VZCZCXRO9751
RR RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHCG #0399/01 1591155
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081155Z JUN 07
FM AMCONSUL CHENNAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0986
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2575
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 0795
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 5064
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 1337

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENNAI 000399 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV IN
SUBJECT: CHIEF MINISTER'S DAUGHTER TO UPPER HOUSE; THE DMK'S FRESH 
FACE IN DELHI 
 
REF: Chennai 00340 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi's 39 
year-old daughter Kanimozhi is one of the six candidates set to be 
elected without contest to India's upper house of Parliament (the 
Rajya Sabha).  Although a political novice, Kanimozhi will attract 
much attention as she is likely to emerge as the DMK's main emissary 
in New Delhi, possibly filling the void left by the exit of the 
former IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Elections to the six vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil 
Nadu, scheduled for June 15, are set to proceed without contest. 
The major parties have divvied up the seats between them based on 
their strength in the state assembly, thus setting aside the need 
for polling. Two candidates each from the DMK and the AIADMK and one 
each from the Congress and the CPI are set to be elected sometime 
after June 8. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
KANIMOZHI:  DMK DYNASTY'S NEW STAR 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The highlight of the Rajya Sabha election is the nomination 
of DMK Chief Minister Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi.  The 
nomination drew much media attention as it took place immediately 
after Karunanidhi pulled his grand-nephew, IT and Telecommunications 
Minister Dayanidhi Maran from the Union Cabinet (reftel).  Meeting 
recently with Consulate officers, Kanimozhi justified her father's 
decision saying that the party had been "waiting for an opportunity" 
to bring down Maran, which the Maran family provided through the 
controversial opinion poll in its newspaper.  A political insider 
amplified Kanimozhi's comment, noting that DMK officials felt that 
Maran was becoming too quick to try to bypass DMK authorities by 
appealing to the Congress leadership in Delhi, including to Sonia 
Gandhi.  They also said there was bitterness between the Karunanidhi 
family and the Marans over the relatively modest sums of money the 
Karunanidhi family received for selling their shares in the Maran 
family's Sun television network. 
 
------------------------ 
CONGRESS' PLIGHT EXPOSED 
------------------------ 
 
¶4. (SBU) Tamil Nadu's faction-ridden Congress party took several 
weeks to decide to re-nominate their retiring Rajya Sabha member 
Gnanadesikan.  The decision upset the party's state President and 
his supporters, but after much complaining they stopped short of 
open revolt. Karthi Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister and 
an aspirant to the Rajya Sabha seat, was frank in his assessment of 
Tamil Nadu's Congress party.  He told post that in Tamil Nadu, "the 
Congress is not a political party but only a vote bank."  The party 
has no hopes to grow beyond the eight to twelve percent of votes it 
commands now as it lacks credible state leadership, he added, saying 
every minor decision has to come from New Delhi.  NOTE:  Despite 
Chidambaram's pessimism about Congress's role in Tamil Nadu, the 
party remains significant as a coalition partner that can turn the 
decision to either the DMK or the AIADMK in an election.  END NOTE. 
 
 
----------------------------- 
RELUCTANTLY INTO THE BREACH 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) COMMENT: After long avoiding the Karunanidhi family 
business (politics), Kanimozhi said that she finally "decided to 
take the plunge."  Kanimozhi comes across as courteous, soft-spoken, 
deferential, and intelligent.  Despite her leftist inclinations (see 
biographic information that follows), we do not expect her to be 
confrontational in opposing U.S. policies.  Although she is 
reluctant to considerherself as the DMK's new emissary in Delhi, 
Kaniozhi will be a critical player from the start and wll be 
expected to assume that role sooner or latr.  Kanimozhi is the 
obvious choice for that job now that Maran has the left the scene: 
she speaks excellent English and, most importantly, she is family. 
Biographic information follows. 
 
---------------------- 
BIOGRAPHY OF KANIMOZHI 
---------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Having inherited her father Karunanidhi's literary flair, 
Kanimozhi (DOB: 1/5/1968) has earned a name for herself as a Tamil 
poet with a deep interest in folk arts, freedom of expression and 
women's empowerment.  With a Masters in Business Economics from 
Ethiraj (Women's) College, Chennai, Kanimozhi started her career as 
a journalist at The Hindu in 1992, where she worked in the the 
newspaper's art section, the Friday Review, until 1997.  She later 
 
CHENNAI 00000399  002 OF 002 
 
 
worked as the Features Editor of Murasu, a Tamil publication from 
Singapore and was in charge of Kungumam, a Tamil weekly owned by the 
Maran family.  On behalf of her mother, Kanimozhi now runs the 
"Tamil Kani," a publishing company.  She is also working on a 
documentary film on Karunanidhi.  She speaks excellent English. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Although Kanimozhi had no direct involvement in politics 
until recent days, she was active in literary and social circles. 
She boldly launched a forum known as Karuthu along with Karti 
Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, to 
champion the cause of freedom of expression when popular film star 
Khushboo was attacked by Tamil politicians for expressing her views 
on sex.  In February 2007, she organized a folk arts festival 
"Chennai Sangamam," which became controversial because her father's 
government used public funds to support the festival and also due to 
its association with organizations known to be sympathetic to the 
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Kanimozhi is widely 
believed to be sympathetic to the cause of a separate Tamil Eelam 
(homeland) in Sri Lanka, although she has refrained from expressing 
any public support to the LTTE and limits her statements to 
expressions of support to the suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka.  In 
November 2006, she and her mother Rajathi Ammal prominently took 
part in a one-day fast in support of Sri Lankan Tamils.  As an 
activist poet, Kanimozhi fights caste, gender prejudice, and 
discrimination.  She has also taken part in events jointly with 
local Islamic groups who vigorously oppose U.S. policies in Iraq. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Kanimozhi's mother Rajathi Ammal is an "unofficial wife" of 
the Chief Minister.  Karunanidhi's "official wife" Dayalu Ammal is 
the mother of Minister M.K. Stalin (widely projected as 
Karunanidhi's successor as Chief Minister) and M.K. Azhagiri, a DMK 
strongman in southern Tamil Nadu. Within the extended family, 
Kanimozhi comes across as one who maintains courtesies with her half 
brothers and other relatives. 
 
¶9. (SBU) The mandatory official declaration of wealth by Kanimozhi 
in connection with her nomination to the Rajya Sabha disclosed her 
assets worth over $2 million in bank deposits, gold, diamonds, and 
shares in companies, most of these presumably gifted by Karunanidhi. 
 She owns a commercial building in downtown Chennai.  After a 
divorce, Kanimozhi married a Singaporean Tamil, Aravindan, in 1997. 
They have a son Adityan (significantly meaning the sun, the DMK's 
symbol). Kanimozhi now lives with her mother in Chennai and prefers 
to use her maiden name, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi. 
 
HOPPER