Jayalalitha
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| Jayalalitha during young. |
Jayalalithaa first came into prominence as a leading film actress in the mid-1960s. Though she had entered the profession reluctantly, upon the urging of her mother to support the family, Jayalalithaa worked prolifically. She appeared in 140 films between 1961 and 1980, primarily in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages. Jayalalithaa received praise for her versatility as an actor and for her dancing skills, earning the sobriquet "queen of Tamil cinema".[4] Among her frequent co-stars was M. G. Ramachandran, or MGR, a Tamil cultural icon who leveraged his immense popularity with the masses into a successful political career. In 1982, when MGR was chief minister, Jayalalithaa joined the AIADMK, the party he founded. Her political rise was rapid; within a few years she became AIADMK propaganda secretary and was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament. After MGR's death in 1987, Jayalalithaa proclaimed herself his political heir and, having fought off the faction headed by Janaki Ramachandran, MGR's widow, emerged as the sole leader of the AIADMK. Following the 1989 election, she became Leader of the Opposition to the DMK-led government headed by Karunanidhi, her bête noire.
In 1991 Jayalalithaa became chief minister, Tamil Nadu's youngest, for the first time. She earned a reputation for a punishing work ethic and for centralising state power among a coterie of bureaucrats; her council of ministers, whom she often shuffled around, were largely ceremonial in nature. The successful cradle-baby scheme, which enabled mothers to anonymously offer their newborns for adoption, emerged during this time. Despite an official salary of only a rupee a month, Jayalalithaa indulged in public displays of wealth, culminating in a lavish wedding for her foster son in 1995. In the 1996 election, the AIADMK was nearly wiped out at the hustings; Jayalalithaa herself lost her seat. The new Karunanidhi government filed several corruption cases against her, and she had to spend time in jail. Her fortunes revived in the 1998 general election, as the AIADMK became a key component of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 1998–99 government; her withdrawal of support toppled it and triggered another general election just a year later.
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| Jayalalitha's laptop contribution to students. |
The AIADMK returned to power in 2001, although Jayalalithaa was personally disbarred from contesting due to the corruption cases. Within a few months of her taking oath as chief minister, in September 2001, she was disqualified from holding office, and forced to cede the chair to loyalist O. Panneerselvam. Upon her acquittal six months later, Jayalalithaa returned as chief minister to complete her term. Noted for its ruthlessness to political opponents, many of whom were arrested in midnight raids, her government grew unpopular. Another period (2006–11) in the opposition followed, before Jayalalithaa was sworn in as chief minister for the fourth time after the AIADMK swept the 2011 assembly election. Her government received attention for its extensive social-welfare agenda, which included several subsidised "Amma"-branded goods such as canteens, bottled water,Salt,Cement,Medicine Shops and So on. Three years into her tenure, she was convicted in a disproportionate-assets case, rendering her disqualified to hold office. She returned as chief minister after being acquitted in May 11,2015. In the 2016 assembly election, she became the first Tamil Nadu chief minister since MGR in 1984 to be voted back into office. That 22 September, she fell severely ill and, following 75 days of hospitalization, died on 5 December 2016 due to cardiac arrest.
Jayalalitha's Contribution to Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalithaa is credited with various projects. True to the nemesis of ‘Water Goddess’, a name given by her followers, Jayalalithaa’s Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) scheme, launched in 2001 to rejuvenate water sources, has improved ground water levels in the parched southern state. It has been replicated by various states and even by the Centre.Besides, there was the Veeranam project to deliver water to the dry metropolis of Chennai.
To safeguard the poor from high prices of necessary articles, Jayalalithaa launched various schemes under brand ‘Amma’, which also reinforced her brand equity.These include low-cost canteen, pharmacies, health insurance, mineral water, free laptops, salt, cement, seeds (for farmers), grinders & fans, and vegetable shops. The cradle scheme, gold for marriages, free cattle for livelihood, prohibition and other measures have also attracted woman voters.While her critics have complained that Jayalatihaa gave a free hand to the state police, major sections of people, including corporate leaders, agree that law and order was maintained effectively during her tenure.
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| Jayalalitha's Funeral |
The law and order situation and creating a labour pool, including skilled and unskilled, has attracted huge investments in the state.Jayalalithaa’s term, all of them together, saw some big-ticket investments in the state and over $20 billion FDI. Last year’s Global Investors Summit saw over Rs 2.43 lakh crore worth of investments being committed to the state.The department of industrial policy and promotion data show that Tamil Nadu saw foreign direct investment inflows to the tune of $7.3 billion from April 2000 to March 2011, and this went up to $13.94 billion from April 2011 to December 2015, which at current conversion rate equals Rs 83,766 crore. Between April 2015 and December 2015, the state attracted $4.3 billion in FDI.
Tamil Nadu is likely to have the highest amount of surplus power among all states in the current financial year.During Jayalalithaa's tenure, the state, earlier a power-deficient one, became power-surplus. Quoting the Load Generation Balance Report 2016-17 of the Central Electricity Authority, the AIADMK earlier said the state would have an additional production of 11,649 million units during the current financial year.Jayalalithaa's government had added 8,432.5 Mw in the past five years alone.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayalalithaa
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POSTED BY RAVI VARMA NAIDO
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