As expected the chargesheeting of party chief M. Karunanidhi''s daughter Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case has created furor within the DMK. Though the party has supremo has refused to comment on the Monday developments, the anger is quite visible. The party has convened a meeting Wednesday on the issue, even as the Congress
tried to put up a brave front by saying the UPA alliance, of which DMK
is a major partner, is stable.
Opposition parties meanwhile wondered why Karunanidhi's second wife
Dayalu Ammal was not chargesheeted.
Dayalu Ammal, who is said to own the majority 60-percent stake in
Kalaignar TV, did not figure in the charges as had been speculated by a
section of the media. Dayalu Ammal has been named as a witness.
Both the DMK chief and his daughter Kanimozhi in Chennai refused to
comment on the chargesheet.
The DMK is the third largest constitutent of UPA after Congress and
Trinamool Congress and has 18 members in the Lok Sabha.
But, the Congress party in New Delhi assured that the United Progressive
Alliance (UP) government is stable.
The strains were however apparent as Karunanidhi avoided questions about
the party planning to quit the UPA government after his daughter's name
appeared in the CBI chargesheet.
In a statement issued in Chennai, DMK's General Secretary K. Anbazhagan
said the party's high-level action committee will meet April 27 to chalk
out the party's future course of action in the wake of the high publicity being given to filing of charge-sheet by CBI against Kanimozhi and Managing Director of Kalaignar TV Sharad Kumar.
He said Kalaignar TV in a transparent manner had accepted a loan from a
company which was paid back with interest and the transaction was
reported to the Income Tax authorities.
According to him, the CBI questioning of Kanimozhi, Kumar and Dayalu
Ammal, were given wide publicity.
The CBI had arrested DMK leader and former federal communications
minister A. Raja as the main accused in February. The CBI chargesheet,
the second so far, filed in a special court in New Delhi also names as
co-accused Karim Morani of Cineyug Films, and Asif Balwa and Rajiv B.
Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari asserted the government is stable.
"The government is fully stable. Since 2004 when UPA came to power,
there have been illusions about its instability and some people have
reached the evening of their lives under such an illusion," Tewari told
reporters.
He also brushed off the government's role in the CBI functioning. "The
government has neither any role nor any control over the developments
taking place in the investigations taking place in 2G spectrum scam," he
added.
But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had a field day in targeting the
Congress as the supplementary chargesheet came on a day when Congress MP
Suresh Kalmadi, former chief of the Commonwealth Games Organising
Committee, was arrested by the CBI on corruption charges.
"The 60 percent shareholder (in the Kalaignar TV) Dayalu Ammal has not
been named. We wonder if there was political pressure on CBI... Has
there been political bargaining, a political threat that there will be
withdrawal of some UPA (United Progressive Alliance) ministers," BJP
spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.
The DMK's arch rival, the AIADMK, said the entire family of Karunanidhi
should be chargesheeted.
AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa said in a statement: "…the
Rs.214 crore paid by (Shahid) Balwa was a clear bribe to Karunanidhi.
The beneficiaries of the bribe, if the CBI had not filed a case, would
have been the entire Karunanidhi family. As such, the interests of
justice would be served only if all the members of the Karunanidhi
family, |