From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: News Analysis: Aftermath of acid attack on an IAS official (Corrected)
Date: 18 Nov 1992 20:22:41 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

[ I am sorry about the last posting. By mistake, I read the
 same file twice, which resulted in the news items being
 posted twice. - SP ]
 
 Source : "The Times of India"
 Dated  : Nov 10, 1992.


                Acid victim quits IAS, takes on Jaya
                ------------------------------------

                   The Times of India News Service

  MADRAS, November 9: A senior IAS official, Ms Chandralekha, who was
the victim of an acid attack, resigned from service today to join the
anti-Jayalalitha campaign led by Dr Subramaniam Swamy. She showed  up
at a press conference organised by the campaign action committee, but
declined to say anything.

   In another development, Dr Swamy, who has been carrying on a  sus-
tained  campaign  to  bring  down  the  Jayalalitha  government,  was
threatened by the chief secretary, Mr T.V.Venkataraman, with criminal
prosecution under Section 499 and 500 IPC for having made a defamato-
ry statement against the chief minister.

   The threat was made in an official press release,  issued  in  the
wake  of  the  Press  conference,  at  which the allegedly defamatory
statement was released. The press release also warned that newspapers
carrying Dr Swamy's statement were also liable for prosecution.

   Dr Swamy said Ms Chandralekha had been  nominated  to  the  *Jaya-
Hatao*  action committee. The IAS official, who held the post of com-
missioner of archives and was once close to Ms Jayalalitha  has  been
on  medical  leave since May last, when she sustained severe burns in
an acid attack. Dr Swamy alleged  that  the  attack  was  politically
motivated.

   Ms CHANRALEKHA, WITH SCARS ON HER FACE, MADE HER FIRST PUBLIC  AP-
PEARANCE  TODAY,  SHORTLY AFTER SHE SENT HER RESIGNATION TO THE CHIEF
SECRETARY. THE LETTER DID NOT SPECIFY ANY REASON.

   Speaking on her behalf, Dr Swamy said Ms Chandralekha needed  time
to  "collect her thoughts" and would speak at press conference on No-
vember 15.  Asked whether it was proper for the IAS official to share
the  platform  with a political activist group before her resignation
was formally accepted, Dr Swamy said there  was  no  reason  why  the
government  should reject Ms Chandralekha's plea. "She has a right to
resign; besides, she is not asking for any retirement  benefits",  he
added.

   Dr Swamy said he proposed to meet the Union home minister to press
for a CBI investigation into the acid attack.

               *     *     *     *     *     *      *

 Source : "The Times of India"
 Dated  : Nov 11, 1992.

 EDITORIAL :
 ---------

                         Crossing The Limits
                         -------------------

    Ms Chandralekha, formerly of the Indian  Administrative  Service,
can  be  credited  with  sufficient  intelligence  to  know  that  Dr
Subramaniam Swamy is hardly the kind of ally  that  a  genuinely  ag-
grieved  person  like her needs. But that she still joined Dr Swamy's
campaign for "Good Government in Tamil Nadu" shows the extent of  her
desperation. And that she opted to resign from the IAS altogether at-
tests to the helplessness and disgust  she  must  have  felt  at  the
pusillanimity  of  her  brother-officers  who  till this day have not
found the courage to protest against  the  acid  attack  on  her  six
months  ago. The only inference possible is that the brave men of the
IAS fraternity must have concluded that the attack was a  retribution
visited  upon  Ms  Chandralekha  for her temerity to ignore the chief
minister's preferences. It is believed that as chairman of the  Tamil
Nadu  Industrial Development Corporation, Ms Chandralekha had opposed
the state government's move to hand back a  joint  sector  fertiliser
plant  (with  a  reported turnover of Rs 1,200 crore) to its original
promoter. The desultory manner in  which  the  law  and  order  func-
tionaries  have  probed  the attack on such a senior officer can mean
either utter incompetence or a wilful indifference to  their  obliga-
tions under the law. Despite a demand that the investigation be hand-
ed over to the Central Bureau of  Investigation,  the  TN  government
remains singularly disinclined to invite outside scrunity.

    The suspicion of an official vendetta against Ms  Chandrlekha  is
further strengthened by the chief secretary Mr T.V.Venkataraman's ou-
trageously minatory diktat that a newspaper could  print  Dr  Swamy's
allegation only at the risk of criminal prosecution. This peremptori-
ness is of a piece with  the  chief  minister's  feudal  approach  to
governance.  Ms  Jayalalitha has haughtily made it clear that she has
little patience with democratic or constitutional niceties.  She  has
already  pummeled  the entire Tamil political class into mission; and
the discredited DMK counts for little. Her arrogance  goes  beyond  a
cynical   desire   to   exploit  and  manipulate  the  Narasimha  Rao
government's dependance on AIADMK support. And  though  the  Congress
has  taken  pains to distance itself from Dr Swamy's campaign against
her government, it can hardly be a party to Ms Jayalalitha's  assault
on the freedom of Press and on dissent. The least the Central govern-
ment can do is to ask the CBI to probe the attack on Ms Chandralekha.
If  Jayalalitha  is mollycoddled once again, then no judge or bureau-
crat or for that matter a Congressman would dare to cross swords with
her. The sooner Ms Jayalaitha is shown her place the better.

                *     *     *     *     *     *     *
[ Posted by SP ]