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Jayalalitha has become an enigma in Indian politics for couple of years now.At the moment Jayalalitha dominates national politics like a colossus; she has developed a domineering personality. She is a very complex person indeed. Many facts of her personality include firmness, intelligence, clarity of expression, a good command over English, a highly inflated ego, ruthlessness, vengefulness and unpredictability.
Jayalalitha has herself summed up her own personality and how from a “native, vulnerable, gullible” girl, she became a domineering leader. There was a time when she would “cringe inwardly, keep quiet, wait to go home, shut the door and cry”. She told a TV channel: “That Jayalalitha who used to be tongue-tied, did not know how to answer back if someone insulted her, has gone now, dead for ever”.
“Nowadays most men are terrified of me. I don’t take any nonsense from anyone nowadays. I am not the one who goes looking for a fight. Generally I am reserved. But if a fight comes my way, I will not run away. If someone gives me one blow, I will give 30”. The hard knocks of life, frustration and suppression of her personality has made her irrepressible. Two persons — her mother, Sandhya, a noted actress, and the state’s charismatic Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) — dominated her. Jayalalitha’s mother forced her to enter the film industry at the age of 15 owing to family circumstances.
But both of them seemed to have pushed her into things she never wanted to do. She hated movies because it killed her academic pursuits. A woman who likes the world to believe that she has more brains than looks (she never misses an opportunity to boast about her voracious reading and her vast collection of books, from Dickens and Pearl S Buck to pulp writers Chase, Sheldon and Danielle Steel), she hated the Kodambakkam movie world where the only criteria used by men for judging a woman were physical -- beauty, great body and oomph. The movie world tolerated some acting talent, but had utter contempt for women with brains. In her words: “One-third of my life was dominated by my mother, the other part — a major one — was dominated by MGR. Two-third of my life is thus over. One third remains and this part of my life remains for myself but there are some responsibilities and duties to be fulfilled”.
Talking about her personal life, perhaps, for the first time she said in a TV interview: “I value my freedom and independence. I am happy I never got married; and do not have children” but the woman in her comes out. It was not that she never wanted to get married. “I would have settled down had I got married at the age of 18. Like any young girl I too, had a dream that I will meet at prince charming”.
"Jayalalitha is a woman of indomitable energy and iron will. However, her weakness is in her single-minded pursuit of the goals she sets for herself. More often than not, she tends to contemptuously ignore the various possible impediments in her way. Perhaps, she assumes that nothing can stop her juggernaut. If anything comes in the way, she crushes it ruthlessly. Maybe someday her strengths might prove her nemesis," says T N Gopalan, a senior Chennai-based journalist who has chronicled her meteoric rise in Tamil Nadu politics.
She ruled the state with an iron hand -- she had been modelling herself on the lines of Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi. She was as ruthless in dealing with her political opponents as she was against LTTE militants.
"There is a strong spiritual streak in me. I spend a great deal of time in prayer and meditation. I am a deeply religious person. I draw my inner strength from my belief in God. No matter what the difficulties, obstacles and sufferings I may have to undergo, I firmly believe that in the end good will triumph over evil. Dharma will win over Adharma. I draw my main inner strength from that... I feel that there must be some purpose in life, some mission in life, for which God has kept me alive..." - Jayalalitha in a recent newspaper interview.
She is a tough cookie, a survivor who never gives up without putting up a stiff fight. A disciplinarian and perfectionist, who knows how to get things done the way she wants. An intelligent and shrewd politician, she knows how to play her cards. A convent-educated actress who can charm any CEO into investing in Tamil Nadu.
Her life is the stuff of bestselling potboilers. A woman who understands money, power and politics. A woman who has used every weapon to make men kneel before her. A woman who has reached the top in the twin worlds of cinema and politics. A woman who today has the power to make or break governments.
At the heart of her extraordinary drive and ambition, say Jaya-watchers, is years of wanting to get even with men. Perhaps years of succumbing to MGR's demands, being spied upon and even beaten by him, and the rejection by actor Shoban Babu, the man who is believed to have been the only love of her life, ended up making the lady from Poes Garden a man-hater. Today she revels in making the most powerful in the land tremble. "In politics men think a woman is dispensable. They try to destroy her existence," she told Simi Garewal in a recent TV interview. "But today no one can wish me away politically," she concluded triumphantly. It is not as if the lack of a man in her life is made up by strong family bonds. The daughter of a character actress, Jaya has over the years fallen out with her relatives. Her sole emotional attachment appears to be to long- time companion Sasikala.
Jaya has few scruples. She knows that money is power and is believed to have amassed enormous wealth. According to commentator Cho Ramaswamy, "She has enough money to buy anybody and anything." She proudly defies conventional morality.
If she does not play by the normal rules of the game it is because she has the uncanny ability to stage a comeback after periods of adversity. Time and again she has been written off, only to bounce back with greater vitality. "It is in my nature to excel in whatever I do," she recently said on television. When her schoolmates made fun of her for being an actress' daughter, she put them in place by coming first in class.
Like many people with grit and determination, Jaya does not forgive and forget easily. The period after MGR's death -- when members of the AIADMK tried to destroy her politically and when DMK members roughed her up in the Assembly -- is considered the most decisive moment in her political life. She swore revenge against M. Karunanidhi, a resolve that only deepened after the chief minister got her arrested on corruption charges in 1996. If there is any force that drives her today it is the desire to wreak vengeance on Karunanidhi.
The lady's rage can take on menacing undertones. During the five years of her chief ministership there were instances of physical attacks on people Madam considered a nuisance -- IAS officer Chandralekha, advocate K.M. Vijayan, DMK lawyer Shanmuganathan and several others. The remarkable fact is that Jaya got away with it. Just as she appears untouched by the recent charges of her beating up an auditor in her living room. "The assault on the auditor is a message to people who think of betraying her," says AIADMK circle secretary V. Ganeshan menacingly. Instead of being demonised, the lady has been deified by her followers as Mother Mary, Goddess Parvathi, Shakti and most recently Bharat Mata.
On her part, Jaya spends huge amounts in appeasing the gods. There are stories about the lavish poojas at her residence. Her reign also saw her making generous donations to some temples. Many of her more superstitious partymen believe she gets special powers from the poojas.
Jaya's zodiac star according to the Hindu calendar is Makam. In Tamil there is a saying, "Makathu penn jagathilum illai", which means "there is no equal to a woman born under the star makam". Perhaps in the case of Puratchi Thalaivi Dr J. Jayalalitha it was all preordained. More on Jayalalitha
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