From English to Air Conditioning, Jaya a Stickler for Perfection

Jaya was a pragmatic administrator known to be unforgiving to her detractors, writes former CBI chief R K Raghavan.

Tamil Nadu without JJ has become an arid expanse that will never be the vibrant land it was until yesterday. For quite some time we knew that the Puratchi Thalaivi had a major health problem. The fighter that she was, we believed she would go on and on. That was not to be.

My first near-encounter with her was in 1976 when Sanjay Gandhi was touring a rain-ravaged Chennai. Sanjay was on an aerial inspection of the area and Jaya was desperate to travel with him on his helicopter. She was told that only the IB could give her the needed permission – the state was under President’s Rule – and I was heading the IB in Chennai at that time.

I was told Jaya was desperately trying to locate me at the Raj Bhawan that afternoon, but never got down to it. I came to know about this a few days thereafter. It was my regret to this day that  I did not get to know her on that occasion. It would have been my privilege to have got her seat on the flight.

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Unique Personality

In 1993, two years after she came to power, she made me the Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.This portfolio was directly under her charge. But I did not get to see her as often as I would have liked to. The only time she called me to see her was to discuss the  case against a controversial IAS officer who was widely known to be corrupt. The latter was trying to get the charges diluted. I gained the feeling that this officer managed a line to her through one of the Chief Minister’s confidantes.  I stood my ground much to her chagrin. But she did not take it out on me. Not only that, she was gracious enough thereafter to attend my son’s wedding. She spent a whole hour at the function.

What was striking was that she did not indulge in any small talk with anybody in the hall. She kept her reserve, a quality that she retained for the rest of her life.

Graft Allegations

Our paths parted thereafter, particularly after she lost her office to Karunanidhi. Very soon, the unenviable task of investigating her alleged disproportionate assets case fell on me. I was clinical about this and never strayed an inch from the legal path. There were actually snide remarks that I was soft on her, mainly because I did not personally supervise the searches conducted at the Poes Garden in this connection.

Subsequent events proved I was correct and lawful, and never succumbed to the politics enveloping the issue.

It is a pity, I never got a chance to meet her and explain that I had no malice against her and that I was merely discharging my duty in probing the allegations leveled against her.

Pragmatic Administrator

She was a remarkable administrator, generous to the core. Quick on the uptake, she thoroughly understood the problems of the government staff. I remember at one Finance Committee meeting that she chaired, the issue of air conditioning an office came up for discussion. The senior officers present opposed this tooth and nail on grounds of economy. After listening to them for a while, she snapped at them, and quipped : “ After all this is Madras! We have to air condition the office.” Such was her pragmatism and generosity.

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Stickler for Perfect English

She spoke English so well that even an Englishman would envy her. A stickler for correct English she used to pull  up her staff if ever they committed basic mistakes. I remember one of my batchmates –an IAS officer from a rural back ground -- while serving as her Secretary stood up to her when she found fault with him for a lapsus linguae. The latter boldy responded saying that unlike her, she did not have the benefit of a convent education. I was told she was not annoyed, but was merely amused.

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Unforgiving Nature

Such was her geniality to people whom she liked. To others she was not exactly kind! From this point of view she was an enigma.  I still recall how she cut a supercilious Karan Thapar down to size. At the end of a gruelling interview when he needled her too much, Karan put out his hand and said,  what was customary to him, that it was a pleasure talking to her.

Jaya, who was fretting and fuming over what she considered as an insulting battery of questions from Karan, not only refused to shake hands, but walked away abruptly saying that it was definitely not a pleasure talking to him. This was her way of ticking off anybody who dared to be condescending towards her.

She honestly believed that the male of the species had been consistently unkind to her. And she did not hesitate to give expression to her contempt for the man at every conceivable opportunity.You will however not upbraid her for this if only you knew all the humiliation she had been subjected to right through her life.

In essence her life was a tragedy, if you would ignore the years she was in authority when she returned the compliments to whoever was unfair to her. It is highly doubtful history will judge her correctly, or ever witness such  a woman who was so  lonely and distraught and yet never flinched from showing her mettle.

(The writer is a former CBI Director. He can be reached @rkraghu1. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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