PM should be under Lok Pal: Karuna

In a clear signal of strained relations between the UPA allies, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi today said he favoured the inclusion of the Prime Minister’s office under the Lok Pal.

Karunanidhi’s statement came after political rival and incumbent Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said the PM should be exempt from Lok Pal scrutiny. The DMK was pushed further into a corner after Congress state unit chief K Thangkabalu (whose wife got a Congress nomination in the just-concluded assembly election but was defeated comprehensively) rushed to congratulate Jayalalithaa on her stand.

Party sources said the DMK had no choice but to differ from the government, although five of its ministers are still in the government, while A Raja and Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi are in jail on corruption charges. In his statement today, Karunanidhi said the inclusion would clearly tell the world that the Prime Minister was not afraid. "It will help to prove that we are clean. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself had said that he was not against including the office under the Lok Pal Bill.”

The DMK patriarch said during his tenure as chief minister in the early 1970s, he had brought forward an anti-corruption legislation that had the chief minister under the purview of the Act. What will be interesting to watch will be the dynamics between the two allies in the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament where DMK’s 18 MPs will be crucial support for the UPA government. Karunanidhi has said the issue of his daughter’s incarceration would be fought legally rather than politically, but he is clearly angry and upset at the Centre’s inability to get Kanimozhi out on bail.

The Congress needs the help of the DMK badly in Parliament. But its own party is divided on whether to continue with the DMK alliance or seek one with Jayalalithaa.