NEW DELHI // For three days, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister has been undergoing treatment at one of Chennai’s finest hospital.
But, as ever with Indian politicians, the true state of J Jayalalithaa’s health is cloaked in mystery.
Ms Jayalalithaa, 68, was admitted to the Apollo Hospital on Thursday, and doctors said she was suffering from fever and dehydration.
The lack of clarity surrounding Ms Jayalalithaa’s health is part of a tradition in Indian politics, where leaders have refused to be transparent about their ailments and medical treatments for fear that their political foes could use it as a chance to undermine their authority.
Almost all of the chief minister’s cabinet was present on the premises, and members of her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) thronged the hospital on Friday and Saturday, many of them spending their nights on the pavement.
Media reports, meanwhile, said that Ms Jayalalithaa would fly to Singapore for further treatment – a claim denied by the party’s spokesperson, C R Saraswathi.
"It is false information. She is not going anywhere," Ms Saraswathi told the Press Trust of India on Saturday. "She will soon return home."
Ms Saraswathi said Ms Jayalalithaa’s fever had abated, and that she was “very well”.
For months now, the AIADMK has been denying – or remaining silent about – rumours of Ms Jayalalithaa’s poor health.
In July 2015, after she skipped eight straight days of work at her secretariat, India's Telegraph newspaper reported that Ms Jayalalithaa had failing kidneys and toes that were turning gangrenous because of a longtime diabetic condition.
M Karunanidhi, the 92-year-old chief of the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, said in a speech at the time that Ms Jayalalithaa’s “health is not good enough to discharge her duties”.
In response, Ms Saraswathi pointed out that her party never brought up the frequent visits by Mr Karunanidhi’s son, the politician M K Stalin, to the United States, allegedly for medical care.
“Do not do politics with an individual’s health,” Ms Saraswathi said.
Last December, as Chennai suffered from unprecedented floods, Ms Jayalalithaa rarely appeared in public, prompting further speculation about her health.
Given that Tamil Nadu is facing elections to municipal bodies in October, the AIADMK is wary of being routed over a question of its leader’s health again – fearing the precedent of Ms Jayalalithaa’s mentor, M G Ramachandran, said Badri Seshadri, a Chennai-based political analyst.
In the late 1980s, the AIADMK “became insecure” when Ramachandran fell ill and thought “they would lose the next election if he died or even if voters knew he was gravely unwell”, said Mr Seshadri.
After his death in December 1987, the party did indeed lose its next election, Mr Seshadri pointed out.
Whispers of illness or death must be avoided, because they can set off chaos or infighting within the party, Mr Seshadri said.
The Congress Party, for instance, has never confirmed that its president Sonia Gandhi has been treated for cancer, even though multiple media reports in August 2011 said that she was undergoing surgery in New York.
This tradition of silence dates right back to India’s independence. In June 1946, 14 months before the partition of British India, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, was diagnosed with an advanced case of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Jinnah was still fighting for the creation of an independent Pakistan at the time, and he worried that if knowledge of his severe illness leaked out, the Muslim League would find itself without a leader, its demands ignored and its secondary leaders co-opted.
"Jinnah knew that if his Hindu enemies learnt he was dying, their whole political outlook could change," Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre wrote in their book Freedom at Midnight. "They might wait until he was in his grave, then unravel his dream with the more malleable men underneath him in the hierarchy of the [Muslim] League."
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, also hid a period of illness from the public. Doctors had advised Nehru to take three to six months of absolute rest, his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit wrote in a letter to Lord Louis Mountbatten, India’s last viceroy and a friend of the family. But she worried that the political consequences of revealing his illness would be profound.
“A whispering campaign is going on to the effect that the [prime minister] has lost his grip on the cabinet – that he cannot think clearly, cannot make decisions and so on,” she wrote. “The talk is about succession and nothing else.”
When prime minister Manmohan Singh underwent a heart bypass in 2009, the government released the news less than 24 hours before the surgery took place.
“The power flows from these leaders, which is the reason why parties are reluctant to reveal the truth in such cases,” Mr Seshadri said. “Any uncertainty at all is bad for the party, so they just reveal nothing at all.”
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
Credits
Produced by: Colour Yellow Productions and Eros Now
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jassi Gill, Piyush Mishra, Diana Penty, Aparshakti Khurrana
Star rating: 2.5/5
Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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Mainz 0 Augsburg 1 (Niederlechner 1')
Schalke 1 (Caligiuri pen 51') Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Miranda og 81')
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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Abu Dhabi card
5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,400m
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 2,200m
6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
The National selections:
5pm: Valcartier
5.30pm: AF Taraha
6pm: Dhafra
6.30pm: Maqam
7pm: AF Mekhbat
7.30pm: Ezz Al Rawasi
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
