Kanimozhi: Smile vanishes as the poet is sent to prison

CHENNAI: A gentle smile always plays on Kanimozhi’s face, no matter what the question or allegation thrown at her. Even when she was summoned to court on May 6 as a co-conspirator in the multicrore 2G spectrum scam, she smiled and said the law would take its course. But the smile faltered on Friday when the law did take its course and the court denied her bail. The 43-year-old poet-politician , who projected herself as the intellectual face of the DMK, was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail.

Kanimozhi’s political career has been rather dramatic. If it wasn’t for the force of her father , DMK chief M Karunanidhi , she would have been considered a novice. Kanimozhi stepped into political limelight four years ago when she and Fr Jegath Gasper Raj of the NGO Tamil Maiyyam organized the first Chennai Sangamam, a street festival to promote traditional Tamil art and culture.

A proud and happy father, Karunanidhi described her as his “literary heir” at the inauguration of the festival in January 2007. The underlying message was Kanimozhi—whose mother is Rajathi Ammal—would not be part of the political world into which he had inducted his sons, Stalin and Alagiri, from his first wife Dayalu Ammal.

But five months later in June 2007, Karunanidhi nominated her to the Rajya Sabha. Kanimozhi soon became his point person in New Delhi, replacing Dayanidhi Maran, who had run foul of Karunanidhi. She was reportedly reluctant to take the political plunge and had done so on the urging of Rajathi Ammal.

Although her father turned the national spotlight on her, Kanimozhi apparently wanted to be part of the political scene in Tamil Nadu, a wish that didn’t go down well with Stalin and Alagiri.

Her big political show was the DMK’s first-ever state-level conference of the women’s wing at Cuddalore in 2008, which she organized down to the last detail. A few months ago, she hit the campaign trail for DMK, talking up Stalin, former DMK minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna and others ahead of the assembly election.