kindness with the predictable fodder of Karunanidhi's marriages. Such was the culture spawned by Dravidian party politics. Later in Jayalalitha's years a stable of speakers that included cine-actor S.S. Chandran and others kept up the tradition.

Prodded by Jayalalitha the Tamil Nadu government was dismissed using Article 356 by the pusillanimous and toady Chandrasekhar government at the center. Jaya administered to Karunanidhi in 1991 the medicine he had given to MGR in 1980. The subsequent election saw an earthquake when Rajiv Gandhi was murdered in a sleepy town in the outskirts of Chennai. Shocked by an assassination in their soil the Tamil voter punished the DMK, a party seen as hand in glove and sympathetic to the murderous separatist organization LTTE that had carried out the cold blooded assassination.

I remember Prannoy Roy's election day special vividly. The announcement flashed "DMK decimated. Karunanidhi trailing". Karunanidhi had never lost an election personally ever. He had contested from the Harbor constituency. Speaking at Kalimuthu's election rally, who was contesting from Kadaladi, Karunanidhi punned on their respective constituencies "கடலாடி வா. துரைமுகத்தில் காத்திருக்கிறேன்". Kalimuthu lost and Karunanidhi limped to victory with a lead of just under 1000 votes. For the next 5 years, as Jayalalitha had done earlier after being assaulted, Karunanidhi never stepped into the Tamil Nadu assembly.

Unlike MGR and Karunanidhi Jayalalitha lacked any political grooming and was catapulted by turn of events into ruling 40 million people. Her first reign 1991-96 was absolute disaster marked by tyranny and corruption. Taj Coromandel was ransacked just because T.N. Seshan, the former election commissioner and one who had said something critical of her, had stayed there. ADMK women's wing staged strip teases in court complexes to intimidate Subramanian Swamy who had launched a legal crusade against Jayalalitha after his associate was subject to a acid attack. Irked by her penchant to travel with a cavalcade of 1000 cars her own supporters Cho Ramasamy quipped "அவர் ஐயங்கார் இல்லை ஆயிரம் கார்". Celebrating an auspicious occasion Jayalalitha and her confidant Sasikala bathed in the holy waters of a Kumbakonam temple when nearly 200 devotees died in a stampede due to security arrangements. Consumer advocate K.M. Vijayan who was en-route to the airport to go to Delhi for arguing against Tamil Nadu's oppressive 69% quota system of reservation was attacked and maimed for life. DK's Veeramani later celebrated Jayalalitha as the protector of social justice.

Subramanian Swamy sought the governor's permission to prosecute her for buying government land, in violation of rules, on behalf of a company that she was a partner of. The governor refused to oblige. Later Jayalalitha would malign the governor, on the floor of the assembly, as having tried to sexually assault her.

The Tamil Nadu assembly became an ugly spectacle of ministers prostrating at her feet and singing her praises without fail whenever they got up to speak. In a shocking episode the newly elected speaker, Sedapatti Muthiah, prostrated at Jayalalitha's feet right inside the assembly. In another shocking episode, during a function, Jayalalitha sat on the speaker's chair while her confidante Sasikala, not even an elected member of the body, sat on the deputy speaker's chair.

The nadir of Jayalalitha's first tenure was the ostentatious Rs 100 crore marriage that she conducted for an 'adopted son', a relative of Sasikala. The bride was veteran thespian and yesteryear film colleague Sivaji Ganesan's grand daughter. Jayalalitha and Sasikala appeared bedecked in jewelry from head to toe. Photos of their grandeur was splashed in TV channels and news papers including international press. The marriage spectacle angered many who lived in grinding poverty. That too seeing Sasikala who had no constitutionally guaranteed political power in such corruption funded finery angered many. Sasikala and her family had gained notoriety, for land grabbing, as the 'Mannargudi Mafia'. A disenchanted electorate delivered a stinging verdict including a humiliating defeat of her own candidacy at Bargur. An unknown candidate from DMK was the giant killer.

Flush with victory and euphoria the DMK foisted several cases on her in addition to the ones that Swamy had launched. When Jayalalitha was arrested in a case her party men went on a rampage. In Dharmapuri a bus carrying school girls was way laid and torched resulting in the death of 4 students.

Jayalalitha bounced back in the 1998 parliamentary elections when she aligned with the BJP. India's prime minsters who often owe their power to the cow belt of North India were prone to ignore South India. Jayalalitha changed that in 1999 when she withdrew her party's support to Vajpayee. Standing in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan grounds she declared, in Hindi, that she was no longer supporting the government. No valid reason was given. Jayalalitha had arrived on the national scene, albeit, in an uncomplimentary manner. Vajpayee lost the trust vote by one vote, thanks to Mayavati who switched her votes at the last minute.

In a case of rank political opportunism, as is his tradition, Karunanidhi immediately aligned with BJP, a party he had ridiculed for stoking religious tensions and being inimical to minority communities, his vote bank.

Karunanidhi who sought to pass on the mantle to his son M.K. Stalin presided over a decent administration that time. However, in the run up to the 2001 elections he failed to stitch together a decent alliance and Jayalalitha romped to power. She sought to return the favor of foisting cases by filing a case against Karunanidhi for supposedly taking bribes in constructing the many 'flyovers' that marked his attempt to stem the unmanageable traffic of Chennai. The arrest episode and the drama enacted by Karunanidhi, not apparent in the first few days but only later as more evidence appeared, was a bad start to her second term.

Battling legal cases Jayalalitha unleashed a despicable tactic of silencing her critics or terrorizing those she considered inimical, including a member of the judiciary and her own erstwhile adopted son, by foisting 'ganja' cases wherein contraband was planted by the police and later claimed to be found on the accused.

Jayalalitha shocked the Hindu community and her fellow Brahmins when the much revered pontiff of Kanchi mutt Jayendra Saraswati was arrested, on Diwali day no less, on murder charges. A critic of Kanchi mutt was murdered right in the sanctum sanctorum of a temple. Jayalalitha's government alleged that the murder was carried out on the orders of the pontiff who was irked by the critic. Her ardent supporter Cho Ramasamy reasoned that Jayalalitha would not have dared to do such an almost sacrilegious thing without adequate proof. But when the junior pontiff too was arrested on the day the senior was released on bail it became plain that there was more to this than just the desire to get justice for a slain man.

A welcome relief was the hunting and killing of forest brigand Veerappan, the largest manhunt in history, by a team headed by IPS officer Vijayakumar. The operation was everything that a previous operation headed by Devaram in her first tenure was not. That she is tough on law and order unlike her opponent Karunanidhi, who had buckled to a ransom event by Veerappan earlier, was established again.

The highlight of Jayalalitha's second term was the constitutional crisis she precipitated. As she was yet to clear herself of the TANSI land deal conviction she could not contest in the 2001 elections. She nevertheless filed petitions for candidacy in 4 constituencies and was reject in all 4 because the limit for filing was 2 constituencies. She blamed the DMK government and garnered some sympathy, unfairly, on that count. An irritated Karunanidhi retorted unedifyingly "நானா கொழுப்பெடுத்துப்போய் இரண்டு இடத்தில் மனு சமர்ப்பிக்கச்சொன்னேன்". Unexpectedly Jayalalitha's ADMK swept to power. Using the loop holes of the constitution she ascended the chief ministership since anybody can be elected by the largest seat holding party to be their leader provided they contest an MLA election within 6 months to become an MLA. Jayalalitha's issue was that she had been prohibited from contesting in the first place not that she did not contest. A case was duly filed in the Supreme Court which declared her move unconstitutional and unseated her as chief minister. A placeholder, O.Panneerselvam, was selected to keep the seat warm while she tried to clear herself of the TANSI land deal conviction.

Jayalalitha took the TANSI land deal conviction to the Supreme Court. In a verdict that stunned the nation and the judiciary the Supreme Court judge while accepting that she acted illegally released her saying that she can answer to her conscience. The judgment remains the butt of many jokes even today. Promptly Jayalalitha took the reins back.

Despite all the shenanigans that she did, her opposition DMK was still struggling to gain back the voters trust. The 2006 election saw the advent of shameless promotion of supposedly welfare schemes like free color TVs for all by the DMK. It'd be fair to say that without that kind of a salacious promise the DMK may very well have lost the 2006 election. Even though the ADMK lost the DMK won just barely and lost half the seats in its bastion Chennai.

Karunanidhi's tenure in 2006-2011 was marked by rampant corruption, of an unprecedented scale, land grabbing, also of unprecedented scale, sycophancy that made Jayalalitha look modest, tyranny, especially of the lucrative and much attention gathering filmdom and above all a crippling electricity shortage that plagued the state with multi-hour power cuts. The DMK was trounced in the 2011 elections paving the way for a third term for Jayalalitha.

Jayalalitha started off her third term, as usual, with a string of rash decisions that mostly were designed to undo, irrespective of merits, everything her predecessor did. That the two parties have been alternating shows the lack of choice for Tamil Nadu voter.

Maturing as a savvy politician Jayalalitha, in her third term, outsmarted Karunanidhi on every issue that he had once used, with great effect, as a political wedge to differentiate himself to gullible voters. Whether it is supporting the convicts in Rajiv Gandhi's murder or getting water from Karnataka or the Mullaperiyar dam issue Jayalalitha played her cards well.

 In the recently concluded 2013 parliamentary elections ditching all other alliance partners she undertook a whirlwind tour of the state as the sole indefatigable campaigner of her party. Her helicopter hopping, ministers waiting with bowed heads at the helipad and her speeches were fodder for internet humor. But she had the last laugh. Jayalalitha romped home with 37 MPs. A feat that not even the legendary charisma of MGR could achieve. DMK was stunningly routed. Even as Modi mania swept all of India Jayalalitha denied him the satisfaction of a complete victory. Jayalalitha the politician had arrived with a bang.

 Every once in 5 years the voter simply throws out, often by a huge margin, the incumbent and gifts power to the then opposition party with sickening regularity for the past 23 years since 1991. The DMK, trounced in 2011 and the parliamentary elections of 2013, is still reeling from factionalism and a string of defeats. It was widely expected that Jayalalitha's ADMK could be re-elected in 2016 thus beginning the end of DMK. Now, all bets are off.

Jayalalitha lacked the natural political instincts of MGR and the savviness of Karunanidhi. A politician by accident and compulsion she was just maturing into a better leader when this conviction derailed her. Her titular and whimsical manner of government is legendary. Yet, many who meet her in person have often felt that she is an intelligent and pragmatic person one could do business with. Just as the person thinks they had been misinformed Jayalalitha will prove that they were gullible. Never having had a normal relationship with males she came to see her male opponents as nothing short of mortal enemies. She rarely, if at all it happened, showed grace toward anybody. Without people she could call friends or family all she had around her opportunists and opponents.

It is also true that Jayalalitha never got her due even when she deserved it simply because she happened to be a woman and a former actress catapulted to a position of power in a state that fawns over actors. Karunanidhi, an astute and savvy political operator, has always been held in awe, thanks to flashy rhetoric, by the literate as an ideologue, though in reality he has neither the intelligence to craft an idea nor the sincerity to adhere to an idea.

Let us also not forget that everything that Jayalalitha can be blamed for was actually seeded by Karunanidhi. Justice Sarkaria who headed his eponymous commission,  formed to probe the scandalous Veeranam scheme of Karunanidhi, wrote that Karunanidhi had perpetrated  bribery with 'scientific' methods. The finger of suspicion points to Azhagiri on the Tha. Krishnan murder. That case was ignominiously closed during Karunanidhi's tenure when witnesses became hostile. A case relating to burning a newspaper office resulting in the death of two employees, instigated by Azhagiri, was also let to die. In a corruption case relating to Stalin one of the witnesses, a friend, conveniently committed suicide along with his entire family including a toddler. DMK general secretary and Karunanidhi's perpetual sidekick Anbazhagan today croaks that his suit to transfer Jayalalitha's case out of Tamil Nadu was not out of political vendetta and that he was just following his party's resolution in that regard.

Every politician of Tamil Nadu is an opportunist scumbag. PMK founder and sudden millionaire Ramadoss once declared that if he ever aligned with Jayalalitha it will be as disgusting as having slept with his own mother. And then he aligned with Jayalalitha. Out of a sense of decency I will not ask any further questions of Ramadoss. When the BJP government moved the POTA bill with sweeping provisions to arrest people suspected of even voicing support for a banned organization Vaiko, who supports LTTE, a banned organization, voted for it. Promptly Jayalalitha used the bill to arrest him. Later for the sake of a few seats Vaiko aligned, fruitlessly, with Jayalalitha for the 2006 elections. G.K. Moopanar who broke away from Congress to form TMC solely because Congress high command in Delhi decided to align with Jayalalitha in 1996, much against the wishes of many congressmen, later went back to align with her. Thirumavalavan aligned with Jayalalitha and ridiculed Karunanidhi before switching parties in the next election. Subramanian Swamy, the cause of all her misery today, after filing all lawsuits went and aligned with Jayalalitha only to get elected to the parliament with her support. R.M.Veerappan and Kalimuthu, who had heaped scorn on Jayalalitha, later meekly sought her blessing. S.D. Somasundaram, a senior menmber of MGR's cabinet, who had quit the cabinet protesting the undue attention given to Jayalalitha, later gained notoriety for hanging onto her van's side and dangling. Several of Jayalalitha's former ministers who faced lawsuits for corruption under the DMK regime are now in the DMK camp. So much for the new found clamor for probity in public life.

I am all for prosecuting and punishing corruption in public life. If Jayalalitha had been convicted in 1997 I may have had lesser sympathy for her. Its not that she redeemed herself completely its just that I see others who have committed murders, instigated murders, even a rumored rape of a TV anchor, been corrupt on a grander scale have all escaped punishment and are acting with smug righteousness when all they should be doing is sticking their head several feet into the sand and dreading their own day of retribution.

Karunanidhi is trying not to be seen as gloating at his beet-noire's moment of downfall only because he is well aware that his daughter, from his second wife, is facing jail herself. It may very well come to pass that his first wife too may end up in jail. The Neera Radia tapes established how ministries were bartered and sold for a song to placate giant egos of his two wives who wanted their respective children to be cabinet ministers.

This month saw the conviction and sentencing of Virginia's popular ex-Governor and his wife for bribery, involving an amount of approximately Rs 1 crore. The governor was once thought to be a possible presidential candidate. Now he is facing many years in jail. Illinois governor was hauled out of his bed and handcuffed in a case where he was about to commit a crime. A sitting congressman, scion of a civil rights leader, and his wife are languishing in jail for misusing campaign funds. In each of those cases though the punishments are fully warranted I felt sorry that they had to face jail. Failures and downfalls, however well deserved, always bring about a sense of sadness because of what the punished have to face.

Jayalalitha fully deserves this punishment and even more. Think of K.M. Vijayan and Chandralekha, both are impaired for their remaining lives. The inability to say "she deserved it, lets move on" stems from memories of the arc of her life. If only her mom had not dragged into movies, if only Shoban Babu had not left, if only MGR had not dragged her to politics, if only she had realized what damage Sasikala was wrecking, if only she had had a wee bit of normal life and the ifs accumulate. A life filled with tragedy, disappointments, treachery, betrayals and sexism has now neared a cataclysmic climax. She may very well outsmart and bounce back and that would be a tragedy too for then justice would have died.

From a rank holding teenager in a premium convent, brought up in the lap of luxury, today Jayalalitha lives behind bars eating a ball of ragi rice. What a fall. In the movie 'Nixon' Henry Kissinger would muse to a colleague, when Nixon resigns, "can you imagine what he could have been if only he had been loved". The same is true of Jayalalitha Jayaram.

The climax scene of Jayalalitha's first movie 'Vennira Aadai' concludes with her donning the garb of a widow, a white saree. She would say that as a child she hated white color but is now destined to wear only that color because she was married and now widowed though her marriage last just two hours. Today, at the Central jail in Bangalore where she is lodged she dons a white saree.

After all that has happened and after all that we know of her life Jayalalitha Jayaram will remain a puzzle. We do not yet know what makes her tick, we may never know who the real Jayalalitha is. She is, with apologies to Churchill, a riddle wrapped in an enigma.