Geriatrix

AT once comic and excruciatingly tiresome, 8216;8216;Karunakaran vs Antony8217;8217; is the oldest running soap opera in Indian politics...

AT once comic and excruciatingly tiresome, 8216;8216;Karunakaran vs Antony8217;8217; is the oldest running soap opera in Indian politics. This past week the battle between A.K. Antony 8212; now Kerala8217;s chief minister for the third time 8212; and Kunnoth Karunakaran 8212; who8217;s been chief minister four times already 8212; took yet another of its never-ending twists. Karunakaran, at 85 the world8217;s oldest 8216;8216;angry young man8217;8217;, decided he was walking out of the Congress and founding his very own party. He had had enough of Antony in Kerala, and of a party president in Delhi who just wasn8217;t sympathetic.

Karunakaran8217;s grievances, for those who came in late, are three-fold. One, he wants a renewed Rajya Sabha nomination for himself, so that he can happily be in Parliament in his ninth decade, India8217;s very own Strom Thurmond. Two, a Lok Sabha candidature for his daughter Padmaja Venugopal. Three, a place in the Antony ministry for his son K. Muraleedharan, home or finance was top choice but excise would do just as spiritedly 8230; er, nicely.

Not that the old man would ever admit to any of this, no way saar. Instead half his supporters are alleging Antony is being backed by Sonia Gandhi in a Christian conspiracy against the Marar 8212; an upper caste community of traditional temple drum beaters 8212; Karunakaran.

It8217;s an interesting idea but the problem is the other half of Karunakaran8217;s supporters are alleging Antony is 8216;8216;anti-secular8217;8217; 8212; criticising him for taking on the Christian-run Pushpagiri Medical College when it didn8217;t leave an agreed number of seats unreserved, attacking him for 8216;8216;siding with the Hindu right8217;8217; in the Marad Hindu-Muslim riots.

Show him the audience and he8217;ll sing you the tune. Karunakaran is the quintessential Congress, all things to all men, the trade union leader who, decades later, served as industry minister in P.V. Narasimha Rao8217;s 8216;8216;let8217;s liberalise8217;8217; government.

He also knows how to look after his flock, inspiring a loyaltly among party cadre that even opponents admit is commendable. That he still commands a following in the Congress8217; Kerala unit 8212; though the establishment is ranged against him 8212; is testimony to the number of IOUs he has left to encash.

What is this Karunakaran revolt all about? Kerala politicians don8217;t usually build the sort of dynasties seen in the north. The Kerala Students8217; Union, for instance, has been a sort of meritocratic nursery for Congress leaders. Karunakaran happily junked this rule.

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In the 1980s, he brought his son back from a job in Dubai and made him the state Seva Dal head, a sort of lateral entry into politics. In 2001, he resigned from the Congress Working Committee because his daughter wasn8217;t 8216;8216;accommodated8217;8217;.

8216;8216;What is wrong in politicians8217; sons and daughters entering politcs,8217;8217; he had said then, 8216;8216;doesn8217;t a doctor8217;s son become and doctor? Doesn8217;t an engineer8217;s daughter become an engineer?8217;8217;

Unlike Antony, Karunakaran doesn8217;t make the mistake of seeing virtue in morality, of shunning patronage politics. All his four chief ministeries were marked by scandal.

The first ended a month after it began in 1977, thanks to the 8216;8216;Rajan case8217;8217;. Karunakaran was forced to resign when it was found that an engineering student had been tortured and killed by the police during the Emergency. As home minister at that point, Karunakaran had told a court the young man was not in police custody.

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The final departure was equally traumatic. An unwilling Karunakaran was forced give up his job as chief minister in 1995 after the palmolien import kickbacks case, which, among other things, had newspaper readers looking up dictionary entries under the letter 8216;8216;p8217;8217;.

On both occasions, Karunakaran was replaced by Antony. That would explain things. It wouldn8217;t explain one apocryphal story though.

In 1989, when a state party committee sat down to choose candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections, Karunakaran excused himself midway and left for 8216;8216;the toilet8217;8217;. When he came back, he was a relieved man in more senses than one. In his absence, his son Muraleedharan had been cleared for the Kozhikode seat 8212; and his name had been proposed by Antony!

No wonder they call Kerala God8217;s Own Country. Only He understands its politicians.