Tamil Nadu's Amma

Jayalalithaa's rule and demise have lessons for other leaders

The death of J Jayalalithaa brings down the curtains on one of independent India’s most charismatic political leaders. In a remarkable political journey, Jayalalithaa has left a huge imprint on how state governments can use policies to not only win over the masses but also work towards industrial growth, a feat few states have managed to emulate. Born in Karnataka to a Tamil Iyengar family, Jayalalithaa started off as a film actor when in her teens. Between 1965 and 1973, she delivered 28 successive hits with MG Ramachandran, the iconic film star of his age. But,  the biggest role of her life was when she followed MGR into politics and swept aside gender biases to become the sole leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam  (AIADMK) and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu in 1991. In the next two-and-a-half decades, she fought with her arch-rival M Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for the chief minister (CM)’s position in the state. But, every time she came to power — she became the CM on five occasions — Jayalalithaa administered the state with striking astuteness.

Her approach to governance — efficient, near-authoritarian and business-friendly — set the template for chief ministers across the country, from Nitish Kumar to Narendra Modi. She often asserted every time she came to power after a spell of DMK rule that she had to contend with a “knocked-down house” and had to rebuild the state. However, while she pushed for industrial growth, she also came to be known as the mother of welfare schemes. Amma (or mother), as her followers called her, stressed on providing several products of essential need,  from salt to cement and from bottled water to baby care products,  at subsidised prices, or even free, to the poor in the state. This came with a cost; during her current rule, Tamil Nadu’s fiscal deficit to state output ratio has steadily risen from 2.2 per cent in 2012-13 to 2.9 per cent in 2015-2016. But, this is still below the cap mandated by the Finance Commission. On the flip side was her reputation of administrative efficiency that contrasted favourably with the DMK’s, and her record of propelling the state among the best in the country across parameters. Be it health (infant mortality, fertility rate and maternal mortality) or education (gross enrolment ratio, especially for the girl child) or crime (against women, SCs and children) or indeed, industrial growth and employment generation — Jayalalithaa ensured that Tamil Nadu not only surged to the top but also that it stayed there.

However, her career was not without blemishes as she faced a string of corruption charges — on two occasions (2001 and 2014) she had to resign from the CM’s post after being convicted of wrongdoing, although she was eventually acquitted in both the cases. Moreover, she seemed to approve of the cult following she enjoyed not just among her followers but also among her cabinet colleagues. The disadvantage of this approach is the lack of clear succession in the party. Even though her finance minister, O Panneerselvam, has been sworn in as the new chief minister, there is an uneasy calm since there was no obvious successor in the AIADMK. Many expect Jayalalithaa’s trusted aide Sasikala Natarajan to be the real power centre within the party. A battle for control within the party in the coming days could be a serious blow not just to Jayalalithaa’s legacy but also to Tamil Nadu’s growth record. Her death, in that sense, could be a wake-up call for many regional parties led by dominant leaders that do not develop a second rung to take over when the time comes.