Kallakudi konda Karunanidhi vazhgave! (Hail, Karunanidhi! Who won Kallakudi)
During elections, many in Tamil Nadu would wake up to this chant blaring from loudspeakers. For, the journey that begun at Kallakudi, a nondescript railway station, was a long one. In between, it gave the state a five-time chief minister, a 13-time MLA, and a politician who changed Tamil Nadu’s industrial landscape in many ways than one. But more on that later. First the backstory.
The journey from Dalmiapuram
DMK leader ‘Kalaignar’ M Karunanidhi’s political career is widely believed to have hit the ascent to greatness. What is less appreciated are the protests of 1953, where he got arrested for blocking a train by lying on the tracks. This was also his first brush with big business. Over the next seven decades, he would go on to have a blow-hot-blow-cold relationship with many of them.
Ramkrishna Dalmia, the mercurial businessman of the 1940s and 1950s, had a penchant for naming the places where he had set up mills and factories after himself. He built Dalmianagar in Bihar’s Dehri on Sone, Dalmia Dadri in Haryana, and the cement factory in Kallakudi and the railway station near it (then under Madras Presidency) was named Dalmiapuram.
The DMK, which wanted Tamil everywhere and in everything, saw red in the imposition of a north Indian name. Karunanidhi led a motley crowd of protesters and stuck a paper with Kallakudi written on the Dalmiapuram station’s name board.
Delhi-based Raja Vishvanidhi Dalmia, the son of Ramkrishna Dalmia, tells ET Prime, “It suited the politics of the time. But, I think one should take a broader view. There should be south Indian names in north India and vice versa. We are one country.”
The factory at Dalmiapuram is now under the Dalmia Bharat group, which is now led by Puneet Dalmia, the grandson of Ramkrishna’s younger brother Jaidayal Dalmia. Dalmia Bharat was recently in the eye of a storm for winning a bid to upkeep Red Fort.
Vishvanidhi says though Karunanidhi managed to get the name of the station changed to Kallakudi in the late ’60s when he first became the chief minister, the area itself continued to be referred as Dalmiapuram. He says other names such as Dalmianagar have also continued.
Over the years, Karunanidhi would go much beyond such symbolism.
ET Prime lists some of those initiatives.
Public transport can’t be private run
In his early stint as chief minister, he did several things that changed the state’s business landscape. Among the first was the enactment of Tamil Nadu Fleet carriages (Acquisition) Act.
In those days, the private operators such as the TVS group and ABT ran the local transport services in cities like Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tanjore, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Salem. Old timers remember these services, especially of the TVS group, to be well managed. They had time keepers at every stop and would not allow overcrowding or foot boarding in the town buses. Entry would be from the front and exit from the rear.
Taking his cue from Indira Gandhi’s bank and insurance nationalisation, Karunanidhi’s fleet carriages Act made way for the takeover of large operators with 50 or more buses.
The TVS group, which ran fleets in several cities, was among the worst affected. The 346 buses taken over from TVS became what was then known as Pandiyan Roadways Corporation in Madurai.
Similar corporations came up in each region, named after the ancient Tamil kingdoms of Chera, Chola, Pallava, and after freedom fighters.
While some critics see this as a clever manoeuvre that affected the business interests of some of the Brahmin entrepreneurs, it suited DMK’s politics, which was based on anti-Brahminism.
Though these state-run corporations served as a model for other states, the quality of service has since deteriorated, while mismanagement and unionism over the years have turned these corporations into loss-making millstones around the exchequer’s neck.
According to a CAG report of 2017, the eight corporations in the state had accumulated losses of over INR16,145 crore at the end of 2015-16. A body for industrial development
One of the early policy measures of Karunanidhi which has served the state well was the establishment of State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamilnadu (Sipcot). It was established in 1971 for industrial growth.
The organisation is involved in the formation of industrial complexes by providing basic and comprehensive infrastructure facilities for the industries to set up their units.
Successive governments have used the body as a foundation to assist enterprise and industrialise the state.
Sipcot has so far developed 20 industrial complexes in 12 districts and six sector-specific special economic zones (SEZs) across Tamil Nadu. It also acts as a nodal agency for the state government for the sanction and disbursement of structured packages of assistance to large industrial units.
Apart from major industrial complexes and SEZs in Chennai and adjoining areas, Sipcot has also developed industrial areas in Hosur, Manamadurai, Erode, and Thoothukudi.
Detroit and Valley rolled into one
Sipcot parks in Oragadam, Irungattukottai, and Sriperumbudur gave the much-needed push to manufacturing and helped the greater Chennai area become an auto hub, with several foreign players such as Hyundai, Ford, Daimler, Nissan, and Renault setting up their manufacturing facilities here and over 80 component manufacturers developing around them.
Sipcot also played a key role in the IT revolution.
In 1998, during Karunanidhi’s third term, Sipcot began work on the IT park in Siruseri on a 782 acre plot on Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
Two decades on, the city’s centre of gravity has been altered by the cyber corridor. The who’s who of the IT industry are here — Cognizant, iGATE, and Hexaware have set up their facilities, while Tata Consultancy Services’ 70 acre state-of-the-art campus has become a landmark in itself.
Separately, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) has set up IT/ITes parks in Chennai and other cities. Residents of its Sholinganallur facility include Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and HCL.
Today, Tamil Nadu is the third-largest IT exporter in the country after Karnataka and Maharashtra. For 2017-18, its software exports exceeded INR110,000 crore, according to official estimates. It has an installed capacity of some 380,000 cars and 350,000 commercial vehicles.
Though Karunanidhi might not be able to claim full credit for all this, he certainly can claim half, perhaps a little bit more.
In fact, both services and industry had shown steady growth during Karunanidhi’s fifth and final term as chief minister between 2006 and 2011. A politician sensitive to the needs of industry
As a rationalist, the five-time chief minister took keen interest in development science. In a series of tweets after his demise, ace geneticist MS Swaminathan credited him with being a "scientist’s scientist”. He said, "Among his numerous contributions to Tamil Nadu's development are outstanding universities like Anna University as well as the State Biotechnology Council and gender-sensitive institutions like the Women’s Biotechnology Park."
He added that Karunanidhi had great respect for scientists. In 1989, when Swaminathan approached him seeking land in Taramani, Chennai, to establish a scientific institution, “he said it was he who should be inviting me to establish the institution”. MS Swaminathan Research Foundation was granted the land where it now stands.
"Karunanidhi was always receptive to suggestions and inputs. He was sensitive to the needs of industry,” N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director of The India Cements, was recently quoted as saying.
Srinivasan’s association with the leader dates back to the ’60s, when he was engaged in a bitter fight for control over the company founded by his father. During his frequent visits to Delhi, he befriended Karunanidhi’s nephew Murasoli Maran.
The family’s proximity to cement businesses often irked the rival party, AIADMK. In 2014, J Jayalalithaa’s government went on to launch Amma Cement, that gave generous subsidies ostensibly to break the profiteering tactics of cement cartels.
Though both sides resorted to these occasional snubs as they swapped positions in the assembly several times since the demise of MG Ramachandran (MGR) in 1987, they seem to have worked out a broad understanding to give the much-needed continuity in policy that became an enabler for businesses in the state, say industry watchers.
With business, comes corruption charges
Karunanidhi had a gift for language and MGR had onscreen charisma. They must have squared off. But what probably tipped the public opinion in favour of the latter was perception about Karunanidhi’s financial dealings.
As early as 1972, when Karunanidhi’s friend of 40 years first turned foe, he started pointing out irregularities. Some of these allegations were later reinforced by the Ranjit Singh Sarkaria commission established during the Emergency.
Though the Sarkaria commission reports were never made public officially, they leaked all over and corruption became a key political plank for MGR.
An India Today report from 1977 has some key details:
The Sarkaria commission has found allegations of corruption and misuse of official status against Karunanidhi and some of his erstwhile colleagues in respect of some charges. It has termed the evidence against them "cogent, convincing and reliable". The report relates to seven of the 28 allegations under investigation.
A firm of aviation operators paid bribes totalling nearly INR5.3 lakh to Karunanidhi and to his colleague, the then agriculture minister, A.P. Dharmalingam, for an aerial-spraying contract.
Dharmalingam, not an income-tax assessee at the time of joining the DMK government, after a few years of ministership, owned land and jewellery worth over INR3.8 lakh and partnership rights in a textbook firm, which was given distribution rights.
The industries minister, S. Madhavan, was involved in the misuse of a loan advanced to a party legislator for industrial use.
The amending of tenancy legislation was sponsored and enacted "with oblique motive" to help a particular person.
Karunanidhi "violated the prescribed procedure and established norms in recommending a brewery licence to a film producer".
Investigation of a murder case was conducted in a "most improper, impartial, and perfunctory manner" to save three friends of Dharmalingam.
Though the report was formally presented to the special session of the Rajya Sabha only on March 2, its conclusions had come to be published as a "leak", the censorship act notwithstanding.
The Opposition had, therefore, accused the ruling Congress of exploding a time bomb on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections with the deliberate purpose of maligning its admittedly formidable challenger, DMK, in Tamil Nadu, the India Today report said.
The business of family
Although the money involved may look laughable now, it might have been significant 40 years ago. But the wealth amassed by the extended Karunanidhi clan, which included his six children from three wives, grandchildren and grandnephews, would far exceed the inflation-adjusted figures. Media, movies, realty, sports, telecom, and aviation — the family has business interests were all over.
Tamil Nadu experienced the peak of this family influence across politics and business during the fifth and final term of Karunanidhi as chief minister between 2006 and 2011, when the DMK enjoyed power at the Centre, too, as part of the United Progressive Alliance.
As his sons MK Stalin and MK Alagiri squabbled over succession, his grandnephews, the Marans, got drawn into the game. A survey published by the Maran-controlled Dinakaran, which showed poor public support for Alagiri, led to the burning down of the offices of the daily in Madurai.
In the family drama that followed, the Marans were excommunicated and their business interests were also decoupled. Dayanidhi Maran had to resign as telecom minister and a little-known Dalit lawyer, Andimuthu Raja, took his place in 2007. The family’s share in Maran-run Sun TV was encashed and Kalaignar TV was launched. Kanimozhi, the daughter, was put in charge.
The arrangement would become the focal point of what got immortalised as the INR1.75 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam. In 2009, the DMK’s alliance with the Congress won 27 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
The bargaining that took place for ministerial berths after this became public through another leak. Things went downhill from there.
While Karunanidhi had to see his own daughter go to jail and investigators reaching his doorstep to interrogate his wife Dayalu Ammal, the scam and its fallout played their part in ensuring he would never see power again in the last seven years of his life.
Perhaps the only solace was the trial court’s ruling, a few months before the end came, that there was no scam.
During elections, many in Tamil Nadu would wake up to this chant blaring from loudspeakers. For, the journey that begun at Kallakudi, a nondescript railway station, was a long one. In between, it gave the state a five-time chief minister, a 13-time MLA, and a politician who changed Tamil Nadu’s industrial landscape in many ways than one. But more on that later. First the backstory.
The journey from Dalmiapuram
DMK leader ‘Kalaignar’ M Karunanidhi’s political career is widely believed to have hit the ascent to greatness. What is less appreciated are the protests of 1953, where he got arrested for blocking a train by lying on the tracks. This was also his first brush with big business. Over the next seven decades, he would go on to have a blow-hot-blow-cold relationship with many of them.
Ramkrishna Dalmia, the mercurial businessman of the 1940s and 1950s, had a penchant for naming the places where he had set up mills and factories after himself. He built Dalmianagar in Bihar’s Dehri on Sone, Dalmia Dadri in Haryana, and the cement factory in Kallakudi and the railway station near it (then under Madras Presidency) was named Dalmiapuram.
The DMK, which wanted Tamil everywhere and in everything, saw red in the imposition of a north Indian name. Karunanidhi led a motley crowd of protesters and stuck a paper with Kallakudi written on the Dalmiapuram station’s name board.
Delhi-based Raja Vishvanidhi Dalmia, the son of Ramkrishna Dalmia, tells ET Prime, “It suited the politics of the time. But, I think one should take a broader view. There should be south Indian names in north India and vice versa. We are one country.”
The factory at Dalmiapuram is now under the Dalmia Bharat group, which is now led by Puneet Dalmia, the grandson of Ramkrishna’s younger brother Jaidayal Dalmia. Dalmia Bharat was recently in the eye of a storm for winning a bid to upkeep Red Fort.
Vishvanidhi says though Karunanidhi managed to get the name of the station changed to Kallakudi in the late ’60s when he first became the chief minister, the area itself continued to be referred as Dalmiapuram. He says other names such as Dalmianagar have also continued.
Over the years, Karunanidhi would go much beyond such symbolism.
ET Prime lists some of those initiatives.
Public transport can’t be private run
In his early stint as chief minister, he did several things that changed the state’s business landscape. Among the first was the enactment of Tamil Nadu Fleet carriages (Acquisition) Act.
In those days, the private operators such as the TVS group and ABT ran the local transport services in cities like Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tanjore, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Salem. Old timers remember these services, especially of the TVS group, to be well managed. They had time keepers at every stop and would not allow overcrowding or foot boarding in the town buses. Entry would be from the front and exit from the rear.
Taking his cue from Indira Gandhi’s bank and insurance nationalisation, Karunanidhi’s fleet carriages Act made way for the takeover of large operators with 50 or more buses.
The TVS group, which ran fleets in several cities, was among the worst affected. The 346 buses taken over from TVS became what was then known as Pandiyan Roadways Corporation in Madurai.
Similar corporations came up in each region, named after the ancient Tamil kingdoms of Chera, Chola, Pallava, and after freedom fighters.
While some critics see this as a clever manoeuvre that affected the business interests of some of the Brahmin entrepreneurs, it suited DMK’s politics, which was based on anti-Brahminism.
Though these state-run corporations served as a model for other states, the quality of service has since deteriorated, while mismanagement and unionism over the years have turned these corporations into loss-making millstones around the exchequer’s neck.
According to a CAG report of 2017, the eight corporations in the state had accumulated losses of over INR16,145 crore at the end of 2015-16. A body for industrial development
One of the early policy measures of Karunanidhi which has served the state well was the establishment of State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamilnadu (Sipcot). It was established in 1971 for industrial growth.
The organisation is involved in the formation of industrial complexes by providing basic and comprehensive infrastructure facilities for the industries to set up their units.
Successive governments have used the body as a foundation to assist enterprise and industrialise the state.
Sipcot has so far developed 20 industrial complexes in 12 districts and six sector-specific special economic zones (SEZs) across Tamil Nadu. It also acts as a nodal agency for the state government for the sanction and disbursement of structured packages of assistance to large industrial units.
Apart from major industrial complexes and SEZs in Chennai and adjoining areas, Sipcot has also developed industrial areas in Hosur, Manamadurai, Erode, and Thoothukudi.
Detroit and Valley rolled into one
Sipcot parks in Oragadam, Irungattukottai, and Sriperumbudur gave the much-needed push to manufacturing and helped the greater Chennai area become an auto hub, with several foreign players such as Hyundai, Ford, Daimler, Nissan, and Renault setting up their manufacturing facilities here and over 80 component manufacturers developing around them.
Sipcot also played a key role in the IT revolution.
In 1998, during Karunanidhi’s third term, Sipcot began work on the IT park in Siruseri on a 782 acre plot on Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
Two decades on, the city’s centre of gravity has been altered by the cyber corridor. The who’s who of the IT industry are here — Cognizant, iGATE, and Hexaware have set up their facilities, while Tata Consultancy Services’ 70 acre state-of-the-art campus has become a landmark in itself.
Separately, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) has set up IT/ITes parks in Chennai and other cities. Residents of its Sholinganallur facility include Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and HCL.
Today, Tamil Nadu is the third-largest IT exporter in the country after Karnataka and Maharashtra. For 2017-18, its software exports exceeded INR110,000 crore, according to official estimates. It has an installed capacity of some 380,000 cars and 350,000 commercial vehicles.
Though Karunanidhi might not be able to claim full credit for all this, he certainly can claim half, perhaps a little bit more.
In fact, both services and industry had shown steady growth during Karunanidhi’s fifth and final term as chief minister between 2006 and 2011. A politician sensitive to the needs of industry
As a rationalist, the five-time chief minister took keen interest in development science. In a series of tweets after his demise, ace geneticist MS Swaminathan credited him with being a "scientist’s scientist”. He said, "Among his numerous contributions to Tamil Nadu's development are outstanding universities like Anna University as well as the State Biotechnology Council and gender-sensitive institutions like the Women’s Biotechnology Park."
He added that Karunanidhi had great respect for scientists. In 1989, when Swaminathan approached him seeking land in Taramani, Chennai, to establish a scientific institution, “he said it was he who should be inviting me to establish the institution”. MS Swaminathan Research Foundation was granted the land where it now stands.
"Karunanidhi was always receptive to suggestions and inputs. He was sensitive to the needs of industry,” N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director of The India Cements, was recently quoted as saying.
Srinivasan’s association with the leader dates back to the ’60s, when he was engaged in a bitter fight for control over the company founded by his father. During his frequent visits to Delhi, he befriended Karunanidhi’s nephew Murasoli Maran.
The family’s proximity to cement businesses often irked the rival party, AIADMK. In 2014, J Jayalalithaa’s government went on to launch Amma Cement, that gave generous subsidies ostensibly to break the profiteering tactics of cement cartels.
Though both sides resorted to these occasional snubs as they swapped positions in the assembly several times since the demise of MG Ramachandran (MGR) in 1987, they seem to have worked out a broad understanding to give the much-needed continuity in policy that became an enabler for businesses in the state, say industry watchers.
With business, comes corruption charges
Karunanidhi had a gift for language and MGR had onscreen charisma. They must have squared off. But what probably tipped the public opinion in favour of the latter was perception about Karunanidhi’s financial dealings.
As early as 1972, when Karunanidhi’s friend of 40 years first turned foe, he started pointing out irregularities. Some of these allegations were later reinforced by the Ranjit Singh Sarkaria commission established during the Emergency.
Though the Sarkaria commission reports were never made public officially, they leaked all over and corruption became a key political plank for MGR.
An India Today report from 1977 has some key details:
The Sarkaria commission has found allegations of corruption and misuse of official status against Karunanidhi and some of his erstwhile colleagues in respect of some charges. It has termed the evidence against them "cogent, convincing and reliable". The report relates to seven of the 28 allegations under investigation.
A firm of aviation operators paid bribes totalling nearly INR5.3 lakh to Karunanidhi and to his colleague, the then agriculture minister, A.P. Dharmalingam, for an aerial-spraying contract.
Dharmalingam, not an income-tax assessee at the time of joining the DMK government, after a few years of ministership, owned land and jewellery worth over INR3.8 lakh and partnership rights in a textbook firm, which was given distribution rights.
The industries minister, S. Madhavan, was involved in the misuse of a loan advanced to a party legislator for industrial use.
The amending of tenancy legislation was sponsored and enacted "with oblique motive" to help a particular person.
Karunanidhi "violated the prescribed procedure and established norms in recommending a brewery licence to a film producer".
Investigation of a murder case was conducted in a "most improper, impartial, and perfunctory manner" to save three friends of Dharmalingam.
Though the report was formally presented to the special session of the Rajya Sabha only on March 2, its conclusions had come to be published as a "leak", the censorship act notwithstanding.
The Opposition had, therefore, accused the ruling Congress of exploding a time bomb on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections with the deliberate purpose of maligning its admittedly formidable challenger, DMK, in Tamil Nadu, the India Today report said.
The business of family
Although the money involved may look laughable now, it might have been significant 40 years ago. But the wealth amassed by the extended Karunanidhi clan, which included his six children from three wives, grandchildren and grandnephews, would far exceed the inflation-adjusted figures. Media, movies, realty, sports, telecom, and aviation — the family has business interests were all over.
Tamil Nadu experienced the peak of this family influence across politics and business during the fifth and final term of Karunanidhi as chief minister between 2006 and 2011, when the DMK enjoyed power at the Centre, too, as part of the United Progressive Alliance.
As his sons MK Stalin and MK Alagiri squabbled over succession, his grandnephews, the Marans, got drawn into the game. A survey published by the Maran-controlled Dinakaran, which showed poor public support for Alagiri, led to the burning down of the offices of the daily in Madurai.
In the family drama that followed, the Marans were excommunicated and their business interests were also decoupled. Dayanidhi Maran had to resign as telecom minister and a little-known Dalit lawyer, Andimuthu Raja, took his place in 2007. The family’s share in Maran-run Sun TV was encashed and Kalaignar TV was launched. Kanimozhi, the daughter, was put in charge.
The arrangement would become the focal point of what got immortalised as the INR1.75 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam. In 2009, the DMK’s alliance with the Congress won 27 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
The bargaining that took place for ministerial berths after this became public through another leak. Things went downhill from there.
While Karunanidhi had to see his own daughter go to jail and investigators reaching his doorstep to interrogate his wife Dayalu Ammal, the scam and its fallout played their part in ensuring he would never see power again in the last seven years of his life.
Perhaps the only solace was the trial court’s ruling, a few months before the end came, that there was no scam.
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