Now that Anna Hazare has lost his blogger, shut down his three-month foray into communicating with his mammoth support base, and every analyst/commentator who questions the composition of Team Anna or suggests that the Gandhian reconstitute his team has been trashed or thrashed, the nation can look at other issues on hand.

But, before we move on, a few words on his blog administrator Raju Parulekar, who used his key position to sling mud at core members of Team Anna — Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi. He called them “undemocratic and fascist”, said Anna was in the process of reconstructing the team and got his marching orders from Anna.

As accusations fly thick and fast of Government agencies tapping the phones of several members of Team Anna, the indefatigable Congress General-Secretary, Mr Digvijay Singh, continues to needle the core members of the team. His charge: Anna is being used and misused by some of the members who have “high political ambitions”. On the other hand, there seems to be a determined army waiting to pounce on journalists and commentators who question anything to do with Team Anna.

Tamil Nadu blues

But coming down from the hallowed Capital region to Tamil Nadu, particularly to Chennai, there seems to be little to cheer that huge section of voters who threw out the DMK government lock stock and barrel and brought back Ms J.Jayalalithaa's AIADMK with a lot of band and baja in the April 2011 elections.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, surprisingly, managed to maintain an even keel and began her innings on a subdued note without any public gloating or demonstration of triumph. In the early days after she took office, the burden of her song was: The people have given me a mandate for a reason; they have huge expectations from my government and we have a lot of serious work ahead. She began in right earnest by implementing some promised welfare schemes.

More important, the tone was subdued and the body language circumspect. But, before long, the politics of vendetta had begun. The first target of her regime was the New Secretariat complex put up by the DMK government in the heart of Chennai. Uncharitable comments flew thick and fast within the AIADMK government, with a much-quoted comment being that it was fit to be used only as an elephant-shed.

New Secretariat Complex

A Commission of Inquiry was set up to examine the irregularities in its construction and initially it appeared as though the entire complex would be locked up and allowed to rot. But soon, sensing public mood and resentment that over Rs 600 crore of public money already spent on the incomplete project would be sacrificed at the altar of political one-upmanship, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister made the dramatic announcement that the complex would be converted into a state-of-the-art multi speciality hospital — something like the AIIMS in Delhi.

In the general atmosphere of relief that at least the huge complex would be put to some use, it was initially forgotten how much demolition would be required. Huge lifts that can carry stretchers and wheel-chairs, ramps, totally different wiring, piping and channels, and a thousand other changes are required before this can become a meaningful, multi-specialty hospital. After all, architecturally or aesthetically, what is so similar between a complex housing a legislature/ government offices and a hospital?

Another bombshell came last week when Ms Jayalalithaa announced that the swank and well-utilised Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram, in Chennai, would be shifted to another location and the spacious building would be converted into a children's hospital! Mercifully, the Madras High Court has given a stay on this ill-advised and hare-brained proposal. Except for the yes-men around the Chief Minister, hardly anybody in the State would agree that anybody will benefit by such thinly-disguised political moves to undo everything — good, bad, ugly — that the previous DMK regime had done.

As one outraged reader on The Hindu's web edition commented: “The present CM should concentrate more (on) doing things of her own rather than undoing whatever the previous CM has done. If she really wants a hospital why disturb a Library? Next what? Convert all the flyovers built by the DMK Government into world class parks?”

The other big story of the May 2011 election, Mamata Banerjee's triumphant demolition of the Left Front in West Bengal, is also losing its sparkle.

Mamata shenanigans

The two women — Tamil Nadu's Jaya and West Bengal's Mamata — might be as different as cheese from chalk, but they do have a few common streaks. The most noticeable one is that they head single-leader parties; without them their parties wouldn't matter, even if they continued to exist. While this might be an advantage when it comes to quick decision-making, it can be a huge drawback when it comes to disastrous decisions or initiatives. There is no alternative point of view in either the AIADMK or the Trinamool Congress.

And so, in West Bengal nothing much seems to have changed on the ground. A terrible crisis is brewing in the power sector, and there has been no effort to address the aspirations of people, particularly the younger generation which felt that, under the Left, the State had missed out on cashing in on the India growth story.

Didi continues to be as high strung and theatrical as ever. She holds the health portfolio but after making a statement, when quizzed by the media on the spate of infant deaths — 47 deaths in a week in three hospitals in West Bengal — she snapped: “I am concentrating on industry. If you have queries, ask my health secretary. Please don't disturb me.” Her standard response is that the Left is to be blamed for the pathetic state of industrial development in the State, as also, of course, poor medical care!

In health-care, at least, if it is any consolation for people of the southern State, Tamil Nadu has got it right. Just visit the Apollo Hospitals or Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai and you will see Bengalis, hear Bengali and even see Bengali newspapers in the wards!

But that does not justify converting Secretariats or libraries into hospitals!

(Response may be sent to blfeedback@thehindu.co.in and rasheeda@thehindu.co.in )

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