Profile and Life History of DMK Leader Karunanidhi

Former Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Indian story writer

M.Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu for five times. He was the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He had 80 years of public life. And he got referred to as a Kalaingar called artist by his followers around Tamilnadu. He is a politician, ideologue, writer, administrator and orator.

Childhood:

M.Karunanidhi was born on June 3rd, 1924 in the village of Thirukkuvalai in Nagapattinam district, Madras Presidency. His parents were Ayyadurai (Grand father), Muthuvel and Anjugam. He had two elder sisters, Periyanayaki and Shanmugasundari.

M.Karunanidhi as a student:

M.Karunanidhi was born in a village which is in eastern Tamilnadu. He left school at a young age. Then he becomes a screenwriter in the Tamil film industry. His main target was to oppose the Brahmans the upper cast in Hindu and to promote the Dravidian movement. By doing this he becomes the famous politician in Tamilnadu

M. Karunanidhi as a script writer:

At first his scripts were not noticed by the people because of the movie stars but his quick creativity and sharp-tongued scripts have made him popular. It made him stay in the movie field. Some of his popular films are Rajakumari (1947), Manthiri Kumari (1950), Parashakti (1952), Manohara (1954), Rangoon Radha (1956), Iruvar Ulam (1963), Pillaiyo Pillai (1972), Nyaya Tharasu (1989), Uliyin Osai (2008) and Ponnar Shankar (2011). He wrote for more than 75 films. His extraordinary literary skills along with public speaking ability gave him a bright future in politics. He started his first film with MG Ramachandran and ended with Prasanth.

Political Career:

At the tender age of 14, M.Karunanidhi begins to start his political career. He got inspired by the speech of Justice Party’s Alagiriswami. M.Karunanidhi started doing politics through his involvement in the Anti-Hindi agitations. Then he formed an organization for his local teen groups. He also passed the handwritten newspaper among his friend called “Manavar Nesan”. He founded the first student’s wing of the Dravidian Movement called Tamil Nadu Tamil Manavar Mandram.

Along with other members of the organization, he engaged himself in political activities. Followed by that, he introduced a newspaper called “Murasoli”. This is the official newspaper of DMK. Officially he joined Tamilnadu politics by taking part in the Kallakudi agitation. The agitation was about changing the name of the village to Dalmiapuram and M.Karunanidhi wanted the original name. In this agitation, he went to jail two times.

M.Karunanidhi and DMK:

M.Karunanidhi was very much impressed by the ideas and speeches of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai. He was first elected as a candidate for legislative assembly in 1957. After 1962 polls, he was continually reelected by the body. In 1961 he becomes the treasurer of the party. Followed by that, he entered the state assembly as a deputy leader of opposition in the following year

In the 1967 assembly election, DMK win against congress and formed the government in Tamilnadu. On which Annadurai become the CM and M.Karunanidhi become the public work minister. After the dismissal of Annadurai in 1969, M. Karunanidhi becomes the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. He remains in the position until January 1971. But he returns back to the position in the following year.

In 1972, All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, AIADMK got separated from DMK. From that day onwards they become the powerful rival in Tamilnadu. And at the age of 82, 2006 he becomes the CM of Tamilnadu for the fifth time. The party had won the election through allegiance with Congress and giving promises like cheap rice and free Television to all. Anyways their corruption overpowered Tamilnadu and resulted in failure in the following elections of Tamilnadu.

Greater achievements by M.Karunanidhi for Tamilnadu:

1. M.Karunanidhi introduced concrete houses for the SC and ST people in Tamilnadu.
2. He introduces free bus pass for about 24 lakhs 82 thousand schools `
3. To help the poor farmer family he waived the load amount of 7000 crores. This has benefited over 42 thousand 232 persons.
4. M.Karunanidhi has renamed MADRAS to CHENNAI.
5. He offered free education to students of Backward Classes with a poor environment.
6. To help Muslim community, Urudu speaking Muslims got joined with backward classes like Tamil Speaking Muslims.
7. Then to avoid Hindi as a compulsory language in Tamilnadu, he passed an act called bilingual policy. According to that compulsory Hindi in Tamil schools and English bilinguals got replaced.
8. In case of reservation, 20% given to most backward classes which include Vanniar and Seer Marabinar. 1% for Scheduled Tribes and 18 percent separate reservation for Scheduled Castes.

Honors:

• The author of ‘semmozhiyaana Tamizh Mozhiyaam” song is M.Karunanidhi. He wrote the song for World Classical Tamil Conference 2010. The song got composed through A.R. Rahman.
• The Thiruvalluvar statue idea and project in Kanyakumari got proposed by M.Karunanidhi in December 1975. It is a 133 feet statue. Then on 15 April 1979, Morarji Desai then Prime Minister laid the foundation in the presence of then Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran.

Awards:

1. In 2007, Muslim people conferred M.Karunanidhi with the title “Friend of the Muslim Community”.
2. In 1971, Annamalai bestowed him the arulmozhi to get a purchase from your death too.
3. Tamil University, Tanjore has awarded the Raja Rajan award. This award is for his book named Thenpandi Singam.
4. On the occasion of 40th annual convocation, the Surjit Singh Barnala who is the Governor of Tamilnadu and chancellor of Madras Kamaraj University has awarded him the honary doctorate award.

Books written by M.Karunanidhi:

M.Karunanidhi is a famous story writer and he wrote the screenplay for a number of movies. He also wrote a number of famous books. Some of them got listed below. Sanga Thamizh, Thirukkural Urai, Ponnar Sankar, Romapuri Pandian, Thenpandi Singam, Vellikizhamai, Nenjukku Needhi, Iniyavai Irubathu and Kuraloviam. And some of his stage plays name got listed as follows Manimagudam, Ore Ratham, Palaniappan, Thooku Medai, Kagithapoo, Naane Arivali, Vellikizhamai, Udhayasooriyan and Silappathikaram.

Popular schemes introduced by M.Karunanidhi:

M.Karunanidhi followed mostly the Periyar’s Self-Respect and Dravidian movements. His vision was to create an equal and just state.

1. Thalaivar in 2009 introduced an insurance plan of Rs 1 lakh for all the people below the poverty line. And this scheme has got ‘e-India Jury Award, 2012’ for the best practices in Health Insurance with IT enabled solutions.
2. The farmers market called ‘Uzhavar Sandhai’ got major attention among the farmers. It is to make sure the farmers are getting fair prices by removing middleman in the process. In 2001, first ‘Uzhavar Sandhai’ formed in Madurai. Then when ADMK came into power the scheme got stalled. It was again formed when DMK came into power.
3. To uplift the rural population, M.Karunanidhi came up with a scheme called “Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam”. So the village panchayat welfare work came into action. It got linked to other works such as Highways, Agriculture Engineering, Education, Health and Social Welfare.
4. Major welfare for Transgender was undertaken by Karunanidhi. Well, Tamilnadu was the pioneer in creating such welfare boards for Transgender in 2008. The Aravani Identity Card was introduced. It let them apply for their own ration card, license and voter Id’s at the Zillah level.
5. There is something for the disabled too. “Kanoli thittam” was introduced by DMK government in the 1960s. It is to provide free cataract surgery for the visually impaired. He also provided a scheme called 5% contribution when the disabled entrepreneur started his own business.
6. Also he waivered all the tuition fees for the high and higher education for the physically challenged people. M.Karunanidhi has reserved 5% of seats in the IT industry for the disabled. Also a 75% of concessions for the long distance travel.
7. Taking into account of Periyar’s idea of self-respect marriages, M.Karunanidhi has adopted this scheme in 1967. It encouraged making marriage valid even without rituals. The government not only encouraged the wedding but also bore the expenses of the marriage. Still this scheme was adopted in Tamilnadu as anyone can get married without any rituals.

M.Karunanidhi personal life:

M.Karunanidhi married Padmavatti. They had a son named Muthu. Padmavatti died very early due to TB. Next, he married Dayalu ammal at the death of his first wife. With Dayalu ammal he had M.K. Alagiri, M.K. Stalin, Sevi and Tamilarasu. Followed by Rajathi ammal. With her, he had a daughter named Kanimozhi.

Controversies of M.Karunanidhi:

• Sarkaria Commission indicated M.Karunanidhi for corruption in the veeranam project. He was seen collecting bribes for the construction of the dam. Indira Gandhi dismissed his Government based on the bribes he had collected. Moreover, on 2001 he was arrested for collecting bribes and involved in corruption on building flyovers in Chennai.
• Nepotism is another major thing complained by many of the people against M.Karunanidhi. Majorly promoting M. K. Stalin in the party with the mind of keeping him the next leader after him. Also he promoted many of his family member in his party was considered as Nepotism by the members and followers.
• But in reality, Stalin got no support from his father. He did face a lot of hardships. He was jailed too. While he was jailed, he faced lot of tortures. Even a man from DMK died in his place. Stalin becomes the MLA in 1989 and 1996. He was directly elected as a mayor and he was the 44th mayor of Chennai. In 2009, he was made as a deputy Chief Minister.
• Another major thing is the Sethu Samudram’s controversy. M.Karunanidhi was given a question called, who is Hindu God Rama? And his response created a great agitation in the society. He responded back like he is a god who created a bridge and he asked in which engineering college Ram got graduated from. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad condemn Kalaingar for his comments and he revert him back that if he can ask question against any of the religion leader of Tamilnadu. Chances are he may not.
• The next thing is Connections with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In an NDTV interview in April 2009, he mentioned that Prabakaran is my good friend. And a controversial thing called M.Karunanidhi has supported the murderess of Rajiv Gandhi has also spread. But it got proven wrong later.

Death of M.Karunanidhi:

After October 2016, M.Karunanidhi minimized his political participation because of poor health. His last political appearance is on 3rd June 2018. Followed by that on 28 July 2018, M.Karunanidhi’s health become very unstable. He got admitted to Cauvery hospital. And found dead at 6.10 pm on 7 August 2018 due to age-related illness, which led to multiple organ failure.