by Ravi Ladduwahetty Courtesy Ceylon Today

I will not agree with what you say. But, I will defend to death, your right to say it. I will not agree with what you write, but, I will make every room for you to write
– Voltaire

Voltaire was the nom de plume of Frenchman François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778) who was enlighten-ment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of church and State. He was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets.

JJ: The untold and unwritten story

Journalists, writers both in Sri Lanka, India and other parts of the world, have tripped over their toes, bent over backwards to write raving epitaphs and eulogies about the life and times of former Chief Minister of the Tamil Nadu State Jayalalithaa Jayaram, endearingly dubbed as Amma, but this columnist today, reveals the sordid unwritten story of the life and times of the self-acclaimed matriarch of South Indian politics, the story behind the story, which all this time, was an epitome of the Latin Cliché Suppresso Veri which translated to simple English, means ‘The truth, but, not the whole truth’.

JJ’s benchmarks – queen of corruption
She had a spate of benchmarks. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa may have earned the accolades of being an actress cum politician turned first woman Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, but, at the same time, she also earned herself the sobriquet of being the first Chief Minister in the Indian subcontinent to be unseated by the Indian Supreme Court.

Some media houses dubbed her as the Queen of Corruption, not without reason. She was exonerated from some cases. She had amassed Indian Rs 66 Crore (INR 660 million which is the equivalent to Rs 1452 million or Rs 1.4 billion or more. She was jailed on corruption charges, notwithstanding her consulting astrologers about her horoscope twice a day.
After the Tamil Nadu regime changed, the government had to set up three Special Courts to exclusively deal with the cases against her which also included 12 major cases of corruption against JJ alone, with another 33 cases against her associates with her confidante Sasikala, former Ministers and bureaucrats.

The highlight of the discovery was that all the allegations and charges were based on her tenure of office. The long legal route that she traversed so far and yet so traversed, will take volumes of books to encapsulate them all. An Encyclopedia Britannica, possibly with 24 of more volumes.

She was also alleged to have been dubbed as the Queen of Corruption and Fraud, preaching morals to others. In short, she was portrayed as a sanctimonious humbug!

DISPROPORTIONATE ASSETS

She has been in the possession of 200 acres of land, 32 kilos of gold, 12,000 sarees and 750 pairs of shoes et al!
Whenever charges were levelled against the DMK Ministers in the UPA Government at the Centre, JJ was on her toes, demanding their immediate resignation or sacking by the Prime Minister. Whenever they quit the Cabinet on their own accord and volition, her instant comment was ‘Too little, too late’. Both the Indian print and electronic media’s self ordained crusaders against corruption, gave her more prominent coverage than the main Opposition parties in Parliament like the BJP and the Left. Of late, until her demise after cardiac arrest, she was portrayed as another Anna Hazare or Baba Ramadev.
It is greatly believed that people have short memories and the Indian media is also no exception, which proclaims the role of ‘Opinion Makers.’

LAUGHING STOCK OF CHILDREN

Even children of Tamil Nadu, contemptuously laugh away at JJ’s pretentions against corruption, because of centuries to come, JJ’s name will be synonymous with corruption. She is still not out of the mire for corruption because she got entangled for corruption in her first regime 20 years ago and manipulated to come out of it by hook or by crook.
Whenever she and her regime were accused for corruption, she didn’t care tuppence, even with the Governor of the State giving his consent to prosecute her.

FOUGHT HARD TO SEND JJ TO JAIL

President of the Janatha Party Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, who was politically involved with Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and the NDA, and known for his blunt talk, and also once a close friend of JJ, fought hard to send her to jail in the disproportionate asset case.

The level of her amassed wealth is evidenced by her foster son’s wedding which had a whopping 150,000 guests. The foster son was also implicated as one of the principal suspects in a fraud case.

SRI LANKA: JJ‘s SWORN ENEMY

In a resolution adopted in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on 16 September 2015, TN sought diplomatic efforts by the Central Government to change any possible pro-Sri Lanka stand adopted by the US in the UN rights body.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously asked the Centre to move a ‘strong resolution’ in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for an international probe into the alleged war crimes and alleged genocide in the final phase of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

“In case, the United States takes a pro-Lankan stand, India should take diplomatic efforts to change that,” Jayalalithaa said to the unanimous approval of the members in the House.
Moving the resolution, the Chief Minister said that the UNHRC will hold its sessions between 14 September and 2 October 2015. On 30 September, there will be a debate on the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka.

It has been proposed to take action based on the draft agreement on 1 and 2 October, she said. Meanwhile, media reports suggested that the Sri Lankan Government’s views had been sought on the report.
In such a situation, there are apprehensions that a resolution favouring ‘internal inquiry’ by the Sri Lankan Government could be moved in the UNHRC. “It is against natural justice. India has a great responsibility to stop it,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said.
It was in this context it was decided to unanimously pass a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly urging the Centre to take steps through the UNHRC for an international probe, she explained.

The Chief Minister also recalled the earlier resolutions moved by her in the Assembly urging India not to treat Sri Lanka as a ‘friendly nation’ and impose ‘economic sanctions’ on the island nation for its war crimes.
Another resolution had demanded that India boycott a meeting of Heads of Commonwealth nations held in Sri Lanka in 2013, besides insisting on the non-participation of Sri Lankan players and officials in IPL matches in Chennai.
“BCCI agreed and is following it till now,” Jayalalithaa said, hailing it as a victory for her government to the loud thumping of desks by the ruling party men.

The writer can be contacted at raviladu@gmail.com