New formula goes soft on Kanimozhi at Raja's expense
Iftikhar Gilani
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The Congress has blinked in the power tussle with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which had threatened on 5 March to pull out from the UPA2 government.
Almost at the last minute, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have told his troubleshooter, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, that he must do all he can to save the Congress-DMK alliance.
Consequently, a deal was hammered out suggesting that DMK head M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi would not be arrested in the 2G spectrum case. Mukherjee's call was received by Kanimozhi who translated it for her father and reported back his views. Both sides got engaged in hectic consultations at different levels to resolve the impasse.
This didn't go down too well with Congressmen close to party president Sonia Gandhi, who were trying to rope in the Samajwadi Party.
Apparently, the Prime Minister's message to Mukherjee was that though he has no love lost for the DMK, he wanted the party back on board. He is understood to have told Mukherjee to get talking to DMK leaders at all levels to sew things up. This was a reversal of roles. Until yesterday, the Congress party was keen on patching up with the DMK while the Prime Minister was reluctant.
Singh's intervention came hours after Sonia's political secretary Ahmed Patel had already called Samajwadi Party head Mulayam Singh Yadav to take his party along in the union government in place of the DMK.
Apparently, the Prime Minister was not enthusiastic about having Mulayam Singh Yadav in the government.
A section of the Congress leaders wanted the party to look beyond Tamil Nadu where they see Jayalalithaa's AIADMK winning the May election. They lobbied with 10 Janpath to convert the adversity into an opportunity and tie-up with Mulayam.
This group is keen on a Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance fighting the next Uttar Pradesh election. They think the Congress cannot win even 50 seats on its own.
But there appears to have been rethinking on this after a message went through that going it alone might work better for the Congress. Also, general secretaries Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh are apparently not sure about how things may pan out in Uttar Pradesh.
On finding that the PM was not ready to listen to arguments on why the Congress should not yield to the DMK's blackmail, Mukherjee called former union minister TR Baalu and followed it up with two calls on Monday to Karunanidhi.
The DMK has six union ministers, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister MK Alagiri, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, and four ministers of state, SS Palanimanickam (Finance), S Jagathrakshakan (Information and Broadcasting), D Napoleon (Social Justice and Empowerment) and S Gandhiselvan (Health and Family Welfare).
Mukherjee first held consultations with Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House and then spoke to the Prime Minister and Home Minister P Chidambaram before putting out a call to Karunanidhi.
Earlier story
The split between the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has happened because of a host of reasons, which are not in the control of Congress President Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The DMK announced on 5 March that it was quitting the union council of ministers and that it would henceforth offer issue-based support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The DMK's ministers are scheduled to meet the Prime Minister today, evidently to hand over their resignations in person. It is a fast-changing situation and things are fluid on this front. However, some things have happened that indicate the seriousness of the parting.
In public, the DMK has said they are moving away because of a dispute over seat-sharing. They say they cannot grant the Congress three additional seats in the May Tamil Nadu election. That laughable premise has a serious backdrop, which has been aired only in private.
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Apparently, DMK head and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi told Congress negotiators that he had two immediate requests: i) A Raja, the jailed former telecom minister, should be freed from Tihar Jail so that he can campaign for the May election, and ii) The Central Bureau of Investigation (
The Congress negotiators promptly conveyed the requests to the Congress high command, specifically Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. The Congress party, as represented by Sonia and general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, was prepared to accommodate Karunanidhi's wishes.
But things changed when the union government, as represented by Prime Minister Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, was told of the DMK's requests.
Highly placed sources said the Prime Minister consulted Chidambaram quickly because of the sensitivity of the issue. Chidambaram, the sources said, put his foot down. Apparently he told the Prime Minister it was impossible to agree because the government was not overseeing the investigations into the 2G spectrum case, the Supreme Court was.
Since the Supreme Court is monitoring the investigation, it would be bad precedent for the government to intervene and open itself to serious censure and charges of diluting the investigation for political reasons.
Chidambaram is understood to have said that it would hit directly at the core of governance. This is a hugely sensitive issue right now, with public anger high at the perceived deficit in governance in the UPA2 government. The union government is not seen as strong on corruption, and agreeing to Karunanidhi's demands would mean big trouble, they agreed.
Basically, they thought Karunanidhi's demands were unacceptable.
This was conveyed to the Congress high command, which then decided to let things be. The internal assessment in the Congress is that the DMK-led coalition is likely to lose the May election and it was not worth sacrificing the union government's credibility on this.
In any case, many senior Congressmen have said in private that the DMK's demands were preposterous. Raja is in
The DMK's case is that they need Raja to campaign during the May election. The DMK sees political merit in allowing Raja to travel across Tamil Nadu and say his bit. The party sees the opportunity of projecting him a wronged Dalit.
It was too thin an argument, and completely oblivious to the law of the land.
Karunanidhi's second demand too was seen as unacceptable. He wants to protect his daughter from the
The Congress discussed this and figured that Karunanidhi could afford to put family before everything, but the Congress couldn't.
Therefore, there appears to be no way the DMK and the Congress could work it out in the short term. The DMK interpreted the Congress silence in a different way. The DMK said the Congress is 'not taking initiative', a euphemism for not issuing directions to the
But there is also a Chidambaram angle to this.
According to sources, Chidambaram has long been upset that the Congress is not 'projecting him' as a leader in Tamil Nadu. His stance, sources say, is that to impact politics in Tamil Nadu, a politician needs to be projected in a big way.
Tamil Nadu traditionally responds to the creation of demigods and it is a normal sight to see everything exaggerated in state politics. Chidambaram, the sources said, feels there is an opportunity to build up a Congressman more so because the field is now open to AIADMK head Jayalalithaa and an ageing Karunanidhi.
The Congress has so far seen Chidambaram as a national, even international, presence but not as a regional chief. The Congress has not had strong leadership in Tamil Nadu since the times of K Kamaraj, who was chief minister in the early 1960s. Chidambaram apparently sees himself as an option, the sources said.
Chidambaram was not available for clarifications on this.
At the time of writing, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was talking to Dayanidhi Maran and Congressmen Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
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