New Delhi:
He was the joint owner of a popular Chennai discotheque called HFO or Hell Freezes Over. That was before Dayanidhi Maran danced into national politics in 2004, the year when young India - most visibly represented by Rahul Gandhi - contested and won Lok Sabha seats in droves. It was the year of the
babalogs and Maran was right there among the articulate, well-heeled, well-educated, young politicians armed with impressive degrees and impressive lineages.
It does not get more
babalog than this. He is politician, journalist and scriptwriter Murosoli Maran's son, media baron Kalanidhi Maran's younger brother and, not the least, DMK patriarch K Karunanidhi's grandnephew.
The new MP from Central Chennai, then 37, was to the manor born. His father had been an MP for 36 years and a minister in three different governments at the Centre. His party, the DMK, was embarking upon yet another relationship with yet another government and Dayanidhi Maran was family - straight in line for a minister's post. Five days after the UPA government came to power, Maran was sworn in as Minister for Communications and Information Technology. Cabinet rank.
But then, when family can give, family can also take away. In May 2007, the DMK withdrew Maran from the Cabinet, after passing a resolution against him for "violating party discipline and tarnishing the party's image." The sub-text: An opinion poll published in the Dinakaran, a newspaper owned by Maran's brother Kalanidhi, said that Karunanidhi's younger son MK Stalin was more suited to succeed the father than older son MK Azhagiri or daughter Kanimozhi.
Protestors, alleged to be Azhagiri supporters, burnt down the Dinakaran office. Karunanidhi frowned and Maran lost his job. He quit the next day.
Four years later, Dayanidhi Maran has quit again. This time because he is under investigation for alleged misuse of office in 2006, when he was the Telecom Minister. But that is also the tenure that established Maran. He was the man who made talk cheap. And persuaded big companies to invest in Indian Telecom and IT. When he quit in 2007, Industry said it was disappointed.
Family disputes are wont to mend as time goes by. In late 2008, granduncle Karunanidhi granted his Maran grandnephews an audience and ended the feud. It, of course, was pertinent that Lok Sabha elections were months away and it was to the DMK's advantage to be united. In effect, when the UPA stormed back in the summer of 2009, and with the DMK too turning in a rich haul of seats, Dayanidhi Maran was in the good books and merited a ministry after securing his second Lok Sabha tenure. This time, though, he had to settle for the less glamourous Textile Ministry. A Raja who had stepped in as Telecom Minister after Maran's ignominious exit in 2007, bagged Telecom.
Born in December 1966, Dayanidhi Maran had the best of education in Chennai. He schooled at Don Bosco and got a BA degree in Economics from Loyola College. Maran is a well-known HAM or Amateur Radio Operator. His official website says he is sporty and plays golf, cricket and tennis. His brother, Kalanidhi Maran, figures in the Forbes list of richest Indians.