2G spectrum verdict: Orator & lawyer, A Raja studied case even from CBI point of view

CHENNAI: In October 1963, S K Andimuthu, an erstwhile tea estate worker in Sri Lanka who belonged to a nondescript village in Perambalur district, named his newborn son A Sathiyaseelan.

Almost five decades later, his son, who had grown up to be known as A Raja, would undergo a trial by fire to regain the characteristics of his name after being investigated by the CBI for his alleged role in the while Union communications minister.

While not many knew, or even remembered, his original name, twists and turns have been part of Sathiyaseelan’s life. It was his sister who used to call him “Raja”; soon, he became known by that name. Though he came from a family of pious Hindus and Congress party sympathisers, he was a hardcore “Periyarist” and Dravidian politician from his college days.


Having made a name for himself as an orator and skilful lawyer, fate soon took him to Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters in Chennai, when he sought to contest the assembly polls in 1996. Impressed by the dalit candidate’s command of the English language and his mastery of Dravidian history, Murasoli Maran prevailed upon his uncle, DMK president M Karunanidhi, to send Raja to Delhi instead of Fort St George. Raja won from Perambalur Lok Sabha constituency in 1996 and debuted as Union minister of state in the United Front government. It was also fate that saw him succeed the senior Maran’s younger son, Dayanidhi Maran, as Union minister for communications & IT in 2007, after a rift between the Marans and Karunanidhi.

The past decade’s blemished chapter was finally rewritten as unblemished on Thursday in New Delhi.

While M Karunanidhi, impressed by his knowledge of Dravidian history, kept him by his side, Raja also gels with party working president M K Stalin, who likes him for the way he puts across thoughts that others in the inner circle hesitate to do. How was Raja handling himself when he was consciously sidelined? “He was perfectly fine and was always confident that he would come out clean in the 2G scam... he even approached it (the case) from a CBI lawyer’s point of view,” said A Kamaraj, a journalist from Perambalur.