Media men get carried away while interviewing.They can at least have some manners .Glad Jayalalitha did what she did.
KT: So in other words you buckled under media pressure?
JJ: No, not at all. It was misunderstood by many people. It was not an anti-conversion law, it was an anti forcible conversion law.
KT: But it was misunderstood for almost two years. You could have repealed it earlier, you didn’t. You only repealed it after you failed to win seats.
JJ: It has nothing to do with that. If you insist on giving this interpretation I can’t help it.
KT: What about the…
JJ: (Intervenes) As to why the media is biased, that is because I am a self-made woman. Politics has for long been a male bastion. Mrs. Indira Gandhi changed all that, but still you must remember that Mrs. Indira Gandhi had all the inbuilt advantages. She had the advantage of being born in the…
KT: (Intervenes) You’re saying that media picks on you?
JJ: I do think so.
KT: Because you are a woman?
JJ: You are not allowing me to finish anything I want to say.
KT: No, is it because you are a woman?
JJ: I don’t think it’s because I am a woman. It’s because I don’t have a background like other women political leaders of Asia. If you’ll allow me to complete a sentence, Mrs. Indira Gandhi was born into the Nehru family. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaiake was the wife of Bandaranaiake, Benazir Bhutto was the daughter of Bhutto, Khaleeda Zia was the widow of Zia-ur- Rehman.
KT: What’s the point you are making?
JJ: Sheikh Haseena was the daughter of Mujibur Rehman. I have no such background. I’m a self made woman.
KT: And so you are picked upon.
JJ: Nothing was handed to me on a golden platter.
KT: But are you saying that because you are self-made you are picked upon?
JJ: I do not know the reasons. It’s the media who have to explain why they have been so biased.
KT: Okay. You say that you are not irresponsible, you say that in fact calibrated changes…
JJ: (Intervenes) If you knew my routine you would be surprised. I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and I am awake till one the next morning and all my time, all my attention is religiously devoted to work, work and nothing else but work. I have no time, no time to think of vendetta or think of vengeance against…
KT: (Intervenes) You are saying you have no time… It is interesting that you should pick the word vendetta. You say you have no time for vendetta. The press point out that when you arrested your predecessor you did it at two in the morning, on a Saturday although the case against him had already been filed a day before.
JJ: If you allow me a few minutes…
KT: But can I finish the question and then…
JJ: I know what you are getting at. So, the DMK’s government foisted cases against me and threw me in jail. I languished in jail for twenty-eight days in a case in which I was ultimately acquitted…
KT: (Intervenes) So was it revenge?
JJ: When Mr. Karunanidhi did this the media gave him kudos for throwing me into jail portraying it as a triumph of good over evil. If only they knew the truth, later the people saw through Mr. Karunanidhi’s mean game and they elected me to power in 2001 with a thumping majority.
KT: (Intervenes) But when you arrested him…
JJ: When I became Chief Minister Mr. Karunanidhi was arrested in a corruption case. At that time his family channel Sun TV played a big hoax with a very cleverly edited footage…
KT: (Intervenes) Can I interrupt because I think the important thing Chief Minister…
JJ: (Intervenes) And at that time the entire media was…
KT: (Intervenes) You are reading a statement…
JJ: (Intervenes) I’m not reading. I’m looking at you and talking. You can check it in the camera.
KT: But I want to say…
JJ: I’m looking at you and speaking. I’m not reading.
KT: I’m want to put out a concern to you. People say…
JJ: (Intervenes) You have notes before you. Shall I say you are reading.
KT: I have questions in front of me.
JJ: Alright I have notes in front of me. Nothing forbids me from having notes.
KT: Chief Minister…
JJ: I’m not reading. I’m looking at you straight in the eye. I look everyone straight in the eye.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/highlights/story/2004/09/printable/040930_jayainterview.shtml
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