S Kalyana Ramanathan: DMK's diffident icon

BACKSTAGE

Hutchison Essar's $362 million deal to buy out the C Sivasankaran-promoted Aircel Ltd has hit a roadblock. The memorandum of understanding between the two parties expires in the first week of November and the government is yet to give its nod.

It was a high-profile deal in which Essar-Hutchison outbid both Bharti Televentures and Idea Cellular. More important, it is a setback for Sivasankaran; he will have to look for a buyer all over again.

This has brought into focus the role of the Union Minister for Communication and IT Dayanidhi Maran. Was it Tamil Nadu politics being played out in New Delhi's corridors of decision making?

Or has the deal been held up for some other reason? A definite answer may never emerge. But in the few months that he has been in office, Maran has made his mark in many ways.

Take, for instance, his attempts to improve broadband connectivity in India and in Tamil Nadu, in particular. "The Sun Network (controlled by the Maran family) has possibly the best collection of regional movies in the country. Now, through the Maran-family run Sumangali Cable Vision, it will be able to offer video on demand, apart from net connectivity and cable TV," says a media observer.

When he started out as a minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, it was felt that Maran, 37, was battling not one but two handicaps: one, he had to live up to the reputation that his father, former Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran, had left behind.

And two, he lacked experience in politics. While the opinion on both issues is still divided, it is a fact that Maran's candidature in the Lok Sabha elections was pushed through by his grand uncle and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi.

The strategy of giving the Lok Sabha ticket to Murasoli Maran's elder son did work. Maran won the May 2004 general election from the Central Madras constituency by a sweeping 62 per cent of the votes cast. Though his victory at the election did not surprise many, it left a bitter taste within the DMK itself.

Friends and family recall Maran as not very studious at school or college. He is an economics graduate from the famous Loyola College in Chennai. Nevertheless, industry gives him a better score and believes that he is tech-savvy and his age goes well with his portfolio.

"He is accessible and down to earth. He treats you like an equal and is a good listener, too. But sometimes he is a bit diffident about his role as a Union minister," informs an industrialist.

Political observers do not consider him a product of the Dravidian movement.

"Maran is a product of 2004. Unlike other Tamil ministers in the UPA government such as Palanivel Rajan and T R Baalu, Maran is a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Rajan was a classic product of the Dravidian movement and was even arrested under MISA [Maintenance of Internal Security Act] during the Emergency. The DMK is forcefully projecting Maran as an icon of its party," says one observer.

Critics will not even spare him of the fact that he has never been seen in a veshti like the Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The media did play up the "Harvard Graduation" part during the election campaign. The fact, however, is that Maran attended an "Owner/ President Management Programme" at Harvard Business School. Neither his party nor Maran attempted to correct this because it helped the cause.

What surprises many is the fact that he joined politics. "For his lack of any political experience and oratory skills, it did surprise many that he came into mainstream politics," says an observer.

His decade long experience in media covering print, TV and cable, however, is seen as a big advantage for his political career.