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Bangalore:
The southern Indian state of Karnataka is a land of contradictions
- a leader in education, banking, science and technology but
backward-looking in politics dominated by caste equations.
In the last 10 years, its capital, Bangalore has raced to become a
brand known across the world for new economy led by information
technology, and people in smaller towns across the state too are
trying to hard to catch up with brand Bangalore. Cities like
Mysore, Shimoga and Hubli - Tier II cities in officialese- are
marketing themselves as new IT destinations.
The politics, however, does not show any signs of growing beyond
caste calculations to keep pace with the times, and like many
other Indian states, one or two caste groups have had upper hand
in ruling the state.
The two caste groups that have dominated the political scene are
Lingayats and Vokkaligas, constituting 18 and 17 percent of the
state's around 60 million population (according to 2001 census).
The main occupation of both the caste groups is agriculture. They
have also become major players in the educational field, running
institutions from kindergarten to engineering and medicine.
The dominance of the two castes is shown by the number of chief
ministers from the groups since Independence.
Of the 19 chief ministers, eight were Lingayats, including the
present B.S. Yeddyurappa of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and
four were Vokkaligas. The remaining seven belonged to other
castes.
Of the eight Lingayats, six belonged to the Congress, one to the
Janata Dal and one BJP. Of the four Vokkaliga chief ministers, two
were from Congress, one from the Janata Dal and another from the
Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).
After 1990, the Lingayats are generally believed to have moved
away from the Congress towards the BJP, upset at the sacking of
Veerendra Patil as chief minister by then Congress chief Rajiv
Gandhi.
In the last 20 years, the only Lingayat chief minister other than
Yeddyurappa was J. H. Patel of the Janata Dal.
The Lingayat vote for BJP was consolidated in the 2008 assembly
polls held after the collapse of JD-S/BJP coalition. JD-S
president H. D. Deve Gowda and his son H. D. Kumaraswamy, who are
Vokkaligas, went back on their word to vacate the chief minister's
post to Yeddyrauppa in 2007.
Kumarswamy had become chief minister with the help of the BJP in
2006. As per the understanding, he was to make way of Yeddyurappa
after 20 months in power.
Yeddyurappa and BJP exploited the JD-S' "betrayal" as a
"conspiracy" against Lingayats and bagged 110 seats in the
225-member assembly.
Yeddyurappa became BJP's first chief minister in south India in
May 2008 with the help of five Independents to achieve majority in
the house.
Now the same caste equation is a stumbling block for BJP to act
against Yeddyurappa. The chief minister has been facing slew of
charges of prime land allotment to his kin, to people who invested
in his two sons business ventures and other dealings by the two.
The BJP not only does not have a leader with all-Karnataka appeal,
it does not have any one even from the Lingayat community who can
match Yeddyurappa's appeal to the caste group.
The only bright aspect for the battered party in Karnataka,
ironically, is the worse shape the Congress and the JD-S are in.
The JD-S has lost much of credibility, in spite of its taking a
lead in releasing documents alleging illegal deals by Yeddyurappa.
The Congress remains demoralised following electoral debacles
starting with losing power in the 2004 assembly polls. It is also
divided on caste basis with Lingayat leaders often meeting among
themselves to publicly express that the community remains
neglected by the party.
Still, it is a no-win situation for BJP. If Yeddyurappa continues
as chief minister, it will weaken the BJP's battle against
corruption in the Congress-led central government.
In the event of Yeddyurappa being thrown out, the party does not
know how it will fare in the next assembly polls.
As for Karnataka, the political instability, which has been
haunting it since 2004, looks set to continue for some years to
come.
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