M. Karunanidhi

Chennai, Nov. 16: M. Karunanidhi skipped a CAG event here today, the last-minute pullout coming on a day the central auditor’s report nailing his protégé A. Raja over the 2G spectrum allocation was tabled in Parliament.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK boss chose to spend the time at a beach resort near Mahabalipuram. But, in an apparent attempt to avoid appearing churlish, he deputed son and deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin to read out his speech at the programme, organised to mark the CAG’s 150th year celebrations. The governor and the Assembly Speaker showed up as scheduled.

Karunanidhi’s speech was restrained, sticking to generalities and mild praise of the CAG but with a rider — the criticism of government authorities must be “fair and unbiased”. The speech came against the backdrop of the resignation of Raja, seen in the DMK as Karunanidhi’s “favourite Dalit brother”, as Union telecom minister over the spectrum scam.

“To ensure that the benefits of various government schemes reach the intended public, a vigilant and unrelenting critic is also necessary — a role being played by your department. However, the criticism needs to be always fair and unbiased. It should be based only on meticulous groundwork. I am very happy to note that you have carried out your role with great rectitude and probity,” the chief minister said in his speech.

The harried DMK boss may be able to tear himself away from the Raja controversy again when he flies to Madurai tomorrow for the wedding of his grandson Durai Dayanidhi, son of Union chemicals minister M.K.Alagiri, on Thursday.

Alagiri has invited Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but the absence of advance security teams from Delhi so far suggests the two leaders are unlikely to turn up. Instead, the Congress, whose relations with the DMK’s relations are at its lowest, will be represented by its Union ministers from Tamil Nadu, led by home minister P. Chidambaram.

Although the wedding ceremony will be very short and in Dravidian rationalist style, where the bridegroom ties just the mangalsutra, the run-up has been extensive and elaborate — coinciding with Raja’s travails.

Yesterday and today, the families of Alagiri, Stalin as well as the Maran brothers were busy with the mehendi and sangeeth ceremonies held by bride Anusha Seetharaman’s family at an upscale hotel.

The pre-nuptial paraphernalia of mehendi and sangeeth, usually associated with north Indian weddings, have now seeped into the marriage culture of even traditional Tamil families like that of Anusha, an architect. She and Durai Dayanidhi have been seeing each other for over two years now and Alagiri’s family had no hesitation in approving the inter-caste match since Alagiri is himself married to a Dalit.

The celebrations tomorrow will be at Madurai, but this evening hundreds of DMK cadres were out with drums and placards at Chennai airport. The occasion: Raja’s return from Delhi.

“You may not be a minister, but you are always our Raja,” the placards proclaimed, in an orchestrated show of solidarity that is possibly a first for a tainted politician.The reception was stage-managed by Dravidar Kazhagam leader K.Veeramani, a sidekick of Karunanidhi, and most of the cadres had been imported from Raja’s native district of Perambalur.