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Dynasties are forever. Ministerial posts are at His Master’s pleasure, as Dayanidhi Maran discovered last week. The fight that exploded in full public view in the first family of Tamil Nadu politics had actually been simmering for some time, which is why political circles here were hardly surprised when Karunanidhi ordered Maran’s unceremonious boot from the union cabinet. They cite several reasons for the rift between uncle and nephew — Maran’s overweening ambition which led him to believe that he could challenge the heirs apparent, his arrogant behaviour with DMK MPs and his growing proximity to the Congress party’s top brass. As Karunanidhi’s pointsman in New Delhi, Maran was in frequent contact with the PM and Sonia Gandhiwhich many thought was too frequent for comfort. Maran’s admiration for Gandhi was a standing joke in Tamil circles, so much so that at a meet with journalists from the state recently, a hack suggested that Maran should become a member of the Congress Working Committee which does not have a single representative from Tamil Nadu!

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The DMK’s interlocutors here first realised that something was rotten in the state of Tamil Nadu during last year’s face-off over the proposal to divest government holdings in Neyveli Lignite. They were taken aback to find that old DMK warhorse A Baalu had replaced Maran as Karunanidhi’s interface with the government. It was Baalu who was entrusted with the task of carrying messages from Karunanidhi to the PM and Gandhi. When they made inquiries, they were told that Baalu is DMK’s spokesman in New Delhi now, not Maran. The countdown to Maran’s exit had started.

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Observers here are confounded by the manner in which the Maran brothers took the fight to a head. First, they created trouble for Karunanidhi by publishing a survey ranking the performance of Tamil ministers in the central government. Naturally, Dayanidhi Maran outstripped all others by a huge margin. The bombshell was the bottom-of-the-list ranking for PMK minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, who got just one percent of the votes. It was like setting a match to the brittle ties between the DMK and PMK and Karunanidhi was forced to douse the flames with a contrite statement debunking all surveys. He ordered the Maran brothers to scrap the survey they were planning on the succession issue but they went ahead with it. Karunanidhi saw this defiance as a declaration of war. The rest we know.

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The question is: what happens to the media empire owned by the Maran brothers? Well, their share prices have tumbled. Speculation is rife that Karunanidhi’s next assault will be on their monopoly over cable TV distribution in TN. Jayalalithaa tried to break it, but failed. This could be the one issue on which the two rivals make common cause. The family feud could also shatter the Marans’ dreams of a joint venture publication with the UK’s leading tabloid, The Sun, and a private airline for which the brothers have already acquired two Bombardier jets at an estimated cost of Rs 230 crores.

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TAILPIECE

Mayawati’s chief strategist Satish Misra was the centre of attraction when he showed up in Parliament the other day. Leaders of all manner lined up to congratulate him, including Chidambaram, who stood patiently in the queue waiting for his turn to shake hands with the man of the moment.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net.