Sri Lanka’s State-run newspaper, the Daily News , on Wednesday said it was an “end of an era in Tamil Nadu”, referring to the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Most of the country’s mainstream media, particularly the Sinhala and English press based in Colombo, have been consistently critical of Ms. Jayalalithaa – a leader whom the island’s Sinhala majority perceived as a powerful leader who often pressured New Delhi to adopt anti-Colombo policies.
In its editorial – that traces the actor-turned-politician’s career in detail – published a day after her funeral, Daily News said O. Panneerselvam had a huge task in front of him “whilst taking her vision ahead”.
Referring to her stance on the LTTE – she moved from being rather critical of the organisation before the 1990s to later seeking a referendum for a separate Eelam – the Colombo-based English daily observed that Sri Lanka had ceased to be an electoral issue in Tamil Nadu after the island’s long civil war ended in 2009.
Giving her credit for her welfare measures the editorial observed that “even the fiercest critics of Jayalalithaa would unhesitatingly admit that poverty was one issue she strove to tackle.” She championed the cause of the rural and urban poor by introducing subsidised “Amma” food canteens, providing free laptops to thousands of school pupils and launching other populist schemes like giving away food mixers and grinders to families, the daily said.
“A larger than life figure, she was often accused of building a personality cult. But there is no denying that the people of Tamil Nadu genuinely loved her across party, communal and religious lines as seen by the huge crowds that lined up outside the Apollo Hospital in Chennai.”
On Tuesday, almost all newspapers in the island carried front-page news reports on Ms. Jayalalithaa’s passing. The country’s leaders, including President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Leader of Opposition and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, hailed Ms. Jayalalithaa as a pro-poor leader who was loved by the masses.
Indian origin Tamils working in Sri Lanka’s famed tea estates, who seldom figure in Tamil Nadu’s rhetoric on Sri Lankan Tamils, paid their respects to the departed leader, in many places garlanding her pictures and offering prayers. Her political mentor M.G. Ramachandran was born in Kandy, in Sri Lanka’s Central Province and remains a popular figure among estate workers.
Democratic People’s Front Leader and Minister Mano Ganesan said more than her policies and political choices, it is her grit and courage as a woman that come to the fore. “She fought and won this battle all alone,” he said, in a statement.
