Union Telecom Minister A. Raja of 2G spectrum fame is only the most visible face of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
, a party that is fast turning into a haven for politicians charged with wrongdoings of all kinds.
According to National Election Watchout, 49 of the 127 DMK candidates who contested the 2006 Assembly polls faced criminal cases. This list includes Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. Under the AIADMK regime, the politics of vendetta also led to disproportionate asset cases being filed against senior Cabinet ministers Arcot Veerasamy, Duriamurugan, K. Ponmudy, Ko. Si. Mani, K.N. Nehru, Suresh Rajan, K. Pichandy, I. Periyasamy and Pongalur Palanisamy. The list of DMK ministers involved in criminal cases is also rather long. Union Minister M.K. Alagiri was allegedly involved in former minister Tha Kirutinan's murder case and the Dinakaran newspaper office attack case in which three employees were killed. He was let off by court.
AIADMK chief and leader of the Opposition J. Jayalalithaa wanted the resignations of Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugan and Labour Minister T.M. Anbarasan for "threatening" Left leaders. In 2008, Arumugan was allegedly involved in grabbing 20,000 sq ft of prime property in Salem after forcibly evicting 31 poor families who had been living there for 80 years. In June 2008, the Madras High Court passed an order restoring the Rs 15-crore property to the families. They are yet to move back in. In October this year, Anbarasan openly threatened trade union leaders associated with Left parties, saying, "You will not be allowed to hold a meeting and you cannot walk on the streets, if we decide against you." He is also accused of harbouring an accused in a murder case in 2008.
On November 8, 2010, an advocate at the high court sought registration of a criminal case against DMK Rajya Sabha MP Vasanthi Stanley for criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating, falsification of records and giving false evidence. In 2007, Vasanthi and her husband Stanley were accused of defrauding banks of Rs 3.5 crore using forged documents. Vasanthi had sought anticipatory bail in these cases, allegedly producing fake sureties.
The DMK's Salem satrap Arumugam, Kallakurichi MP Adhi Sankar, Thalaivasal MLA Chinnadurai and the mayor of Salem are also alleged to have visited Suresh Kumar, aka 'Parapatti' Suresh, an accused in six murder cases. When Jayalalithaa cried foul that a minister visiting an accused would hamper investigations, the DMK distanced itself from Arumugan, who saw a "heinous conspiracy" against him in the party.
Instead of taking action against the accused, the DMK has reinstated party seniors who were earlier sacked for various crimes. Former handlooms minister NKKP Raja was ousted from the Cabinet and the DMK in 2007 on charges of abducting a family of three in a land-grabbing case in his home district, Erode. He is now the party's district secretary in Erode. "We are being threatened. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court and serious criminal charges are pending against him," says N. Subramani, who had moved court against Raja in the land-grabbing case.
In 2007, social welfare minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna was asked to quit after she was caught on tape asking the state vigilance chief to go slow on a relative facing a bribery case. She was later reinducted into the Cabinet and was offered the IT portfolio as she is seen as one of the DMK's faces in the Nadar-based region of southern Tamil Nadu.
Tourism Minister Suresh Rajan has been accused by S. Janardhanan, a sub-collector from the Kanyakumari region, for abusing him and maliciously invoking his caste name. Janardhanan was in charge of distributing free colour television sets in Rajan's constituency in April 2008. "Though the allegations against the minister were true, an fir was not registered for two months," says Grinivasa Prasad, advocate and founder of the Free Legal Aid Centre. "When the FIR was finally lodged, the local DSP removed the SC/ST Atrocities Act from it." When the case came up at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, Rajan's name had been removed from the chargesheet. The case is now in the Supreme Court.
"Legislators or parliamentarians are supposed to be lawmakers. But under the DMK, lawmakers are either lawbreakers or supporters of lawbreakers. Under the current DMK Government, Tamil Nadu is witnessing a goonda raj," AIADMK MP V. Maithreyan told India Today. The AIADMK will turn these cases against to launch an offensive against the DMK during the next Assembly polls, due in May next year.
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