The AIADMK supremo later told the media that at the time of the incident, she had vowed that she would not return to the floor of the House till the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which was then in power, was defeated and the assembly became a safe space for women.
According to political analysts, the episode was the “fire” that kept Jayalalithaa going. A former actress, Jayalalithaa went on to lead the AIADMK till her death in 2016.
In the 34 years since the assembly incident, there have been different versions of what transpired on that day.
Describing the incident, Sitharaman had said: “It is a very sacred sabha (gathering), (but) opposition leader Jayalalithaa’s saree was pulled in the assembly. Her saree was pulled and the DMK members sitting there heckled her, laughed at her and made fun of her. Two years later, she returned as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.”
Reacting to Sitharaman, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin dismissed her description of the events of 1989 as “information based on WhatsApp history” and called the assembly incident “a drama enacted by Jayalalithaa herself”.
However, irrespective of what exactly happened on 25 March, 1989, the day turned out to be a turning point in Jayalalithaa’s political career, catalysing her image as the “Amma” that she later came to be known as.
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What happened on 25 March, 1989
Two persons, who were present in the Tamil Nadu assembly that day, recounted to ThePrint the events of that day — Su Thirunavukkarasar, the incumbent Congress MP from Tiruchirappalli who was with the AIADMK in 1989 and was appointed as deputy leader of opposition, and K.N. Arun, professor at Chennai’s Asian College of Journalism who was present in the assembly’s press gallery.
The day itself was important for the DMK, which had come to power in Tamil Nadu that year after 13 years.
DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, who had become the CM after two AIADMK tenures, was to present the first budget of the newly-formed government.
Thirunavukkarasar told ThePrint: “Before the budget session, Jayalalithaa had convened a meeting of all (AIADMK) MLAs and it was decided that we would disrupt the CM’s budget speech.”
The AIADMK’s decision to disrupt the assembly session was motivated by another incident.
In the 1989 Tamil Nadu polls, the AIADMK’s Jayalalithaa faction had won 27 seats, while the DMK swept the election with 150 seats in the 234-member assembly.
Speaking to ThePrint, Arun said: “Jayalalithaa was disheartened and had decided to resign from her MLA seat (Bodinayakkanur) and drafted a letter which was handed to M. Natarajan, husband of V.K. Sasikala (ousted AIADMK leader and aide of Jayalalithaa).”
Arun recalled that at that time, a raid was conducted at Natarajan’s residence in Chennai’s Abhiramapuram on charges of cheating.
“The very same evening, Jayalalithaa’s resignation letter mysteriously found its way to then Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M. Tamilkudimagan. The Speaker issued a notification the same day accepting the resignation, but had to recall it the following day,” he said.
It was in this context that the AIADMK planned the disruption of the assembly on 25 March, and a breach of privilege motion (an infringement of any of the privileges of a member of the House) was moved by Jayalalithaa before Karunanidhi could start his budget speech.
“Jayalalithaa shouted that kutravali (criminal) should not present the budget,” according to Arun. AIADMK members, too, began sloganeering in the assembly.
“Karunanidhi made a remark, and Jayalalithaa was visibly shaken. Immediately, AIADMK MLA K. A. Sengottaiyan and a few others moved forward to snatch the copy of the budget and Sengottaiyan pushed the CM,” Arun said.
Adding to this, Thirunavukkarasar explained: “AIADMK MLAs pulled at his (CM’s) hand for the budget copy. Kalaignar (as Karunanidhi was popularly called) was shaken, tried to move away and his black glasses fell down. He lost his balance and was about to fall. The DMK MLAs sitting behind him thought he was being attacked.”
Violence broke out on the floor of the assembly, with DMK and AIADMK members hurling budget documents, mics and slippers at each other, according to those present there.
Thirunavukkarasar, who was sitting next to Jayalalithaa, said he tried to shield her from the front, while K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, a present-day DMK minister who was an AIADMK MLA in 1989, guarded her from the back, and Congress leader G.K. Moopanar covered her from the side.
“The chaos was getting intense, so I suggested to Jayalalithaa that ‘let’s leave’, and we started walking out,” he added.
Recalling the events, Arun said that as Jayalalithaa started walking out, then DMK minister Durai Murugan moved quickly towards her, but in the process her saree got pulled and tore at the point where it was pinned to her blouse.
Karunanidhi’s and Jayalalithaa’s version of events was, however, different.
An article from the archives of The Hindu quoted Karunanidhi as saying in 1989: “I told the Speaker that it (privilege motion) could be taken up on Monday as the budget was being presented. Despite this and even when Ms Jayalalithaa called me a criminal, DMK MLAs remained calm. Mr Sengottaiyan attempted to pounce on me. Immediately, Ms Jayalalithaa directed her MLA to punch me and Mr Sengottaiyan hit my face and broke my spectacles.”
In another article from 1989, Jayalalithaa is quoted as saying: “They all concentrated on me and directed blows on my head. Throwing the podium, the bell on the Speaker’s table, big pads and bundles of budget papers, books and whatever missiles they could lay their hands on. I felt giddy and almost fainted. When party MLAs tried to escort me out, a DMK minister caught hold of my saree and pulled it. This resulted in the safety pin on the shoulder giving way and causing bleeding injuries. The saree was torn.”
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‘No one hit Karunanidhi, no one pulled Jayalalithaa’s saree’
While allegations are rife that Jayalalithaa was attacked, there are those who insist she wasn’t and the DMK has denied the charge.
Speaking about the episode in the Lok Sabha earlier this month, Sitharaman mentioned the disrobing of Draupadi in the Kaurava’s court in the Mahabharata. “You are talking about the Kaurava sabha, you are talking about Draupadi. Has the DMK forgotten Jayalalithaa? You pulled her saree, you demeaned her,” she alleged.
AIADMK’s Palaniswami, who was a first-time MLA in 1989, told reporters in Madurai on 13 August that “some DMK ministers and MLAs pulled Jayalalithaa by her hair and a present minister in Stalin’s government pulled Jayalalithaa’s saree”.
He further termed the alleged attack as “barbaric” and noted that those involved should have been dismissed from the assembly “but no one was punished”.
However, former AIADMK leader Thirunavukkarasar told ThePrint that “no one had hit or punched the then CM Karunanidhi, nor did anyone pull Jayalalithaa’s saree”, adding that “as an AIADMK leader then, I had to speak for her. But now I am speaking the truth”.
“People who are talking today are those who did not know what happened then in the assembly,” he added.
When asked about the 1989 episode, DMK organisational secretary R.S. Bharathi pointed out that most senior political leaders who knew about the incident had passed away.
“I cannot talk like Nirmala Sitharaman, I can only make an authentic statement. Kalaignar has died, Jayalalithaa has died and Thirunavakkarassur, who was present in the assembly, has narrated what happened. Sitharaman was not even in politics when this episode happened,” he said.
Speaking to ThePrint, an ousted senior AIADMK leader said the episode was a transformative one for Jayalalithaa and she had that very day decided that the DMK government had to be toppled in Tamil Nadu.
‘Amma changed dress style, kept men at heel’
Political analysts narrate how the assembly incident changed Jayalalithaa’s leadership and brought support for the AIADMK.
“The happenings in the assembly brought a lot of sympathy for Jayalalithaa,” political analyst and author J.V.C Sreeram told ThePrint.
He explained that AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran had unflinching support from women but their votes got divided in the 1989 Tamil Nadu election, benefiting Karunanidhi. “However, the assembly episode created anger towards the DMK and sympathy towards the AIADMK and Jayalalithaa was able to win back the women’s votes,” he said.
While in hospital, Jayalalithaa was visited by then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi, marking the beginning of the AIADMK’s alliance with the party.
In the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, which were held eight months after the assembly incident, the AIADMK-Congress combine won 38 of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. In the 1991 Tamil Nadu assembly polls, the AIADMK-Congress alliance won a thumping victory on 225 of 234 seats while the DMK was reduced to just seven seats.
“Jayalalithaa also changed how she appeared in public. From normal sarees, she moved on to wearing sarees which were covered by a long shirt overcoat,” said political analyst Priyan Srinivasan.
Sreeram said that the assembly incident made Jayalalithaa keep her party men under control. “Being a woman, she thought that if she didn’t have the men in control, she would always be dominated by them in the male-centre Tamil Nadu political arena. She did not give them an inch and used to remove them unceremoniously,” he said.
Jayalalithaa also tested her mettle in politics by contesting from different parts of Tamil Nadu.
“There are cryptic messages that Jayalalithaa wanted to give to the world outside,” said Sreeram. “Jayalalithaa had the audacity to say that ‘I will contest from any constituency and win’. She won from Bodinayakkanur, Kangeyam, Baragur, Andipatti, Srirangam, RK Nagar — giving the message that ‘I am a caste-neutral leader despite coming from a Brahmin background’.”
According to Priyan, except for a few testing years (1996, 1998, 2001 and 2014), Jayalalithaa had a successful political stint from the 1989 incident onwards till her demise in 2016. “The party and the cadres stood strong on her side,” she said.
Jayalalithaa herself talked about the assembly episode in 1999, 10 years after its occurrence, on the show ‘Rendezvous with Simi Garewal’. “That day I left the assembly in tears, but I was also angry,” she said.
Talking about whether she intimidated men, the AIADMK supremo asserted: “The old Jayalalithaa is gone. The one who would be tongue-tied when someone insulted her or when someone was rude to her.”
“The one who didn’t know to answer back,” she added.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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Source: The Print
