New Delhi, June 7 – J. Jayalalithaa, whose visits to Delhi could become more frequent, has all the trappings of a head of state. If the level of planning and organization, and attention to detail is anything to go by, the Tamil Nadu CM is on par with a visiting dignitary.
A couple of days before she arrived in Delhi on June 4, for her first visit to the capital afterNarendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister, she also decided to call on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at his North Block office.
This incidentally is the first time that the Tamil Nadu CM has chosen to visit a minister; she usually prefers to deal directly with whoever is the Prime Minister. An advance party flew into the capital two days ahead of her visit to do a recce of the venue of her meeting with the Finance Minister.
They were shown the Finance Minister’s room and the sofa where the guests are seated. The TN officials were not satisfied with the seating arrangements; a special high chair was brought in ostensibly because she suffers from a back problem.
The special chair was brought in and placed strategically next to another chair. The resulting frame was similar to the photo-op frames commonly seen when high-level diplomatic exchanges happen. Jaya came armed with a list of demands neatly typed in a stack of documents.
Finance Ministry officials were amazed at how she rattled off details without even once referring to her notes or seeking help from her aides. The previous Finance Minister was Jayalalithaa’s bete noire P Chidambaram.
