At a time when the entire State was mourning the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and scores of cadre were reported dead due to shock and grief, some sitting Ministers, MLAs and former MLAs had been busy cancelling their orders for printing 2017 calendar bearing the portrait of their beloved leader.
“It was on December 6 that we got many calls from many party functionaries, including MLAs, former MLAs and former councillors to cancel the order,” said a printer, on condition of anonymity.
These people had placed orders for printing over 25,000 ‘daily sheet’ calendars with a bold image of the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa who was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. The orders were placed in the last week of November and on December 1.
The printer had started the printing work of the photograph of Jayalalithaa, along with a smaller image of the party functionary concerned.
Within two days, the work for lamination was also over and the printer was about to paste them on boards before fixing the daily sheets.
“The Chief Minister passed away on December 5 and the very next day morning we started getting ‘stop printing’ calls. The leaders have told us that they would come back to us with some changes,” the printer said.
In some other cases, AIADMK leaders, including some Ministers from outside southern districts, had cancelled their orders with printers and placed fresh orders with different portraits.
“This time, it has a bold picture of Ms. V.K. Sasikala, along with a smaller image of Jayalalithaa,” he added.
The leaders had also compensated the printers for the losses they incurred because of the duplication. However, the printing units here had delivered many bulk orders running into several thousands of calendars with the photographs of Jayalalithaa, even during November.
