"We will take action without any hesitation if Raja is found guilty," the Tamil Nadu chief minister told mediapersons on a day when the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the residences of Raja, his aides and relatives in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu as part of its probe.
Asked about the party's stand on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, the DMK chief said he favoured it only if it brought under its ambit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance regime also when spectrum allocations were made on 'first come-first serve basis'.
Karunanidhi said he backed the Supreme Court's observation that the probe into the 2G Spectrum allocation cover the period from 2001 when the NDA was in power. Asked whether he had "blackmailed" the Congress on the scam, as alleged by his archrival, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, he shot back, "I never indulge in blackmailing like others."
Ever since Raja came under a cloud in the spectrum scam, Karunanidhi has been strongly defending the lawyer-politician and repeatedly played the Dalit card to support him.
For the first time on Wednesday, he said action will be taken against the former minister if he was found guilty of any wrongdoing. However, Karunanidhi continued to defend the 'Dalit face' of DMK when he said Raja was being targeted, as he did not have the "sacred thread", implying that he was not a Brahmin.
The DMK patriarch had earlier likened the scam to the Hindu mythological story of demon Bagasura having teeth to the length of 30 miles. He had also remarked as to how an individual could have looted Rs 1.76 lakh crore, the 'presumptive loss' as quantified by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
