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M. Karunanidhi, popularly known as "Kalaignar" Karunanidhi (Tamil: கலைஞர் மு. கருணாநிதி)(born June 3, 1924), is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam,[1] a political party in the state of Tamil Nadu, as well as a poet. He has headed the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder C.N. Annadurai in 1969.[2] He has been the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu five times (1969-71, 1971-76, 1989-91, 1996-2001 and 2006-present). He holds the record of winning his seat in every election that he has fought in his political career spanning over 60 years.[3] In the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections, he led the DMK-led DPA (UPA and Left Parties) in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to win all 40 Lok Sabha seats. In the following 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, he was able to increase the number of seats for the DMK from 16 to 18 seats, and led the UPA in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, to win 28 seats, even with a significantly smaller coalition.
[edit] Early lifeHe was born as Dakshinamoorthy to Thiru Muthuvelar and Thirumathi Anjugam Ammaiyar on June 3, 1924 at Thirukkuvalai in then Thanjavur district, (now Thiruvarur district) of the South Indian state of Tamilnadu. He belongs to the Isai Vellalar community of Tamil Nadu.[citation needed] [edit] PoliticsHe took over as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu 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 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 Alagiriswamii 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 [edit] Rise to PowerKarunanidhi was first elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1957 from the Kulithalai assembly of Thiruchirapalli district. Karunanidhi was jailed during the agaitation to rename Dalmiapuram Railway station and was lodged in the Thiruchirapalli central jail.[citation needed] He became the DMK treasurer in 1961 and deputy leader of opposition in the state assembly in the year 1962 and when the DMK came to power in 1967, he became the minister for public works. When Annadurai expired in 1969, Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. He has held various positions in the party and government during his long career in Tamil Nadu political arena. [edit] Member of Legislative Assembly
[edit] Posts in Legislature
[edit] Chief Minister
[edit] LiteratureKarunanidhi 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 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, Tamil Nadu. At Kanniyakumari, Karunanidhi has constructed a 133 feet high statue of Thiruvalluvar which portrays his feelings to the great immortal scholar. [edit] Books
and many books in prose and poetry numbering more than 100. [edit] Stageplays
etc. [edit] ScreenplaysAt 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: [edit] Editor and PublisherHe 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. [edit] World Tamil ConferenceHe 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 [edit] Awards and Titles
[edit] ControversiesHe has been indicted by the Sarkaria commission for corruption in allotting tenders for the Veeranam project.[11] Indra Gandhi dismissed the Karunanidhi government based on charges of possible secession and corruption.[12] Karunanidhi, the former chief secretary, K.A. Nambiar, and a host of others were arrested in the wee hours of Saturday, on charges of corruption in the construction of flyovers in Chennai. He and his party members where charged under Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC, and Section 13 (2) read with 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.[13] [edit] Ram Setu remarksIn response to Sethusamudram controversy, Karunanidhi questioned the existence of the Hindu God Ram. 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."[15] 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?[16]" 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.[16]" Few days later, he commented that Lord Rama is a drunkard
[edit] Connections with LTTEThe Interim report of Justice Jain Commission which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination indicted Karunanidhi for abetting the LTTE. He supports LTTE currently.[18] 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 [4]. In April 2009, Karunanidhi made a controversial remark that "...Prabhakaran is my good friend...". and also said "India could not forgive the LTTE for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi" [19] [edit] Dynasty ControversyKarunanidhi 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.[20] 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.[21]. 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.[5]. 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 Tamil Nadu 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 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[22] 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 [23] 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. To make matters worse now M.K. Stalin is made the Deputy Chief Minister signalling clearly to party cadres and leaders that he will be the successor of Karunanidhi not only in his family but also in his party, thus making the party which stood for socialistic principles now being transformed to family oriented party where power is shared only with in the family members and all the key posts passed only among the family members just like the old Zamindari / Dynastic rulers. However it is apparently true that M.K. Stalin has been accepted as a flamboyant performer as an Administrator in his current position, by various members of even opposition parties including AIADMK. [edit] Personal lifeHe was a non vegetarian now turned vegetarian.[24] He has claimed that the secret of his energy and success lies in yoga and daily practice[25]. He has married three times his wives are Mrs. Padmavathy, Mrs. Dayalu Ammal and Mrs. Rajathiammal[26][27][28]. 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 with Kanimozhi holding a post. Padmavathy, who died early bore him M.K. Muthu, his eldest son. Azhagiri, Stalin, Selvi and Tamilarasu are born to Dayaluammal, while Kanimozhi is the only daughter from his third wife Rajathiammal. [edit] Photo Gallery
[edit] Cabinet[edit] Karunanidhi's Cabinet ( May 13, 2006-)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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