Nonagenarian Karuna’s writing habit never dies
The three-time CM has a small group whom she consults to get her facts right
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-04-19 05:04 GMT
Chennai: Old habits die hard. For DMK president M. Karunanidhi it is writing. Neither age nor failing health has deterred nonagenarian Karunanidhi who still dictates statements to his personal assistant Shanmuganathan, who earned the sobriquet “Karunanidhi’s shadow” for ‘tailing’ him everywhere to make note of even his murmurs.
“Indeed, Kalaignar had a couple of ghostwriters in the distant past. But, these days, he only lets two other old timers (one of them is a former bureaucrat) prepare the draft statements, but the content, references and facts, will be personally suggested by him. He even tells his assistants and Murasoli staff whom to contact for what,” said a party senior requesting anonymity.
“There was a time when he penned all Q&A statement and Murasoli letters (Udanpirapu kaditham). Age does not permit him to do that now and hence the dictation and occasional proxy writing,” he added. Karunanidhi is said to have employed a retired Connemara Library employee at Anna Arivalayam archive to hasten the back volume reference process.
The five-time CM also has a long list of think tanks in his kitty, mostly one’s subscribing to Periyar’s self respect ideology like DK leader Veeramani and Dravidian scholar K. Thirunavukkarasu to crosscheck history besides his trade union wing LPF to get statistics right.
JAYA HAS EYE FOR DETAILS
A voracious reader who has an eye for details, AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa never lets any message go public without her consent. It is said she has a four-member team, including a senior citizen for English statements. The three-time CM has a small group whom she consults to get her facts right. The team also includes a TV anchor turned party MP.
“The facts, suggestions and sometimes vocabulary will come via intercom and the rest will be taken care of by the team,” an AIADMK old timer, requesting anonymity, added.
COMRADES ISSUE COLLECTIVE STATEMENTS
Democracy prevails in Left parties even in statement preparation. For instance, state CPI (M) secretary G. Ramakrishnan never issues a statement indigenously.
“The statements are prepared in consultation with state executive committee members. The various frontal organizations will be consulted before issuing statements,” a senior state CPM leader said, explaining, “If there is an issue related to women, imprints of AIDWA members will be seen in the state secretary’s statement.”
Vaiko is another senior state politician who writes most of his statements.