History repeats itself in Tamil Nadu

October 10, 2016 03:20 am | Updated November 09, 2021 02:45 am IST - Chennai:

Governmental crisis caused by Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation has striking resemblance to happenings 32 years ago.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s prolonged hospitalisation and the resultant governmental crisis is not without parallels in Tamil Nadu. Thirty-two years ago the State witnessed much more frenzied political activity when the then Chief Minister and AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) was hospitalised.

On the night of October 5, 1984, MGR suddenly suffered breathlessness. His wife and personal physician rushed him in his official car from the Ramavaram Gardens on the outskirts of Chennai to Apollo Hospitals, which was inaugurated just the previous year.

Initially, MGR believed it would be a one-night stay and told his wife and officials not to allow news of his hospitalisation to spread and even sent away his pilot motorcycles and car.

Later, as he continued to be bed-ridden, the hospital became a hub of political activity with national and State leaders arriving one after the other to inquire about MGR’s health. The then Health Minister, H.V. Hande, issued regular updates on the treatment given to the Chief Minister.

In the first few days, the governmental work continued routinely as MGR was conscious. However, a week later on October 13, his health suffered a serious setback. A stroke paralysed the right side of his body and impaired his speech. A CT scan revealed a tennis-ball sized clot in his brain. Doctors declared he would be out of action for long.

Constitutional crisis

That’s when Governor S.L. Khurana realised that he had a strange constitutional crisis at hand. Since the Governor acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister, what happens when the head of the government is not in a position to take decisions? “The Constitution is silent on all these issues,” Khurana was quoted then. He consulted Advocate-General R. Krishnamurthy.

The Assembly was in session. In the meantime, the then Finance Minister, V.R. Nedunchezhian, who was number two in the Cabinet, met Khurana at the Raj Bhavan, and claimed that when he had met MGR in hospital a day before he suffered the stroke, the Chief Minister had asked him to handle the administration of the State. Incidentally, the Governor too had met MGR that day, but the Chief Minister had not indicated anything about this arrangement to him.

As a stop-gap solution, the Governor said the Cabinet could not meet in the absence of the Chief Minister and no major policy decision should be taken. Informally, Ministers could sit and sort out files that required inter-ministerial clearance.

Amid all this, a five-member Cabinet sub-committee headed by Nedunchezhian was set up to take “quick decisions” on the treatment of the Chief Minister. It was this sub-committee which took the decision to fly MGR to Brooklyn Hospital in the U.S. for undergoing a kidney transplant and authorise the government to bear his treatment expenses.

To facilitate Nedunchezhian to discharge the duties of the Chief Minister, the then Chief Secretary and MGR’s private secretary separately communicated to the Governor endorsing the Minister’s claim that MGR had “orally instructed” him to steer the government. On the strength of these letters, Khurana on October 25, 1984, issued a formal notification authorising Nedunchezhian to preside over Cabinet meetings during the period of MGR’s treatment. The Governor also allocated 14 subjects that were handled by MGR to Nedunchezhian, in addition to his Finance, Revenue, Legislature, Elections, Youth Service Corps and Ex-servicemen portfolios. After then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Nedunchezhian went on to recommend the dissolution of the Assembly and called for snap polls to cash in on the sympathy wave. Three months later, a speech-impaired MGR returned from the U.S. to be sworn in as Chief Minister at a function held inside the Raj Bhavan, where only Doordarshan was allowed and microphones were switched off. Nedunchezhian took charge as Finance Minister.

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