A broken oath and rollback

You may associate Jayalalithaa's swearing-in with grandeur and pomp, the flash of diamonds combining well with the red-turbaned waiter hovering around Burra Sahibs and VIPs, a symbolic throwback to the days of the Raj. But, what came into focus was a touch different.

On May 16, when Jayalalithaa emerged at her swearing-in ceremony, those present at the place noticed a silent, but perceptible, change: she had broken a self-imposed oath taken in 1996 after her worst-ever assembly election drubbing – 'I will not wear any jewelery'.

The incumbent Tamil Nadu chief minister preferred a small diamond stud on her ears, which admirers saw as an epitome of grace and sobriety.

After being out of power for five years, she appeared somewhat chastened. The public conduct of the oath-taking cabinet ministers was surprisingly business-like; not the usual practice of falling down in true yogic fashion and prostrating before their 'Amma'.  Officials close to her say the chief minister's instructions were clear, traffic should not be stopped when she moves around the city.

Jayalalithaa unequivocally instructed her MLAs to go back to their constituencies and thank the people, but strictly, no mega-celebrations. Voters had to be met individually, at their homes, all low key affairs.
 
You may even call it a paradigm shift, as far as Dravidian politics, long given to high-decibel grandstanding, is concerned. Even when she launched her populist schemes like twenty kilo monthly free rice for every ration card holders, the function was low key.

Later when she launched a scheme of 4 grams of gold to girls from to poor families to make Mangalasutra for their marriage in addition to a Rs 25,000 cash assistance, the event was very much low key in her office in the St. George Fort.

But she was also careful to mention that the state government has a huge debt burden which needed to be addressed at the earliest.

Clearly, Jayalaithaa's big challenge is to strike a balance between freebies and economic measures required to the run the government smoothly, some observes say. As a rebuff to Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa flatly declined to assume office in the new Rupees 1,100-crore secretariat building, constructed hurriedly in the later part of the DMK regime. She has even reversed many of DMK governments orders and schemes. One of them is Common School Education System under which the syllabus for the schools under various streams are kept Uniform. For this decision, she is drawing severe criticism from the educationists. She has also dropped the Health Insurance scheme and free housing scheme of the previous regime.

''My first priority is law and order. After my victory, I heard that criminals have run away to Andhra Pradesh” she has thundered once she took over charge.

The another swing of events was pretty much expected. Police officers close to the previous DMK regime have been eased out. But no one is complaining, as people are used to see `political' officers being sacrificed after a regime change. But there are some serious problems like power shortage and price rise for her to handle immediately.

The curious case of Jayalalithaa's diamond stud was, however, lingering in the minds of people – journalists too. They even asked her in a press conference. She laughed and said it was because of the compulsion of her party cadres that she started wearing jewelery.