Tying up a knotty end

After forcing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) patriarch M Karunanidhi to withdraw A Raja from the Union Cabinet, the two top leaders of the Congress—party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh— will not be attending Karunanidhi’s grandson Durai Dayanidhi’s wedding in Madurai. The senior representatives from the Congress at the wedding will be Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram. Party insiders were quick to point out that these were the same two ministers who actually called Karunanidhi on Sunday to tell him bluntly to remove Raja. Mukherjee has known Karunanidhi for more than 40 years, and Chidambaram has a warm personal equation with the DMK patriarch. Their attendance at his grandson’s wedding is expected to provide them an opportunity to end whatever little uneasiness exists between the two allies owing to the Raja episode.