Politics and Nation Karunanidhi speculates after Jayalalithaas 15 minutes meet with PM Narendra Modi 5 Jul, 2014, 0445 hrs IST, V Prem Shanker, ET Bureau The DMK chief has implied that the outcome of this meeting was played out in a court in Chennai which was hearing a corruption case against Jayalalithaa. CHENNAI: When two leaders who play their cards very close to their chest meet privately, the silence on the outcome of the meeting manifests itself in a cacophony of speculation. In this case, DMK chief M Karunanidhi says that a private chat between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has changed the course of a nine-year-old court case. According to Karunanidhis letter to his cadres in party organ Murasoli, when Modi was on his way to Sriharikota recently, Jayalalithaa had a private chat with the prime minister at the airport for 15 minutes. The DMK chief has implied that the outcome of this meeting was played out in a court in Chennai which was hearing a corruption case against Jayalalithaa. The implication is that a senior advocate of the income-tax department has gone soft on the chief minister. In 1996, the income-tax department had filed a case against Jayalalithaa and her aide Sasikala for not filing tax returns between 1991 and 1994. The case has been going on for about nine years now. Arch rival DMK has been pointing out that despite the judiciary reiterating that the case cannot be dragged on any longer, there seems to be no end in sight. And the most recent allegation of Jaya-Modi meeting influencing the case comes in the wake of an adjournment of the latest hearing. When the case came up for hearing, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) R Dakshinamurthy allowed the petitions of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala, seeking adjournment on the ground that their plea filed before income-tax authorities for compounding the offences was pending. The case has been adjourned to July 24. The same ACMM had on June 9 directed Jayalalithaa and Sasikala to appear before him without fail for questioning and answering charges. But when the case came up again for hearing on June 30, neither of them was present and the IT departments lawyers did not counter Jayalalithaas petition seeking time. Modi was in Chennai airport on June 29 and the next day he returned via Chennai airport after witnessing the successful launch of PSLV C-23. Going back to the earlier stages of the case, Karunanidhi quoted a newspaper to say that Jayaalithaa had tried to sew up a deal with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to rid her of the IT case. This was during the earlier NDA regime when AIADMK and BJP were in an alliance. Referring to former finance minister Yashwant Sinhas book Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer, Karunanidhi said Jayalalithaa had even invited the then finance minister to her house in what he alleged was an attempt to wriggle out the IT case. Taking a dig at Jayalalithaa for not bothering to extend similar courtesy to the last prime minister Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi points out that for the present Prime Minister she is there to receive him and see him off. Political observers do say the tone of the recent letters by Jaya to Modi is starkly different from the tone used by the CM in her letters to Manmohan Singh. While Singh had to deal with more frequent and harsh letters from Jaya on various issues from Cauvery to Kachchatheevu, the tone in her letters to Modi ranges from gratitude to a mild push, said analyst T Sigamani.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 10:38:35 +0000
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