Let us begin with a word on the Hopeful One’s press conference this morning. There have been a spate of OPEDs (tired of linking them/commenting on them) in recent times, blasting Bush for being out of touch and for living in his fantasyland. But here is what struck me this morning, again: read his responses and you will realize he is never responding to the reporter who asked the question. Rather, he speaks to the guy sitting in his living room in Iowa or Arkansas. The Washington Press corps may ask all the questions it wants or badger him as much as it wants, but he will never change his script. He has no interest in engaging the media. How do you explain the following otherwise:
“Iraqi people took a good look and decided not to go to civil war.”
But today I want to write about someone who could teach even Bush (and his team) a trick or two, both in handling the press and politicians: former Prime Minister and JD (S) President H D Deve Gowda, who finally ended his double game and endorsed his son’s rebellion. Kumaraswamy is now officially the leader of the legislative party. Deve Gowda’s hypocrisy now makes it difficult for us to give him benefit of doubt, as we have done in the past, especially when he also refuses to answer any questions. To the uninitiated, Deve Gowda pretended to oppose his son, when the latter joined hands with BJP to form a coalition goevernment in Karnataka but he was only biding time, as we now see. I have always been wary of his Dhritarastra syndrome and now his conduct in the past two months makes it impossible for us not to be cynical.
My biggest complaint historically with Deve Gowda’s politics has been his inability to groom a second rung leadership; rather, for such a shrewd political operator with fantastic instincts and a tireless political work ethic, he has always been insecure about promising young leaders. True, he has been fortunate in commanding the loyalty of many political activists, who took pride in his ascendance to high political offices and supported him. But in the past thirty years, he has rarely allowed even a vokkaliga leader to emerge from his shadows.
Granted, his has been a critically important voice since the 1970s in keeping the focus on rural development and irrigation. We have all admired him for being single minded on that front. But now, Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy may have signaled the end of Janata Dal, thus ending an experiment that JP had launched in the mid-70s. At least two generations of politicians, activists and progressive thinkers allover the country, especially in Karnataka, had played a key role in the emergence of a left-liberal political force, which offered some space for us to intervene effectively. Now I am afraid that space may have disappeared, due to Deve Gowda’s myopic politics. By next elections, I expect a polarization to occur among political forces, resulting in the emergence of two political alliances led by Congress and BJP.
Gowdre, congratulations!
The other major political story of this week is Dr. U R Ananthamurthy’s foray into electoral politics. Briefly, there are four seats for which members of Legislative assembly vote and the three parties, - Congress, BJP and JD (S) – have enough votes to win a seat each, whereas no party has the numbers to win the fourth seat on its own. So BJP and JD (S) chose Rajeev Chandrashekhar of the BPL industrial group as their candidate. I will not comment on this trend to nominate rich industrialists in Karnataka or elsewhere nor does his outsider label (Rajeev is a Malayali) bother me. In fact, when we consider the record of other candidates (and indeed Kannadiga politicians in Delhi, with the honorable exception of Deve Gowda), he is more likely to understand the needs of Bangalore and be an effective spokesman. He may also just use his access to corridors of power to further his own interests but that’s the risk we take.
But Rajeev’s qualifications aren’t what we need to consider here; rather, Prof. Ananthamurthy’s qualifications are what concern me. Let me make an honest disclosure: I don’t agree with him most of the time but I admire him and I write the following even at the cost of alienating many of my close friends. I believe Prof. Ananthamurthy is the most significant and creative (Kannadiga) thinker of our times. He is also perhaps the most widely traveled Kannadiga, who has met and interacted with the most important thinkers, writers, politicians and activists allover the world in the last five decades. He is wise, insightful and most importantly, always keeps an open mind. He has something to say on all issues that affect Karnataka and Kannada; whether we agree with him or not, I am always certain that his insights will be worthy of our consideration and also that of all the elders in Rajyasabha. And to top it all, he actually possesses that rare quality of disagreeing with you without being disagreeable.
One shouldn’t even dignify his critics with a response, even when that list includes Kumaraswamy. If Prof. Ananthamurthy wants to represent Karnataka in the Rajyasabha, here is what all the three political parties ought to do: issue whip to eighteen of their MLAs to vote for him. He should be adopted by all three parties and allowed to be the spokesman for all Kannadigas. I know Prof. Ananthamurthy is a controversial person but I can not also think of any other Kannadiga who is more worthy of being in the Rajyasabha. That ought to be the bottomline.
Gowdre, here is one way you can begin to undo the damage. Support Prof. Ananthamurthy.
Finally, lamenting always is no fun. Here is hoping we will have a great final day’s cricket at the Wankhede’s tonight and tomorrow, we can talk about how much fun Test cricket is.
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