Crucial test for Congress and Siddaramaiah

ENARADA, Bangalore

By Mathihalli Madan Mohan

It is more than five months since Congress is in back in the saddle in Karnataka, which is too short a period to make a meaningful assessment of the performance of the new government normally.

But the exigency of a crucial loksabha election within the next five months makes it imperative for an immediate assessment for the likely impact it may make on fortunes of the Congress at the national level and on the future of Mr. Siddaramaiah, the Karnataka Chief Minister.

The 2014 is major political challenge that the party faces at national level and at stake is whether it can rustle up enough number to perform a hat trick of wins in the parliament poll or at least remain as the largest single party either on its own or with the allies in the name of the UPA. In Karnataka, the stake is not for the party but its leader, Mr. Siddaramaiah, may find his position in jeopardy, if he does not deliver Karnataka to the national political kitty of the party.  Every seat won by Karnataka, would not only be useful in firming up numbers but also to that extent erode the only southern base of the BJP.

Nationally, for Congress, perhaps no loksabha elections in the past have given as much jitters as the coming 2014 election. The party for the first time has to reckon with grim political scenario. Several opinion polls conducted in the recent months, the latest ones having been done just this month are all unanimous in predicting the precipitous downfall of the party. The Congress led UPA would be outnumbered by the rival BJP led NDA and the yet to be formed third front comprising essentially of the regional parties, which have steered themselves clear of the two national party led combinations.  . The UPA is expected to end up with a poor third with a mere 117 seats while the regional parties may gobble up 250 and the NDA 186 seats. The UPA’s tally would be despite whatever the better showing that the party plans to be hoping to make in Karnataka. If Karnataka falters at this juncture, it would be still worse for the UPA.

The reasons for the poor stock of Congress are not far to seek. The second tenure of the UPA under Man Mohan Singh has been a case unmitigated disaster to put it mildly.  Perhaps nothing has gone right for the party this time. . The government finds itself dragged in a morass of scams of sorts, from which it has not been able to extricate.  Several ministers of the Central Government are facing corruption charges and the latest likely the list is none other than Man Mohan Singh, going by the needle suspicion turning at him in the Coalgate scam.  The overall image of the government has taken a severe beating. It has been losing in one state after other, the latest being the case of Andhra Pradesh, a state which has been the main stay of power base of the Congress and here the party appears to have done a hara-kiri through its decision to divide the state to favour the formation of Telengana. This has angered the people in Seemandhra area comprising of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra Pradesh and people are seething with anger. The prognosis of the next month’s assembly elections in five states, mostly in the North is not edifying at all. It will be one more example of its dwindling political strength of Congress at the national level.  To put it nutshell, it is some sort of a do or die situation for Congress.

The Congress at the national level would not have lost its sleep on Karnataka, but for the unexpected good show the party put in at the assembly elections held five months back. This has spurred the efforts of the Congress to get the maximum from Karnataka, to offset the loss it may suffer in other states in the forthcoming loksabha poll.

Karnataka lost its reputation as the bastion of the Congress from 1996.  The contribution of the state which on many occasions delivered cent percent of the seats  to the Congress,  has been getting reduced to single digit, touching as a low  mark as 6 in the previous poll. As against this the BJP had won whopping 19 seats, with the JDS chipping away with the remaining three (of which two seats were lost to Congress in the just concluded bye election from Mandya and Bangalore Rural) of the total 28 seats the state has.

The hearts of the congressmen might have cockled over the win in the assembly election, which came after a long gap of nearly a decade. What cannot be overlooked is that the victory in the polls had come by default.  The Congress got the benefit of the negatives votes of the erstwhile ruling party the BJP.  However the default win, has revived the hopes that the situation in Karnataka is not that bad, and that it can be salvaged with little pluck and any effort to turn negative votes into positive efforts through good performance of the government, would the cause of Congress better in hunt for numbers in the loksabha elections.

It is here that the Congress Chief Minister finds himself in a catch-22 situation. His government would have to perform or he would perish. Only good thing has been that the Congress has been able to snatch the two loksabha seats from JDS in the bye election just held.  It only indicates that winds are still blowing in its favour. But much more needs to be done to consolidate the position, since general elections are a different cup of tea and voters’ political preferences would certainly undergo a change than what it was in assembly elections or the bye elections.

It is well known that Mr. Siddaramaiah, a migrant in party’s parlance   was preferred to the post, over party loyalists like the Union Minister Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge of the PCC Chief Dr Parameshwara, specifically to serve the cause of the party in the coming loksabha elections. As a recognised backward class leader and also because of his experience in the government during his stint as Deputy Chief Minister and Minister, the Congress high command apparently thought he could be depended upon to serve the cause of the party when it needs it most.

If one looks at the pre loksabha scenario this context, one is bound to feel disappointed over the performanance of the government. It has proved to be, bland, patchy and unimaginative. None of the ministers appear to be aware of the importance the party high command has attached to the election; let along making any conscious attempts to rise to the occasion .None of them have been able to give the impression that they are performers. This is something surprising. The Congress ministers, at least the senior lot, are all experienced unlike those who had assumed office under the BJP dispensation five years ago. Why are they not performing well? This is a question that is puzzling many,   None of them have made a mark in the handling portfolios given to them or done justice to the districts for which they have been made as a district in charge ministers.  It looks as though the state under the Congress regime, has delivered the state from an era of mis-governance and non-governance of the past to that of indifferent governance. It has simply allowed drifting, with no aim or purpose. At the people’s level, there has been virtually no impact of the change of government.

Even Mr. Siddaramaiah is no exception to this.  He did begin well discharging the responsibility from the coveted position, which had missed him twice in the past. The manner in which  he took some important decisions  like the Annabhagya yojana of  providing  30 kg of rice at Re. one per Kg., without waiting for the customary consultations with the Congress High Command , without even waiting for the formation of the full fledged cabinet, did given an impression that  he is there to perform.  Perhaps he must have lost his way later on.

He got gradually drawn into the groove of rut of routine. The schemes that he announced with a flourish have hit road blocks, foreseen or unforeseen, with no tangible efforts made to clear the same quickly. Just for the heck of presenting his own government’s budget, he rehashed the previous one, which had been presented by his predecessor. No where he has been able to provide the road map of plan of action of his government in tackling the some of the major problem of the state or issues facing the government. For example, he has not outlined the policy of the government on the implementation of the Nanjundappa Committee report on the removal regional imbalance, which has been pending for long a time, with the state government faulting on the need to allocate sufficient money to meet the deadline within a fixed time refrain.  The Union Minister for Railways, Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge had to remind him of the state’s failure to provide the matching grant for the schemes taken up on the joint cost sharing basis. There is no clarity on the implementation of the election eve promises made. The strengthening the panchayat raj institution does not appear to be his priority area, nor he appears to bother about   extending the constitutional benefits of decentralisation to the urban local bodies.

On the political front, his naivety is more evident. The legislature party stands sharply divided between the migrants represented by Siddaramaiah and the party loyalists. The continued conflict between the two factions has been acquiring strident overtones. Siddaramaiah has not been able to forge a working relation with the party chief, Dr Parameshwara, once an aspirant for the top posts; both are seen talking in conflicting tones, with the matters reaching the high command. Level. On the demand for dropping his cabinet colleague, Santosh Lad being made by the opposition, on grounds of his reported involvement in illegal mining, Mr Siddaramaiah has needlessly surrounded himself with an avoidable controversy at crucial juncture, without bothering about the negative message it may convey to the people at large. Whether the latest cabinet decision to seek CBI probe into cases of all illegal mining cases, is a tacit recognition and a belated attempt to stave off the demand for resignation remains to be seen.

In the party, there are rumblings over the manner in which the loyalists are being sidelined and migrants having a field day. Even the distribution of the portfolios this is evident. Major portfolios have been entrusted to the new comes despite their rank inexperience while the seniors get stewed in the juice of minor portfolios.

From the lugubrious manner in which the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues are functioning, it is evident that they are either ignorant or unaware of high expectation that high command has from them.

But for Mr. Siddaramaiah, the time is running out since it is his head which would be in chopping box if expectations of the high command are belied.

(Posted on October 22 , 2013 @ 4pm)

(Author is a Senior Journalist and Columnist.  Mobile: +91 94480 74872     Email : madan.mm@gmail.com)

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