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The sun doesn't rise and set on Amma's whim!

Many years ago I saw a Bengali film -- one of Satyajit Ray's as I recall -- that beautifully brought out the point that there are gullible people everywhere. A godman solemnly intoned: "Behold! By my power the sun shall now rise!"

When nature took its course, there were enough asses willing to swallow this nonsense. You may laugh at such credulity, but at times I confess we in the media are no less ready to be taken in.

"Dismiss Buta Singh!" came the missive from Madras almost as soon as the apex court found him worthy of prosecution in the JMM bribery case. When the communications minister was indeed sacked, the media decided Jayalalitha, not Vajpayee, was setting the agenda.

Nobody bothered to stop and think. Knowing Atal Bihari Vajpayee's long cherished, often proclaimed views on corruption, would he really have kept Buta Singh in his ministry? But Jayalalitha seized the credit by stating the obvious.

Why is she so desperate to create a confrontationist atmosphere with the BJP? For obvious reasons I doubt she has suddenly blossomed into a crusader against corruption! Why, then, is she pushing the prime minister, asking him to sack Buta Singh one day and snarling at Ramakrishna Hegde and Ram Jethmalani the next?

These are, I believe, essentially diversionary tactics. After all, Jethmalani and Hegde are old acquaintances. The urban development minister was once Jayalalitha's lawyer and Hegde is an old friend of her mother Sandhya (an artiste in the old Mysore state). So her attack on them isn't to be taken too seriously.

Such sniping is merely a reminder that she has the potential to do far worse if the BJP doesn't accede to her demands. And it is these -- Jayalalitha's "hidden agenda" if you will -- that are causing so much ruction.

First and foremost, the AIADMK boss wants the dismissal of the Karunanidhi ministry. Next, she wants total freedom for her own candidate in various important central offices. Both these stem from the same reason -- nervousness.

Press reports to the contrary, the central government isn't really involved in any of the court cases against Jayalalitha. There were two CBI investigations at one time, both have been given the go-by. This, for the record, wasn't done by the BJP, but by the United Front when Joginder Singh was the CBI director.

The prosecutions that really worry the lady are the work of the Tamil Nadu government. Two Madras high court decisions have already gone against her. She might be in a lot of trouble if the Supreme Court, to which she has appealed, upholds those verdicts.

But the BJP has proclaimed its antipathy to abusing Article 356. It won't recommend sacking Karunanidhi without excellent cause. Jayalalitha's legal problems scarcely amount to a breakdown of the constitutional machinery.

This frustrates the AIADMK boss. To make matters worse, her second demand -- putting chosen candidates in key offices -- is running into opposition. She wanted control of the finance ministry (partly to save her friend Sasikala, partly to entangle Moopanar and Chidambaram in the Indian Bank case). She wanted to appoint the CBI director. She wanted trusted aides as law officers.

She got part of her demand as far as the finance ministry was concerned, with the department of revenue going to an AIADMK man. But she hasn't got her way with the rest. Her candidate for the CBI directorship, she was told, wasn't senior enough. Her nominee for the office of solicitor-general proved a lady who had staunchly defended the Emergency. And so on.

The Opposition loudly proclaims that "Amma" is calling the shots. But Jayalalitha herself believes that she is being marginalised. Or if that is too strong a statement, that she is being subtly shown the limits of her bargaining power.

Come to that, where does the AIADMK boss go if she chooses to snap links with the BJP?? She has the allegiance of 27 Lok Sabha members, about a tenth of those who voted in favour of the Vajpayee ministry. So she can pull down the ministry. But can she put up another in its place?

Let me put it this way: Is the Congress in a position to take on Jayalalitha's troubles? After all, the Congress is already saddled with a lady with more that her fair share of legal problems. Even Amma's problems pale in comparison to Bofors and the Quattrocchi connection.

Jayalalitha's options are more limited than they seem. The sun doesn't after all rise and set on her whim!

T V R Shenoy