The best year for the people is the fifth year of a government. That is when the ruling party shows unsparing generosity and the Opposition promises a better tomorrow. Tamil Nadu is in the grip of the fifth-year syndrome with Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa doling out freebies and charting out political strategies to checkmate her rivals.

Amid speculations that assembly elections (the term of the present Assembly ends in May 2006) will be advanced, the chief minister has embarked on an Operation Please-All following the important victories in Kancheepuram and Gummidipoondi by-elections. In a fortnight, she made announcements that brought a smile on the faces of school students and autorickshaw drivers to SC/ST women and children with cleft lips.

PICTURE SPEAK
SOPS GALORE: Jayalalithaa with a student; new autorickshaws (right)

On May 18, two days after the bypoll victory, Jayalalithaa launched the Tsunami Reconstruction Programme. The Rs 1,852.74 crore World Bank programme to be completed by October 2007 would not put any immediate pressure on the exchequer, but the projections-Rs 1,551.4 crore for housing, Rs 122.2 crore for livelihood restoration, Rs 85.41 crore for infrastructure repair and Rs 41.17 crore for technical training-did add to the working image of the Government.

Incidentally, the very next day, the Union Cabinet cleared the Rs 2,427.4 crore Sethusamudram project, which the DMK is bound to take credit for. The same day, Jayalalithaa released a souvenir on the achievements of the AIADMK Government. Alongside, she donated a few lakhs of rupees to the family benefit fund of the Anna Thozhirchanga Peravai, the AIADMK's trade union wing, and solemnised partymen's weddings.

GRANT GESTURES

TSUNAMI VICTIMS: The chief minister has kickstarted the World Bank-aided Tsunami Reconstruction Programme to boost her image. STUDENTS: Free textbooks scheme in government-run and government-aided schools extended to Class XII. Free bicycles for girl students. ENTRANCE TEST: Common Entrance Test abolished. Admissions to medical, engineering colleges made a straight walk from Class XII. FOR THE JOBLESS: Five thousand new permits for autorickshaws. Jayalalithaa has also reduced the green tax from Rs 500 to Rs 200.

The first biggie after the by-elections came on May 20, when the chief minister extended the free textbooks scheme for students of government-run schools and government-aided schools up to Class XII. Jayalalithaa made it a point to emphasise that the benefits would reach even students under the self-financing streams of the aided schools. Free books were provided only up to Class X. To those schools which had already bought textbooks, Jayalalithaa promised a refund.

The scheme, which costs the Government an additional expenditure of Rs 22.25 crore, has made the middle-class parents happy. For, of the 44,000 government schools and government-aided schools, a big majority does not have Plus-Two courses. Middle-class students, especially those in small towns and rural areas were in for another pleasant surprise. On June 6, Jayalalithaa abolished the Common Entrance Test (CET). In what she called a "simple, straightforward and transparent system", she made admissions to medical and engineering colleges a straight walk for Class XII students who fared the best without worrying about the entrance tangle.

CBSE students and their parents were disappointed, since the CBSE syllabus is considered tougher than that of the state board. Students who have already appeared for CET this year have moved the Madras High Court seeking repeal of the order. However, the rural students and parents are happy. "My elder daughter got good marks in school exams but couldn't match the city-trained entrance test specialist students when it came to CET," says Sukanya, a government employee in Tiruchendur. A couple of weeks earlier, Jayalalithaa had taken care of a select section of the jobless in Chennai, giving permits to 5,000 autorickshaws. She also reduced the green tax from Rs 500 to Rs 200.

It was not just the sops. There were other announcements of importance, to checkmate her opponents' moves. On May 21, after the free-textbook announcement, Jayalalithaa exorcised the anti-conversion ghost. She must have sensed an attempt by the Opposition to rally minorities in the coming polls. "It was not against minorities. No case was filed by anyone," she spoke about the Act which she introduced in 2002 and repealed two years later following widespread protest. In a bid to boost her image further, she referred to a Union Home Ministry alert about an LTTE threat to her life. Hitting out at the Centre for painting a negative picture of her, the chief minister sought to project herself as the crusader who put her own life in danger. It is praiseworthy that some sections got the benefit of the fifth-year syndrome. Especially, the 5,000-odd children with cleft lips. On June 1 Jayalalithaa announced a scheme to correct cleft lips. The chief minister had made a similar announcement in 2003. More than 3,000 children will be operated upon in government hospitals.

Meanwhile, residents of Chennai town, a DMK stronghold, are going to have new roads and flyovers. Much before chargesheets were issued to former chief minister M. Karunanidhi and his son M.K. Stalin on the flyovers scam on May 26, the Government was finalising the blueprint of more flyovers in the city. Under the Rs 2,300 crore Chennai beautification scheme, funded partially by the World Bank, new flyovers will connect Eldams Road with CIT Nagar and General Patterson Road with Spencer Plaza.

Karunanidhi has this to say: "People should not be deceived by Jayalalithaa's antics. In 2001 she dismantled all the schemes my government had launched. Now, as elections approach, she is bringing them back." While the DMK chief's sharp political retorts may not be a match to Amma's sop-induced popularity, the Rs 66.65 crore wealth case pending with the Bangalore Special Court could be more than an irritant to her. Her lawyers are trying their best to club it with the London Hotel Case which, the prosecution says, will delay the trial.

Jayalalithaa, who harps on "makkal theerpu magesan theerpu (people's mandate is God's mandate)", would prefer to first appear before the electorate than the court.

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