Since Balaji was on probe agencies’ radar, he should have resigned on his own
Politics and cinema are two factors that are intertwined in Tamil Nadu. Since 1967, when the DMK formed the first non-Congress Government, cinema and politics rule the roost of Tamil politics. It all started with CN Annadurai, the DMK chief, who became the first non-Congress chief minister of the State. After his two-year-long tenure was cut short by terminal illness, Muthuvel Karunanidhi was anointed as chief minister. Karunanidhi used cinema and dramas to propagate his style of politics embellished with bribery and freebies. No DMK representative in the Union Cabinet (1996-98, 1999-2004 and 2004-2013) was free of corruption charges which earned the party the unprecedented reputation of an outfit with “DNA of corruption in its genes”. The Justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria Commission of Inquiry, appointed by the Indira Gandhi regime in 1976 to probe corruption charges against Karunanidhi, found out that there were “cogent, convincing and reliable” pieces of evidence against him and described Karunanidhi as an expert in scientific corruption. Propensity to corruption was the basic requirement to get admission to Karunanidhi’s heart, said MG Ramachandran who was ousted from the DMK for questioning the impropriety of the K-clan members. Though MGR’s tenure as CM was bereft of any charges of corruption, his successor Jayalalithaa was embroiled in a series of such cases and the Supreme Court itself upheld the verdict sentencing her to four years’ imprisonment.
It is at this juncture that Senthil Balaji, a minister in the MK Stalin Cabinet, has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of cash for jobs and money laundering. Balaji, an AIADMK activist till the demise of Jayalalithaa in 2016, was no stranger to misuse of office. Hundreds of people had complained to Jayalalithaa against Balaji, who was the transport minister during the 2011-2015 Government. Jayalalithaa dropped him from the Council of Ministers and even Stalin, now the chief minister, had demanded Balaji’s arrest. Interestingly, the same Stalin received Balaji in DMK with open arms, got him elected as MLA and made him the minister of the money-spinning departments of electricity and prohibition. There was no dearth of corruption charges against Balaji and finally law caught up with him. In normal circumstances, the chief minister should have dropped him from the Council of Ministers till the conclusion of the probe. But Stalin was adamant that Balaji would remain with him and took strong objection to Governor RN Ravi’s action of dismissing him. Though the Governor took back his order, the damage has been done. The requirement that “probity should be the hallmark of public life” is alien to Tamil Nadu. Since the State and Central agencies were probing the charges against Balaji, he should ideally have tendered the resignation on his own. If his honesty and integrity are proved beyond doubt, the stock of DMK, Stalin and Balaji himself would go up. Public life is not a bed of roses, it needs boldness.