MK washes hands off Maran

CHENNAI: As pressure continued to mount on the DMK on Wednesday, the party se­ems to have left Union Textil­es Minister Dayanidhi Mar­an, facing  charges of compli­city in the 2G scam and the illegal use of BSNL resources, to fend for himself.After initially saying he didn’t  know how his grandnephew would face the char­ges against him, DMK patriarch M Karu­nanidhi told reporters, “Dayanidhi Maran has said he will face the charges himself.”The attempt to distance himself from Maran’s predicament was clear with his answer to the next question posed to him. Asked if he would accept any decision of the CBI court on the bail plea of his daughter Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi asked, “How can I accept any verdict?”Attempts by Express to speak to the man in the eye of the storm, Dayanidhi Maran, to ask him what his granduncle’s comment augured for him, failed. The Minister’s phone remained unanswered.Karunanidhi also made use of the opportunity to try and lift the mood of his partymen, who have been smarting under an electoral defeat followed by mounting graft allegations against their leaders. To add insult to injury, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has overturned a number of steps taken by the DMK government.Karunandhi hit out at Jayalalithaa’s statement in the Assembly on Tuesday, that the sun had set on the likelihood of an upper house in the State. “Even a small child will tell you that any sun that sets will rise again,” said Karunanidhi. “Stay calm. The stench of the gutter will soon be replaced by the fragrance of sandalwood,” he told his party cadre.