- Dayanidhi Maran
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Dayanidhi Maran Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran In office
June, 2009 – July 07, 2011Constituency Chennai Central Personal details Born 5 December 1966
Tamil Nadu, IndiaPolitical party DMK Spouse(s) Priya Dayanidhi Maran Children 1 son and 1 daughter Residence Chennai Religion Hindu As of September 22, 2006
Source: [2]Dayanidhi Maran (Tamil: தயாநிதி மாறன்) (born December 5, 1966, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India) is a member of parliament in India’s 15th Lok Sabha from Chennai Central constituency and Additional Deputy Leader of DMK. He was also the Minister for Textiles in the Union Cabinet, and has also served as the as the Minister for Communications and Information Technology before that. He resigned from the position of Minister for Textiles due to 2G spectrum scam controversy.
He is the son of Late Mr. Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M Karunanidhi. He is the younger brother of Kalanidhi Maran, the founder and managing director of Sun Network.
He is an Amateur Radio Operator. His HAM Radio Callsign is VU2DMK. He had his Schooling with Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai. He received initial education in Tamil Nadu and graduated in Economics from Loyola College in Chennai. He also attended the “Owner /President Management Programme” (OPM) from Harvard Business School (USA).
Contested and been elected twice as member of parliament from Central Chennai Constituency in Tamil Nadu as a DMK party candidate. His winning margin was of over 1,34,000 votes, i.e., 62% in the total votes polled.
He was appointed as Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology on 26 May 2004. For a quite brief time he was away from ministry. Later he was appointed as Minister for Textiles during the year 2009.
As of 2004[update], he is an Indian millionaire having declared assets of 16 million Indian rupees (approx. 360,000 US dollars).
On 7th July 2011, Maran quits office as CBI implicated him in the 2G Scam.
Contents
Achievements
During his tenure as IT and Telecommunication Minister the call rates of mobiles and landlines were drastically reduced which in-turn influenced the growth of subscriptions than ever before.[1]
Controversies
- Maran has been accused of receiving kickbacks to the tune of Rs 700 crore from Maxis Communications. In reply, he has issued a legal notice to Tehelka the news magazine which have published the report.[2]
- According to the CBI, he had mis-utilized 323 telephone connections from BSNL during his tenure as the Telecom minister, and caused the Government of India a huge loss.
- CBI is going to start fresh probe if Dayanidhi Maran had role in Aircel/Maxis Communications deal, CBI's investigations so far have been limited to decisions taken after 2007 by Maran's successor A Raja.[3][4]
- Maran has been accused of demanding the Tatas 33.33% shares from the Tata-Rupert Murdoch DTH project (Tata Sky) for the Sun Network. In reply, he has asked the news papers which have published the report to apologize and threatened to go to court seeking compensation of Rs. 1 crore for personality damage from The New Indian Express, Dinamani and Jaya TV.
- In May 2007 the Tamil daily newspaper, Dinakaran, owned by his brother KMaran, published a survey whose results declared that 70% of the people of Tamil Nadu favoured Karunanidhi's younger son M.K. Stalin as his likely successor as against 2% for Stalin's elder brother M.K. Azhagiri. This resulted in M.K.Azhagiri's supporters burning down the office of Dinakaran in the city of Madurai that resulted in the death of 3 employees and injuries to several others. This resulted in Karunanidhi removing Maran from his position as Union Minister. The Prime Minister refused to dismiss him, and the situation was not resolved till Maran himself resigned on 13 May.[5]
- Maran resigned from Ministry of Textiles after CBI accused Maran, a former telecom minister, of forcing the promoter of Chennai-based telecom company Aircel to sell his firm to Malaysian firm Maxis in 2006.[6]
References
- ^ "Why India Inc loves Dayanidhi?". Ibn Live. 2007-05-13. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/why-india-inc-finds-hard-to-wish-maran-goodbye/40600-7.html?xml.
- ^ "Hello? Who will bell this cat". Tehelka. 2011-06-04. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne040611Coverstory.asp.
- ^ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/2g-cbi-to-probe-if-dayanidhi-maran-had-role-in-aircel-deal/articleshow/8689089.cms
- ^ http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/another-2g-storm-brewing-this-time-over-dayanidhi-maran-109312
- ^ "Maran quits Cabinet after DMK rap". Hindustan Times. 2007-05-13. http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=045b0568-7ba4-415e-a2ca-5d465e97f7d4&&Headline=Dayanidhi+Maran+resigns+from+Union+Cabinet.
- ^ [1]
2G claims second victim; Dayanidhi Maran quits Cabinet July 7 2011 Stronger case against Dayanidhi Maran than Raja: CBI
External links
Categories:- Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians
- 14th Lok Sabha members
- 15th Lok Sabha members
- Indian amateur radio operators
- Members of the Cabinet of India
- 1966 births
- Living people
- Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu
- Union Ministers from Tamil Nadu
- Loyola College, Chennai alumni
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