Political Betrayal – A Travesty of Democracy
October 12, 2007 by Open Article Submission
Filed under News
Going back on one’s promises is nothing new in Indian politics. The Indian history is replete with cases of politics betrayal by leaders of different political parties. The recent development in Karnataka is latest addition in the list.
The goings on in the Karnataka politics over the last couple of weeks is a classic example of how unscrupulous and shame less our power hungry politicians can be and to what extent they would go to retain that power. But this time the Janata Dal [secular] chief minister of the state Mr. H. D. Kumaraswami did not succeed to retain his chief minister ship but he did manage to see to it that the post dose not go to the BJP either. It may be mentioned here that Kumaraswami forged an alliance with the BJP 20 months ago to form the government under the condition that he will be the chief minister for the first 20 months and then he will hand over the command to his ally BJP. The deal was made in January 2006. Kumaraswami’s “term” as chief minister ended on October 2, 2007. But JD(S) had never any intention to owner the contract. Their plan was to enjoy power for 20 months with the support of the BJP and then bargain for more. But the BJP who had had the ill-luck the taste the same type of treatment at the hands of Mayavati in UP years ago, was in no mood to relent this time.
It may also be recalled that in an earlier case the BJP helped the Bahujan Samajwadi Party [BS(P)] to form a government in UP under the condition that the BSP will have it’s candidate for the chief minister’s post for the first 6 months of the coalition government at the end of which a BJP chief minister will take over for the next 6 months. At that time too the BSP chief minister Mayavati did not honor the contract after enjoying power for 6 months.
This time in Karnataka, if the BJP was in the mood to relent, the JD(S) was not at all ready to abdicate the throne either. The master mind behind the JD(S) plot was the party supremo and former prime minister H. D. Devegowda who happens to be the father of Kumaraswami. When the date of the end of the first part of the power sharing contract came nearer, the BJP demanded it’s share of the cake. Deputy chief minister and the BJP legislature party leader Yediyarappa said “we expect Kumaraswami to honour the pledge the JD(S) had made” while senior BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha observed that he expected Kumaraswami to resign by the evening of 2nd October. But Devegowda kept the BJP guessing by announcing that he will make the party’s decision known by the 4th of October. The BJP waited patiently till October 4 only to be told point blank that JD(S) will not hand over the chief minister ship to them. The reasons put foreword by the JD(S) for such an action were quite flimsy. While Kumaraswami alleged that the BJP was engaged in the character “assassination” of his family, papa Devegowda’s argument was that his son had built a very good image of him self as a chief minister in the eye of the public. Hence, it would not be appropriate for him at that time to “disappoint” the people of the state.
Kumaraswami alleged that the BJP leaders were “behind the conspiracy to taint” his image. “Power transfer is not a child’s play. BJP never created a cordial atmosphere for such an exercise to happen”, he said. “Should I handover power to BJP who’s leaders have vowed to perform last rites of my family and my party JD(S)?” Kumaraswami asked.
It may be mentioned here that during Kumaraswami’s rule, BJP MLC G. Janardhan Reddy leveled Rs 150 Crore bribery charges against him while one BJP minister [tourism] of Kumaraswami cabinet B. Sriramulu filed an attempt to murder charge against the chief minister. All these go on to show, that before the final show down, the relation between the two parties had become bitter enough. The BJP, however, had promptly sacked Sriramulu and suspended MLC Reddy for acting against the government of which it was an ally.
It was also interesting to note that after honey-mooning with the BJP for 20 long months, Kumaraswami all of a sudden discovered that his partner in the honey-moon was a “communal party”. His compassion and concern for the poor people of the Karnataka wailed up and, therefore, instead of “transferring the reign of the state to a party like the BJP”, he preferred to go to the “people’s court!” he said that he was not fulfilling the promise [of power sharing] as he was worried about BJP’s “communal and divisive politics”. What a noble idea! Poor Kumaraswami and Devegowda were so innocent that while enjoying the power and heading the government with the help of the BJP, they did not know the BJP’s policy or ideology as a political party! It only dawned upon them when the time came to hand over the chief minister ship!! The senior BJP leaders Venkaiah Naidu has termed the act of JD(S) as “the worst kind of betrayal in the political history of India”. Kumaraswami and dad Devegowda may pat their own backs for acting smart and for having enjoyed the best of the deal at the expense of the BJP. But their act has underlined the fact that their the kind of people who cannot be relied upon when it comes to the question of sharing power. They had ditched the congress before forging a surprise alignment with the BJP but not before enjoying another 20 months of power with the congress.
The truth lies somewhere else. The fact is that the JD(S) has been emboldened by the urban local body election results in which it has own 1400 seats. It is not knows how much or, if at all, these results will help the party in the assembly elections too. But the JD(S) bosses are optimistic. They feel that it was the right time to go to the “people’s court”. It won’t be out of place to mention here that in the last assembly elections, the party had won only 58 seats in an assembly of 224 seats. BJP with 79 seats was the single largest party while the congress with 65 seats came second. It is really a travesty of Indian democracy where the party with the number of elected members in the assembly is kept out of power, while parties coming second or even a poor 3rd in the pools, enjoy the power and run the government! But then this is not the first or the solitary example of this kind in the post-independent period. The BJP has seen and actually gone though all this before in UP and even at the center.
Author: Subhash Dey
copyright: openarticlesubmission.com
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