Karunanidhi takes on Marans

Chennai, Feb 27 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi today issued a veiled threat to the Marans, his grand nephews, for trying to destroy the Dravidian movement.

In a poem, the DMK leader, recalling how the late Union Minister and his nephew Murasoli Maran had high regards for him, lamented that his sons were now targetting his son and the Dravidian movement.

Without elaborating, the DMK leader accused the Marans of being in league with those trying to destroy the Dravidian movement and warned them that he would face the challenge and defeat the forces.

Mr Karunanidhi recalled that late Murasoli Maran, in his letter from London after calling on the British Prime Minister, had said that he was responsible for all the successes in his life.

''You (Murasoli Maran) held me in high esteem and profusely thanked me in your letter from London then...now, your son is attacking my son,'' he said without elaborating.

Stating that he hailed from a land ruled by Chola king Manuneedhi Cholan, who would not forgive even his son if he had committed a mistake, Mr Karunanidhi said he had seen enemies attacking him, but now those (the Marans) who were affectionate to him were raising swords against him.

Mr Karunanidhi's poetic provocation comes in the backdrop of a Tamil daily carrying a report that former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran had met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi and complained about the DMK leadership.

The DMK patriarch had recently given vent to his feelings when 'Dinakaran' Tamil daily, owned by the Marans, carried advertisements, hailing AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on the occasion of her 60th birthday.

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