Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the current Tamil Nadu chief minister celebrated his 82nd birthday on June 3rd. He was born in 1924. Perhaps since 1990, in Tamil Nadu it has become a convention to add an year to one’s nominal age [especially if the individual has passed the Biblical span of three score and ten years; see for example, ‘The Hindu’ news item of June 3, 2006 on Karunanidhi’s birthday]. This astrological practice is derived from the prevalent traditional custom in some cultures of adding the period of 10 months of fetal age into one’s stated age. It is based on the assumption that one’s life begins not on the individual’s day of birth, but on from the day of conception. Thus in most write-ups, we could note that Karunanidhi is felicitated as the “83-year old elder statesman from Tamil Nadu.”

37 years have elapsed since Karunanidhi became the leader of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), following his mentor C.N.Annadurai’s (Anna) death on Feb.3, 1969. Even Anna’s tenure as the founder leader of DMK lasted only 20 years, from 1949 to 1969. M.G.Ramachandran (MGR), Karunanidhi’s long-term pal turned adversary, held the leadership of his newly formed party, Anna DMK, for only 15 years, from 1972 to 1987. It is not an exaggeration to note that the tenures of Anna and MGR as founding leaders of their parties were cut short by their illnesses and rather premature deaths. By Tamil Nadu standards of a politician’s life span, Anna (1909-1969, at 59 years) and MGR (1917-1987, at 70 years), for better or worse, indeed died prematurely. But, their contemporaries such as C.Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), E.V.Ramasamy Naicker (Periyar), and C.Subramaniam lived well into their nineties. Another Congress Party leader and former President of India, R.Venkataraman is still living, past ninety.

Now that Karunanidhi had become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for a record fifth time, his sycophants are busy at work in producing hagiographical profiles, to hide his blemished record as an Indian politician of Nixonian vintage. As such for balancing the historical perspectives, I felt that there is a need to at least peep into Karunanidhi’s closet for dangling skeletons. Sure, Karunanidhi has worn too many hats in his public career which now span for nearly six decades. A select listing of his so many hats include, stage actor, movie script writer, playwright, lyricist, journalist, politician, orator cum verbal gymnast, expositor of ancient Tamil literature and last but not the least, family benefactor. He had excelled in some of these roles and blazed new paths. But it is his role as an unprincipled (call it flexible, if a positive spin is what one prefers) politician which has pinched on the nerves of Eelam Tamils.