The M.K. Stalin government in Tamil Nadu is facing one crisis after another with the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) targetting its Ministers. After arresting V. Senthilbalaji, now a Minister without portfolio, in an alleged money laundering case last month, this week the agency searched the premises of party bigwig and Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy and his son and MP Gautham Sigamani, in a similar case linked to irregularities in mining, registered years ago. The Minister was subjected to intense overnight questioning at the office of the ED on Monday and the questioning of different parties is underway with breaks in between.
While Mr. Stalin has thrown his weight behind both the Ministers, the ED on Wednesday focused its investigative attention on Fisheries Minister Anitha R Radhakrishnan, who, like Mr. Senthilbalaji, was accused of committing irregularities while in the erstwhile Jayalalithaa Cabinet. The agency has also moved the Thoothukudi Principal District Court to get a green light to assist the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption in a disproportionate assets case against him.
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In Mr. Ponmudy’s case, the agency has frozen ₹48 crore in fixed deposits, besides seizing an unaccounted sum of ₹81.7 lakh. The ED’s case is that the proceedings from illegal mining were deposited in benami accounts and used to acquire two overseas entities when Mr. Ponmudy was the Minister for Mines between 2007-2011.
While some have questioned the ED’s assumption of the powers of a policing agency, Mr. Stalin sees a political motive behind the searches. He said that the “raids” were merely an expression of the BJP government’s annoyance at the meetings of the Opposition parties in Patna and Bengaluru.
Stalin’s support
Reiterating that the DMK would not be cowed by the ED’s actions, he said that Mr. Ponmudy would legally face the cases foisted against him during the AIADMK regime headed by the late Jayalalithaa. He pointed out that some of the political parties that are now part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have been termed as corrupt by the BJP earlier. “The Prime Minister has now embraced them,” he quipped. On Wednesday, Mr. Ponmudy met the Chief Minister and briefed him about the searches and questioning by the ED.
Tamil Nadu is no stranger to corruption cases. Both the DMK and the AIADMK, when in power, have filed cases against each other. Some cases have ended in the conviction and disqualification of leaders such as Jayalalithaa and her former Cabinet colleague T. M. Selvaganapathy, who is now in the DMK.
Political leaders, who usually dismiss the cases against them as “political vendetta”, have resorted to the same tactic now. Not just the DMK, but its allies, including the Left parties, see a conspiracy behind the searches in the houses and properties of Mr. Ponmudy, a powerful second-line leader of the DMK and known for his outbursts against his political enemies. When Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi staged a walkout from the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Mr Ponmudy was seen making a gesture saying “go away”.
It is not clear what would befall Mr. Ponmudy and his son. As of now, the DMK has put on a brave face to show the BJP that its intimidation tactics using raids and arrests will not work. The DMK is unlikely to relent and tone down its anti-BJP tirade.
It was Mr. Stalin, who first projected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the face of the Opposition in 2019 and also called for unity among the Opposition long before the ED entered the picture. If anything, the DMK may become more aggressive.
Voters will see through
The BJP, however, could partially succeed in its attempt to portray the DMK as a party that “protects corrupt leaders.” But this argument is unlikely to cut ice with the voters as moneybags in the AIADMK, BJP’s principal ally in Tamil Nadu, have been spared of similar action.
Mr. Stalin says that the BJP is angry because he strongly advocated for an anti-NDA front that necessarily includes the Congress, and this put a spanner in the BJP’s slogan of a “Congress-mukt Bharat”.
What is however clear is that the law will take its course in every ED case, and the outcomes, if reached swiftly, will likely impact voter perceptions as well as the fortunes of the political parties involved, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections
