THE SONS ALSO RISE: KARUNANIDHI KEEPS POWER IN THE FAMILY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000223

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KBIO IN
SUBJECT: THE SONS ALSO RISE: KARUNANIDHI KEEPS POWER IN THE FAMILY


1. (SBU) Summary: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi
consolidated his family's hold over the DMK party in the wake of its
surprisingly strong performance in the national elections.
Karunanidhi signaled that his son Stalin is his heir apparent by
naming him Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. At the same time,
Karunanidhi installed his older son Azhagiri as a Union Minister,
where he will be the DMK's power broker in New Delhi. Regardless of
whether these moves make for a smooth succession as intended, the
DMK will be much weaker when the physically ailing octogenarian
Karunanidhi leaves the political scene because neither son is
capable of filling his shoes. End summary.

A complicated first family
--------------


2. (SBU) Tamil Nadu's octogenarian Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi,
has a big family to take care of. He has married three times. His
first wife, Padma, died young. A son from that marriage, Muthu,
remained estranged from his father for a long time, hobnobbing with
Karunanidhi's political foes after an unsuccessful attempt at a film
career. Karunanidhi is still married to his second wife, Dayalu,
with whom he has three sons (Azhagiri, Stalin, Tamilarasu) and a
daughter (Selvi). Karunanidhi also has an "unofficial wife,"
Rajathi, with whom he has a daughter, Kanimozhi. (This sort of
marital arrangement is fairly common among Tamils of Karunanidhi's
generation, and it is not considered a potential source of scandal.
He regularly includes them both in public events and official
travel.) The two live in separate houses in Chennai, and he divides
his time between them.


3. (SBU) Karunanidhi has long dominated Tamil Nadu's politics. He
is the unquestioned leader of the DMK, a regional Tamil party with
no obvious ideology other than support for Karunanidhi and a desire
to remain in power. (It originated as part of the "Dravidian
Movement" that opposed the domination of South India by Hindi
speakers based in New Delhi, but this is no longer a burning issue.)
Its main goal is to retain control of Tamil Nadu, where it has
generally alternated terms of government there with its arch-rival
AIADMK. Its secondary goal is to remain part of the national
government, a goal made easier by the party's ideological
malleability, which allows it to join national governments led by
the Congress Party, the BJP, or almost anybody else.

The Chosen One
--------------


4. (SBU) Three of Karunanidhi's children are politically active:
Stalin (Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu),Azhagiri (Union
Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers),and Kanimozhi (Member of
the Rajya Sabha, India's upper house of parliament). It is
generally accepted that Karunanidhi wants Stalin to succeed him as
head of the DMK and as Chief Minister, but the rivalry between
Stalin and his older brother Azhagiri is legendary. Stalin arose as
an early favorite, having been active in the party since the 1970s
beginning by organizing its youth wing. He gained widespread
recognition in the state when he was jailed, along with other
political leaders, from 1976-77 under the Maintenance of Internal
Security Act, during "The Emergency" declared by Indira Gandhi.


5. (SBU) Stalin had something of a thuggish reputation in the
1970s, including alleged involvement in multiple sex scandals.
(Many in Chennai still tell stories, perhaps apocryphal, of pretty
girls being plucked off the streets and handed over to Stalin for
his amusement.) He matured and shed this image in the late 1980s,
however, evolving into a genuinely popular politician, winning
election to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly four times (1989,
1996, 2001 and 2006),and serving as Mayor of Chennai from 1996 to

2002. He was also the state's Minister for Local Administration and
Rural Development from 2006 until becoming Deputy Chief Minister in
2009, a new position in the state's government created especially
for him.

Not so fast, says the big brother
--------------


6. (SBU) Stalin's older brother, Azhagiri, recently named India's
Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, remains a controversial
figure. His rivalry with Stalin is legendary in Tamil Nadu. After
years of feuding, Karunanidhi sent him in 1989 to the city of
Madurai, hundreds of miles away from Chennai in southern Tami Nadu,
ostensibly to take care of the party newspaper, but more with a view
toward avoiding clashes between the sons. In Madurai, he controlled
DMK efforts in Tamil Nadu's southern districts even though he did
not hold an official position of any sort within the party. His
conflicts with senior DMK leaders in Madurai created trouble for the
party during Karunanidhi's 1996-2001 term as Chief Minister. At one
point, the DMK's General Secretary, evidently directed by
Karunanidhi, even issued an order to party workers to avoid
associating with Azhagiri altogether. The feuding continued and
Azhagiri reportedly worked to defeat many DMK candidates in the 2001

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Assembly elections that threw the party out of power.


7. (SBU) Azhagiri's notoriety extends past the usual political
theatrics. In May 2003, Tamil Nadu police arrested Azhagiri for
criminal conspiracy and murder in a case relating to the stabbing
death of T. Kiruttinan, a senior DMK leader and former state-level
minister and Member of Parliament. Prosecutors charged that
Azhagiri conspired to have Kiruttinan murdered because he was
challenging Azhagiri's control of the DMK's leadership in the
state's southern districts. Karunanidhi, however, claimed that the
arrest was a political vendetta by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa (his
arch-rival who had taken over in Tamil Nadu when her AIADMK party
won the legislative assembly elections in 2001). In May 2008, the
presiding judge in the case acquitted Azhagiri and the 12 others
indicted in the case, declaring the state's allegations "not
proved."


8. (SBU) At least one other major violent incident is linked to
Azhagiri and his cronies. In 2007, Azhagiri's supporters attacked
and burned the Dinakaran newspaper office in Madurai, killing three
employees. The attack followed the paper's publication of a survey
showing that Stalin was much more popular than Azhagiri. Sixteen
people, including a police officer, were charged in the incident.
Azhagiri, however, was not among the accused.

Money powers Azhagiri's southern successes
--------------


9. (SBU) Azhagiri's political fortunes truly began to rise after he
helped the DMK-led alliance win three legislative assembly
by-elections in a row in 2006, 07 and 09. In addition to mobilizing
an army of fully committed party workers, Azhagiri had the DMK pay
cash bribes to lure voters on a scale never seen before in Tamil
Nadu. Even the DMK's opponents grudgingly admired the breadth and
brazenness of Azhagiri's cash-for-votes distribution network. After
ensuring a DMK victory in the 2009 by-election, which was seen as a
bellwether for the upcoming national elections, Azhagiri assumed his
first-ever official position in the party. Karunanidhi then gave
him the ticket to contest to the Madurai Lok Sabha seat, as well as
the responsibility to supervise the DMK's efforts to win the 10 Lok
Sabha constituencies of southern Tamil Nadu. The party went on to
win nine of the ten constituencies, beating the multi-party
coalition led by the AIADMK.

Cabinet berth for Azhagiri, Deputy CM post for Stalin
--------------


10. (SBU) After protracted negotiations between Karunanidhi and
Congress leadership in New Delhi, Congress ultimately allotted three
Ministries to the DMK. Azhagiri was sworn in as Union Minister for
Fertilizers and Chemicals on May 28. The very next day, Karunanidhi
promoted Stalin to Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The twin
promotions cleverly advanced Karunanidhi's plan to have Stalin
eventually succeed him. Stalin's elevation buttresses the
widespread understanding that he is the heir apparent. As Deputy
Chief Minister Stalin will have responsibility for a number of
portfolios that his father previously handled including the
Departments of General Administration, Industries, District Revenue
Offices, Minorities Welfare, Social Reforms, and Special
Initiatives. At the same time, Karunanidhi placated the volatile
Azhagiri with the prestige and privileges that accompany his new
status as a Minister in the central government. Moreover,
installing Azhagiri in New Delhi, more than a thousand miles away
from Chennai, helps reduce the possibility of a clash over
succession in the event the fading Karunanidhi dies.


Daughter disappointed at being left out of Cabinet
--------------


11. (SBU) Another family member, Karunanidhi's grand-nephew
Dayanidhi Maran, was made the Union Minister for Textiles. The
final DMK ministerial post was given to A. Raja, who kept his post
as Minister for Communications and Information Technology. This
left Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's daughter by his "unofficial wife," out
in the cold despite heavy lobbying by her supporters. Sources close
to Kanimozhi told us that she remains deeply upset at being denied a
cabinet position. According to local journalists, she is expecting
a promotion in the party to compensate for it.

Will Karunanidhi retire soon?
--------------


12. (SBU) It is not clear whether his decision to elevate Stalin
signals Karunanidhi's intent to retire from active politics soon. A
media contact told post that Karunanidhi has no intention of
stepping down, but a source close to Stalin suggested the Chief
Minister might retire in the near future. After a spinal cord
surgery in February, Karunanidhi has been in pain and
wheelchair-bound. Stalin's health condition is unclear: he is

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rumored to be suffering from an undisclosed ailment (allegedly
intestinal cancer). He visited London in June 2008, reportedly for
a medical examination.

Comment
--------------


13. (SBU) Karunanidhi's efforts to forestall a succession fight by
dividing political turf between Azhagiri and Stalin will likely
fail. Azhagiri, who speaks little English and no Hindi, will have
difficulty in the New Delhi political scene. He is at heart very
much a provincial Tamil Nadu politician, who will no doubt want to
contest for power in the state once his father leaves the scene.
This will put him at odds with Stalin, who compensates for his lack
of charisma with a willingness to work hard and to listen to the
advice of trusted bureaucrats and senior party leaders. Stalin,
anointed by Karunanidhi, is likely to come out on top because he is
more acceptable than his pugnacious and rough-hewn brother.
Neither, however, has the political acumen or rhetorical skills to
fill the shoes of the father who has dominated the state's politics
for four decades. The DMK will be in for hard times whenever
Karunanidhi finally does get out of politics. End comment.

SIMKIN