Praising Amma comes with a price tag

CHENNAI: Speeches, debates, repartees and protests – these may make legislative assembly sessions in most states. In Tamil Nadu, there’s an extra element: Devotion to the leader.
AIADMK members including senior ministers spend much of their allotted time praising their Amma -- chief minister Jayalalithaa. A typical intervention by an AIADMK member in the assembly would start with: “I bow in the direction of Amma”.
But the hosannas they sing and the outpouring of support are not spontaneous. The paeans are mostly ghost-written – for a fee.
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Along with hangers-on, personal assistants and party cadres, Tamil language experts are permanent fixtures at the MLAs’ hostel in Chennai.They charge anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 10,000 for the speech, based on length and content. “The MLAs give us details about the topic on which they are going to speak. But first we need to find new and catchy Tamil words or a mix of Tamil and English terms to praise the chief minister. This will take up at least 7 minutes of the 10-minute speech,” said N Baskar, a retired Tamil teacher at a school outside Chennai.
These ghost-writers are today’s versions of the Tamil poets of yore who made their living conjuring up verses in praise of their rulers. In the initial days of the Dravidian movement, leaders took titles like kalaignar, arignar, professor, navalar etc. “It was a self-respect movement and these titles gave them recognition. But over time sycophancy has taken root in the state,” said noted folklorist and writer, M D Muthukumaraswamy.
The praise-writers say that ministers speak longer than MLAs but the proportion that the praise part takes is no different. “For ministers, we write lengthy speeches peppered with anecdotes and alliterative phrases. If the minister speaks for 25 minutes, at least 20 minutes will be used to praise the chief minister. These speeches take at least a day to write,” said a former state information department official who has taken up ghost-writing the paeans.
In the session that ended recently, state environment minister Thoppu Venkatachalam, while replying to the debate on his department’s demand, started the speech with words ending with “Thaai” – another word for mother in Tamil. Words like Thanga Thaai (golden mother), Tamil Thaai took up five minutes of his speech. “Speeches like this take more time to write since we have to think of suitable words and include it at the appropriate place,” said the retired official.
Baskar had caught a bus the previous day to come to Chennai so he could be in time to find the right turn of praise for Amma for the MLA from his constituency who was to speak that day. Like Baskar, most of these praise-writers come from the MLAs' constituencies. “For the most part of the speech, we use words that praise. In the remaining part of the speech we think of harsh words to criticize DMK and its chief M Karunanidhi or his son M K Stalin, said Baskar. “The common phrase used to criticize is ‘minority DMK rule’,” he says.
The praise-writers are properly briefed. They are supplied with statistics that cast the present AIADMK government in a favourable light compared to the previous DMK regime. But the long introduction and closing remarks to the speeches have to be devoted to Amma and her strengths. “In this session, we have been asked to write poems that highlight Amma’s win in RK Nagar bypoll, her role in the successful conduct of the global investors meet, and in improving the power situation,” said M Arul, another retired Tamil teacher from Chengalpet.
Sadly enough, few of their fellow partymen hear the speeches that the AIADMK MLAs make. When ruling party MLAs rise to speak at the assembly, it is time for other AIADMK members including senior ministers to relax. Some take a break, leave the house for a snack or tea, but come back in time when DMK members speak. “They know that they have to be alert and counter DMK criticism,” says a senior journalist.