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.
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| Kanimozhi: Charge-sheeted |
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 percent shares in Kalaignar TV, was spared, it still came as a shock when his daughter, who owns 20 percent 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."
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 charge-sheeted. 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 charge-sheet 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."
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 charge-sheeted, 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.
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.
Courtesy Outlook India
Guide to 2G scam: Fact box
Following is a primer on the second-generation spectrum allocation scandal that resulted in former communications minister A Raja of DMK being arrested and DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi being charge-sheeted. The issue dates to 2008 when nine telecom companies were issued scarce airwaves, a national resource, and licences for 2G mobile phone services at Rs 1,658 crore (less than $350 million) for a pan-India operation. As many as 122 circle-wise licences were issued.
The opposition said by giving airwaves cheap and in a controversial manner of first-cum-first-served basis, the exchequer had lost billions of dollars. It also objected to the arbitrary advancement of the cut-off date for filing applications to suit some firms.
But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself defended Raja's decision and said May 24 last year that his communications minister had done no wrong and had only implemented the policy that was already in place. No norm was flouted, he added.
The opposition nevertheless stepped up its attack with two examples on 2G spectrum sale:
* A new player, Swan Telecom, bought licences for 13 circles with the necessary spectrum for $340 million but managed to sell a 45% stake in the company to UAE's Etisalat for $900 million. This swelled its valuation to $2 billion without a single subscriber.
* Another new player, Unitech, paid $365 million as licence fee but sold a 60% stake to Norway's Talenor for $1.36 billion, taking its valuation to nearly $2 billion, again without a single subscriber.
Similarly, another licensor, Datacom, later became Videocon Mobile and Stel now has large stake by Bahrain Telecom. The other companies are Tata Tele, Idea Cellular, Loop Telecom, Shyam Telelink and Spice.
The issue cropped up again after auction of airwaves for third-generation (3G) services that fetched nearly $15 billion and for broadband access, which fetched over $8.5 billion to the exchequer. Accordingly the national loss on 2G was estimated at $12.8 billion to $38 billion.
This estimate was arrived at by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and leaked to some sections of the media, forcing Raja to resign on Nov 5 from the Union Council of Ministers holding the communications and IT portfolio.
The official auditor also said the entire process of spectrum allocation was undertaken in an extremely arbitrary manner and that the advise of industry watchdog, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), was ignored and misused.
Meanwhile, Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy filed a suit in the Supreme Court seeking judicial intervention in giving directions to the government and probe agencies to act against Raja.
Acting on the petition, the Supreme Court had asked the solicitor general last October why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not responded in a timely manner to a request by Swamy to sanction proceedings against Raja.
Then in December, the apex court itself decided to monitor the probe, that was being conducted by multiple agencies, including the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.
Courtesy Indo-Asian News Service |
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