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Supreme Court order adds to Jaya's woes

Pattali Makkal Katchi supremo Dr S Ramadoss has become 'unavailable' to her on the phone, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko is away in his constituency Sivakasi and Thamizhaga Rajiv Congress and one-time loyalist Vazhappadi K Ramamurthy has sworn by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. This implies that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham alliance will continue to support it ''even though the infighting too will continue''.

And suddenly, AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha finds herself friendless in her fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, other than Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy.

If Jayalalitha has cause to complain that her allies had rescinded on their unanimous decision authorising her to take ''appropriate decision at the appropriate time'' on continuing their support to the Vajpayee government, she seems to be in for more trouble.

The Supreme Court on Friday vacated the stay against the proceedings in the TANSI case against Jayalalitha, pending before a special court in Madras.

Indications are that it should not take long for the special court to dispose of this particular case, given the fewer number of witnesses in particular.

But Jayalalitha has also challenged the legality of the three special courts trying the cases against her, before the Madras high court.

The question remains, whether the Supreme Court order supercedes the high court hearings, or should the special courts await the ultimate outcome in the matter.

There is one difference, however, between this case and the others in which Jayalalitha has been charged with, in relation to her days as chief minister.

An adverse verdict in the 'TANSI case', initially initiated by Dr Swamy himself as a then adversary but taken over by the state government since, could debar Jayalalitha from contesting elections for six years.

For most part of the day and the one before, Jayalalitha remained incommunicado to her party colleagues.

She was said to be not keeping well, and stray reports of her impending meeting with party MPs remained untrue.

If anything, only one of the 18 AIADMK MPs was said to be in town on Friday, and even here, V Sathiamurthy, who is also a party office-bearer, reportedly failed in his attempt to meet Jayalalitha at her Poes Garden residence.

Jayalalitha feels cornered, particularly on the issue of alleged ''BJP corruption'' in the ''Bezbaruah transfer''.

If anything, her taking up the issue, relegating the Cauvery waters accord, seems to have provided the much- needed excuse for the allies to chart out their own course.

A senior PMK leader says, "We shared the AIADMK stand only on the Cauvery accord, not on the Bezbaruah transfer, or anything else." Even there, it would have been another matter, whether the allies would have stood by Jayalalitha if she decided to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government.

As if to repair the damage caused, Jayalalitha issued a fresh statement on Friday, raking up the 'Cauvery row' all over again.

The accord was a ''fraud'', she said all over again, and questioned the wisdom of the four southern chief ministers sitting with the prime minister, discussing and debating the quantum release of the Cauvery waters for Tamil Nadu, particularly in a ''distress year''.

Interestingly, there was no AIADMK reaction to BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's letter to Jayalalitha, daring her to name him publicly as the alleged bribe-taker behind the Bezbaruah transfer.

Though the week-long ''letter war'' between the two parties seems to have drawn to a close, there is no saying when Jayalalitha will start it all over again.

AIADMK sources claim that Mahajan's letter to Jayalalitha was possibly meant to silence his critics within the BJP on the eve of the party's national executive at Jaipur, which began on Friday.

However, they too concede that both parties had over-reached themselves on the matter.

For its part, the BJP leadership seems to be in no mood to be seen as succumbing to Jayalalitha's ''pressure tactics''.

One of them says, "We will not break the alliance, or throw the AIADMK out. That can send out wrong signals to other regional allies of the party."

But there is no question of Jayalalitha, or anyone else, continuing in the coalition, on their own terms, and at their own whims. "We can still consider helping her out, but it should be on our terms, in our ways."

The ball is now in Jayalalitha's court, all over again. That's the implication of Mahajan's letter. Either she continues in the coalition as any other, or she walks out of it.

It is a difficult decision for her to take, in the absence of her allies and in the wake of the Supreme Court order, considering that the Congress too is in no mood to accept ''conditional offers'' of support for the party forming an alternative government. And she knows it better than anyone else.

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