High Command with no command

Mathihalli Madan Mohan

Senior Journalist and Columnist

Hubli 580032

(Mobile 94480-74872)

HUBLI, Nov. 27, 2010

The Yeddyuarppa episode has brought into sharp focus the phenomenon of diminishing authority of the BJP High Command in the recent years, especially after the party’s abortive efforts to recapture power at the Centre.

Any strong Chief Minister can dare the party high command and get away with it. The Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had done it in the past. Now it has been the turn of the Karnataka Chief Minister to follow suit.

Unable to handle a defiant Karnataka Chief Minister, the BJP leadership led by the younger generation leader Mr. Nitish Gadkari pocketed its pride in resoling from its earlier demand that Mr. Yeddyurappa quit and acquiesced to his continuation in office meekly. The impression that it is a temporary reprieve that Mr. Yeddyurappa got till the all important and locally important panchayat elections slated next month would be held was punctured by Mr. Yeddyurappa, who on his triumphant return to Bangalore declared that he was there for the full term. The apologetic words by the party high command justifying its volte-face in the matter were too feeble to mislead anybody.

In doing so, the BJP leadership opted for practical politics rather than meandering on the ideological plane, at least for public consumption. For the BJP what appeared to be more important at the moment, was not to jeopardize the continuance of the only saffron government south of Vindhyas rather than worry over the prospects of Mr. Advani being projected as the future Prime Minister, in the event of early elections to parliament as a consequence of the continued stalemate on the question of constituting the JPC to probe into the 2G spectrum affair.

On his part, Mr. Yeddyurappa played his cards carefully as per a well scripted plan to fight what at one time appeared to be his last ditch battle for survival. Firstly, he had prepared a long dossier on the sins of omission and commission committed by his predecessors in office, especially on the question of identification of land, which has become a hot potato at the moment; took a public stand that he had done nothing wrong, while announcing his decision to order a judicial probe into the denotification issue with a view to taking the sting out of the opposition attacks. He had also gone public in finding nothing wrong his sons getting the land.

Secondly, he took steps to mobilise the support of select religious leaders who mostly belonged to his own community lingayats to publicly plead against the change in a bid to impress that his community, which is a major community in Karnataka was backing him and would not tolerate any change. He had also herded a group of ministers and MPs to New Delhi to put pressure on the central leadership.

Thirdly and more importantly, he had also made out the case questioning the propriety of the High Command in singling him out for such a treatment, while condoning the indiscretions of others in the party. His ire particularly was on two persons, namely the General Secretary of the party, Mr. Ananth Kumar, his one time comrade in arms turned known political adversary within the party, whom however, he did not name. and on the activities of the Reddy brothers who have been openly needling him and went to extent of publicly campaigning for his ouster, obviously with the support and patronage of some Central leaders. Inherent in the criticism was the link the Reddys had with Mrs. Sushma Swaraj the Leader of the Opposition in the loksabha.

The ace up in his sleeves however was the “TINA” factor (There Is No Alternative) projection that he had made about the inevitability of his continuance in office. For all purposes, Mr. Yeddyurappa is the tallest of the party leaders in Karnataka. And none mentioned as his possible successors, including the party’s state president Mr. Eswarappa, Panchayat Raj Minister, Mr. Jagadish Shettar, Mr Sadanand Gowda, the party MP and former state chief, have the kind of the image that Mr. Yeddyurappa has built up around him and among the people. Nobody in the party has the gift of gab or gumption and oratorical skills that he has. Besides he has been only one who has toured the length and breadth of the state and has been able to build up a kind of rapport.

His political stature is not necessarily confined to BJP. It is so among all the political parties in Karnataka in general and in Congress in particular. Mr. Devegowda is the only exception. But the ageing Gowda, a former Prime Minister, is leaning more towards retirement than being politically active like Mr Yeddyurappa.

. Even his enemies have to admit ungrudgingly that Mr. Yeddyurappa had built the party brick by brick and shares a major share of the credit. The BJP has been a beneficiary of the rising anti Congress mood in the state and he has cleverly utilised.

Besides, the forthcoming elections to the grass root level democratic institutions of taluk and zilla panchayats is an avenue for testing the political waters in the rural areas. Going by the track record of panchayat elections, the verdict always goes in favour of the party in power. The Janata Dal had won when it was in power and so was the Congress when in office. The BJP is in power at the moment in Karnataka and decks are stacked in its favour. Any change of leadership at this stage may not augur well for the party’s plans to build units grass root level support.

Mr. Yeddyurappa is a stubborn and a 24 x 7 political animal like Mr. Devegowda and and is an indefatigable worker. He has some weaknesses too including the “sun stroke”, which is an occupational disease which normally affects the persons in power. He believes in ploughing lonely furrow and hardly a team man. Going by the allegations of corruption flying all around, which of course are yet to be verified, even as Mr. Yeddyurappa is pleading innocence, he and his family members appear be the victims of the money guzzling syndrome.

He is prone to get into trouble quite often and he has managed to come out of it from them, the present one being the latest one.

It is clear that Mr. Yeddyurappa dared the high command and made them relent and the explanation given by the high command reads like a pathetic story of capitulation against the regional satraps, who are going strong. The Bihar results have again proved that the regionalism is rising its head and the days of the strong regional leaders controlling the strings of power at the Centre as it used to be happen in the olden days are all set to return.

Can Mr. Yeddyurappa be wise by the reprieve he has got and put all his energy in building up the state, which has paid a heavy price for the political instability, which has been stalking Karnataka since 2004, instead of depending on the luck all the time to get out of the trouble. Only time will be able to tell.

Eom 10.00 hrs. 27.11.10.