64 wedlocks and 64 wedding gifts

It was a dream wedding here on Sunday for 64 couples. Besides 4 grams of free gold for the mangalsutra, silk dhotis and saris, a wet grinder, a mixie, an LPG stove, a wall clock, a wrist watch, et al were among the 64 “essentials to start a family” that came with Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s basket of gifts.

The mass wedding, organised by the AIADMK on YMCA grounds to mark her 64th birthday falling on February 24, Jayalalitha personally handed over the “thali” to each of the 64 grooms entering wedlock on a grand stage before she solemnised their weddings simultaneously and told them to exchange their respective garlands.

Everything was built around the number “64,” as Tamil Nadu was witness to yet another politically blessed mass wedding.

As Jayalalitha has already directed her partymen not to have any grand celebrations on her birthday falling on Friday but to help poor people in their small way that day, Sunday’s function came as god-send for senior party leaders to formally greet her ahead of her birthday.

There was a slim chance of several of these married couples being a little luckier also. If their households, under the AIADMK’s 2011 poll promises scheme to give away free mixies, grinders and electric fans, had already received these consumer goods, then Jaya’s largesse on Sunday for the couples may have unwittingly come as a bonus. But none dared any such correlating head-count at the venue, being an auspicious occasion.

New journey

Extolling the couples to solidify their “new journey in life” with love, understanding and also a commitment towards the elderly who needed care in the family, Jayalalitha told the large gathering that political gains would be lot more if such an approach was transposed to their public life as well.

“If you bring these virtues of love, commitment and selfless spirit in the service of people, then the AIADMK will sweep all the 40 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections (including one seat from Puducherry),” Jayalaitha told her partymen and asked them to “get ready for the task from today itself.”