The mystery of her mystique.

Couple of days ago a court in Bangalore found Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalitha guilty of corruption and sentenced her to 4 years in prison and fined her Rs 1 billion. It is called the Disproportionate Assets Case because when she became Chief Minister in 1991 she apparently possessed only Rs 25 million worth of assets which had grown to Rs 666.50 million, comprising of 2000 acres of land, 30 kg of gold, 12,000 saris and 800 pairs of shoes, by 1996 when she lost the elections. In her party, the AIADMK she is regarded as some sort of a deity, it is not clear why. Men fall down flat on their faces on the ground in homage, known in Hinduism as ' saashtaang '. After her conviction 16 people are said to have died, 10 from cardiac arrest and the rest from suicide. Why? It is not as if they were close to her. She is single and, apart from a so called foster son, on whose marriage she is said to have spent Rs 60 million in 1995, inviting the charge of disproportionate assets in the first place, she appears to have no close relatives. She is reputed to be extremely arrogant and aloof, allowing no one to sit next to her, even on flights. She cannot be that adorable that they cannot contemplate a future without her. After all, she lost elections in 1996 and 2006 and no one died then. So, what do all these people stand to lose. She has started Amma canteens which serve Amma idlis for Re 1, curd and rice for Rs 3 and sambar and rice for Rs 5. There is Amma water at Rs 10 per bottle, Amma pharmacies selling subsidised medicines and Amma cement at Rs 190 per bag. The state government has already projected an increase in total debt from Rs 1.31 trillion to Rs 1.55 trillion, with a total budget allocation of Rs 1.42 trillion. What all these handouts will do to the finances of the state maybe imagined. What is worse is that to win against her party others will have to promise even more handouts in a race to bankruptcy, which will eventually result in a severe public backlash. The Congress found this out the hard way after being reduced to 45 seats in parliament in 2014 from 214 seats in 2009. The NREGA scheme, farmers' loan waiver and the Sixth Pay Commission in 2008 paid handsome dividends but the Right to Education and the Food Security Bill did not because by then the previous sins had resulted in runaway inflation and huge fiscal and Current Account Deficits, bringing the threat of credit rating downgrade to junk status. Jayalalitha is not alone. About 50% of MLAs in Maharashtra face criminal charges while 90% of ministers of the new state of Telengana are criminals. What an auspicious start! The question therefore is why did so many suffer cardiac arrests for Jayalalitha. Mystery.