10 Reasons Why Shashikala Natarajan Should Not be Made CM

Introduction

The ruling party All India Anna Dravida Munnreta Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu has pushed itself into an unenviable situation after choosing V.K. Shashikala Natarajan as the successor of J. Jayalalithaa in the corridors of power in that state. After her elevation to the position of General Secretary of the party, there was a lot of discontent among its rank and file. But the response was muted and was slowly growing. The second-rung leaders of the party were hand-picked by V.K. Shashikala. Many of them became the Members of Parliament and Legislative Assembly due to her. Hence, these leaders quickly threw their weights behind her and supported her to choose her as the Legislative leader of the party. They never thought that there would be so much of opposition against her elevation in the state politics. Now, there are reports that many leaders and members of the general public have come forward with allegations of her misconduct during the hospitalization of Amma or J. Jayalalithaa. In this blog post, let us see why people are rising in revolt against this poorly-conceived move by the party leaders who owe allegiance to her.

Reasons Against Her Coronation

1.            Senior leader P.H. Pandian has claimed that Jayalalithaa was pushed in a quarrel at her Poes Garden residence. He further added that the former Chief Minister was brought to the hospital, not in a good state. This needs to be investigated before her coronation.


2.           He further alleged that the former Chief Minister once suspected that she would be poisoned by those who were close to her. He alleged that this information he got directly from Amma.


3.           Many senior leaders who are Amma loyalists believe that there was a gross misconduct during the hospitalization of the former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. This thought got stronger after the British Doctor Richard Beale, who treated her in her final days, asserted that there was “no question of poisoning, nothing mysterious about her death… It was due to the cardiac arrest.”


4.           After choosing her as the next Chief Ministerial candidate on Sunday, February 5, 2017, there is an open revolt against her in the AIADMK party. After the explosive disclosure, the party has chosen to call its founding member P.H. Pandian as a betrayer who caused confusion among the rank and file.


5.           Since the Chief Minister-designate is entangled in legal issues due to many cases pending against her in different courts, the acting-Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao sought the legal opinion from legal luminaries about the ramifications involved in the event of the court convicting her.


6.           After the AIADMK party chose her as the legislative leader, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the apex court requesting it to stop her from holding the high office of the state till the cases pending against her were resolved at the earliest. The 61-year-old Shashikala Natarajan and the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa got entangled in a case relating to disproportionate assets in the early 1990s. The trial court held them guilty. However, the Karnataka High Court gave them benefit of doubt and set them free in 2014. In 2015, the Karnataka government filed a review petition in the very same case against both of them in the honorable Supreme Court.


7.          Since 2015, the case is pending before the apex court. One of the judges on the legal panel that heard the parties involved in the case has told the petitioning party that he would be ready with a verdict in the second week of February 2017. Hence, the honorable apex court is expected to come with its verdict in next week.


8.           After the death of the former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, the mantle of running the AIADMK was handed over to O. Panneerselvam who is the senior-most leader of the party. For last two months, he did a commendable job as the state’s Chief Minister and handled many explosive issues, including that of Jallikettu, with care and intellectual acumen. Since this is the case, what is the need for changing the Chief Minister in two months?


9.           The central government is observing the development in this southern state politics with some concern. It is believed that the acting-Governor for Tamil Nadu has had a one-on-one with the union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the brewing crisis in the state.


10.           The public unrest on the elevation of Shashikala is very much reflected on social media. There have been many hashtags and memes about the rise of a person who held the health information about the former Chief Minister away from the public that voted her to the corridors of power.