A 20-second video footage showing late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on a hospital bed surfaced on Wednesday morning. It was the first ever visual document to be made public that showed the ailing Chief Minister undergoing treatment. Following an illness, Jayalalitha was hospitalised on September 22 last year and was declared dead on December 5. Mystery surrounded her 75 days stay at Apollo Hospital in Chennai as press releases from the hospital management, statements from ministers and party functionaries failed to convince people. The fact that there wasn’t a picture or video of the chief minister made public only deepened the mystery.
The video footage was released by Vetrivel, a legislator loyal to the now sidelined AIADMK leader Dinakaran. Many have questioned the timing of the video’s release. It was the eve of the bitterly fought RK Nagar by-polls. During the campaign, the ruling AIADMK, from which Sasikala and Dinakaran have been expelled, had accused Sasikala of the situation leading to the death of Jayalalitha. So, critics observed that the release of this video was aimed at giving a clean chit to Sasikala and persuading RK Nagar voters indirectly to vote for Dinakaran.
Image Credit: flickr
There has been a commission of enquiry set up by the state government to find out if there was any foul play in the former Chief Minister’s death. O PannerSelvam, who was in-charge of the state while Jayalalitha was in the hospital, himself had questioned about the circumstances leading to the death of the former chief minister. One of the AIADMK ministers had also confessed that what he spoke of the chief minister’s health were lies. Meanwhile, the Apollo hospital had said that Jayalalitha was unconscious when brought to the hospital contradicting its earlier stand.
Image Credit: flickr
In the video Jayalalitha is seen sitting up in a hospital bed and sipping a drink-water or juice-her eyes fixed in a gaze on something in front of her, may be a television. The purpose of the video might be to convey people that the former chief minister was ‘normal’ in the hospital. Vetrivel said that the video was recorded by Jayalalitha’s friend Sasikala, but he didn’t divulge any information regarding the time of recording or why the video was released on the eve of a by-election. Election Commission ordered TV channels not to air the video since it would favour a particular candidate in the by-poll. Vetrivel has been booked under IPC section 188 (disobedience of a public servant’s order) and Section 126 (b) of the Representation of Peoples Act. Instead of shedding any light on the controversy regarding Jayalalitha’s death this video has only made it murkier. People hope that the commission of enquiry will reveal the truth someday.
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