C ontrary to the rumours floating around in Chennai, DMK patriarch Muthuvel Karunanidhi hasn’t given up on his embattled grand-nephews, the Maran brothers, as yet. Perhaps to reinforce the fact, he even issued a belated statement on October 11 saying, “They (Dayanidhi and Kalanithi Maran) are like my sons and my support to them to face up to the situation arising out of the raids legally will always be there.”

The DMK leadership has been preoccupied with the assembly bypolls in Trichy (West) on October 13 and the local body elections on October 17 and 19, so the raids at the house and offices of Kalanithi, CMD of Sun Network, and ex-Union minister Dayanidhi in the 2G spectrum scam didn’t create much of a ripple. (In contrast to the CBI action on ex-telecom minister A. Raja and Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, which had created a debate within the party on snapping ties with the Congress at the Centre.) Part of the reason also is that Dayanidhi Maran, although a DMK member, and his brother Kalanithi are...