National

A Hot Potato That Cannot Be Dropped

Political compulsions—the uncertainty over the assembly polls, the need to hold a place at the Centre—tie DMK’s hands

Advertisement

A Hot Potato That Cannot Be Dropped
info_icon

In A Difficult Corner...

  • Can DMK armtwist the Congress on Kanimozhi’s arrest and say it will pull out from UPA? Unlikely.
  • The party needs support at two levels. If it wins the assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, it will need Congress support to form a government. If it loses, it will need to remain in power at the Centre.
  • This is why the DMK has softened its attack on the Congress and not made any demands
  • Karunanidhi has been advised to show restraint by his sons

***

Advertisement

For a man who has lived his politics dictating to others and not being dictated to, Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi’s world has come full circle since the 2G scam broke. The DMK was used to blackmailing the Congress on every issue, including the two UPA cabinet formations. But when DMK patriarch Karunanidhi needs to pressure the Congress the most in order to rescue his daughter, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, who has been named as a co-accused in the CBI’s second chargesheet for the multi-crore 2G scam, he has been asked to exercise restraint. And this bit of advice comes not only from sons M.K. Stalin and M.K. Azhagiri but other senior DMK leaders as well. The long-term view on this is that the party, not very confident of its showing when the ballot boxes are opened on May 13, has everything to lose and nothing to gain if the patriarch gives vent to his anger and earns the hostility of the Congress.

Advertisement

There have been several top-level internal meetings since the DMK’s latest crisis—when A. Raja was forced to resign last November as Union telecom minister, for instance, or when he was arrested in February for alleged involvement in the 2G scam. Through all this, Karunanidhi’s vulnerability as a father has been becoming increasingly visible. When a woman reporter asked a few hours before Kanimozhi figured in the chargesheet whether he would finally snap ties with the Congress, he snapped: “A woman reporter should not ask such heartless questions.”

Although there was speculation that Kanimozhi would be named, Karunanidhi believed the Congress would not cross the lakshman rekha because of the much used and abused coalition dharma. So though his wife, Dayaluammal, who owns 60 per cent shares in Kalaignar TV, was spared, it still came as a shock when his daughter, who owns 20 per cent shares and who he was grooming for bigger things on the national stage, was named as Accused No. 17. In the past, the party—particularly his son Azhagiri—has preached the eye-for-an-eye philosophy. But this time it was Azhagiri who tried to calm his father down and asked him not to precipitate a showdown. Says Cho Ramaswamy, editor, Thughlaq, “The DMK has no option but to stay with the Congress because that’s the only protection it will have if Jayalalitha comes to power. There is also the fact that even if the DMK wins, it will still need the Congress to form a government.”

info_icon


Photograph by Vinayagam

This thinking is what prevailed when the 30-member high-level committee—including Stalin, Azhagiri, Kanimozhi and grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran—met on April 27. Contrary to expectations, the DMK barely mentioned the Congress, attacked AIADMK chief Jayalalitha and backed Kanimozhi, saying, “We will face the case legally.” One of the four resolutions adopted at the meeting railed at the media and opposition parties for their “false campaign” in trying to drive a wedge between the party and the UPA (read Congress). One resolution said the party was surprised that Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar had been chargesheeted. It reiterated a carefully worded statement put out by DMK general-secretary K. Anbazhagan on Monday, saying she had been “linked to an allegation” against Raja. Anbazhagan had said that Kanimozhi figured on the chargesheet despite Kalaignar TV producing documents about the transfer of Rs 200 crore from the tainted DB Group. “The loan of Rs 200 crore was repaid with interest and the related income-tax papers were given as proof,” he said. DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan called it a “regular business deal.”

Advertisement

This was contrary to the impression one got ahead of the committee meeting. Karunanidhi had come with his daughter to the DMK headquarters, and in an informal interaction with party leaders, praised Kanimozhi for organising job fairs across the state. Mention was also made about her contribution to develop Tamil culture. Karunanidhi even went so far as to suggest that he was open to pulling out of the UPA government. It was at this point that his sons and grand-nephew stepped in.

Most people who knew Kanimozhi in her pre-political avatar cannot connect her shy, self-effacing, pleasant persona with the scam-tainted politician she is alleged to have become. It’s possible that Karunanidhi, and even Kanimozhi, are wishing that the years roll back to pre-2007 when politics did not seem to be on the agenda of this 43-year-old. In fact, at the inauguration of the first-ever Chennai Sanghamam, a festival to revive art and culture she conducted with Father Gasper Raj (also raided by the CBI for links to the 2G scam), Karunanidhi referred to Kanimozhi as his “literary heir”. Later that year, it’s the family feud with the Marans that saw Karunanidhi banishing Dayanidhi Maran to the sidelines and pushing Kanimozhi, his daughter from third wife Rajathiammal, into the political limelight by making her a Rajya Sabha MP. It is ironical that it is that feud that gave rise to Kalaignar TV, an enterprise that has now tripped up Kanimozhi. Kalaignar TV never replaced Sun TV in people’s consciousness despite it being set up by luring away Sun TV’s A-team. It was also handed the kind of resources that made it possible to buy the best TV talent available and blockbuster films that had made Sun TV get the eyeballs in the first place.

It won’t be an exaggeration, sources say, to suggest the Marans would be “gleeful” at the predicament Kanimozhi finds herself in. There is no love lost between them. The happy family picture during the reconciliation of the Marans with the Karunanidhi clan did not include Kanimozhi or her mother. Some say they were not even in the loop. Murasoli Maran, father of the Maran brothers, is said to have blindly backed Karunanidhi, except when he took another wife (Rajathiammal, Kanimozhi’s mother). His sympathies lay with Dayaluammal. His sons are loyal to Stalin and his sister Selvi is married to their uncle, Selvam. Azhagiri bristles at the mention of Dayanidhi, though both of them reportedly got an earful from Karunanidhi this week. Azhagiri’s stand is that since mother Dayaluammal was not chargesheeted, the clan had been spared. In other words, he does not consider Kanimozhi part of the family circle. But the image of the DMK, which has been declining since the scam unravelled, is paramount to him. Stalin sees it more or less the same way.

Advertisement

But the Marans have always been hostile to Kanimozhi and even blacked her out of Sun TV and their publications, including the magazine Kumudam, for a few years. They must be happy because of the opposition’s demands that Kalaignar TV’s licence be revoked. Sun TV will get back to having its moment in the sun, while Kanimozhi may not be able to live down the 2G taint. And she may find herself isolated politically.

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement