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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (6702)	9/10/1999 8:59:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 12475

'Sonia Wave' THOUSANDS OF cheering Congress supporters thronged the streets around the collectorate here this afternoon as Mrs Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination papers for the Amethi parliamentary constituency.... hindustantimes.com

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (6702)	9/10/1999 9:48:00 PM
From: JPR	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

Mohan: British view of fat mama. Congressman says jayalalitha is Anaconda the-times.co.uk India's 'Mother' an all-round irritant FROM DAVID ORR IN MADURAI, TAMIL NADU TO HER supporters she is known as Amma (Mother), Golden Woman, Supreme Commander, Revolutionary Leader, Walking Goddess. To her detractors she is the First Lady of Misrule, a madwoman, an arrogant, corrupt, conniving harridan who will stop at nothing to achieve her ends. She is Jayalalitha, the woman who brought down India's Government, precipitating the current general election. Having withdrawn her support from Prime Minister Atul Behari Vajpayee's coalition in April, she is now in alliance with Sonia Gandhi's opposition Congress party. If Congress were in a position to form a government next month - a big if, as all the opinion polls put the alliance led by the Prime Minister's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) well ahead - this is the woman with whom Mrs Gandhi would have to do business. It might not be an enviable prospect, as Mrs Gandhi recently discovered when Jayalalitha left her standing alone at a rally the two women had been supposed to host jointly. "Forming a coalition government with Jayaram Jayalalitha would be like going to bed with an anaconda," one Congress party stalwart said as Mrs Gandhi vainly struggled to form a new administration after the downfall of Mr Vajpayee's regime. To hear Jayalalitha (her full name is rarely used), one would think she was the one who had been deserted. But having pulled the rug from under Mr Vajpayee she is now obsessed with what she calls his "betrayal". Much of her campaigning in the run-up to this weekend's final phase of voting in southern Tamil Nadu state has been devoted to tirades on the subject. Jayalalitha, a former film actress, has been entertaining rallies with her trademark jingles, little songs of her own composition, about the "perfidy" of the Prime Minister and one of his ministers. Ostensibly she parted company with the BJP because it refused to accept her demands that George Fernandes, the Defence Minister, be sacked and that a dismissed naval chief be reinstated. But her real problem with Mr Fernandes was that he reneged on an offer to help her to fight multimillion-pound corruption charges. He also failed - and this was the final straw, according to some sources - to offer her his condolences when her dog died. In fact, Jayalalitha had presented the BJP and its allies with an impossible ultimatum. She wanted Mr Vajpayee to sack the current Tamil Nadu Government, which is headed by a rival party and is committed to putting her behind bars. There are more than 40 corruption charges against her and her cabal relating to her time as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996. One set of allegations says she amassed some œ10 million during her time in office, despite her claim that she would take only a one rupee monthly salary. Other charges allege that she made nearly œ3 million out of a purchase of 45,300 colour television sets for villages in the state. Jayalalitha is said to have spent œ18 million on a lavish wedding recption for her son. The tab for a recent stay in a luxury Delhi hotel suite came to œ3,000 a day. When police raided one of her many mansions, they found 10,500 saris, 350 pairs of shoes and nearly 57lb of gold. Nevertheless, the masses love her. She speaks of matters that concern them: water scarcity, electricity shortages and the poor distribution of subsidised food. The rotund Jayalalitha is specially fˆted for her pale complexion and rosy cheeks. After a public address near Madurai on the final day of campaigning this week, wellwishers trooped on to the podium to present her with colourful silk saris for her collection. In villages along her route, people turned out in their thousands to cheer her motorcade. There are signs that India may be moving away from the chronic instability of recent years. People are talking of the need for a strong, stable government, one whose survival is not dictated by regional parties like Jayalalitha's AIADMK. To many, Jayalalitha is all that is wrong with Indian politics. But she still attracts a fanatical following.