A serious setback

AT AN IMMEDIATE level, the conviction of Ms. Jayalalitha in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case is a serious setback for the AIADMK leader, who has repeatedly dismissed the many corruption charges against her as trumped up and part of a sordid witchhunt launched by her political opponents. At a more general level, it could be yet another illustration of the welcome trend that the law - which has seemed relatively ineffective against the rich and the powerful - is finally beginning to catch up with the politicians of this country. Being the first Chief Minister to be declared guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and that too of charges as serious as criminal misconduct and conspiracy, the AIADMK leader will carry a heavy political stigma if she is unable to clear her name with an acquittal at the doors of a higher judicial forum.

In his ruling, the Special Judge, Mr. V. Radhakrishnan, held that Ms. Jayalalitha had conspired along with former Local Administration Minister, Mr. T. M. Selvaganapathy, and senior bureaucrat, Mr. H. M. Pandey, to illegally relax the building rules for the benefit of the Kodaikanal-based Pleasant Stay Hotel. In some ways, the origin of this case lies in a writ petition before the Madras High Court; as early as 1995, a Division Bench of the Court had ruled that Ms. Jayalalitha's Government had displayed a ``total lack of application of mind'' in granting special building exemptions to the hotel. Ms. Jayalalitha's conviction in this case has closely followed her discharge in two other cases (the coal import case and the TANSI land deal case), which suggests that the prosecution's proceedings against her have run an irregular and sometimes unexpected course. In an environment where the cases have become inextricably mixed up with politics in the public mind, a judicial victory for one side has come to be regarded as a political loss for the other. So much so, it has come as a handy political tool for the DMK Government that at least one of the corruption cases against Ms. Jayalalitha has ended in a conviction, particularly after the enormous embarrassment of the judiciary finding there was no evidence to frame charges against her in the coal and the TANSI cases.

Those AIADMK supporters who hailed these two rulings now find themselves on the wrong side of the judicial fence. And the burst of celebratory crackers which met her discharge have become transformed into ugly violence and abhorrent acts of barbarity. The burning alive of three young and innocent women students in Dharmapuri district by those angry with the verdict is an act of unspeakable savagery. AIADMK volunteers appear to have gone on the rampage in many other parts of the State and Ms. Jayalalitha - whatever her feelings about the verdict - must lose no time in reining these hooligans in. People who do not respect judicial verdicts and resort to barbarism as a form of protest have no place in a democratic society.

Ms. Jayalalitha's political allies including the TMC are unlikely to desert her in the short run, even though they are bound to be unsettled by the verdict. The upcoming byelections to three Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu may be the first pointer to whether - if at all - the verdict has had a political impact. In the long run, however, Ms. Jayalalitha may well find that proving her innocence is the only way of retaining her influence as a leader; her political future is likely to very closely tied up with her judicial fate.

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