MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: The manner in which the BJP high command moved to sort out the three-week-long political imbroglio within the ruling party in Karnataka, has exposed the chinks in the armoury of the BJP, both at the national and state levels.
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1. The delay in decision-making: The situation in Karnataka did not brook any delay, politically and administratively, for the paralysis in the working of the government as a result of the crisis, had brought to a virtual halt the task of the rehabilitation of the people devastated by the floods in northern Karnataka, the political turf of the party.
Every day’s delay in resolving the crisis stood the risk of denting the battered political image of the BJP government some more.
Unmindful of this, the BJP leadership took its own sweet time in solving the crisis. It indulged in the luxury of procrastination, held endless meetings, which proved futile, and issued diktats, which were mocked at.
Moreover, for a party which prides itself on how it deals with issues differently from the Congress, the very fact that the State issue had to be sorted out at the level of the “high command”, a Congress term the BJP scorns, underlined the difference between precept and practice in realpolitik.
2. The lack of effective leadership: Led by the so-called Iron Man and the “former future Prime Minister of India” (to use churumuri‘s formulation), L.K. Advani, the BJP leadership dithered and appeared confused while dealing with the Reddys, who had raised the demand for a change of leadership.
This approach was in sharp contrast with the firm and quiet manner in which Sonia Gandhi chose to put Jagan Mohan Reddy (the ambitious son of the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy) who was aspiring to step into the shoes of his father, in his place.
Moreover, the writ of the BJP bigwigs like Advani, president Rajnath Singh, and Karnataka in-charge Arun Jaitely hardly ran. After several rounds of confabulations, the trio was absolutely clueless as to how to resolve the crisis as the Reddys proved to be intractable .
Eventually, it was left to Sushma Swaraj to apply the healing touch.
The Reddy group merrily defied the leadership, rejected the formula proffered and ignored the warning of possible disciplinary action. Barring the fact that their stand against changing the leadership in Karnataka ultimately prevailed, the BJP leadership could not prevent Yediyurappa from swallowing the humiliation heaped on him.
Yediyurappa was ultimately made to yield to the pressure by the dissident group on various issues. As for the Reddy gang, they went scotfree with their act of rebellion, after having indulged in an embarrassing game of carting away the supporters to luxurious resorts far away from Bangalore.
3. A Godmother, dummy, not a Godfather: Ever since the Reddys started flexing their political muscle in Karnataka, the identity of their Godfather in the party hierarchy had been a matter of speculation.
It is now clear that the Reddys had not a Godfather, but a Godmother, in Sushma Swaraj.
And the Reddys have no qualms in publicly acknowledging her as much.
Theirs is a decade-old association. It started in 1999 when Sushma contested against Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha election from Bellary. Thanks to the backing of the Reddys, she was able to make the Congress fight for very vote.
Result: in a constituency which used to routinely return Congress candidates, Sonia Gandhi and the Congress had to huff and puff to the victory post.
Though she lost the poll, Sushma Swaraj maintained regular touch with Bellary and made her annual visits during Varamahalakshmi pooja to bless the Reddys. Over the years she has turned out to be their mentor. The recent BJP crisis was payback time for her, in a manner of speaking.
4. Was the solution deliberately delayed?: Why did Sushma Swaraj hold back from lending a hand to solve the crisis and why did she move in only when others including Advani failed to make headway? Did she wait till the pitch was sufficiently queered before stepping in to strike a deal which was totally favourable to her protégés?
Was she trying to teach a lesson to Yediyurappa who had ignored her?
Or did Sushma Swaraj use this opportunity to demonstrate her clout and political prowess at a time when the BJP is scouting for new faces, as a replacement Rajnath Singh which is imminent?
5. In the end, an unworkable formula: The peace formula worked out is farcical to say the least. The formula of retaining Yediyurappa as CM and allowing the Reddys to stay in the cabinet, reminds one of the popular Kannada proverb “Neither the serpent should die nor should the stick be broken”.
By the nature of their personalities, this is an unworkable formula.
Yediyurappa is more a solo than a team player, while the Reddy brothers are openly aggressive politically and do not countenance anybody trying to boss over them. Therefore the day is not far off when fireworks might surface again between the camps, since the party is now clearly divided between the pro-Yeddyurappa and pro-Reddy camps already.
The BJP’s national leadership has taken a strange decision of constituting a coordination committee to oversee the working of the government in Karnataka.
What is normally done in coalition government is sought to be undertaken even under a single party government. Perhaps this is a tacit admission of the fact that factionalism in BJP in Karnataka has come to stay.
But the most pernicious aspect of the solution is the manner in which the leadership has capitulated to the Reddys, their dubious reputation of flaunting money power for political aggrandisement, their alleged involvement in the illegal mining activities, and their overbearing attitude that they are a cut above the law.
By winking at the continued indiscretions of the Reddys and prevailing upon Chief Minister to yield to them, the national leadership appears to have given a virtual carte blanche to the group to run Karnataka in whatever manner they like and choose.
The BJP’s sphinx-like silence on the MLAs indulging in politicking at the meanest level and enjoying the comforts of luxurious resorts, while those who had elected them reeled under the misery brought about by flood, appears to be totally callous for a national party which wants to prove that it is qualitatively different from others.
If the national leadership of the BJP had chosen to sacrifice the normal democratic norms at the altar of political opportunism, Yediyurappa has sacrificed his self-respect to keep his chair intact.
He has not only bent backwards to accommodate the demands of the Reddy group which he had earlier rejected, but has also accepted conditions, which no other self-respecting CM would have agreed to.
This is only the beginning of the era of embarrassment for Yediyurappa.
He has already obliged the Reddys by acceding to their demand for dropping his two trusted aides, the minister Shobha Karandlaje, his secretary, bureaucrat and senior IAS official V P Baligar. Five others ministers are expected to follow suit shortly, who would be replaced by an equal number of pro-Reddy legislators.
The proposed coordination panel would further erode the authority and discretionary powers enjoyed by the Chief Minister.
The CM has already had the mortification of reinstating the pro-Reddy officers, whom he had earlier transferred on charges of non-performanance. It includes the deputy commissioners of the districts of Bellary and Gadag, and the superintendent of police in Bellary, the home district of the Reddys.
Yediyurappa today stands totally devalued, and is shattered, too, judging from the manner in which he has been ruminating his plight and shedding tears in public.
Everybody knows that his authority to govern has suffered serious erosion because of the dissident activities. It is now common knowledge that the Reddys hold all the aces.
It is not that a seasoned politician like Yediyurappa is unaware of the predicament in which he has landed. But what keeps him going is his singleminded determination to be in power.
The addiction to power, is not however a trait, which is unfamiliar to him.
It was noticed in 1999, when he was shocked by his defeat in the assembly election. As was his wont, he vowed that he would enter the legislature only through a direct election.
Before the people could digest the implication of his statement, Yediyurappa had chosen the path of indirect election to enter the legislative council in a bid to be active in politics and legislature.
Deja vu.
After the JDS – BJP political fiasco i thought the karnataka politics had reached an abysmal low state , but this episode of BJP has proved me wrong.
What a fall for Yeddi!
I disagree to most of what you have written.
BJP is a divided and spoilt house already except for some fortifications in pockets.
Recall how Mohan Bhagawat called for LK Advani’s head in no uncertain terms and the couple of rendering incidences where stalwarts like Arun Shouri and Jaswant Singh were ignominiously removed/kicked out.
Also remember how LK Advani was silenced when he praised Jinna. Advani was politically perfectly right in doing so but it was not serving the interests of others in the party.
Yediyurappa is no saint and probably he is more corrupt than all the present and past politicians in Karnataka and India. If there is a someone who went from zero to 3000 acres of land in about 3-4 years and about a few thousand crores worth of property then it is only this Yediyurappa.
This is no pitch for the Reddy brothers but what did Yediyurappa did to protect national interest vis-a-vis Reddy brothers? Instead of taking the noble step, he went about demanding his pound of flesh justifying his moves and demands brazenly as his way of clipping the defrauders. What a shame. Mahatma Gandhiji would have in all certainty killed this man who deceives his own countrymen but still claims to be pure.
Well, Reddy’s might have made big time fortunes by all means but excluding inhuman means like other politicians including Yediyurappa do. At least they haven’t squeezed the poor man seeking help to solve penury or treat ailing daughters and …
You probably don’t know how much this man is hated on the streets and within the party. Just because he doesn’t have a business background, you have went on to deduce that he is less of a demon than the Reddys. Come on… He is probably as rich as the Reddys if not more,
If you remember, we (all the kannadigas) thought Bangarappa was the most unsurpassed corrupt child India has borne but the current lot and most prominently the Yediyurappa and co has put them to shame.
It’s not only a shame to us, your readers but also a beating to have been reading you for all these days to see this day. Yes, but you could have tried to put things in the right perspective.
1. Nowhere and at no time in India, were MLAs asked to resign within a few days after getting elected, and then switch sides to the opposite camp. Several Cong and JDS members were lured into resigning days after getting elected and they switched sides to BJP.
Operation Lotus is a first of its kind in the history of India.
2. Nowher and at no time in India, has a cabinet minister been dropped at the insistence of another cabinet minister!
3. In no other party has CMs openly defied the diktaits of the high command as much as BJP. From Madan Lal Khurana to Keshubai Patel to Uma Bharti to Kalyan Singh to Suresh Mehta to Shankar Singh Vaghela ..the list is endless.
Reddy brothers in Karnataka have proved right, the age old saying that ‘Money can make many’ and the money power and muscle power can get
anything done. The BJP both at the National and State level have ashamedly succumbed to money power in their futile bid to save the only BJP government south of Vindhyas.
The Chief Minister Yediyurappa should have quit the post, recommend dissolution the assembly. By this action he could have taught a lesson to
the Reddy brothers showing them that Money power could do nothing before the people power. The electors would not have elected the MLAs who have supported Reddys if elections were to be held.
Yediyurappa has lost the chance of getting re-elected as chief minister with a fulfledged majority.
“But what keeps him going is his singleminded determination to be in power”
The above statement is the clincher.
If Yeddi still needs to wear his moral cheddi then he should resign its as simple as that.
Reddy brother’s god mother Sushma’s days are numbered. Being the member of coterie of LKA, what would happen to her when LKA steps down come January 2010. What will happen to Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh ( who is going to end his tenure in December).
If Yeddi had an iota of brains, he should discretely join hands with Rosaiah of AP and crush the Reddy brothers once and for all.
Reddy’s have openly challenged Sonia and Congress, by supporting Sushma Swaraj in Bellary. Jagan Reddy has openly challenged Sonia for the AP CM’s post. Reddy brothers and Jagan are hand in glove in mining deals. Rosaiah wants to curtail Jagan’s influence in AP and has quitely started sqeezing the mining interests of Jagan/Reddy brothers. So Yeddi, if you are listening join hands with Rosaiah and turn the screws on Reddy brothers and Sriramulu in Bellary and make sure they go back to the good old days of running a Chit Fund Company in Bellary :)
Yediyurappa is certainly a corrupt, nepotistic person, who does everything for his clan.
However, he has one virtue, which isn’t the case with the Reddys… He has been in public life for long, and climbed his way up the hard way. Reddys have had it easy. A creatures of flawed Natural resource policy of govt, they have looted the state and nation (even more so than Ambani brothers, who atleast have an enterprise built around the natural resources, not just export the resources bare).
However, from all accounts, VP baligar was an upright officer. Also Shoba was effcient (and there wern’t any direct corruption allegations against her, and neither any nepotism charges. So, as they say when two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
In reality it is Shoba K, who has been humiliated! People talked non-sense about her personal life, alleging imagined or real relationships between her and Yediyurappa.
The reality of this is not a concern of anyone else except the individuals involved. So, all these insinuations were nothing but cheap talk to denigrate a well performing minister, who has always been in social work and doesn’t have any overt familial interests that can be driving her.
Why is it that our electorate elect nepotists like Yediyurappa, megalomaniacs like Reddys and people like Manu sharma’s father, DP Yadav or even people like Renukacharya and tolerates insults to dedicated social workers like Shoba K?
What indeed was the mistake of Shoba or Baligar??
Our voters (and that includes me) are to be blamed for current mess. We created these monsters. We keep voting for them.
I feel a compromise was necessary… state would be safer with a Yeddy as CM than Reddy…. Yeddy shld join hands with Roasaiah show to Reddy’s what politics mean….
Yaddi is the most spineless Chief Minister in the history of Karnataka.
The whole state knows how strict and honest officer Mr. Baligar is and it is a fact that, he belongs to Gadag district of which Ramulu is Ustuvaari Minister.Still he does not want Mr. Baligar to work with the Chief Minister,and supports the corrupt officers.
Last time Kumaraswami – Yaddi gifted our state to NORTH INDIAN Rameshwar Thakur to loot and this time there is a fear that,another northi Sushma Swaraj (who was kicked out by Bellary people ) will come and loot our Karnataka. God save our state from these spineless politicians.
Reddys may now be twirling their mustaches thinking that they have managed to see Yeddyurappa in the place they wanted but the way things are spinning out of control with Andhra Pradesh getting into the act and other mine owners gunning for them it may be the turn of Reddys to run for cover. The political situation is so volatile now anything can happen. One thing is certain that the regime of Yeddyurappa is on fast track to disintegration and unlikely the voters will trust BJP again. For this large part of the blame squarely rests with the spineless High Command
I think a religious party like BJP, with their sectarian views and politics that thrives only on paranoia and inferiority complex induced in a section of the population is not good for India.
What is the necessity for a party like BJP? Those Indians who are patriotic are so irrespective of their religious, cultural or linguistic backgrounds. Then what is the need for religious parties like BJP or Muslim League in this country..? I think people should shun all sectarian outfits, which include the RSS and their front organisations like BJP/ VHP, Muslim League, SIMI etc.. Their religious affiliations do not matter.
India can live with the evil of corruption in politics, but not with violent sectarianism of any color.