Puppet on a chain

Radha Venkatesan

TAMIL NADU has found an answer to Bihar's Rabri Devi - Ottakaara Thevar Paneerselvam. The country's highest court may have unseated Ms. Jayalalithaa from the hallowed Fort St. George. But make no mistake. In Tamil Nadu, the seat of power is still her Poes Garden mansion. And ``honourable Puratchi Thalaivi Amma'' is the ``real Chief Minister'' for not just her AIADMK devotees and allies, but the faithful officialdom too.

The Chief Minister's Office virtually functions from Poes Garden and top officials still take instructions from ``madam''. And, to fine-tune the Poes Garden control over the administration, the new Chief Minister, Mr. Paneerselvam, is all set to shift his residence to an ancient bungalow opposite Ms. Jayalalithaa's residence. As Mr. Paneerselvam himself candidly confessed, ``this is honourable Amma's regime''.

If anyone had doubts about it, Ms. Jayalalithaa herself crushed them within a couple of hours of the Supreme Court striking down her appointment as Chief Minister. ``Our (read my) Government continues. This is only a temporary arrangement,'' she said in a statement. And, a few hours later, when she named the ``stop-gap Chief Minister'', the day-long suspense gave way to surprised smirks. It was not Mr. C. Ponnaiyan, No. 2 in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet. Nor the savvy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Mr. K. Kalimuthu.

Instead, she had elevated the little-known Revenue Minister and No. 8 in the Cabinet. Though a first-time MLA and Minister for just four months, Mr. Paneerselvam apparently had other key qualifications. He was a die-hard devotee of not just the ``honourable Amma'', but her friend Ms. Sasikala, the ``Chinnamma of Poes Garden''. He belongs to the Thevar community as does Ms. Sasikala and was an election agent for her MP-nephew, Mr. T.T.V. Dinakaran.

What is more, Mr. Paneerselvam and Mr. Dinakaran share a common constituency - Periyakulam in the south. One of the few partymen who could walk into Ms. Jayalalithaa's residence any time of the day, Mr. Paneerselvam was more often seen in the ``typing section'' of the Poes Garden house assisting in drafting press releases until recently.

When Ms. Jayalalithaa inducted him into her Cabinet last May, she rewarded him not just with the plum Revenue portfolio but also the crucial Excise and Prohibition Departments generally held by Chief Ministers.

And, his ``approval ratings'' in Poes Garden soared for other reasons too. An unassuming man with a ready smile, Mr. Paneerselvam is known least for ambition or administrative skills. In the budget session recently, he fumbled through his reply on the Revenue Department much to the Opposition's amusement. As a ``temporary Chief Minister'', he is unlikely to steal the show from Ms. Jayalalithaa, who has vowed to return soon. Ms. Jayalalithaa wishes to send a clear message to the people - ``I am the real Chief Minister''. Moreover, as the Finance Minister, Mr. C. Ponnaiyan, insists, Mr. Paneerselvam ``is amiable and acceptable to everyone in the party''. Evidently, it was a compromise between the need to accommodate the interests of the Sasikala family and the propriety of appointing a party senior. The result was a curious mix of the Bal Thackeray-type and Rabri- model remote-control regime.

Even as Mr. Paneerselvam was anointed at the Durbar hall of the Raj Bhavan on September 21, he left none in doubt that proxy rule was to unfold. With tears welling up in his eyes, he prostrated before ``honourable Amma'' and her friend, Ms. Sasikala, just as they entered the Durbar hall and ensconced themselves on a sofa. After the swearing-in ceremony, he rushed to Poes Garden to pay his obeisance once again. His first work-day as Chief Minister began and ended with darshan of Ms. Jayalalithaa.

He refuses to sit in Ms. Jayalalithaa's ornate chair at the Secretariat, and turns down even the shawls presented by his Ministerial colleagues. To all queries from scribes, he never fails to invoke Ms. Jayalalithaa's name.

When Mr. Paneerselvam received petitions from the public, in an attempt to continue Ms. Jayalalithaa's tradition, instructions flew out from Poes Garden. Rebuffed, he promptly gave up the exercise. He also cautiously avoids handing out dole to the poor as Ms. Jayalalithaa did during the past four months. The Public Relations Office too has stopped releasing photographs of the Chief Minister's meetings with officials.

The new Chief Minister's pictures do not adorn the walls of Government offices. From the Secretaries of the Chief Minister's Office to the Chief Secretary, top officials trooped to Poes Garden even a day after the Supreme Court ousted Ms. Jayalalithaa from the Chief Ministership. And the policemen outside the Poes Garden still describe her as the ``Chief Minister'' in their wireless communication.

As a top State official says, ``we get orders from her over phone now''. And, ``for us, she is the only Chief Minister. If a top industrialist can control North Block in Delhi, this is perfectly legitimate. For, she has the mandate of the people of Tamil Nadu''.

Mandate or not, there is derisive laughter in the Opposition DMK and an outraged Janata Party president, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, has threatened to move court to ``end the proxy rule'' in Tamil Nadu. But, it is the outcome of Ms. Jayalalithaa's TANSI appeals before the Madras High Court that will determine whether the Paneerselvam regime continues for a few months or the next four and a half years.

Till then, ruefully, Mr. Paneerselvam will strive to put his Bihar counterpart to shame. Only there is an additional pressure on him to continually prove his loyalty to ``Honourable Amma''.

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