Pennycuick gets a memorial and Jaya one-ups Chandy

Chennai: Oomen Chandy is no match to Jayalalithaa when it comes to political oneupmanship and capturing popular imagination.

Yesterday Chandy took Chennai journalists on a junket to Trivandrum and asked for their help to reach out to the people of Tamil Nadu for a new dam in Mullaperiyar.

Losing no time, Jayalalithaa shot back today with an imaginative step that could drown the helpless appeal of Chandy in the minds of her people: she announced that the British engineer Colonel John Pennycuick, who constructed the Mullaperiyar dam more than100 years ago, will get a memorial in one of the southern districts irrigated by the dam.

In addition, Pennycuick’s grandson will be invited for the opening of the memorial, that will come up near Cumbum in Theni district of southern Tamil Nadu.

What a dramatic twist to a political story!

One could surely expect rapid government action on this announcement and a teary climax in a plot where the hapless subjects of the erstwhile Raj meet with the rightful grandson. In the process, the dam will further rise in its emotional appeal and stature of benevolence. And Dam 999 will sink without a trace!

This step will most certainly evoke public passion for the present dam and the emotions associated with it. Pennycuick passionately believed in the dam and its ability to transform the southern districts from a famine-hit dry-land into a fertile agricultural belt. He spent most of his time in India building it against tremendous odds.

Memorials and temples deifying Pennycuick dot the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, particularly Theni, where his portraits adorn the walls of most houses and many children are named after him. His image is a permanent fixture on the name-boards of shops and transport vehicles. Even today festivals are celebrated in his memory.

The memorial will be constructed in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Premises (TNEB) near lower camp in Cumbum.