Muthuvel Karunanidhi leaves behind a million memories. Everyone whose life he touched is bound to recall today – and in times to come – those unforgettable moments when he came into their personal, political or professional lives. In this hour of loss and grief for millions of Tamils, a hundred stories of my own meetings with him — since 1973 when I started working as a journalist — are straining to break out. Yet the story of one tryst is enough to show facets of the man who knew how to deal with newsmen and stay in the news.
It happened in November 1997. Karunanidhi came to Delhi for three days and held centre-stage in the greatest political drama of that time. Congress president Sitaram Kesri had demanded dismissal of the DMK's ministers from PM I K Gujral's United Front government. Failing which, the Congress threatened to withdraw its outside support.
Kesri's demand was on the ground that the Jain Commission's Interim Report had indicted the DMK for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination (in 1991).
A whole party (DMK) was thus slandered without any basis whatsoever.
Those three days, journalists thronged Tamil Nadu House, desperate for a few words from Karunanidhi, but in vain.
Fortune favoured me. I was very ill. My newspaper asked me to get an interview. So I called TN House and left a message with the reception asking for an interview with Kalaignar Karunanidhi. The guy sniggered about 30 phone calls coming in every minute and asked me to go sleep while waiting to be called back. Since I was ill, I went back to bed.
Within minutes, my Tamil housemaid came hollering: Ayya, Kalaignar is calling, wake up. In my befuddled state, I took the call. It was from Karunanidhi's nephew and Union Minister Murasoli Maran, who was with him. Maran asked me to come right away as "CM has to catch a flight". I offered to send a colleague as I was ill. Maran said, "Mr Shastri, this is only for you. If you can't, forget it. Kalaignar will not speak to anyone else".
I rushed in a taxi to TN House and squeezed my way through the crowd of journalists to Karunanidhi's suite. He greeted me warmly with a wide, toothy smile. He was in his usual attire of the red-and-black bordered white dhoti, white full-sleeved shirt, angavastram draped on shoulder and a hand towel on his lap. I could see his eyes through his dark glasses.
He spoke in Tamil reading out underscored portions of the 5280-page Jain report. He spoke of Rajiv Gandhi's own meeting with LTTE Chief V Pirabakaran in Ashoka Hotel in the presence of an IFS officer, when Rs 40 lakh was paid to Pirabakaran. "And this party accuses me of being hand in glove with Pirabakaran," he said.
A master scriptwriter, editor, journalist and publicist par excellence, he had an unerring news sense. In 1971, on the day India-Pakistan war broke out, Karunanidhi also stole a part of the thunder. He announced that, in view of the national emergency, the DMK was suspending its demand for state autonomy. Next day, along with Indira Gandhi, he too made headlines.
