Karuna rules out rapprochement with Maran brothers

Chennai, Nov 21 (PTI) As the feud between the Karunanidhi family and the Maran brothers re-surfaced, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo and Tamil Nadu chief minister Friday ruled out a patch-up with his estranged grand-nephews accusing their media empire of targeting his government and the ruling party and dividing his family.

In an article published in the DMK's party organ
'Murasoli', M Karunanidhi said "I can tolerate any disputes
they wanted to bring in my family but how can I do so when
they continuously indulge in blaming my government and my
party."

Indicating his younger son M K Stalin would be his
political heir, Karunanidhi said Maran brothers owned
'Dinakaran' had published a survey (last year) which put
Stalin ahead of his first son M K Azhagiri and his daughter
Kanimozhi when they did not even make any attempt or announce
their intention to be his political heir.

This was an attempt to "create a feeling of intense
dislike" among his children, he said adding "I did not
even think that these attempts were pre-planned."

With the two families trading charges, Kalanidhi Maran,
the elder sibling of the Marans, broke his silence for the
first time since their fallout with the DMK's first family,
when he shot off a letter to their "granduncle and leader,"
explaining their views on issues raised by him.

A grim-faced Dayanidhi Maran, who released a copy of
Kalanidhi's letter to media, said he had been maintaining
silence over so many issues, "though they wanted to drag the
family problems to the streets."

"If we still continued to be silent or not answer certain
questions being raised, it would amount to accepting the
charges," he said.

Underlining that they were not countering their
grand-uncle's charges, Dayanidhi, a former Union minister,
said they were sending the letter only as a "self-explanatory"
one to issues being "discussed and debated in public".

Karunanidhi also said the projection of Dayanidhi Maran
as a top performing Central minister from the state was aimed
at creating confusion among the friendly parties.

On the sale of Sun TV shares held by Karunanidhi's family
members, Kalanidhi said in the letter, "it was done only at
the behest of you. I had even asked you what was the hurry.
The elders in the family asked us to go by your word. When you
wanted enhancement on the amount, we simply said you take
whatever you want."

On the publication of news in the Tamil daily Dinakaran run
by them, Kalanidhi said that when he purchased the newspaper
under instructions from Karunanidhi, he got an assurance from
the DMK leader that the paper should be allowed to publish
news on all parties in a bid to increase the circulation for
which Karunanidhi had agreed.

On the survey which put Dayanidhi Maran on top of all
Central Ministers from Tamil Nadu, he said various papers and
magazines had praised his efficiency and gave him good marks.

The same was translated in Tamil and published in DMK's
mouthpiece, Murasoli. "We have not forgotten your
appreciation of Dayanidhi Maran then. If you had wanted him to
resign he would have done it gladly. Instead, you took action
against him in the party's executive even without seeking an
explanation," Kalanidhi said in his letter. PTI