Chennai Corner

Orchestrated Defiance
Is the Congress, which is emerging stronger with every assembly election in the aftermath of its unexpected success in the May Lok Sabha elections, getting firm with its allies? That seems to be the case as the volte- face by Karunanidhi on Jairam Ramesh, union minister for environment and forests, and the curious case of the CBI on the telecom ministry headed by A Raja shows. And now comes yet another about turn by CM Karunanidhi who was all set to spew fire and brimstone first at Jairam Ramesh, then pencilled in Kerala for the treatment but has retreated. 

A meeting scheduled in Madurai on November 1 to condemn Jairam Ramesh – whose ministry gave permission to Kerala to conduct a survey as a precursor to building a dam to replace the 114-year-old Mullaiperiyar dam (a standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife chaired by Ramesh had given the go ahead to Kerala) – was to go ahead except that its changed agenda was to vilify Kerala. The Madurai meeting which was to have Karunanidhi addressing and his son, M K Azhagiri, union minister for chemicals and fertilizers, presiding was to show that the DMK can read the riot act to its ally, the Congress. But Karunanidhi’s announcement in party organ, Murasoli, showed that the DMK thought better of provoking its ally which seems to be in a mood to flex its muscle in the changed political scenario. 

Karunanidhi is down on his luck with the Supreme Court declining to give in to TN’s plea to order a stay on the ongoing survey. Karunanidhi has to battle political parties, chiefly AIADMK’s Jayalalitha who has accused him of not doing enough to protect TN’s rights. When he called the Madurai meeting to condemn Jairam Ramesh, Jayalalitha was derisive saying the move was “absurd” and what Karunanidhi should do is walk out of the UPA. Obviously that is not something he is not willing to do, and therefore with so little room to manoeuvre he was going to target Kerala instead. Ironically the Kerala CM gave him a rope saying it was Jayalalitha’s shrillness that had prompted him to take such an intransigent position on Mullaiperiyar.

The spin DMK sources gave for the CM’s change of heart was, “If it was a condemnation meeting against a minister, it will be construed as one against the UPA government. The state will not gain by blaming the centre, which has to give several more clearances before a dam is built. Our idea is to highlight the fact that a new dam is not necessary.” 

The history books say….
Incidentally, the Supreme Court had in 2006 allowed TN’s plea to increase the storage level in Mullaiperiyar dam from the current 136 ft to 142 ft, which Kerala has sought to nullify through legislation. It was during Jayalalitha’s time as CM that TN had approached the court to increase the storage level in the dam. Now she takes credit: “Though Kerala opposed this tooth and nail, we made such a powerful presentation of Tamil Nadu’s case that the Supreme Court allowed the storage level to be raised from 136 to 142 feet.” 

On the day the court declined TN’s play for a stay on the survey, it had also rapped Kerala for adopting a tough posture on the inter-state water dispute. In July, the Kerala assembly had passed a unanimous resolution urging the centre to take the lead in building a new dam to replace the old Mullaperiyar dam located on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. In this context, opposition Congress leader Oomen Chandy said: “They need water and we need to look after our safety.” 

It’s recent history that appears to have provoked Karunanidhi to retreat. He had got into a messy situation with the Supreme Court in October 2007 when he called a statewide bandh on the Sethusamudram issue. When he got wind of the Apex Court’s (which was hearing the case) displeasure, he rushed back to the secretariat to clear files, so that the court would not construe his action as defiance. Now he has attributed his latest retreat to the fact that the Mullaiperiyar issue is subjudice. 

Grist for the election mill
But for TN’s assembly election scheduled for May 2011, the Mullaiperiyar issue is pregnant with promise as an election plank. The DMK’s aim is to up the ante on the issue so it can look good. And if the Congress looks bad, so much the better. Ever since Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi came here with the agenda of building the Congress, the DMK has been resentful and rattled because the Congress is slowly but surely reviving even in states like UP. The fact that Rahul did not pay obeisance to CM Karunanidhi is a slight that he will never forget. It appears that Jairam Ramesh – who has sworn he is half - Tamil and his wife Jayashree “100 per cent Tamil" – was being targeted because of his perceived closeness to Rahul Gandhi. 

On the other hand, the DMK is confident that there will be a realignment of forces and maybe it will not need the Congress. Evidence of the shape of things to come came in the form of the PMK and left parties backing Karunanidhi’s plan to hold a World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore next year. The PMK is in search of an ally ever since it walked out of the AIADMK alliance (which itself was forged conveniently for the Lok Sabha poll) protesting against the court case filed by former minister C V Shanmugham seeking to implicate founder S Ramadoss and his kin in a case of violence in the run-up to the 2006 Assembly elections.

The left parties have made it clear that they were part of the AIADMK alliance only for the Lok Sabha poll. Besides, they have already broken ranks with the AIADMK by contesting the five bypolls recently whereas Jayalalitha boycotted the elections. So, the rainbow coalition minus the Congress is a distinct possibility. But since politics is the art of the unpredictable, the DMK apparently thought discretion will serve it better and hence, its retreat.

The Congress, for its part, is likely to test the waters on its own. And since it wants to keep the DMK guessing, the CBI raided the offices of the telecom department. Despite Raja’s angry protestations, its elementary to deduce that a raid on the department is tantamount to embarrassing Raja who has already been under a cloud for giving 2G spectrum for peanuts and losing the government Rs 60,000 crores. 

Raja has left the building
It would be laughable if it was not true. But the CB-CID says it cannot find Erode MLA and former Handlooms minister N K K P Raja, since his discharge from a hospital in Erode on October 24. Raja was expelled by the DMK, the same party which rules the government and it's no secret that the police takes its orders from the ruling government. But the CB-CID is entitled to be confused at the mixed signals from the powers that be because the DMK expelled him and simultaneously appointed his father, N K K Periyasamy, as the Erode district in charge of the DMK. Refusing to comment on Raja’s expulsion, Periyasamy said: “Son and party are different. If you have any questions, ask the party high command.” 

That’s how powerful Raja’s family which also owns a cable TV company, is in Erode. Powerful enough to kidnap Sivabalan (who had deposed before the Bhavani judicial magistrate court last July that Raja’s men kidnapped and kept him in their custody at Bangalore) to get his parents to hand over land last year. While the party – which then removed him as the handloom minister – was hoping Raja would lie low, the former minister brazenly called Sivabalan to his farmhouse on October 21and had him beaten up and later claimed that he and his second wife, Uma Maheshwari had been thrashed. This, despite the high court laying down the condition, while giving him anticipatory bail, not to threaten witnesses in the land grabbing case where he figures 14th among the 30 accused. 

It never rains, it pours
It is what can only be termed as a vote of no-confidence in the flood management of the city, the fire service department has purchased 44 inflatable boats worth Rs 53 lakh to rescue people caught in monsoon floods. “We already have 53 boats and these additional boats (each can carry 10 people and also have life jackets) will come in handy,” said R Natraj, director of fire and rescue services. Rains have finally come to Chennai and if the rains last November, that came in the wake of Cyclone Aila, are going to be repeated, the boats might well come in handy. Last year, large parts of the metropolis were submerged for days, exposing the bad flood management by the corporation. 

It’s just as well the Anna University is in the process of preparing a first-ever contour map of the city and its suburbs – which is expected to be ready by February 2010 – that will determine the run-off pattern of water so authorities can take mitigatory measures. 

The Rs 2.17-crore project, called the Flood Risk Mapping Study, is being funded by the Public Works Department and the Centre’s department of science and technology. It was mooted by the state government soon after the 2005 floods, which saw the city go under sheets of water. Anna University’s Institute of Remote Sensing is preparing a digital elevation model of the city with the help of an Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM), a high-accuracy laser rangefinder that scans the terrain from a helicopter. “It was the first time ALTM was used in India or in southeast Asia. Once the digital elevation model is ready, we will process it into a contour map, which should be ready by February 2010,” said Prof M Ramalingam. So, the fire services can consider its money well spent because those boats are going to come handy this year.