Karuna should be proud of his children doing fine

By O J George

Kottayam: Our leader K.Karunakaran should take lessons from Kalaignar Dr Muthuvel Karunanidhi. For Karunanidhi should be quite proud of his children doing fine in politics.

M.K.Azhagiri, son through first wife is now Union Cabinet Minister. Recently he was held by the police for allegedly fomenting trouble in the Madurai region, where he was sent to build up the party.

Now he is Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals.

M.K.Stalin, Karunanidhi’s son through his second wife, has been elevated as the Deputy Chief Minister in Karunanidhi’s Cabinet.

By now it has been made loud and clear that the mantle of Karunanidhi’s successor would fall on the 55-year-old Stalin.

Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter through the third wife, an accomplished lady with erudition in literature, arts and politics, is Rajya Sabha MP.

There were reports that she was being appointed a Minister in the Union Cabinet. But Kanimozhi was magnanimous enough to keep off so that someone else in the party might be benefited.

For instance, Dayanidhi Maran, grand nephew of Karunanidhi, who was marginalised in DMK politics for a while as Karunanidhi wanted to teach a lesson to the Maran clan for disobeying his diktat, is now back in the reckoning. Maran made it clear that he would not stand on ceremony for getting a chosen portfolio. Ultimately he was game for keeping the textiles portfolio.

That was great blessing considering the fact that heavy-weights like T R Balu have been laid in the lurch. It seems Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not keen to keep Balu. Neither was A.Raja in the good books of the PM, but he managed to cling on owing to political considerations.

Anyway, Karunanidhi, who would celebrate his 86th birthday on June 3, has come full circle in his political life. He has bequeathed his accomplishments to his children. No one can challenge them, as the arrangements have been finalised as per the wishes of Kalaignar.

One should analyse the finesse with which Kalaignar achieved all this. No grumbling, no murmur from others. Everyone seems to be satisfied that he is looked after very well.

In Kerala, K.Karunakaran was quite successful for some time in grooming his children K.Muralidharan and Padmaja Venugopal to adorn positions in political life.

K.Muralidharan had even become the president of the state unit of Congress Party. And he had done well in the position he held for a brief while. His leaving this coveted post for ministership apparently threw a spanner in his political life. Now he is gasping for his breath in the NCP. Who knows, perhaps his time will also come to fruition. Politics is never static. It goes on churning in the pot. The product would be either Amrit or poison. It would be the lot of the protagonist, and his luck or lack of it.

Daughter Padmaja Venugopal also has not come up the way Karunakaran wanted. For things are a bit difficult in a national party like Congress vis-à-vis Dravidian parties like DMK and ADMK.

K.M.Mani of Kerala Congress (M) could succeed in enthroning son Jose.K.Mani as his successor. Now nobody would challenge it.

If the progenies do fine, and serve the people, no one can blame the progenitors for crowning their wards with what they have.