The Taming Of The Shrewd The Jaya - Sasikala Split

THE JAYA-SASIKALA SPLIT

The Taming Of The Shrewd

A famous friendship. A famous fallout. 

There has been a seismic political rupture in Tamil Nadu. 

This is the inside story of why it happened. 

Ambition. Betrayal. Fact. And fiction.

-Jeemon Jacob is Bureau Chief, South with Tehelka.
jeemonj@gmail.com

Photo:PTI

POLITICAL FRIENDSHIPS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO DIE
this abruptly, at least not ones of such long standing. The corridors of power in Chennai are agog with the sudden, inexplicable blood feud that has broken out between AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and Sasikala Natarajan, her closest friend and political lieutenant.

Trusted men Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi (top) and DGP K Ramanujam

A little over a month ago, on 17 December 2011, in a dramatic and sweeping move, Jayalalithaa expelled Sasikala and her brood from her legendary 36 Poes Garden house in Chennai, triggering a Byzantine story of thwarted friendship, overweening ambition and political vendetta that perhaps has no equal in India. The sheer seismic nature of this rupture — and the huge political ramifications it is likely to have — can only be understood if one recalls the sheer depth and spread of the relationship.

Over the past 25 years, ever since the death in 1987 of her mentor MG Ramachandran — or MGR, as the late chief minister of Tamil Nadu was known — no one has been closer to the enigmatic Jayalalithaa than Sasikala. She has been everything: soulmate, housekeeper, political confidante. And a tremendous but unelected power centre.

In this time, Sasikala’s family — the ‘Mannargudi mafia’, as it is disparagingly called, the name referring to the small town in Tiruvarur district that Sasikala comes from — has become extremely controversial and influential. The family includes her husband M Natarajan, her brothers, nieces, nephews and brothers- in-law. In 1995, in one of the most flamboyant displays of their friendship, the wedding of V Sudhakaran, Sasikala’s nephew, was presided over by Jayalalithaa. It was a staggeringly ostentatious event, with tens of thousands of guests, and became an election issue the following year, when Jayalalithaa was voted out of office.

Much of this is part of Tamil Nadu folklore. The legendary friendship had even withstood the many dark cycles of political wilderness, when Jayalalithaa would lose power and stay largely out of public eye. This time round, when the AIADMK swept back to office in the summer of 2011, it seemed the good times were back for Sasikala and her family. They were in business again.

Yet, barely six months into power — and into the perceived good times — and the two are at daggers drawn. To many, it just doesn’t seem to make sense. Yet, in the intricate political circles of Chennai, there are some who know the story — or at least elements of the story. The result, as TEHELKA finds, is a fascinating mix of fact and myth, of conspiracy and unverifiable truths, and political rumours so bizarre, it’s almost as if they could only be true.

SINCE JAYALALITHAA’S sudden ambush on 17 December, Sasikala — once known to loyalists as Chinnamma or Little Mother — has had the police at her doorsteps. A case has been registered against her brother VK Divakaran (nickname: The Boss) and he is on the run, evading arrest. Rumours in the state say he is already in illegal custody. The case against Divakaran relates to a complaint by one Kasthuri Balasubramanian of Rishiyur village in Tiruvarur district.

Kasthuri has alleged that her house was demolished on 28 November 2011, by seven persons and some local officials, at the behest of Divakaran. In response, the police raided Divarakan’s house in Mannargudi as well as his office in the nearby Sengamala Thayar Arts and Science College that he runs.

There is a perception the mafia was hoping to replace Amma (Jayalalithaa) with Chinnamma, and install Sasikala as the CM

That’s not all. Ravanan RP, married to Sasikala’s cousin, has apparently been tortured by the police in the course of anti-corruption investigations. The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance is believed to be preparing to act against many members of the Sasikala clan. The long queues of favour-seekers and hangers-on have disappeared. Ousted by Jayalalithaa, the Mannargudi mafia is in deep trouble.

Why did this happen? The grapevine is hyperactive. There is a perception that Sasikala, 55, is guilty of planning a palace coup, and of the Mannargudi mafia hoping to replaceAmma (Jayalalithaa) with Chinnamma, and install Sasikala as chief minister. Allegedly, the disproportionate assets case that Jayalalithaa has been travelling to Bengaluru for — she is being questioned by a special trial court there — gave the Mannargudi group ideas. An unfavourable judgment or remark by the court and an orchestrated political campaign, it was felt, would have put pressure on Jayalalithaa to resign and hand over the government to somebody she could trust.

IT SOUNDS like a wild conspiracy, but worse has happened in Tamil Nadu politics. Also, though Jayalalithaa has been so dependent on Sasikala all these years, she may have been smelling something fishy. Till a month ago, her Poes Garden residence was full of Sasikala’s men. (When Sasikala had first moved in with her in 1989, she had brought 40 servants from Mannargudi to Poes Garden to run Jayalalithaa’s house. All maids, cooks, securitymen, drivers and messengers at Poes Garden were hired from Sasikala’s hometown.)

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For a decade, nobody had access to Jayalalithaa without Sasikala’s permission. All independent assistants had been slowly but systematically moved out. It had reached such a stage that ministers were discussing policy issues with Sasikala. Civil servants were briefing their chief minister in the presence of Sasikala. Her words were considered Jayalalithaa’s command. She was the unstated deputy chief minister.

She also had a grip on the party structure. The AIADMK organisation is divided into regions, and most of the regional directors were Sasikala’s relatives. As such, MLAs were either chosen by the Mannargudi mafia or tried to ingratiate themselves to it.

Jayalalithaa had created a Frankenstein’s monster. It was she who had initially told party workers to meet Sasikala if they wanted to bring issues to her notice. Sasikala grabbed the opportunity and began to filter what information went up to the chief minister. Jayalalithaa became a prisoner of the Sasikala coterie.

So how did Jayalalithaa find out? According to an AIADMK insider, it was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who alerted the lady in Poes Garden and warned her about the Mannargudi mafia. Modi apparently told Jayalalithaa to keep a watch on her inner ring. He is believed to have indicated to her that big investors were avoiding Tamil Nadu because of the extortionate demands of Sasikala and her family.

Specifically, an NRI businessman who came to Tamil Nadu with a project had to shift to Gujarat because the Mannargudi mafia had sought a 15 percent cut.

Jayalalithaa was allegedly given sedatives and chemical substances that had small quantities of poison by a nurse appointed by Sasikala

The degree and brazenness of Sasikala’s operations were a shock for Jayalalithaa. She could not have been unaware that members of the Mannargudi mafia were taking money for transfers and postings in the state bureaucracy and from local business groups — for party affairs, among other things — but Modi’s cautionary story told her of corruption of a far higher order: she was being kept out of the loop by Sasikala.

Shortly after the conversation with Modi, there came the episode of the Chennai monorail project. The chief minister was keen to put it on the fast track and favoured awarding it to a Singapore company that she felt was best equipped. She told Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi to begin the paperwork. At the end of the process, when the file reached the chief minister, she found a Malaysian company had been put on top and the Singapore company downgraded. She called Sarangi and questioned him.

It was Sarangi’s turn to be surprised. He told her he had received the file with a note from her saying the Malaysian company was potentially the best choice. Jayalalithaa asked for the entire correspondence related to the monorail project and was surprised to find her signature on a note favouring the Malaysian company. It was forged. Furious, Jayalalithaa summoned Sasikala, who denied any involvement.

Following another tip-off, Jayalalithaa sought independent medical opinion on the medicines she was being given. Without telling Sasikala, Jayalalithaa apparently went to see a well-known doctor. Her tests revealed, the story goes, that she was being given sedatives and chemical substances that had small quantities of poison. Her nurse at home had been appointed by Sasikala, and served the chief minister fruits and medicines at regular intervals.

By now Jayalalithaa had realised she had to act fast. She was also beginning to sense the unease in the bureaucracy and picking up murmurs of protest against the Mannargudi mafia. For instance, ever since re-election, she had planned to charge senior DMK leaders in land-grab cases. Several senior DMK leaders had been arrested and a case filed against MK Stalin, son of former chief minister M Karunanidhi.

Jayalalithaa had told the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to implicate the Karunanidhi family only when it had solid evidence. Nevertheless, the case against Stalin was a weak one. When Jayalalithaa asked Pon Manickavel, the then Inspector General (IG), Intelligence, he told her the case had been filed following consent from Sasikala. Jayalalithaa could smell trouble and a secret deal between the Mannargudi mafia and the DMK family.

It was K Ramanujam, Director-General of Police (DGP), Tamil Nadu, who put the last nail in the coffin. Ramanujam was alerted by Shanker Bidari, DGP Karnataka, about a secret meeting of the Sasikala family in Bengaluru in the first week of December. Apparently, intelligence officials in Karnataka had bugged the room where the meeting took place and the tapes made their way from the state police HQ in Bengaluru to its counterpart office in Chennai.

On the warpath Sasikala’s husband Natarajan is inching closer to the DMK Photo: A Shankar

 According to police sources in Tamil Nadu, the tapes revealed details of the conspiracy against Jayalalithaa. The meeting in Bengaluru is believed to have been attended by Sasikala, Natarajan, Ravanan (married to Sasikala’s first cousin), Midas Mohan (Natarajan’s business partner), VK Sudhakaran, TTV Dinakaran (Sasikala’s nephews) and M Ramachandran (Natarajan’s brother). At the meeting, Jayalalithaa’s troubles relating to the disproportionate assets case were discussed, and names of potential successor chief ministers thrown about.

After listening to the tapes, Jayalalithaa decided to get going. For five days, the state police kept a close watch on individual members of the Mannargudi mafia. Ravanan — his father-in-law and Sasikala’s father were brothers — was tracked in Singapore, where he had gone for a business meeting.

It was a meticulous operation. The DGPwas tasked with gathering evidence against the Sasikala cabal. A private detective agency was hired. Phones of the Sasikala family members and their close associates were allegedly tapped. Daily reports were sent to the chief minister directly.

Nobody had access to Jaya without Sasikala’s nod. It had reached such a stage that ministers were talking about policy issues with Sasikala

At the end of it all, Jayalalithaa had a thick dossier on the Mannargudi mafia but also realised its tentacles were all over her party and government. They had the men and resources to seriously challenge her. It was not going to be easy to strip away their influence. Changes were made in the state police’s intelligence wing, which was believed to be a hotbed of Sasikala loyalists. Jayalalithaa posted Thamarai Kannan as the Inspector General (IG), Intelligence, as she wanted an officer who had no links with the Mannargudi mafia.

Next, the chief minister made changes in her personal security. Her personal security officer (PSO), Thirumalai Swami, had been serving her for the past 10 years, brought into the job from the state police in 2001. It is believed Sasikala used him to monitor the chief minister’s movements. Swami too has been transferred.

Finally at a Cabinet meeting, Jayalalithaa made it clear ministers would receive instructions from her alone and should not act on messages delivered, allegedly on her behalf, by Sasikala or others.

Many ministers took this lightly, presuming Sasikala and Amma had had a temporary tiff. The Mannargudi mafia, however, was alarmed. It was beginning to see a pattern.

On her part, Sasikala was confident that she could win back Jayalalithaa through emotional blackmail, and that the chief minister needed her around in Poes Garden. It was a fatal miscalculation. The ground had shifted.

On 17 December came the moment of truth. Jayalalithaa asked the Mannargudi clan to pack up and leave her house. Some of these people had been staying in Poes Garden since 1989, when Jayalalithaa became Leader of the Opposition. No amount of pleading would get her to change her mind. Meanwhile, police and legal teams, as well as chartered accountants, began investigating the Sasikala family’s investments and started the process of recovering money.

Ravanan was picked up as soon as he landed from Singapore. A raid at his house recovered Rs 50 crore in cash. Ravanan — or Ravanan Ratnaswami Pichai, to give his full name — heads the Coimbatore-based Midas Golden Distilleries, which supplies liquor to the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation. Sasikala set up the distillery in 2002 when Jayalalithaa was in power, but it is understood that the company continued to get lucrative contracts through the DMK years as well.

Chief adviser Modi alerted Jayalalithaa that Sasikala was  extorting money from businessmen Photo: AP

Ravanan holds the key to Sasikala’s business empire. It is estimated to be worth at least Rs 5,000 crore. “That is certainly not an overestimation,” says a senior politician, “in fact, it may be an undervaluation. The chief minister doesn’t have much money with her. Her household, government and party were run by the Mannargudi group.”

Even tickets for the 2011 Assembly election were sold, and Sasikala is alleged to have collected 300 crore in this manner. Of course, the tickets were sold to Mannargudi sympathisers, and thereby the deal was doubly beneficial.

One example cited is that of Sivarajamanickam, former district Congress president in Tiruvarur, who was given the AIADMK ticket from Divakaran’s home constituency. As it happened, he lost to TRB Raja, son of TR Baalu, former Union minister. Even so, Divarakan’s plan had been to get a weak man to represent Tiruvarur and so control the constituency himself.

Jayalalithaa is also believed to have identified 13 ministers who may be dropped soon. An overhaul of the bureaucracy is already on the anvil

IN THE six months the AIADMK has been in power, the Mannargudi mafia has been very busy. According to some observers, it may already have earned Rs 1,000 crore — largely from the bus fare hike (which benefited private operators who paid kickbacks) and the liquor price hike (which helped Sasikala’s own companies).

“The Mannargudi mafia was very organised and well structured,” says an AIADMK functionary. “They had persons tracking ministers and key bureaucrats. With every minister, one personal assistant would be attached to monitor him. There is a saying in Tamil Nadu that we have a minister wearing a dhoti (the real minister) and a minister wearing a pant (personal assistant). The pant minister is often more powerful than the dhoti minister.”

On 18 December, Jayalalithaa expelled leading members of the Mannargudi mafia from the party. She also transferred 38 personal security officers attached to ministers. Among those expelled were Sasikala and her husband Natarajan. Also out were Divakaran, S Anuradha (Sasikala’s niece and the managing director of Jaya TV), Sudhakaran (once called Jayalalithaa’s foster son), Ravanan and others.

However, Jayalalithaa did not touch any of her Cabinet colleagues, not even those regarded as close to Sasikala and her brother. In mid-December, Public Works Department Minister KV Ramalingam called on the chief minister. She greeted him with a disarming smile and then threw a barb: “Welcome, future chief minister of Tamil Nadu.” Ramalingam allegedly turned pale.

Ramalingam, 54, is a former Rajya Sabha member. In the 2011 Assembly election, he was given a ticket from Erode (West) constituency on Sasikala’s insistence. Ramalingam is well-regarded for his astrological skills and knowledge of tantra. It is understood he carried out rituals in early 2011 to facilitate the AIADMK’s victory in the Assembly election.

It is here that the story gets murky. Jayalalithaa now believes that in the past few months, Ramalingam was told to depute a Kerala astrologer to perform tantric and other occult rituals to help Sasikala replace Jayalalithaa as chief minister. Ramalingam apparently double-crossed Sasikala, and got the rituals and pujas performed not to help Sasikala but to help himself. Trusted by none, Ramalingam could soon lose his job in the Cabinet.

Now the heat is on the Mannargudi mafia. Sasikala herself may be arrested in a Coimbatore land-grab case. The account books of Jaya TV reveal many discrepancies, and Anuradha too may be arrested in this connection. Divakaran has apparently been offered a deal: return the money and buy freedom. He is still bargaining, insiders say.

Ilavarasi Jayaraman, Sasikala’s sister-in-law, has already been detained and interrogated by the Tamil Nadu Police.

Jayalalithaa is also believed to have identified 13 ministers who may be dropped soon. Already, Agri SS Krishnamoorthy has been removed as Minister for Commercial Taxes and placed in the School Education Department. The ministries of industries, electricity, transport, public works, revenue, prohibition and excise, and forests have been identified for a purge. The veteran O Panneerselvam, Minister of Finance and former chief minister, is also said to be jittery.

An overhaul of the bureaucracy — especially in the Revenue Department and other key economic departments — and in the upper echelons of the police is already on the anvil.

Tickets for the 2011 Assembly polls were sold to mafia sympathisers, and Sasikala is alleged to have collected Rs 300 cr in this manner

One source says the chief minister is planning changes in the Legal Department and could replace many prosecutors handling sensitive cases. The future of Navaneetha Krishnan, Tamil Nadu’s advocate general, is also under question in political circles.

Nevertheless, all this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Mannargudi mafia is believed to have investments not only in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states, but also in Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai. It was so comfortably ensconced in business affairs of the party and of Jayalalithaa personally that Sasikala was acting as printer and publisher of Namathu MGR, the AIADMK publication. As she was shown out of Poes Garden, Sasikala was forced to sign documents relinquishing the publisher’s post in favour of Jayalalithaa.

That was the easy part. “To recover the money looted by the Mannargudi mafia,” says a senior politician, “needs a lot of work.”

On its part, sections of Sasikala’s family are understood to have established contact with the Karunanidhi family and sought the DMK’S protection. Things will come to a head only after the court in Bengaluru decides on the corruption charges against Jayalalithaa.

THE NATURE of this fallout between the two most powerful women in Tamil Nadu cannot be fully understood unless one recalls their beginnings. Sasikala came from humble roots, and ironically, from a family across the political divide: the DMK.

Today, Mannargudi, a sleepy town 34 km from Thanjavur, is famous as Sasikala’s home territory, though she was not born there. Her family actually comes from Thiruthuraipoondi, 28 km away from Mannargudi, where Sasikala’s grandfather Chandrasekharan ran a medical shop. His son Vivekanandan took over from him and was known to be a DMK sympathiser.

Vivekanandan’s elder son Sundaravadanam, who worked in the State Bank of India, was transferred to Mannargudi in the late 1950s. He constructed a house there and moved his brothers and sisters to help them get a better education. Sasikala was the fifth among the siblings. She grew up as something of a local beauty. The entire family had strong DMK moorings but the idyll ended when Sundaravadanam was caught for diverting loans meant for poor families to his mother’s account and pocketing the subsidy. Following this, he was shunted out of Mannargudi.

In 1974, Natarajan, a DMK youth leader, wanted to marry Sasikala. Sundaravadanam objected because Natarajan’s government job was only a temporary political appointment. However, Natarajan approached Sasikala’s brother-in-law Vivekanandan, and permission was finally given. Ironically, Sasikala was blessed at her wedding by DMK supremo Karunanidhi, who had been impressed by young Natarajan’s oratory. No one could have foreseen at the wedding that Sasikala would wind up as the confidante of Karunanidhi’s most bitter political opponent.

During the Emergency, Natarajan was sacked from his job. He took his dismissal to court and Sasikala sold her ornaments to pay the lawyers. It was a hard life. Shortly afterwards, she opened a video rental shop in Chennai to make ends meet. She purchased a video camera and learnt to shoot social functions and weddings for a fee.

Around this time, there was a woman called V Chandralekha, who was district collector of Arcot, and Jayalalithaa was already a powerful figure in the ruling AIADMK. Natarajan, who knew Chandralekha, approached her to put in a word with Jayalalithaa, so that his wife could record Jayalalithaa’s public events. Chandralekha obliged. The introduction changed Sasikala’s destiny. Sasikala impressed Jayalalithaa with her skills as a cameraperson. Chandralekha remembers her as being “shrewd, hard-working and determined”. She certainly was.

In the late 1980s, as MGR began to weaken and then passed away, there was a power struggle within the AIADMK. Jayalalithaa was harassed by RM Veerappan, then acting chief minister, and extremely isolated. It is during this time that Sasikala moved closer to her and finally into her residence.

Sasikala provided Jayalalithaa emotional and managerial support. Natarajan, an old hand in politics, masterminded Jayalalithaa’s comeback. The rest is well known.

DESPITE THE rupture now, the Mannargudi mafia is not giving up. On 17 January, Natarajan addressed a Pongal gathering in Thanjavur and sent veiled threats to Jayalalithaa. “Now, I have become a complete leader,” he said. “Now, I’m a leader without strings or fetters… Many people have come here expecting to hear decisive announcements from me. I will take the decision at an appropriate time. I changed the government in Tamil Nadu. Many feel that someone else is reaping the reward for my efforts. I’m silent because the decision I take should not adversely affect the peace and harmony of the state…”

Clearly provoking the chief minister, he also exclaimed he needed Rs 50 lakh to build a memorial for the “martyrs of the Tamil Eelam war” in Sri Lanka. The money was raised in a matter of minutes. First, Natarajan sold his Nissan car, with its VIP number plate, for Rs 20 lakh. Next his Rolex watch was sold for Rs 5 lakh. Third, his Hyundai Sonata and Ford Endeavour SUV were sold for Rs 10 lakh each. Natarajan was still Rs 5 lakh short, and resorted to theatrics. He called an NRI businessman in Dubai and demanded a donation of Rs 5 lakh — which was duly given.

Financial resources, political clout, community mobilisation, the Eelam card (indicating an obvious synergy with the DMK): Natarajan was sending multiple signals in Thanjavur that day. The question is, has he worried Jayalalithaa at all?

Courtesy:Tehelka.com