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Bedfellows for power by M. K. Dhar  The
tragedy of Karnataka is that political parties are distorting their
stated ideologies and forsaking principles is order to seize power and
then cling to it. The ‘humble farmer’ of yesteryears, H.D. Deve Gowda
had been preaching political morality till the other day but at the
first opportunity to crawl out of his oblivion he made hasty arrangement
for the marriage of convenience between ‘secular’ Janata Dal (S) and
‘communalist’ BJP.The working system of the political parties in India has been rapidly deteriorating of late. Politicians, senior or newcomers, who all the time preach morality and principles have no compunctions about jettisoning them to further their selfish interests. Yesterday's communalists, who are out to saffronise the society with the help of their frontal organizations, are suddenly held in tight embrace by the so-called secularists, conveniently forgetting the venom they have been spitting at them in the past. Such is the tragedy of Karnataka where politics without principles has been pursued so shamefacedly that one begins to wonder whether the definition of "secularism" has been altered to suit the purposes of self-serving politicians. After the decline of the Congress, political parties have split, professedly on ideological issues and others, such as, corruption nepotism, lack of commitment to the poor and failure to give good governance and ensure social justice. Empowerment of the castes created a set of out-and-out caste-based parties, some of which have ruled in the states briefly. The real reasons behind the many splits were greed for power and temperamental incompatibility of leaders who showed no willingness to tolerate dissent and accommodate the dissident point of view. Where they cannot come to power singly, they have been coalescing with other parties and dividing the lucre and the privileges that go with power. When in power, these new netas broke all previous records of corruption, robbery, nepotism and mis-governance, yet continue to hoodwink the people with false slogans. It was in this manner that the Congress Party, which had, during its first post-Independence phase ruled the country for nearly three decades, before returning to power after brief intervals had split the Janata Party, which re-christened itself Janata Dal, underwent further splits into Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Rashtriya Janata Dal etc, with each branch having made bids to come to power by hook or crook, as long as the principal party was kept out. The past record of Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda is a shining example of how easily principles are compromised and ideologies jettisoned and explanations trotted out to justify even a pact with the Devil. After a short while, with the lust for power still unquenched, another set of excuses is put forward to once again paint the Devil in devilish colours to say enough is enough and part company. The divorce lasts only a few days and principles undergo another revolutionary transformation. The Devil is again painted as an angel and worthy of a hug. The secularists proudly announce they would feel privileged to serve the Devil, so long as he throws a few crumbs at them to help them retain part-hold on office so that they could the reach dividends that power brings. The message Deve Gowda and his flock conveyed is that in politics principles and morals are negotiable and tradable and voters do not count anymore after the elections. He himself become Prime Minister by fluke for a very short while at a time when the country was passing through a phase of political instability consequent upon the Congress having lost power at the Centre. Persons like him and I. K. Gujral were catapulted to the high office to serve the ends of parties fighting for power. They were ignominiously jettisoned when the limited purposes of those who propped them up were served. He had felt so humiliated that he went underground. After nearly a decade in the wilderness, he crawled back into the driver's seat in Karnataka, using classic Machiavellian maneuvering. The intention was to somehow make his son H. D. Kumaraswami chief minister with the support of the BJP who had till then been called "communal" and untrustworthy. Lest he should be accused of so brazenly compromising with his principles and ideology, Mr. Gowda feigned illness and pretended he was on his "deathbed" as a result of the shock his son's behaviour had given him. Even though he was party chief, he took no action against his flock for their "gross betrayal" while forging an alliance with the BJP to make his son chief minister for 18 months. He felt absolutely comfortable thereafter with his son in the company of communal forces. But, he again proved himself as man without principles and untrustworthy when he backed out of the solemn agreement with the BJP to transfer the chief ministership to B.S.Yeiyurappa. His equally greedy son suddenly became aware that for 18 months he was indeed in bad company. While he benefited from being in power he could not countenance transferring power to the BJP. Father and son both betrayed the BJP on the pretext that power could not be transferred to "communal forces", though their support in sustaining him as chief minister was not immoral. Mr. Kumaraswamy insisted that the BJP was incompetent to give Karnataka any semblance of good governance and he could not afford to undo all the good that he had done to the people. If he resigned and handed over the chief ministership to the BJP, its frontal organizations - RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad - would spread communal poison throughout the state, which would be difficult to neutralize later. The BJP would also cut the roots of the JD(S) and render it ineffective in a short period, thereby shattering its dream of holding power in perpetuity. To make him stick to the agreement, the BJP also upped the ante against Kumaraswamy by trying to implicate him in criminal cases. Mr. Gowda posed a few questions to the BJP leadership - why did it not take a position against the Mysore-Bangalore Infrastructure Corridor case? Why did it not condemn the killing of two Muslims in Mangalore riots? When a charge of taking a bribe of Rs 150 crore was made against chief minister Kumaraswamy and a BJP MLA filed public interest litigation in the Supreme Court why did the national leadership keep quiet. When the Chief Minister was accused by one of his BJP ministers of abetment in a murder case, why did not the national leadership or Yediyurappa dismiss him? No answers were provided to his questions. Hence, when the BJP had violated the terms of the power sharing agreement Kumaraswamy too was not obliged to honour his part and transfer power to undesirable characters. His sole aim was to ensure a position of primacy in Karnataka Politics to the JD(S), so that it could hold power on its own after the next general election. He could not, therefore, countenance the BJP gaining influence as a result of power transfer and reduce the JD(S) to a minor force. He, therefore, tried to negotiate with the Congress to support his son remaining Chief Minister in order to avert the challenge from the BJP. Upon the Congress party's refusals to support a JD(S) led government, he backed out and again embraced the BJP, forgetting all the insults heaped upon his son and declared from New Delhi that his party would extend "unconditional support" to the BJP in government formation. Kumaraswamy has been trumpeting his achievements, like having transformed the rural scene by ameliorating the farmers' lot. In reality nothing like that has happened and the funds allocated by the Centre under various employment generation schemes and berozgar yojanas have been siphoned off by the officials, in collaboration with the politicians belonging to the ruling combine and very little has reached the intended beneficiaries. In the past two years the infrastructure of Bangalore, which is touted as an international IT hub, has deteriorated to such an extent that investors are thinking of even pulling out, instead of investing more. The corporate had offered to upgrade the city roads and other infrastructure at their own expense so that they could generate more business. But, this was refused and companies were asked to place their funds at the Government's disposal which would then spend on the intended projects. The proposal was understandably rejected out of hand in the firm belief that the funds would be wasted and that it would better they remain in the present pitiable condition. Karnataka, therefore, is doomed to suffer from bad governance and the plight of the farmers (whose patronage Deve Gowda Proudly claims) will continue to worsen. Except a few populist schemes without any long-term value Kumaraswamy did precious little to bring about any improvement on any front in the state. Of course, the ruling combine politicians have added to their wealth and other assets, forsaken widely proclaimed ideologies and twisted their principles for self aggrandizement. This is the tragedy of Karnataka | |
