[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ayalalithaa had died on 5th December after a prolonged illness in Chennai’s Apollo Hospital. The cause of her illness has since been an intense topic of media speculations and dominated the political discourse of Tamil Nadu politics. The petition was moved by P.A. Stalin, a primary member of the AIADMK, Stalin also wanted the court to pass interim order to the State authorities and the Apollo Hospitals calling for all official and other relevant records and documents in connection with her death. Voters and cadre of the AIADMK are questioning as to why the admission, ailment and treatment of the late Chief Minister was shrouded in such mystery. All these while people were curious to know the reason for Jayalalithaa’s death but now all of sudden the revelations are made.
The doctor who treated J Jayalalithaa said she was speaking right until she suffered a massive cardiac arrest in December. There was no question of poisoning, nothing mysterious about the death. It was a witnessed cardiac arrest. Jayalalithaa had communicated in sign language and was “responding and interactive” for several days before her vitals crashed. Her collapse at the end was completely unexpected, severe infection damaged her organs. Throughout her 75-day hospital stay, there was speculation about Jayalalithaa’s health, with many wondering whether the gravity of her true condition was largely hidden from the public to keep up appearances that she was firmly in charge. Only a small group of people were allowed access to her, including Sasikala.
Doctors claimed that Jayalalithaa was conscious, when she heard and signed off on an election document. Later on Amma’s thumb imprint on that document served to fuel more speculation that she was not conscious. People are raising question, why this clarifications are made now, why doctors have not clarified all the facts with media, during her hospitalised days. This whole episode pointing finger that conspiracy is being coated by the Sasikala and Apollo management. Apollo Hospital has a notorious tag of ‘whoever walks inside will come out in packed condition’. Therefore, they have chosen to dispel rumours. If the doctors are claiming that she was responding, why they had not brought out periodical medical bulletin to dispel rumours? Why they were silent? Secondly, if the doctors claim she had severe infection which resulted in organ failure, how come Sasikala only had proximity to her? There are too many loose ends.
Indian karate expert and Jayalalithaa loyalist Shihan Hussaini earlier opened up about the mysterious death of J Jayalalithaa. Not only he but actor Kamal Hassan’s wife and many other people were curious to know the sequence of her death, everyone suspects her death because there are many reasons to do so. Hussaini alleged that Jayalalithaa was killed and Sasikala’s husband Natarajan plotted her death. Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan lost his job in 1976 due to the Emergency (India). Denied its main source of income, the family was forced to sell or pawn jewels. Natarajan was reinstated in his job in 1980. To supplement the family income, Sasikala opened a video renting business and later added video recording of programs and functions like marriages to the business. In the early 1980s, Natarajan requested V. S. Chandralekha, who was then the District Collector of South Arcot, to introduce his wife Sasikala to Jayalalithaa, who was then the Propaganda Secretary of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, for recording of party functions. Sasikala and Jayalalithaa gradually became very close. On 19 December 2011, Jayalalithaa expelled Sasikala and 13 others including Sasikala’s husband Natarajan and their relatives, including T. T. V. Dhinakaran and Jayalalithaa’s disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran and relieved them from the AIADMK. Most members of the party welcomed her decision, but later on Sasikala managed to come back and since then the bitterness between both have grown silently.
A 2012 report published in the Tehelka magazine had alleged that Jayalalithaa was slow poisoned. It suggested that she was given sedatives and chemical substances with small amounts of poison. The plot was allegedly made by Sasikala and was executed by a nurse appointed by her. If ECMO (Extra corporeal membrane oxygenation) was given to her it means that she was kept alive artificially. If yes then who gave permission to pull the plug and stop ECMO. Was this the reason behind her death? Who were the people making the decisions about Jayalalithaa’s treatment when her health was in this delicate state? Why all the theories are surfacing with every clarification? Why the same answers were not conveyed earlier?
Meanwhile, amid of all these ambiguities the AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala will take over as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu following her election as the leader of the Legislature Party. She will take over from O Panneerselvam, who has submitted his resignation. Panneerselvam took over as the chief minister on December 5 last year following the demise of the previous chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Sasikala, 62, was unanimously elected leader of the AIADMK Legislature Party at a meeting of the MLAs of AIADMK. This is disaster for Tamil Nadu and shows what looted wealth can do. It can make nobody a CM overnight. While Tamil Nadu residents rise up rhetorically for peripheral issues, they will watch this silently and vent their anger in some other unconnected issue.
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