Chennai Corner

Father Of All Birthdays

If Azhagiri made a big deal of his birthday and Stalin saw Chennai painted redon his, can't CM M Karunanidhi have the father of all birthdays? Sure he can andhe's going to: on June 3, when he starts his 85th year. He's definitely theoldest chief minister in this country with West Bengal's Jyoti Basu hanging uphis boots some years ago.

At first he declared he'd rather have a quiet birthday out of town because ofhis "mental and physical health" and appealed to his cadres to leavehim alone. Incidentally, the last time he left town he wrote TholkappiyaPoonga, an explanatory work on the difficult grammar test Tholkappiyam

"Of late, even as I wish to work longer and longer for the people, I havealso started to yearn that I should die with the satisfaction of having beenfriendly with everybody," he said rather poignantly in the assemblyrecently. He also said "betrayal" by friends (he clarified it was notthe CPI-M) had made him sad.

Perhaps the subsequent stint in hospital -- Sri Ramachandra Medical CollegeHospital in Porur where he underwent traction for severe neck and back pain --caused the change of heart because DMK veteran and minister K Anbazhaganannounced this week that a big bash would drive the Kalaignar's blues away."With happiness writ on our face, let us turn up in large numbers to greethim on his birthday," he said adding that cadres would get a boost from the"emotionally-surcharged" situation and the youth would learn aboutKalaignar and the history of the DMK. Stalin took his cue and has announcedelaborate celebrations all over the state.

In 2003, Kalaignar had asked his cadre to observe austerity because his nephewMurasoli Maran was "battling for life" and his son M K Azhagiri hadbeen "implicated" in a murder case. But the cadres did not listen.When he turned 80 the following year, all stops were pulled out and evennational leaders like V P Singh turned up to wish him. In 2005, 2006 and 2007,his birthday was marked by AIADMK-bashing and announcement of populist schemes.

This year there is likely to be more of the same.

After all he was not left alone despite his hospitalization. He had a steadystream of visitors including his estranged grand nephews Kalanidhi and brotherDayanidhi Maran and Tughlaq editor (who is believed to be close to Amma)Cho Ramaswamy. So, it's business as usual and on June 3 and the DMK cadre betterthink of innovative ways to greet the octogenarian.

Party Pooper

To do a bit of number crunching, Karunanidhi is on his sixth term as CM and hasjust finished two years in this term. But PMK founder S Ramadoss refused to letthe Kalaigar bask in his glory. "If you ask me to give marks for thisgovernment, I will say it has not got pass marks," he said cattily.Ramadoss and Karunanidhi are constantly involved in a game of cat and mouse.Ramadoss criticizes everything Karunanidhi says and does and the latter swipesback. For instance, when Ramadoss got on his moral high horse, Karunanidhitaunted him by saying that the former could bring in prohibition when the PMKcomes to power, which the party cannot do on its own till kingdom come. RecentlyRamadoss produced packets of ganja saying his partymen had procured them fromnear a school in Ice House in Triplicane. And the dance goes on.

The Swamy Connection

What is common between the TR Baalu episode and the Poongothai Aladi Aruna case?Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy. In the first instance, he wrote to the PMsaying Baalu was arm-twisting oil companies to make gas allocations to thecompanies run by his sons. In the second case, Swamy produced the tape which hadsocial welfare minister Poongothai requesting Director of vigilance andanti-corruption S K Upadhyay to "go easy" on an assistant engineer inthe electricity department, hauled in for corruption, because he was a cousin.

Baalu brazened it out and both the centre and state government allowed his spinabout doing it for the shareholders go unchallenged. But Poongothai and Upadhyayhave ended up paying for their sins. Poongothai has been dropped from thecabinet while Upadhyay has been shunted. The question is why was Upadhyayrecording phone conversations on his laptop since 2005? This is what he told theP Shanmugham commission, which is probing the phone tapping episode: "Ihave not done anything unlawfully. I recorded only my conversations." Thequestion also is who leaked this and the earlier conversation that ChiefSecretary L K Tripathy had with Upadhyay about the probe into the Kodanaduestate which Jayalalitha owns.

Being A Technie Beats Being A Babu

Perhaps it should not come as a surprise but TN, which at one time sent manybabus to Delhi has seen a sharp drop in the past five years. 31,173 candidatesapplied and 16,323 appeared for the prelims in 2004. The following year 28,471applied and 15,620 took the exams. In 2006, 24,514 applied and 13,168 appearedfor the exam while in 2007, 18,934 applied and 9514 wrote the prelims. This yearonly 17,956 have applied.

Prof E Balaguruswamy, member Union Public Service Commission, attributes it toabundant employment in TN as compared to the BIMARU states where IAS is a bigthing. 

But D Shankar, director of Shankar IAS Academy, says that while only a dozencandidates from TN made the grade in the 90s, last year 41 made it and thisyear, 79 have made it. What is also noteworthy is that rural Tamil Nadu ismaking the cut. Says R Indumathi, who is from Uthukottai and sat for the prelimsthis year: "Due to the availability of wide choices, city students areunder heavy pressure to settle down quickly. So after a couple of failedattempts, instead of wasting the prime years of their life on an elusive dream,they get into IT or other sunrise sectors like pharma, banking or retail."

But persistence pays as K Jaiganesh from Vinavamangalam near Ambur found when hegot the 156th rank after six failed attempts. Interestingly, Saiganesh worked asa waiter for the last 8 months and says, "It's been a struggle allthrough." Another youth from rural TN, Vinod Seshan from Thandalai villagein Villipuram has done the state proud after standing third.