04 January 2013, 04:23 PM IST
We don't know how, as a child, union minister M K Alagiri had behaved at the family dinner table. But, as a grown-up, he pretty much behaves like a child whenever his dad M Karunanidhi takes out the party pie. In the past ten years or so, whenever Karunanidhi had hinted at succession, Alagiri had rolled his eyes and flexed his muscles to make the 88-year-old DMK patriarch eat his words. For, Stalin has always remained Karunanidhi's favourite—and for good reason.
The latest of the succession drama started on Thursday when Karunanidhi addressed his party workers in Chennai. "I will work for the development of society till my last breath," he said. After the customary pause, he continued: "To the question on who would carry on this work after me, you should not forget Stalin is here." That was the clearest Karunanidhi, the master of calculated innuendoes, had come to spelling out his successor. On Friday, a poker-faced Alagiri told reporters: "DMK is not a mutt" (referring to the Kanchi Sankara Mutt where the senior pontiff chooses his successor).
But for his predicament, Karunanidhi could've been amused that his elder son, not known for his pun or punditry, has taken a leaf out of his own Book of Stinging Similes. Alagiri, in fact, was but repeating an earlier statement of Karunanidhi, which Stalin had parroted in an interview to a Tamil magazine which hit the stands on Thursday.
For the political observer and the curious onlooker alike, the DMK succession circus promises enough entertainment, but within the party, Stalin has been accepted as the heir apparent. And that is not something Alagiri is oblivious to. He knows very well that he has frittered away opportunities that came as responsibilities. Finding Alagiri not showing signs of a worthy political inheritor, Karunanidhi had sent him to Madurai in the 1980s to take care of the party organ 'Murasoli.' Here, too, Alagiri showed neither interest nor acumen. He built – mostly in his imagination – a southern fiefdom which he thought he was presiding over. His cronies put up hoardings depicting him as gods. He held durbars at his Madurai home and grinned. The post of the DMK south organisational secretary was just an olive branch Karunanidhi offered Alagiri son when Stalin had cemented his position at the top.
Despite the bloodline, politically Stalin and Alagiri have been like chalk and cheese. Having launched himself into political prominence during Emergency, Stalin, though a slow learner, steadily worked his way up to become the deputy general secretary of the party and then the treasurer. Almost every district unit of the DMK today stands by Stalin.
Having accepted the Union cabinet berth, Alagiri remains stuck between a politically useless pedestal in Delhi and shaky grounds in Tamil Nadu. But he is not one to give up easily. He may not be able to deny Stalin the crown ultimately, but he has been successful in delaying the coronation, making Karunanidhi stay at the helm till what he calls his end. This is, Alagiri realises, vital for his last battle where he wants to fight a prince, not a king.
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