(KC Kalkura)
Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy, late Chief Minister of AP used to say; “Delhi (Hastinapura) politics is unpredictable. There could be an attitudinal change in Indian politics if the capital is changed.”
When we observe the recent political developments in Karnataka, there appears to be little difference between the days of Mahabharatha, Indira Gandhi, and the present.
How Srikrihna played the political card is well known. Let me confine myself now to Indira Gandhi and the present situation in Karnataka. She tossed the strong men of Nehruvian days; removed the Chief Ministers according to her whims and fancies; States’ cabinet formation dictated from Delhi; played vote bank politics; caste politics became the order of the day; established dynastic rule; judges appointed to toe the line of the political aspirations of the ruling party; defections encouraged and turncoats rehabilitated.
Now, history is repeating itself. The same age-old political drama is being enacted at Hastinapur and it revolves around Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Advani and Joshi, molded in the political school of Shyam Prasad Mukherjee and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and the stalwarts of the Vajpayee era are silenced. Yeduyrappa joins them.
Orange robed brigade, Seers, and Sannyasins of the Lingayat/ Veerashaiva Cult threatened the very survival of BJP in Karnataka. They directly brought to the notice of Delhi the fate of the Indian National Congress after the Ninth Assembly in October 1990, when an ailing Veerendra Patil of the Lingayat cult was exhibited in Doordarshan, seemingly incapable of administration.
Bangarappa, a backward class leader replaced him. To go back, after the reorganization of the state (then Mysore and now Karnataka), there were more Lingayat Chief Ministers than any other community.
From November 1956 to March 1971, from 1st to 4th Assemblies S. Nijalingappa, B.D.Jatti, S.R.Kanthi, again Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil, all Lingayats, belonging to Congress Party were the CMs Garibi Hatao slogan of Indira Gandhi, with its publicized implementation through nationalization of Banks and abolition of Privy Purses, the country witnessed the resurgence of backward classes and Scheduled castes in the whole country.
Karnataka was no exception. A dynamic backward class leader D.Devaraja Uras emerged as the Chief Minister after the March 1972 elections to the 5th Assembly and continued in the 6th Assembly till January 1980. He fell from the grace of Indira Gandhi and his trusted follower and a robust Brahmin leader, R Gundra Rao pulled the carpet from under the feet and toppled him to preside over Vidhana Soudha (the seat of power) in January 1980 till the term of the 6th Assembly was completed in January 1983.
With popularity declining, Congress was replaced by Janata Party in the 7th Assembly elections in January 1983. A soft-spoken, non-charismatic intellectual Brahmin leader Ramakrishna Hege was chosen the Chief Minister. He continued in the 8th Assembly also till August 1988. Hardly for 9 months, from August 1988 till April 1989, the 8th Assembly saw another Lingayat Chief Minister, S.R.Bommai till August 1988.
Reverting to Veerendra Patil -Bangarappa episode, due to mounting charges of corruption against Bangarappa, Veerappa Moily, yet another backward class leader was thrust to take over the reins of administration.
Congress lost the 10th Assembly elections in December 1994 and Janatha under the veteran Vokkaliga leader H.D.Deve Gowda captured the power. When in May 1996, Deve Gowda became the Prime Minister, Mantle fell on another Lingayat Leader J.H.Patel, who continued till the 11th Assembly elections in October 1999.
S.M.Krishna, a Vokkaliga, leader of the second dominant community in Karnataka was chosen the Chief Minister and he completed the term of the 11th Assembly from 1999 to 2004. In the 12th Assembly, a backward class leader Dharam Singh of the Congress headed a coalition Govt with Janata Dal-Secular in May 2004. With the withdrawal of support by the JDS in Feb 2006, Dharam Singh resigned.
A Vokkaliga – Lingayat combination of JDS led, respectively by HD Kumaraswamy and Yeduyrappa lasted from Feb 2006 to Oct 2007. The coalition failed to last long. Assembly was dissolved in Oct. 2007.
Yeddyurappa was projected as the prospective Chief Minister in the 13th Assembly elections in May 2008. The Veerashaivas, not only dominant but numerically strong (17% of the population), for the first time, supported the BJP, en masse. It won a comfortable majority in the 225 member assembly. Having ridden to power, Yeduyrappa, automatic choice of the party for the Chief Ministership, formed a stable Govt.
However, it was not corruption-free. Dissent within the party saw the unceremonious exit of Yedurappa in August 2011. Two more BJP leaders, Sadananda Gowda (A Vokkaliga) and Jagadish Shettar (a Lingayat) shared the remainder of the 13th Assembly term till May 2013.
Internal dissensions and differences, an inherent weakness of the Congress is not unfamiliar to BJP also. This paved the way for Congress to comfortably come back to power in the 14th Assembly elections held in May 2013. This time Congress’ face was a leader of long-standing, Siddaramaiah from the powerful Kuruba Community. He survived the full term till May 2018.
Now we enter the present scene in Karnataka’s political drama. No party gained a majority in the Fifteenth Assembly election held in April – May 2018. BJP emerged as the single largest party. Its leader Yeduyrappa, with the hope that some may cross the floor, staked claims to form the Govt. He was administered the oath of office. But he could not pass the floor test. He resigned after only six days.
Janata Dal and Congress made an unholy alliance and leader of the Janata Dal, the minority party Kumaraswamy again refusing to become the Kingmaker, became the king himself. The shrewd strategian Yediyurappa engineered the resignation of 11 MLAs belonging to Congress and Janata Dal and withdrawal of the support of 2 independent members to the Govt. Thus maneuvered a majority in the assembly.
This caused the fall of Kumaraswamy’s second term in July 2019. Yediyurappa’s fourth stint as Chief Minister started on an auspicious 26 July 2019. The Govt has to manage floods and pandemics. But Delhi felt that the allegations of corrupt interference in the affairs of the Govt by the immature son of Yeddyurappa required more and immediate attention.
Exactly two years in office, Yediyurappa was given marching orders by the High Command on 26, July 2021. He departed with tears rolling down from his eyes. Resembling the ‘sealed cover politics’ of the Indira Gandhi era, two days later another Lingayat Basavaraj Bommai, son of the former C.M., S.R.Bommai was chosen the 20th C.M. of Mysore/ Karnataka. The whole drama was a matter of a few minutes in the presence of the central observers. In fairness, Bommai is non-controversial. But with questionable efficiency, can he easily swim the stormwater? Among the 20 Chief Ministers, so far there were nine Lingayats, five backward classes, four Vokkaligas, and two Brahmins.
There is more than one lesson for the students of Political Science. Gandhiji wanted the states to be reorganized on a linguistic basis. In deference to his wishes, to that end, Indian National Congress under his presidency in 1924 in the Belgaum Session passed the resolution. However, his successors, Nehru, Patel, Rajaji, and many other stalwarts of the National Movement were not in favor of it. They rightly apprehended chauvinistic, regional and caste considerations might dominate politics. Take the instance of Karnataka. With the merger of the Kannada-speaking regions of Hyderabad State and Bombay Province with Mysore, the Lingayat became a dominant and numerically strong community in the State. This is not to disagree with Gandhiji. His mission was to canvas the language of the people in the administration. People continue to demand it. Nor do I oppose the concept. Unfortunately, the goal is yet to be achieved, even after 65 years of the ‘creation of the archipelago of linguistic islands’. We are ruled in English, a language that is not known to 80% of the population. The reorganization did not give a final shape to the political map of India. e.g. Creation of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Telangana. In almost all the states in India, whichever party has been in power, caste is an inseparable part of electoral politics. Though not totally absent, caste consciousness was not the dominant factor in the early days of the Republic. Had it been so, there would not have been so many independents, penniless stalwarts of the national movement in the legislatures and parliament. Gentle colossus also counted in the decent functioning of the parliamentary democracy.
However, the percolation of August Thyagis (Those who accidentally participated in the 9 August 1942 -Quit India Movement) grabbing the power, slowly became cancerous. It was the beginning of the decline of the grand old party of Indian politics. Many Union Ministers and Chief Ministers were fellow freedom fighters of Nehru. They could neither be dictated nor completely ignored. Nijalingappa in his Autobiography says that Nehru had no liking for him. But he respected the people’s wishes and did not disturb him. There were others too. Pratap Singh Kairon was notoriously corrupt. But he was the strong man of Punjab. With his exit, Punjab was bifurcated. Approval of the Cabinet list by the High Command was a formality. The Chief Minister’s will prevail over that of the High Command. It was only suggestive and advisory. Thus saved the federal structure from degenerating.
Accommodative politics played a predominant role. Nehru wanted a man of grit and sagacity and a respected and commanding personality to implement the proposed reorganization of the States in 1956. He selected the Chief Minister of United Provinces Govind Vallabh Pant, as Home Minister. The choice proved right. When the political map of the whole country had undergone a metamorphosis, it was accomplished without causing much disturbance to law and order. With minimum damage to the political setup, administrative machinery was set right with least inconvenience to the people. On the sideline, Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated in 2014. After seven years, there are still outstanding issues in almost all wings of administration. Not a day passes without some sort of skirmishes. With the exit of C.D.Deshmukh as the Finance Minister, in Aug 1956 the mantle fell on Morarji Desai, a suitable substitute. Those who were eased out from active politics were rehabilitated either as governors or Ambassadors. Those elder statesmen who resigned from the Congress were respected by the Govt and the society. Some of them like Kripalani, Ranga, Lohia, and Kamath became outstanding parliamentarians.
Reverting to the present, to cite a couple of examples, CM of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma is a migrant from Congress. A Trusted lieutenant of Mamata Didi, Trinamool Congress, Suvendu Adhikari, is the leader of the Opposition (BJP) in the West Bengal Assembly. Basavaraj Bommai is the son of the former CM, S R Bommai. He had his political baptism in his father’s political school; Janata and Janata Dal. Defeated in the Assembly elections, he was elected to the Legislative Council. A turncoat BJP leader, he successfully contested the Assembly elections three times and became an ardent follower of fellow Lingayat, Yedyurappa. Did the Saffron centre yield to the pressure from Orange-robed seers? Regarding the formation of the cabinet, the electronic and printed media are rife with the dictations of Delhi, the unpredictable, Hastinapura. Mahabharata Bharata says “Yet’ I have to go to Hashtina”. (అయినను పోయి రావలయును హస్తినకు) Now it is: “You must come to Hastina.” (హస్తినకు రావలిసిదే)
(KC Kalkura is a Kurnool-based advocate. He can be contacted at <kulkurakurnool@gmail.com>)