M. Karunanidhi
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Reminiscences of those who worked with him
R Poornalingam | Former Home Secretary
'Wanted tomorrow's work yesterday'
While it was a pleasure to work with Mr K, it was equally tough and demanding. He would expect tomorrow's work to be executed yesterday. For that, he worked so hard that no one could meet his expectation.
He was always willing to listen to differing points of view. Once he was deciding on the case of a political nuisance maker, when I, as the home secretary, was present. A few minutes after his decision, he could see I was not agreeing with him. He asked my views, which were opposite to his; not only did he agree with me, but also immediately countermanded his orders.
Another incident that touched me was when I was the chairman of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. The board had increased the new connection charges from Rs 350 to Rs 1,000. When the electricity demand was being discussed in the assembly, the opposition objected to the sharp increase. The CM walked up to the officers' gallery and asked me whether the amount could be reduced to Rs 500. Naturally I was reluctant, but he bargained with me and settled for a reduction of Rs 300. There was absolutely no need for him to consult me. As the CM, he could have simply announced. It is his willingness to respect his subordinate's views which was touching.
K Thirunavukarasu | Dravidian historian
Never compromised
During Emergency, where there was a lot of pressure from the Centre on him as chief minister of Tamil Nadu to do certain things, Thalaivar refused to compromise. As a result many DMK leaders were arrested and sent to prison for nearly a year.
One of the demands on all state parties was to change their party names either to add India at the start or at the end. It was during this period that AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran changed the name of his party from Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to All India ADMK.
Within DMK too, many senior leaders asked Thalaivar to change the name of the party and make it an allIndia party. But Thalaivar refused. He said DMK was founded by C N Annadurai for the sake of Tamil people and culture. He refused to change the party's name and said he was ready to face anything from the Centre.
Kamal Haasan | Actor
When I got in character to pose
When I was acting in `Sattam En Kayil' (1978), director T N Baalu told Kalaignar about me. During the 100-day celebration of the film, I got an opportunity to sit next to Kalaignar. Whenever I acted in a good film, I always longed to screen it for Kalaignar. Our relationship grew stronger to the point that when I did not show him my film, he would ask me why. The high point was when I went to his home dressed as the `Avvai Shanmughi' character and posed for photos with him. After watching `Dasavatharam' (2008), he pinched my cheeks in appreciation. When I was writing 'Dasavatharam', he suggested several ideas. He is not just a senior political leader or a Tamil scholar, but also a wonderful screenplay and dialogue writer.
Once, on his birthday, he asked me why I had not visited him and told me that he did not have a lot of time left. I told him there was time and that I would visit him. This was when he was 84, now he is 94. Vazhga Kalaingar (long live Kalaignar)
K Veeramani | Dravidian Kazhagam president
Those days of our youth
My relationship with DMK president M Karunanidhi goes back 70 years, when we were students. During summer holidays we used to join Periyar's training school in Erode and once, after a function, we stayed over at a member's house in a village near Thiruthuraipoondi, in undivided Thanjavur district. We were both tired but mosquitoes kept Karunanidhi awake, while I slept through it. Around 1am, he woke me up and said he wanted to leave for the next stop Thiruthuraipoondi.In the dead of the night; we found an open bullock cart and along with two others set off. We reached our friend's house in Thiruthuraipoondi at 3am. But not wanting to wake him up, slept on the sitouts. In the morning when the householders found us on the sit-outs they were astonished. Another time he attended a Periyar conference near Trichy when he had small pox.
Raadhika Sarathkumar | Actor
Challenged to get the best
I acted in many films written by Kalaignar including `Paasa Paravaigal' (1988) which had difficult dialogues.When I was practising the lines for a court scene in the film, I noticed he had a note for me in the script that read, "If Raadhika finds these lines difficult to recite, please change it to suit her". I thought I should do better than what he would have expected. The dialogue was long and had to be taken in one shot. I delivered it with a slight change. I think he was challenging me through the note to ace it and I did. When he spoke about it on stage years later, he said, "There is not much Raadhika cannot do, I penned the lines with the confidence that she will deliver."
Away from the arc lights, I have seen Kalaignar when he won and lost elections.In the 2001 TN assembly elections DMK suffered a humiliating defeat. I was at his Gopalapuram residence when the election results came out. He remained silent for 10 minutes then he went around consoling party members.
Lyricist Vairamuthu remembers this indomitable spirit when the Centre dismissed the DMK government in 1991.When the news reached the leadership; the ministers were dejected and asked Kalaignar to cancel a scheduled conference of the state teachers association. I was there when Kalaignar told his party men, "It is now that we have to meet the people more than ever."
