Karnataka Congress is reaping the consequences of a toothless High Command that can no longer discipline its state chieftains, turning the state into a theatre of factional bloodsport between Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shiva Kumar.
IN 1980, KARNATAKA LEGISLATOR H.C. Srikantaiah mass-defected from the Congress (Urs) to the Congress (I), taking 84 MLAs with him. In a stroke, it unseated D. Devaraj Urs, now in his second consecutive chief ministerial term; Urs had lasted less than a year in power.
But Srikantiah would live to permanently regret his backstabbing. His fond hope of becoming the next chief minister was blown by Sanjay Gandhi who sidelined him and installed R. Gundu Rao, a Brahmin, on the coveted seat. Gundu Rao and his Man Friday, F.M. Khan, part of Sanjay’s inner circle, had quietly rigged things in Delhi.
Devaraj Urs died a broken man in 1982. But few Congressmen showed any sympathy to the manner in which he had been betrayed. In fact, Devaraj Urs had been paid back in the same coin — just ten years ago, Urs had engineered the ouster of Chief Minister Veerendra Patil and had succeeded him by lobbying with Indira Gandhi.
On her part, Indira Gandhi revelled in orchestrating and watching these abominable games. Pitting state leaders against one another and replacing them at whim was one method to keep her power from being challenged. From Uttar Pradesh to Karnataka, the list of Chief Ministers that she barred from completing their terms is quite long.
Rajiv Gandhi followed his mother’s precedent during his one-term tenure as Prime Minister. He was responsible for shunting out the selfsame Veerendra Patil as Chief Minister and installing S. Bangarappa in his place in 1990. Rajiv gave the dismissal order from the Bangalore airport. Bangarappa likewise, was unceremoniously dethroned in just two years and Veerappa Moily took his place.
All these ousted Congress Chief Ministers from Veerendra Patil to Devaraj Urs to Bangarappa had another trait in common. They quit the Congress and formed their own party — only to return to the mothership and then quit again and then return and then quit…
A similar situation is currently playing out in Karnataka but with vastly altered power dynamics.
Every notable Congress leader including Mohandas Gandhi had remarked that the Congress is a party of factions. The facade of unity was kept oiled only by the freedom struggle. When the British departed, the fissures cracked wide open and after Nehru’s death, became full-blown explosions erupting with sickening regularity.
From the 1960s, the Congress has never witnessed a decade without splits, revolts, defections and breakaways. But these were contained, suppressed, punished or even forgiven as long as Indira Gandhi was in control. To a much lesser degree, even Sonia Gandhi had retained a feeble semblance of this control.
POST 2014, the so-called Congress high command has become utterly powerless. Ever since, the tail has been wagging the dog. The Nehru dynasty and its Delhi courtiers are pretty much in the thrall of state leaders some of who know the power they wield over the central party machinery.
Chief among them is Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. While he is duly deferential in public to the alleged High Command, he is aware of the full extent of his near indispensability. Ranged directly against him is Deputy CM, D.K. Shiva Kumar, whose tearing ambition is well-known in the state.
Both have had grossly different career trajectories.
Siddaramaiah, an import from Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular), in a way, dealt an irrecoverable blow to the JD(S) when he quit it in 2006.
He has made no secret of the fact that he is following the template of Devaraj Urs who carved out a fresh vote bank comprising pretty much all chunks of the non-Lingayat and non-Vokkaliga communities.
In Siddaramaiah’s terminology, this is the AHINDA bloc — Muslims, Christians, OBCs and Dalits. A Kuruba (shepherd) by caste, Siddaramaiah seems to have perfected the arithmetic of this vote base.
But in practical terms, no Karnataka Chief Minister has pampered the Muslim clergy to this extent — rivalling only Mamata Banerjee — and splintered the Hindu society even along sub-caste faultlines!
To make it worse, he is also the singular Chief Minister to run a Government according to the dictates of the Far Left ideology. His kitchen cabinet in his first term (2013-18) looked like a laundry list of the whos who of the Woke gang in Karnataka.
D.K. Shiva Kumar on the other hand, is firmly chiselled in the thuggish style of Congress student politics of the 1980s.
Widely known and feared by many sections of Congressmen for his strong-arm methods, dirty tricks and brazen use of money, he is, by his own admission, “an agriculturist by birth, a businessman by profession, an educationist by choice, and a politician by passion.”
Shiva Kumar hit political gold dust when former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna drew him into his inner circle during 1999-2004. Ever since, he has been candid about his ambition to win the ultimate prize.
He is also regarded as the Karnataka Congress’ troubleshooter for a straightforward reason: deploying unconventional methods, to put it mildly. That said, the true extent of his reach and influence does not extend beyond a few pockets in and around Bangalore and his home town, Kanakapura. He also has amassed a substantial number of enemies within the party.
THE 2023 KARNATAKA ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS saw Shiva Kumar emerge as force that rivalled Siddaramaiah’s power. The Congress’ stupdendous victory was largely credited to him, and when one reckons the climate of that time, Shiva Kumar almost garnered the Chief Minister’s chair. However, after sustained manoeuvring, Siddaramaiah got the prize for the second time. A 50:50 compromise had been apparently worked out by the High Command: 2.5 years for Siddaramaiah and the remaining for D.K. Shiva Kumar.
In hindsight, it seems incredible that Shiva Kumar believed that Siddaramaiah would actually vacate the seat and accept a junior position thereby ending his political career.
And now that the moment of reckoning has arrived, the fireworks, as expected, have exploded in stark Technicolour.
Both camps are honing their strategies by the second. Rumours, hearsay and speculation are rife. Truth is dancing to the tune of gossip. TRPs are at a record high.
While die-hard loyalists in both camps are batting for their respective leader, a substantial number of MLAs are hedging their bets with faux-neutrality.
However, both Siddaramaiah and Shiva Kumar are united on one point: the High Command’s decision is final. The spectacle would’ve been humourous only if it weren’t so pathetic.
The AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, a veteran heavyweight in the Karnataka Congress who is camping in Bangalore for three days, is supposed to be the High Command.
Yet, neither Siddaramaiah nor Shiva Kumar are paying any heed to him. Kharge’s home is about 150 metres from Shiva Kumar’s. On his part, Kharge finds himself in a rather precarious situation. His son Priyank Kharge is Karnataka’s IT minister and as such, no matter who wins this war, his future is delicate.
Elsewhere in Delhi, Shiva Kumar’s loyal MLAs are holed up in the Samrat Ashoka Hotel.
Siddaramaiah’s loyalists have, likewise, been busy exerting their own pressure tactics.
A couple of days ago, Home Minister G. Parameshwara — a veteran Dalit leader — announced that he has always been “in the race.”
And then there are any number of anti-Shiva Kumar MLAs who are now claiming their own share of the credit for the 2023 electoral victory.
There are also speculations about the emergence of a Dark Horse who would sideline both Siddaramaiah and Shiva Kumar.
BUT THE FULL BLAME for Karnataka’s ongoing chaos undoubtedly belongs to the “real” High Command — Rahul Gandhi and his family. The 50:50 power sharing formula worked out in 2023 was both ill-informed and impulsive. Afraid of antagonising both Shiva Kumar and Siddaramaiah, the Congress dynasty thought that it was warding off what it considered was a temporary threat. That threat has now assumed monstrous proportions and threatens to undo the handsome gains of the 2023 triumph.
And as we saw earlier, in a previous era, a Sanjay or Indira Gandhi wouldn’t have blinked before replacing or expelling both Siddaramaiah and Shiva Kumar, a lesson H.C. Srikantaiah learned so painfully.
At the moment, the situation seems to be a perfect checkmate. Overall, two dreadful possibilities stare at the Congress.
Over the last eight months, political circles and media speculation has it that if Shiva Kumar is denied the Chief Ministership, he would shift over to the BJP with his MLAs — which explains his frenetic drumming up of MLAs, visiting two who are in jail.
And if Siddaramaiah is dethroned, there are high chances that he will split the Congress in Karnataka.
But in practical terms, a Dark Horse as the next Chief Minister is not even in the realm of possibility.
Needless, in all these cases, the Government will fall.
In the end, no matter who wins in this disgusting political paralysis, the assured losers are the people of Karnataka who are already scorching under the inferno of two-plus years of misgovernance, corruption and loot.
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