Friday, April 14, 2017

Editorial, "High Drama in Tamil Nadu Politics," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 February 2017, Vol. 13, Pt. 1, No. 3 issue

HIGH DRAMA IN TAMIL NADU POLITICS

we are witnessing now before our very eyes. The nefarious role of the Mannargudi Mafia was hinted at in an editorial in this journal once earlier and the current developments have only confirmed those suspicions. As one among the servile sheeple, the [now ‘acting’] Chief Minister O. Paneer Selvam also had meekly submitted to and supported the many moves of raising up Sasikala, the chief female don of the Mafia, to positions of power inside the ruling AIADMK party and overlooked the quite obvious undermining of transparency and honesty leading to suspicious death of Jayalalitha, his mentor and veritable goddess. However, it seems the short span of independent acting as Chief Minister coupled with some innate distrust of Sasikala seems to have sown seeds of discontent and rebellion in his heart and mind and especially his successful dealing with the Central Government on the need for legalizing Jallikattu and more so his supporters’ active participation in the novel Jallikattu movement that shook up the entire State and ultimately made the governments of both the State and Centre to bow down to the popular agitation, appears to have inculcated a lot of self-confidence in himself. Moreover, the hasty move by Sasikala to become the Chief Minister herself, thinking perhaps that thereby she would be able to avert or at least postpone any adverse verdict by the Apex Court in the pending appeal against corruption case on Jayalalitha, herself and others, and making him to resign his post, was on a second thought quite unpalatable to OPS and he rebelled – per the wisdom in the axiom: “Better late than never.” This unfolded the high drama with Sasikala virtually confining all her supporter MLAs in a resort under strict watch and, after the adverse verdict of the Supreme Court on 14 February and need to go to jail at any cost, appointing a proxy, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, as her nominee for Chief Minister’s post and with OPS firmly opposing the same with masses and other parties, including the opposition DMK, generally applauding his efforts to stall and defeat the Mannargudi Mafia. Hope OPS, profusely praised for his sincerity, devotion and honesty by Jayalalitha herself, would finally win but even if defeated in the race, it is doubtless that he has already gained immense gratitude and applause of millions of people in this course.  §§§

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