The Prodigal Son

When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Dr Manmohan Singh announced

its key ministers in the cabinet, it threw up quite a few surprises, the

prominent one being the appointment of Dayanidhi Maran. If Maran's appointment

as India's new IT and communications minister drew gasps of surprise, yet

fittingly it also brought all round cheer.

Dayanidhi Maran, the son of veteran politician and late Union commerce

minister late Murasoli Maran, will be one of the first timers to enter the

country's 14th Lok Sabha. He defeated AIADMK's Balaganga by over 1,20,000

votes in Central Chennai. And, for this 37-year-old entrepreneur, the transition

from business to politics has been indeed very smooth. Before joining politics,

he was the director of Sun Network and was managing the DMK-backed and Sun

TV-promoted MSO Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) in Chennai. In fact, under his

leadership, SCV was the first MSO in the country to embrace the much hyped and

controversial conditional access system (CAS) in Chennai. SCV has almost wiped

out other cable TV operators, both MSOs and independents.

For Maran Jr, his evolution from a businessman to a politician was almost

expected when he was spotted at various important political meetings along with

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi. Following the demise of his

father, he was almost at once groomed to occupy the space left vacant by his

father. What has surprised many is his sudden elevation as the cabinet minister.

However, given his background-a management program from Harvard Business

School and graduation in economics from Loyola College-Maran's rise was

expected and could reflect positively for the market.

Over the last few years, the communication and IT portfolio in the Central

government has emerged as a high profile assignment. It got a major fillip when

Pramod Mahajan took over the reigns in the NDA government, conducting himself

rather suavely even as he went around trying to promote information technology

in this part of the world. Post Mahajan, Shourie couldn't really walk the

talk. As he was mostly embroiled in the PSU disinvestment agenda, IT was seldom

on Shourie's radar.

But then, it was time to stop 'worshipping false gods' as the electorate

breathed fresh air into the corridors of power. It has changed the entire Indian

political landscape, and the timing couldn't have been better. Dayanidhi's

appointment assumes significance for many reasons, other than his education and

background (Dayanidhi Maran's elder brother Kalanidhi also owns the Sun TV

Networks, the number one Tamil satellite channel with footprints in Europe and

the America's). 

Though, the death of Murasoli Maran is big loss for DMK, as he was one of the

political strategists for the party, the grapevine has it that that DMK head M

Karunanidhi, pitched with the then Prime Minister, A B Vajpayee, that Dayanidhi

be inducted in as the commerce minister, a slot vacated by his father.

Apparently, NDA did not budge to this request. This together with other

issues led to the exit of DMK from the NDA combine. Since then DMK has been

grooming Dayanidhi as the new face of the party, to woe the young and educated

urban middle class voters in the state. 

Today, the young Maran has ventured out of his father's shadows and is

raring to etch an identity of his own. But as usual, the frictions inherent in

coalition politics had almost thrown a spanner in Maran's way. But with the

DMK and the Congress reaching a 'compromise' on the portfolio issue,

notwithstanding festering difference of opinions, Dayanidhi's appointment is

likely to infuse fresh blood into the ministry of IT and communications. Now the

question is whether the younger Maran will proactively and aggressively hardsell

India's prowess in IT to the world as infotech crusader the late Dewang Mehta

did many years ago.

Shrikanth G in Chennai