Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 07 December 2016
:: National ::
With Jayalalithaa end of an era in Tamil Nadu politics
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is no more. Jayalalithaa was one of the country’s most articulate and determined political personalities and a top film actress of the 1960s and 1970s.
She showed enormous resolve in fighting one obstacle after another since the time she stepped into the world of politics in June 1982, under the mentorship of Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) the founder of the AIADMK and her lead co-star in 28 Tamil films.
The State declared a seven-day mourning and a holiday for educational institutions for three days. The national flag and the AIADMK flag would be flown at half-mast as a mark of mourning.
A one-time propaganda secretary of the party and a former Rajya Sabha MP, Jayalalithaa steered the AIADMK since 1989 when the party, which had split into two following MGR’s death in December 1987, reunited under her stewardship.
In the last six years, the political fortunes of the AIADMK soared to a new high with Jayalalithaa leading it to back-to-back victories in the 2011 Assembly elections, local body polls, the 2014 Parliamentary polls and the last Assembly elections in May 2016.
Since 2011, Jayalalithaa had launched several public welfare schemes doling out numerous freebies under the ‘Brand Amma’, such as launching the Amma Unavagam (canteen), Amma Water, Amma Salt — winning accolades nationally and endearing herself to the masses.