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Keep Ayodhya on backburner for 20 years at least: Jaya
Shobha Warrier in Madras
Sometimes, silence is more eloquent than eardrum-busting sound.
The silence of men and women thronging the party office compound, spilling into the road outside... more people clambering on top of the compound wall, filling every available vantage point with a highly visible, noticeably silent presence...
They were silent -- but admiration, and joy, were writ large on their face. They did not shout for their Amma, but the leader they had come to see could not have been more aware of their presence had they ruptured their collective throat shouting slogans.
Meanwhile, outside the party office all was chaos -- traffic jams and irritated passers-by.
In other words, for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its embattled supremo J Jayalalitha, it was business as usual. And given the plethora of court cases and court appearances that have been her lot ever since she lost power, a welcome reminder that her presence can still draw the faithful.
All eyes were trained on the first floor windows. Somewhere within, the fans knew, Jayalalitha was engaged in what, for her, was anathema during her days in power -- to wit, meeting the press.
And as we, the presspersons, squeezed through the throng -- we had to identify who and what we were simply in order to cleave a path through the crowd -- we heard exhortations to 'Write good things about Amma!'... 'Write a lot about Amma!'....
In another major departure from the previous norm, there was no threatening 'If not...' tagged on to those exhortations.
Jayalalitha, too, has changed. At her last press conference, hostile questions were met with a hostile visage, and abrasive responses. Today, there were no hostile questions -- whether by design or accident, I do not know. And for her part, the AIADMK supremo sat relaxed, smiling and exchanging quips with the assembled media.
Quick, programmed responses greeted questions about the alleged involvement of the DMK and of MDMK frontman V Gopalaswamy in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. But most of the fire was reserved for the tricky question of Ayodhya. After all, her ally in arms the Bharatiya Janata Party had brought about the fall of the historic structure.
"I am sure the BJP will come to power at the Centre," Jayalalitha said, "but I don't think Ayodhya will become a burning issue again. It is not a priority issue. I believe it should be kept in the deep-freeze for the next twenty years at least, while we solve other issues like poverty, unemployment and the provision of food and drinking water to all Indian citizens."
But what if, on coming to power, the BJP revived the Ayodhya issue after all? "In that case, the AIADMK will act as moderator, as a cooling influence," the AIADMK boss promised, adding that she firmly believed the BJP would not only provide a stable, able government, but also would be the party to best safeguard the interests of the minorities.
The meeting, however, was not without its share of fireworks -- and the pyrotechnics were set off when the name of Sonia Gandhi came up in due course.
"The AIADMK will fight tooth and nail to prevent a foreigner being pushed to the forefront of Indian politics," she thundered. "The AIADMK considers her a foreigner, and when we have 970 million Indians here, we do not need to import a ruler from abroad. We have no objection to her being here as a private citizen, as the respected widow of Rajiv Gandhi and daughter-in-law of Madame Indira Gandhi.
"But if she seeks to enter active politics, we will fight her to the end, this kind of aberration can only happen in India," said Jayalalitha, all animation for once and, perhaps, the only time during the media briefing.
And meanwhile, outside, among the hundreds of the assembled faithful, silence reigned. A silence weighted, one realised, with anticipation. And with hope.
AIADMK committed to protection of minorities
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