Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter THE PARTITION OF KARNATAKA BJP LEGALISES CASTE POLITICS

By Firoz,T,Totanawala 

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

 

THE PARTITION OF KARNATAKA BJP LEGALISES CASTE POLITICS 

 Nobody can deny that caste is one of the important factors of power politics. Still, political leaders despite playing caste politics were afraid of proclaiming their practice in public. However, a political party or a leader cannot depend solely on the caste and he takes into consideration the entire society which is a conglomeration of many castes and communities. No political party has the guts or nerve to proclaim that they represent a particular caste or community. 

 But, in Karnataka, the BJP has gone a step further by proclaiming that it wants to protect the lingayath vote Bank by bringing in a lingayath leader as the Chief Minister. The BJP National President Nitin Gadkari minced no words by admitting that the BJP has to appoint a lingayath as the Chief Minister in this election year, by removing Sadananda Gowda who had given a scam and controversy free administration in the state for the last eleven months. 

 And this had not gone down with the other communities and the Vokkaligas are protesting against the removal. In days to come, one can expect a backlash against the lingayath BJP from the other communities. In fact, the BJP had played this lingayath card not for political gain but to contain the damage by former CM B.S.Yeddyurappa who blackmailed the BJP high command. 

 Yedurappa hogged the limelight when he was made the opposition leader during 1995. And only after becoming the Dy. CM, Yedurappa started posing as a lingayath leader. He realised the community support will come in handy in the political game. Yedurappa did not have any support when Reddy Brothers led a decisive revolt against him in 2009. It was only after this revolt Yedurappa started building his own lingayath vote bank. Even prior to this, he had played the lingayath card in 2008 elections by blaming HD Kumaraswamy of not handing over the CM post as he was a lingayath. But that had only a marginal advantage. Yedurappa had meticulously planned and executed the Operation Kamala in his favour. He targeted the lingayath leaders in Congress and JD(S) and procured them under Operation Kamala. By 2010, he had build up an army of lingayath leaders around him. The imported lingayath leaders were given heavy portfolios and he also enlisted the support of lingayath pontiffs. Almost all the major mutts have started backing Yedurappa to the hilt. And, this support has come in handy for Yedurappa to blackmail the BJP high command whenever he gets into trouble. 

 When he was forced to resign from the CM post, Yedurappa instead of supporting Jagadish Shettar, a lingayath opted for D.V.Sadananda Gowda. At that time, loyalty was more valuable to Yedurappa than the lingayaths. He used every arm in his armour to defeat Shettar and was successful. Now, the same Yedurappa has opted for Jagadish Shettar and got him the CM post. 

 On the face of it, the BJP high command has given into the ‘lingayath’ blackmail by Yedurappa. The BJP President Nitin Gadkari had publicly admitted that the party needs a lingayath leader to lead the party in the elections which is just few months away. The way in which Sadananda was removed and Jagadish Shettar was appointed as the CM and the ‘lingayath’ excuse had already irked other communities. 

 The Vokkaligas have already taken to streets protesting against the removal of a Vokkaliga from the CM post. Nobody even Vokkaligas rejoiced when Sadananda was made the CM by Yedurappa with the support of lingayath MLAs. Now all of a sudden, the Vokkaligas are crying foul. Sadananda had never acquired the image of a Vokkaliga leader and he is now being projected as a pride of Vokkaligas. 

 The fight for power by Yedurappa has turned the lingayaths and Vokkaligas against each other. The other communities are also getting agitated as the high command has given the impression that only the lingayaths have brought BJP to power in the state. Interestingly the Vokkaligas have demanded a dalit be made the CM. As the elections are fast approaching, the caste consolidation will definitely take shape. 

 The hard fact is that even though lingayaths constitute 15% of the population, one cannot win even if 100% of lingayaths vote for that particular candidate. Any candidate even if he is a lingayath needs the support of other comminutes to win the seat. In the Bellary by-elections, B.Sriramulu won the election by a huge majority and the lingayaths who are the deciding factor voted in favour of R.Sriramulu and not the BJP lingayath candidate who lost the deposit! 

 The lingayath card, as used by Nitin Gadkari has completely divided the state vertically on caste lines. It will be lingayaths versus Vokkaligas versus others. If we decide the democracy on caste lines, then we are sure to be doomed. 

That is all.