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Karunanidhi plays mediator to warring allies

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

With the war of words between the Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress and the numerically-stronger PMK pitching higher each day, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M Karunanidhi, who's part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, has stepped in to save the fair name of the coalition.

Thus, the DMK president and Tamil Nadu chief minister has now convened a meeting of the coalition partners in Madras on March 28, the call for which was first given by PMK founder S Ramadoss and endorsed by state Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary L Ganesan.

"There is need for restraint as the two allies are washing their dirty linen in public," said a DMK leader.

TRC leader Vazhappadi K Ramamurthy's charge against the two PMK ministers of state at the Centre is a case in point. "Ramamurthy has charged N T Shanmugam and E Ponnuswamy with corruption, and PMK founder S Ramadoss' son Anbazhagan of interference in the functioning of their ministries and thus the functioning of the government at the Centre," he said.

If the Opposition in the state under the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has not already made an issue of Ramamurthy's charge, it's mainly because of the hope that someday before the assembly election, the PMK may walk out of the ruling coalition.

"We do not want to say anything at this stage that could hurt the PMK's ego," said an AIADMK leader. "At the same time, we also do not want to make Ramamurthy sound credible, given his history of back-stabbing AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha, and our emerging TMC ally G K Moopanar."

The DMK and the BJP are concerned more about the larger fallout of such a stand-off between the PMK and TRC.

"If someone can raise the finger of suspicion against the PMK ministers at the Centre today, someone else from the coalition can do the same regarding senior DMK ministers like Murasoli Maran and T R Baalu, who are handling sensitive and all-important portfolios in the Vajpayee government," said a BJP source. "Why, they can even rope in BJP Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, holding the energy portfolio at the Centre, and who is also from Tamil Nadu."

Indications are that the DMK and the BJP want the NDA tussle sorted out before it spills over and overwhelms the coalition.

"That can be a bad path for us to take before fighting the assembly election," said the BJP source, adding that the media had ignored the tussle for most parts "only because it's Ramamurthy who is making the charge, and only because the Clinton visit has caught the readers' imagination otherwise."

According to him, The TRC-PMK row is basically based on hurt egos, particularly that of Ramamurthy. "Like many others before him, he seemed to have taken Ramadoss for granted, and is paying the price," said the DMK leader, recalling how the PMK chief had sat out his party with a larger following and presence after years of waiting, when it was forced to rope in the Vanniar party into the NDA alliance.

As is known, Ramamurthy is hurt at the PMK's not helping him get a Rajya Sabha seat out of the DMK, which he presumed would have ensured his return to the Union Cabinet.

"As the former petroleum minister who had lost his Salem Lok Sabha seat in the general election last year, he still hoped that he could return to the government if only he could win a Rajya Sabha seat, but Ramadoss was not ready to argue his case with Karunanidhi."

On the contrary, Ramadoss also seemed to have feared the emergence of Ramamurthy as an alternative Vanniar leader from within the coalition after acting as his own guide when he was new to the ways of national politics being played in Delhi.

"Now Ramadoss feels confident that he has mastered the art and doesn't want add-on packages that could threaten his leadership," said a sidelined PMK veteran, who recalls the favours that Ramamurthy conferred on individual PMK leaders at the lower levels while he was a minister, and over the head of Ramadoss.

"It's now or never," says the BJP leader.

While he is all for accommodating TRC, which is the only NDA ally from the state with no share in the power structure at the Centre, he is equally critical of Ramamurthy making a personal claim to power.

"[It is a political issue that could rock the NDA boat] when even our rivals have nothing much to complain about on the graft front. That kind of behaviour has to end, and that's what we will focus, at the March 28 meeting," he said.

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