The Empress by Kalyani Shankar

Author:Kalyani Shankar
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789386606129
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

TOWARDS THE END…

Jayalalithaa got admitted to the Apollo Hospital on 22 September 2016, complaining of chest congestion and breathing problems; she was also highly diabetic. Since then, until December 5, when she passed away, her party maintained that she was well and would come back home. The goodwill for her was evident when several leaders including Prime Minister Modi and other national leaders wished her well and some even visited the hospital only to come back without seeing her during her hospital stay. The access to her was controlled by Sasikala. There was a certain mystery about her illness because nobody had seen her during those seventy-five days when she was in the hospital. Even the health bulletins from the hospital were far and few. This resulted in a demand from the opposition parties, led by the DMK, that videos and pictures should be released to quell any rumours about her health, as was done in the case of MGR when he was hospitalised in 1984 but there was no response, which led to malicious rumours that Jaya was not alive. ‘The DMK requested Governor Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao to take “due steps” in dispelling rumours even as the police filed a case against an “unknown person” for allegedly circulating rumours about the AIADMK supremo’s condition. The case was filed under various sections of the IPC, including those dealing with “public mischief” and “promoting enmity between classes”.’92

A team of medical experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was flown in from Delhi, as also an expert, Dr Richard John Beale, from London, to treat her, only in vain. Meanwhile, in October 2016, the Madras High Court directed Tamil Nadu’s additional advocate general to get instructions from the government on her health, after social activist Ramaswamy filed a Public Interest Litigation seeking the real status of Jayalalithaa’s health. The court also observed that people were anxious to know about the Chief Minister’s health.

When the illness and her hospitalisation continued, she first shed her portfolios on October 11, to her Finance Minister O. Pannerselvam, who had stood in for her twice as Chief Minister. Two hours after the announcement of her death, in a swift political transition, Pannerselvam was sworn in as Chief Minister for the third time at a sombre ceremony at Raj Bhawan, along with all the ministers in the erstwhile Jayalalithaa cabinet to ensure smooth transfer of power. A team of officers were running the government from the hospital where they were stationed during the seventy-five days of her illness. The DMK demanded either a ‘Chief Minister in-charge or a new Chief Minister,’ to streamline governance. However, the demand failed to find support even from the key ally of the DMK- The Congress. On October 29, Jayalalithaa reportedly affixed her left thumb impression on the poll documents submitted by a AIADMK candidate, as her right hand was inflamed following a tracheostomy. By the first week of November, AIADMK claimed that Jayalalithaa would be discharged from the hospital.

In

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.