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Journalism of Courage
Congressmen in Tamil Nadu belonging to TNCC president G.K. Vasan’s faction are yet to reconcile themselves to the denial of even a single ministerial berth to them in the Manmohan Singh government.
‘‘There is no rationale behind the selection of Congress ministers from Tamil Nadu,’’lashed out a senior TNCC leader. ‘‘While in the case of MPs from other parts of the country, experience and loyalty to 10 Janpath have been the deciding factor, here we are at a loss to understand what criterion was adopted to overlook our claims.’’
It is pointed out that if loyalty was the yardstick for inducting Mani Shankar Aiyar, by the same token R. Prabhu of Niligiris should also have been accommodated.
And if experience had been the criterion for inducting Chidambaram, the same yardstick should have been applied to Prabhu also as he had been a minsiter of state in the Rajiv Gandhi government. Dhanushkodi Adhithan, who was elected from Tirunelveli would have also qualified on this count.
Though there are no clear reasons why only three Congressmen have found berths, Vasan loyalists suspect the hand of AICC general secretary Kamal Nath in this.
‘‘May be this was his way of revenge,’’ party leaders said. ‘‘He tried to sideline us during the selection of candidates. But failed because of Vasan’s tough stand. Now he is getting back.’’
It may recalled that in the first list of Congress candidates prepared by Kamal Nath, the Vasan faction had got a raw deal, and the TNCC president had to fight tooth and nail to get at least some of his nominees in.
In the event, with the official TNCC largely ignored in Manmohan’s scheme of things, the southern region of the state has gone barely represented at the Centre while most Congress MPs are from this region. Chidambaram is the only minister from this region. The northern districts of the state have indeed gained in the selection of ministers, especially from the DMK and PMK. Of the 12 ministers from the state, DMK and the PMK betwen them have five—if one includes Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss who is not a member of either Houses now—from the northern districts.
The others are DMK’s T.R. Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran (both Chennai) and K. Venkatapathy (Cuddalore), and PMK’s R. Velu (Arakkonam).
The central districts are represented by Mani Shankar Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai) and DMK’s Palanimanickam (Thanjavur) and S. Reghupathi (Pudukottai), and the western region by E.V.K.S. Elangovan (Gobichettipalayam) and Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan (Tiruchengode).
In fact, DMK president M. Karunanidhi even had a dig at the Congress when he said that he would have been happier if the southern districts had been given more representation, even while pointing out that it was the Congress which had more MPs from the region.
