In DMK,Karuna backs Raja but others bay for his blood

Some DMK party members believe that former Telecom Minister A Raja is becoming a liability.

DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday said action will be taken against former telecom minister A Raja if he was found guilty in the 2G spectrum scam.

“We will take action without any hesitation if Raja is found guilty,” the Tamil Nadu chief minister told reporters on a day when CBI raided the residences of Raja,his aides and relatives in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu as part of its probe.

Asked about the party’s stand on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe,he said he favoured it only if it brought under its ambit the BJP-led NDA regime also when spectrum allocations were made on ‘first come-first serve basis’.

Karunanidhi said he backed the Supreme Court’s observation that the probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cover the period from 2001 (when the NDA was in power).

Asked whether he had “blackmailed” the Congress on the scam,as alleged by his arch rival,AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa,he shot back,”I never indulge in blackmailing like others.”

Ever since Raja came under a cloud in the spectrum scam,Karunanidhi has been strongly defending the lawyer- politician and repeatedly played the Dalit card to support him.

Now,for the first time,he said action will be taken against the former minister if he was found guilty of any wrongdoing.

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However,Karunanidhi continued to defend the ‘Dalit face’ of DMK when he said Raja was being targeted as he did not have the “sacred thread”,implying that he was not a Brahmin.

The DMK patriarch had earlier likened the scam to the Hindu mythological story of demon Bagasura having a teeth to the length of 30 miles. He had also remarked as to how an individual could have looted Rs 1.76 lakh crore,the ‘presumptive loss’ as quantified by CAG.

However,sources indicate that some party members have started considering the former Telecom Minister A Raja as a liability and want the party to distance from him and thus from the scam.

Though the party has supported him to the hilt so far,what has changed the mood is the perception that the scam has dented the image of the DMK ahead of the elections. This despite the slew of welfare measures that the party’s government rolled out one after the other in the last four and a half years.

Officially,Raja is the propaganda secretary of the party.

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According to a DMK source,it is fast becoming untenable for the party to back Raja on the face of Wednesday’s raids and other recent developments including his name figuring in the case pertaining to an attempt to influence a judge of the Madras High Court.

The move to remove Raja has the backing of a section of the senior leadership and the family,sources added.