Agatha Sangma taking oath as a Minister in Delhi

Seven Ministers of State with Independent Charge, including Praful Patel of NCP, Prithviraj Chavan, Salman Khursheed and Jairam Ramesh and 38 Ministers of State were also sworn in at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhawan attended among others by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

With today's induction, the strength of the Union Council of Ministers goes up to 79, including the Prime Minister, the same as the previous UPA government after the exit of Shivraj Patil.

M S Gill, Selja, Subodhkant Sahay, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Kantilal Bhuria were the other cabinet ministers inducted today, all from Congress who have been elevated from the status of Ministers of State.

Mukul Wasnik, an MoS in the P V Narasimha Rao government, has been brought in as a Cabinet Minister.

Chennai: The voice has changed, but the tone and tenor hasn’t. With MDMK general secretary Vaiko losing in the elections, pro-Tamil and pro-LTTE activists are now looking at Tholkappian Thirumavalavan as the only person left to raise their cause in the Lok Sabha.

Thirumavalavan, a staunch supporter of the LTTE and known as a rabble rouser, won the elections from Chidambaram constituency — his first win in three attempts.

Although Thirumavalavan is known for his strong pro-LTTE speeches that angered Congress leaders, DMK chief M Karunanidhi did not drop his Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK) from the coalition. His Dalit votes were too valuable.

At 47, Thirumavalavan is young to be an icon for Dalits in Tamil Nadu. In the past two decades, he has emerged as a leader by addressing the inadequacies of Dravidian politics. Beyond the revolutionary social reforms decades ago, Dravidian politics was not able to take the process to the lowest level, leading to a situation where Dalits continued to be oppressed, though this time by the backward communities. This resulted in clashes in the rural hinterland.

In the 1980s, when he was a Government employee, well-known Dalit activist Malaichamy, the then convenor of Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), took him under his wing. After the leader’s death, he was the automatic choice as successor in 1989. It was in the 1990s that he shot to prominence, organising Dalit youth to stop oppression, through muscle if needed. The militant nature of the resistance, in the backdrop of years of silent suffering, soon spread across the state.

In those years, the DPI stayed away from electoral politics, criticising both DMK and AIADMK for exploiting the community’s votes. But realising the difficulty in bringing about a change without participating in the democratic process, Thirumavalavan took the leap and contested as a ‘Third Front’ Independent from Chidambaram in 1999. He lost. It was a repeat in 2004, when he contested as a JD(U) candidate. This time, he beat the PMK’s E Ponnuswamy, the same man who beat him the previous two times.

Between 2006 when he was an ally of the AIADMK-led front and now, the Dalit Panthers became the Liberation Panthers Party (Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi). The outfit is trying to grow out of its Dalit-only tag, sharing dais on every Tamil cause.

Thirumavalavan is unlike the average Tamil politician. Even while addressing the lowest strata of society, this bachelor is always in black trousers with his shirt neatly tucked in. Besides his acerbic speeches, he writes extensively on caste issues and Lankan conflict. He maintains a blog that has links to his speeches hosted on YouTube. He has also acted in two movies, one incidentally as a Lankan militant.

Chennai, Apr 29 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi, who underwent a spine surgery recently, was recovering well and was declared fit for launching his campaign for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls.

A DMK release said, ortho expert Dr Arvind Jaiswal of All India Insitute of Medical Sciences, who performed the surgery on Mr Karunanidhi at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital in February, today examined the health condition
of the Chief Minister.

After the examination, he said Mr Karunanidhi was recovering well and his body condition was fit for taking up electioneering.

However, Dr Jaiswal advised Mr Karunanidhi not to undertake frequent long journeys, the release added.

Mr Karunanidhi is scheduled to kick off his poll campaign with a public meeting at Tiruchirapalli on May 1. Considering health conditions, the Chief Minister has restricted his election meetings in just four towns. Apart from Tiruchirapalli, he would address meetings in Madurai, Coimbatore and Chennai on May 5, 8 and 11, respectively. Mr Karunanidhi had on February 11 successfuly underwent ''Lumbar Canal Stenosis'' surgery for his severe backache at SRMC hospital.

By M.R. Narayan Swamy

New Delhi, April 28 : Tamil Nadu's political circus over the Sri Lankan conflict is a virtual copy of the 1980s but for a key difference: the Tamil Tigers were poised to grow then; now they face a deathly crisis.

Once anti-Tamil riots engulfed Colombo in July 1983, the same DMK and AIADMK - the latter ruled Tamil Nadu then - took on one another to show who supported Sri Lanka's Tamils more.

DMK chief M. Karunanidhi was the opposition leader at that time and M.G. Ramachandran or MGR was the AIADMK chief minister.

Riding on the sympathy wave for the ordinary Sri Lankan Tamils, whose plight in 1983 was equally pitiable, MGR quickly took the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) under his protective wings.

LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was an unknown figure just then. A quick learner, he grasped the ways of the Indian political system. Once in the good books of MGR, he ignored Karunanidhi, immensely pleasing MGR.

Proximity to MGR provided a shield vis-�-vis the central government, which the Congress headed even then.

Slighted by Prabhakaran, Karunanidhi showered his favours on a rival Tamil militant leader who the LTTE gunned down in 1986.

But once MGR died in 1987, by when the LTTE had taken on the Indian Army in Sri Lanka's northeast, Prabhakaran extended a hand of friendship to Karunanidhi who eagerly grasped it.

Karunanidhi returned to power in Tamil Nadu in 1989, and immediately turned pro-LTTE. The Tigers had a free run in Tamil Nadu. New Delhi axed his government in January 1991.

So, when the LTTE assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, the DMK paid a heavy price for its links with the Tigers. It was wiped out in the assembly elections.

The AIADMK reaped the political harvest and embraced a stridently anti-LTTE line. Chief Minister Jayalalitha ordered a sweeping police crackdown, breaking up the painstakingly built LTTE network across the state.

Amid popular revulsion over Gandhi's killing, the Tigers went into a shell in Tamil Nadu.

It took some years before Vaiko, who broke away from the DMK to form the MDMK, and PMK's chief S. Ramadoss to start speaking for the Tigers, and vocally too.

In 1997, the Congress pulled down the coalition government of Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral over the DMK's alleged links to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. In her next stint as chief minister, Jayalalitha jailed Vaiko, then a Lok Sabha member, for 19 long months over a pro-LTTE speech.

Today, the wheels have turned in Tamil Nadu, almost a full circle.

Jayalalitha and Vaiko are now allies. Jayalalitha has declared that only an independent Tamil Eelam state will end Sri Lanka's conflict. The Congress is today a DMK ally.

The DMK is neither here nor there vis-�-vis the Tamil Eelam cause. Even as he sounds pro-LTTE, Tiger supporters spew venom at Karunanidhi.

More than two decades after it earned the LTTE's wrath for signing an accord with Sri Lanka to end Tamil separatism, the Congress is again at the receiving end for pursuing a pro-Colombo policy.

The LTTE in the 1980s was a guerrilla group whose future growth into one of the world's deadliest insurgent outfits no one had predicted.

The same Tigers are now battling for survival.

But then as now, Tamil Nadu, separated from Sri Lanka by a strip of sea, has proved to be a lifeline for the LTTE.

Chennai, Apr 24 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi will launch his electioneering on May one and address poll meetings in just four towns, including Madurai, where his son M K Azhagiri would be making his electoral debut, contesting for the first time.

The octogenarian Chief Minister, who is confined to a wheel chair since undergoing a spine surgery a couple of months ago, will hit the campaign trial on May 1, addressing a meeting in Tiruchirapalli.

He would combine May day celebrations and electioneering in Tiruchirapalli, a party release said here today.

On May 5, Mr Karunanidhi would address a poll meeting in Madurai and follow it up with poll meetings in Coimbatore on May 8. He would wind up his brief tour campaigning in the city on May 11.

It was not yet immediately known, whether the DMK leader would address joint meetings with Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He had earlier said that whereever possible, he would address joint poll meetings with Ms Gandhi.

Chennai, Apr 3 : The DMK has said that it will impress upon the centre to devolve 60 percent of its tax revenue to the states and says it will insist that constitution of the Finance Commission be decided only in the Inter State Council.

The party in its Election Manifesto released by the president and state chief minister Mr M.Karunanidhi in Chennai demanded that Education which is at present in the concurrent list be restored to the state list. The manifesto also insists that the state should be given exemption from the Fiscal responsibility and budgetary management Act so as to meet the increasing commitments in public expenditure due to the downturn in the economy.

The party has said that the total number of employable days under National rural Employment Guarantee scheme be increased to 150 days a year, besides an Unemployment Labour Relief Fund be set up to help labourers who face retrenchment due to the economic downturn party has said it will impress upon the centre to extend full scholarships to the students of SC and ST community order to benefit the middle income families, the party has said it will call for increasing the income tax exemption limit to Rs. 2.5 lakh from the present 1.5 lakhs.

On Sri Lanka, the Party manifesto says it will continue to press for a settlement of the issue and said ways should be found for peaceful existence of Tamils with equal rights. The DMK has also said that party will also demand that appropriate legal steps be taken to restore the rights of the state fishermen over Kachatheevu and fishing in the adjoining areas. Referring to the Women's rights, the party has said it will insist that a law be enacted to give equal property rights for women.

New Delhi, Mar 13 : Congress and DMK, partners of the UPA alliance, had the first round of consultation on seat sharing for the ensuing general elections at Chennai on Thursday.

After the consultation meeting, the Local Administration Minister M.K.Stalin told newsmen, that UPA alliance partners will continue in the same way as it was in 2004 general elections.
Home Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram, TNCC President K.V.Thangkabalu,

Mr.E.V.K.S.Elangovan, Mr.G.K.Vasan and Mr.Sudarshan had attended the meeting on behalf of the Congress.
Replying to a query on PMK's continuation with the alliance, Mr.Thangkabalu said that PMK was very much a partner with the UPA.

Chennai, Feb 20 : Political equations are fast changing ahead of the General Elections. In Tamil Nadu, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has offered to tie-up with the Congress.

AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa said that the Congress that it must break away from its ally the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK), if it wants to win the elections.

She said all parties who stand by the DMK stand to lose and their hopes lie in a tie-up with the AIADMK.

Jayalalithaa, who was attending the wedding of 61 of her party activists in Chennai on Thursday, told the Congress to you break away from the DMK and join the AIADMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK chief also hinted that her party had very cordial relations with the Congress when Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were in power.

"The DMK is caught in a quicksand. Nobody can help it out. Those who want to help it will also be caught in the quicksand and the Congress should come out of web of the DMK," she was quoted as saying by PTI

Jayalalithaa has already tied up with the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Communist Party of India for the Lok Sabha elections.

"I am suggesting this because of the good relationship the AIADMK and Congress enjoyed in the past. If Congress does not listen, it will also be caught in the quicksand like the DMK," she said.

The DMK has been under fire, from even its allies, for its poor handling of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.

In the 14th Lok Sabha all the 39 seats from Tamil Nadu are being held by the UPA.

Congress is a key kingmaker in Tamil Nadu. Traditionally, a Dravida party plus Congress has been the beneficiary in the state.

A CNN-IBN-CSDS poll has already predicted that the AIADMK is ahead in the race in the general elections 2009.

Traditionally, Tamil Nadu is all about alliances. The poll shows that while there is a dead heat between the DMK and the AIADMK, 13 per cent are with the Congress.

There is also the PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) which is as of now with the DMK alliance. So Chief Minister M Karunanidhi maybe down, but he is not out.