Why should they if they're as sharp as Karunanidhi at 90?
Consider the way he's dealt with an errant son - but also a leader with some following in south Tamil Nadu - M K Azhagiri. The elder son, who bitterly resents the suzerainty of his younger half brother Stalin over the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), first unfurled the banner of revolt some years ago but Karunanidhi managed to rein him in with a combination of emotional blackmail and basic politics. He made the famous observation at a party meeting suo moto, referring elliptically to the feud between his two sons: "A clock has two hands. Both should work well to show the correct time." This was both a warning and a message to cadres in both camps. Later, Azhagiri indicated he had fallen in line, with his own ellipsis: "Two eyes never meet, but when they cry, tears fall together from both," he said when asked about the rivalry between the two brothers.
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But, of course, the rivalry had lain dormant - it hadn't ended. When the DMK decided to pull out of the government last year, ostensibly because of the Congress-led government's policy towards Sri Lanka but actually because Stalin thought there was no merit in continuing with the alliance, Azhagiri had to resign from the Union Cabinet. He called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh without reference to the party. The DMK noted this and ahead of the 2014 general elections, Karunanidhi sent another warning to the Azhagiri group - two camp followers, Napoleon and J K Ritheesh, were denied the party nomination to contest elections. Azhagiri refused to heed the warning. He was expelled from the DMK for anti-party activities.
Now, Azhagiri is a hot commodity. In and around Madurai, his stronghold, he might not be able to make his candidates win. But he can engineer conditions so that others - especially the DMK - might lose. Noting that V Gopalaswamy (Vaiko), whose party has an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), met Azhagiri earlier this week, H Raja (the BJP candidate from Sivaganga) called on him later and P Chidambaram met him on Friday, Karunanidhi has indicated he is ready to "forgive" the Congress for losing their way. This is both to preempt the possibility of Azhagiri doing a deal with the Congress, overt or covert; and to prevent any future deals between Jayalalithaa and the Congress.
Maybe recognising that he can't win against his father, Azhagiri had a long meeting with his half-sister, Kanimozhi. She is also Karunanidhi's favourite child. The meeting could have been to rebuild bridges with the DMK. But whatever reconciliation takes place will happen only after the elections. Karunanidhi is not one to let emotion get the better of politics.
Family politics in the DMK is complicated, but the fact that the architecture has survived so long suggests it is controlled chaos. The rising star continues to be T R Baalu. Once in Kanimozhi's camp, Baalu is one of Karunanidhi's most trusted envoys in Delhi. He was the one who met Sonia Gandhi to secure the Congress' support for a second term for Kanimozhi in the Rajya Sabha, despite the DMK's strained relations with the Congress. Baalu was moved in 2009 from the South Madras constituency to Sriperumbudur. He won it. Now, he has been moved to Thanjavur in the expectation that should he win, he will be the go between if the Congress has any role in government formation at the Centre. Former Minister of State for Finance, S S Palanimanickam, who held the seat, has been dropped and his supporters are protesting, but if Baalu can still win the seat, he will continue to be in Karunanidhi's good books.
All these moves are the product of Karunanidhi's brain. While it is true that elections in Tamil Nadu are unpredictable in the absence of pre-poll alliances, the grand old man of Indian politics is still in control of his party - and family. Of course, it is hard to say what will happen to the DMK after him. The Maran family had a falling out, but Dayanidhi Maran is now back in the family and has got the nomination for Central Chennai. Maran used to call Manmohan Singh "uncle" and Sonia Gandhi "auntie". As this relationship should have been restricted to the Karunanidhi family, DMK cadres resented the fact that he was Gandhi's minister rather than Karunanidhi's. All that is history now, apparently.
So Ramesh should revisit his formulation because Karunanidhi is a living example of political adeptness. And he's asking: what's age got to do with it?