ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Jaya cuts off contact

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

With the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership unyielding on her demand for the dismissal of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu, and the Congress sending out "confusing signals, at best", All India Anna DMK general secretary Jayalalitha is keeping her fingers crossed. She has rendered herself incommunicado not only to the BJP leaders trying to establish contact with her, but also to senior members of her own party in the last two days.

"But we are hopeful that the stalemate with the BJP will end smoothly, and all problems sorted out," says a senior AIADMK leader. However, he would not be drawn into a discussion on the details. "No, I am not privy to any such negotiations," he concedes frankly, basing his optimism on the clues he has got from 'Amma.'

Jayalalitha is keeping her own counsel. Her advisors for some time, including some from friendly political parties, either feel rebuffed, or seem ill at ease, they having been exposed on the promise of bringing the Congress around.

Party MPs, who were expecting a formal meeting with the leader, have dispersed to their hometowns, and the source now says, "Neither the withdrawal of ministers, nor of our support to the Vajpayee government, was ever on our agenda." But he is not so sure about the future. "It is for 'Amma' to decide," he says cautiously.

Indications are that the BJP leadership is unyielding on providing Jayalalitha with a 'face-saving exercise' of her liking. According to BJP sources, neither Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, nor Home Minister L K Advani, will be deputed to talk to her on phone, to bring her around. "Lesser leaders may be talking to her on phone, or at Madras in person, if she is willing to meet them, but for a talk with the 'Top Two', she will now have to take the initiative."

According to these sources, the BJP leadership is peeved at the scant regard she had shown not just to the party but also the high office of the prime minister. "She had rung up the prime minister herself on Thursday night, seeking a postponement of their scheduled breakfast meeting on Saturday last, citing the inauspicious nature of the original timing. Maybe, she took ill subsequently, but she did not inform the prime minister either personally or through other party leaders, about the cancellation of her Delhi trip."

Jayalalitha is peeved at the lack of BJP enthusiasm in pampering her. This, combined with the Congress's reservations and conditions for forming an alternative government, has set her thinking. 'We will not be surprised if the Congress lets the budget be passed through voice-vote, as they did with the railway budget in the midst of our walkout in Parliament," says the AIADMK leader. "That could mean a lot of things, or nothing beyond the national need for not creating a fiscal crisis."

While senior AIADMK leaders feel that Jayalalitha has been 'ill-advised' and 'misinformed' by some people claimed close to her lately, they see a change in the attitude of even a friend-of-the party like Dr S Ramadoss, founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, an ally of the AIADMK. For his part, Ramadoss stayed away from the co-ordination committee meeting, but is not willing to go beyond that in opposing the BJP -- or, supporting the Congress. And he has reportedly said as much in clear terms to Jayalalitha herself.

For the present, Jayalalitha is hoping for some 'credible feelers' from the Congress, or 'creditable leaders' from the BJP, to establish contact. "We have no information this far about any contact having been established with the AIADMK leadership, or any senior BJP leader visiting Madras in the next couple of days to meet with Jayalalitha," says a senior BJP leader in Madras.

"But our government will survive," he adds, philosophising in the same vein, "Whatever is happening is happening for the good, and whatever may happen will also be for the good." A line neatly shared by the AIADMK source, but neither have any clue as to the future.

Tell us what you think of this report