This refers to the editorial, “Politics of illness” (October 11). It is a pity that politics has hogged even the smallest space in our life. Our leaders have not even spared ailing rivals and have tried to read between the lines about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's illness. Jayalalithaa’s prolonged hospitalisation has precipitated the State in such a situation when her baiters are playing politics over her health issue. However, transparency about her treatment was essential as any Government, in the long absence of its head, needs a second-in-command to look after the affairs of the Government in order to avert administrative chaos.
All the same, the propaganda will not harm her public persona, given her immense popularity among the masses who brought her back in the Government for a second time on the trot, negating the much-hyped anti-incumbency factor. Even now, leaders are making a beeline to the hospital where Jayalalithaa is hospitalised.