Parties making most of tsunami

A political storm is brewing in Tamil Nadu over which party will be seen as the purveyor of relief to the thousands affected by the killer tsunami of December 26.

Political one-upmanship will be raised a notch by the Dravida Munnetra Kazahgam (DMK) on January 6 with party chief M Karunanidhi convening a meeting of the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) to take on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the central government on the status of relief work so far.

The DPA, which is part of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, comprises the DMK, the PMK, the MDMK, the CPI and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The five-party alliance is represented by 12 Union ministers in New Delhi. These ministers have been pushing for the relief work in Tamil Nadu to be routed through the DMK instead of the state government.

According to observers, the meeting might be viewed as an attempt to pre-empt criticism from Jayalalithaa regarding the DMK's efforts to secure a comprehensive relief package from the Centre despite having 7 ministers.

In a couple of meetings Karun-anidhi held with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil last week, while they were visiting the tsunami-hit areas in the state, he is said to have suggested that the DMK be given the charge of relief work.

But with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh giving the Army and the Navy the direct charge of overseeing relief work, both the AIADMK and the DMK seem to be frustrated in their attempts to gain political mileage out of the relief operations.

According to sources, the meeting is aimed at sending a message to the Centre that the DMK's aspirations cannot be ignored. The DMK has expressed dissatisfaction with relief work through a memorandum to Tamil Nadu Governor SS Barnala, and in a letter to the Prime Minister.

The tussle over tsunami relief has to be viewed in the light of the poll deadlines in Tamil Nadu, which are about a year away.

While there has been talk of an early election, the scale of destruction wrought by the tsunami and Karunanidhi's deteriorating health seem to suggest that Jayalalithaa will wait out the full-term of her government before announcing the next polls in May- June 2006.

But with the Congress seeming to edge closer to the AIADMK, the relations between the DMK and the Congress at the Centre might come under a cloud amidst rumours that a party-driven bureaucratic tussle in the government is holding up the supply of relief materials.