Hard time for new Karnataka team

If the outcome of the maiden visit of the new duo the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, Messrs Kumaraswamy and Mr. B S Yediyurappa to Newdelhi is any indication, the state government has a hard task on hand in making its voice felt in Newdelhi.
Apart from being new to the corridors of power and the art of governanance, the new government apparently lacks the communication skill. Both the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister appear to be unfamiliar with English and Hindi, the twin language vehicles which are required for survival in the nation’s capital. As it is hardly any body cares for Karnataka, which is known as one of the supine states in the country, which hardly fights any case. Added to this has been the lack of the communication skills of the new team.
From all accounts and purposes, the visit was a disaster to put it mildly. The duo was hardly able to make the presentation before the Union Minister for Power Mr. Sushi Kumar Shindhe. The two member team from Karnataka, who are known to have oratorical skills in their mother tongue Kannada, were seen fumbling for words while trying to converse with the Union Minister Mr. Shindhe. To their misfortune was that the visit was widely covered by the one of the prominent electronic channels and the pitiable plight of the two member team was only seen to be believed. The entire national audience had a glimpse of how ill-equipped the two were in conducting business in Newdelhi. Their image has taken a serious beating. It will certainly take a long time to repair the beating the image has taken in the process.
It is not that none who does not know English or Hindi has been able to do business in Newdelhi. The late Kamaraj always talked in Tamil and Karunanidhi speaks only in Tamil even in Newdelhi so have been some of the representatives from other linguistic states as well. But Karunanidhi by his stature has always commanded respect and he is listened to carefully. There is an array of supporters who could do the spade work for him in Newdelhi.
Even Devegowda had his own share of problems during his less than one year stint as the Prime Minister of the United Front Government in Newdelhi. His Achilles heel was Hindi, and Mr. Gowda did show signs of learning Hindi. He had got a person appointed to give him Hindi lessons. English was no problem for him at all. .
In the case of the Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa, it was apparent that they had slipped up badly in making adequate preparations to their maiden visit. They went all alone, without any help and had not even prepared a written memorandum about the demands from Karnataka. They relied mainly on the oral presentation and one could see from the TV channel that Mr. Shindhe was finding difficult to grasp whatever the Karnataka team was trying to say. Should they not have taken one person with necessary communication skills to assist them in their errand? This was not done and the TV channel hardly missed taking note of the embarrassing movements for the Karnataka team and had lot of advice to offer as to its preparations.
Another interesting question was whatever prompted the electronic channel to take note of the maiden visit of the duo. Did somebody tip them off on the unfamiliarity of the language terrain of Mr. Kumaraswamy only to portray the new team in a bad light? It may be true or may not be true. But this cannot condone the cardinal slip of inadequate preparations made by the duo.
Tongues have started wagging over their failure to meet the BJP national leaders, as had been originally planned. Was it called off at the eleventh hour only because of the communication problem? This had happened to Mr Yediyurappa in the past, when he had been named as one of the national secretaries of the BJP but he hardly went to Newdelhi because of his lack of knowledge of Hindi and English. ‘
As a matter of fact the story going round the BJP circles is that the main reason, why the national leadership does not evince much interest in Karnataka is of the diffidence on the part of the state leaders to talk to their leaders. Barring Anant Kumar, the former Union Minister and currently the All India General Secretary, hardly anybody has top level contacts in the party. Of course, Mr. Ananth Kumar is in dog house politically as such in BJP, with the national leadership having given a virtual carte blanche to Yediyurappa to manage the show in Karnataka.
Unless Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa take adequate action to overcome their shortcomings, it is going to be very difficult for them to deal with the Central Ministers.
(Ends)12:09:33 AM February 15, 2006
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