Our way or the election way
The power game in Karnataka is heading for a climax with Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy insisting on quitting as promised, even as legislators from both coalition parties urging him not to act in haste. Unnerved by JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda’s decision to call off the scheduled parleys with BJP national president Rajnath Singh and other central leaders on the power transfer, a section of BJP MLAs have reportedly requested Mr Kumaraswamy to prevail upon his father to resume the talks and sort out the differences. Mr. Gowda who left for New Delhi on Wednesday to hold discussions with BJP president Rajnath Singh, returned to Bangalore early on Thursday on getting news of an attempt-to-murder petition filed in the Cowl Bazaar police station of Bellary city by BJP Minister, B. Sriramulu against his son Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
It is a different story that the police did not register a complaint but for Gowda desperately looking for a ruse to play hardball the threat was enough.
Back in January of 2006 when the first act of the current political drama played out Offstumped had noted how the developments in Karnataka signified the blurring of established political fault lines and the tumbling upside down of conventional wisdom.
Coming on the heels of incessant needling of Infosys by Deve Gowda and the lackadaisical attitude to infrastructurement development in Bangalore Offstumped had at that time challenged the Kumaraswamy Yeduriyappa duo to prove its cynics wrong with an agenda that respects the spirit of free enterprise and the rights of people to a better quality of Urban Life.
21 months hence the clock has turned a full circle. H.D. Kumaraswamy no longer appears the maverick that he purported to be back in 2006. Deve Gowda for his melodrama is very much calling the shots. At the heart of all this angst that very issue of infrastructure around Bangalore signified by Gowda’s incessant opposition to the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise’ (NICE) and his unrelenting tirade against its Managing Director, Ashok Kheny.
For long, the dark shadow of Deve Gowda, the Darth Vader of Karnataka Politics, loomed large on the coalition government. As the political games in Karnataka reach a climax, Offstumped calls on the BJP to call Gowda’s bluff. The BJP must make it clear to the father son duo that they cannot have it both ways. This is a defining moment for HDK on how seriously he will be taken in the future and how credible his claims to be different will be viewed. By reneging on the basic premise of power sharing that got him his office in the first place he will be commiting a serious mistake and forever sullying his image. He needs to realise he is no Mayawati nor is the JD-S like the BSP, which can get away with maverick politics of opportunism. The world’s attention is on Karnataka and Bangalore, make no mistake there will be a heavy price to pay. There is a lesson for the BJP here as well having repeated the same mistake twice of having negotiated itself into a position of weakness despite having numbers to its advantage. Sections of the BJP by betraying their impatience for power have ended up pushing themselves into a corner and thus indulging the father-son duo’s public shennanigans much to their humiliation. Power sharing deals make sense only when you negotiate from a position of strength and are prepared to take the high road if the weaker party does not fall in line. By betraying its eagerness and capitulating to a lopsided arrangement the BJP will have only itself to blame if it further compounds the earlier mistake. Offstumped Bottomline: The BJP needs to call Gowda’s Bluff and read the father-son duo the riot act. If they dont honor the commitment they made 21 months ago, the BJP must be prepared for early elections. HDK and Deve Gowda cannot have it both ways. They must learn to honor commitments or face the wrath of the people.
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I think the party has learned its lessons the hard way in the past. If the Gowda clan wants to face early elections, where it is clearly going to be the biggest loser as the JD(S) evolves into a fringe player, then so be it. The BJP and Congress are ready to be rid of them.
BJP is yet to learn the game of coalition politics ! So far, it has had a string of failures in power sharing arrangement and stable political alignments with other political parties – like with Mayawati(UP), Naidu(AP) & Jaya(TN) earlier or Deve Gowda(Karnataka) now. It was even facing a serious problem with its own ideological counter-part in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena.
The biggest handicap of BJP in this game of coalition politic is the lack of a strong and established leardership to forge stable political alignments and an over-dependence on the Saffron brigade (an organisation with a known communal agenda) for its existence.
Next in line for a rocky relationship will be JD(S) in Bihar !
“BJP is yet to learn the game of coalition politics ! ”
Let’s learn from Congress I dynasty. Just agree to everything the 60 odd commies say and hold on to power and do nothing.
That’s the way to play the game of coalition politics
Chandra – whether BJP wants to learn the art of coalition politics from the Congress or learn that from some other party or on its own, it is it’s own outlook !
But the fact remains that – “BJP is yet to learn the game of coalition politics!”
Right or wrong, look at the ground reality. The BJP can win the elections hand down if elections were held in karnataka now. Without doubt they will be the single largest party especially with northern karnataka behind them. Next, with shiv sena the problems have been sorted out. It is the congress which has to learn coalition politics, because it can never win power on its own any more. They will keep doing appeasement until a day when the majority will get tired of it. If RSS says something it is communal, but if congress partener in hyderabad threatens to kill taslima, that is fine with you, what a rabid hyprcrite.
Murli – gear up for the next KICK from Nitish Kumar in Bihar…
BJP wanted the congress government to fall at any cost. It used the avarice of the gowda family.Now the same avarice is playing out but this time BJP has stremngthned itself as also JD(S). It is congress which will be the looser if an election is held because people cannot forget the useless rule of Dharam singh.
I guess given HD Kumaraswamy’s initial attitude, seeming at the time to have integrity, values, honesty, etc…unlike daddy dearest, unfortunately it seems like in the past few weeks any positive image of him I had built up has been positively destroyed. Son may be worse than the father. Indian politics has hit a new low. Gowda and son may get away with it, but it is positively disgusting. They seem to contradict themselves every hour on the hour!
As for Bihar, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. BJP is not in line to get the CM’s post there and that was never part of any agreement.
BJP’s biggest downfall is too much devotion to coalition dharma, I.E. in Siddammariah’s constituency they backed a JD(S) candidate, yet in Ullal the JD(S) did not reciprocate, not getting the Deputy CM’s post in Punjab to keep coalition harmony, etc. etc. and then its allies abuse it any time they lose. Its dog-eat-dog politics, BJP may need to start becoming more aggressive towards its allies, whose egos are skyrocketing.
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