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Jayalalitha, Cho meeting sets grapevine abuzz

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

With All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalitha calling on journalist-lobbyist Cho S Ramaswamy, speculation is once again rife about her desire to mend fences with the BJP leader of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, to the detriment of the DMK.

Indications are that the BJP may not open up that easily against the DMK, particularly after the sordid drama played out by the AIADMK, which led to the disastrous motion of confidence of the Vapayee government in the Lok Sabha last year.

In one of the rare occasions of her stirring out of her high-walled Poes Garden residence, particularly to meet with another political mind, Jayalalitha visited the offices of Cho's weekly magazine Thuglak on Saturday evening, and spent a seemingly long 90 minutes.

Though not the first of their meetings in recent times, it was the first publicly-known tete-a-tete between the two after Jayalalitha had declared her intentions to disown Cho as a 'foster brother' of sorts, in the light of his continued criticism of her even after the AIADMK poll defeat of 1996.

"Cho is not known to have given Jayalalitha any promise on behalf of the BJP leadership," says an informed source. "Nor is he qualified to do so," he adds, pointing out that the journalist-commentator, while being sympathetic to the BJP and is a Rajya Sabha member nominated by the Vajpayee government, is not a member of the party. "At best, Cho could provide an unofficial channel of communication for Jayalalitha to communicate with the top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani."

In a move calculated to send the political media abuzz, and to unnerve the rival DMK, Jayalalitha has since confirmed that she did discuss politics with Cho. Given the election-eve fever that is slowly picking up in the state months ahead of the assembly polls in the state, she has once again managed to keep the media focus on her, once while sharing the laurels with Cho, for a change.

As is to be expected, second-line DMK leaders have since started enquiring their journalist friends and others perceived to be close to Cho -- you cannot get information out of Jayalalitha, for she would not have confided even in her top aides -- for details of his meeting with the AIADMK chief.

According to these sources, Cho had called on Jayalalitha around Diwali, reportedly their first meeting since she became chief minister. Cho had then reportedly turned down the request, for being an advisor of sorts for Jayalalitha, and later worked for bringing the DMK and the breakaway Congress faction led by G K Moopanar, together on the eve of the 1996 polls. He is also believed to have influenced superstar Rajinikanth to stand publicly in favour of the new alliance, and against the ruling AIADMK. Given this background and Cho's known potential as a political catalyst since the days of the late Morarji Desai and M G Ramachandran, Saturday's meeting assumes added significance.

For his part, Cho is known to be an open critic of pan-Tamil militancy, and Islamic fundamentalism, which he says has been nurtured under the 'indifferent governance' of the DMK in the past. Now with the Rajakumar abduction exposing a new line of the LTTE network in the state, he is believed to be weighing the options between the corruption of the past and the security threat of the present.

Against this, Jayalalitha maintained continued silence on the controversial 'Ayodhya Issue' at the height of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's controversial statements on the Ram temple row, assumes added significance. Not the one to miss even a remote opportunity to hit out at her adversaries, she let the issue pass by. Her cryptic comment against the prime minister's statement came when she could not avoid the media that was waiting on her meeting with ailing AIADMK presidium chairman K Kalimuthu at the Apollo Hospitals in the city.

What more, the AIADMK members have been playing down their anti-BJP line in Parliament, while seeking to embarrass the DMK at every turn, even while sticking to the Opposition ranks on the Ayodhya motion that would have been lost any way. "After all, it would have been difficult for the AIADMK to break ranks, without any fruitful promise from the BJP," says an informed source. "Thing, however, have not come to such a stage, though."

"There is a definite downswing in Jayalalitha's criticism of the BJP," concedes a second-line AIADMK leader. "Even our platform speakers have been informally asked to go slow on the BJP." However, Jayalalitha herself seems to have justified the changed tack, arguing that the BJP is only a minor player in the state, and would not matter much in the assembly polls. In a significant interview after her meeting with Cho, she however invited all parties opposed to the DMK to join forces, thus implying the PMK partner in the NDA, but not excluding the BJP, either. For her part, though, Jayalalitha reportedly sought Cho's help in bringing the recalcitrant TMC around, as a faithful ally of the AIADMK.

Indications are that Jayalalitha is once again peeved at the failure of the Congress-led Opposition to upstage the Vajpayee government on the 'Ayodhya issue. With assembly elections only months away, and her own nomination a doubtful starter pending her appeal against the trial court sentencing her to three years rigorous imprisonment in the TANSI land deal case, she seems to have adopted a new strategy. This aims at taking one adversary at a time, and by the same token, dividing the ranks of her enemies, as well.

The BJP leadership is said to be keeping its fingers crossed on Jayalalitha's proposals. At present, the party is keen on not letting the NDA break. "The DMK has been a silent partner in the NDA, and unlike even the TDP and Trinamul Congress, it has been playing down its stronger reservations on the Ayodhya issue in the past fortnight. More importantly, any BJP move aimed at unnerving a strong regional party like the DMK with its deep-rooted politics from the past, could make the BJP a suspect in the eyes of nervous allies like the TDP, Trinamul Congress, and even Akali Dal and the National Conference," says he. "The BJP is not ready for it, not as yet."

If nothing else, the BJP may use the AIADMK bogey silently, to get the best bargain out of the DMK, in seat-sharing talks. "The DMK seems to think that it can have a walk-over in the seat-sharing talks, if not in the assembly polls against the AIADMK combine," says this BJP leader."

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