Opinion The daughter’s turn

However,a reprieve for Kanimozhi may not be as easy as the DMK assumes. All the others named in the CBI chargesheet,from former Telecom Minister A. Raja to about half-a-dozen top executives whose companies benefited from spectrum allotments,have been denied bail so far and are still languishing in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Apart from naming Kanimozhi as a co-conspirator in the 2G scam,the CBI has also taken note of the fact that telecom companies donated crores of rupees to a Chennai-based NGO,of which Kanimozhi is a director,just days before they got spectrum licences on June 10,2008. The Enforcement Directorate,meanwhile,is investigating whether the same NGO was used for money-laundering activities.

Kanimozhi’s image has suffered a dramatic decline. When Kanimozhi,then only 39,emerged on the national scene in June 2007,after being elected to Rajya Sabha on a DMK ticket,she was hailed as a shining example of a Gen-Next politician. She was well-educated,articulate in English and concerned about politically correct issues. She took particular interest in matters like health and family welfare,rural development,empowerment of women,and children and malnutrition. Kanimozhi conscientiously attended Parliament when in session. In over four years,she raised around 186 questions during Question Hour.

The soft-spoken Kanimozhi preferred to be known not just as a politician but as a journalist and poet as well. She was dubbed as her father’s literary heir,while her two half-brothers,Stalin and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M.K. Alagiri,squabbled publicly as to who should inherit Karunanidhi’s political mantle. Like her good friend in Parliament,Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule,Kanimozhi was keen to make the point that she felt a bit of a misfit in politics; literary pursuits and social welfare being her main areas of interest. Unlike her siblings,Kanimozhi joined politics only after following several other pursuits. After a master’s in economics,she worked in several publications. She was chief of the DMK’s art,literature and rationalism cell,and instituted an annual Tamil cultural festival. She also organised job fairs in rural Tamil Nadu under the Kalaignar banner and more recently set up Kalaignar TV channel in which she has a 20 per cent stake.

Insiders,however,point out that she was no starry-eyed amateur in politics but a significant player in the jostling for power. When Kanimozhi first arrived in Delhi,it was said her foray into politics coincided with the fall from grace of Karunanidhi’s grandnephews,the Marans. The CM’s family was resentful that the Maran clan had built up a huge communications and media empire from which the Karunanidhi family was excluded. In UPA 1,Dayanidhi Maran had got the much-coveted telecom portfolio.

Kanimozhi has been accused by the CBI of conspiring with Raja so that DB Reality,whose owners are close to the Pawar family,paid Rs 214 crore as kickbacks to Kalaignar TV in return for the allotment of spectrum. Her defence is that the money was merely a loan which she has since paid back with interest. Displaying remarkable dignity and composure under pressure,Kanimozhi on Friday insisted that she was willing to face any eventuality and she would fight her case legally. But it remains to be seen whether her devoted father will stand by silently if his daughter continues to be pursued by the CBI.