When Odisha’s towering leader tried his best to bring DMK, AIADMK together

Former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik's failed attempt to unite Tamil Nadu's DMK and AIADMK leaders in 1979.

Over 45 years have passed, but former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik’s attempt to bring together the DMK and the AIADMK, Tamil Nadu’s principal political adversaries, continues to evoke interest among many sections. In September 1979, Patnaik held conciliatory talks with DMK president M. Karunanidhi and AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) in Chennai. This event was in the spotlight recently after DMK general secretary and Minister for Water Resources Duraimurugan recalled it in an interview to a Tamil television channel, recounting the version narrated by Karunanidhi.

It all began in early September 1979 when the country was getting ready to face the Lok Sabha election after the collapse of the Janata Party government, led by Morarji Desai, initially and that of the Janata Party (Secular)-Congress (Urs)-AIADMK coalition, headed by Charan Singh subsequently. A few months earlier, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spiked her plan to contest in the Thanjavur Lok Sabha by-election because of Chief Minister MGR’s reluctance to support her candidature. This episode affected the personal equations between MGR and Indira Gandhi. The DMK had been bearing a grudge against Indira Gandhi and her party for having removed it from power in January 1976.

The apparent motive of the Janata Party (Secular), which had a following in northern States, in bringing the DMK and the AIADMK together was that everything should be done to prevent the Congress (Indira) from returning to power. In Patnaik’s assessment, if there was an understanding between the two rivals, there would be a “formidable force”, according to a report of The Hindu on September 13, 1979. The Odisha leader, who was the Union Minister of Steel and Mines in the Charan Singh Cabinet, would have felt that the time was the most opportune as the AIADMK and the DMK were not allies of the Congress (Indira).

The visiting leader had back-to-back engagements on September 12 and 13, 1979. On the first day, he met Karunanidhi and MGR at their residence; then, he had two meetings with the DMK chief and his deputy, K. Anbazhagan, at the State Guest House at Chepauk. He began the next day with a breakfast meeting with Karunanidhi. Then, the most unexpected event — the meeting of Karunanidhi and MGR — took place at the Guest House. The two leaders were accompanied by their colleagues — Anbazhagan of the DMK and Finance Minister K. Manoharan, Electricity Minister Panruti S. Ramachandran, and AIADMK general secretary V. R. Nedunchezhian. A report of this newspaper on September 14 said, “After a preliminary discussion, Mr. M.G. Ramachandran and Mr. Karunanidhi were left alone for about half an hour.”

Both Karunanidhi, in his autobiography Nenjukku Needhi (the third volume), and diplomat-turned-historian R. Kannan, in his MGR: A Life, referred to the conditions laid down by the DMK leader. The conditions were: the unified party to be known as the DMK; the retention of MGR as the Chief Minister and the AIADMK’s flag, which had the image of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai; no need for DMK legislators to be included in the Cabinet; the appointments to the posts of president, general secretary, and treasurer to be finalised “at an appropriate time” after the merger; and the withdrawal of a Government Order on the introduction of “creamy layer” in reservation (making the income limit of ₹9,000 a year mandatory for the Backward Classes to avail themselves of concessions, including quota).

In Nenjukku Needhi, the DMK leader states that “not only did he [MGR] accept all the stipulations but also said emphatically that the two parties’ executive and general councils could meet at separate places and adopt resolutions to this effect”. However, The Hindu reported on September 14, 1979, that Patnaik’s proposal was to enable the parties “to reach an electoral understanding which could ultimately lead to a reunion of the two parties”. On the significance of his mission, Patnaik’s take was: the leadership of the south would again re-establish the joint partnership in the governance of the nation and would not allow itself to be divided by “political adventurers”.

That his initiative had ended in a failure was out in the open when MGR said at a public meeting in Vellore on September 14 that the party had grown in strength and “would never be allowed to shrink”. The meeting, according to Karunanidhi, had “hurt” his party functionaries, who began expressing themselves against the merger. On September 13, MGR hosted breakfast for senior Congress (I) leader G.K. Moopanar, according to his biography. Two days later, Karunanidhi, accompanied by his colleagues ‘Murasoli’ Maran, Arcot N. Veeraswami, and S.S. Thennarasu, met Indira Gandhi “after a gap of four years” at her residence and clinched a deal for the 1980 Lok Sabha election. The Congress(I) was represented by R. Venkataraman, R.V. Swaminathan, and C.M. Stephen.