Shepherd Leads Backward Flock

The Congress CM is into subtle social engineering tactics to retain power.

- Ajay Sukumaran

Just over three months ago, Karnataka’s ruling Congress won two byelections in the state when its chips were down elsewhere in the country. the results invited the characteristic drawl from chief minister Siddaramaiah. “Karnataka is not UP,” he said, the victory seemingly shoring up his confidence. then, on July 21, as he took the centre stage at a conference in Bangalore on social justice, Siddaramaiah, had a word for critics who often labelled the four state budgets he presented so far as ‘Ahinda’. “I take it as a compliment,” the 68-year-old leader said about the Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits—the political plank he has claimed for himself for over a decade now.

Plenty has happened in between, especially that a beleaguered Congress appears to rouse itself, unlike in many other states, for a stiff fight in Karnataka, where assembly elections are due in less than a year. Siddaramaiah, as some put it, is calling the tune at the moment. And, rattling the BJP while he is at it. Over the past fortnight, he has touched off the Kannada pride debate over a state flag. Then, he has hosted a large gathering of scholars and activists to commemorate Dr B.R. Ambedkar—the largest such assembly veteran social theorist Ashis Nandy says he’s seen in his lifetime—that appeared to be consolidating the two prominent Dalit sections. Equally significantly, he has opened up the old faultline of Lingayats—followers of a distinct Shaivite tradition—vis­a­vis their fitting into the Hindu fold.