All quiet on the Tamil front

The flare-up between the DMK and the Congress on the LTTE issue died as suddenly as it erupted. One day we saw DMK chief M Karunanidhi threatening to pull out from the UPA and ordering a mass resignation by Tamil MPs.

Less than a week later, he purred like a tame cat and declared that the crisis was over. Just like that. Curiously, the ground situation in Sri Lanka, which caused the flare-up in the first place, hadn’t changed.

The Sri Lankan army continues to inch its way to the LTTE headquarters in Killinochchi and it looks to be a matter of time before the Eelam dream of Lanka Tamils finally collapses. Puzzled political observers have been joining the dots to understand the abrupt about turn by Karunanidhi and they are finding it difficult to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that the stink originates in the telecom ministry held by DMK minister A Raja.

For the past few months, the government has been flooded by complaints from NGO telecom watchdogs about the manner in which spectrum licences were handed out this year, without following the accepted international practice of holding an auction for the best price.

Such was the pressure that the government was actually moving to order a preliminary inquiry by the CBI. Curiously, the big bang from Chennai came almost immediately. Mere coincidence? Could be, except that the government has apparently dropped plans to have the CBI investigate the complaints and Karunanidhi has torn up the resignation letters of his MPs. All’s quiet on the Tamil front once again.
 
The calm may not last for long, however. The Left is doing its own investigations and plans to raise pointed questions about the policy of issuing licenses to subsidiary companies of real estate firms that have since sold those companies at huge profits to foreign bidders.

One such company was owned by a Mumbai-based real estate firm, which hived it off to a telecom giant in the Middle East for a profit running into hundreds of crores. Another was sold recently by a Delhi-based real estate biggie to a Norwegian telecom company for a seven-fold profit.

A third is in the process of being flogged to a Turkish company. The first deal is already under scrutiny by the Central Vigilance Commission and the Comptroller Auditor General. They have sought answers from the Department of Telecom, which remains evasive till date.

What’s interesting is that the Left has decided to take on the DMK that was once an old friend and ally. UPA politics have taken their toll of this long-standing relationship, with the Left now looking at a possible alliance with the DMK’s arch foe, Jayalalithaa, in the forthcoming general elections.

TAILPIECE

Raja is not the only Tamil minister in the eye of a storm. Finance minister P Chidambaram is at the receiving end of complaints from the captains of Indian industry these days.

Ever since the financial crisis exploded, corporate honchos have been visiting prime minister Manmohan Singh with laments about his finance minister who is obstinately refusing to soften up on issues like liquidity and bank credit.

One of them was frustrated enough to tell a section of the media recently that despite the gravity of the situation, industrial houses will not take their troubles to an unsympathetic finance minister. As complaints piled up on his table on the eve of his departure to Japan and China, the PM decided to hand over the headache to his chief troubleshooter, Pranab Mukherjee, who has just spent the best part of the past week meeting corporate heads and soothing their ruffled tempers. Email:a_jerath@dnaindia.net