‘Oppn must unite, pick leader before 2019’
Karnataka CM calls on opposition parties to come together irrespective of personal issues, also talks about challenges in his coalition government with Congress
NEWDELHI: Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy ‘accidentally’ became the chief minister of Karnataka for the second time after the assembly elections threw up a hung house. With 37 seats in a 224-member assembly, JD(S) got support of 80 MLAS from the Congress, which was keen to prevent another state going to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kumaraswamy, who has described the coalition government as a “child of circumstance”, has had to face a number of challenges, including opposition by a section of Congress leaders, and is trying to rustle up finances for a massive farm-loan waiver announced in the budget. Kumaraswamy spoke to
HT’S and
on why he thinks Congress president Rahul Gandhi is the number one choice to be the next Prime Minister, the need for Opposition unity, how coalition governments have delivered better governance than single-party majority governments in India, and his perceived differences with former CM Siddaramaiah. Edited excepts:
Venkatesha Babu Prashant Jha
passed the budget. There is no denying that both the parties unitedly stand behind the budget. In coalitions, different opinions come but that should not be seen as dissidence. When the Congress offered me support to form a coalition government, the intention was clear: a full five-year term. Even senior leaders of their party who are decision makers have expressed this publicly, including the Congress president. He (Rahul Gandhi) said we will support this government for five years and I believe that is their real intention. While I wouldn’t like to mix politics in this issue, some section of our Congress friends are not happy, and I know that. But that will not affect the longevity of this government. All elected legislators and ministers (of the Congress) want this government to continue. advocate that we should go for fresh elections after parliamentary polls. But that is not the Congress party’s thinking. My analysis is that in politics, some leaders have their own agendas and style of functioning. But your point and that of political analysts that there might be some agenda in such letter writing… all I would say is that I agree as the chairman of coordination committee, he can advise me directly instead of going to the public. This new attitude of his (writing letters and releasing to public), I don’t want to comment on it. others on this issue. The quantum of increase we have proposed is small and will not impact the common man in a big way. For instance, in power we raised tax from 6% to 8%. This (power) will give us only ~188 crore. It is from industry, which can afford to bear the small increase, that we are getting ~500-600 crores. We raised prices of petrol by about ~1 per liter. Even after the increase, prices in Karnataka are considerably lower than other states in the country.
Whenever our family rules the state, one section of people always tries to mislead that we are against northern Karnataka. If you go through the programmes when my father (HD Deve Gowda) was the irrigation minister, chief minister and then Prime Minister, or when I was earlier CM for 20 months, you can see how we have worked for northern Karnataka.
Compared to other CMS, it is our family which has done the most for northern Karnataka. If there has been any progress in irrigation sector in that part of the state, entire credit should go to Deve Gowda-ji. Even when he was PM, he took the decision of an accelerated irrigation scheme under which Karnataka got more than ~15,000 crore from the Centre.
Before Deve Gowda became CM, what was the progress in Upper Krishna project? After he took over as CM, look at the progress. We are fully committed to northern Karnataka and other parts of the state. – in fact all ministers and legislators are with me. I broke down in front of my party workers who are like my family as some sections of media and society are consistently working against my government. Look at the kind of things they show from morning to evening. All I want is a little appreciation for all the hard work I do. What has Arun Jaitley and the stable government been doing for the last four years now, anybody can assess. What is their achievement? His argument that coalition government will weaken the developmental story of India is not true. If you go by past records, the achievements of coalition governments have been marvellous. Not just Deve Gowda’s, even Manmohan Singh’s. Whatever UPA (Unted Progressive Alliance) implemented, Modi government is just copying and continuing. For example, GST was a brainchild of the UPA. The BJP was critical when Aadhar was introduced, but when they came to power, they are following the same system. We should look at track record of what coalition governments have achieved in terms of development work. Even (PV) Narasimha Rao ran a coalition government -- look at what it did. Congress is the major partner in the opposition alliance. So naturally, according to me, Rahul-ji is the number one key contender for the PM’S post. For that to happen, the coalition will have to bring minimum 20-25 seats to parliament from Karnataka. For that we are working hard. We are supporting and will stand-by Rahul-ji. In several states, there are different kinds of political situations. We will try to convince all the leaders that the Opposition should face elections against the BJP unitedly. Otherwise there is no way. For that, from our side, we have tried to convince (several other regional opposition) parties. (interrupts) I know… I know what is happening. In this country anything may happen. Nobody can predict. In Karnataka, did anybody predict this kind of result or that Congress and JD(S) will come together? But we hope that Rahul-ji will become PM. After elections and results, they have to sit and decide, but my personal opinion to achieve that goal is that they must come together. So irrespective of personal issues and to save the country, please come together and fight against the BJP. We must come together before the elections and have a leader to fight against government. We have to tell the country, we are here and we will provide a stable government to the country. For that I appeal to all leaders be generous and have an open mind so that we can win the confidence of voters. No, no such ambition. He is not in the race. Neither do I have any aspirations in national politics. I have bigger developmental challenges in my state. I am concentrating on Karnataka and want to give good governance. Sharing of seats is not a big issue. We will divide the number of seats with mutual understanding. Our intention is to ensure that the coalition gets more seats. We (coalition) will get 20-25 seats from Karnataka. If Congress and JD(S) come together, even if you extrapolate the assembly results, we will win more than 22 seats. Our alliance is formidable. I am not going to be suspicious about such statements. Political analysis could be made… shouldn’t read too much into it. No, no. I am comfortably running the government. Why should I keep channels open with my BJP friends?. Personally I have several good friends in BJP and all other parties.