Chennai Corner

Retire, Me?
If it was anyone else, one would say it is the first sign of senility. After all he is in his 87th year. But even his enemies would say CM Karunanidhi has a razor sharp mind and apparently quite an agile body considering how much he packs into his day. Both these attributes were in evidence in abundance at the just-concluded World Classical Tamil Conference (WCTC). So the only explanation is that his squabbling sons have given him selective amnesia. Which is why he has retracted his position. Not only has he denied that he had said he wanted to retire, he even tried to be cocky saying to journos, “I never used the word “retire”. But if you want me to retire, fix the date and I will do so.” I hate this about our politicians, they deny (very often despite video evidence to the contrary), claim they are misquoted and if all else fails, they get cocky. Which is a good ploy to fob off journos because when a politician makes fun of one of them, the others crack up at his/her embarrassment (talk of schadenfreude) while the politician has the last laugh. 

But despite constant reiteration earlier that after the World Classical Tamil Conference he would hang up his boots, some observers did not actually believe he was willing to cede his place in the rising sun – pun intended – to his rising son, Stalin, whom he had made the deputy CM last May and entrusted most of his portfolios to. Power is like an elixir and Karunanidhi cannot live without it, many said, despite the noises he made about how he would shed all positions, about how he was too tired to carry on and that Stalin would finish his “unfinished” tasks. He kept up that song for about three months till Azhagiri, his older son, made it clear that he was not willing to accept anyone else as a leader except his father. 

The school of thought that believes he was enacting a drama, including Thuglaq editor Cho Ramaswamy, say that his constant reiteration was just an attention-getting ploy to get someone to beg him not to go. So while Azhagiri has not exactly told him not to go, his efforts to stymie Stalin has had the same effect.

One more theory about why Karunananidhi has decided to follow Stalin’s “my father needs rest from rest” line (boy, he must be regretting that) was that his inner circle told him that he should aim for the record books and beat the late Jyoti Basu as the longest serving CM. 

Gayab Ratna
In fact, Azhagiri was the spoiler – in the carefully crafted “we are family” image – even at WCTC. He very prominently delivered invitations for the conference to PM Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi among others. But he went AWOL at the five-day WCTC except on the inaugural day. When he did not show up for the event he was supposed to preside over – the inauguration of a general exhibition – the official explanation (by former minister T R Baalu who stood in for him) was that he was attending a meeting in Delhi as a member of the GOM that went into issues to make things right for Bhopal victims after 26 years thanks to the furore in the media. But after an attendance record of just 27 per cent (he should be given a “Gayab Ratna” jibed someone) at cabinet meetings and missing most of the time from Parliament allegedly because the Speaker would not let him speak in Tamil, he gave the Tamil conference a miss because he wanted to be present at a meeting of ministers. What an irony.

All for one and one for all
Even if Azhagiri was not there, the other sons (Stalin, M K Tamizharasu), daughters and sons-in-law were prominent at the various seminars of WCTC where Karunanidhi hogged the limelight as a protector of Tamils. There were the two wives (Dayalu and Rajathiammal), the two daughters (Selvi and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi whose ethnic chic saris stood out amidst the Kanjeevarams), son-in-law (Murasoli Selvam), daughters-in-law (Durga Stalin, Kanthi Azhagiri), granddaughters (Ezhilarasi and Kayalvizhi). In fact, the family came together for the veena arangetram of Ezhilarasi Jyothimani (the daughter of Selvi and Murasoli Selvam). Kayalvizhi spouted poetry the next day in praise of her grandfather and Kanimozhi created a buzz on the valedictory day saying, “Women are portrayed obscenely by some male writers and the society seems okay with it. Women writers have a greater responsibility to change society’s views by creating a revolution through their writings.” 

Missing were the three grandsons – Udayanidhi Stalin, Dayanidhi Azhagiri, both of whom are film producers and Arulnidhi, a budding actor whose first film “Vamsam” is about to release. With so much “culture” in the family (grand-nephews Kalanithi and Dayanithi Maran are behind the Sun TV Network and also produce films), no wonder Karunanidhi punned: “Our family is not just an artistes’ family, but an inseparable one. (‘Yengal kudumbam kalai kudumbam mattumalla; kalaiyaadha kudumbam’).

The Nalini saga
No other prisoner convicted for involvement in the assassination of a leader has been quite as vocal as Nalini Sriharan, who was transferred from Vellore to Puzhal jail at her request. Nalini was reportedly toying with the idea of going to the Madras High Court seeking her transfer since the Additional DGP (Prisons) had been deaf to her transfer plea. She had cited “harassment” by prison staff but had withdrawn her complaint against them later. But her petition for transfer also on the grounds that it would be easier for her aged mother to visit was accepted leading to her transfer.

It’s her fifth prison. For about 10 months after her arrest, she was lodged in the Chengalpet sub-jail, then shifted to the high-security Poonamallee jail where she was kept till 1998. But after she was sentenced to death in January 1998 (along with 25 others), she was shifted to two other central prisons in Salem and Tiruchi. But after her death sentence was commuted to life, she was moved to the Special Prison for Women, Vellore where she stayed for 10 years. She made friends during her long stint leading to many getting teared up when she was packing to move.

Nalini was barely 20 when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991. She claims she was not aware of the plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi and had accompanied the assassins without knowing their conspiracy. Unlike the other convicts (including her husband Murugan whom she married in Tirupati while they were on the run after the assassination till the Special Investigation Team caught up with them) on death row for the killing of the PM, Nalini has been somewhat of a cause célèbre. It was at Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s behest that her death sentence was commuted to life in 2000. And then of course was the much talked-about visit by Priyanka Vadra who came and met her in Vellore jail in March 2008 to get “closure”. 

Never say die
Nalini has been a prolific petitioner, even demanding to be released – she has spent 19 years in prison since her arrest– frequently knowing fully well that no political party will set her free and risk the consequences. But she has kept at it, even citing Karunanidhi’s release of 1405-odd prisoners, to mark the commencement of Anna birth centenary on September 15, 2008, to argue that she qualified. Finally the Prison Advisory Board, set up by the Karunanidhi government, said she did not, citing in its report that the “gravity” of her “heinous” crime put her beyond the kind of mercy shown to other convicts.

As Vellore District Collector C Rajendran, said in his report, “Nalini had harboured the prime accused and had been associated with the accused. She became part and parcel of the conspiracy hatched to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in which 18 others also died. She had also been informed about the assassination plot well in advance. She has acquired degree and diplomas, but that does not mean that she has changed her attitude. Even now she does not admit her guilt and she has no regrets for her act.”

But despite that, Nalini was knocking at the doors of Tamil scholars, attending the WCTC, to intervene with the Karunanidhi government to release her. However, a day after WCTC ended she found herself being moved to Puzhal. Nalini did not fall over herself to thank Karunanidhi, grudgingly observing that when she asked for the transfer it did not happen. “Anyway, I thank the chief minister and the ADGP for their kind gesture. I hope they will show similar indulgence in the matter of my premature release.” Never say die sums up her saga.