When ‘circus ringmaster’ Jayalalithaa almost upset the entire Tamil Nadu bureaucracy

Tamil Nadu civil servants admire Jayalalithaa's administrative skills despite her authoritarian style, causing a rift with the bureaucracy.

Civil servants in Tamil Nadu have often shared their admiration for former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s administrative skills. This was notwithstanding her authoritarian style of functioning and frequent transfer of officials. However, there was one instance when almost the entire bureaucracy in the State was upset with her.

On May 9, 2002, a couple of months after Jayalalithaa returned as the Chief Minister — she was earlier unseated by the Supreme Court in September 2001 on account of her conviction in the TANSI land deal cases — she launched a virulent attack in the Assembly on the bureaucracy. “I admit they are lackadaisical...And, like a ringmaster in the circus, I am trying to whiplash them into action,” she said, accusing the civil servants of being lax and causing a litany of errors in budgetary documents and policy notes.

Jayalalithaa levelled the charge after the then DMK deputy floor leader, Duraimurugan, during a discussion on the Appropriation Bill, said the Ministers were merely repeating the “wrong statistics” given by the officials.

An angry Jayalalithaa, however, said there was no motivation among officials as the previous DMK government had been vindictive by filing cases against some IAS officials. Claiming that civil servants were highly enthusiastic during her 1991-96 government, she said their enthusiasm was dead as they suffered humiliation during DMK rule in the previous five years.

She contended that after her government was voted to power in May 2001, she made efforts to motivate the officials. With the Supreme Court unseating her, “things were back to square one and for the next five months, it was a long extended holiday for the officials,” she said. Though she had instructed officials to concentrate on their work, the errors had crept in the Budget papers and policy notes.

In fact, a few days earlier, she had written to the Secretaries of all departments, pointing out that the wrong statistics furnished by officials were causing the government embarrassment.

Jayalalithaa’s caustic remarks had hurt the officialdom. The State IAS Officers’ Association submitted a representation to the then Chief Secretary, P. Shankar, complaining about the Chief Minister’s remarks. According to a report in The Hindu, the association, in its representation, reportedly expressed deep anguish at the Chief Minister’s remarks and indicated that such attacks would only lower the morale of the officers. The office-bearers of the association, headed by Backward Classes Secretary N. Athimoolam, reportedly held an informal meeting and decided to take up the issue with the Chief Secretary.