Sun vs Son
Until about a year ago, even the bittermost political rivals of Muthuvelar Karunanidhi would not have thought that things would come to such a pass in Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam's (DMK) first family.
For the last three to four decades, the term 'high command' in DMK invariably meant Muthuvelar Karunanidhi and his immediate family. Although from outside, DMK would look like a party with a good intra-party democratic processes, on a closer look it would be clear that those processes would be applicable only for the lower rungs of the organisation. At the higher levels, only one family - that of Karunanidhi would hold the fiefdom. While Karunanidhi had been leading the party as a whole, his nephew late 'Murasoli' Maran had been his pointsman at New Delhi for several years managing the relationship with national parties and regional parties from other states for forming National/United/Third front whenever the need arose. Due to the fact that 'Murasoli' Maran was content with his role as Karunanidhi's ambassador and also due to the close personal relationship and understanding between the two, that arrangement rolled on without any hitch.
At the next level, it was an open secret that Karunanidhi's two sons - M.K. Azhagiri and M.K. Stalin were constantly at loggerheads with each other in the past. Stalin, who was the younger of the two was in the DMK right from his early days and grew up through the ranks holding several party responsibilities on the way. He has been a State Legislator four times, Mayor of Chennai for five years, and for the last one year he is the Minister for Local Administration in his father's cabinet. Over the years, DMK (read Karunanidhi) has been very careful in cultivating Stalin's image and it is a common knowledge that Stalin is being groomed as Karunanidhi's successor. Any potential challengers to Stalin were marginalised within the party and eventually thrown out.
In contrast, Azhagiri who has set up his base in the southern city of Madurai is no stranger to controversies. On many occasions, his name has directly or indirectly figured on many of the violent incidents like the murder of DMK senior Tha. Kiruttinan, murder of CPI councillor Leelavathi, arson at Madurai offices of Tamil daily 'Dinamalar' etc. Although he has been acquitted in some of the cases, he is just out on bail in Tha. Kiruttinan's murder case. Azhagiri has has never held any party/government post till date, yet he holds an iron grip over the party in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu that DMK had to pay a very heavy price in 2001 by losing power for ignoring Azhagiri as he put up rebel candidates at many places thus ensuring a rout of the party. On Karunanidhi's part, he would appear to ignore Azhagiri for most part of the time, but would mollycoddle him whenever elections are round the corner or if there is any crisis for the party in the south. In the recent years, it appears (at least in public) that Muthuvelar Karunanidhi has managed to bring around M.K. Azhagiri and has made him accept the fact that M.K. Stalin would be the heir apparent.
While two of Karunanidhi's sons indulged in politics, Murasoli Maran's sons - Kalanidhi and Dhayanidhi were looking after the business interests of the family. Their flagship business - Sun Network started in 1993 that comprised of television channels in all the four South Indian languages soon became a household name in Tamilnadu and established itself as the number one Tamil channel and maintained a healthy lead ahead of its competitors. In the last three to four years, Sun Network acquired quite a few vernacular dailies and weeklies, thus expanding its foothold in the media industry. Both Sun TV and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam would like everyone to believe that they are two independent entities, unrelated to each other, Sun TV was widely being considered as DMK's mouthpiece and it truly remained so until about a week ago. In the past 14 years, both Sun TV and DMK have effectively derived mileage out of each other, which if expanded would go beyond the scope of this article.
In March 2004 when 'Murasoli' Maran died after prolonged illness, Parliamentary elections for the country were looming large. Karunanidhi needed a confidant in New Delhi to fill the vaccum created by the demise of Maran and hence dragged Dayanidhi Maran, who was an unknown face until then into politics. All of a sudden, the young Maran was in the limelight when he was fielded as DMK candidate for the Central Chennai constituency, represented by his late father, in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. With his sophisticated looks, he stood apart from the rest of the politicians and presented a new image to the public. After DMK and its allies romped home with all 40 parliamentary seats in TN and Pondicherry, Dayanidhi's political graph saw a meteoric rise. As he took over as Union Minister for IT and Communication, he became the national face of DMK completely marginalising other seniors in the party. In most of the public appearances, Dayanidhi was seen shoulder to shoulder with Karunanidhi. Though there were lot of murmurs within DMK about Dayanidhi's high handedness and conflict of interest allegation during Ratan Tata issue, the power equations between DMK and Congress ensured that Dayanidhi came out unscathed.
In all probability, Karunanidhi might have wanted the power structure in the party to be in such a way that when his son M.K. Stalin took over the reins of DMK, he would have Dayanidhi Maran as a pointsman in New Delhi, much like the way it worked between himself and 'Murasoli' Maran. But it looks like Maran brothers had different ideas. Slowly but steadily, Stalin was blacked out of Sun TV's news reports. Even for a layman, it was clear that another power centre within the DMK was being formed. It is being believed that these developments infuriated M.K. Azhagiri and not surprisingly brought him closer to his younger brother M.K. Stalin.
In the recent times, Maran family owned Tamil daily 'Dinakaran' in association with A.C. Nielsen started publishing daily opinion polls/survey on various topics. Some of these opinion polls caused some flutter within the alliance (especially with Dr. Ramadoss led Paataali Makkal Katchi) as the topic and the results of the survey seem to suggest DMK's big brother attitude towards its alliance partners. While Karunanidhi was busy cooling the tempers, Dinakaran on its issue dated 9th May 2007 published a survey that overwhelmingly projected M.K. Stalin as being the much favoured political heir to Muthuvelar Karunanidhi. Further, the survey said M.K. Azhagiri was favoured by about 2% of the people as against 70% who prefer M.K. Stalin. This provoked the supporters of M.K. Azhagiri in Madurai that they started pelting stones at the buses and indulged in vandalism. A group of highly armed thugs ransacked the 'Dinakaran' office, hurling petrol bombs at the premises and in the process killed three of its employees, all in the full media glare and in the presence of umpteen police personnel. One doesn't need to be an Einstein to know who was calling the shots when it coems to Madurai. As soon as the violence started in Madurai, Sun TV became very aggressive and suddenly discovered the violent face of M.K. Azhagiri. It went to the extent of describing him as 'rowdy' and hurled other innuendos that made Azhagiri to send a letter through his lawyer warning legal action against Sun Network.
Coming as it does few days before the Chief Minister Karunanidhi's golden jubilee felicitation function, it brought into open the shadow boxing that was going on between the second generation members of Karunanidhi and Maran family. The Chief Minister's first reported reaction was to indulge in some hand wringing over whether or not to go ahead with the golden jubilee celebrations. 24 hours later, all that Karunanidhi managed to do is pass the buck by asking for a CBI enquiry on the matter. He also sought to deflect the incident by characterising it as an attack on democracy and freedom of the press. There were at least 50 policemen, including some from the armed reserve police, who were present on the scene of crime as the marauders leisurely firebomed the newspaper's office premises completely unhindered and uninhibited by teh largish presence of the representatives of the law enforcement agencies. What kind of a signal does it send in terms of the Chief Minister's ability, despite the experience of many terms in office, to create an enabling political environment that allows state police to function effectively and impartially? Six days after the incident, there is no report of commencement of any CBI enquiry and even the few DMK activists including the spouse of the Madurai's mayor who were arrested in relation to the violence have been let out on bail.
Amidst all this, the function for felicitating Karunanidhi's 50 years as legislator went ahead in Chennai, graced by the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. For the first time in the last three years, Dayanidhi Maran was no where to be seen in the function venue, though he was at the airport to welcome Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Interestingly, M.K. Azhagiri was present in the front row among the audience at the felicitation function. For the first time in 14 years, Sun TV was denied the live telecast rights of the function presided over by Karunanidhi. Two days later, DMK's Administrative Committee was convened at the party headquaraters and the participants unanimously recommended Dayanidhi Maran's removal from the Union Cabinet. The Administrative committee also decided to send show cause notice to Dayanidhi Maran asking why he shouldn't be expelled from the primary membership of the party. Hours after the meeting, Dayanidhi Maran submitted his resignation as a Minister to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Although there are lot of speculations about the ire of Karunanidhi towards Maran brothers, there is no official word from DMK as to what kind of anti-party activities Dayanidhi indulged in. Also, there is not a word from the government or from the party about any possible action against the DMK activists who indulged in violence at Madurai. The Police officials who were watching the burning spectacle even as three people were dying have not been pulled up either. This writer does not believe that Dayanidhi Maran is a saint and no-sinner. In fact, in these very columns it was argued last year that he be dropped from the Union Cabinet until his name is cleared in the Ratan Tata issue. But the timing and the reason for which his resignation has been secured doesn't do well for the image of the Government. Also, the clash between Maran brothers and Karunanidhi family is an internal power struggle within DMK. But, when that spills over and affects the public, governmental action is necessary and sadly that is missing in this episode.
In the case of battle between Sun vs Son, Karunanidhi has clearly shown whom his priorities are with. As DMK's chief, he might be right in doing so. But as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he has miserably failed in his duty to protect the people. Pointing out similar incidents in previous regime hardly helps to instill confidence in the minds of the people. It would only be fitting for the seniormost politician of the country to summon all his experience, put his foot down and bring the perpetrators of heinous crimes to justice. Will he?
For the last three to four decades, the term 'high command' in DMK invariably meant Muthuvelar Karunanidhi and his immediate family. Although from outside, DMK would look like a party with a good intra-party democratic processes, on a closer look it would be clear that those processes would be applicable only for the lower rungs of the organisation. At the higher levels, only one family - that of Karunanidhi would hold the fiefdom. While Karunanidhi had been leading the party as a whole, his nephew late 'Murasoli' Maran had been his pointsman at New Delhi for several years managing the relationship with national parties and regional parties from other states for forming National/United/Third front whenever the need arose. Due to the fact that 'Murasoli' Maran was content with his role as Karunanidhi's ambassador and also due to the close personal relationship and understanding between the two, that arrangement rolled on without any hitch.
At the next level, it was an open secret that Karunanidhi's two sons - M.K. Azhagiri and M.K. Stalin were constantly at loggerheads with each other in the past. Stalin, who was the younger of the two was in the DMK right from his early days and grew up through the ranks holding several party responsibilities on the way. He has been a State Legislator four times, Mayor of Chennai for five years, and for the last one year he is the Minister for Local Administration in his father's cabinet. Over the years, DMK (read Karunanidhi) has been very careful in cultivating Stalin's image and it is a common knowledge that Stalin is being groomed as Karunanidhi's successor. Any potential challengers to Stalin were marginalised within the party and eventually thrown out.
In contrast, Azhagiri who has set up his base in the southern city of Madurai is no stranger to controversies. On many occasions, his name has directly or indirectly figured on many of the violent incidents like the murder of DMK senior Tha. Kiruttinan, murder of CPI councillor Leelavathi, arson at Madurai offices of Tamil daily 'Dinamalar' etc. Although he has been acquitted in some of the cases, he is just out on bail in Tha. Kiruttinan's murder case. Azhagiri has has never held any party/government post till date, yet he holds an iron grip over the party in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu that DMK had to pay a very heavy price in 2001 by losing power for ignoring Azhagiri as he put up rebel candidates at many places thus ensuring a rout of the party. On Karunanidhi's part, he would appear to ignore Azhagiri for most part of the time, but would mollycoddle him whenever elections are round the corner or if there is any crisis for the party in the south. In the recent years, it appears (at least in public) that Muthuvelar Karunanidhi has managed to bring around M.K. Azhagiri and has made him accept the fact that M.K. Stalin would be the heir apparent.
While two of Karunanidhi's sons indulged in politics, Murasoli Maran's sons - Kalanidhi and Dhayanidhi were looking after the business interests of the family. Their flagship business - Sun Network started in 1993 that comprised of television channels in all the four South Indian languages soon became a household name in Tamilnadu and established itself as the number one Tamil channel and maintained a healthy lead ahead of its competitors. In the last three to four years, Sun Network acquired quite a few vernacular dailies and weeklies, thus expanding its foothold in the media industry. Both Sun TV and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam would like everyone to believe that they are two independent entities, unrelated to each other, Sun TV was widely being considered as DMK's mouthpiece and it truly remained so until about a week ago. In the past 14 years, both Sun TV and DMK have effectively derived mileage out of each other, which if expanded would go beyond the scope of this article.
In March 2004 when 'Murasoli' Maran died after prolonged illness, Parliamentary elections for the country were looming large. Karunanidhi needed a confidant in New Delhi to fill the vaccum created by the demise of Maran and hence dragged Dayanidhi Maran, who was an unknown face until then into politics. All of a sudden, the young Maran was in the limelight when he was fielded as DMK candidate for the Central Chennai constituency, represented by his late father, in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. With his sophisticated looks, he stood apart from the rest of the politicians and presented a new image to the public. After DMK and its allies romped home with all 40 parliamentary seats in TN and Pondicherry, Dayanidhi's political graph saw a meteoric rise. As he took over as Union Minister for IT and Communication, he became the national face of DMK completely marginalising other seniors in the party. In most of the public appearances, Dayanidhi was seen shoulder to shoulder with Karunanidhi. Though there were lot of murmurs within DMK about Dayanidhi's high handedness and conflict of interest allegation during Ratan Tata issue, the power equations between DMK and Congress ensured that Dayanidhi came out unscathed.
In all probability, Karunanidhi might have wanted the power structure in the party to be in such a way that when his son M.K. Stalin took over the reins of DMK, he would have Dayanidhi Maran as a pointsman in New Delhi, much like the way it worked between himself and 'Murasoli' Maran. But it looks like Maran brothers had different ideas. Slowly but steadily, Stalin was blacked out of Sun TV's news reports. Even for a layman, it was clear that another power centre within the DMK was being formed. It is being believed that these developments infuriated M.K. Azhagiri and not surprisingly brought him closer to his younger brother M.K. Stalin.
In the recent times, Maran family owned Tamil daily 'Dinakaran' in association with A.C. Nielsen started publishing daily opinion polls/survey on various topics. Some of these opinion polls caused some flutter within the alliance (especially with Dr. Ramadoss led Paataali Makkal Katchi) as the topic and the results of the survey seem to suggest DMK's big brother attitude towards its alliance partners. While Karunanidhi was busy cooling the tempers, Dinakaran on its issue dated 9th May 2007 published a survey that overwhelmingly projected M.K. Stalin as being the much favoured political heir to Muthuvelar Karunanidhi. Further, the survey said M.K. Azhagiri was favoured by about 2% of the people as against 70% who prefer M.K. Stalin. This provoked the supporters of M.K. Azhagiri in Madurai that they started pelting stones at the buses and indulged in vandalism. A group of highly armed thugs ransacked the 'Dinakaran' office, hurling petrol bombs at the premises and in the process killed three of its employees, all in the full media glare and in the presence of umpteen police personnel. One doesn't need to be an Einstein to know who was calling the shots when it coems to Madurai. As soon as the violence started in Madurai, Sun TV became very aggressive and suddenly discovered the violent face of M.K. Azhagiri. It went to the extent of describing him as 'rowdy' and hurled other innuendos that made Azhagiri to send a letter through his lawyer warning legal action against Sun Network.
Coming as it does few days before the Chief Minister Karunanidhi's golden jubilee felicitation function, it brought into open the shadow boxing that was going on between the second generation members of Karunanidhi and Maran family. The Chief Minister's first reported reaction was to indulge in some hand wringing over whether or not to go ahead with the golden jubilee celebrations. 24 hours later, all that Karunanidhi managed to do is pass the buck by asking for a CBI enquiry on the matter. He also sought to deflect the incident by characterising it as an attack on democracy and freedom of the press. There were at least 50 policemen, including some from the armed reserve police, who were present on the scene of crime as the marauders leisurely firebomed the newspaper's office premises completely unhindered and uninhibited by teh largish presence of the representatives of the law enforcement agencies. What kind of a signal does it send in terms of the Chief Minister's ability, despite the experience of many terms in office, to create an enabling political environment that allows state police to function effectively and impartially? Six days after the incident, there is no report of commencement of any CBI enquiry and even the few DMK activists including the spouse of the Madurai's mayor who were arrested in relation to the violence have been let out on bail.
Amidst all this, the function for felicitating Karunanidhi's 50 years as legislator went ahead in Chennai, graced by the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. For the first time in the last three years, Dayanidhi Maran was no where to be seen in the function venue, though he was at the airport to welcome Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Interestingly, M.K. Azhagiri was present in the front row among the audience at the felicitation function. For the first time in 14 years, Sun TV was denied the live telecast rights of the function presided over by Karunanidhi. Two days later, DMK's Administrative Committee was convened at the party headquaraters and the participants unanimously recommended Dayanidhi Maran's removal from the Union Cabinet. The Administrative committee also decided to send show cause notice to Dayanidhi Maran asking why he shouldn't be expelled from the primary membership of the party. Hours after the meeting, Dayanidhi Maran submitted his resignation as a Minister to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Although there are lot of speculations about the ire of Karunanidhi towards Maran brothers, there is no official word from DMK as to what kind of anti-party activities Dayanidhi indulged in. Also, there is not a word from the government or from the party about any possible action against the DMK activists who indulged in violence at Madurai. The Police officials who were watching the burning spectacle even as three people were dying have not been pulled up either. This writer does not believe that Dayanidhi Maran is a saint and no-sinner. In fact, in these very columns it was argued last year that he be dropped from the Union Cabinet until his name is cleared in the Ratan Tata issue. But the timing and the reason for which his resignation has been secured doesn't do well for the image of the Government. Also, the clash between Maran brothers and Karunanidhi family is an internal power struggle within DMK. But, when that spills over and affects the public, governmental action is necessary and sadly that is missing in this episode.
In the case of battle between Sun vs Son, Karunanidhi has clearly shown whom his priorities are with. As DMK's chief, he might be right in doing so. But as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he has miserably failed in his duty to protect the people. Pointing out similar incidents in previous regime hardly helps to instill confidence in the minds of the people. It would only be fitting for the seniormost politician of the country to summon all his experience, put his foot down and bring the perpetrators of heinous crimes to justice. Will he?
posted by Indian Voter at 3:48:00 PM
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