Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Dravidian politicians are far from abashed when it comes to ridiculing each other on a personal level. The Kalaignar Television, run by family members of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, on Thursday played up a video footage that showed AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and her confidante Sasikala exchanging garlands in a temple near Nagapattinam on Wednesday evening.
While the visuals were innocuous enough, it was the voice over, describing the two women as taking part in a ritual in a temple “like a married couple” that has caused much resentment in AIADMK circles.
The video clip also showed the visuals in slow motion with the narrator making some suggestive remarks.
The occasion happened to be Jayalalithaa’s 60th birthday falling on ‘Maasi Makam’ of the Tamil calendar. She and Sasikala had participated in the ‘ugra ratha shanthi’ or ‘ayush homam’, normally conducted for a person’s longevity, at the Thirukkadaiyur temple in Nagapattinam, about 350 kilometres from Chennai. It is customary for men in Tamil Nadu to observe the ‘shashtiabdha poorthi’ along with their wives, exchanging garlands and going through the ritual of “marrying again”.
Reacting angrily to the Kaliangar TV footage and the innuendo, Ganesh Gurukkal, the temple priest at the Amirtha Gateshwara Temple, who conducted the ritual said: “I requested Sasikala Amma to place the garland around Amma (Jayalalithaa) as I could not do it myself. Then Amma garlanded her friend. What is wrong with that?” While television cameras gleefully captured the scene, Kalaignar TV telecast the visuals of the two women, dressed in green silk sarees, exchanging garlands to the accompaniment of the traditional drums (getti melam), normally heard at weddings, in its 1 pm and 7 pm news bulletins.
The closeness shared by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala has always evoked derisive comments from her political rivals. In February, 1992, during her first term as Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa celebrated her birthday along with Sasikala at the famous Kumbakonam temple on the occasion of Maasi Makam during a ‘maha kumbhabishekam (consecration),’ conducted once in 12 years.
But the occasion had turned tragic with 48 people drowning following a stampede caused by hundreds of jostling devotees who had gathered at the temple tank, also to watch Jayalalithaa and Sasikala pouring water on each other. Karunanidhi blamed Jayalalithaa and her friend for the stampede, using the Sanskrit word ‘jalakreedai’ (which has a royal connotation) to describe the two women ‘playing in water’ which, according to him, attracted the large crowds ending in the tragedy.
Jayalalithaa and Sasikala have for long been live-in friends, with the latter wielding considerable influence in state administration (whenever Jaya was in power) as well as in party matters. In 1996, soon after her electoral debacle, Jayalalithaa ‘disowned’ her friend, accusing her of making ‘some mistakes’. But the estrangement lasted only for a brief while with the two friends making up and getting back together.
