The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa was declared dead on Monday night after a tumultuous few weeks at Apollo Hospital. Chennai was muted in its response, whether saddened at the death of its beloved ‘Amma’ or heaving a sigh of relief that the anticipated mayhem was not unleashed...I am not sure. All shops were shut in mourning or for safety, depending on how you’d look at it, police and military forces were deployed to keep law & order in control, and volunteers are scurrying about doing what they could to help manage and feed the crowds that were gathered at Rajaji Bhavan to bid her farewell.
I was sifting mindlessly through TV channels, and noticed nothing but the logo change, as the cameras all zoomed into Amma’s body dressed in a colourful saree, bereft of jewellery and draped with the Indian flag. I read the papers, and struggled to keep pace with the numerous articles and op-eds, stories and anecdotes that were being churned out by the minute. I wondered what else I could possibly say about the woman — a leader whose politics I did not agree with but admired from afar. My eyes wandered over to my bookshelves from the computer, and as it had always been, I found in the books the answer to my angst.
The titles of author Jeffrey Archer’s best selling Clifton Chronicles, a series of seven books, so very aptly segment the life of the late chief minister. Only Time Will Tell is the first of them that would fittingly chronicle the young Komalavalli, a proficient dancer prophesied to become a star by actor Sivaji Ganesan when she was all of twelve, and who was forced to give up her books for a career in acting. Jayalalithaa’s stardom in Kollywood, several awards for her finesse as a performer, 27 films with co-star and mentor MG Ramachandran — her father in politics so to speak, the slander campaign against her for being a temptress, and her entry into politics as the AIADMK’s propaganda secretary in 1983 urged by MGR would sum up Sins of the Father. In Best Kept Secret could be put down the questions we will never have solid answers to, be it actor Shoban Babu or the disproportionate assets case.
‘Be careful what you wish for’ would be the words of caution that describe the Janaki Vs Jaya race to be MGR’s political heir; Jaya’s win of the AIADMK cadre; the infamous disrobing of Jaya,; the first woman Leader of Opposition in the assembly in 1989, and her vow that she will return to the house as the Chief Minister. So she did, in 1991. From actor to ‘Akka’, by desexualizing herself from the seductress star of her past, she rose like a phoenix from the ashes Mightier than the Sword with her wit and tact. Earning followers by the millions with her freebies and schemes, she managed to put Tamil Nadu ahead of other states in industrial, social and crime rankings. J Jayalalithaa redefined the biological mother to become the ‘Amma’ of Tamil Nadu, the provider of love, and maker of dreams — the mother who takes care of all. For her did Cometh the Hour, in spite of anger after the 2015 floods, as she became the second person after her mentor MGR to be re-elected for a consecutive term, and to become the only one to be six-time chief minister in Tamil Nadu.
This was a Man is the last of Archer’s titles. Jaya lived up to her name, a victor in her own right, turning what she touched into gold, shining in her successes, a woman who broke the glass ceiling of Dravidian patriarchy. Maybe she has left the state orphaned, and left a void that will be impossible for her successor to fill, and maybe, she also left behind a vacuum in TN politics. Of these things, only time will tell.
What we do know is that there was a person who emerged victorious through the male fiefdoms of film and politics, a leader who was loved by millions, one who vanished at the height of her glory, leaving behind a legacy of her own making, the person whose story will go down as lore for times to come.
This was one who lived on her own terms...this was one who led in her own right and ‘This was a woman’.
(The writer is a Chennai-based activist, in-your-face feminist and a media gluttton)