Before her entry into politics, Kanimozhi was involved in journalism, such as sub editor for The Hindu, editor in charge of Kungumam, and a features editor for a Singapore based Tamil newspaper called Tamil Murasu.
Social Works
Interests
Kanimozhi has been known to support pan-Tamil issues. She takes part in organising women empowerment programs and is interested in the welfare of differently abled people and transgender people. In 2005, with Karthi Chidambaram, she founded a portal supporting free speech. In 2007, Kanimozhi conceived the idea of the Chennai Sangamam, an annual open Tamil cultural festival, usually held during the Pongal season.
Job fairs
She spearheads DMK efforts to organise job fairs, under the banner 'Kalaignar 85' across rural Tamil Nadu to facilitate employment opportunities for young people in smaller cities, towns and villages. Begun as a small employment drive to mark the birthday of DMK President Kalaignar Karunanidhi in June 2008 at Kariyapatti job fairs have provided jobs to about 1,33,000 unemployed youth spread across nine districts. Places it has been held include Nagercoil, Vellore, Udhagamandalam, Virudhunagar, Cuddalore, Tiruchirapalli, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli. She plans to conduct similar fairs all over Tamil Nadu.
Literary works
Sigarangalil Uraikiradhu Kaalam
Agathinai
Paarvaigal
Karukkum Marudhaani
Karuvarai Vaasanai
Her literary works were translated into English, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.
Kanimozhi was a student of Presentation Convent, Church Park in Chennai and later did her master's degree in economics in Ethiraj College for Women from the Madras University. She has been married twice; firstly in 1989 to Athiban Bose, a businessman from Sivakasi, and then to G. Aravindan, a Singapore-based Tamil writer, in 1997. She has a son named Aditya Aravindan.
Political career
In May 2007, the DMK nominated Kanimozhi as one of the party's candidates for the Rajya Sabha. She became a Rajya Sabha member for the second time in 2013. Kanimozhi was the leader of the DMK in the house and was the voice of the state of Tamil Nadu in the Upper house. She was elected from Thoothukudi for the 17th Lok Sabha which was held in the year 2019 and was elected as a DMK's deputy leader of the parliament. As of September 2019, Kanimozhi works as a chairperson of Parliament Standing Committee for Chemicals and Fertilizers.
As a Trade Union leader
She is the president of The Hindu National Press employees union. She is the first woman to be elected to that post.
Secretary to the DMK Women's Wing
She is the secretary to the DMK party's Women's wing and encourages women to enter into politics. She has organised training camps for the district level office bearers of women's wing. She also organised a rally in Delhi demanding the Women's reservation bill to be passed by the parliament.
As per the chargesheet filed by CBI, Kanimozhi has 20% stake in her family owned Kalaignar TV, her step-mother Dayalu Ammal owns 60% stake in the same channel. CBI alleged that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route 2 billion to Kalaignar TV. According to CBI, Kanimozhi was in regular touch with A. Raja regarding launching of Kalaignar TV channel and its other pending works. CBI alleges that A. Raja was further pursuing the cause of Kalaignar TV not only for getting registration of the company from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but also for getting it in the DTH operator TATA Sky's bouquet. She was also summoned by the Income Tax Department, Chennai for alleged tax evasion charges. On 3 July 2012, briefing the joint parliamentary committee probing the scam, ED claimed that it has enough evidence to convict DMK chief Karunanidhi's wife and daughter Kanimozhi. Kanimozhi has defended herself by arguing that she is only a 20% shareholder in the company, who has no involvement in the financial aspects or the liability of a director. During the course of the trial, Kanimozhi's name was cleared by at least one witness who deposed that she had no involvement in the day-to-day affairs of Kalaignar TV and that she was initially reluctant to join the management of the channel. It was also admitted in court that Kanimozhi resigned from Kalaignar board after only two weeks to become a Member of Parliament. In an extraordinary twist, on 21 December 2017 a special CBI court acquitted her along with 19 others accused including A. Raja in 2G spectrum allocation cases. The Court said that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any of its charge. Thus all accused are acquitted.
