M. Karunanidhi

In this Indian name, the name "Muthuvel" is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, "Karunanidhi".

M. Karunanidhi (Tamil: மு.கருணாநிதி) or Karunanidhi Muthuvel generally referred to as M.K (Tamil: மு.க)and Dr. Kalaingar (கலைஞர்), is the present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is one of the founder members and the president of the DMK^[1] political party in the state of Tamil Nadu DMK from the death of C.N. Annadurai in 1969 till date.^[2] He has been the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu five times (1969-71, 1971-74, 1989-91, 1996-2001 and 2006-date). He holds the record of winning every election that he fought in his political career spanning over 60 years.^[3] He led the UPA in Tamil Nadu to win all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections.

Early life

Dravidian political parties
Dravidian movement Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Rise of Dravidian parties Anti-Hindi agitations Cinema in Dravidian politics
Defunct Dravidian parties Justice party Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani Thayga Marumalarchi Kazhagam
Contemporary Dravidian parties Dravidar Kazhagam Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Pattali Makkal Katchi Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam All India Latchiya Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers from Dravidian parties C. N. Annadurai V. R. Nedunchezhiyan M. Karunanidhi M. G. Ramachandran Janaki Ramachandran J. Jayalalithaa O. Panneerselvam

He was born in an Issai Vellalar caste as Dakshinamurthy to Thiru Muthuvelar and Thirumathi Anjugam Ammaiyar on June 3 1924 at Thirukkuvalai in the Tanjore District, (now Tiruvarur) Tamil Nadu, India. Coming from a humble and poor family the clan of Karunanidhi have made it to the top of Tamilnadu politics.

Politics

He took over as the Chief Minister on 13 May 2006 after his coalition defeated his main opponent J. Jayalalithaa in the May 2006 elections.^[4] He currently^[update] represents the constituency of Chepauk in Central Chennai in the Tamil Nadu state Legislative Assembly. He has been elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for 11 times and once to the now abolished Tamil Nadu Legislative Council.^[5]

Karunanidhi began his career as a scriptwriter in the Tamil film industry.^[6] He is known for his wit and oratorical skills, qualities which helped his rapid rise as a popular politician. He was famous for writing historical and social (reformist) stories which propagated the socialist and rationalist ideals of the Dravidian movement to which he belonged.

Karunanidhi entered politics at the age of 14 inspired listening to a speech by Alagiriswami of the Justice Party by whom he was greatly influenced in 1932 and participated in Anti-Hindi agitations. He founded an organisation for the local youth of his locality. He circulated a hand written newspaper called Manavar Nesan to its members. Later he founded a student organisation called Tamil Nadu Tamil Manavar Manram which was the first student wing of the Dravidan Movement. Karunanidhi involved himself and the student community in social work with other members he would visit the nearby hutments to do all that was possible within his limit. Here he started a newspaper for its members which grew into Murasoli newspaper which is the DMK party's official newspaper.

Agitations

Karunanidhi has been arrested several times in long political career fighting for public causes this including against price increase, Anti-Hindi Agitation, for Eelam Tamils and other political activities.He has been arrested over 14 times. Even in jail he set up a shadow government, and allocated responsibilities to everyone of his cadres. During his periods in jail (he was incarcerated more than seven times between 1953 and 1965), Karunanidhi read and wrote extensively in prison. Karunanidhi led a struggle in a bid was instrumental in the Kallakudi struggle to rename Dalmiapuram railway Station. Karunanidhi was entrusted with the task of organizing the struggle. The cadres were divided into three batches, and Karunanidhi led the batch which lay down on the railway station, blocking the train. They were promptly arrested, the second group also met the same fate. When the third group lead by Kannadasan took its turn chaos broke, the police resorted to firing leading to the death of two. Karunanidhi was lodged in Thiruchirapalli Central Jail.

Rise to Power

Karunanidhi was first elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1957. He became the DMK treasurer in 1961 and deputy leader of opposition in 1962 and when the DMK came to power in 1967, he became the minister for public works. When Annadurai died in 1969. Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister. He has held various positions in the Tamil political scene.

MLA

Posts in Legislature

Chief Minister

Industrialization of Tamilnadu

Karunanidhi Government has built Tidel software park during earlier regime. He meets industrialists regularly to bring industries to Tamilnadu.[1]. The New Tractor Manufacturing was also started in Oragadam. The Tractor company was started by Mahindra and Nissan.

Literature

Karunanidhi is known for his knowledge in and contribution for Tamil literature. His contributions cover a wide area like poem, letters, screenplays, novels, biographies, historic novels, stageplays, dialogues, songs etc. He has skillfully crafted 'Kuraloviam' for Thirukural, Tholkaappiya Poonga, Poombukar as well as many poems, essays and books.

Apart from literature, Karunanidhi has also contributed to the Tamil language through art and architecture. Like the Kuraloviyam which Kalaignar wrote about Thirukkural, he through the construction of Valluvar Kottam gave an architectural presence to Thiruvalluvar, in Chennai, Tamilnadu. At Kanniyakumari, Karunanidhi has constructed a 133 feet high statue of Thiruvalluvar which effectively portrays his feelings to the great immortal scholar.

Books

and many books in prose and poetry numbering more than 100.

Stageplays

etc.

Screenplays

At the age of 20, Karunanidhi went to work for Jupiter Pictures as a script writer. His first film Rajakumari, gained him much popularity. It was here that his skills as a script writer were honed. He wrote more than 70 screenplays including:

Editor and Publisher

He started Murasoli on 10.8.1942. He was the Founder-Editor, Publisher of " Murasoli" during his boyhood as a monthly, then a weekly, and now a daily. He used his talents as a journalist and cartoonist to bring issues relevant to his political ideology before the public. He writes daily letters addressed to his party workers by name; he has been writing these for over 50 years. In addition he has served as Editor for "Kudiyarasu" and gave life to journal - ' Mutharam'. He is the founder of State Governments News Reel, Arasu Studio and also the Government Journal "Tamil Arasu " published in Tamil and English.

World Tamil Conference

He has delivered the Special address on the inaugural day of 3rd World Tamil Conference held in Paris in the year 1970 and also on the inaugural day of 6th World Tamil Conference held in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) in the year 1987

Awards and Titles

• He is affectionately referred as Kalaingar, Muthamizh Kavingar.
• Annamalai University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1971.
• He was awarded "Raja Rajan Award" by Tamil University, Thanjavur for his book "Thenpandi Singam".
• On 15 December 2006, His Excellency, the Governor of Tamil Nadu and the Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, Thiru Surjit Singh Barnala conferred an honorary doctorate on the Chief Minister on the occasion of the 40th annual convocation^[7]
• In June 2007,^[8][9][10] the Tamil Nadu Muslim Makkal Katchi announced that it will confer the title 'Friend of the Muslim Community' ('Yaaran-E-Millath') upon M. Karunanidhi.

Controversies

He has been indicted by the Sarkaria commission for corruption in allotting tenders for the Veeranam project.^[11]

The Interim report of Justice Jain Commission which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination indicted Karunanidhi for abetting the LTTE.^[12] The interim report, recommended that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the DMK party be held responsible for abetting Rajiv Gandhi's murderers. The final report contained no such allegations [2].

Dynasty Controversy

Karunanidhi has been accused by opponents, many of his party members and some political observers of trying to promote nepotism and start a political dynasty along the lines of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Vaiko who quit the DMK has been the most vocal. Political observers say that Vaiko was sidelined as he was seen as a threat to M.K. Stalin and other family members.

His nephew, the late Murasoli Maran was a Union Minister however it has been pointed out that he was in politics much before Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister in 1969.He was arrested several times including the Anti-Hindi agitations in 1965. He was asked to contest the by-election for South Madras in 1967 and the nomination papers were signed by Rajaji, Annadurai and Mohammed Ismail(Quaid-e-Milleth) clearly showing that his political career did not raise only due to Karunanidhi.^[13]

Many political opponents and DMK Party senior leaders have been critical and perturbed about the rise of M.K. Stalin in the party. But some of the party men have pointed out that M.K. Stalin has come up on his own. He has faced a lot of hardship since 1975 when he was jailed under MISA was beaten up in jail so brutally during the Emergency that fellow DMK Party prisoner died trying to save him.^[14]. Stalin was a MLA in 1989 and 1996 when his father Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister but he was not inducted into the Cabinet. He contested and became Chennai's 44 mayor but the first directly elected Mayor in 1996. It was only in his 4th term as MLA has he been made a Minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet and his rise is slow but steady.

Karunanidhi has been accused of helping Murasoli Maran's son Kalanidhi Maran who runs Sun Network, India's second largest television network and according to Forbes, Kalanidhi is among India's Richest 20 with $1.9 Billion.[3]. Again commentators say that he raised himself into the position on his own merit and even Karunanidhi's sons have achieved nothing compared to him which has been a cause of friction between them. His channels have been the mouth organ of the DMK party (until recent time) and balanced the Jaya TV of the AIADMK.

Another son of Maran's, Dayanidhi Maran is a Former Union Minister for Communications & IT portfolio, not broadcasting ministry, which is responsible for TV networks. It is a well known and often-argued fact that Dayanidhi Maran has been thrown out of his IT and Communications portfolio at Center (he was a Union Minister for IT and Communications) because the Dinakaran Newspaper (run by the Maran brothers) has shown M.K. Stalin of having the possibility to be the next Chief Minister of Tamilnadu which created a bloody violence in the Madurai branch of Dinakaran office (carried out by M.K. Azhagiri), causing the death of three employees. This is again seen as a result of the Dynasty-Controversy in Karunanidhi's family.

It has been pointed out that Karunanidhi has not hesitated to take action against his erring family members, Karunanidhi has even expelled his other sons M.K. Muthu and M.K. Azhagiri when they were guilty of wrong doing^[15] and similarly removed Dayanidhi Maran from the position of Union Minister (because of the reason stated in the previous paragraph).

But, he has been accused of not taking action against M.K. Azhagiri after his supporters attacked the newspaper office of Dinakaran killing 3 people (as stated above). M.K. Azhagiri is the prime accused in the murder case of the former DMK Minister Kiruttinan. Karunanidhi is also accused of allowing Azhagiri to function as an extra constitutional authority in Madurai through he has never held a party post and is a liability to the party and not yet expelled from the party ^[16] The Dinakaran newspaper case has been handed over to the CBI.

Further his daughter Kanimozhi has been nominated for a Rajya Sabha post even though she has done very little for the party as pointed out by critics and many of his party members.

Ram Setu remarks

In response to the Sethusamudram controversy, Karunanidhi questioned the existence of Hindu god Rama. He asked

His remarks caused a firestorm of opinions. Tamil Nadu BJP head, Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Karunanidhi of religious discrimination when noting "We would like to know from Karunanidhi if he would make a similar statement against religious head of any other religion; chance are he may not."^[18]

A few days later, Hindu activists angered by the comments set fire to a Tamil Nadu bus, killing two people.^[19]

Reacting to this, a VHP (Viswa Hindu Parishad) Saint (Saadhu) and former BJP MP, Ram Vilas Vedanti issued a fatwa against the DMK leader by remarking like this “Jo Karunanidhi ka sar kaat kar layega usko sone se taula jayega.” (Anyone who cuts off Karunanidhi’s head will be weighed against gold.)

Nationalist Congress Party spokesman D. P. Tripathi said "Where is the need of asking for evidence on the existence of Ram when lots of people have unreserved faith in him?^[20]"

In response to these statements, Karunanidhi defiantly stated "Anyway, neither Valmiki nor Ram is here now (to vouch for claims of Ram's existence). There is only a group that thinks of people as fools. They will be proved wrong.^[20]"

A lawyer has filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court seeking a directive to register a criminal case M. Karunanidhi for his remarks against Ram .[4]

Hinduism

Being a Periyar disciple and dravidan movement follower, Karunanidhi used to be a well-known critic of existence of God or super powers. However, after a recent meeting with the Hindu Saint Sathya Sai Baba whom he admired greatly, Karunanidhi has expressed his belief in Hinduism.

Personal life

He was a non vegetarian now turned vegetarian.[5] He has claimed that the secret of his energy and success lies in yoga and daily practice.[6]. He has married three times his wives are Mrs. Padmavathy, Mrs. Dayalu Ammal and Mrs. Rajathiammal^[21][22][7].

His sons are M.K Muthu, M.K. Azhagiri, M.K. Stalin, M.K Tamilarasu and daughters are Selvi and Kanimozhi. Both of his daughters, Selvi and Kanimozhi, are politically active.

M.K. Muthu is his eldest son, born to Padmavathy, who died early. Azhagiri, Stalin, Selvi and Tamilarasu are born to Dayaluammal, while Kanimozhi is the only daughter from Rajathiammal.

Photo Gallery

References

See also

• Political Families of The World

External links

• Muthuvel Karunanidhi: One Hundred Tamils of 20th Century