Now that Jaya's health details are public, will AIADMK admit it lied?

In July 2015, then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa slapped a criminal defamation case in a Chennai court against a news portal for carrying a story on her health. The story was about how the Chennai media knew about Jayalalithaa's health and different ailments but chose to keep mum. Jayalalithaa's charge was that the story was written with a malafide intention to tarnish her image.

A few days later, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy also got on the wrong side of the AIADMK leader when he tweeted that Jaya was to be taken to John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, USA for a liver transplant. Another defamation case was filed against Tamil publication Nakkeeran for writing an article suggesting that Jayalalithaa needed a kidney transplant.

Jayalalithaa clearly took an adversarial position vis-a-vis anyone who wrote about her health. In fact, the story in the news portal also mentioned how no photographers and videographers were allowed to shoot Amma entering or exiting the State Secretariat at Fort St George.

Anything that would give away that she was not in the pink of health, was not to be allowed. It is therefore ironic that three months after her demise, Jayalalithaa's entire medical history has been put out in public by her own party's government, and it establishes that her medical ailments were far more serious that what media reports suggested.

But that has always been the manner in which Jayalalithaa functioned. Between 2011 and 2016, over 200 cases of defamation were filed which ensured the media would think several times before writing anything about any aspect of Jayalalithaa's governance. And the chief minister's health was a definite no-no.

In fact, when actor-turned-politician and DMDK leader Vijaykanth approached the Supreme Court seeking relief in a defamation case filed by Jayalalithaa, the apex court frowned upon her penchant for intimidating legally. The bench slammed Jayalalithaa for foisting criminal defamation complaints against political opponents to stifle fair criticism of her government.

But nothing changed. In fact, after September 22, when Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, cases were booked against more than 50 people for speculating about the CM's health condition. They were charged with spreading rumours. Now in the light of the contents of the Apollo Hospitals' discharge summary put out by the government itself, how will the police justify its cases, slapped in the most whimsical manner against common citizens and opposition party cadre?

It is obvious that the AIADMK wanted to convey the impression that all was well when it was not. Everyday AIADMK spokesperson, CR Saraswathi, in her interviews to the media, would make it appear that there was nothing seriously wrong with Jayalalithaa and that she would be home in a few days. If any case is to be booked, it should be against those who deliberately fed wrong information and misled the public.

The AIADMK government is equally in the dock.

According to sources, it forced Apollo Hospitals to put out medical bulletins which said Jayalalithaa was suffering from fever and dehydration. The hospital's credibility also suffered in the process because the truth was anything but this. The discharge summary now clearly states that she was brought to the hospital in respiratory distress, unstable and in a critical state.

In fact, the Tamil Nadu government was rather imaginative in the manner it misled the people. The summary says Jaya's condition deteriorated on day 4 (September 25) when she developed tachypnoea (rapid breathing) and it worsened further the following day. Incidentally on September 27, the government put out a press release saying the CM presided over a meeting over Cauvery river water from her hospital bed. It also mentioned that senior bureaucrats attended the meeting. In light of the summary now, will the government admit that it bluffed?

A number of decisions related to AIADMK also were taken in the name of Jayalalithaa during this period. Now that it is obvious that the party supremo was not medically fit to be party to those decisions, red flags should ideally be raised about those decisions.

The larger concern is whether governments should be allowed to get away by lying through their teeth, when it concerns the health of an important public functionary. But what is worse is to slap cases and arrest people who expressed doubts about the official version.

This amounts to first hoodwinking the people and then penalising them for suspecting that everything is not hunky-dory.

Also read: I got Jayalalithaa bail, she surpassed all politicians in India