Karnataka Elections 2018
Can evoking "Kannadiga pride" help Siddaramaiah
in Karnataka?
By Deepak Parvatiyar
The Marathi translation of this article was published in leading Marathi daily Pudhari on 4th May 2018
http://newspaper.pudhari.co.in/fullview.php?edn=Sangli&artid=PUDHARI_SAN_20180505_08_2
Can evoking “Kannadiga pride”
unify the voters in Karnataka where they are bitterly divided over caste and creed?
To begin with, unlike in some neighbouring states, Karnataka had never voted
any party to power in the past that defined itself in terms of linguistic or
regional identity. Incidentally, the Congress, which has raked up this issue,
had always carried an image of a national party with secular credentials.
Hence, the whole exercise has
assumed farcical proportion and incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah of the
Congress, who was first to rake up the issue in the run up to the elections to
counter Bharatiya Janata Party’s star campaigner Narendra Modi in the state,
seems to have lost the plot.
Modi has now tried to pay
Siddaramaiah back in his own coin and in an election rally in Kalaburgi,
attacked the Congress by saying: “Karnataka has a rich history of valour with
immortal names like Field Marshall Cariappa and General Thimayya. But, how
Congress governments treated them is well recorded in history. In 1948 after
defeating Pakistan, General Thimayya was insulted by PM Nehru and then RM
Krishna Menon.”
Recently Modi even went on to
take up the cause of Kannadiga icon and former Prime Minister H.D.Deve Gowda
when Congress president Rahul Gandhi termed Gowda and his political party
Janata Dal (Secular) as the BJP’s
“B-team”. Modi raked up the issue
of “Kannada pride” in his election rally in Udupi on May 1 and attacked Rahul
for “insulting” former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo
H.D.Deve Gowda.
For once Gowda too, who has
constantly been maintaining a distance with the BJP amid speculations that he
was being wooed by the Lotus, sided with Modi on this count. Gowda lashed out at Siddaramaiah saying that a
Kannadiga had become PM and Siddaramaiah tried to "demolish"
Kannadigas' pride. “This is how Congress gives respect to Kannada pride,” he
had said in a press conference.
As if to further neutralize
Siddaramaiah’s campaign, Modi had no compunction in calling himself a
Kannadiga! Addressing his party workers from Karnataka on April 23, Modi said,
“Like you, I am also a karyakarta (worker) from Karnataka…I am also a
Kannadiga. Believe this and move ahead. I will work with you shoulder to
shoulder.”
As is evident, referring to “Kannada pride” has almost become a
ritual in the state during electioneering and the term has apparently got
relegated to merely an election jargon.
What makes the matter look
like a joke is the paradox that that on one hand all political parties are
exploiting the sharp division along caste line in the state, and on the other,
trying to bring all together by playing up the “Kannada pride” factor. What
further gives the entire gambit a farcical touch is the way the rival parties
are attacking each other on the issue of “Kannada pride”.
Not long ago though, Siddaramaiah’s
ploy to whip up a frenzy over the issue of
Kannadiga pride and regional identity was considered a master stroke to counter
the BJP’s Hindutva-nationalist narrative. He had unsuccessfully pushed for a
state flag as an emblem of regional identity. Besides, he had opposed
imposition of Hindi, resisted the use of Hindi in signboards in Bangalore metro
stations, and made Kannada
mandatory in schools. Furthermore, he had even opposed the terms of
reference of the 15th Finance Commission on grounds that they were
unfair to Karnataka and other South Indian states.
In the
name of Kannada pride, Siddaramaiah had also started celebrating the birth
anniversary of Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan that led to widespread communal
violence in which two people died in Coorg, where Tipu Sultan is believed to
have used maximum excesses against the Hindus.
During electioneering, to further
rake up the “Kannada pride” plank,
Siddaramaiah also played up the North-South divide by calling BJP
campaigners Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM, Yogi Adityanath as “North Indian imports”, and compared
himself with Pulakeshi II in one of his tweets -- “I
remember how Pulakeshi II defeated the powerful North Indian King Harshavardana
on the banks of Narmada. I seek your blessings for building a Nava
Karnataka.”
However a lot of water has flowed
under the bridge as other political parties including the BJP as well as the Janata
Dal (Secular)have quickly picked up the issue of “Kannadiga pride” to their own
liking.
Just consider that as a part of his regional identiy plan, Siddaramaiah
also moved to accord a separate religion status and the minority tag to
the Lingayat community -- a community that accounts for 10 to 17 per cent of
the state’s population and influence voting in nearly 100 seats of the 224
Assembly seats.
But what is interesting is that
while BJP’s CM candidate Yeddyurappa had
supported the move to seek a separate religion for Lingayats in 2013, the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had rejected the Lingayats' demand in
2013. "Veerashaiva/Lingayats are a sect of the Hindus and not an
independent religion," a letter from the home ministry had said, adding
that the demand was not "logical". Against this backdrop, will the Congress ploy to appease
Lingayats in the name of Kannada pride help the party or prompt the community
to once again back the BJP’s Lingayat
leader, Yeddyurappa, is to be seen.
As it shows, of late, the “Kannadiga pride” issue seems to be troubling Siddaramaiah
even more as he faces embarrassment on this on more than one count.
Consider that
during an election rally near Nippani in Belagavi district mostly comprising
Marathi speaking voters, Siddaramaiah, the self-proclaimed champion of “Kannada
pride” had to apologize for his inability to speak Marathi.
Moreover, there have been slipups
in the Congress party’s election manifesto as its Kannada version has the cover page in English and
the English word ‘manifesto’ is retained on the cover instead of ‘pranalike’, the Kannada word for it. The
region-wise manifesto too caused embarrassment as ‘pranalike’ was not spelled
correctly in Kannada. Besides, many announcements made in the English
version,such as “Mangalya Bhagya” scheme for economically weak women getting
married, were missing in the Kannada version. There were many translation
errors as well throughout the manifesto, providing ammunition to the opposition
to tear into Siddaramaiah’s “Kannada pride” plank.
Now both Yeddyurappa as well as Deve Gowda want
Siddaramaiah to apologise for “insulting Kannada”.
*The writer is a senior journalist
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