The occasion was the birth anniversary of C N Annadurai, the leader who gave a political face to the Dravidian ideology. Every party here, barring the Congress — which was defeated by Anna’s DMK for the first time in the state in 1967 and is yet to recapture its glory ever since — pledges by his political legacy, and are always eager to outdo each other in celebrating his birthday.

Straddling power at Fort St George, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had an edge over others and made use of this promptly. After all, this was Anna’s birth centenary, a platform set for populist announcements.

First was provision of rice at Re 1 a kg for the poor that was greeted with mixed response. There were criticisms about the viability of the scheme which would add to the exchequer’s burden. There were also warnings about the rice being diverted to the open market and neighbouring states. However, there were not many political parties to raise these concerns; rice has been a touchy issue here since Annadurai himself attempted to provide it at highly subsidised rates.

There were other smaller initiatives like commemorative coins (by DMK’s A Raja, the Communications Minister), and photo exhibitions.

Rival parties that were left behind in this race, however, got a stick from Karunanidhi to beat the Government with when it ordered the release of 1,405 convicts, who had completed seven years of jail term not including remission period from the various prisons across the state.

The official clarification that those imprisoned under narcotics, explosives and arms acts and for crimes against women and communal violence would not get this remission did not cut ice with critics. And when Subramanian Swamy of the Janata Party filed a PIL against the premature release, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Justice A K Ganguly in a rare gesture convened a sitting at his residence at night on Sunday. He refused to stay the order as prayed by the petitioner and posted the matter for hearing on October 30, by which time both the state Government and Swamy are to file their counter affidavit and reply, respectively.

The practice of premature release is not new for the state. Anna himself reduced the term of all life convicts by one year when he was the chief minister. The devil that the Opposition sees this time is in the detail.

Firstly, the mammoth figure of over 1,400 convicts rang an alarm among legal experts. Last year, the figure was 190 and that too those who completed at least a decade inside prisons. Critics argue that over and above the humanitarian gesture that it represents, the move to release such a large number of prisoners who had completed only seven years was a hasty one that was targeted to deliver political returns.

The murmur in the civic society gained voice when ally-turned-critics, the Left parties, were antagonised by the release of four prisoners from Madurai Central Prison. These four are DMK cadres, among the six who were awarded life sentence for murdering CPM councillor Leelavathy of Villapuram panchayat in Madurai district in 1997. One died inside prison while serving his sentence.

For those above 60 years of age, the minimum sentence was reduced from seven to five years. There were touching moments when old men and ‘reformed’ convicts joined their relatives; there were also stories about those unwanted by their kin. An old man who killed his abusive son, a youngster who murdered his philandering lover, a painter who came out as radical as he ever was, their tales were touching. But amidst the controversy, the whole premature release issue was coloured by charges of favouritism and populism.