The DMK’s relations with the Congress hit the bottom with party president M. Karunanidhi attributing, albeit indirectly, his poll debacle to the ally’s coercive methods in squeezing out too many seats in the recent Assembly elections.
After holding long deliberations with senior party functionaries, including sons M.K. Stalin and M.K. Alagiri, and general secretary K. Anbazhagan, at his house, the DMK chief issued an eight-page statement late Saturday night declaring his family and the party were innocent and would come out unscathed despite the machinations of “vengeful conspirators”.
The DMK top brass also decided to skip PM Manmohan Singh’s tea party on Sunday. “After deliberating this question for long, since we continue to be in the government, it was decided to keep away from the Delhi party. We cannot celebrate when Kanimozhi is in jail and Thalaivar is shattered,” a DMK senior said.
He said Mr Karunanidhi would fly to New Delhi Monday morning to see his daughter when she is brought to court from Tihar jail. “This is the situation as of now. Things may change tomorrow,” he added.
In his statement, Mr Karunanidhi reiterated that Ms Kanimozhi was innocent in the 2G scam. She was denied bail and sent to jail even after her counsel, Mr Ram Jethmalani, explained to the court that she should not be held responsible for the day-to-day administration of Kalaignar TV just because she was a shareholder. In fact, Ms Kanimozhi had agreed to invest her share of the `2 crore, got out of the `100 crore received by his family for moving out of Sun TV, only because he had told her to do so. “Only I compelled Kanimozhi to become a shareholder in Kalaignar TV. She did so only to satisfy me even though she did not relish that idea herself. She did no other crime,” Mr Karunanidhi said.
“Vengeful conspirators took revenge against my family and me. They have not rested with that. They want to destroy even the places where I live and where our flag flies,” said the former chief minister.