For the RSS in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa is a Bitter Memory

New Delhi: Jayalalithaa might have shared a good equation with Narendra Modi and many other national leaders of the BJP, but she took special care to keep the RSS at an arm’s length in Tamil Nadu.

In the land of the other Holy Sangam — Kanyakumari — the Sangh might not be a power to reckon with but they have been active on the ground in parts, especially in the southern districts like Kanyakumari.

In fact, the district voted in the first-ever BJP Lok Sabha MP from south India when Pon Radhakrishnan wrested the Nagercoil seat. The Sangh had carried out “route marches” from the 1940s onwards. All that came to a halt when Jayalalithaa came to power in 2011.

“From 2011, until she took her last breath, it was difficult for the Sangh to go about their business,” says Sadagopan Narayanan, the RSS prant pracharak in Tamil Nadu.

RSS rues that route marches, drills and public meetings were banned citing law and order issues, even the founder’s Day celebrations had to be abandoned, and worse, when there was a spate of killings of right-wing Hindu leaders, the Sangh found the police unsympathetic.

“Even if court sanctioned our functions, the government denied permission on some ground or the other. This was strange for us because she has good relations with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders at the Centre. But back home there was no way to meet her. May be she considered us small time leaders or she did not want to lose on the support of minorities,” says Narayanan.

During the chaotic days of Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Jayalalithaa had cautioned other political leaders against “minorityism’ — her stand was very close to that of Sangh Parivar. All that changed by 2004, when AIADMK fought polls in alliance with BJP and was humiliated by the electorate. The alliance didn’t win any of the 39 Lok Sabha seats from the state.

The RSS leader complained that after that it’s been downhill for the Jayalalithaa-Paraivar equations.

“She did not meet us, the Sangh leaders and other Hindu outfits and parties. There were such pressing times in front of us that we tried to meet her – sent letters seeking appointments. But in the past five years we could not communicate with her. In our state there were murders and attacks on members of Hindu outfits, and we had no communication with our CM,” he said.