Why we need Jayalalithaa to recover and return to politics

Barely hours after Jayalalithaa’s spokespersons announced that Amma was perfectly fine and would be discharged in a few days, the news broke out on December 4, Sunday, that the Thalaivi had suffered a cardiac arrest at Chennai’s Apollo Hospital.

The utter secrecy around her health and the illness now keeping her away from public life for over two months have been both debated to the hilt in the public sphere.

Jayalalithaa was particularly missed during the still ongoing anti-demonetisation agitation, when along with Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Sitaram Yechury, Rahul Gandhi, and others, the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s voice would have lent further credibility to the Opposition’s point of view.

In fact, Tamil Nadu, where welfare schemes are carried out at Amma’s behest and her deep love and respect for the people, especially her state’s poor and downtrodden, is one state where the impact of demonetisation would have been felt across the length and breadth.

In addition to her overwhelming presence in the southern state, Jayalalithaa as a political figure is an inspiring one. Here are five reasons why India desperately needs Jaya to recover and rejoin politics of the day:

Federation of bhakti and counter cult

While “bhakti” as such is a problematic aspect of Indian politics, we cannot just rule it out or unsee it. Whether it’s Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, or Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, and of course, Narendra Modi in much of the Hindi belt and urban pockets of India, the blind veneration of leaders is something we see everyday.

However, the only saving grace is the fact that thanks to popularly elected regional leaders, there is at least some challenge and contest among our federation of competitive bhaktis, blind leader worship. This is effect maintains a semblance of political diversity of influence, and resists “waves” that are considered “pan-Indian”.

While some of us may recoil in horror at the wild display of Amma merchandise in every corner of Chennai, it needs to be seen in the context of a deity-erecting and deity-loving length and breadth of India.

In effect, this is important to take the Indian polity towards a more federal structure, in which chief ministers have more power and flexibility to run the state according to local needs, and not depend on the Centre for the smallest of grants in the name of top-heavy, one-size-fit-all schemes.

Welfare schemes

In the times of ever-dwindling government spending, Tamil Nadu has been resolutely steadfast under Jaya to ensure a good public distribution system, and of course, implemented a number of pro-poor schemes under the brand name “Amma”. From one-rupee lunches at Amma canteens, to the proposed low-cost grocery shopping at Amma bazaars, to Amma mineral water, Jayalalithaa has subsidised much of the essentials and made them within the grasp of the lower classes.

However, she had also issues with centralised welfare schemes such as the National Food Security Act, passed during the UPA-2 regime, because that would eat into her political mileage.

Moreover, she raised the issue of Centre’s over-encroachment into the affairs of the states and infringing the latter’s freedom, whenever she felt the chief ministers are being pushed to a corner.

Women in politics

Though she had a political mentor in MGR, Jayalalithaa’s meteoric rise to political superstardom has been entirely her own doing. She’s one of the handful of women in Indian politics who have redefined the game, and along with Mamata and Mayawati, have singlehandedly shaped the destinies of their parties, which they either founded or took over the reins of.

There is enormous struggle in Jayalaithaa’s rise to Tamil Nadu’s political throne, and this despite a number of setbacks, including some jail time for a case of disproportionate assets against her. Yet, she has managed to spring back each and every time.

In 2016, she took the oath of chief minister for the fifth time, a feat achieved even by few male political leaders.

At a time when the Indian politics is taking a muscular, hypernationalist turn, Jaya's strong and sobering womanly voice is an absolutely important one. She's the matriarch who could teach the political patriarchy many a lesson in statecraft as well as populism.

Cauvery issue

The volatile water-sharing issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu saw relatively much less teeth-gnashing from the latter, because of Jaya’s failing health.

Although a burning issue for over a century, the Cauvery water-sharing pact is reeling under the added adverse impact of a prolonged drought-like condition in swathes of southern India and a below-average monsoon. Paddy cultivation has suffered, and many of the farmers on both the upper and lower reaches of the river have incurred major losses.

The issue could only be resolved if the respective CMs step up cooperation and agree to reach a speedy conclusion under the guidance of the latest Supreme Court verdict.

Until Jaya recovers, this, however, is unlikely to get even the minimum consideration from Tamil Nadu bureaucrats.

Demonetisation

Sucking out 86 per cent of cash liquidity from India has been Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unilateral decision and his supposed surgical strike on black money.

In addition to the existing figures who are putting a stiff opposition to this move which a number of world-famous economists, some of them Nobel Laureates to boot, have called “ill-conceived and terribly implemented”, a “financial disaster” with little net gains, Jayalalithaa would have opposed it vehemently, had her health permitted her to do so.

Adding her significant voice to the collective of leaders who are galvanising a movement against this financial emergency would have lent further credence to this important and urgent coming together of political figures cutting across party lines.

Since most of the state-run welfare schemes depend heavily on and are in direct correspondence with the cash economy, particularly in rural regions, the “train wreck of demonetisation” would have been decried and rallied against by one of the biggest faces of Indian politics, Jaya herself.

A coming together of chief ministers and opposition leaders across party lines would have offset the misleading criticism that the anti-demonetisation drive is only a trump card for 2019, when it’s much, much more than reaping petty electoral gains.

It’s about saving the economy and particularly the have-nots, who have been/are about to be completely left out of PM Modi’s Digital India dream.

***

As Apollo Hospital becomes the site of more uncertainty around Amma’s health, and while her admirers and journalists pour into Chennai from all over India, we watch with bated breath and hope that Amma comes out of this misfortune.

Indian politics needs her now more than ever.

Also read: Absence of a successor to Jayalalithaa is worrying

Watch: