JJ's glee: Tsunami = 'tsomuchmoney' for me!

JJ is loving it...

Have you guys seen Jayalalitha lately? The first day after the Earthquake/Tidal wave/ Pralayam that slapped Tamil Nadu, 'J' as the Tamil papers call her, had a rather worn appearance. Her eyes were puffy, her cheeks were flabby, and she wore the uncomfortable frown of someone who's wondering whether maybe God is trying to tell them something.

But a week, and over 150,000 lives later, amid all the flurry of VIP visits and all the media attention, 'J' looks positively festive. Gone is the drab synthetic print sari. Back are the gaudy silk saris, the caked-on fair-and-lovely face-powder and -- that smile. Like the cat that swallowed the canary.

And why not? After all, 116 billion Rupees - that ain't chump change! Tsunami's, it turns out, are good for business... That glimmer you see in JJ's eye? Look verrry closely - they're Dollar signs.... ching-ching!

Not that I have any objection to the world lending the people of Tamil Nadu a hand. It's just that I find it a bit difficult to stomach descriptions of people lacking gloves as they bury the dead, and of destitute people ailing without clean drinking water (heck you couldn't get enough of that in Chennai even before all this) even as 'J' salivates over all the building contracts she'll be able to toss to her cronies for building that seawall all across the coastline. And all those promises of handouts for the "families of victims" - or as 'J' likes to put it: "voters". A lakh each, and no-one will dare criticize it! Yo, Lalloo -- Eat your heart out!

Of course, one feels for the victims. But there are a whole other set of victims undergoing another kind of suffocation whom the world is ignoring.

I refer to the victims of police persecution in Kanchipuram. It is now apparent that anyone connected even remotely with the Sankara Matam is subject to interrogation, harrassment, threats, and, ultimately, arrest. Everyone from the Matam driver right up to the manager gets hauled in for interrogation. People who work in educational institutions run by the Matam - from teachers to Vice-Chancellors - Premkumar and his motley crew get up close and personal with every single one of them. I am hearing accounts of repeated interrogations, with police applying all sorts of pressure on these people to implicate the Sankaracharya - speak ill of him in some way.

The Matam's manager, Sundaresa Iyer, retired from TVS, was interrogated 14 times, before his sudden arrest. Nowhere in any of the public recitations about the case has the prosecution given the slightest hint of Sundaresa Iyer's involvement. Their latest theory of the crime (which mutates faster than you can say 'frame-up') was that Sankaracharya kept some money from an April land sale in his room until September the 1st, when he called up 3 guys, gave them the dough, with orders to 'bump off' the victim. Sundaresa Iyer made it plain that could NOT have happened. (Read his interview to a Tamil mag here). Lo and behold, he was arrested on murder charges.

Today, PK and gang decided to haul in the Matam's donors - private citizens who contribute to the numerous good causes the Sankaramatam has embarked upon under Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal's stead. Needless to say, erstwhile generous patron 'J' was not among them...

So, gentle reader, while you mourn for the victims of this terrible natural calamity, spare a thought for the victims of Kanchi, who suffer man-made (or should I say woman-made?) terror. These are real people, and they are undergoing unnecessary, and unjustified suffering. Unlike the other, this calamity is reversible.

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Requiem:

It saddens me to report that Sundaresa Iyer's sister died of a heart attack last week, right after finding out police refused to allow family to visit her brother. This week, his ailing brother died. The Tamil Nadu government lacked the compassion to allow Sundaresa Iyer a visit to his sick brother. I hope you will join me in sending heartfelt condolences and a message of support to Shree Sundaresa Iyer and his family.