NEW DELHI, MARCH 12: So near and yet so far - that summed up the situation on Thursday as a tense nation awaited the process of government formation to roll but the much awaited letter did not come from `Amma' in Chennai lending support to Atal Behari Vajpayee.The kernel of the problem between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the AIDMK is two portfolios in the Cabinet - Finance and Law. The AIADMK supremo is insisting that these be given to her allies from Tamil Nadu, Subramanian Swamy and Vazhapady Ramamurthy.Early in the week at her first meeting with Atal Behari Vajpayi, Jayalalitha had suggested that the Finance portfolio be bifurcated with a senior minister looking after the general Budget, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and so on and the junior minister heading banking, insurance, customs, revenue and excise departments. She offered to settle for the junior finance ministership, and cited a precedent. During Indira Gandhi's rule, Pranab Mukherji had been BankingMinister under C Subramaniam heading the Finance ministry. The Enforcement Directorate, which deals with economic offences, incidentally, comes under the revenue department.When the BJP leaders expressed their inability to divide the finance ministry, Jayalalitha set about upping her demands. Her allies in Tamil Nadu, she conveyed to the BJP leaders, must be given both finance and industry, and the DMK Government must be sacked. If the TMC could get Finance with its 20 seats in the last Lok Sabha, then why not her colleagues? If the DMK with its 17 MPs could manage the Ministry of Industry under Murasoli Maran, why could it not be given to her allies? After all, they were the largest group among BJP's allies accounting for 27 members.``Are we going to be treated like chaprasis?'' asked an irate AIADMK alliance MP today.Those close to her are pitching the problem as a North-South one, making it an issue of ``Tamil pride.'' If the BJP, they argue, could accommodate all the MLAs led by Naresh Aggarwalin the Kalyan Singh Ministry in Uttar Pradesh, why could not TN get two berths? The AIADMK supremo is apparently riled that the BJP kept its channels open to the DMK and the TMC to explore the possibility of floor coordination. On her last visit here, she was reportedly asked by BJP leaders about the overtures Sharad Pawar had sent her. She is learnt to have lashed back at them saying that they too had been making overtures to the DMK and the TMC through Chandrababu Naidu.Even during the election campaign Jayalalitha was annoyed with both Vajpayee and L K Advani for refusing to criticise the DMK by name. She expressed her unhappiness by not attending the meeting the BJP and its allies addressed together in New Delhi.In recent days, Sharad Pawar, who enjoys a good equation with Jaya, has been in touch with her. His problem is that though a natural claimant for the post, he has first to be elected as CPP leader.Giving the BJP a foretaste of things to come, Jayalalitha's allies began to give out an evenlonger list of demands today - the interim order on Cauvery water dispute must be implemented, the BJP must promise to build in 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Castes within the 33 per cent quota for women in legislatures, and that the BJP must give an assurance that it would bring a Constitution Amendment to legitimise the 69 per cent reservation for the backward classes which exists in Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court had drawn the line at 50 per cent reservation for the OBCs after the Mandal controversy.Sources close to her said that the BJP had not gone about talking to her in the right way. ``These people do not know how to negotiate,'' said a leader from Tamil Nadu. The choice of the mediators was bad. Jayalalitha is believed to have refused to come on the line on Wednesday when Ram Jethmalani and some others tried to talk to her.There was a stage when Vajpayee had apparently toyed with the idea of inducting Subramaniam Swamy into the ministry (withough giving him Finance), and Swamycalled on the BJP leaders a few days ago. But Advani held absolutely firm. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leadership has concurred with the views of Advani. Swamy has been a persona non grata with the BJP and the Sangh `parivar' since he parted company with them. He has sharply criticised Vajpayee, Advani personally and the RSS.The initial shock in the BJP gave way today to the view that unless the party held firm now, it would be discredited even before it had got going. Its allies, George Fernandes and Ramakrishna Hegde, also supported the BJP's stand that Swamy should not be given the finance portfolio.
