Nearly a week after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa passed away at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai, RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, in an interview to CNN-News 18 said the leader’s medical treatment needs investigation.
“Jayalalithaa was in the hospital for over 50 days, she was ailing for months. And in these cases, let us assume you have to administer a medicine to her, which is risky. Who will you consult. You should consult a relative or somebody. If there is no relative, who did they consult? It is an issue concerning medical discipline. We need not have to go into who did a wrong thing and all that. Whether the medical discipline was observed or not is a matter for investigation,” Gurumurthy said.
On the prospects of the AIADMK following Jayalalithaa's death, Gurumurthy said that the AIADMK has always been sustained by an anti-DMK vote bank. "That anti-DMK vote bank, so long as it continues, then AIADMK as a party will be a very very potent party." However, he said, that the party did not have a clear leadership after Jayalalithaa's death was to be noted. "So how they will manage in the coming two, three, four months to work out an arrangement among themselves, because power can be a great binding factor, but it can also be a dividing factor," he said.
Taking a dig at Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala who is likely to take over as General Secretary of the ruling AIADMK, Gurumurthy said, “Unfortunately, having been so close to Jayalalithaa, she (Sasikala) is probably the person who is seen as responsible for all the wrong things that have happened. So the people at the bottom level, do not view her kindly. So I don't think she can develop as a leader, and if she grows that ambition, that will be very serious and will have a great impact on AIADMK's future itself.”