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Jaya may go to Delhi to smoke the peace pipe with PM

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Jayalalitha is said to be planning a Delhi trip this week. Coming as it does in the aftermath of Shakti-98, considered opinion has it that the All India Anna DMK chief's Delhi visit may be a peace mission. In all probability, she would extend the olive branch to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is now riding the popularity charts in the wake of Pokhran II.

Though the AIADMK leadership was quick to congratulate Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and the scientists for the nuclear explosions, a section within it is said to be peeved at the BJP for taking such crucial decisions without consulting its allies. Says an AIADMK leader: "The popularity benefits of the blasts have gone entirely to the BJP, but the adverse fallout, if any, from impending sanctions, could ruin our own electoral base in the long run."

He also concedes that Jayalalitha is no more in a position to arm-twist the BJP into yielding further ground. According to his information, even during his last visit to Madras, BJP emissary Jaswant Singh had told her in clear terms that her attitude should change.

"And I see a change in her approach, at least as far as the Janata Party's Dr Subramanian Swamy, is concerned. She seems to be sidelining him these days, and has not invited him to the victory rally of the alliance scheduled at Dindigul for August 2, in the presence of Vajpayee and Advani."

Indications are that Jayalalitha is also unhappy with the performance of some of the AIADMK ministers at the Centre. The controversial minister of state for finance, R K Kumar, has been admitted to a Madras hospital, following chest-pain. The minister of state for personnel, M R Janarthanam, embarrassed Jayalalitha no end in public, by saying that she had corrected his English, when he misspelt his department as 'personal'. Janarthanam is a post-graduate with a degree in law.

Jayalalitha would also like to remind Vajpayee about the promised Cabinet reshuffle, for which she and her Pattali Makkal Katchi ally have already named their nominees. The reshuffle was expected before the Budget session of Parliament, if only to placate the BJP's unsure allies, but Pokhran-II seem to have given enough political muscle for the coalition leader to have its say -- and way.

"But Jayalalitha cannot allow herself to be seen as small by her cadres," says the party leader.

The AIADMK is also peeved at the BJP reportedly getting close to the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, even while cementing the alliance with the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam independent of Jayalalitha. The August 2 victory rally itself is said to be a belated AIADMK reaction to the MDMK inviting the prime minister for the September 15 silver jubilee celebrations of the parent organisation, namely the DMK.

Though it looks far-fetched at this moment, the BJP is said to be considering the possibility of bringing the DMK and the MDMK together under its own umbrella in future. As of now, the DMK continues to be an ally of the Tamil Maanila Congress, which is eager to take the ruling party to its Congress parent, at least until they two are ready to float a common front of their own.

The DMK continues to toddle, between the electoral compulsions that favour the TMC, and the constitutional niceties -- with Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, having to congratulate the prime minister on the Shakti-98 blasts, and offering to stand by the Centre on the sanctions issue. Against the background of the threat to the state government, and also the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, the DMK leadership seems to recall its own faux pas of 1990, when Karunanidhi as chief minister declined to receive the Indian Peace Keeping Force returning from Sri Lanka.

What has encouraged the BJP is Karunanidhi's ambiguous reply to Cho Ramaswamy in an interview to Tughlaq magazine. "I cannot react to your imaginations," was all that he would say on the possibilities of the DMK and the MDMK working together.

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