IT raids targeting the unaccounted assets of the jailed leader Sasikala Natarajan’s kin, the biggest in the recent history and probably the most time-consuming, involving 1,800 officials, are over. Not even their astrologer and assistants were left out in the 5-day raid that started on November 9.
As many as 187 premises across multiple cities were raided. All the premises were linked to Sasikala, her nephew TTV Dhinakaran or Jaya TV. The raids were carried out in connection with allegations of tax evasion relating to shell companies, dubious investments, suspicious fund flow and its transfers and fudging of accounts. The IT officials had received inputs from the Finance Ministry's Financial Intelligence Unit.
Quoting IT officials, major media have come out with details of unravelling more than Rs. 1,400 crore worth unaccounted property, more than Rs. 7 crore in cash, and jewellery worth over Rs. 5 crore. As many as 15 bank lockers and diamond jewellery were kept under "prohibitory orders", by which access was denied to them.
"A lot of incriminating documents were found and prima facie we have detected undisclosed income of Rs 1,430 crore," an unnamed official told PTI.
As P. Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, and a Supreme Court lawyer of eminence, whose services have been requisitioned by none other than the Congress party’s bête noire and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal himself, told a news channel in some other context: “until it is proved that the money is black, it remains white. It is for the IT Department to prove it black, which is a very tedious process”. Now the IT sleuths have to prove the suspected deals unravelled in the recent raids are unaccounted for. That is a legal process regarding which I have no locus standi to talk about.
Now that the raids are over, what next ? What is the true intent of the raids?
It was PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss who made me understand that there are “no permanent friends or enemies in politics”. He switched sides - DMK or AIADMK - without batting an eyelid. Of course this is applicable to every party, including the ones like Communist parties that swear on ideology all the time. There is not a single party in Tamil Nadu which has not accused the AIADMK of corruption at some point of time or other since 1991 when Jayalalithaa took over the reins of power in the State.
Since then the family of her live-in-aide Sasikla has earned the sobriquet of “Mannargudi mafia” thanks to its muscle power and dubious strategy to amass wealth. However, most of the political parties in TN have now chosen to dub the IT raids as “political vendetta”.
Being a Tanjorean myself, I am accustomed to hearing the names “Kunniyur Sambasiva Iyer, Poondi Vandayar, Kapisthalam Moopanar, Vadapathimangalam Thyagaraja Mudaliar, etc.”, as the top most landed gentry of the region owning several thousand acres. But never have I heard about the Vivekanandan-Krishnaveni family of Mannargudi in that league.
Sasikala was born in 1957 at Mannargudi to the agriculturist couple of Vivekanandam and Krishnaveni. She had four brothers and a sister Vanithamani. They were not rich, but they belonged to the influential Kallar community.
In the 80s, as the Jayalalithaa-Sasikala relationship was blossoming into a strong friendship, members of Sasikala’s family were still trying to make a life for themselves. “Her brother Dhivaharan’s address was known as ‘care of platform’,” says a long-time Mannargudi resident. "He would not have a place to even sit,” and was “jobless”. Like several others in rural TN, Dhivaharan went abroad as well to try and make a living. “I think he went to Singapore for some odd job, but returned soon,” adds a Mannargudi resident.
Today, Dhivaharan, known in Mannargudi as “Boss”, is one of the most influential individuals in the Cauvery-delta region and is said to be a power centre in the politics, economy and social fabric of the Delta region.
His ascendency from “care of platform” Dhivaharan to “Boss” coincides with the rise of what has come to be called the ‘Mannargudi Mafia’ - the extended family of Sasikala, believed to have literally run Tamil Nadu when Jayalalithaa was in power.
Dhivaharan is but a small part of the Mannargudi family. Over the years, the family network has spread its wings across Tamil Nadu, and is believed to have penetrated every layer of the government. They allegedly ran the State with an iron-grip but behind the shield of secrecy.
A long-time DMK member from Mannargudi says: “They wield all the power, control everything and yet no one can raise a finger and say they are doing it”.
“They are everywhere,” says a seasoned IPS officer requesting anonymity, “very manipulative, and try to manage everything. Their men are everywhere from Jaya TV to Ministers’ offices, and have stooges in police and IAS, top to bottom. And they don’t leave out anything, even the cycle-stand contracts in bus-stands are taken in by them.”
Even the party is tacitly controlled by the cartel, with key posts and election tickets influenced by the Sasikala family.
An insider says that to monitor the entire operation, Sasikala’s family has its men - mostly from the Kallar community - placed at strategic positions, including all Cabinet Ministers’ offices. Further, they have their eyes and ears among the bureaucrats and the state cadre too.
Political observers feel that the Central Government is bent upon breaking this cartel once and for all.
BJP, which is a pigmy in State politics, is not going to gain even a single vote. But all that it can now do is to deal a crushing blow to a party which is struggling without a charismatic leader by putting an end to this cartel once and for all. The BJP probably feels that this cartel with a very strong caste support is still capable of staging a comeback.
And the current IT raids might serve the purpose because its sources of funds would dry up and its potential supporters would be hesitant to stick their neck out. Already its political clout is uncertain because of the EPS-OPS combination unexpectedly asserting itself.
The unexpected meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi recently has sent several conflicting signals because it has all along been felt that Mr. Modi was close to AIADMK.
I believe that BJP is struggling to forge a strategy for 2019 parliamentary elections as TN contributes 39 Lok Sabha members.