Jaya denies having spent even a penny on foster son’s wedding

BANGALORE/CHENNAI: With virtually her entire cabinet in tow, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa appeared before the Bangalore special court on Tuesday for questioning in the disproportionate wealth case.

An entourage of Tamil Nadu ministers waited with hordes of cadres and party sympathizers outside the high security Parapana Agrahara Central Jail while Jayalalithaa took the questions in her stride. She denied having spent a single paisa on her disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran’s wedding in September 1995. She told the court the Rs 6 crore allegedly spent on the wedding was borne by the bride’s family.

This was her third personal appearance before the special court and the ‘moral support group’ of ministers sensed nothing amiss despite their absence from the state secretariat for yet another day. On October 21, the first time Jayalalithaa was questioned , at least 10 ministers, including top three seniors, accompanied her.

On Wednesday a larger number of ministers were present in the court premises. This time, she will be questioned for two days.

“More than 15 state ministers including seniors O Panneerselvam , K A Sengottaiyan and Natham R Viswanathan have been there to receive the CM. Absence of the power minister Viswanathan, transport minister Senthil Balaji, public works minister K V Ramalingam and other ministers will slow down the government work,” an official said.

The CM was questioned for five hours on Tuesday and ended the day by signing various court documents.

She had to make an appearance at the Bangalore court after the SC rejected her appeal seeking exemption on security grounds.

Times View

M inisters in the Jayalalithaa government may quite understandably have a sense of loyalty towards their leader and might want to exhibit it at every opportunity. That is their private business. They must, however, not forget that their first duty ought to be to the people of Tamil Nadu.

Rushing off to provide ‘moral support’ to Jayalalithaa every time she has to present herself at court hearings in Bangalore amounts to abandoning their post. They would actually be serving both the residents of their state and Jayalalithaa herself better if they were to spend the same time and effort in doing their jobs as ministers in the TN government better and with more diligence.