New Delhi: The DMK in a party meeting in Chennai on Sunday decided to withdraw Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran from the Union Cabinet for violating party discipline and bringing defame to it by bringing out a family feud between the Karunanidhis and the Marans out in the open.
Maran, the grand nephew of DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, invited his (Karunanidhi's) wrath in the wake of his unexpected direct confrontation with the DMK chief’s elder son M K Azhagiri when the office of Tamil daily Dinakaran at Madurai was attacked on May 9 killing three employees.
Karunanidhi is understood to have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to drop Maran from the Cabinet.
Maran has stake in the Dinakaran Group of Publications, along with his brother Kalanidhi Maran. The controversy started over the publication of an opinion poll by Dinakaran daily on Karunanidhi's political heir.
The trouble began when the Maran family's private channel SUN TV's news bulletin directly named Azhagiri for the attack on the Dinakaran office.
Azhagiri then served a legal notice to Maran Brothers and others threatening to sue them if the SUN TV did not stop holding him the responsibility for the attack.
Even as the journalists organisations held protest rallies condemning the attack on Dinakaran office, the drama attained political overtones as Dayanidhi Maran happened to be a key Minister from Tamil Nadu in the Union Cabinet.
With Dayanidhi Maran himself not venturing to clear the air, a section of DMK party men's grouse against Maran being given a Cabinet berth surfaced again.
This resulted in the administrative committee meeting of the ruling DMK, which passed a resolution demanding that Maran be removed from the Cabinet besides issuing a show cause notice to him.
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