Can’t recall when I last wrote about Karnataka politics. Now is a good time because the portents appear promising.
Some History
Roughly two years ago, H.D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular) ditched Dharam Singh, the then Karnataka Chief Minister and became the Chief Minister himself. He joined hands with the dreaded “communal forces” represented by Yediyurappa of the BJP.
Tremendous drama ensued. Deve Gowda, (Kumaraswamy’s father, ex-PM of India, among other distinctions) cussed, wept, and disowned his son. The errant son proclaimed he did that owing to fatherly love–he was routinely dismayed at how the Congress party treated Deve Gowda. After the son was firmly settled as Chief Minister, forgiveness came easy to the father.
That briefly is the story of how a first-timer MLA became the youngest Chief Minister of the state.
The Chief Minister’s Record
Kumaraswamy trailblazed almost from the start. He was proud of his “young team,” he said. He invited IT and other industry czars and promised them his “total support.” He ordered an overnight facelift for Bangalore. He said he’d personally inspect development works by paying middle-of-the-night surprise visits. He’d fire incompetent officials irrespective of rank or reach. He announced a slew of packages for the downtrodden, women, and ruralfolk. He sop-sympathized (loan waivers and the rest) with the poor farmers. He gave a “clarion call” to rouse unemployed youth to build the state, and consequently the nation. After about two years, those speeches and written words remain intact. Not without reason. He had several crucial issues to deal with in tandem with his vision.
He had to engineer pliant MLAs in the BJP (and induct a few of them into his party), slam the Opposition, tour the countryside, stay in Dalits’ homes, stave off a bribery allegation (that almost threatened to topple his government), participate actively in the disgraceful NICE episode, create a shameful ruckus support the Chamundeshwari elections (which his party lost), coverup his wayward teenage son’s hooliganism, duck an expose of his sister-in-law’s land shopping binge, deal with repeated exposes of his err…links with a Kannada starlet and now, the most chilling eventuality of handing over power to the BJP.
The Analysis
Kumaraswamy’s record is slightly better than Dharam Singh, who in my opinion is the worst Chief Minister Karnataka has had. In the initial days, he displayed feeble signs that he could think. That’s perhaps the only compliment I can give him because I see no visible change for the better from then to now.
Bangalore’s battered infrastructure continues to be battered. Karnataka’s roads remain barely fit to even walk upon. The government continues to bleed the middle class folk by offering loan waivers every quarter to downtrodden folk of all hues. The Chief Minister has openly admitted that he’s unable to eliminate the land mafia who almost run a parallel government. A few of these worthies dot Kumaraswamy’s cabinet. An eerie cheapness has overtaken the political class. Localities close to Bangalore witness rampant criminality in every single aspect: Kumaraswamy’s MLAs directly extract dole from sales of sand used for construction, from lorry drivers who transport sand, and other foodstuff, and things you never knew you could make illegal money from.
Kumaraswamy’s promising start has succumbed to politicking of the worst sort. The latest is the long-standing feud with his father’s arch-rival, Congressman D.K. Shivakumar (DKS) to whom he has lost elections twice. Earlier in the year, Kumaraswamy had conducted raids on DKS, had his family harassed, and shut down his mining outfit in Bellary. The penultimate move to destroy DKS was to administratively wipe out Satanur, the stronghold of DKS. By clubbing Satanur under Ramanagaram, Kumaraswamy has ensured that DKS has no place to contest from! DKS has won thrice (or four times) from Sathanur by defeating Kumaraswamy at least once. Ramanagaram is Kumaraswamy’s stronghold.
And so, on the eve of a recent function to announce “developmental works,” fireworks erupted.
It was a platform to announce a slew of development projects. But Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his arch rival D K Shivakumar, on Thursday, made use of it to settle their personal scores, at Sathnur in Ramanagara district… Mr Shivakumar, who represented Sathnur, was the first to fire a salvo at the crowded function…He charged that Mr Kumaraswamy had questioned his mother’s character recently and demanded a clarification. The Congress leader had also brought his mother, Gowramma, to the venue, adding to the political drama.
“You (Kumaraswamy) have questioned my mother’s character. I am deeply hurt…You have put my mother to agni pariksha and she is here ready to face it…”
This perhaps marks the lowest in the character of the state’s politics. I offer this incident without further comment.
What’s Next
October 3 is when Kumaraswamy needs to hand over the reins to (mostly) Yediyurappa of the BJP. When it first joined hands with the BJP, it was a given that 20 months later, the JDS would ditch even the BJP. That possibility is still very real.
From the BJP’s perspective, it was a mixed move. The BJP was never a force in Karnataka but last elections had given it an unexpectedly-rich harvest of about 89 seats. It made sense to join hands with the JDS to gain administrative experience for 2 years at the least. On the other hand, it shot itself in the foot by letting the JDS go first despite its own higher seat tally. Some BJP leaders even felt that Karnataka would open the BJP’s doors in the South: a pipdream at the worst.
The JDS despite Deve Gowda’s statements of bravado–we’ll ditch the BJP and call for interim polls, etc–is in trouble. It knows this is the last chance. There’s nothing called JDS without Deve Gowda, who has already retired. Given Kumaraswamy’s show of achievements on paper, it’ll barely muster numbers if impromptu elections happen–the Chamundeshwari by-elections give a peek into the future of JDS. If JDS goes for a second honeymoon with the Congress, its position would be worse than being a handmaid of the Congress–DKS (and his mentor, S.M. Krishna) and other Deve Gowda-baiters wouldn’t be very forgiving.
For now, the transfer of power looks like the only wise option left. But you never know…
Tags: Commentary, Election 2004, Indian Politics, Society & Culture, Weblogs
On 09.03.07 Palahalli says:
I am hopeful that there will be transfer. If not for anything substantial…our politicos would have an honest story to tell their grandchildren.
On 09.03.07 Aram says:
good narration.
I wish the industrialists led by Ashok Kheny would somehow defeat the Gowda family.
On 09.04.07 kaangeya says:
The Congress (the master divide-and-rule feudatory hegemon) in Karnataka (as in AP) has always played off the two dominant communities against each other to maintain its grip over the state - Gowda vs. Lingayat in Karnataka as Khamma vs. Reddy in AP. Whenever the duplicity became too obvious and unberable third community players like Hegde, Urs, and Gundu Rao, were brought in to quell the dissidence. Unfortunately this time the 3rd party player Dharam Singh turned out to be a total bozo, even by Congress standards. Given the complete breakdown of cohesive sentiments it is doubtful if the BJP can bring its constituents over the hurdle of communal affilitation. Yediyurappa and Anant Kumar (Bangalore MP?) can’t stand each other. The coastal types who have rarely played an obvious role in Karnataka politics could help but they too have been compromised as we have seen in Goa - Digambar Kamat walked out on his mentor Manohar Parikkar. Does the BJP realise what it’s up against? I think not. The party is in all sorts of trouble in Gujarat where the Congress has pulled out its ace in the hole - the caste card and is trying to wreck the BJp, by reviving the KHAM votebank.
On 09.06.07 Jaffna says:
Sandeep
I am posting a comment unrelated to the subject. Please bear with me
I refer to the 11th Athletics World Championships that ended in Osaka on Sunday. The US won 26 medals of which 14 were gold. Kenya came second with 13 medals of which 5 were gold. Russia came third with 16 medals of which 4 were gold. Ethiopia and Germany came fourth and fifth respectively. China came 11th with 3 medals. They presumably were resting their athletes for the Beijing Olympics next year.
Sri Lanka won one medal - the only nation to do so in South Asia.
Europe and Africa did well in this international pre-Olympics event. India was no where in the picture. Anju George of India finished a disappointing ninth in the long jump finals.
The media in Sri Lanka covered this with avid interest while the Indian press focused on cricket instead where India had a humiliating defeat at the World Cup. Athletics, foot ball etc ought to be more important than cricket which btw is no longer the pre-eminent sport in the Anglo Saxon world in terms of public interest.
India appears to only produce mediocre Bollywood film stars (who routinely break the law) and silly beauty queens (a la Shilpa Shetty)!
On 09.06.07 Niketan says:
Jaffna
I agree with the first part. I have just one sentence that I am sure will generate a lot of hate mail. Cricket has killed the sports scene in India.
Regards the second - disagree - Witness the Indian success story in the IT/ Outsourcing/ BPO space. Add to that the manufacturing sector - Automotive, Engineering and Pharma. India has many more entrepreneurs than China and even our manufacturing goods can be of good quality. Once the shackles on manufacturing are removed, I am sure this sector can grow.
Regards Bollywood - I admit most of the fare they dish out is trash, but there are gems in the junkpile. Dont have much time to list them right now. But I would welcome some discussion
On 09.06.07 Anonymous says:
IMO if BJP at all wanted power in Karnataka, it should not have used this back door entry. Even if it wanted experience, it should have been upfront and taken the first chance in this weird transfer cycle.
UP has shown it does not work. Most political parties still consider BJP as untouchable.So even if this JDS transfers power, it will soon find some fickle excuse of withdrawing support. It’s just not worth it.
Mayawatis and Gowdas will surely use BJP to remain in power; the moment they are asked to play second fiddle they will withdraw under some pretext or the other.
BJP, it seems, does not learn it’s lessons easy.
BJP should understand that for it to be nationally accepted, it’s a long haul. Short cuts won’t help. It should concentrate on getting it’s next line of leaders in shape for future battles. It should ensure that post-Advani there is no vacuum.
Reinventing is the key.
On 09.07.07 Mayura says:
BJP is a party of duffers, especially in Karnataka. The two stalwarts of Karnataka BJP viz., Ananth and Yeddy, have time and again proved their incomeptence and lack of administrative capabilities and governance. Ananth had the Civial Aviation portfolio in the NDA government, his performance was so lacklusture that he was shifted to sports and youth welfare ministry. The less said about Yeddy the better…this guy I think cannot even communicate properly in kannada/english. Added to this, the BJP in Karnataka has the habit of shooting itself in the foot. When people were fed up with the congress government BJP had a good chance of winning an absolute majority in the state election. But listening to RK Hegdes good for nothing advice, they teamed up with the most useless and discredited CMs of all J H Patel and lost the elections. Now when they had another chance to win, they teamed up with another crook Devegowda/JD instead of forcing a mid term poll in the state.
BJP can only play a jokers role in a pack of cards.
Mayura
On 09.07.07 kaangeya says:
Mayura,
BJP has done this every time. Remember how they tied up with Sukh Ram in HP even after he had been indicted of money laundering? And now in WB, where they were never strong to begin with, Mamata is walking out of the alliance. Of course for the sickulars, what is the small matter of Mamata sharing a platform with a fire breathing mullah demanding the expulsion of Taslima Nasrin? The gainer from this all will be the CPI(M). In WB as the Congress and Trinamul try to outdo each other in pandering to the Islamic fundamentalists, the CPI(M) will subtly send across the message to its middle class bhadralok constituency that it is the guardian of Bengali culture. The reason why the BJP has a hard time gaining a foothold in WB is that the CPI(M) outdoes it on the Hindu support angle, although it promotes a different flavour of Hinduism, the Eastern variety rather than the Gangetic plain variety. Does the BJP understand these subtleties? Maybe ABV and LKA do, but after them who?
On 09.07.07 Ravindra says:
Not just in Karnataka, if you look at the country overall, one can easily see that the UPA has had some clever political masterstrokes in comparison to the NDA (BJP). Despite a thin majority, they have gone from strength to strength (I have a feeling that if midterm polls are held today, the Congress will increase its tally), while the BJP has shown itself to be rudderles, both ideologically and in leadership terms.
Sad times for the country
On 09.08.07 Palahalli says:
The BJP always wants to appear heroic and adventurous…
Then it goes ahead and sometimes does things that look heroic and adventurous…
Then if falters miserably, because it has none that can retain a semblance of credibility to carry such burden…
It’s “nationalism” indeed fares no better when subjected to some heat.
The remarkable “intellectual/ideological” resurgence of this party, post Palampur….till this date…appears to be the history of this country in microcosm. A history of missed opportunities and fake leads.
There were always two choices for the BJP.
1. To become the Congress Party’s “B” team.
2. To tread another and very difficult/different path.
Unfortunately, the 2nd choice requires men of strength. Men who can make and stand by the most difficult choices.
It appears…that to be the Congress’ “B” team is not just more realistic…but will allow the BJP to achieve at least some of its goals.
Of course, this may be dressed up by party ideologues as being eminently “pragmatic”. For once, they will also be right.
On 09.16.07 KL says:
Karnataka is a “soft” hindutva state.It is different from other dravidian states in that it does not have an entrenched anti-hindu/anti-brahmana position.Kerala has a huge minority population.Tamils have a distict identity.Tamil is an ancient classical language with its own literary traditions.Also they have a mythology glorifying tamil culture and demonising “aryans”,brahmanas and kannadigas.Telugus are powerful and confident.
Karnataka has been the citadel of brahmana culture in the south.Kishkinda was in karnataka,according to many historians.Hanuman resided in karnataka.Asokan inscriptions are found near raichur.Chandragupta maurya retired to karnataka.Aihole,badami and pattadakkal are the cradle of southern temple architecture.The rashtrakuta empire is the cradle of the common heritage of kannada-marathi culture.Vijayanagar dynasty was founded here.
Sri shankara founded his math at sringeri.Ramanuja found refuge in melkote.madhva was born here.Brahmins are in larger numbers in coastal districts.Vokkaligas and lingayats are not found here.GSBs also took refuge from portuguese oppression.Sanketis,mulkinadu vaideeka telugu brahmanas,desastha marathi brahmanas also came to karnataka.Only 60% of the population has kannada as its mother tongue.The British brought tamil labour.tamil iyers came searching for jobs in maharaja’s time.The influx from tamil nadu continued after independence.IT and communication sectors bring engineers from all parts of india.There are many reddis in bangalore,bellary.
Indira Gandhi was elected from chikmagulur.Sonia won against sushma in bellary.BJP won 16 seats in the last loksabha elections.Puttaparthi baba and ravishankar have their ashrams.
Next only to bombay,karnataka has produced prasanna,chandra,vishy,The Wall,Jumbo,Srinathji,all great stalwarts,unassuming,now utthappa.Tamilnadu gets cauvery water.Even the kanchi periyavaa was a kannada hoysala smartha brahmana.
The KSHB are smaller in number than the srivaishnava community(owing alleigance to tamil vaishnavism) and mulkinaadu vaideeka telugu brahmanas.
Karnataka is the home of infosys.
I think JD(S) is scared that mannine magane will be wiped off,if the BJP comes to power.
In TN,mannin mainthar(sons of the soil),AP(telugu rashtra gaurava),kerala(minorities,mallus,also overpopulated) are deeply entrenched because they are either xenophobic or as in andhra,they are confident and powerful.As an indian nationalist(i am a tamil iyer)my heart bleeds for karnataka.Of course there are glaring disparities between mysore and northern karnataka.The coastal and kodagu regions have their own identity.Has the BJP spared a thought for the kannadigas?
On 09.19.07 KL says:
Shell shocked by bus burning barbarism.So much hatred for TN in karnataka.
On 10.02.07 saajid siddiq says:
What is going to be the future of Karnataka Govt?
On 11.20.07 shamgowda says:
Its true that UPA has better strokes than NDA because they are quite
shameless.UPA stoop’s to any level to remain in power.Be it bashing
Supreme Courts or talk of appeasement politics and secular politics at the
same time.The country’s foreign policy seems to be controlled by outsiders.
Manmohan pokes fun of Regional parties in spite of having most regional parties
as UPA’s constituent.RJD,TMC,DMK,NCP, and gets pressurised by DMK’s political
views and regionalism. TR Baalu threatened to withdraw support if the Maritime
University is not shifted to TN.CPI(M) dismisses Nandigram as internal security
problems of WB but is quick to point fingers at Gujarat. Farooq goes on to say that
J&K’s accession to India was a mistake.At no time did NDA get into such embarassing
moments.
On 05.19.08 Seriously Sandeep – Karnataka Elections: The Last Chance says:
[...] Also known as the Family Party. Everybody in the party is effectively Master Deve Gowda’s voice. See this post for a fuller explanation. Gowda’s desertion of the BJP may not be his nemesis this time but it has done undoable damage to the “party.” However, as one of the remaining leaders who can mobilise the masses, JD(S) will fare pretty decent but nobody will be surprised if it is washed out. Enough said. [...]