Bangalore: Dismounting or Caging Tiger is Difficult than Riding!

By Gabriel  Vaz 
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore 

Bangalore, Nov 1:  As Karnataka `observes,’ mind you not celebrates, 54 years of its formation popularly known as Rajyothsava Day, its present set of `rulers’ are busy in their own no-holds-barred struggle for survival.

While the beleaguered chief minister B  S Yeddyurappa, who had announced the state government’s decision to observe the day in a simple and sober manner minus the traditional glitter, pomp and grandeur in order to show solidarity with the millions of people of north Karnataka reeling under the worst-ever flood havoc, is launching the ``Asare’’ programme of constructing houses for the displaced persons in Kuruvinakoppa and Amargol villages of Gadag district’s Ron taluk, most of his trusted colleagues and supporters as also the state assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar and several other ministers and BJP legislators, either on their own or at the behest of the `all powerful’ Bellary mining lords, who are also widely known as the Reddy brothers, are camping in Delhi.

Unfortunately, Karnataka’s most cherished event of Rajyothsava, the state’s language, culture or its over five crore Kannadigas has become secondary for most of these people.
That the Yeddyurappa regime is facing a serious threat to its stability in less than 18 months after coming to power – that too, for the second time in the last three months – is known to all.

Sriramulu with Jagadish Shettar

BS Yeddyurappa coming out of Vidhana Soudha

Empty chairs at Yeddyurappa's meeting

Tourism minister Janardhana Reddy with his supporters at his residence in Bellary

And, ironically, it is the same set of leaders  who had played a key role in the formation of the first-ever BJP government in the south, though just short of a clear majority of its own, and later ensuring that it gained a comfortable strength – first by `persuading’ all the six independents to extend support and later by engineering defections from opposition Congress and JD(S) to bolster the ranks through the much-derided `Operation Lotus’ and fielding the turncoats as BJP candidates besides funding their elections – are the key players in the present sordid muddle.

The Bellary Reddy brothers, led by Gali Janardhana Reddy, shot into political limelight when they took over the entire electioneering for the saffron brigade when Sushma Swaraj was pittied against the Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a bye-election in 1999. They were supported by Ramakrishna Hegde’s Lok Shakti and the J H Patel-M P Prakash-N Thippanna trimuvarate of Lingayat leaders. Sushma lost the battle but the Reddys had gained. Sushma, however, remainded grateful to the Reddys and made it a habit to attend `Varamahalakshmi’ puja and mass marriages organized by them every year. Not content with their status as rising mining magnates in Bellary and other small-time business operations of running a finance company or a cable television network, the Reddys expanded their activity and sphere of influence to entire Bellary district with Janardhana Reddy being rewarded with an MLC seat.

In the 2004 elections, Janardhana Reddy’s elder brother Karunakar was elected to lok sabha from Bellary  and their close confidant B Sriramulu became an MLA. The clout and influence of Reddys spread to neighbouring Koppal, Gadag, Bidar and Raichur districts and the BJP virtually handed over the responsibility of selecting candidates and financing their elections as well as other party candidates in many other places to them. Naturally, the Reddy brothers came to believe that Bellary was their personal empire and that they were as powerful as the majestic beast, tiger. It was because of Yeddyurappa, national BJP general secretary Anant Kumar and all other state BJP leaders that the Reddys have risen to their present pre-eminent position in the city, and, therefore, equally responsible for their perceived political arrogance.

In fact, in a recent outburst against their sworn enemy, JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and his son H D Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, the Reddys had publicly roared that they would prevent the JD(S) vokkaliga strongmen, from entering Bellary for opposing the acquisition of fertile agricultural lands for construction of an airport in the iron ore rich city.

After the hung assembly verdict in 2004, when BJP remained a political untouchable despite emerging as the single largest party and JD(S) entered into a coalition  deal with Congress and later when Kumaraswamy embraced BJP ditching Congress, the Reddys boosted their clout and got so emboldened that Janardhana Reddy publicly leveled a Rs 150 crore bribery charge. He went to the extent of accusing not just Kumaraswamy but named his wife Anita, brother H D Revanna and wife Bhavani, the then forest minister C Chennigappa and the then home minister M P Prakash. All that the saffron leaders did in response to the scandal, when Yeddyurappa was deputy chief minister cum finance minister and several others were ministers under Kumaraswamy holding important portfolios, was ordering ``suspension’’ of Janardhana Reddy.

The suspension was quickly revoked on JD(S) broke off the coalition experiment. The issue went of Karnataka High Court and even the Supreme Court. After the 2008 assembly polls, when BJP came to power and the Reddys and Sriramulu managed to get powerful portfolios (not to mention the futile bid to secure deputy chief ministership for Karunakar) and yet another borther Somashekar became an MLA, the Reddys have not been able to make any headway. The failure of Reddys to make their charges stick even after a year and half in power, when Chennigappa joined BJP and Prakash is in Congress, speaks volumes.

That apart, the Reddys managed to get the Bellary lok sabha seat to Sriramulu’s sister J Shantha and the Raichur seat to their relative Sanna Fakirappa in the the recent parliamentary polls making them the most powerful family in the state, probably on a par with that of Deve Gowda.  Their role in the assembly and lok sabha polls and the by-elections caused by ``Operation Lotus’’ is too well-known.  Having invested their ``tanu, mana, dhana’’ (body, mind, wealth) for the rise of BJP in the state, whose direct beneficiary is Yeddyurappa.

The Reddys like any businessmen naturally expect to extract their pound of flesh from the government. But when Yeddyurappa  tried to clip their wings and control them, he found out that it is never easy to dismount or cage a tiger as riding it.

During the series of Vikas Sankalp Utsav’s organized by the BJP regime to mark its first anniversary in office at the end of May and subsequently in other places, the Reddys were conspicuous by their absence because they resented the chief minister’s attempts to build his image and personality cult. They along with other ministers were also openly resentful of the undue importance given by the chief minister to rural development and panchayat raj minister Shobha Karandlaje and home minister Dr V S Acharya in the government. The rebellion registered by Yeddyurappa’s  one-time bosom buddy and backward class leader from Shimoga, energy minister K S Eshwarappa around the same time, came quite handy. The intervention of the party high command succeeded in containing the revolt. Karandlaje, however, was forced to keep a low profile.

And, now, the Reddy brothers have raised the banner of revolt again. Evidently, they seem to be enraged at what they perceive as the chief minister’s attempts to control them in the wake of the tragic death of their close supporter, Andhra Pradesh chief minister  Y S Rajashekara Reddy, in a helicopter crash, who had supported their mining activities in the neighbouring state through the Obalapuram Mining Company and also in the setting up of the Rs 20,000 crore Brahmini Steel Plant or in the illegal mining operations along the Karnataka-Andhra border. The refusal of the Congress high command to install YSR’s son Jagan, Kadapa MP and a partner in the Steel Plant,  as the chief minister and appointment of K Rosaiah was seen as a big blow to the Reddys. The Yeddyurappa government’s green signal for a joint survey of the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border region and curbing of illegal mining in the region became unbearable to the Reddys.

The recent flood havoc and Yeddyurappa’s pro-active efforts to organise rescue and relief operations and allow Shobha Karndlaje to play a direct role in the relief and rehabilitation works even though Karunakar Reddy as revenue minister should have been asked to handle the task, and subsequent efforts to mobilise funds through padayatras and thereby earning accolades and admiration from one and all, including Deve Gowda, was treated by the Reddys as the chief minister’s attempt to break free from their vice-like grip.  The chief minister also sought to levy flood toll taxes on trucks carrying iron ore, granite, sand and timber to raise money for the rehabilitation, which the Reddys felt was a direct affront to them. Yeddyurappa’s attempts to cosy up with Andhra CM Rosaiah during the latter’s recent visit to Bangalore and rolling out a red-carpet in Vidhana Soudha was viewed by the Reddys as another move to strike at them. They naturally pounced back like a wounded tiger.

Though Yeddyurappa sought to dismiss the growing dissidence challenge against his leadership  with contempt, the BJP national leadership sensed the seriousness of the situation and rushed its ace trouble-shooter Arun Jaitely on a mission to talk to warring factions and patch-up matters.  Yeddyurappa, however, was not willing to budge and decided enough is enough in order to cut the Reddys to size. He first ordered the transfer of the Davangere deputy commissioner V N Prasad, considered very close to Sriramulu, over public complaints of irregularities in handling relief works, and later shunted the deputy commissioner, superintendent of police, deputy conservator of forests and other Reddy-loyalist key officers in the district besides the principal secretary of health department and replaced them with tough, unpliable and no-nonsense  officers, indicating that he has several other weapons in his armoury.

The Reddys, on the other hand, retaliated by first launching their own rehabilitation programme ``navagrama’’ and unleased a vitriolic verbal assult against Yeddyurappa, Shoba and Dr Acharya. They also started mobilising their supporters, began organising separate meetings and dispatched batches of legislators to Goa and Hyderabad as part of the moves to prepare for a trial of strength. In a parallel development, attempts were made to rope in assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar, also a Lingayat from Hubli in the heart of north Karnataka region unlike Shimoga’s Yeddyurappa, to don the mantle of leadership as an alternative. Though Shettar was initially, non-committal, he has since changed his mind, especially after Yeddyurappa sent emissaries to convince him against plunging into the murky leadership battle and offer of a cabinet berth with a portfolio of his choice and even deputy chief ministership.

With Jaitely’s failure to broker peace despite holding talks with Karunakar Reddy, Yeddyurappa and others and returning to Delhi empty-handed, the scene of action has shifted to Delhi. Shettar and the leaders from Reddy camp have already left for Delhi. Yeddyurappa has not followed suit but has already sent his trusted colleagues, including Dr Acharya. The ball is now in the BJP high command’s court and national president Rajnath Singh, opposition leader in lok sabha and his deputy Sushma Swaraj, who has some leverage with the Reddys, will try to solve the crisis.

As of now, Yeddyurappa seems to be justified in his optimism and even confidence that he is in full control and cannot be disturbed. He is said to be willing to offer cabinet ministership or even deputy chief ministership to Shettar and `sacrifice’ Shobha, if it becomes inevitable, and placate her with speaker’s post. At the same time, a couple of ministers in the Reddy camp might be asked to quit as part of the quid-pro-quo arrangement so that neither side can gloat over victory or feel bad at the defeat. Despite the bravado exhibited by the Reddy brothers and the followers of Shettar, it seems highly unlikely that Yeddyurappa might be asked to give up his post as he still remains the most widely known face among state BJP leaders. For, it is the same Yeddyurappa, who had at one point of time had threatened to join Deve Gowda following his tussel with Anant Kumar.