Coalition Adharma

The Congress’ tough stand on the DMK has come two years too late

“I don’t care whether this Government lives or goes. It is not a question of seats. It is not a question of my prestige. It is the prestige of the Indian National Congress that has been hurt”

According to The Times of India, this is what Sonia Gandhi is believed to have said to representatives of the DMK who met her in Delhi. These are fighting words, and they seemed to have succeeded in their intended impact. Yet, they also raise a question about the Congress party.

If the prestige of the Congress—a prestige that seemed to hang by three extra Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu’s seat-sharing talks with the DMK—was a matter of such importance, what should one say about the decision not to take a stand on inducting a man like A Raja in the Union Cabinet back in 2009, when the Congress-led UPA was much stronger? Is the national interest then secondary to the interest of the Indian National Congress? Certainly, it does not matter much to the nation whether the Congress contests 60 or 63 seats, but it did matter whether A Raja was a Cabinet minister or not.

Still, whatever the thrust of the Congress in terms of what it sees as its prestige and what it thinks of the nation, it is clear that both the DMK and Congress learnt their lessons on how to negotiate such matters from their 2009 stand-off.

DMK Chief M Karunanidhi has over the years variously described Sonia as “sokka thangam” (pure gold) and “thyaga thiruvillakku” (the lamp of sacrifice—after her decision to appoint Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister). And when the ‘foreigner’ issue was at its peak, it was Karunanidhi who welcomed her as India’s daughter-in-law, setting the stage for her acceptability amongst the rest of the political class.

This time round, the impasse over seat sharing for the southern state’s polls was finally resolved by personal emissaries of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Karunanidhi’s eloquent words of praise for Sonia and their maturing relationship helped diffuse the impending crisis and cut through the clutter.

It is unlikely we will again get a phone tap view of what happened on the insides, but the past is a good indicator.

Given the background of 2009, both parties knew what to avoid.

RAJA: Tell me, Niira.

RADIA: The thing is that the Congress has been totally confused as to who they need to speak to.

RAJA: Huh?

RADIA: Who they need to speak to in the DMK.

RAJA: Ah… somebody should fly to Leader.

RADIA: No, no… That is why, I am now… they’re going to speak to Kani. [Kanimozhi, daughter of Karunanidhi] in a little while, and then Kani is going to take them to Leader directly, and let Kani…

RAJA: That is good, that is good.

RADIA: Yeah? I have done… just told them that, because they’re completely confused who to talk to. Yeah?

RAJA: Let them talk to Kani.

RADIA: Yeah, but Kani should also be sensible enough to say that she does not want anything for herself. No? I have told her that…

RAJA: Hmm.

RADIA: … but you also make sure.

RAJA: No problem.

RADIA: I told them. I told them that whatever…

RAJA: See, tell Kani, let her call Leader, (tell him) ‘This is the problem, shall I bring the people?’

RADIA: Yeah, because what they’re saying is that they will not give infrastructure to Baalu and Maran. They should say that to Leader directly, no?

RAJA: No problem. Look, see… let them go along with Kani, and let them tell that we are having problems with these fellows.

RAJA: That’s right. That’s what they have to do… they were confused… what happened is: for the UPA meeting, Maran went along… so they think Maran is the interlocutor, he is the person who’s going to talk, so there is this…

RAJA: Not at all. He came for assistance, that’s all.

RADIA: No. I know, but you see, this is a wrong message that has gone out, and they don’t know.

This time, the two parties were clear about the channels that mattered and the people who would do the talking. The deal was brokered by Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel after two rounds of meetings with DMK leaders Dayanidhi Maran and MK Alagiri. But how this came about after the initial crisis has to do with the internal politics of both parties.

The reconciliation process began with Pranab Mukherjee calling Karunanidhi twice. The wires between Delhi and Chennai buzzed with non-stop conversation, followed by a short discussion within each party. Sources say the DMK poll panel headed by Deputy Chief Minister MK Stalin would go into an instant huddle at every new conciliatory gesture made. In the absence of Kanimozhi, who normally plays translator but is now struggling to survive the 2G scam’s fallout, Karunanidhi relied on his party leaders Arcot Veeraswamy and Durai Murugan to send messages back and forth. “Initially, it was TR Baalu who was the emissary, but after allegations surfaced that he was more of a stumbling block than a negotiator, he was dropped and Karunanidhi trusted his own clan—son MK Alagiri and grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran—to go to Delhi and talk directly to Congress interlocutors and Sonia,” says a source.

In the post-2G spectacle within the DMK, Alagiri has not only emerged unscathed, but gained in stature. But even Alagiri did not have things his own way, with Dayanidhi Maran from the rival Stalin camp always at his side. The dynamics of this rivalry had already been played out in the Radia tapes.

RADIA: Raja, how are you?

RAJA: Haan, what she is telling, Kani is telling?

RADIA: She’s telling that she’s okay about it. She has no problem…

RAJA: Hmm.

RADIA: … but the only thing is that somebody has to go talk to Alagiri, which you have to do.

RAJA: Hmm.

RADIA: And tell him how Maran has gone and told…

RAJA: Haan, I already spoke with him, I already spoke with him…

RADIA: You told him what he has told the Congress leaders in Delhi?

RAJA: I know. So who planted in the inds of the Congress saying that ‘Alagiri doesn’t know English’… I know.

RADIA: No, no, no, no…. Not only that.  Not only that. That he and Stalin  tomorrow will be the only ones left to run the party because the old man is senile and he is not going to be around any longer, and therefore Congress will be happy doing business with him because it will be him… him eventually, and he controls Stalin.

RAJA: Hmm…

RADIA: This is what he has said.

RAJA: Oh, ho, ho, ho!

RADIA: And that Alagiri is criminal…

RAJA: Hmm…

RADIA: And he has not even studied more than 5th standard.

RAJA: Oh…

RADIA: That’s the exact thing that he has told.

RAJA: Okay, okay.

RADIA: You go and tell him this, no?

RAJA: No, I shared with Alagiri… Alagiri in turn went to speak with Leader.

RADIA: No, but he has also said this… that in Delhi, I am the only one that you have to deal with eventually because, any case, Stalin will remain in the state.

RAJA: I know, see, I know what type of propaganda he will manage…

Once again, facing a crisis, the party turned to Pranab Mukherjee. The man who was conspicuous by his complete absence in the confabulations was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It is true he always takes a backseat in party affairs, but during the last crisis he was the one who spoke to Karunanidhi, though as the following phone conversation attests, he did so very softly. Now it seems even that soft voice has faded away.

KANI: Hello.

RADIA: Kani, apparently they relayed to your father yesterday.

KANI: Mm-hmm.

RADIA: That they do not want to give any infrastructure portfolio to Baalu or Maran.

KANI: Yeah… who told it?

RADIA: No, no. He was told apparently very, very clearly…

KANI: No, he was not… That is the problem. Who came and told him?

RADIA: They came in or, you know, told him or they must have spoken to him, and Prime Minister spoke to him.

KANI: No. Prime Minister did not. I was the one who was talking with him. I was on the phone, and he, Prime Minister, said a few words, that’s all. And see, Prime Minister can’t talk on a phone to dad and convey, obviously… Prime Minister is also, you know, very soft spoken and dad can’t hear that clearly also.

RADIA: Mm-hmm.

KANI: And the conversation was not so long that they could have conveyed all that.

Both parties went out of their way to ensure there was no Niira Radia in the background muddying things up for those actually doing the talking. In 2009, however, her role in steering negotiations in the direction she wanted were clear from her phone conversations. This, despite denials by her cohorts that she had the requisite influence.

RADIA: Hello?

RAJA: Raja here.

RADIA: Hi! I got a message from Barkha  Dutt just now.

RAJA: Huh?

RADIA: Barkha Dutt.

RAJA: What does she say?

RADIA: She says… that she has been following up the story with Prime Minister’s Office tonight. In fact, she was the one who told me that Sonia Gandhi went there. She says that he has no problem with you, but he has a problem with Baalu.

RAJA: …but it has to be discussed with Leader.

RADIA: Yeah, yeah… he has to discuss with the Leader. He has to tell…

RAJA: It will be discussed in the morning… why unnecessarily Congress… tie-up is going out.

RADIA: No, but then the question is about Alagiri, no?

RAJA: Huh?

RADIA: Alagiri’s people are saying: why is Maran getting Cabinet [membership] when he is such a senior leader himself?

RAJA: That is different, but all these things must be explored and disclosed.

RADIA: That’s right. That’s right. I told her to get Congress…

RAJA: At least, one to one, let it be disclosed to Leader.

RADIA: One to one?

RAJA: One to one. Somebody should give a message, at least in a sealed cover, that we are having serious problems, to Baalu.

RADIA: From Congress, right?

RAJA: Yes.

RADIA: Okay, I’ll tell her. She is talking to Ahmed Patel, so I will talk to him

RAJA: Let him [sic] call at least over phone: Sir, this is problem… we are having high regard, we are having no problem with Raja, but problem is Baalu. Tell.

Political commentator Cho Ramaswamy says the spectrum case is damaging the credibility of the Congress. “The common man has understood that if the Congress wants to continue with the DMK, this means they have had a share in the loot.”

Cho is not alone in this perception, despite the fact that with the Supreme Court monitoring the case, there is likely to be extra public scrutiny of the CBI’s conduct vis-à-vis 2G scam allegations against the DMK leadership. Any slouching in the investigation will be interpreted as a result of the deal that has just been brokered between the two allies. It is unclear whether this scrutiny is worth the three extra seats the Congress gets to contest in Tamil Nadu.

The party may now be satisfied with its prestige. But India is watching.

About The Author

Hartosh Singh Bal

Hartosh Singh Bal turned from the difficulty of doing mathematics to the ease of writing on politics. Unlike mathematics all this requires is being less wrong than most others who dwell on the subject.