Kalaignar’s new avatar
Is CM Karunanidhi turning spiritual ? Or did Anna's birth centenary affect him so much that he’s had an attitudinal shift? Decide for yourself from these philosophical words: “I decided yesterday (September 27) that I will not hurt anybody by refuting the opinions and statement of others. This is a promise, there is no politics in this.” He said he is in the evening of his life (he is 86) and from now on he would like to focus on what he can do for the people rather than on what others are saying about him. So can Jayalalitha, who is in faraway Kodanadu for over three months now, break out the bubbly and celebrate? Well, not yet. For one thing it is still too early for her to take him at his word and, for another, he has made it clear that while he himself would not take potshots, he will not stop other leaders from issuing “clarifications, denials and detailed replies.” You can’t get everything!
The child is the father of man
Maybe Karunanidhi’s change of heart was prompted by his daughter, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi’s nostalgia about the way things were, when social niceties were observed despite political rivalries. She remembered how “MGR used to call up my dad and my dad would call him to wish him on many occasions.” She says that although the alliance with the DMK has been broken, left leaders keep in touch with the CM. She even recalled that the late Congress leader G K Moopanar, who founded the Tamil Maanila Congress, did not carry his political rivalry into his personal relationships. Incidentally, the same cannot be said of his son, G K Vasan, who is currently a union minister.
You need two hands to clap
But those who are sceptical about Karunanidhi’s promise to don a new avatar point to the tu tu main main between him and Jayalalitha for that last two decades as proof that he cannot change. The hostility between them is not just manifested by acidic exchanges but also a bitterness that spills over to the respective party cadre. If both leaders are invited to a wedding, the host makes certain they come at different times lest he get caught in the crossfire. In fact at a recent wedding in the DMK family – the wedding of the son of assembly speaker R Avudaiyappan – Karunanidhi claimed: “The DMK has always shown respect to opposition parties, but it is the AIADMK that has often displayed a lack of courtesy towards its rivals.” He surely has amnesia because he is the one who childishly said that he will refer to Jayalalitha as “thirumathi” (Mrs and not Selvi or Miss) because she refers to his government as a minority government!