Disunited states of India, here we come

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As someone once said “If they play dirty, then you play dirty.”

But it still doesn’t make complete sense. The timing, for one... There’s at least another ten months to go before the assembly elections here in Karnataka. And a good 24 — an eternity in politics —before the national poll-bender. But given the way the BJP has embraced the afore-mentioned mantra —Narendra Modi being the national example — and one politician after another falling like nine-pins here in the state, cutting across party lines, and you could be forgiven for thinking, we were going to the polls tomorrow!

The targets are obvious. But why has nobody asked why one Lokayukta and not one, but two chief ministers skimmed over the question marks in the mining scandal over the three former chief ministers — S.M. Krishna, Dharam Singh and H.D. Kumaraswamy who will be probed by the CBI? Intriguing!.

Did they see merit in the argument that it was a collective decision of the cabinet? Did they not smell a rat when some — or should that be all — of the documents have not the signature but certainly, the sitting chief minister’s stamp of approval? Was it a genuine slip-up? Or was it, a nod to the greater game of caste and identity politics, played out in virtually every political theatre of the absurd across state and country?

Sadananda Gowda’s much talked of soft corner for the Gowda clan is now a given. But how about Yeddyurappa himself? I still remember Yeddyurappa being pretty specific about how he would not do anything to Krishna, a man he said he admired. What made him change his mind? The polls? Or yet another opportunity to damn Sadananda Gowda in the eyes of the BJP high command? Or better still, both?

The latest shock casualty, of course is the ever smiling law minister in the D.V. Sadananda Gowda cabinet. Suresh Kumar, a man one deeply admired for being, well… poor. Who publicly admitted he didn’t have enough money, in his bank to buy a ticket to travel abroad. Whoa! One of us!

Yes, yes, in this very mixed up world we live in, one’s admiration for politicians — or for that matter, anybody — who prides Gandhian simplicity over luxe is completely misplaced. One doesn’t live by it, so why do we expect others to own just one dhoti and one charkha and see God in every thread that we spin?

Confession… In fact, every time the khadi-clad Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi whose middle name must be ‘studied simplicity’ sports ear-rings, a set of pearls, a tiny diamond circlet, one must confess, the first thought that crosses one’s mind is ‘Aha! Now where did she get those from?’

This is not to say one condones Suresh’s site grab, albeit on a infinitesimally smaller scale than the rampant avarice and greed displayed by former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa or the Katta father and son duo and the Janardhan Reddys of this world. The question that gnaws away as always is this — why did any of these men believe that being elected to public office gave them the right to cream the state’s coffers, bend the laws to their benefit, line their pockets and that of their children and children’s children for generations to come?

Didn’t they believe they would ever get caught? Were they just plain foolish? Given the wrong advice? Whatever. They’re in the dock. Damned in the court of the people long before judge and jury come to judgement.

On Suresh Kumar, there may be wheels within wheels that we haven’t even been able to fathom just yet. On the fact that he crossed the line, there can be absolutely no debate. On the fact, that he may be a target, there maybe some merit. The whistle-blower is after all, a diehard BJP man, said to be close to the former CM.

Clearly, in this fog of war, as Peter Mandeslon, architect of UK’s New Labour’s landslide victory said: “In my experience of these things, parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy.” The BJP presents a very bloodied target indeed. And if it is true, as reported, that the BJP top brass are now open to leadership change and have homed in on Hubli’s Lingayat leader Jagadish Shettar and Suresh “Mr Clean’ Kumar as their first and second preference to replace Sadananda Gowda, then it all begins to make perfect sense.

Theory one is that despite every effort put in by Sadananda Gowda, his inability to pull the party together, felled not just by his inability to provide good governance but also by his caste which will win his party no landslide, had forced Delhi to go back to the drawing board, heed Yeddyurappa’s advice and pick a Lingayat in Shettar.

But if that’s all that the people of Karnataka want, a Lingayat, then it’s a missed opportunity of epic proportions. And if the BJP high command is unable to see that all hell will break loose, not just in Hubli but in north Karnataka, and within the party where those standing with Yeddyurappa will be ranged against the Ananth Kumar camp when he finally begins to play puppeteer to Shettar as a first step towards reclaiming the party that he ran for several years, then the party hasn’t thought this through. Elections in Karnataka? Six months away? And with Mamata Banerjee edged out of the equation, economic reform to woo the middle-class voter on the cards, is the centre now preparing the ground for one too?

Except, the Congress, which has every opportunity to rise from the morass of its self-delusional, fratricidal path to self destruction hasn’t done so. Imagine having a candidate like Iqbal Saradagi and ensuring his defeat! The Congress could write THE bsetseller on ‘Three easy steps on how to be your own worst enemy’. And a runaway success it would be.

The minorities and the backward classes trust the centrist party like no other. But its failure to live up to their expectations needs no retelling. Or it’s rank inability to cash in on the BJP’s maladroit governance in Karnataka. A story, replicated across the country.

Jagan Mohan Reddy could easily take all of Andhra the next time. Add Jayalalitha, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, the Badals, and the BJP chief ministers Raman Singh, Narendra Modi and Manohar Parikkar to the mix...And you can see where this is going. The Congress reduced to a rump, the BJP dependent on the regional satraps, the state’s chieftains on the up and up.

Disunited States of India, here we come.