NEW DELHI, NOV 23: The cracks between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), papered over in the past, are now in the open.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi mounted pressure on the DMK's ally on Sunday when he indicated in Chennai that his party might review their partnership. The DMK has been deeply unhappy over the TMC's reluctance to come to its defence on the Jain Commission report. TMC leaders however point out that under the circumstances, silence is their best alternative.The issue being Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, the TMC will find it very difficult to come to the rescue of its ally. And yet it will have little option but to stick with the DMK.Moopanar's problem is that he cannot join forces with the AIADMK, given the antipathy between him and Jayalalitha. The TMC would risk trouble, and possibly a split, if it decided to go it alone.That is why Moopanar was leading the mediators in the United Front to evolve some kind of a compromise with the Congress. His name was also being bandied about again as the likely head of a non-BJP, non-DMK government in one of the several compromise formulae under consideration last week. The idea was to have the Congress and the CPM support a new Front - which excludes the DMK - from outside. Other variations of the compromise included having Jyoti Basu or Mulayam Singh Yadav head such a government. But the idea failed to take off.While Moopanar had a wide acceptance in the Congress, which now feels trapped, the UF did not bite the bait. If the DMK feels betrayed today, the TMC too has reason to sulk. Its leaders have not forgotten the way the DMK had sabotaged Moopanar's chances of bagging the prime ministership. Moopanar said as much at a meeting with his MPs three days ago. He questioned why he should defend the DMK, when he knew how they had treated him. He had not forgotten, he is learnt to have remarked.He might have emerged as the dark horse in May 1996 when Deve Gowda became prime minister but for the DMK's less-than-enthusiastic response. In the two-horse race in April 1997, he had everything going for him. However, his allies sabotaged his chances. Only three weeks ago, Moopanar's name was deliberately placed below that of T R Balu in an invitation card announcing the inauguration of the Rapid Transport System in Chennai on the grounds that he was a former Rajya Sabha member. The original draft of the card had given Moopanar a higher place but Karunanidhi is believed to have got it changed. The story of two drafts only helped widen the chasm between the two parties.With the Congress decimated in Tamil Nadu, the TMC does not stand to gain electorally by aligning with it. In fact, it may stand to lose by going back to a national party which is synonymous with the Centre - unless the Congress were to project Moopanar as its prime ministerial candidate.But this seems unlikely given the 18 maharathis in the CWC, though it would give the Congress a way to counter the slogan of ``injured Tamil pride'' raised by Karunanidhi in the wake of Justice M C Jain's remarks. The fringe groups in Tamil Nadu have already reacted very sharply to Jain's general indictment of the Tamil populace in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. They have described Jain-Sonia Gandhi-Congress as part of a `Northern' conspiracy `against the South'. The potential of Tamil pride becoming an emotive issue cannot be ruled out. Nor can the possibility be discounted that the regional parties in the South - the DMK, the TDP, and even the JD - will make common cause on the cavalier way Justice Jain and the Congress have treated southern sentiment.
