For Mr Karunanidhi, who saw even the Raja episode as a conspiracy hatched against DMK, the second CBI charge-sheet which included his daughter Ms. Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP, as co-accused in the 2G scam, came as a shock, though his wife, Dayalu Ammal, was only listed as “witness”, as reportedly CBI did not find any evidence against her. Ms. Kanimozhi along with four others have been asked to appear before a special court on May 6. The charge against them is over a payment of Rs. 200 crore to Kalaignar TV in which Ms. Kanimozhi has a 20 per cent stake and Dayalu Ammal 60 per cent. The “illegal payment” is linked to the 2G scam in the CBI charge-sheet.

First reaction was to pull out DMK Ministers from UPA Government — as had been the case on a few occasions in the past — but an influential section of party leaders including the two sons of the patriarch, Mr. Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister, and Mr M K Azhagiri, Union Minister of fertilisers, reportedly advised against making against any hasty moves.

At a high-level meeting of party leaders on April 27, the decision was taken to fight the case legally to establish the “innocence” of Ms. Kanimozhi and the party’s “clean image”. Mr Karunanidhi himself told the waiting newsmen that while he was anguished over the inclusion of his daughter’s name in the supplementary charge-sheet, “we will take legal steps to prove the truth”.

Ms. Kanimozhi would appear before the CBI court on May 6 in response to summons and, the DMK leader remarked ironically that she is not like Jayalalithaa to ignore the court summons”. (The AIADMK leader has been seeking exemption from personal appearance in a case of disproportionate wealth against her in a Bangalore court). Overcoming his strong feelings at the latest turn in the 2g scam case, the DMK leader denied that his party had been embarrassed. The case was designed to “defame” DMK but the party would seek the legal course to clear itself and its members.

CBI move against Ms. Kanimozhi, as “co-conspirator” in effect amounts to bringing the Karunanidhi family into the “Raja episode”, for the first time. The arrest of Mr Raja himself had made Mr Karunanidhi extremely unhappy and he had to be restrained in his reactions in the run-up to the Assembly elections. The results of the April 13 elections will be declared on May 13, and both the alliances led by Mr Karunanidhi and Ms. Jayalalithaa expect the verdict to go in their favour.

Taking a cautious line since then, Mr Karunanidhi had hinted at forming a coalition government, depending on the results, to share power with Congress. Anticipating the shock for the DMK leader, Congress spokesmen in Delhi were playing it down and said it would in no way affect the Congress-DMK alliance at the Centre or at the state level. Both parties have joined in opposing the draft report of the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G scam which its Chairman Mr Murli Manohar Joshi wants finalized before its term expires on April 30.

In the aftermath of the Assembly elections, both AIADMK and DMK leaders have indulged in a spate of allegations against each other and both of them have filed cases of defamation in courts. Ms. Jayalalithaa had been demanding the shutdown of Kalaignar TV which, she contended, had been started with scam money and expressed surprise that Dayalu Ammal, who holds 60 per cent in the TV had been left out.

The 2G scam developments have provided ammunition to DMK rivals including the founder-president of DMDK of Captain Vijaykanth who had earlier been urging Mr Karunanidhi to step down “to facilitate free and fair inquiry” into the spectrum scam. In a new statement, he demanded that the Centre should dismiss the DMK Government if Mr Karunanidhi did not resign “to uphold the dignity of the post”.

Welcoming the actions taken by CBI, the CPI(M) state secretary Mr G Ramakrishnan urged that steps should be taken to suspend the operation of Kalaignar TV “which benefitted from kickbacks of spectrum scam”. Some splinter groups have distanced themselves from Mr Karunanidhi and joined allegations against the family.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu are also competing in the advocacy of the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils and urging the Government of India to follow up the UN report which had exposed the Rajapaksa Government’s mass killings of Tamils by “deliberate bombings”. Ms. Jayalalithaa demanded that President Rajapaksa should be brought to trial before the international court of justice.

The leader of PMK, which is part of the DMK-led alliance, Dr Ramadoss has gone to the extent of suggesting that India should take steps to bring about the formation of ‘Tamil eelam” in the predominantly Tamil areas, for which LTTE fought for over two decades and perished in the war with the Sri Lankan defence forces in 2009. (IPA)