CHENNAI, may 26 (agencies): The new information and technology minister R B Udayakumar never wears footwear. He doesn’t have Gandhian leanings nor wish to feel the ground beneath his feet. Udayakumar’s reason is simple and sycophantic: Walking where AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa has tread with shoes would make him feel like a heel. “Amma is my god,” said the minister who was elected from Sattur constituency. “I can never wear footwear and step where she has walked,” he said.
Udayakumar cuts an unusual figure sitting barefoot in the secretariat, holding meetings with officials and corporate honchos who wear polished leather shoes, and discussing policy on the IT sector, one of the drivers of the state’s growth. “I have been going without footwear for about a decade. No one noticed earlier. Now that Amma has given me a chance to work for society, people are looking at me differently,” said Udayakumar, a law graduate, who was appointed college secretary of the AIADMK students’ wing in 1997.
“I have been Amma’s devotee since then,” he said. Obsequious behaviour is not uncommon in the AIADMK. During her first term as chief minister from 1991 to 1996, senior party leaders and MLAs lined up to prostrate before Jayalalithaa at party and government functions. When she returned to power in 2001, the sycophantic behaviour was reined in but vestiges of it remain.
Udayakumar’s barefoot devotion seems to surprise many. Party cadres from across the state who come to visit him walk in with their slippers and then rush out to remove their footwear. But going barefoot seems a natural state of being for Udayakumar. “I am from an AIADMK family. My father has been serving the party from Puratchi Thalaivar’s (MGR) period and is now the Avaniyapuram unit secretary. I grew up with devotion to Amma and used to offer prayers at temples for her,” he said. Udayakumar is quick to brush aside any criticism of his actions. “My devotion does not affect anyone. So there is no necessity for criticism.”
Udayakumar cuts an unusual figure sitting barefoot in the secretariat, holding meetings with officials and corporate honchos who wear polished leather shoes, and discussing policy on the IT sector, one of the drivers of the state’s growth. “I have been going without footwear for about a decade. No one noticed earlier. Now that Amma has given me a chance to work for society, people are looking at me differently,” said Udayakumar, a law graduate, who was appointed college secretary of the AIADMK students’ wing in 1997.
“I have been Amma’s devotee since then,” he said. Obsequious behaviour is not uncommon in the AIADMK. During her first term as chief minister from 1991 to 1996, senior party leaders and MLAs lined up to prostrate before Jayalalithaa at party and government functions. When she returned to power in 2001, the sycophantic behaviour was reined in but vestiges of it remain.
Udayakumar’s barefoot devotion seems to surprise many. Party cadres from across the state who come to visit him walk in with their slippers and then rush out to remove their footwear. But going barefoot seems a natural state of being for Udayakumar. “I am from an AIADMK family. My father has been serving the party from Puratchi Thalaivar’s (MGR) period and is now the Avaniyapuram unit secretary. I grew up with devotion to Amma and used to offer prayers at temples for her,” he said. Udayakumar is quick to brush aside any criticism of his actions. “My devotion does not affect anyone. So there is no necessity for criticism.”
