Why M K Alagiri is sulking

Why is Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers M K Alagiri threatening to resign from the Cabinet as well as his post as organising secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam?

If media reports are to be believed he has given both letters of resignation to his father -- DMK party chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, which has been rejected.

Alagiri's grouse is that the party has not taken strong action against three persons.

The first is A Raja, former Union telecom minister, whose involvement in the 2G scam has caused an estimated loss of Rs 176,000 crore to the public exchequer according to a Comptroller and Auditor General report. Alagiri wants him suspended till the allegations are cleared.

The DMK strongman from Madurai is also upset with his step-sister Kanimozhi, who is a Rajya Sabha MP. He wants her to keep a low profile and also wants the Tamil Nadu government to keep a distance from Tamil Mayyam, an NGO she is involved with. Tamil Mayyam's offices were raided recently by the Central Bureau of Investigation as part of its investigations into the 2G scam. Alagiri is upset because Kanimozhi's name features in the Niira Radia tapes.

The third person Alagiri wants action taken against is Tamil Nadu minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna. She was earlier relieved of her minister's post for making a phone call to a police station to influence a case but reinstated. Poongothai's name also features in the Radia tapes. She is said to be a close friend of Kanimozhi.

A former DMK youth wing leader laments that the party is being used by one family for their own ends. He feels that the party has been taken over by money bags with no scruples. He says that workers who have been in the party for decades were being sidelined.

He says that the ageing chief minister is helpless as he cannot rein in his family. He says, "There is nothing wrong in what Alagiri is asking. In this matter both he and (his brother and TN deputy chief minister) M K Stalin are on the same side. Kanimozhi and her mother Rajathi Ammal are not agreeing to Raja being suspended or to Kanimozhi keeping a low profile. They are not listening to Karunanidhi."

The youth leader says Alagiri has a support base in Madurai and Theni district only. The cadre there would raise a hue and cry in case Alagiri resigned but it would not have an effect on the party in any other part of the state.

He concluded by saying there would be no problems in the party if action is taken against Raja, Kanimozhi and Poongothai.

A retired teacher and DMK supporter for the past 40 years describes it as a storm in a tea cup. Though he agrees that Alagiri's views against Raja and Kanimozhi are valid he doesn't think that Alagiri has the support base to take on his father.

He believes that senior DMK leader and state Finance Minister K Anbalagan will ask Raja and Kanimozhi to maintain a low profile and at the same time make Alagiri withdraw his resignation.

He feels that the Karunanidhi will not ask Raja to resign his MP post because the DMK will not want to lose the number of seats it has in the Lok Sabha. Even the Congress will support him on that.

Questioned on the family feud, a DMK MP said, "Nothing has happened. Nothing like that will be allowed to happen. These are rumours circulated by the opposition parties with an eye on the coming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu."

Image: M K Alagiri