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M Karunanidhi: Controversies

Controversies

He has been indicted by the Sarkaria commission for corruption in allotting tenders for the Veeranam project.

Indra Gandhi dismissed the Karunanidhi government based on charges of possible secession and corruption.

Karunanidhi, the former chief secretary, K.A. Nambiar, and a host of others were arrested in the wee hours of Saturday, on charges of corruption in the construction of flyovers in Chennai. This high handedness of the then incumbent government was deflected by the judicial wisdom and courage of the then principal sessions judge of Chennai, Justice S. Ashok Kumar.

He and his party members where charged under Sections 120b criminal conspiracy, 167 public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury, 420 cheating and 409 criminal breach of trust of the IPC, and Section 13 2 read with 13 1d of the Prevention of Corruption Act, but no prima facie evidence was found against him and his son M K Stalin.

Ram Setu Remarks

In response to Sethusamudram controversy, Karunanidhi questioned the existence of the Hindu God Ram. He asked

His remarks caused a firestorm of opinions.BJP fore front leader, Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Karunanidhi of religious discrimination when noting "We would like to know from Karunanidhi if he would make a similar statement against religious head of any other religion; chance are he may not."

Nationalist Congress Party spokesman D. P. Tripathi said "Where is the need of asking for evidence on the existence of Ram when lots of people have unreserved faith in him?"

Connections With LTTE

The Interim report of Justice Jain Commission which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination indicted Karunanidhi for abetting the LTTE. He supports LTTE currently. The interim report, recommended that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the DMK party be held responsible for abetting Rajiv Gandhi's murderers. The final report contained no such allegations external link .

In April 2009, Karunanidhi made a controversial remark that "...Prabhakaran is my good friend...". and also said "India could not forgive the LTTE for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi"

Allegations Of Nepotism

Karunanidhi has been accused by opponents, many of his party members and some political observers of trying to promote nepotism and start a political dynasty along the lines of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Vaiko who quit the DMK has been the most vocal. Political observers say that Vaiko was sidelined as he was seen as a threat to M.K. Stalin and other family members.

His nephew, the late Murasoli Maran was a Union Minister however it has been pointed out that he was in politics much before Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister in 1969. He was arrested several times including the Anti-Hindi agitations in 1965. He was asked to contest the by-election for South Madras in 1967 and the nomination papers were signed by Rajaji, Annadurai and Mohammed Ismail Quaid-e-Millath clearly showing that his political career did not raise only due to Karunanidhi.

Many political opponents and DMK Party senior leaders have been critical and perturbed about the rise of M.K. Stalin in the party. But some of the party men have pointed out that Stalin has come up on his own. He has faced a lot of hardship since 1975 when he was jailed under MISA was beaten up in jail so brutally during the Emergency that a fellow DMK Party prisoner died trying to save him. Stalin was a MLA in 1989 and 1996 when his father Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister but he was not inducted into the Cabinet. He contested and became Chennai's 44th mayor but the first directly elected Mayor in 1996. It was only in his 4th term as MLA has he been made a Minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet and his rise is slow but steady.

Karunanidhi has been accused of helping Murasoli Maran's son Kalanidhi Maran who runs Sun Network, India's second largest television network and according to Forbes, Kalanidhi is among India's Richest 20 with .9 Billion. external link . Again commentators say that he raised himself into the position on his own merit and even Karunanidhi's sons have achieved nothing compared to him which has been a cause of friction between them. His channels have been the mouth organ of the DMK party until recent time and balanced the Jaya TV of the AIADMK.

Another son of Maran's, Dayanidhi Maran is a former Union Minister for Communications & IT portfolio, not broadcasting ministry, which is responsible for TV networks. It is a well known and often-argued fact that Dayanidhi Maran has been thrown out of his IT and Communications portfolio at Center he was a Union Minister for IT and Communications because the Dinakaran Newspaper run by the Maran brothers has shown M.K. Stalin of having the possibility to be the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu which created a bloody violence in the Madurai branch of Dinakaran office carried out by M.K. Azhagiri, causing the death of three employees. This is again seen as a result of the Dynasty-Controversy in Karunanidhi's family.

It has been pointed out that Karunanidhi has hesitated to take action against his erring family members, though he has expelled his other sons M.K. Muthu and M.K. Azhagiri when they were guilty of wrong doing and similarly removed Dayanidhi Maran from the position of Union Minister because of the reason stated in the previous paragraph.

Of late, he has been accused of not taking action against M.K. Azhagiri after his supporters attacked the newspaper office of Dinakaran killing 3 people as stated above. M.K. Azhagiri is the prime accused in the murder case of the former DMK Minister

Kiruttinan. Karunanidhi is also accused of allowing Azhagiri to function as an extra constitutional authority in Madurai through he has never held a party post and is a liability to the party and not yet expelled from the party

The Dinakaran newspaper case was handed over to the CBI. But, the District and Sessions court acquitted all the 17 accused in that case. So far, the case has not been appealed in a higher court to identify and punish the perpetrators of the crime.

Further, his daughter Kanimozhi has been nominated for a Rajya Sabha post even though she has done very little for the party as pointed out by critics and many of his party members.

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