From politics to farming, Vaiko style

‘‘Our village tank has not been desilted for a long time now. We decided not to wait for government assistance and clean it ourselves,’’ he said. If desilted, the tank would provide water to over 500 acres of land in the village, he said, before jumping onto a tractor.

Though a desilting operation had been taken up under the food-for-work programme, contractors and officials ‘‘ate up most of the funds allotted’’, Vaiko charged. ‘‘So, we have decided not to depend on the government.’’

For Pongal next January, the tank in his village would look sparkling clean. And his villagers, who had not celebrated the harvest festival because Vaiko was in jail under POTA, are now preparing for the celebrations with the ‘‘son of the soil’’.

Kant get any worse

It can’t get any worse. The leading Kants of Tamil cinema — Rajnikant and Vijaykant — appear to be star-crossed. Their tryst with politics and the off-screen ‘‘fight’’ with PMK leader S. Ramadoss has hit their first love — box office. After his mega-venture, Baba, flopped two years ago, Rajnikant is yet to come out with a movie. He announced the production of Jaggubai with fanfare but called it off quietly. Now, he is planning Chandramukhi, a Kannada film remake. But its fate is as uncertain as Rajnikant’s political career. But Vijaykant, the latest Kant to take on the PMK leader, is in deeper trouble. His latest movie, Gajendra, could be released only after the producer solicited the ‘‘blessings’’ of Ramadoss. And the film is not a big hit either. And his next movie, Neranja Manasukkaran has already run into trouble. The shooting crew is said to have trespassed into a farmhouse in Udumalaipet near Coimbatore and damaged the coconut grove. The owner, Baranitharan, moved the Madras High Court, which ordered police to register a case ‘‘provided there is truth in the complaint’’.

Another Jaya gives ministers the jitters

In Amma’s land, it is of little surprise that her ministers are in jitters — at least 20 of them have got the boot till now. But this time, all of them are not only in awe of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa or her close friend, Sasikalaa. They have a new source of fear: A 30-plus Jayalakshmi from the fireworks town of Sivakasi in southern Tamil Nadu.

Ever since her father filed a habeas corpus petition after Jayalakshmi went missing from her Madurai home and later reappeared a few months ago, some of the police officers had been having sleepless nights. She had charged several police officers of having ‘‘sexually exploited’’ her. Promptly, the state government had suspended over 20 policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police. However, she dropped a bigger bombshell recently. ‘‘Some of the ministers too misused me,’’ she said. And, more specifically, she named PWD Minister O. Paneerselvam, who had played the stop-gap Chief Minister when the Supreme Court asked Jayalalithaa to step down in September 2001.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered a CBI probe into la affaire Jayalakshmi. And a team is now interrogating Jayalakshmi and her relatives. Soon, they might zero in on some of the ministers as well.

From khaki to grease paint

This is the story of a 20-something girl, Sujatha, whose dream was to don the khaki. But last week, she failed to clear the physical fitness test at the constabulary selection in Chennai. ‘‘My dreams are lost,’’ Sujatha sighed, as she slumped to the ground. For the lensmen, it was a dramatic moment worth capturing. And the next day, a leading Tamil daily splashed her picture on its front page.

The caption carried no name but the expression on her face caught the fancy of a leading Tamil film director, Cheran, who was looking for a heroine for his next movie. His last movie, Autograph, featuring newcomers was a runaway hit and Cheran was eager to repeat the success. He frantically called up the newspaper office for the girl’s address. And the next day, the newspaper carried an interesting item: ‘‘Cheran is looking for you? Who are you?’’. The girl promptly got in touch with Cheran’s office, and she may well be in his next film. ‘‘We are yet to sign her up. We are just toying with the idea,’’ says an assistant director working with Cheran. Trust Kollywood to concoct such fairytale twists!

Competitive felicitation

In the land of Dravidian rivalry, there’s competition even in felicitating the Tamil ‘‘Ayya’’ and ‘‘Amma’’. Last Sunday, the Tamil Language Academy feted the DMK president Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi for his ‘‘historic efforts’’ at elevating the status of Tamil to a ‘‘classical language’’. Leading Chennai-based industrialist, M.A.M. Ramasamy, was the key organizer of the function, where most of the participants were local Tamil scholars.

The next day, the rival AIADMK went global with its felicitation of ‘‘Amma’’. The Madras University Centenary hall was lit up and draped in green as their Puratchi Thalaivi received the Golden Star of Dignity and Honour award from the Ukraine-based International Human Rights Committee, which is said to be a consultative body of the United Nations.

The award was in celebration of Jayalalithaa’s commitment to the causes of ‘‘human rights, gender justice, and women’s rights,’’ said the citation. And the Director of the Indian Chapter of the committee claimed she was the first Asian to get the award and she shares the honour with Russian President Vladmir Putin and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

‘‘It is a historic award,’’ he said. But the DMK chief would not buy it. ‘‘It looks like the award was given by someone in Anna Nagar (a popular Chennai locality) and not from the United Nations,’’ he sniggered.