The Big Story: RIP Puratchi Thalaivi Amma
- In Scroll.in, Sruthisagar Yamunan’s defintive obituary on the career of Jayalalithaa is a must read.
- In the News Minute, Anna Isaac recounts the infamous 1989 incident of Jayalalithaa’s saree being “pulled and torn” by a DMK minister in the TN Assembly. The incident would give rise to one of the bitterest rivalries in Indian politics.
- In Scroll.in, Nayantara Narayanan explains how Jayalalithaa used posters to transform herself from a film star into the Amma of Tamil Nadu.
- Jayalalithaa created an aura of being a universal mother to all those who need her. In Scroll.in, Geeta Doctor explains how Amma held sway in Tamil Nadu.
- Jayalalithaa’s biographer Vaasanthi looks back at the life of the Puratchi Thalaiva Amma in the Hindu.
- Panneerselvam might be the new Tamil Nadu chief minister but the real power behind the throne is Jayalalithaa’s close friend Sasikala Natarajan, reports Arun Janaradhanan in the Indian Express.
- Also, in the Telegraph, GC Shekhar profiles Sasikala, who is likely to assume a more prominent role in Tamil Nadu politics.
- Jayalalithaa’s deep popularity was built on a bedrock of populist schemes which made Tamil Nadu one of the most developed states in the Indian Union. The Hindu looks back on them.
- Jayalalithaa carried on the legacy of MG Ramachandran, whose hold on Tamil politics is yet to be bested, writes Nilakantan Rajaraman in the Business Standard.
- Vaasanthi in the Huffington Post on the stunning story of how Jayalalithaa trounced MGR’s wife to take over All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Don’t Miss
A petition to settle Babri Masjid dispute includes many fake signatures, Ayodhya’s Muslims allege. Dhirendra K Jha reports from Uttar Pradesh.
Led by former judge of Allahabad High Court Pulak Basu, the Ayodhya Vivad Samjhauta Nagrik Samiti – or Ayodhya Dispute Resolution Citizen Committee – spent months collecting more than 10,000 signatures of local Hindus and Muslims, giving their approval to a compromise formula based on Allahabad High Court’s 2010 ruling in Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi case.
Justice Basu’s compromise formula (though he insists it has been evolved by locals) asked Muslims to give up their claim over two-thirds of the disputed site and to refrain from constructing any structure on the one-third part awarded to them by the court. In return, a mosque would be constructed on another part of the acquired area, away from the site on which the Babri Masjid once stood.
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