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The Rediff Special

Though Karunanidhi may say he had no links with the LTTE till he is blue in face, the fact he used it as a political weapon just cannot be denied

Some months ago, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi summoned Law Minister Aladi Aruna to his room.

"Can't we get Subbulakshmi off?" he asked.

It was a tricky problem. Subbulakshmi Jagdeesan, a former MLA of Karunanidhi's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, had been jailed pending trial, charged with murder.

In a state where political conspiracies and murder frame-ups are routine, Aladi Aruna might even have found a way out. But the killing Jagadeesan was suspected to be involved in was no ordinary one.

With the war against the Tamils in Sri Lanka spilling over to India, clashes between Tamil rival groups were being reported every day. The signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in 1987 had been expected to defuse tension in the north-east part of the island. Ironically, it had sharpened rivalries. And India was witnessing bloody evidence of this.

The 1991 murder of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front leader Padmanabha was reported on the front pages of all Indian newspapers. Padmanabha's party had been installed in power in the north-eastern provincial council by the Indian Peace Keeping Force, after ousting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Presumably, as an act of revenge, Padmanabha was shot dead in Madras's crowded Kodambakkam area. His killers drove off in a white Maruti van.

When the police investigated and found the killers, one Shantan implicated Jagadeesan. Shantan told the sessions court he had used Jagadeesan's farmhouse as his hideout, where he had kept his wireless.

The discovery of the wireless and intercepts of conversations between him and the LTTE was the evidence that the police used to arrest Jagadeesan and her husband. A case was registered under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act against both. Which meant no bail.

This was the problem Karunanidhi was posing before his law minister.

"Don't worry," Aladi Aruna told him that day, "The trial is on. We won't have to do anything. The judge will acquit her as there is no evidence."

Sure enough, Jagadeesan was acquitted. And Shantan, a co-accused in the Rajiv Gandhi murder, was sentenced to a prison term.

What does all of this have to do with the current political crisis?

Simply, that though Karunanidhi and the DMK may deny their LTTE connection till they're blue in the face, though the court may decide that the evidence against them is insufficient, the fact that they used the LTTE and Tamil movement as a political weapon is something they just cannot deny.

Events caught up with Karunanidhi. After the tabling of the Jain Commission report, the demand grew louder and more insistent that the DMK leave the United Front.

"How can we support a government which harbours the killers of Rajiv Gandhi?" asked senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee.

"I K Gujral is determined he will not let the DMK walk out of the UF. He would rather go to the President with the resignation of his government," said a senior minister in Gujral's government, equally emphatic.

And at Parliament's central hall, waiters once again had something to do. MPs crowded there for coffee and sandwiches, discussing the possibility of another mid-term election.

All because of a man in dark glasses.

Early this year, Mani Ratnam's film Iruvar poignantly chronicled Karunanidhi's rise and rise in the DMK. Like most early Dravidian leaders, Karunanidhi started his career as a dialogue writer in Tamil theatre and gradually moved over to cinema in the mid-1950s.

A school dropout from Thanjavur, he was drawn to the Dravidian movement started by Periyar. Karunanidhi mastered Tamil literature. He was known to recite Subramania Bharati's poems and turn them around in order to infuse the movement with poetic passion.

His mastery over the language made him an excellent script writer, and enabled him to make telling comments on the social evils prevalent in those days. Sivaji Ganesan's Parasakthi, for instance, is, even today, hailed for its brilliant court scene. But what put Karunanidhi in the big league was his script for M G Ramachandran's super-hit Mantri kumari.

Karunanidhi's considerable skill was not just confined to the silver screen. The legendary Periyar, too, made good used of the young man's writing talents for his anti-brahmin rhetoric.

When the Congress government of the late 1950s tried to make Hindi a compulsory subject in schools, Karunanidhi got an opportunity to play a political role. He created a distinctive Tamil identity for himself by being in the forefront of the anti-Hindi agitation. This was the root of the Tamil movement which developed into something of an assertion of 'nationalism.'

Karunanidhi's exploits forced the DMK, led by C N Annadurai, to sit up and take notice. He was rewarded with a party ticket for the 1961 assembly election and won from Thanjavur by defeating a local Congress landlord.

In 1967, when the first DMK government came to power in the state under Annadurai, Karunanidhi was made the public works department minister. He proved to be an excellent administrator. There was no stopping him now. Having established himself as the No 2 in the DMK, he grabbed the top job when Annadurai died of cancer in 1969. His accession put paid to the hopes of senior leaders like Nedunchezian, Mathiazhagan and Anbazhagan.

At the crucial juncture, it was MGR who helped Karunanidhi win over his party MLAs. It is said that it was the latter who first spotted MGR's charismatic presence which later became a hype in an electorate fed on filmy larger-than-life heroes. MGR had earlier, in the 1967 state assembly election, actively campaigned for the DMK. But then, senior leaders, including Annadurai, were not very keen about him. But now, Karunanidhi recognised his potential and cashed in on that.

As chief minister, Karunanidhi was far more efficient than Annadurai. And, unlike his mentor, totally corrupt. By 1971, his regime had institutionalised corruption. Gone were the lofty Dravidian principles.

That year Karunanidhi teamed up with Indira Gandhi's Congress to oust veteran Congress (O) leader K Kamaraj. The DMK-Congress alliance swept the assembly poll and Parliament election. Kamaraj's party was routed, getting only 15 seats in a House of 234. The DMK got a record 184.

But power and arrogance went to Karunanidhi's head. By 1972, he had fallen out with his star campaigner MGR. The story goes that MGR wanted to be a minister in his cabinet, but the DMK supremo said a firm 'No'.

"MGR realised he was being used by a corrupt state administration, but it was too late. He was expelled from the DMK. And he went on to form his own party -- the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam."

In 1976, Karunanidhi's government was dismissed on corruption charges. The Sarkaria Commission was appointed to investigate the charges.

In the 1977 election, MGR had his revenge as his party swept the polls with 130 seats, while the DMK managed to get only 48 seats. By now, the DMK had fallen out with Indira Gandhi, who herself was in the political wilderness.

But when she came back to power at the Centre in 1980, Karunanidhi ran back to her and got the MGR government dismissed. He also managed to wind up the Sarkaria Commission which had severely indicted his government of corruption.

But that didn't help matters. In the assembly election that followed, the AIADMK again swept the polls with 129 seats, while the DMK managed a paltry 38.

Immediately, in a politically correct move, Indira Gandhi dumped Karunanidhi and latched on to MGR, who was waiting with the red carpet rolled out. He was also doing the right thing -- namely, keeping the powers that be in Delhi happy, fearing imposition of President's rule.

For the next 13 years, as long as MGR was around, Karunanidhi could never take this place. In the 1984 assembly poll, held in tandem with the Parliament election, there was a double sympathy wave working against Karunanidhi -- Indira had been assassinated and MGR was in a New York hospital after a paralytic attack.

Again the DMK ended up in the Opposition with only 24 seats.

But, in his own way, Karunanidhi kept the DMK flag flying. At the grass-roots level he was still popular. He came back to power in 1989 when, after MGR's death, the ADMK split. The election was a watershed in Tamil Nadu politics as the three major parties, the DMK, AIADMK (Jayalalitha) and the Congress, led by G K Moopanar, contested a three-cornered fight.

The DMK swept the polls with 151 seats. The AIADMK got 29, and the Congress just 20.

Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine

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