Desperate Modi pulls no punches for Karnataka win
Tomorrow, the campaign for Karntaka’s assembly election ends, not a moment too soon. Karnataka is the only south Indian state that the Bharatiya Janata Party has ever ruled (it ruled on its own in 2008-13). Prime Minister Narendra Modi is desperate to prevent the Congress party and its chief minister, Siddaramaiah, from returning to power. It has not been Modi’s finest hour.
Most obvious is that despite Modi’s famous pledge that he would not tolerate corruption (na khaoonga, na khaane doonga), the Karnataka campaign is locally led by former BJP CM, BS Yeddyurappa, who in 2011 had to resign and go to jail for illegal profiteering in land deals in his home district of Shimoga. It came out of an investigation into illegal mining in the Hyderabad-Karnataka belt (aka northeast Karnataka).
The Bellary brothers illegally mined iron ore of about $400 million and shipped much of it out to China, which needed the steel for its preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At Yeddyurappa’s insistence, the brothers, including G Janardhan Reddy who has not yet been cleared, were given BJP tickets.
The BJP was embarrassed. Though Modi stated he would not appear on stage with the Bellary brothers, their candidacies blunted his most effective campaign tool over the years: anti-corruption. It is difficult to accuse others of graft when the man leading your party has been to jail. It has not, however, stopped Modi from wildly alleging that Congress President Rahul Gandhi is involved in a Rs5,000 crore scam in the National Herald case; this dubious charge itself a measure of Modi’s desperation.
Yeddyurappa insists the Bellary brothers will get the BJP an additional 15-odd seats. He is very cut up that the party did not give tickets to either his son Vijayendra or his friend Shobha Karandlaje, and so has been subdued in his campaigning. The slack has been taken up by Modi and the Uttar Pradesh CM, Ajay Singh Bisht aka Yogi Adityanath; though the UP CM raised cheer a few months back when he visited, his brand of politics has lately been swamped by Siddaramaiah’s aggressive sub-nationalism. Yogi, tail between his legs, fled back to UP within a couple of days.
Party President Amit Shah has also been on the campaign trail, but in a sign of disenchantment with his party particularly by the dalit communities, his shows comprise rows of empty seats. So, it is all left to Modi, still the most popular politician in India today, though you wouldn’t be able to tell that from his language. He
With an unbroken record of economic mismanagement, Modi is falling prey to the law of diminishing returns. has personally attacked Rahul Gandhi, challenging him to speak for 15 minutes — in English, Hindi or even “your mother’s mother-tongue”, even though Rahul’s mother Sonia has never uttered an Italian word at any public gathering in India — about Siddaramaiah’s achievements, without using written notes. He has called Rahul naamdar (famous) and himself kaamdar (a worker), though on the evidence of the past four years it should be the other way around. Modi has even attacked Rahul’s attire and even his habit of rolling up his sleeves. To Rahul’s credit, he has not responded in kind.
Modi has also targeted Siddaramaiah, calling him seedha rupaiya (direct payment) and his government a 10 per cent government, insinuating that that was the prevailing graft rate. Most colourful, however, was Modi’s description of the government as a nanga naach (naked dance) of various mafias. Siddaramaiah is suing Modi for libel.
Four years ago, this might have worked. Today, however, with the return of high fuel prices and an unbroken record by BJP government of economic mismanagement, Modi is falling prey to the law of diminishing returns.
The height of desperation, however, is Modi’s unabashed wooing of the former PM, HD Deve Gowda; he accused Rahul of disrespecting Deve Gowda. The latter’s JD(S) is the Congress’s main contender in the Mysore bastion of south Karnataka. BJP workers here are quietly supporting the JD(S) candidates in the 55 seats that comprise this region. The BJP has from the start spoken of the inevitability of how the Karnataka election will produce a hung assembly; it is in no shape to get a majority in the 124-member assembly on its own so hopes that as in 2006, it can form a coalition with the JD(S). This would serve two purposes: it would oust the Congress from power, and it would also help provide an opportunity to the BJP to replace Yeddyurappa as its primary state leader.
Modi is desperate to dislodge the Congress. Recent by-election losses, consequent to an opposition tie-up in UP have shaken Modi’s plans for returning to power next year. Additionally, he faces big defeats in the BJP-ruled states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, which hold assembly elections at the end of this year. Removing the Congress from Karnataka is essential to breaking this momentum, and Modi has pulled no punches. How bruised he himself emerges, we’ll know by next week.