Opinion Express View on Karnataka’s new government: A job in Bengaluru

The resolution of the impasse after the Karnataka victory is welcome. It is not surprising, perhaps, that it took the Congress high command days of apparently hardball negotiations with rival leaders and factions in the party to arrive at a formula acceptable to all — Siddaramaiah will be chief minister, DK Shivakumar remains within the tent as his “only deputy” as well as PCC president. After all, the Congress’s Karnataka victory was not the result of any single factor or leader or slogan. It was the culmination of a concerted statewide effort to which many contributed, and therefore several can now lay claim to it. The party must ensure that the compromise struck in Delhi does not come unstuck in Bengaluru — after all, it can ill afford for Karnataka to go the way of Rajasthan where its government is visibly unsettled by the prolonged Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot attrition. Going ahead, the challenge of balancing the ambitions and aspirations within, in a state where the Congress is still a lively political presence and robust organisationally, will call for wisdom and skill.

Bigger challenges await the new Siddaramaiah government. The veteran will need the formidable political capital he has already earned — as a pan-state leader and as an administrator who is also an ardent proponent of governance that is sensitive to minority concerns and the imperative of backward caste empowerment — to address them. The rout of the unremarkable Basavaraj Bommai government has not just handed the Congress a famous victory, it has also pointed to the uphill road ahead. The “40 per cent sarkar” label that contributed to bringing it down points not just to the BJP’s dropping of the ball on corruption, but also to structural and systemic distortions, and a narrowing vision of the public good across governments and parties. The state which boasts of Bangalore as the hub of technological innovation and entrepreneurial energy needs a government that can take the next steps and set the bar higher both for the city and the state. Karnataka has waited much too long already for a “Karnataka model” of governance.

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In Express Opinion Today | Does the new Karnataka government have enough agency to help its people?

As the Siddaramaiah government gets down to its job, it will also need to ensure that while addressing special needs, it looks upon the state’s distinct regions and castes equally, and expands spaces for the minority. Both the CM and his deputy belong to south Karnataka and neither is from the so-far politically dominant Lingayat caste — the onus of fairness and even-handedness is on the new government. It must also dispel the anxieties that have assailed sections of Muslims in the state, due to provocations on the Bommai government’s watch, from the hijab ban to the rows over “halal” and “love jihad” and economic boycott calls against a community. The onus of applying the healing touch is also on Karnataka’s new government. It must use its decisive mandate to give Karnataka the government it deserves — and the change it has voted with its feet for.