New Delhi, May 23: He’s angry, he’s hurt and he’s is no mood to chat. DMK chief M. Karunanidhi flew in to the capital today only to meet his daughter Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, DMK MP A. Raja and DMK-backed Kalaignar TV’s chief Sharad Kumar. The trio is under-trials lodged in Tihar Jail for their alleged roles in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Kalaignar (scholar of arts) - as the 87-year old leader is addressed by his supporters- headed straight to Hotel Taj Mansingh from the airport. The wheelchair bound leader got into an ambassador, with deeply tinted windows, on the tarmac itself and sped out taking the press by surprise. All his party’s MPs, who were chatting near the ceremonial lounge, dashed off behind him.
The press smarting after the airport no-show got back with an incandescent vengeance at
MK as his car stopped at the portico of the central Delhi 5- star hotel. The leader, seated beside the driver had to be carried out by his staff to his mechanized wheelchair. But, not before the camera corps broke through the special branch cordon around the convoy and smothered him with flashes, leaving the old patriarch gasping and his eyelids twitching.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S. Jagathrakshakan had to rush forward with National Security Guard black cats, shoving photographers aside, to save MK. Watching the commotion MP Dayanidhi Maran laughed out loud, but had to abruptly stop, when he realised no one else was.
Dayanidhi refused to answer any questions about the excerpts from wikileaks, published in an English daily today, in which he criticized his party for corruption and giving freebies.
The former CM remained closeted inside the Taj, with party faithful, before leaving for Tihar in the evening. Party leaders who met him described him as shocked. “He kept asking as how we would feel if our daughters were taken off to prison like this,” said former Tamil Nadu minister S. P. Sarguna Pandian who met him. His daughter’s incarceration perhaps it reminded him of his many innings in prison- innings that ironically contributed to his popularity.
Kanimozhi on the other hand encouraged supporters in court to continue party work fearlessly despite losing power in the state. “We are all so disturbed, but she kept asking us to be bold,” said former MLA Shankari Narayanan.
At the jail, he met Kanimozhi for 20 minutes in camera, along with her mother Rajathi, husband G. Aravindan and son 11-year old Adithya. MK met Sharad and Raja for 15 minutes after that. “We allowed the meeting after visiting hours because he is wheel-chair ridden,” said DG Prisons Neeraj Kumar.
MPs like T. R. Baalu who accompanied him stood outside the meeting hall, while others like Tiruchi Siva posed for pictures with Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel stationed at Tihar Jail. Neeraj Kumar clarified that he has no doubts on the loyalities of the TN cops.
Speaking to The Telegraph, a head constable with the TN contingent said that Kanimozhi and Raja were very courteous. “Raja’s lunch comes from Tamil Nadu Bhavan canteen (as he has a stomach ulcer). Akka (elder sister Kanimozhi) had the dal-roti in jail for one day, but now gets one meal from her family when he attends court.”
“Seeing such big persons of our state living in such a small room with an open bathroom, within the room, makes us feel sad,” said a constable. “She’s very friendly with women constables. Raja always asks us is we’ve had our meals on time. Once we were joking with Sharad that out timings are long. He said that your lives are easy. Look at me.”
Karuna gets more lebensraum, while cadres catfight
New Delhi, May 24: Perhaps feeling as stifled as his daughter Kanimozhi- who is in a 150 square feet cell with an open toilet within it- Karunanidhi shifted out the two rooms allotted in Taj Mansingh to a presidential suite at ITC Maurya in Delhi’s Diplomatic Enclave of Chanakyapuri.
His supporters and security detail kept funereal huddles in two other executive class rooms of the hotel, which has a known South Indian restaurant called Dakshin.
A source said that it was uncomfortable for Karuna to eat and sleep in two different room. The two-lakh-a-day presidential suite was large enough to accommodate him and his wife Rajathi Ammal.
“He hasn’t spoken much today,” a former DMK MLA said. “He only says he’s missing his daughter.”
Karunanidhi stayed perched up in his spacious suite all day, while Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jayanthi Natarajan called on him. Even Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah who stopped to say hi, after his lunch at the hotel, couldn’t recharge the Kalaignar.
MLA and DMK Deputy General Secretary M. K. Stalin, who came here last night, left this afternoon after his sister Kanimozhi and party colleague A. Raja in court. As Karuna prepared to leave for his 440 PM flight to Chennai, Kanimozhi’s mother Rajathi Ammal- her eyes red and moist- came to the lobby accompanied Kanniyakumari MP J. Helen Davidson and other women leaders of the DMK.
Looking at former state minister K. Ponmudi she said in a tearful voice, “What injustice is this (imprisonment of Kanimozhi)?” He pacified her by saying that it’s all for greater good.
“In jail, Kani asked me to be courageous. She said she didn’t know when she would come out. What could I say to her,” said Rajathi to The Telegraph before her voice choked up.
On the sidelines, an ugly verbal duel broke out in full media glare between Helen and Rajya Sabha MP Vasanthi Stanley in front of a visibly shaken Rajathi. Helen is believed to have commented that it wasn’t proper for a DMK MP to wear salwar-kameez. All other women leaders wore sarees. Incidentally, Kanimozhi also usually wears salwars.
Rajathi tried to pacify an agitated Vasanthi who replied, “If senior leaders like her (referring to former state minister S. P. Sarguna Pandian who was also present) tell me how to dress it is fine. But who is she (Helen)? Since when is she in a position to teach me?” Ponmudi had to step in and take Vasanthi aside.
Helen and her husband have been driving Rajathi to and from the Patiala House Courts where her daughter is being tried. She is considered close to Kanimozhi while Vasanthi is believed to have drifted away for the “daughter of the party.”
Karuna soon came down with a simple white cotton towel on his shoulders, instead of his trademark yellow shawl. The womens’ brigade switched from their drama over Dravidian sartorial sensibilities to slogans offering their lives “to protect to Kalaignar of the Tamil-speaking world.”
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