Stage is set for demotion of Dayanidhi Maran

Instead of dropping Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran embroiled in the telecom scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is planning the next best of shifting him to an inconsequential ministry like ministry of statistics or ministry of science and technology, Top sources in Congress said the same downgrade is in store for another DMK minister M K Azhagiri now heading the high- profile ministry of fertilisers and chemicals, for non- performance.

DMK supremo M Karunanidhi has been hinting at the upcoming changes in the cabinet reshuffle the Prime Minister is planning towards the end of this month. His reaction is anxiously awaited. He may take it as an assault on his family since after putting in jail his MP daughter Kanimozhi as Azhagiri is his eldest son and Maran a grandson.

Until the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Karunanidhi was insisting on even filling the vacancy caused by resignation of telecom minister A Raja, who is now in custody in Tihar, with a DMK man, but he is not in a position to dictate the PM any more. The Congress has no problem if Karunanidhi reacts by asking both to resign than to suffer humiliation.

The party's understanding is that he can not afford to pull out of the ruling alliance of UPA at a time when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is out to take political revenge against him.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said Dr Manmohan Singh prefers to tackle Maran only at the time of reshuffling the ministry instead of acting on the increasing demand to drop him for getting embroiled in the Aircel scam.

The Prime Minister's stand is that nothing has been yet proved against Maran except for allegations and he would wait for the next step by the CBI probing the charges or any strictures by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G scam.

It is still better if Maran refuses downgrade of his status in the ministry and resigns on his own, the Congress sources said.

If the CBI names Maran as an accused in the 13th charge- sheet on the telecom scam it plans to file by June 30 as indicated by its chief Amar Pratap Singh, his arrest becomes inevitable and thus his continuation in the Union Cabinet will become untenable.

The CBI has already registered a preliminary inquiry into the arm-twisting of the Aircel owner for two years until he sold equity to a party of Maran'' s choice to secure the mobile telephony licences for 14 circles.

Singh told the JPC on Tuesday that the CBI has so far filed 12 charge- sheets and five supplementaries and it is now seized of preliminary inquiry into the Aircel scam and other issues, hoping to complete the inquiry by June- end to file new charge-sheets.