Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Restless, vengeful, cynical, bitter. These are words that his detractors use to describe the man who refuses to don the mantle of an elder statesman but revels in being the active, street-fighter politico, settling scores and unsettling governments. Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda, is back in the news having once again slipped into his familiar vindictive mood. The target this time is Karnataka Chief Minister J.H.Patel and, in a way, his own party, the Janata Dal.
Karnataka is the Janata Dal8217;s only surviving bastion, after Laloo Prasad Yadav hijacked the party in Bihar to form his own outfit. It is the only state where the party8217;s writ runs, the only state where despite a growing BJP and a resurgent Congress, it has the potential to hold its own. So why on earth would anybody within the party even think of destabilising a government that still has a year or more to go? Why should a chief minister be changed in a situation where there is clearly no one better to take over?Put these questions to Gowda andhe will tell you with a straight face that if a majority of partymen want a change in leadership, he is nobody to come in their way. It all sounds very innocent indeed. But won8217;t a change at this juncture destroy the party8217;s unity? His reply is sharp and mirrors his mind: 8220;Do you think the BJP will break because Sushma Swaraj has been made chief minister in Delhi just one month before elections?8221;
But it is important to emphasise here that Gowda does not have the kind of animosity he has for Ramakrisha Hegde,one-time party colleague and now sworn enemy, for Patel. After all, he had actually thrown Hegde out of the party in a transparent act of vengeance. Gowda and Patel have never been political adversaries in the sense that he and Hegde are. Their interests have never clashed in the past. True, Patel belongs to the Lingayat community which has traditionally been pitted politically against the Vokkaligas, the community Gowda comes from. But Patel has never fashioned himself as a caste leader for Gowda to feel threatened. Perhaps Gowda still sees Hegde ghost hovering over Patel, since the latter two have been long-time friends.
At the root of the trouble in Karnataka8217;s Janata Dal is Gowda8217;s insecurity over the party slipping away from his grasp. Patel, who took over the reins from Gowda when the latter became the Prime Minister, may have been initially ever-obliging but has, of late, sought to become his own master.
In fact, he emerged unscathed after an earlier attempt by party dissidents to unseat him. Witha couldn8217;t-care-less attitude to politics, the chief minister has not found it necessary to kowtow to Gowda all the time.What seems to have rankled the former Prime Minister no end was Patel8217;s reported statement only Gowda can tell us when and where he made it that he Gowda doesn8217;t command the support of even three MLAs. The other day in Bangalore, after a meeting with dissident MLAs, he thundered: 8220;Now everybody should realise what my support is.8221; The carefully cultivated image of humble farmer was suddenly replaced by that of a scorned and angry politician.
Patel8217;s independent style of functioning is what Gowda cannot stomach. After all he has to take care of the interests of his two sons, one of whom is a minister in the Patel Cabinet. Since the family flag has to be kept flying, he cannot afford to relax his grip on the party. He needs to have someone prepared to do his bidding on the gaddi. Gowda8217;s desperation can be gauged from the fact that certain inspired rumours had it that he himself wasgoing to replace Patel as CM. Later, he took care to clarify that his heart was in Delhi. But there are many within his party who question this.
Retaining his primordial position in Karnataka has also become important for Gowda because his role in national politics is of little relevance at the moment, with his party, which has just six Lok Sabha MPs, clearly down in the dumps and rife with factionalism. Gowda has been trying to justify the moves to replace Patel by arguing that the party will not carry conviction with the voters one year down the line. But then given the severe loss of credibility that it has already suffered, its chances of victory are in any case bleak. A mere change in leadership will not radically alter the situation.
Many in the Janata Dal in Delhi feel that Gowda8217;s moves in Karnataka bode ill for the party at the national level too. As one senior JD leader commented: 8220;If the party splits there it will have an impact everywhere.8221;In any case there is a deep divide in the partyalready with Gowda, JD chief Sharad Yadav and former Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan ranged against former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral and former Union ministers S.R.Bommai and S. Jaipal Reddy.
In that famous speech that Gowda made in the Lok Sabha on the day he had to lay down the prime ministerial office, he vowed to rise from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix. But since that is an eventuality that even as ambitious a man as Gowda can only dream of, it8217;s only Karnataka that could provide him with some consolation. But this can happen only if he succeeds in effecting a coup against the Patel government. The next few days are crucial 8212; not just for Karnataka, not just for the Janata Dal, not just for J.D. Patel, but for H.D. Deve Gowda, the ambitious ex-Prime Minister/ ex-chief minister.
