CHENNAI: Chief minister of Tamil Nadu, leader to many Tamils and ‘Amma’ to millions, J Jayalalithaa died on Monday after undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai for 73 days. She was 68.
Jayalalithaa, who was admitted to hospital on September 22 with complaints of fever and dehydration, suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening. On Monday, Jayalalithaa continued to be very critical and was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and life support systems. And the end came at 11.30pm.
In a statement issued after midnight on Tuesday, Apollo Hospitals said: “It is with indescribable grief we announce the sad demise of our esteemed honorable chief minister of Tamil Nadu Puratchi Thalavi Amma at 11.30pm today Monday night. Our honorable chief minister Selvi J Jayalalithaa was admitted On September 22 with complaints of fever and dehydration and underlying comorbidities. The honorable chief minister subsequently recovered substantially to be able to take food orally.
Thousands of Jayalalitha’s supporters, wailing and crying, gathered outside the hospital Monday to pray for her recovery. Police were deployed across the state to ensure security, out of fear that her death could trigger widespread violence and riots.
The US Consulate in Chennai put out an advisory urging Americans to be careful in the city and avoid large crowds.
Affectionately called “Amma,” or “Mother,” by her supporters, Jayalalitha joined politics in the early 1980s after a successful film career that included appearances in nearly 150 movies. She has had three stints as chief minister of Tamil Nadu, the latest of which began in May 2011.
Government officials have rushed to the hospital in Chennai. Police erected barricades to block roads leading to the hospital.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa passes away
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa passes away
Gordon Brown ‘regrets’ Iraq War support, new biography says
- Former UK PM claims he was ‘misled’ over evidence of WMDs
- Robin Cook, the foreign secretary who resigned in protest over calls for war, had a ‘clearer view’
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown regrets his failure to oppose Tony Blair’s push for war with Iraq, a new biography has said.
Brown told the author of “Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” James Macintyre, that Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary who opposed the war, had a “clearer view” than the rest of the government at the time.
Cook quit the Cabinet in 2003 after protesting against the war, claiming that the push to topple Saddam Hussein was based on faulty information over a claimed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
That information served as the fundamental basis for the US-led war but was later discredited following the invasion of Iraq.
Brown, chancellor at the time, publicly supported Blair’s push for war, but now says he was “misled.”
If Brown had joined Cook’s protest at the time, the campaign to avoid British involvement in the war may have succeeded, political observers have since said.
The former prime minister said: “Robin had been in front of us and Robin had a clearer view. He felt very strongly there were no weapons.
“And I did not have that evidence … I was being told that there were these weapons. But I was misled like everybody else.
“And I did ask lots of questions … and I didn’t get the correct answers,” he added.
“Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” will be published by Bloomsbury next month.
