The bonhomie between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was once again in evidence on Tuesday, but the question remains if it will translate into supporting the BJP in the Rajya Sabha. Senior journalist R Rajagopalan reports.
Badhai ho, badhai ho, congratulations on your resounding victory, madam." This was how Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at 9 Race Course Road on Tuesday on her first, and most keenly watched, visit to New Delhi since winning a consecutive term as chief minister last month.
"Dhanyawad," replied Jayalalithaa with folded hands.
The first few minutes of the meeting saw the formalities being gone through. Jayalalithaa handed over a shawl and bouquet to Modi and introduced her chief secretary, advisor and planning secretary to him. She also presented him with a 92-page, 29-point memorandum covering all aspects of Tamil Nadu's infrastructural, industrial and agricultural development.
The prime minister, in Hindi, asked officials to explain the salient features of the memorandum. The chief secretary began with six key issues which also included the implementation of the goods and services tax and lifting the ban on Jallikattu, the state's bull taming sport which has fallen foul of the Supreme Court.
Modi listened to the explanation with rapt attention and said, again in Hindi, "I understood the basic issues and I assure you that a special task force will be constituted in the PMO to monitor the progress of the points contained in the memorandum."
Ten minutes into the meeting, the officials withdrew from the room and the two leaders met without any aides for around 35 minutes.
After the meeting was over, Jayalalithaa came out first followed by the prime minister who escorted her to the portico, and waited till her car pulled out. This gesture, according to observers in Race Course Road, is very rare.
Insiders disclosed that the meeting was held at 9 Race Course Road, at the prime minister's residential complex, as renovation work was going on at 7 Race Course Road.
"I would give it 8 out of 10," said a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office after the meeting.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar is likely to meet Jayalalithaa in Chennai before flying out to Colombo to sort out the Tamil Nadu fishermen issue.
The prime minister also assured Jayalalithaa that he would instruct senior Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Radha Modhan Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkri to be in constant touch with her and her secretariat.
"What else do you need, it is a quick decision from the PMO," claimed a senior official dealing with Tamil Nadu matters.
Jayalalithaa also talked about forming a Cauvery Management Board and urged the PM to stop Karnataka from building a new dam across the river.
Out of the 29 issues raised by Jayalalithaa, a few of them are political hot potatos and the prime minister will need to tread carefully.
For instance, the Cauvery dispute where Modi needs to take a calibrated approach. If he is perceived to show a tilt towards Tamil Nadu, there will be a hue and cry in Karnataka where BS Yeddyurappa has just taken charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s affairs and is being projected as its chief ministerial candidate for the 2018 assembly polls. The BJP will want to avoid a political crisis at all costs.
Another issue is the sale of defence lands for Chennai Metro. With the defence ministry seeking market prices even for lands lying unutilised, Tamil Nadu has raised the question why it cannot be sold at discounted prices, or even given gratis, since it is for development, a theme the prime minister has been harping on.
Given the rapport between the two leaders, the question also arises if Jayalalithaa will join the NDA. Time alone will answer this question, said a PMO official. "We are not privy to the discussion and they did not share their conversation with the political or bureaucratic level so far. Once it tickles down, in a day or two, we will know," said sources in the PMO.
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