Another case of terrorism

The arrest under Pota of R.R. Gopal, editor of Tamil bi-weekly Nakeeran, more famous for his officially-sanctioned forays into Veerappan-lan...

The arrest under Pota of R.R. Gopal, editor of Tamil bi-weekly Nakeeran, more famous for his officially-sanctioned forays into Veerappan-land, is yet more affirmation of the thesis: that Pota, ostensibly enacted to fight terrorism, has itself become the prime instrument of perpetuating state terror.

And that in her latest stint as chief minister, J. Jayalalithaa presides over a vindictive and despotic regime where all dissent, all politics even, must cower in fear. And where opposition politicians will soon become an endangered species outside of jail premises. Yet, amid the grimness of it all, it is difficult not to marvel at the picture perfectness

of the image. Imperious Amma wielding a draconian law like Pota. If Pota didn’t exist, surely Jayalalithaa would have invented it.

For the deadly twosome’s victims in the state, though, and indeed for all their potential victims, it is a sombre scenario. Jayalalithaa seems supremely unrestrained by any norms of democratic conduct as she pursues her vendetta against political rivals in general and against DMK chief Karunanidhi and his men in particular. Gopal’s arrest comes close on the heels of the chief minister’s announcement in the Assembly that the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption would probe the matter pertaining to the alleged payment of ransom to Veerappan to secure the release of Kannada superstar Rajkumar in 2000 when the DMK was in power; it has been unsubtly insinuated that Karunanidhi himself played a dubious role in the ‘transaction’. Whatever the immediate ‘evidence’ trotted out against Gopal, which includes items as flimsy as a pamphlet in support of the banned TNLA, his arrest is clearly part of a long-running saga. His is the latest scalp in a sorry line-up that features MDMK leader Vaiko, also arrested under Pota for a speech supporting the LTTE. More recently, Karunanidhi’s son Stalin was arrested at midnight for ‘trespassing’ into the campus of a college her government has threatened to demolish.

Jayalalithaa-style politics, ably supported by a law like Pota, is not practised by Jayalalithaa alone. In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati has demonstrated a flair for the art form patented by her Tamil counterpart. Both leaders underline the ironic truth that democratic politics sometimes needs rescuing from its elected leaders.