Chennai Corner

Is Karunanidhi Losing it? 

As elections draw nearer, CM Karunanidhi seems to be losing some of his traits — wit, cautious nature, always the man with the upper hand and the last word. And he’s letting it all hang out. People say that Jayalalitha was similarly reckless when the writing on the wall was clear that people were going to vote her out during her second term in office from 2001-2006.

So, is Karunanidhi too getting a sense that his days in office are numbered and therefore behaving out of character? He’s making Freudian slips, for instance, telling the police openly to help his party come back to power. While it’s well known that a ruling party uses the police to its advantage more so at election time, no politician is indiscreet enough to make such an open appeal. And let’s not forget that the DMK went hoarse denying the accusation that it used government machinery to help it win in all the bypolls (11) since it came to power in 2006, and that it tweaked the election process through money, muscle and administrative powers.

Recently, the exact words the CM employed were: “Neither you nor I should stop a good government from coming to power”. The forum, significantly, was a conference of district collectors and senior police officers at the secretariat this week. To be fair he also said, “I will leave the judgement to you on whether this government deserves to continue for another term.” To be even more fair, he made it clear that by “good government”, he did not mean the DMK alone. But, then he hardly meant his arch rival, the AIADMK. And he certainly did not mean, DMDK’s Vijayakant with whom he has recently had some hostile engagement. The Congress can be ruled out because despite EVKS Elangovan’s penchant to hog headlines, the grand old party is nowhere ready to shake off its dependence on the DMK (or AIADMK if there’s a political realignment). Moreover, home minister P Chidambaram was practical enough to tell party workers in Coimbatore this week: “The Congress is ready to come to power in a tie-up with other political parties because TN will have coalition rule next time.” Besides, the CM is hardly likely to help the Congress re-establish “Kamraj Rule”. Roughly translated: “Police, please help DMK back to power.” 


Is Left Right?

Election is usually the time, when even someone like PMK’s Ramadoss will stick his neck out and say: “There are no permanent enemies or friends in politics.” Ramadoss-watchers dismiss it as another opportunistic ploy. But the CM, who counts some left leaders among his personal friends, has taken to baring his teeth at them. While h is sniping and snarling at Jayalalitha (and vice versa) we are used to, but burning bridges with the left?

It’s not like the left and Jayalalitha are natural allies. And it’s no secret that her autocratic ways would be anathema to anyone, more so the left which has scruples and seems to work for the aam aadmi unlike other opportunistic parties. The left went with her the last time because they could not be in alliance with the DMK as it had ties with the Congress which it divorced over the nuclear deal. Their mutual animosity reached its nadir when CPIM Tirupur MLA C Govindaswamy defected to join the DMK. Signalling war, Karunanidhi said that the CPM and CPI were vacillating on their principles because of the “bad company (read Jayalalitha) that they keep.” The Left parties, which, till the other day, were demanding action against those who had encroached land owned by Dalits in Siruthavur, were now silent, he sniped. What seems to have cut him to the quick is that left parties are using all their energies to bring Jayalalitha back to power.

CPIM state secretary G Ramakrishnan responded that the left had never compromised its stand on any issue whereas the DMK, in order to facilitate its sharing power at the centre, had let the centre (read Congress) walk all over it. Ramakrishnan pointed out that the DMK not only backed the liberalization policies of the Manmohan Singh government, it allowed the hike of fertilizer prices without a protest. Ramakrishnan rounded off his attack with a dig at the CM’s remark that the CPIM was trying to suppress the achievements of his DMK government: “No one can suppress achievements such as power cut, spiralling of prices of essential commodities, deterioration of law and order.” Ouch!

Discretion, the Better Part of Valour

Karunanidhi is also losing his discretion: Example: When he accused DMDK chief Vijaykanth of taking his acting fees in black so he can evade tax. Now, by saying what he did, he actually admitted tacitly to two things. That black money circulates in filmdom where many of his grandchildren are making their career. And since actors are paid by producers what does it say about two of his grandsons, Udhayanidhi Stalin and Dayanidhi Azhagiri not to mention his grandnephews, the Maran brothers, who are producers (between them they have about seven films over the last couple of years and the Marans are bankrolling the soon to be released most expensive film ever — Endhiran at Rs 150 crores) ? Is he being naïve or just shooting his mouth off without thinking? Incidentally, the BJP (the party that is opposed to the Congress with which he has an alliance) has recently revived its campaign to bring back all the black money stashed in Swiss banks. So, is he offering information to the BJP not to look in such far away countries when there’s black money strewn all over India’s backyard?

High on a Hill was a Lonely Goatherd…

But with the CM behaving so out of character, it’s just as well Jayalalitha is being faithful to form. Just as she was building momentum for the assembly elections — with her humongous rallies in Coimbatore and Tiruchi and was admitting new entrants to her party (the AIADMK claimed 10,000 joined last week) — she has taken off to her retreat in the hills. Has the letter to Jaya TV office threatening a bomb attack on her anything to do with her decision to go? Unlikely, because this is not the first threat she has received. One can even say receiving such threats is an occupational hazard for politicians, most of whom are cocooned in security. Anyway, she is likely to stay in Kodanadu for a month.

And that means she’s retreating, at least for now, from a battle with Karunanidhi’s son M K Azhagiri, after promising that she will take the fight to his bastion in Madurai. It looks like she has had cold feet because Madurai is fiercely guarded by Azhagiri and he fights dirty. Recently, at a wedding, he made a disparaging comment about how she takes “rest” at Kodanadu often and was shushed by his father who told him “one does not mention bad things at auspicious occasions.”

After heading out suddenly in March to avoid being in town when the PM (and Congress President Sonia Gandhi) visited Chennai to inaugurate the new assembly complex (which, by the way, is still not fully ready), she seemed to be ready to take the bull by the horns and start acting as the opposition leader. But, it’s possible that the inquiry currently on at Kodanadu had her making tracks there now. She was there in July too when the government-appointed inquiry officer and director of rural development, T Udhayachandran, arrived in Udhagamandalam to conduct a preliminary probe. However, he did not inspect the Kodanad estate where Jayalalitha was staying.

Nearly three months after she and the CM were involved in a war of words over whether a tea factory was being constructed in the Kodanadu estate (the government’s version) or whether she was merely renovating an existing tea factory (her version), the inquiry has finally begun.

Early last month, party cadre and AIADMK lawyers drove away DMK panchayat president M. Pon Dhous when he came there with police and revenue officials to verify allegations that unauthorized structures had been built within the sprawling property. Party faithful, Chennai-based P K Sekar Babu slammed the government for its “Kodanadu aggression” which he said was aimed at “browbeating our revolutionary leader because she has been exposing the misdeeds of the minority government run by one family.”

Stars shine down

Superstar Rajanikanth might be the father of the bride (his daughter Soundarya is getting married on September 3) but he found time to bond with his “class of 80s” last Sunday. A film buff would have died and gone to heaven if he/she could have got an eyeful of the reunion. South Indian cinema's biggest stars from the last two decades gathered together — there was Rajni, Chiranjeevi and Venkatest (Telugu), Mohanlal (Malayalam), Ambarish (Kannada), Prabhu, Sharath Kumar and his wife Radhika, Khushbu, Suhasini Maniratnam (who organized it), Lizzy and Priyadarshan (who hosted it) among others.

This was the second year the stars were getting together, away from the arclights, and telling stories and reminiscing over a drink. Even remembering a friend who had gone, Vishnuvardhan (Kannada). Everyone wore black to the do which was larger than the first edition. Here’s what actor Prabhu, son of the legendary Sivaji Ganesan, had to say, “It was a fantastic evening of fun. I was really proud to be with this great bunch of talent. We should do this more often. Also, we should have the younger stars join us.” Surya, Karthi, Maddy, etc get out your dancing shoes!