What happens when a state is run by movie stars?
July 03, 2015  04:00
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New York Times reports: You know you have entered Tamil Nadu when you begin to see Jayalalithaa's face everywhere: a double-chinned Mona Lisa, her long, dark hair pulled back in a demure chignon. 

In the cities, her party members line the avenues with giant Jayalalithaa billboards to prove their fealty, and her likeness stares out from posters all over the villages, where her biggest vote bank resides. 

Her face appears on the outside of the free laptops she distributes to students and then again on the desktops. 

There are Amma pharmacies for subsidized drugs and Amma canteens for 5-rupee meals; soon there will be Amma cinemas for cheap movies. 

The ubiquity of that face gives the state the feel of a cartoon dictatorship, much to the annoyance of Tamils indifferent to her charms.

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