Taking the JD(S)-Congress coalition government head-on over the farmers’ issue, Yeddyurappa has set the tone for the BJP’s 2019 campaign in the state.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka BJP may have been stung by its inability to form the government in the state but it seems to have put that in the past already.
Even before the new coalition government, headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy, could prove its majority in the assembly, B.S. Yeddyurappa set the tone for the BJP’s 2019 bid. Highlighting the farmers’ issue, Yeddyurappa threatened that the BJP will launch a statewide bandh Monday — except in Bengaluru — if Rs 53,000 crore of farmer loans are not waived. He set the government a deadline of 24 hours.
“You are in a majority and by this evening (Friday) if you do not waive off loans, we are calling for a statewide bandh from Monday to protest your unfulfilled promises. The farmers are not idiots to buy your excuse that you are heading a coalition and you will do so in the course of time,” Yeddyurappa said before his party walked out of the Vidhan Soudha.
The BJP was provided with ammunition to take on the newly formed government when chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, after admitting that he did promise to waive farmers’ co-operative and commercial loans worth Rs 53,000 crore, said the decision would now take time as both coalition partners had to be consulted.
BJP’s pro-farmer moves
The threat to launch an agitation is part of a series of pro-farmer moves that the BJP has made since the hung verdict in Karnataka.
In his 55-hour stint as chief minister, Yeddyurappa’s first decision was to ask finance department officials to take stock of the state treasury. He told the media that his government would right away implement his party’s poll promise to waive farmer loans worth Rs 1 lakh crore. The matter, however, went up to the Supreme Court, when Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi got the apex court to rule that a chief minister, who hadn’t won a vote of confidence, cannot carry out such policy announcements.
Yeddyurappa again brought up the welfare of farmers in his resignation speech on 19 May.
“The farmers of Karnataka have suffered, thousands have committed suicide. We have to provide irrigation facilities, help them. I would like to assure the people of Karnataka through this house that till my last breath, I will work for the farmers of Karnataka,” he said.
Kurubur Shanthakumar, the president of the Karnataka Rajya Kabbu Belegarara Sangha, a farmers’ body, said Yeddyurappa had been provided with the perfect opportunity by Kumaraswamy to launch an agitation.
“In the run up to the 2019 elections, Yeddyurappa will take such issues to the people of Karnataka, especially farmers,” Shanthakumar said. “Kumaraswamy will have to waive off the loans as promised or else farmers will completely lose trust on the JD(S)-Congress government.”
Prof A Narayana, an associate professor on policy and governance at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, however, feels that the announcement of the loan waiver has been taken without detailed research on the ground. “There is no doubt that they are doing it keeping the 2019 elections in mind. The question here is why is an emotional promise made in a manifesto being made binding,” Narayana said. “The whole thing seems to be immature on the part of both the leader of opposition and the person who made the promise. The question is not of funds but of equity. The nature of the crisis here is of farmer suicide; one should not imagine that the solution is a loan waiver.”
JD(S), BJP trade barbs
The JD(S) and the BJP recalled their association in 2006 as they traded charges in the Karnataka assembly Friday.
Yeddyurappa, who assumed charge as the leader of opposition after nearly a decade, made a dramatic speech in which he accused the JD(S) of being a party with a history of deceiving people. “They have done it with the BJP, they will do it with the Congress and then with the farmers too,” he said. He also accused the father-son duo of Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda of being corrupt and untrustworthy.
The bitterness of the 2006-2008 coalition government between the two parties was on full display. Responding to Yeddyurappa’s charges, Kumaraswamy said, “You can conduct any kind of probe. But I have to remind you, that it was you who came to my house seeking a ministerial berth in my government in 2006 when you were disrespected by the BJP. I have seen many hurdles in my life, and this too will pass.”