Around 250 students of a private college founded by an AIADMK MLA were about the only guests at what was called an international symposium on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in Delhi on Sunday. The students, who were drafted into coming for the seminar organised by their Faridabad based-colleges — Institute of Management and Technology and National Institute of Law, watched on as speaker after speaker ranging from an ICU nurse from Amsterdam to a scientist from France to a senior editor from the Xinhua News Agency in China spoke about the ‘‘achievements’’ of the Tamil Nadu chief minister. The ICU nurse, Anet Hegeman, who came to India as part of a tsunami relief operation, even admitted on stage that she hadn’t heard about the chief minister till a week ago, but was impressed after that. Institute of Management and Technology college founder Thambidorai, an AIADMK MLA and former minister of law and surface transport, also watched on as words of praise were heaped on his party chief at the symposium held to mark International Women’s Day, almost two weeks after the actual day, March 8. There were eight foreign speakers from China, Netherlands, Ghana, US, Malaysia.The students, who were brought in buses for the Sunday morning event, sat through a series of speeches and even a short film on the TN chief minister called J. Jayalalithaa, Iron Lady of Asia. Adjectives like courageous, pioneering, multi-faceted and enlightened, were freely used. The topics of the seminar included Children and Jayalalithaa, Industrial development and Jayalalithaa, drinking water supply and Jayalalithaa, law and order and Jayalalithaa and film industry and Jayalalithaa.
