AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa celebrated her 60th birthday in Chennai, solemnising 60 weddings and further estranging Karunanidhi-Maran family ties.
CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa celebrated her 60th birthday in Chennai on Sunday, solemnising 60 weddings and further estranging Karunanidhi-Maran family ties.
Even as Jayalalithaa went about her birthday chores, offering pujas, garlanding MGR statues and solemnising weddings, what raised eyebrows was the Sunday edition of Dinakaran, owned by the Kalanidhi-Dayanaidhi Marans.
The paper carried advertisements hailing Amma. Rumour mills churned out stories of an “imminent meeting between Dayanidhi Maran and Jayalalithaa”. But that was not to be.
Dinakaran, which had been a pro-DMK broadsheet, remained so after the Marans acquired and relaunched it three years ago to make it the largest-selling daily in Tamil Nadu. Though Jayalalithaa’s statements and photographs found a prominent column space in Dinakaran after Dayanidhi Maran was ousted from the union cabinet in May 2007 following a family feud, this is the first time the paper has carried advertisements released by Jayalalithaa’s followers.
The front page of Dinakaran carried a quarter-page advertisement released by AIADMK legislature party leader O Paneerselvam, hailing Jayalalithaa as “tomorrow’s history”. There were 21 more such advertisemets occupying most of the 14 pages of the paper’s main issue. As Dinakaran readers, once used to similar superlatives in praise of Karunanidhi, tried to read between the lines. The grapevine had it that the younger Maran would call on the birthday lady.
Sources close to the Marans rubbished the rumours. “We are an unbiased newspaper and accept advertisements from anyone.
We carried similar advertisements on the birthdays of Vijaykanth and Sharath Kumar (both actors-turned-politicians) and nothing stops us from doing the same on Jayalalithaa’s birthday,” an insider told DNA. Asked why the paper did not carry such advertisements of Jayalalithaa till last year, he said: “Last year they did not come to us; this year, they did.”
He also reasoned that the AIADMK was trying to make its displeasure clear to another Tamil daily which, of late, has fallen out of Jayalalithaa’s favour.
Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa solemnised the weddings of 60 couples and gifted each of them 60 articles including silver and a gas stove, who were together worth almost Rs 1 lakh. The sexagenarian said: “Young people make a nation. Old people make a nation better.”
Her father passed away at 42, her mother at 47 and her brother at 49, she said in a choked voice, adding that she has reached the age of 60 with the blessings of her mother and that the blessings of her mentor MGR will always be with her and her party.
arunram@dnaindia.net
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