Karnataka isn’t politically the most important state in India. In terms of its contribution to the Lok Sabha, it is a mid-sized state, in the Kerala (20) to Madhya Pradesh (29) ballpark. Yet, Karnataka has beaten any of these several times over in its domination of the headline space for the past many months.
Now, with the BJP in power again, you’d expect a smug sense of victory and calm. Scratch the surface, and you will see much disquiet and dissonance instead.
We can go so far as to say that mid-sized Karnataka has provided the first challenge to the unfettered, unquestioned authority of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.
We should finesse it further. It isn’t Karnataka, but B.S. Yediyurappa who has brought that unlikely power coup in his own party. For the first time, an individual has forced his high command to make compromises it wouldn’t make for any other in the party.
Defying the age limit of 75 years is only one of these. Yediyurappa is 76, well past the age at which the party under Modi and Shah has insisted everybody go to a Raj Bhavan or to the Margdarshak Mandal. As we run our eye over the entire BJP star cast since 2014, probably only two leaders may have survived in a cabinet job beyond 75, and that too very briefly. The first, Najma Heptulla, ended up in the Raj Bhavan in Imphal, and the second, Kalraj Mishra, has now landed in Shimla after a sizeable quarantine through which he dutifully tweeted praises for Narendra Modi until the ‘call’ came.
No other in the BJP, at least none of consequence, has been able to defy that age limit. To the extent that even those BJP leaders who would otherwise demand Modi as India’s prime minister for life have found it safe to speculate on his likely successor once he crosses 75 in his “third term”. That underlines the special power of Yediyurappa. Of course, it might also mean that the notion of a Modi retirement at 75 may also become obsolete. If the rule can be relaxed for a relatively minor state leader, why not for the much fitter and powerful Modi?
Also read: B.S. Yediyurappa, the God-fearing, astrology-believing leader who’s rewriting rules in BJP
In so many ways, Yediyurappa is everything an ideal Modi-Shah chief minister isn’t. List the chief ministers of important states appointed by them since 2014.
None of these was the dominant leader in his state and a natural claimant, or even a front-runner, for chief ministership. Not even Yogi Adityanath. None of these was from a dominant caste in the state. Manohar Lal Khattar was a far-out Punjabi in Haryana, where Jats ruled.
In Jharkhand, power was denied to the tribals. In Maharashtra, the choice of a young Brahmin, Devendra Fadnavis, was like a finger in the eye of the Marathas. Even in Assam, the most powerful leader, Himanta Biswa Sarma, was made to work under a much less powerful Sarbananda Sonowal.
The model so far has been that there are only two leaders needed by the BJP and they live in Delhi. The rest serve faithfully at their sufferance. Yediyurappa has beaten that rule. He has declared himself a leader in his own right.
Not only is he a dominant caste leader, he has been a chronic dissident and defier of his high command. Denied power in the past, he forced the party to appoint his protégé Sadananda Gowda in his place and, when he too was destabilised, rebelled, left the BJP, formed his own regional party, and contested the 2013 assembly election against it. He won only six seats, but took away much of the Lingayat vote, reducing the BJP to a humiliating 40 in a House of 224.
He has also forced his party to break the other key principle it claims to live by: Zero tolerance for corruption. In his first term, he lost power because of corruption allegations, an adverse Lokayukta report, spent some time in jail, and was exonerated later. But because he was made to step down, nobody could live in peace, and the BJP ended up having three chief ministers in one assembly.
This mess greatly contributed to a clear Congress win even in 2013. But not only was he taken back, he was restored to his old position as a regional satrap, which is anathema to the Modi-Shah BJP. For comparisons, think of Shankarsinh Vaghela in Gujarat, the tallest BJP leader and a diehard RSS man, who quit to float his own party and became chief minister of Gujarat with Congress support. Could the BJP have ever handed the state back over to him?
Also read: Modi isn’t about to change India into national security state like Pakistan & bankrupt it
Defying age, caste, corruption and the test of loyalty, Yediyurappa has also forced his party’s hand in pulling down the Congress-JD(S) government and replacing it immediately with its own. The BJP may not have minded giving the coalition a little more time to self-destruct, but we cannot say that for sure.
It is quite likely, however, that Modi and Shah may have preferred to let the state be under President’s Rule for some time and install their government after mopping up the stragglers. The haste with which they were forced to swear-in Yediyurappa was uncharacteristic and ungainly.
Because, the ‘tamasha’ isn’t over yet if the Speaker takes his mission to disqualify all defectors to a logical conclusion, barring them from contesting in the term of this assembly, and leaves everybody to wait as the courts take their time. This game has not yet ended. At least not as neatly as this BJP prefers.
What is it that gives this grand old man (by the standards of today’s BJP) such power, and what does his victory mean for the BJP and national politics going ahead? First of all, it shows that the BJP has failed to build a younger leadership in the state. That his key detractor, Ananth Kumar, died prematurely helped Yediyurappa. But most importantly, the BJP realised that in Karnataka, it can’t swing the state assembly purely on Narendra Modi’s strength. It’s the only state yet where the BJP has faced the challenge of its own leader’s caste vote bank within its Hindu vote bank.
BJP leaders in other states will also make note of this. If you look around, you do not see anybody in the other states in the same league as Yediyurappa. Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan must be seething seeing her loyalists cornered and detractors elevated. Shivraj Singh Chouhan has not been given the leeway or the resources — at least not yet — to pull down Kamal Nath. But there are leaders, we can be sure, especially in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and, why not even Yogi Adityanath, who might take inspiration from the Karnataka exception.
Postscript: If you’ve noted the unfamiliar new spelling for Yediyurappa, it is just that he had changed it to Yeddyurappa during his bad days for reasons of numerology. But since it didn’t work, he has restored the original. I am not sure, though, that he has become any less superstitious than before.
Also read: One point BJP, Congress agree on: Modi’s unbeatable. Frozen politics waits for big new idea
Prof PK Sharma, Freelance Journalist,Barnala (Punjab)
Shekhar Sahib, I went through the National Interest column with rapt attention !
Though you have complemented BSY as the strong leader in the light of his becoming Chief Minister of Karnataka for the fourth time, then challenging the duo of Modi and Shah for the first time by applying various criterias yet there are certain yardsticks bearing testimony to the
fact that things are not in reality but they appear to be externally.
Soon after the declaration of Karnataka Assembly Polls 2018 results BSY had been struggling and grappling to grab power !
Now after more than one year out of power and remaining CM for just couple of days, BSY had to exert too much enacting dramas time and again at regular intervals to secure just razor thin majority finally limping back to power !
I do not see eye to eye with you that he did challenge the duo of Modi and Shah but ironically I find him emulating Modi and Shah that one ought to be in the hot seat like them by hook or crook ! In the modern day politics of opportunism than of ideology , ends are certainly more significant than the means !
Sans any doubt, BSY will prove to be a liability for both Modi-Shah and BJP keeping in view his dubious track record.
Then who knows how and when his party legistators prick his balloon of razor thin majority because it will be an uphill task to keep his flock
together ? Almost more than three years is quite long a period in politics !
If Congress-JDS coalition government was weak government then how a government having majority on the margin going to prove itself as a strong and stable government ? It is indeed a multi-million dollar question ! Is it not ?
Prof PK Sharma, Freelance Journalist
Pom Anm Nest,Barnala (Punjab)
‘The Karnataka result seals Modi’s position as the third genuine pan-India leader after Nehru and Indira’. Shekhar Gupta 15 May, 2018 3:41 pm.
‘No matter which party ultimately forms the government, few would doubt the unmistakable Modi imprint on the Karnataka elections.’ DK Singh Political Editor ThePrint
15 May, 2018 5:17 pm
Shekhar, in your 15 May article you did not even mention Yediyurappa! And suddenly he has become a local leader who has challenged Modi. Really? You and your editorial team should have given Yediyurappa credit for BJP’s performance in 2018 assembly elections.
Shekhar you are a serious journalist. That is why I read your columns. Don’t disappoint us.
On a lighter note, I used to read Khushwant Singh’s columns, largely because he was not a serious journalist …
Mr.Gupta
Please stop assuming holier than thou attitude when it comes to BJP.
Every one knows you a PAID OPINION WRITER NOT A FAIR JOURNALIST
How come you were so silent when Sonia’s private company looted the nation in ten years
more than 200 years of British rule. So sad to see bunch of people masquerading as journalists
who sell their soul to create false narratives to divide the nation and be accessories to the loot.
As champion of freedom of speech let’s see whether you publish this letter.
BSY has looted more than others, so keep your sanctimonious opinion in dark reserves. Telling a lie and repeating it a hundred times doesn’t make it the truth. If you have proof, send them to jail otherwise stop lying on these pages.
Is it really that Modi – Shah have been challenged? Are the rules broken? Are there rules of the game? Can there be rules of game where the players only decide the rules?’
Chankya was born before Gandhi in our country and both were king makers, who made the rules of the game and who broke it too to suit their ambitions of ensuring keeping their respective nominees palced as rulers.
Chankya said any means to get a ‘good’ end is justified and justifiable. Gandhi said good end must follow the good means too. But he too was often seen deviating from this whenever he felt any shadow to come over Nehru. Greatest of the policitians – Krishna – too did not hesitate bending the rules or keeping his eyes closed over breaking the rules, seeing the goal/s being achieved!
Modi and Shah are different personalities – entirely different, rather at different poles. But they complement each other too nicely. Things Modi can not do or does not like to do but likes to be done, are done – are facilitated to be accomplished by Shah with Modi ji keeping his eyes closed.
Modi’s elevation to the top had too many obstructions. He could swallow them paving his way to the top. Once at top, he had to have the ese of working, which might have not been that smooth had the old guards of BJP remaining where they were, so somehow or other they had to leave and clear the path. Rule 75 did this in one stroke. After all, a party with strong ‘ideology’ had to have some rule to do a thing! Indira did split the party for this and had her own – this was the Congress way of doing thigs. Before that they had Kamraj Plan. BJP did this their own way.
Modi is not a mathematician. He has only Fire and Fire and Fire in him. The Fire to do something and everything for his people and his country. He even might not be knowing the ways to do it. Shah is the political and mathematics part of Modi – doing the things to reach the goal Modi would be happy to achieve.
Given the choice Modi would have liked to let the erstwhile Karnataka govt die of its own contradtctions and smoothly put BJP govt then. Recall the way Shatrughn Sinha was handled – keeping mum, giving him ample time, making him naked in public and let him die a natural death – this was the Modi way. But Shah is a political mathematician and mathematics does not wait or else the claculations would go wrong because calculations are in the very bad happit of changing rapidly. The prsent karnataka CM, rather cursed not to have been in a peaceful full tenure till now despite having everything in his side, is running out of his time. So he has been granted permission to enter the ‘Chakrabuh’. Either he will be gone like Abhimanu or will survive – every day counting his breathe in sleepless nights counting the numbers. Ultimately the ball will have to go in people’s court – BJP will see then. Till the time they too will watch the show. And the Chankya too will have his time to ponder over.
However, from the electorates’ point of view BJP is unaware of its strength even after the phenomenal mandate and ‘Love’ for its leader. And BJP is rather failing to encash the people’s love for its leader. This is the time BJP can do anything they wish. It has the potential to rule the country in an ideal way with chemistry and without any mathematics. Modi commands the ‘Love’ like Nehru in his prime days. BJP is perhaps not yet in the habit of knowing this. After all, this is just a second term of them.
The spree of grabbing power that is being apparent, is damaging for the party in the long run. People, this election, have not voted against Congress. They have voted Modi and the BJP – a man with a difference and a party with a remarkable difference. If that difference diminishes, there will not be any aura left with the BJP. The Time is now in its side, but Time is always crude – it may not remain that kind always. And History is as always watching – watching to record the giant leaps – of either achievemants or blunders!
Blah! Blah! To state matters simply, you are an idiot. The top loser is just that, an illiterate Loser, who has no idea about good governance. Your elaborate analysis is all for naught. God willing, you will find out soon enough.
How one can one be a CM without the consent of the all time strongest duo in Indian politics. The same was said when Yogi was made CM of UP. It is difficult to believe that one can do so much without the support of this duo. It is just eyewash and proof that no one and party is different. BJP now is another CONGRESS
The fourth time CM of (Kar) nataka has proved one thing, politicians here not only change party for reasons well known, they also change their names in the same way. Whether name change from Yeddi-yeddy-yeddi again would change the living conditions of poor is real question mark. BJP President has claimed the new govt will be clean and stable is quite amusing as it regained power after intense “horse trading” has turned the assembly into a different kind of “stable”. “” If CM has changed his name yet again why not name of state be changed to simply Nataka??
Gee. How amusing..
Looks like not only opposition parties, but jurnos also running out of issues to be raised. That’s why such articles get born. Author could well discussed the revlevanvce of fall of illegitimate govt of Congress, which outrightly rejected by people of karnakaka, but was still enjoying power. How could Shekhar ji tolerate such blatant insult of democracy and kept silence?
Write more of these paens for your beloved BJP leaders, after all that is what you are paid for. Instead of condemning the corrupt Yeddi, you sing his praise. ACK thooooo.
Shekarji… sometimes, you think that everyone is fool and you have super intellectual power in defining the strategies for parties. In the process, you also wanted to define your own hidden agenda. Take my word, your favorite party lost the race. Hope you would have pondered over how Kumaraswamy Gowda became CM with less than 20% of seats in Karnataka assembly, leaving the largest party. And that too, it is was not pre-poll alliance, but opportunistic post poll convenience. BJP may extend the term of Narendra Modi as PM when he crosses 75 and you do not need to keep thrusting your hidden agenda. Check with your congress party, what is the average age of current CWP? More than 6 people are above 75, 6 above 70, few above 80 as well and are still hanging around. On their own, they cannot even walk to the booth to vote.
Nothing succeeds like success, true, but the BJP too at some stage will realise the utility of having tall regional leaders who both govern well and deliver their states electorally in a tough election. Mrs. Gandhi lopped off the canopies of lofty regional leaders and laid the foundation for the party’s eventual decline. 2. The column explains well the compulsions behind this decision. However, I think it will hurt in the long term. That will be exacerbated if CM BSY lights the afterburner.
The compulsion of realpolitik ensured the installation of Yeddi on the gaddi. Lingayats who constitute 17% of the State population are solidly behind him and his vote bank, most importantly istransferrable. In Karnataka it is Yeddi is BJP and BJP is Yeddi. Age 75 is the rule to sideline Leaders like L K Advani, MM Joshi who could have been a thorn on the escutcheon of Narendra Modi. To give a semblance of impartiality, it was extended to Nejma Madam and Kalraj ji. Anandhiben Madam was a source of trouble in Gujarat and the age rule was conveniently used to shunt her to a gubernatorial position. Yeddi is not in that mold. He has his own powerful base in the state politics. Yedi stays, BJP stays. Yeddi goes, BJP goes. Modi -Shah did not want to commit hara-kiri. Hence they turned Nelson’s eye to their much trumpeted policy .
a k pattabiraman chennai
Well said.
Lingayats in Karnataka are organized, educated and wealthy, in addition to being numerous.
Modi and Shah are pragmatic enough not to spend energies in a battle they cannot win.
But still, president rule and reelection was the best option in an ideal world.
Now the BJP govt formed by horse trading would remain unstable and would earn the anti incumbency.
You fool Shekhar, Karnataka is a “mid size” state but accounts for 30 percent of India’s overall dollar exports and Bangalore is the third largest direct tax payer in .India.With roughly half of Mumbai and Delhi population, Bangalore pays the same amount of tax as Delhi for example. It’s a cash cow and that’s why politicians are fighting over the CM post. You will never see this in Bengal or Orissa or Jharkhand , they are all poverty stricken, , there are no pickings to be had in these states, but you will always see jockeying in Goa, Karnataka etc….
The cows are in the Hindi heartland. In the metros, they are called ATMs. A certain decorum in addressing the Editor is always welcome.
Bangalore is not Karnataka. Before you disparage others, get your facts straight. Kolkata has the third largest population of millionaires and billionaires after Mumbai & Delhi. Hardly a sign of poverty. Being delusional is your right, passing it as fact is lunacy.
Guptaji and his retro-fitted pseudo-theories…. Lol