The Hindu Business Line, 1 Nov 2007
Turbulence in Karnataka
Rasheeda Bhagat
Political developments in Karnataka on Wednesday hit a pocket of turbulence with the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) losing patience with the Karnataka Governor, Mr Rameshwar Thakur, who is yet to invite them to form a government. Senior BJP leaders, including Mr L. K. Advani and Mr Rajnath Singh, met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday and demanded that President’s rule be revoked, the Karnataka Assembly, now in a state of suspended animation, be conven ed and the BJP-JD(S) invited to form the government.
The BJP’s charge is that the Congress is up to its old tricks again, preventing the formation of a “popular” government in the southern State.
Earlier, giving credence to the old political slogan of Aya Ram, Gaya Ram, the Janata Dal(S), whose every manoeuvre is decided by the father and son duo from the Gowda family, decided that it is ready to do business with the BJP after all. Of course, it took the JD(S) leadership — former Prime Minister, Mr Deve Gowda, and his son, Mr H. D. Kumaraswamy — almost a month to hunt for support from other political parties, before making the final call that the BJP is, after all, not that ‘communal’.
With the JD(S) leadership deciding to hand over the chief ministership of Karnataka to the BJP, as was envisaged in the original pact of a rotating chief ministership in the coalition arrangement, Karnataka should have had a government in place soon. Already 79 BJP MLAs and 49 JD(S) MLAs were paraded before the Governor on Monday.
Together, they make up far more than 114, the number required for a simple majority in a House of 226, and could have formed a stable government. But the jury was still out till Wednesday evening on what the Governor would do and how long he would take to make a decision.
With this development has vanished the probability, far-fetched to begin with, of the former Deputy Chief Minister, Mr M. P. Prakash, who had tried to split the JD(S), forming a government with the support of the Congress.
Congress, JD(S) trade charges
While the BJP gets ready to form its first-ever government in a southern State, and finally break its south-of-the-Vindhyas barrier, with Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa at its helm, the Congress and the Janata Dal(S) have been trading charges on who is responsible for this outcome! While the JD(S) leaders say the Centre should have dissolved the Assembly in accordance with Mr Kumaraswamy’s recommendation to the governor during the phase he had found the BJP to be “oh, so communal”, the Congress has charged the BJP-JD(S) combine with horse-trading.
Arguing that the Karnataka Governor could not go back on the report he has already submitted to the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, last fortnight recommending dissolution of the Assembly, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, Mr M. Mallikarjun Kharge, said the Assembly had to be kept under suspended animation only on “technical grounds since Parliament is not in session.” He has written to Governor Thakur that the BJP-JD(S) combine should not be allowed to form a government and that fresh polls be ordered.
The Congress, of course, was not averse to a split in the JD(S) brought about by Mr Prakash. But the MLAs who had originally pledged support to Mr Prakash melted away when they scented a government being formed by the BJP-JD(S), leading to Mr Kharge accusing the BJP-JD(S) of horse-trading.
But, then, if the Congress has been playing its own game in Karnataka, it must not be forgotten that when the time was up for him to hand over the chief minister’s post to the BJP, Mr Kumaraswamy, fully supported by his father, made a list of the BJP’s faults and refused to hand over power to such a “communal party”.
Next, they went scurrying to the Congress seeking its support to prop up a Kumaraswamy-led government. In January 2006, the JD(S) had brought down Mr Dharam Singh’s government by withdrawing support, and had formed a coalition with the BJP!
So the Congress could hardly be blamed for saying ‘No, thank you’ to an offer it found unsavoury. Its credibility in the State would have plummeted had it stooped to supporting a party that had backstabbed it not so long ago. And that only to keep the BJP out of power, even though this possibility at that time appeared to be thin, as Mr Kumarasway appeared most reluctant to vacate the CM’s chair for anybody else.
It must be said that the BJP has played its cards remarkably well in this entire drama. Of course, harsh words were uttered and JD(S) top brass were called ‘backstabbers’, ‘betrayers’ etc by the BJP leaders; but at no level did the political discourse reach a point of no-return. By and large, the language used during those “difficult days” as the coalition between the two parties became unstuck, was civil even, though tough.
While the Karnataka Governor takes his own time to invite the BJP-JD(S) combine to form the government, Mr Kumaraswamy is going through the usual manoeuvres of keeping his flock together at a resort to prevent horse-trading. The political developments in Karnataka reveal, once again, that nothing changes much in politics except the dramatis personae.
Saffron spread in Karnataka
Much is being made about the BJP-led Government coming so close to power for the first time in a southern State, but among the southern States, Karnataka is where the saffronites have had the most success in increasing their presence and mobilising votes.
For some reason, the saffron magic that has failed in States such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh or Kerala, has worked in Karnataka.
For one thing, there is a strong and disciplined RSS presence in Karnataka, especially in the southern and coastal regions, and the saffron brigade’s constant chants of the Congress’ ‘minority appeasement’ has found more takers here.
Also, the Ramjanmabhoomi movement found a lot of support in Karnataka, which ultimately resulted in the BJP establishing a presence in the State and winning Assembly seats.
Over the years, the BJP leaders have found it worth their while to fish in troubled waters in Karnataka and widen the communal polarisation that already existed; the various rath yatras of the BJP have found much more enthusiasm and support in Karnataka than in other parts of the south.
The Hubli Idgah Maidan controversy threatened to explode into a huge communal flare-up in the early 1990s when the BJP tried to hoist the tricolour at a site where litigation was going on. The rabble-rouser Ms Uma Bharti played an active role in this attempt, and it finally came to haunt her much later when a non-bailable warrant was issued against her in the Hubli Idgah Maidan case. The subsequent developments resulted in her ultimate exit from the party.
If the BJP is given a chance to form the government in Karnataka, one hopes it will strive to give better governance than the State has received in the last couple of years, particularly in revamping the dismal infrastructure for the internationally-acclaimed IT hub, that is Bangalore.
For the beleaguered party, under siege on various fronts, not the least of which are infighting and serious leadership issues, this development would come as a shot in the arm.
Even though it faces the JD(S) charge of attempting to split the party, the Congress too has not done too badly in this entire murky episode in Karnataka which began with Mr Kumaraswamy refusing to hand over power to its coalition partner and going around shopping for support from the Congress MLAs.
The one party which comes out with a sullied image is the JD(S); after bringing down the Dharam Singh government, it did all it could to deny BJP its time in the sun. “Sticking to power at any cost” is not a label that voters cherish.
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