Chennai:
In Delhi he was the bemused father. Old and frail, he drove to the jail that his daughter was lodged in and together they wept.
Back in Chennai, M Karunanidhi has found his steel again. He said his daughter and DMK MP Kanimozhi was confident that she could handle herself and that he did not meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi "though I had an opportunity, because I did not think it would be right to do so when my daughter is in jail."
Karunanidhi did not call on Mrs Gandhi during a trip to Delhi for the first time in seven years of the DMK-Congress partnership. And it raised many an eyebrow. The Congress was quick to try and clear the air.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, the Congress general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan met Mr Karunanidhi in Delhi.
After meeting the DMK chief, Azad asserted that the arrest of Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case would not have any impact on ties between the two parties, but insisted that the government would not interfere in the case.
"All these goings-on have no effect on DMK-Congress alliance and in future also it will have no effect," the Union Minister said. He added that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was concerned about Kanimozhi being in jail.
"Our leader Sonia Gandhi ji is concerned because Kanimozhi being a woman is in jail and it is a matter of concern and in fact one can't do anything," Azad said.
Kanimozhi has been lodged at Delhi's Tihar Jail for the last five days. She was sent to jail by a special court hearing the 2G spectrum case. The DMK MP has been named as co-accused in the case and has been charged by the CBI with allegedly accepting a Rs. 214-crore bribe that was a part of India's largest swindle, the 2G scam. Her party MP and Dalit leader A Raja has been in Tihar since February, for allegedly planning and executing the 2G scam when he was Telecom Minister in 2008.
Karunanidhi said today that, "My daughter and I believe that law will prevail." He said both Kanimozhi and Raja were "in good health."