Jayalalitha---The Caped Wonder-Woman

I also personally believe that the word Patriotism has caused enough problems in this world.

It would be wonderful if the Brahmin community wholeheartedly accepted the slings and arrows and saw it as a necessary swing of history. It would be wonderful if the takeover of state administration meant that people who had nothing, now received everything. But that has not happened.
Just to take one small point. Violence against the girl child, violence against women. It`s not enough to talk about development. Take the daily violence against women one sees on the streets. Take the killing of female babies, a very high proportion. All of you who have written in are men. Are there any women reading this? Please write in.
Revathy Gopal

#21 by harimau on November 13, 2005 8:12pm PT

Hi

You seem to be one of those Brahmins affected by the Dravidian movement. No doubt it caused havoc to your community. But Brahmins were never ready to accept or bring parity in the community. Have you ever seen a Brahmin land lord who earned his money by working on the fields. People in TN have long forgotten the anti-brahmin thoughts. Now it has become a level playing field.
/**Nope, just like the slackers in the rest of India, all these people want brain-death to be recognized as the sole qualification for education/employment etc. **/

Dont be in the cloud nine. No longer this is true. Come down to TN and see how many BC/OBC/SC candidates are outscoring Brahmins. You pose yourself as a patriotic Indian. What is the percentage of Brahmin soldiers in our army.

I dont mean to say that you guys have no patriotism. At the same time dont try to belittle others. India as a whole has lots of problems. But we bold enough to admit and accept our short comings. Indians will progress and prosper due to this maturity.

Tamils never hated Brahmins or for that matter any individual. They resented a community`s domination. Thats the reason you find Brahmin leaders in TN.

Ref masanamuthu #15

[The backward caste movement has kicked the brahmins out and monopolised the power, but now the most backward castes and dalits are asserting their power and want their legitimate share.. ]

Nope, just like the slackers in the rest of India, all these people want brain-death to be recognized as the sole qualification for education/employment etc.

Ref parthaab #17

[Dr.JJ takes nothing less than 20% as commision on any investment in her state.]

She still doesn`t figure in Asia`s Richest Persons List. That honor goes to (a drum roll please) Murasoli (Drumbeat) Maran and his family. Considering that he and his uncle Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion arrived in Madras with hardly a nickel to their names, it is a remarkable achievement.

Since Maran died after an eight-month long coma, his children are trying to figure out where (and in whose names) Maran parked his properties and cash. So it is entirely possible that Maran`s family no longer figures in the Asia`s Richest Persons List.

Re: # 19

As I said earlier, it would have been useful (but impractical) to have a corruption index for politicians and chief ministers. I am sure MGR took money too. And many of us even know where it is parked.

Thats the past. Like the DMK`s Maran. Let party affiliations, like the caste factor, not cloud the corruption issue at hand - which is the most pressing.

Corruption is the only issue that brings all parties to even ground. But having said that, it is the opinion of many in and out of government that the present government is at least 10 times more corrupt than a DMK government. Corruption overwhelms all other considerations.

Ref kaalchakra #16

[masanamuthu is right on. There is a general assumption, evidenced in various snide remarks, that `Tamils are fools who worship actors/actoresses and build temples for them.`]

Yes, Tamils are truly intelligent folks.

After 70+years of constant anti-Brahmin propaganda, one of the tep Dravidian parties has to settle on a Brahmin woman from Karnataka as its leader.

After 70+ years of ``Tamil in danger`` (shades of ``Islam in danger``) they had to elect the Malayalee MGR as their Chief Minister.

When MGR died, the choice was between his wife Janaki (b@stard daughter of a brahmin man) and his paramour Jayalalitha. Of course the masanamuthus settled for 100% Brahmin blood!

And of course these people built a temple to the Muslim actress Khushbhoo and were handing out kumkum as prasad.

Re: # 18

After 70+years of constant anti-Brahmin propaganda, one of the tep Dravidian parties has to settle on a Brahmin woman from Karnataka as its leader.


Well.. that`s true, But she also gave the ``sankaracharya`` a good kick in the a** though..
:-))

masanamuthu is right on. There is a general assumption, evidenced in various snide remarks, that `Tamils are fools who worship actors/actoresses and build temples for them.` One suspects this easy belief may be similar to the foolishness of those who believe that Hindus actually worship stones and cows.

Fact of the matter is that most Tamilians one meets, be they brahmins or nonbrahmins, would in matters of intelligence put most other Indians to shame. They also take their politics quite passionately and, on average, their civic duties seriously.

That`s not a bad thing at all. And if Jayalalitha has been able to tap into that passion, that`s the brightest feather in her cap.

IMO, Jayalalitha is a politician who should be evaluated by the same standards that are applied to other politicians. But to link her rise to some `dravid thing` is untenable and unnecessary.

Revathy:

If Jaylalitha should be compared to anyone, it is Indira Gandhi; except that she is smarter than Indira and has brought more benefits to Tamil Nadu than Indira did to India.

Jaylalitha is everything that you say that she is. To her sins, you could have also added how he sidelined Janaki Devi and assumed the role of MGR`s ``real`` wife. I have no doubt that Shankracharya has been framed, he may be no seer but he is unlikely to be a murderer either. I say so because of the length to which she went to deny him bail despite courts not agreeing with her.

Despite all her shortcomings, I would prefer her to most other Indian politicians, most of whom are corrupt but not as smart as she is. She has delivered economic and social progress, although TN seems to continue to make progress regardless of who is in charge. I was most impressed with the way she took on the civil servants who throuout India think of themselves as sarkar-mai-baap instead of being the servants of their paymasters, the general public.

I would prefer to see her at the hem of affairs in India in preference to any of the other regional satraps, such as Laloo, Mulayam and Mayawati.

Re: # 13

If you think JJ will make a good PM, you have not genuinely understand the levels of corruption we are talking about here - inspite of the already corrupt central government. She could sell the country for a commission - and no, I am not joking.

As for the Sankara, it has always been ammas stance that in power, she uses the police force with full effect - but for genuine purposes - using them for trumped up charges only with the opposition. This use of the police gives it some sort of moral power when it is misused.

This `iron lady` statecraft also keeps people under ` check` - something akin to what happens in police states like Saudi Arabia. Thats the thin dividing line from a total dictatorship.

#11

``Tamilnadu ranks no:1 in India in terms of economic freedom. ``

What s your source for that? Can one have a corruption index for corruption among Chief Ministers?

Re: # 12

Maybe vengat referred to this..



Composite ranks for economic freedom of states 2005
State
2005 Rank
2004 Rank
2005 Index
2004 Index

Tamil Nadu
1
5
0.515
0.371

Gujarat
2
1
0.450
0.404

Kerala
3
3
0.447
0.374

Andhra Pradesh
4
2
0.381
0.377

Madhya Pradesh
5
9
0.374
0.332

Haryana
6
8
0.366
0.348

Jharkhand
7
16
0.354
0.294

Uttar Pradesh
8
13
0.347
0.303

Karnataka
9
12
0.337
0.309

Maharashtra
10
6
0.335
0.365


State 2005 Rank 2004 Rank 2005 Index 2004 Index
West Bengal 11 14 0.335 0.299
Rajasthan 12 7 0.335 0.348
Himachal Pradesh 13 15 0.317 0.296
Jammu & Kashmir 14 10 0.311 0.328
Orissa 15 11 0.295 0.316
Punjab 16 17 0.290 0.292
Chhattisgarh 17 4 0.266 0.373
Bihar 18 19 0.240 0.265
Uttaranchal 19 18 0.224 0.276
Assam 20 20 0.218 0.222

But in all such instances, when additional variables are suggested, we find that objective


And still I don`t know why you think Jaya is suppressing dissent. Opposition parties` public meetings/rallies/protests are allowed. The reason why you don`t see much on national papers is because, the opposition party is in the ruling coalition in the centre and all of them are making money.. :-))

Revathy:

It is a general assumption (North Indian??) that Tamils are fools who worship actors/actoresses and build temples for them, and you are no exception to that.. Of course, politicians are not what we want them to be. They make for good entertainment.. But they are pretty focussed on development and as long as it serves the purpose (even though just to a lesser extent), what`s the big deal.. People keep changing governments if it doesn`t work and it`s a good sign.

The backward caste movement has kicked the brahmins out and monopolised the power, but now the most backward castes and dalits are asserting their power and want their legitimate share..

Re: # 15

That table is an eye opener to me.

TN is number 1 there, probably not because, but inspite of Dr. JJ.
It also proves how BAD relatively the other states must be!
If you thnk that labour problems riven Kerala, where any self respecting Indian industrialist would not touch with a pole, is at No.3, one suspects the credentials of the study.

One factor that boosted the ratings could be the recent investments in the Auto sector, etc., which were due to efforts of some (opposition) central ministers.

Dr.JJ takes nothing less than 20% as commision on any investment in her state. Whether the investment is 100 or 10000 crores! Her ministers are given fixed targets too. I dont think that is a healthy sign of `encouraging` investments! Or a lesson for the younger generation on how a future PM should be?

#16

I dont think any one generalises that Tamils are fools, etc. Tamils are well mannered - well mannered enough to accomodate the corruption scandals that makes JJ tick, and her misuse of the police and power etc.

Having said that, that is not to say that the Tamilian fringe which `worships` JJ, are the most most shining examples of Tamilians either. Such a fringe does exist. This is just to recognise that it does, and is encouraged by JJ.

I am not holding fort for the opposition. They must be the most impotent of parties that they could not beat her and her money power inspite of all of them joining hands at election. Nor can they pin her on a single major scandal, inspite of it being in public domain. If at all they do, it is on comparatively minor dealings of JJ, and she does get away using her intelligence and now, power and money.

In summary, I do feel that Tamilians do need a better deal. They would get one if they stopped being `well mannered`, booted the present set of self centered politicians, and got the politicians they deserve.
I would nt be surprised if TN shines on the international stage if that does happen. The stick being that if it does nt, the standards of politics in TN are likely to go down even further - to the level of National politics.

The most amazing thing about Tamilnadu is that it continues to progress (economy,education) inspite of Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi .Tamilnadu ranks no:1 in India in terms of economic freedom. Awareness among the public is quite high and they have got their priorities right .

Delighted that Dr. JJ has attracted so much intelligent comment!
Mr. Masanamuthu, profuse apologies if you were offended by my remarks. You were spot on.. I am, by definition a TamBrahm woman who lives outside Tamil Nadu, but have spent my college years there and have visited for long periods of time to be able to observe what life is like there.
The thing is I have a horror of being labelled Brahmin or even Tamil, and I find it hard to comprehend how one`s entire being, identity can be bound by the parameters of caste. So by making a statement like that about Dravidian men, I guess I was carried away, and again, I apologise.
If the Sankaracharya was in any way guilty of conspiracy leading to murder, I hope he will be put away for a long time. Religion entering politics will be the death-knell of whatever advances this country has made. And power and money can be abused by anyone even a so-called `seer`. In another forum, I had made the point that calling someone a seer just because he headed a religious institution does not automatically mean he is a holy man.
Holiness is not conferred by some lazy journalist sitting at a desk or by right-wing parties from the Centre.
The anti-Brahmin movement begun in the thirties was in response to terrible doings by people who appropriated the power of learning and thereby excluded millions from any rights to education and employment. But any movement becomes corrupted over time. In Tamil Nadu, as in other states where politics is caste-based, there is no third voice. Everyone needs to be represented. More anon.