Tamil Nadu politics is undergoing a rare phase since the hospitalisation of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on September 22. Though the management of Apollo Hospitals has been issuing periodic releases about her health and saying that she is responding well to treatment and may have to stay on for recuperative treatment, rumours and speculations continue unabated in the State.
“Besides issuing releases, the hospital management convened a Press meet and informed all that the Chief Minister is fine. Do you think the hospital authorities will tell liesIJ There is something fishy behind these rumours,” CR Saraswathy, AIADMK spokesperson told The Pioneer.
The demand by DMK chief M Karunanidhi, that the Government should come out with the pictures of Jayalalithaa has surprised and even shocked many political observers as they doubt Karunanidhi’s intentions.
“During the UPA regime, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, had gone to the USA in 2013 for treatment. She was in hospital for almost two months. Karunanidhi did not ask for her pictures or medical bulletins at that time. A person like Jayalalithaa deserves some kind of privacy. It has to be pointed out that the absence of Jayalalithaa from her house and the Secretariat has not caused any inconvenience to anybody,” said Peer Mohammed, a political commentator based in Chennai. Peer and officials in the Intelligence wing were unanimous in their view that the DMK has been trying to destabilise the Jayalalithaa Government from day one. “There is a concerted attempt by some politicians to spread rumours that Jayalalithaa is seriously ill though the hospital issues releases about her health daily,” he said.
re is a move by these politicians to spread the rumour that the releases issued by the hospitals are not correct, These politicians want the people to believe that Jayalalithaa is ill,” said Peer Mohammed.
There were reports in local media that the DMK had identified 30 MlAs belonging to the AIADMK who are vulnerable to any kind of poaching by Karunanidhi and his family members. “Since the anti-defection law will automatically disqualify these persons from the House, the mission is to make them resign their membership which would destabilise the government,” said an intelligence official.
The same pattern was visible immediately after the conviction of Jayalalithaa by the special court in the disproportionate wealth case, pointed out Mohammed. “While she appealed against the special court order, the same people spread the impression that everything was over for her. But they had to eat their words when the Karnataka High Court acquitted her of all charges,” he said.
“Karunanidhi is 93 years old and he is a man in a hurry because 2021, when assembly elections are due in Tamil Nadu, is far away for him. He will get eternity in Tamil political history only if he regains the chief minister’ s office,” said a political commentator who does not want to be named. He pointed out that Annadurai and MG Ramachandran could be buried at Mareena Beach and were honoured with permanent memorials only because they died in office. “A former chief minister may not get that honour as on today,” he said.