New Delhi:
Senior DMK leader TR Baalu met Sonia Gandhi at her residence in Delhi today. Mr Baalu said that he had been asked to inquire about Mrs Gandhi's health by his party chief, M Karunanidhi.
The DMK and Mrs Gandhi's Congress are allies, both in Tamil Nadu and at the centre, where the DMK provides 16 Lok Sabha MPs, making it a senior partner in the coalition. There has been considerable frisson between the partners since the investigations into the telecom scam picked up speed late last year. A Raja, who is from the DMK and was Telecom Minister, has been arrested for masterminding the scam. Mr Karunanidhi's daughter, Kanimozhi, who is a Rajya Sabha MP has also been sent to jail for helping Mr Raja to accept a bribe.
Both parties have insisted that despite the casualties the telecom scam has caused among the DMK, the alliance stands firm. Mr Karunanidhi last week said that for the civic elections in Tamil Nadu next month, his party will not tie up with the Congress. But he stressed the alliance at the state and national level is intact.
Mrs Gandhi returned earlier this month to India after a six-week stay in the US where she underwent surgery. Her party has not commented on what sort of operation she went through.
Yesterday, Mr Karunanidhi weighed in on whether senior Congress minister P Chidambaram should resign. Mr Chidambaram's role as Finance Minister in 2008, when Mr Raja allegedly unleashed his telecom scam, has been questioned in a note sent by the Finance Ministry to the Prime Minister's office in March this year. "If he (Mr Chidambaram) is found guilty it is up to him to decide on resigning.''
The note indicting Mr Chidambaram was seen by Pranab Mukherjee, implying that he as Finance Minister endorsed the document prepared by a bureaucrat. The note states that Mr Chidambaram could have forced Mr Raja to auction precious second-generation or 2G spectrum in 2008 when he was awarding mobile network licenses. Mr Raja chose instead to bundle the spectrum with licenses that were sold at throwaway prices of Rs 1,600 crores each. Mr Raja has said all along that Mr Chidambram and the Prine Minister were kept informed of his decisions. Mr Karunanidhi said that Mr Mukherjee's note proves this.
"Raja has not been denying or lying when he says senior officers and senior ministers were aware of the decision on spectrum," DMK leader and Tamil film actress Khushboo told NDTV. "So, that comes as a big relief for us. For us, as the DMK, it definitely helps," she added.