“He was a man who always fought to win. Even after his death, he fought and this time too he won,” said senior DMK leader Durai Murugan, as the news of Madras High Court’s order for burial space for Karunanidhi reached the crowded Rajaji Hall where the late DMK chief’s mortal remains were kept.
Stalin, though seen smiling for a split second, broke down immediately. Flanked by Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi, he was consoled by Murugan and A. Raja. It was a 15-hour legal battle that the DMK managed to win.
Burial at Marina is a matter of pride for every political leader in Tamil Nadu. Leaders who were proponents of Dravidian ideology and former chief ministers C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa were laid to rest on the shores of Marina, was the argument put forward by the DMK in the Madras High Court.
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Petty politics, anarchism and antagonism played out again in Tamil Nadu—things that everyone, including political observers, thought subsided after the demise of Jayalalithaa. The state government refused space at Marina for Karunanidhi’s burial despite several requests both in person and through letters from DMK working president M.K. Stalin. The DMK's first family, including Stalin, Alagiri and Kanimozhi , had called on the chief secretary, requesting the same.
After Karunanidhi’s demise was announced by the hospital, a press statement from the chief secretary said the late DMK chief has “no space” at Marina. Legal issues and policy decisions were cited as reasons for the move. The DMK immediately went to the Madras High Court where the might of the DMK legal wing was out on display. A battery of senior advocates from the DMK were at the residence of acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh to file a writ petition, seeking space for Karunanidhi at Marina.
The DMK won the case and Karunanidhi was finally granted a resting place at Marina, behind his mentor Annadurai’s memorial. “The political parties across all spectrum, social activists and other leaders criticised the AIADMK government for this decision. But the only party that supported this decision was the BJP. Given the fact that the AIADMK, after Jayalalithaa, has been like the slave of BJP, this too can be understood. Note that the so-called RSS ideologue, who has done nothing for the people of Tamil Nadu and who has got no connections with Tamil politics, said the place in Marina should not be granted. It is clearly a collusion between the BJP and the AIADMK to bring disgrace to Karunanidhi and DMK,” said A. Saravanan, DMK spokesperson and an advocate at the Madras High Court.
Sources close to the ruling party say the decision was taken by the state government only because the RSS ideologues in Chennai advised on this. “It only backfired,” said Saravanan. The DMK cadres were more angry with the AIADMK than the BJP. The AIADMK supporters rejoiced as the DMK was put to in a tight spot.
“With the DMK approaching the court, the pending cases on construction at Marina and the objection for Jayalalithaa memorial has been cleared. The DMK was made to run from pillar to post for the space,” said a senior AIADMK minister.
It may be recalled that burial at Marina was first initiated for Annadurai by Karunanidhi himself. “It was he who decided as a show off then. Later came MGR, which was decided by the AIADMK and the government then. Again 2016, it was Jayalalithaa. Now with Karunanidhi, Marina has turned into a permanent grave,” said a senior Congress leader, who did not want to be named. In fact, no Congress leader, be it Rajaji or Kamaraj, got a space at Marina, he added.