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Journalism of Courage
Is Siddaramaiah having his cake and eating it too? The Karnataka Congress is a house divided as the old warhorse gets set to celebrate his 75th birthday with grand festivities that will kick off a month in advance across the state on August 12, with a ceremony dubbed ‘Siddaramotsava’. Some leaders have gone ahead and are calling it Siddaramaiah-75 Amrut Mahotsava, same as the Centre’s name for celebrations to mark 75 years of India’s Independence.
The scale of the Davangere, Karnataka, function is a cause for much concern in the camp of his main party rival and state Congress president D K Shivakumar. One supporter, Honakere (Mandya) gram panchayat member G C Raju, even suggested a ‘Shivakumarotsava’ celebration for their leader as a counter – an idea immediately shot down by the man himself.
“I don’t want any utsava, I want only Congress Utsava. The day I took charge as KPCC president, I said we should worship the party and not individuals,” Shivakumar said, alluding to a personality cult around Siddaramaiah.
Shivakumar’s brother and Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh was more direct. Expressing concerns about ‘Siddaramotsava’, he said it should not send a wrong message to party workers since Karnataka is in an election year. “We must ensure that the event does not damage the party,” Suresh said.
While Siddaramaiah, a former CM, and Shivakumar were said to have called a truce following Rahul Gandhi’s visit, the undercurrents between the two leaders never really died down.
Recently, Shivakumar said: “Congress national leader Rahul Gandhi has said, and the party has decided that we will face the election under a collective leadership.”
While Siddaramaiah was party to that decision, the birthday fiesta is seen as his show of strength, with organisers planning festivities in every district and Assembly constituency, till September 3.
Congress sources admit the aim is to convey the message that Siddaramaiah is the leader of the party – especially to the high command — and to consolidate his ‘AHINDA’ base. AHINDA stands for ‘Alpasankhyataru’ (minorities), ‘Hindulidavaru’ (Backward Classes) and ‘Dalit’ vote base.
Last week, Siddaramaiah did not disagree that the birthday celebration was meant to send a political message. “There will be one, certainly. Are we sanyasis (ascetics)? Is Rahul Gandhi or Shivakumar a sanyasi? It (the message) will be there. Isn’t listing out our achievements during our five years’ tenure politics? Isn’t recalling my political journey politics? It is there, nothing can be done without politics,” he said, while maintaining that the event being organised by Congress leaders and workers would not be from the party platform.
On Wednesday, a preliminary meeting was held by his supporters on the preparations.
There seemed to be one concession to the other camp’s concerns. A senior Congress leader who attended the meeting said: “The celebration is not being organised to glorify Siddaramaiah. It was also decided not to use the word ‘Siddaramotsava’ much, and to only focus on the work done by Siddaramaiah when he was the CM in 2013-2018.”
The ‘reception committee head’ of the birthday event, H C Mahadevappa, repeated the same, saying the celebration was not by the Congress or under its symbol, but by Siddaramaiah’s wellwishers, friends, supporters. “None of us in the Siddaramaiah-75 Amrut Mahotsava committee is either a toad-eater or a believer in personality cult. We are firm believers of the Constitution and follow Ambedkarism,” Mahadevappa said.
