Personalities and families dominating regional and even national politics is nothing new across the world, even in deeply entrenched democracies. So you had two Bushes as American presidents and a third one has been hovering over it for some time, although without success. And if analysts’ predictions are to be believed, there could soon be the wife of a president in the Oval Office.
If it can happen in America, can India be far behind? No two states in India are similar in their political landscape; perhaps the most unique of them all is Tamil Nadu. Families have dominated the politics of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh (before its bifurcation) and to an extent Karnataka. But when it comes to Tamil Nadu, it has been all about personalities, the Karunanidhi family notwithstanding.
From the days of Annadurai to ‘MGR’ to incumbent Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the party, whether in government or in opposition, has always been subservient to its unquestioned supremo. And when personalities dominate, they tend to occupy a glorified, rarefied place that is beyond the reach of not just the foot soldiers of the party but even its second string leaders. 
Unabashed, and often degrading, sycophancy is what these larger-than-life personas get used to. To their ardent admirers they are God’s gift to mankind. They are one of a kind and can in no way be replaced. Their immortality is a given. When the heart rules over the head, logic goes for a long walk. ‘No’ is not a plausible answer. These leaders don’t die. Ever! 
Jayalalithaa has been in a Chennai hospital for the better part of three weeks now undergoing treatment for a variety of ailments. Apart from whatever medications she is being administered, she is also being helped by a machine just to breathe. The medical bulletins - if one can call them such - put out irregularly by the hospital after some coercion from the opposition are at best sketchy. 
Before being stretchered out to the hospital, she had been confined to her residence and all sorts of rumours had gained currency. (Even now there is no dearth of them though. Latest reports say two people have been arrested for spreading rumours and, if convicted, could be in jail for up to seven years). 
For long Jayalalithaa is used to holding court at her home. All cabinet meetings were invariably held there. (Remember she had her own chair airlifted to Delhi in 2014 when she had come to this city for a meeting with then prime minister Manmohan Singh?) But reports say that for several weeks before hospitalisation not even her senior ministers had been able to meet her, let alone discuss affairs of the state. 
The Chennai hospital where she is undergoing treatment is one of the more reputable health institutions in the country. But the chief minister apparently had far too many issues than what the doctors there were capable of handling on their own. So they flew in fellow-professionals from Delhi’s All Indian Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) as well as an intensivist from London. The medical fraternity knows that an intensivist, or a critical care specialist, comes into the picture in life-and-death cases. 
There was no news from the hospital for nearly two weeks after her admission. Then, if news reports are to be believed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Governor Vidyasagar Rao to visit Jayalalithaa in the hospital and talk to the doctors to get the correct picture. 
Naturally there was no way Governor Rao could have talked to the chief minister directly. Intensive care units in hospitals are not exactly the right settings to discuss statecraft. He met some ministers and senior officials and had to rely on what the doctors told him, which was that Jayalalithaa was making progress but will have to remain in hospital for an indefinite period.
Tamil Nadu is not a small state in any sense. At 130,058sq km it may only be the 11th largest of the 29 states in the country but its $150bn gross national product (GDP) is second only to Maharashtra and its 72mn population is the fifth largest. Most important, Tamil nationalism has never been too far to seek, from the anti-Hindi agitation during the days of C N Annadurai in the 1960s to the resistance to the goods and services tax (GST) that the rest of the nation is gladly preparing to embrace presently.
Therefore, running a state like Tamil Nadu requires top quality leadership in fine fettle. 
One of the perks of democracy is the civil service cadre, what Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel called the “steel frame of India.” The officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) are basically trained to implement policies initiated by the political leadership. 
But over the years these officers have also become adept at guiding the political leadership inasmuch as they themselves have taken on the role of policy setters in several instances because the ministers under whom they work are often found wanting in several aspects. So, in the temporary absence of the supreme leader, these officers can well hold fort, which is what is happening in Tamil Nadu at the moment.
But the problem with the IAS is that it more often than not takes refuge in status quo. It can hardly show the dynamism required for day-to-day governance. Politicians who can read the pulse of the people are better equipped to do this. It is another matter that politicians like Jayalalithaa have been spoiled by too much adulation by her followers who, in turn, have been spoiled by her through freebies and doles of one sort of the other.
Tamil Nadu is staring at an indefinite absence of Jayalalithaa and, therefore, political leadership. According to one report, a retired IAS officer, who is close to the chief minister, is calling the shots and the ministers are happy to take orders from her. She is said to have set up her office in a room adjacent to the ICU in the hospital and the ministers and senior bureaucrats are lining up there.
The problem with domineering leaders like Jayalalithaa is they will never want anyone around them to gain too much popularity. A second-in-command is not in their line of thinking; mainly for two reasons: 1, these leaders would want all the limelight on them, and them only, and 2, they are in constant fear that anyone acknowledged as No 2 could one day threaten their own position. (Ottakara Paneerselvam, who acted her on Jayalalithaa’s behalf twice earlier, had refused to sit on the chair that his leader was used to and that was out of sheer reverence.)
The main opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has demanded the appointment of a deputy chief minister so that the business of running the government goes on uninterrupted. Jayalalithaa’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has steadfastly opposed the suggestion. 
Several crucial issues - most important of all perhaps is the Cauvery river water dispute with neighbouring Karnataka - are scheduled to come up for argument and decision in the coming weeks. An incapacitated chief minister is not going to help the cause of Tamil Nadu. 
While opposing whatever the DMK says has become second nature to the AIADMK - and vice versa - there is certainly some merit in the suggestion for creation of a deputy chief minister’s post. But then again, Indian politics has become so vitiated that any advice, however sage, will fall on deaf ears if it comes from the enemy.
Related Story