The resignation of textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran from the Union Cabinet on Thursday comes in a political context whose logic would suggest that Congress-DMK relations may have run their course. But aside from this, it would have been in the fitness of things if he had voluntarily put in his papers when the scandal which consumed
him broke a few weeks ago. He could have then continued to protest his innocence and sought legal recourse to clear himself. Instead, Mr Maran made a public defence of his case that is unlikely to have convinced many.
When a demand for a minister’s resignation comes to be made for purely political reasons, and does not otherwise appear to have merit, ordinary people as well as the political class are quick to grasp the situation and usually turn away from the story. However, when there is smoke even when there is no fire in sight, ordinary voters are within their rights to expect that the minister in question should go, if political morality is not to be a casualty. And when the question is one of suspected corruption, then more than political propriety is at stake. In that event, it is the national exchequer that is the loser. For this reason, Mr Maran should have taken the honourable course and quit at the first opportunity. Even if his request to be relieved had been shot down by his party (DMK) chief M. Karunanidhi — in the coalition era, that is not unthinkable — he would have at least made a point about doing the right thing. The way it has turned out, in this political season of narrow-focusing on corruption, there appeared a certain inevitability about Mr Maran’s departure, whether he was aware of it or not.
When, on Wednesday, the CBI observed in its status report to the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the 2G scam, that Mr Maran, during his tenure as communications minister in the
UPA-1 government, had forced the proprietor of the Aircel mobile telephony company to sell out to a Malaysian firm, from which his family had gained undue favours, the outgoing textiles minister had little room left for manoeuvre. It should be understood that Mr Maran’s resignation was sought by the Prime Minister. His party did not withdraw him of its own accord. When the CBI report came on the record, Dr Manmohan Singh apprised DMK parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu that Mr Maran’s position had become untenable. The DMK took the hint and Mr Karunanidhi reportedly signalled that his grand-nephew should resign.
The DMK chafes at the Supreme Court proceedings in the 2G case, and the imprisonment of former communications minister A. Raja and Mr Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP, and holds its ally, the Congress, responsible for this state of affairs, not appreciating that the latter couldn’t help the DMK even if it so wanted. At the political level, Mr Maran’s resignation can build up into another grouse (although the young politician is not deemed a favourite of the DMK leadership). The party clearly fails to see that the era has passed when those in power could twist the courts and investigators to their advantage. The Congress would doubtless know that its best moments with the DMK are behind it. With difficulties for the Congress growing in Andhra Pradesh due to the Telangana issue, prudence may dictate a switch of allies in Tamil Nadu if the party is to maintain effective influence in the southern states. This could indeed become necessary in order to shore up the Centre if it is the DMK that decides to pull the plug. A moment of uncertainty in political dynamics has crept in.