Can Singh deliver goods in Karnataka?

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ENARADA , BANGALORE

By MADAN MOHAN

Congressmen in Karnataka may or may not be aware but the High Command is certainly aware of the importance of the forthcoming Loksabha elections from the state.

This realisation has dawned on the party high command after its win in the states assembly election, which was unexpected by any standards, which even the most optimists in Congress were not expecting at all. The most they expected was that the Congress would fall short of the simple majority and was required to cobble up numbers with the help of others especially the independents in such exigency. The Congress win from Karnataka, has opened up all of a sudden a possibility of getting significant contribution to its political kitty in the party’s bid to retain the power at the Centre to perform a hat trick.

Ever since this realisation has come, the whole approach has undergone a sudden change. From a docile and laid back approach of the past, the high command appears to be moving in a calculated way.  It began with the selection of Siddaramaiah, who came to Congress  with an anti Congress background as the Chief Minister, overlooking the  claims of the veteran Congressman and the Union Labour Minister (now given the railway portfolio) Mallikarjun Kharge. Later in a more subtle move, it placed party veteran and a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mr Digvijay Singh as the general secretary in charge of Karnataka. Now there is talk of Rahul Gandhi, the heir apparent to the New Delhi throne and Vice President of the party visiting Karnataka to pep up the matters.

The significance of the appointment of Mr Digvijay Singh has practically gone unnoticed. Unlike his predecessors, he is not a pushover belonging to the faceless brigade of the politicians in the Congress pantheon. He is a battle scarred veteran, enjoys a stature as the most pragmatic   person who has a mind of his own and is never afraid of talking it out even at the highest forum of the party.

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Twice the Chief Minister, of Madhya Pradesh, Singh, he voluntarily opted for a self-imposed “exile” from electoral politics for a period of ten years, taking moral responsibility for the defeat of his party government in 2003 elections, which is something unusual for the present genre of politicians of any political hue. And the exile ends this year.

Of interest to Karnataka, has been his commitment to the concept of decentralization of administration, which he had successfully implemented  during his reign in Madhya Pradesh, which is a something of a dirty word for the Congress politicians in Karnataka, not excluding the Chief Minister.

The party government hurriedly got a legislation passed on assuming office in Karnataka, arming itself for the power to remove the democratically elected panchayat adhyaksha in a most arbitrary and undemocratic manner.

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When allegations of corruption were made against him he had the guts to write a letter to then Prime Minister Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee demanding the probe into the charge. He was the one who made allegation against BJP President Gadkari of his business interest and stood firm when the latter slapped a defamation case, and this was one of the factors which contributed to the loss of élan and status of Gadkari.

On his maiden visit to Karnataka, Digvijay Singh gave a piece of mind to the party men in Karnataka. He came down heavily on the spectacle of the  his cutouts and banners splashing all along the route from the airport saying that he did not like cronyism and he was singularly  unimpressed by it and  would not tolerate it.

Mr Singh also spoke out on the expectation of the party from Karnataka. (which has 28 seats, of which party had won 8 seats last time).  The party should strive to get 40% of the polled votes (as against 36% it polled in assembly elections).  In terms of actual votes based on turn out in the assembly elections,  it means an addition  of  round  at least 12 lakh. (out of electorate of  436 lakh votes, 312 lakhs had turned up of which the share of the Congress was 114 lakhs). And this any means is a tall order, going by the present state of party’s preparedness (or lack of it, notwithstanding the fact that normally the turnout in parliament poll is less than that of the assembly.

There are other factors to be reckoned with too.  Firstly, the party’s win was possible not because of the positive votes but mainly because of the negative votes and also because the  division of the proBJP votes.  Secondly, the party in Karnataka has never been pink in its health and whenever its occupies the opposition benches.  It always lays in stupor and serious squabbling within has robbed the party of its vitality. The tendency on the part of the high command to run the affairs through remote control mechanism has stifled the growth of leadership at different level and the malaise has spread from top to bottom, leading to crisis of leadership.

And the new factor after the formation of the government has been the deep fissures noticed in the party divided between the party loyalists and the migrants, with the KPCC chief and the Chief Ministers representing the two such faces. The grouse of the loyalists that they had been sidelined by the migrants remains to be addressed to as yet.  Besides the ministry making efforts have given rise newer schism, the latest being that the scheduled castes/tribes have got a raw deal, with Union Minister Kharge being sidelined in the selection of the Chief Minister and Parameshwara being denied the berth in the cabinet.

The announcement of a coordination committee being constituted to oversee the affairs in the party and party government made by Mr. Singh, is a not only tacit recognition of the malady afflicting the Congress in Karnataka, but a challenge to the stewardship  of Mr. Singh too. The cold war between the KPCC Chief and the Chief Minister continues without showing signs of abatement. Both of them do not exactly jell.  Quite a  number of party men  are quick to  interpret   the high command move on the part of the high command to rein in Mr Siddaramaiah, who is known to take important decisions all by himself without the courtesy of seeking opinion of the party bigwigs.  However the sources close to the Chief Minister chose to deny the suggestion.

How deep rooted is the malady afflicting Congress can be gauged by the fact  even before the import of the visit of Mr. Singh and his observations could sink in, a fresh  war of words has broken out between the KPCC Chief and the Chief Minister.

Dr Parameshwara has fired the salvo in the name of redeeming the election promises with a view to gaining the confidence of the people before loksabha election. The tone and tenor hints at the failure of the Chief Minister to take steps to act on the promises made and possible dovetailing of the same in the budget this first Congress government would be presenting. Among the other point made by Dr Parameshwara has been the need for the Chief Minister to take the defeated party candidates with regard to the works being taken in their respective constituency.

While maintaining that he has not received any letter, Mr. Siddaramaiah however rubbished the suggestion made by Parameshwara about the defeated party candidates being consulted. Mr Siddaramaiah remarked in Mysore that he was a Chief Minister for the entire state and that all areas were equal to him. He would give preference only to the backward areas.

What is puzzling is that why the two leaders are creating a controversy over issues, which could be sorted out across the table. That Dr Parameshwara chose to write a letter, which has found its way to the media, pending the constitution of the coordination committee promised by Mr. Singh, is difficult to understand, unless he has intentions to make it as a public issue.  The stance of the KPCC Chief has come as a surprise, since there has been no history of the PCC Chief trying to assert against the own party Chief Minister. The sole exception has been late K H Patil, the veteran Congressmen during the Chief Minisitership of late Devaraj Urs. The late Patil brooked no interference and hardly kowtowed the Chief Minister. And the reports were that when Urs held back the financial assistance to run the PCC outfit, late Patil mobilized his own resources rather than bend before the Chief Minister for the doles.

At the same time, Siddaramaiahs reluctance to consult the organizational chief on steps to dovetail the election promises in the budget being prepared also appears queer.

And this poses a veritable challenge to Mr. Singh, who has been put in charge of Karnataka. And it remains to be seen how he would resolve it and how soon the proposed committee would come into existence.

(Posted on July 10, 2013 @ 6pm)

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

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