INDIAN LESSONS

Jayaram Jayalalitha

No one said it was a conspiracy. No one shouted 'foul', and that the government was behind it. She was the government.

Her party did not say it was political harassment, or revenge, and her AIADMK are not in the opposition; they are the party in power.

One moment she sat as the elected powerful Chief Minister of a large and vibrant State, and the next she was off to jail escorted by the policewomen and men of the government she led.

She was not going in for an overnight stay, but for four years. By any measure, that is a long time to stay behind bars.

She or her family would not live to enjoy what she had amassed (illegally) by means beyond her known sources of income. A Bangalore court, in the 1996 corruption case against her, has ordered that the property be sold to pay the rupees 100 crore fine slapped on her. She had bought the 3000-acre land with 66 crore in the years 1990-96 when her declared income was only two crore rupees. It was during her first term as Chief Minisiter.
The lady is Jayaram Jayalalitha, the State is Tamil Nadu, and the country India. She has appealed against her sentence in the case that lasted 18 years.

With extensive and live coverage of Jaya's jailing and Modi-frenzy in faraway New York, no one tried to promote jingoistic journalism by connecting the two epic events. No correspondent thought of pushing a microphone up to the Indian prime minister and asking him what his onuvuti was now that a politician opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in deep trouble; or, of asking Jaya whether she thought Modi had given any 'instructions' before he left the country for his high-profile visit.

Nor have we heard Sonia Gandhi or any of her supporters taking the occasion of Modi's UNGA address, or his flamboyant appearance at the Madison Garden before the Indian Diaspora, or during his White House meal with Barrack Obama to remind the US administration and people that this was the same Narendra Modi who was chief minister of Gujrat during the horrific Hindu-Muslim riots of 2002, and that the Bush administration had denied him visa 2005 under a law that barred any government official responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom. This in view of the fact that the ban on Modi is very much alive, and he is able to visit the US this time around only because as the leader of a nation he gets an automatic visa.

JJ is not the first politician and one knows for sure not the last Indian to serve a jail sentence for corruption. In recent times there has been a spate of corruption cases revealed, and the perpetrators arrested, but no claim from their political opponents that they were being hounded and pestered for their political ideologies or for their allegiance to any neta or netri.

Bangaru Laxman, former BJP president, no less, was in jail serving a four-year sentence in the 2001 Tehelka sting case relating to an alleged arms deal.

In 2013 Congress Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood was sentenced to serve four years in prison in connection with his role in a medical admission scam. He lost his seat, the first of an MP, and he will not be allowed to contest elections for the next six years.

In denying bail to Rajya Sabh MP Kanimozhi, daughter of five-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and a mother of a young boy, arrested in 2011, the court observed that 'she belongs to upper echelons of society' and that the enormity of the crime she committed is likely to affect the economy of the country. Is her 'upper' breed not sufficient to declare her innocent? She was later granted bail by the Delhi high court.

Former member of the Indian National Congress, member of parliament from Pune, and president of the Indian Olympic Association, Suresh Kalmadi spent nine months in prison after being charged with cheating, conspiracy and corruption in the award of 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games related contracts.

Sukh Ram, former Telecom Minister during P V Narasimha Rao's government and Lok Sabha MP, was charged with corruption when the CBI in 1996 seized Rs 3.6 crores in cash concealed in bags and suitcases from his official residence. The cash was collected by him illegally in awarding a telecom contract. He was convicted and sentenced to three-year rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court in 2002. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict on Nov 18, 2011 and Sukh Ram was sentenced to five years in jail.

Former Punjab minister and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak (Sikh temples management) Committee chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur, was charged with the abduction, forced abortion and mysterious death of her teenaged daughter Harpreet Kaur in 2000. She was acquitted of a murder charge in 2012, but was convicted and sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment.

77-year-old seven-time MLA and veteran Kerala Congress (Pillai) leader R Balakrishna Pillai was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a case of corruption in 2011, pertaining to awarding of a contract.

A Raja had to step down as telecom minister in November in 2010 following allegations of criminal misconduct and violation of policies, and that second generation spectrum was sold to mobile companies at below market prices causing huge losses to the government. He was arrested 2011 and had to spend over 15 months in Tihar Jail.

There was no political shielding by partisans, who were known to be deeply embarrassed. There was no attempt to conceal the crimes under a jumble of political statements.