| Kanimozhi Karunanidhi | |
|---|---|
| M. K. Kanimozhi | |
| Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 January 1968 Chennai, India |
| Political party | DMK |
| Spouse(s) | Athiban Bose(1989-1997)[1] G. Aravindan (1997-Present) |
| Children | 1 son |
| Residence | Chennai |
| Religion | Hindu |
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (Tamil: கனிமொழி கருணாநிதி) (born 1968 in Chennai), a politician, poet and journalist. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of India's Parliament).[2] Kanimozhi is the daughter of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi and his third wife, Rajathi Ammal.She was arrested on charges of being associated with the 2G spectrum scam and was booked in Tihar Jail after her repeated bail pleas were rejected.[3] She was finally granted bail on 28-Nov-2011 [4] by the Delhi high court in the 2G case. Asif Balwa and three others was also granted bail by the court. However, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura was denied bail.
Kanimozhi belongs to the Indian Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) political party, where she functions as the chief of the DMK’s wing for Art, Literature and Rationalism, and is seen as her father's "literary heir".[5] Her half-brothers M.K. Azhagiri and M. K. Stalin are the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and the Former Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu respectively.
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Before her entry into politics, Kanimozhi was involved in various instances of journalism, such as sub editor for The Hindu, editor in charge of Kungumam (a Tamil weekly magazine belonging to the Sun group), and a features editor for a Singapore based Tamil newspaper called Tamil Murasu.[5]
Kanimozhi also claims to have written Tamil poetry and penned 87 Tamil film songs .
Kanimozhi has been known to support Pan Tamil issues, and in particular, Sri Lankan Tamils.[6] Kanimozhi also takes part in organizing various women empowerment programs,[7] and is also interested in the welfare of differently-abled people and transgenders. In 2005, along with Karthi Chidambaram, she founded a portal supporting free speech also has been involved spiritually with an spiritual guide in south India.[8] In 2007, Kanimozhi conceived the idea of the Chennai Sangamam, an annual open Tamil cultural festival, usually held during the Pongal season.
She also spearheads[9] DMK efforts to organize Job Fairs, under the banner 'Kalaignar 85' across rural Tamil Nadu to facilitate employment opportunities for young people in smaller cities, towns and villages.[5] Begun as a small employment drive to mark the birthday of DMK President Kalaignar Karunanidhi in June 2008 at Kariyapatti (a village in Virudhunagar District) Job Fairs have provided jobs to about 70,000 unemployed(citation required) youth spread across five districts. Places it has been held at include Nagercoil, Vellore, Udhagamandalam, Virudhunagar, Cuddalore, Tiruchirapalli and Tirunelveli. She plans to conduct similar job fairs all over Tamil Nadu.[10]
Kanimozhi has worked on a production titled Silappadikaram based on a Tamil epic of the same name with Bombay Jayashri.[12]
Kanimozhi was a student of Presentation Convent, Church Park in Chennai and later did her Masters in Economics in Ethiraj College for Women from the Madras University.[5] She has been married twice; firstly in 1989 to Athiban Bose, a businessman from Sivakasi, and then to G. Aravindaan, a Singapore based Tamil writer, in 1997.[13]
In November 2010 Outlook published transcripts of six conversations between lobbyist Niira Radia and Kanimozhi from May 2009.[14] India Today claims that these conversations reveal that Kanimozhi filtered the information flowing to her father (the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) and thereby "tipped the scales in favour of" A. Raja, who was Minister of Communications and Information Technology during controversial 2G wireless spectrum allocations in 2008.[15] The New York Times's Delhi correspondent Lydia Polgreen said Raja's rise to telecommunications minister was "emblematic" of how politics in India really work, with the DMK "more closely resembling a sprawling family business empire than a political party," and highlighted Mr. Raja's "close relationship" with Kanimozhi.[16] Raja was arrrested on February 2, 2011 for his alleged role in manipulating rules to allocate favourable spectrum to some telecom companies at throwaway prices.[17]
Following the Income Tax Department's raid on Tamil Maiyam, an NGO of which she is a director,[18] Kanimozhi said the DMK party will come out clean in the CBI probe, stating "The law has to take its own course. It is a process to prove us not guilty."[19] After the February 2nd arrest DMK party members and workers immediately passed a resolution declaring that the arrest doesn't mean Raja is guilty, and claimed opposition parties were targeting him for political purposes.[20]
On March 11, 2011, Kanimozhi was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the DMK headquarters in Chennai, in relation to an apparent flow of over Rs.200 crore from Shahid Balwa's DB Realty firm to Kalaignar TV, the regional Tamil channel in which Kanimozhi is alleged to have a 20 percent stake.[21] The CBI has included Kanimozhi's name in the second chargesheet of the 2G scam[22] in relation to this alleged money transaction.
On May 20, 2011, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in New Delhi ordered the arrest of Kanimozhi along with Kalaignar TV CEO Sharad Kumar after rejecting their bail pleas. Kanimozhi was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail.[23]
Kanimozhi appealed for bail citing that she is a women and mother of a young boy as reasons. But it got rejected considering the reasons that she belongs to upper echelons of society and enormity of the crime committed which is likely to affect the economy of the country.[24] On Nov 28, 2011, Kanimozhi was granted bail by the Delhi high court in the 2G case. Asif Balwa and three others was also granted bail by the court. However, former telecom sectretary Siddharth Behura was denied bail.[4]