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All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (AIADMK) president
Jayalalitha came down heavily on Sonia Gandhi on Monday for not
taking on the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its
electoral ally, the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), on the "Rajiv
Gandhi assassination issue" while launching the Congress election
rally at Sriperumbudur earlier this month.
"Why did not the widow of the slain former Prime Minister
criticise the DMK when the Jain Commission of inquiry had found
it guilty on the assassination Issue? Why did she not criticise
the TMC for aligning itself with the DMK even after the
publication of the Jain panel report?" she asked at a Press meet
here.
Ms Jayalalitha saw a "conspiracy" behind Ms Gandhi's silence.
However, declining to elaborate on this, she referred instead to
Finance Minister P Chidambaram's earlier claim that Ms Gandhi
would not campaign against the TMC in TN.
"If that were the case," asked Ms Jayalalitha, "why did Ms Gandhi
force the Congress to pull down the United Front Government on
the basis of the Jain Commission's report? And why did the
Congress pull down the United Front Government?"
The AIADMK supremo said that she was convinced that Ms Gandhi's
campaign would have no impact either on the Bharatiya Janata
Party's vote at the national-level or on the party's alliance
with the AIADMK in the state.
She, however, declined to make the "Jain report" an electoral
issue as the "Congress itself has not raised it."
The idea obviously was to deny any initial sympathy accruing to
the. DMK with the "Jain report's onslaught," and also to avoid
mutual mud-slinging among the DMK, AIADMK and the MDMK on the
LTTE issue, she said.
Ms Jayalalitha also criticised Tamil super-star Rajnikant for
asking his fans to vote again for the DMK-TMC combine. "It will
have no impact this time," claimed the AIADMK president.
Rising prices, non-availability of essential commodities even in
ration shops, price and tariff hikes for electricity,
transportation, milk and the general lawlessness all seemed to
have gone unnoticed, she said.
"Rajnikant made a big issue of an isolated bomb blast when we
were in power. No one was injured in that blast either," she
said, obviously recalling the blast at the residence of film-
maker Mani Ratnam. "But under the Karunanidhi-led DMK
Government, there have been bomb blasts In schools, temples,
shops, streets, trains, everywhere. People have been killed and
maimed. Policemen and their families have gone on strikes, and
after nearly 32 years the Army had to be called in to maintain
law and order. Yet, Rajnikant has not found it necessary to
condemn either the DMK or the TMC, which also share power at the
Centre," Ms Jayalalitha added.
She also did not spare her one-time friend and political
commentator Cho Ramaswamy. In a clever move, she converted his
political comment that "she has not received enough punishment,
into a legal issue, saying that it was not for Cho to sit on
judgment over her pending cases and proffer a verdict even before
the judiciary came out with one.
am not running away anywhere, she said.
In a similar context the AIADMK supremo also referred to a
statement of Mr Chidambaram that she would have to go to prison
again.
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