When a poster row strained Jayalalithaa’s relationship with sections of Christians

Jayalalithaa, who had often taken pride in being an alumnus of convent schools, had encountered tensions with sections of the Christian community on at least two occasions during her first term as Chief Minister (1991-96) of Tamil Nadu.

The first occurred during her visit to the San Thome Basilica in Madras (now Chennai) on the Christmas day of 1994. The second, exactly two months later, transpired when a functionary of her party, out of his “desperation to demonstrate loyalty” to the leader, got hoardings and posters put up in the State capital, depicting the Chief Minister as Virgin Mary, on the eve of her birthday in February 1995.

The idea of Jayalalithaa’s (then spelt Jayalalitha) visit to the basilica came up at the end of a meeting she had with the Madras-Mylapore Archbishop, Rev. Arul Das James, in early December at her Poes Garden residence, according to A.X. Alexander, former Director-General of Police (DGP), who was then the Inspector-General of Police (Intelligence). As the authorities did not want to disturb devotees who would visit the church on the night of December 24 and the early hours of Christmas, the Chief Minister herself suggested to Mr. Alexander to have the visit scheduled for 11 a.m. on December 25. “The Archbishop had invited only important Christians of the city, including those who represented educational institutions. The church was full,” recalls Mr. Alexander.

Addressing a special prayer service, Jayalalithaa expressed happiness for “having entered the hallowed portals of the historic” basilica. It was not the first time she had entered a church. When she was a student at the Bishop Cotton Girls’ High School in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), she used to frequent the chapel there and the library attached to it. It was from there that she learnt about the characters of the Bible.

The portals of a church imparted a “feeling of serenity and deep peace,” The Hindu reported the next day, quoting the Chief Minister, who also studied at the Sacred Heart Matriculation School, Madras, also known as the Church Park Presentation Convent.

She paid tributes to the Christian community for playing “a great part in the development and prosperity of the State” and pointed out that many distinguished officers, including those in the Police department, had belonged to the community and dedicated their lives to the service of the State. The Chief Minister also assured the Christians that her government was committed to ensuring their protection and well-being.

However, a row developed over the spot from where she addressed the gathering. Some had claimed she spoke from inside the pulpit, whereas Mr. Alexander asserts “she spoke outside, actually standing before it.”

The then DMK president M. Karunanidhi was among her critics. Responding to his complaints, Backward Classes Welfare Minister K. Lawrence, in a statement issued on December 28, 1994, emphasised “no tradition or rule” was either changed or breached when the Chief Minister participated in the special prayer at the church.

In no time, another controversy erupted over the visual representation of the Chief Minister as Virgin Mary and Parasakthi (a Hindu deity) through posters.

While the portrayal regarding the Hindu goddess did not evoke much adverse reaction, possibly due to the public memory about Jayalalithaa’s performance as the goddess in a Tamil feature film in the early 1970s, her depiction as Virgin Mary did not go down well with some sections. MGR ADMK’s treasurer G.R. Edmund, who was a Minister in the AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran’s Cabinet during 1977-80, described the depiction of Jayalalitha as Virgin Mary carrying infant Jesus in posters as “an affront to every Christian.” He contended that the failure of the Chief Minister in disciplining her partymen had “wounded the feelings” of members of the community, stated The Hindu on February 25, 1995.

The Archbishop called the display of posters the “most painful situation to the Christian people of Tamil Nadu and India at large.” He added: “We could never imagine that such an act could ever be done. The Christian community is most pained by it. We well imagine the Chief Minister is not aware of such publicity.” He requested her to have the posters and hoardings removed.

The then Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and senior Congress member S.R. Balasubramoniyan (who, about 20 years later, became the AIADMK’s MP - Rajya Sabha), deplored the ruling party’s members for displaying “unbridled sycophancy” by putting up such posters and said it had “wounded the sentiments of people” of different faiths. Instead of concentrating on the problems of the people, the ruling party was “unabashedly indulging in extravagant” praise for its leader, he said.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko argued that such a depiction of the Chief Minister, “who is heading a corrupt Government which had perpetrated atrocities against women,” had hurt the feelings of both Hindus and Christians. How long could the people be cheated by the dubious act of issuing a statement against the birthday celebrations and at the same time, encouraging the display of giant posters and cut-outs, he asked, according to a report on February 26.

A group of students of Stella Maris College squatted on Cathedral Road as a mark of protest against the posters.

Ordering the removal of the posters, Jayalalithaa said she had never favoured nor approved of any move to depict her as God. Party members should not get involved in any act that was likely to hurt others’ feelings. She contended that some of her partymen, “because of their overwhelming affection for her, had portrayed her as a divine person.” The “overzealous act of a few in the mammoth” AIADMK organisation was, however, creating unnecessary problems, she pointed out.

Despite her disapproval of the posters and hoardings, the protests continued. In Thoothukudi district [where Christians live in substantial numbers], protests even took a violent turn with a couple of buses of the State Transport Corporation getting damaged and shopkeepers being forced to down the shutters. A group of 15,000 people organised a protest meeting and a rally, condemning the posters, said The Hindu on March 4, 1995.

When the government got to know about the plan of holding reparation prayers to atone for the depiction of Jayalalitha as Virgin Mary at all the churches under the Madurai Archdiocese, it got the Backward Classes Welfare Minister to appeal to the Christians not to resort to any agitation over the issue. His colleague in charge of Public Works, R.S. Rajakannappan (then called S. Kannappan and now in the DMK as Minister for Forests), regretted that the clergymen, who should find solutions to issues, were themselves creating problems. Instead of blowing the issue out of proportion, the endeavour should be to end the controversy. However, the reparation prayers were held in Madurai on March 26.

Though the poster row died down in due course of time, it became one of the talking points of the AIADMK’s political adversaries in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections held in April-May 1996, wherein Jayalalithaa herself lost in Bargur and her party was routed along with its ally, the Congress.