After the storm

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa calls off her offensive in the face of threats from the Central government.

TAMIL NADU Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who rushed into battle last month apparently to settle scores with her political bete noire, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, has since emerged a chastened figure. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, angered by the Chennai police arresting two Central Ministers, Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu, who belong to the DMK, an NDA constituent, pushed her on to the backfoot with its "graded response". First it recalled Governor M. Fathima Beevi, then sent an NDA team and a Home Ministry delegation to Chennai, and as the next measure sent a warning to her government.

The Jayalalithaa government soon tried to make its peace with the Centre by releasing Maran and Baalu. However, the Ministers demanded that the cases against them should be dropped as well. The State government yielded again.

As for the 78-year-old Karunanidhi, who was arrested in a post-midnight raid on his Chennai residence on June 29-30, Jayalalithaa had no choice but to release him. However, her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government claimed that it released him on "purely humanitarian grounds" and considering his advanced age. The case against him would remain, it asserted.

Two days after Karunanidhi's release, his son M.K. Stalin, Chennai Corporation Mayor, was let off on bail by the Principal Sessions Judge, Chennai, S. Ashok Kumar. Also let off on bail were former State DMK Ministers Ko.Si. Mani and K. Ponmudi.

What soon gained importance in the context of the polemical battle between Jayalalithaa and Karuna-nidhi was the State government's setting up of a Commission of Inquiry headed by A. Raman, a retired High Court Judge. The government did so after the Centre insisted that action be initiated against the police officers who committed "excesses" while arresting Karunanidhi and those who roughed up Maran and Baalu. The Commission was to inquire whether any excess was committed by the police while arresting Karunanidhi, Maran and Baalu and whether any police personnel were assaulted and obstructed from doing their duty during the arrest of Karunanidhi and thereafter.

Karunanidhi declared that the DMK would boycott the inquiry commission, asking: "Do you need a mirror to look at the wound on your palm?" He said the world had seen on television how the police had pushed and manhandled him. "Where was the necessity for the midnight arrest?" he asked. In reply, Jayalalithaa alleged that while Karunanidhi claimed in public that he was willing to face any inquiry, "he always runs away from it".

Stalin, Karunanidhi, Ko.Si. Mani, Ponmudi and others are among the 14 accused in an alleged financial scam to the tune of Rs.12 crores in the construction of nine flyovers in Chennai. The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Depar-tment (CB-CID) registered the case on June 29. The arrest of Karunanidhi just a few hours later, around 1-30 a.m.; his being pushed and shoved by the police; a police officer yanking his arm; another police officer holding Karunanidhi from behind in a vice-like clasp and rocking him back and forth; Karunanidhi gasping for breath; and other unedifying scenes of police behaviour were shown on Sun TV all through the day on June 30. (Sun TV is managed by Kalanidhi Maran, son of Murasoli Maran who is Karunanidhi's nephew.) The video footage caused considerable negative reaction at the popular level against the Jayalalithaa government. Maran had objected to the police arresting Karunanidhi without a warrant. The police roughed him up later when he tried to get into the car that carried Karunanidhi to the Judge's residence. Baalu also came in for some rough treatment from the police.

What brought the Vajpayee government directly into the picture was the arrest of Maran and Baalu under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including the one for obstructing a public servant (police) from doing his duty. The NDA government saw these arrests as an affront to the federal structure. Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley charged that the police had searched Maran's home when there was no case against him; that the State police had arrested two Central Ministers without any legal justification; and that the media had been targeted with journalists being arrested and an invalid police notice served on Sun TV. Jaitley said ominously: "Each of these facts I have mentioned is a serious violation of the constitutional guarantees. The government will decide what action requires to be taken in the matter."

The State government's retreat began soon afterwards. It ordered the release of Maran and Baalu, claiming that "the investigating officer in charge of these cases felt that their continued detention in judicial custody was not required for investigation of these charges."

But Maran and Baalu would not leave the jail before the cases against them were dropped. The Jayalalithaa government acceded to this demand as well, but saying it was dropping the cases out of deference to a request from the Centre, and more specifically from Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, and "the need to maintain cordial relationship with the Centre." But the Prime Minister's Office said that Vajpayee had never made any request to the State government to consider dropping the charges against the Ministers. The AIADMK government, meanwhile, assured the police personnel that due care could be taken to protect their interests.

After his release, Maran remarked that it was "fascist rule" in Tamil Nadu. He said the Centre was "closely watching" the events and would "hasten slowly". The Centre would act with responsibility when it comes to the issue of "pressing the nuclear button of Article 356", Maran added, in an implied threat regarding a possible dismissal of the State government.

Baalu said that the atrocities committed by the State police against Maran and himself would be taken to the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha.

After releasing Maran and Baalu, the State government gave out another signal of peace by hinting that it would not oppose Karunanidhi seeking bail. But the DMK president threw the ball back in the government's court by declining to seek bail. At this point, the AIADMK's allies, the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India (CPI), intervened. TMC president G.K. Moopanar, CPI(M) State secretary N. Sankaraiah and CPI State secretary R. Nallakannu jointly told Jayalalithaa that it was necessary to release Karunanidhi considering his health although the investigation in the case against him may continue. Thereafter, Jayalalithaa ordered Karunanidhi's release on "purely humanitarian grounds" and "taking into consideration his old age", a government press release said. "However, the case against him will continue," it added. A frail-looking Karunanidhi came out of the Central Prison, Chennai, on the evening of July 4 to a rousing welcome, after spending five days there.

At a press conference a couple of hours later, Karunanidhi broke down when he showed how he was not able to raise his right hand beyond a point because a police officer had yanked it. He said "the barbaric behaviour of the police" was not a problem that concerned him alone. It concerned the security of not merely the six crore people of Tamil Nadu but a hundred crore people in the country. "The country can neither bear nor tolerate another Emergency," stressed the former Chief Minister who had opposed Indira Gandhi's imposition of the Emergency in 1975.

Stalin was freed from the Central Prison, Madurai, on July 7 after Judge Ashok Kumar granted him bail. As he drove 500 km to Chennai, DMK cadres greeted him enthusiastically along the way.