ICE-BREAKER IDLIS TO CONTAIN POLITICAL STEAM

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are used to staking claim to power forcefully. If breakfast meetings fail to resolve their impasse, the blame will squarely fall on the Congress high command

- SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU

HOEVER is watching the political developments in Karnataka is bound to be very confused. There are no familiar scenes that a power play usually throws up.

The two principal protagonists, seemingly antagonists—Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar—are not directly punching each other. They have neither confirmed the crisis nor denied it. Their supporters have not taken to the streets. No lobby or caste groups have signalled unrest. None have paraded legislators, none have rushed to the Raj Bhavan, and unlike in the past, nobody has transported their flock to fancy resorts. Yet, the crisis is real and palpable.

With the loudness of a power grab absent, one wonders if this is anew way of doing politics in India, or if this is the end of politics? Is this about a dignified exercise, or is it a quiet mafioso-like operation, where no one really knows who is contracted to do the act, when, at what cost, and who eventually is assigned to pull the trigger. One would perhaps realise that the deed is done when a cold pool of blood draws a picture.

In the Modi-Shah era, the BJP has perfected the art of leadership change in states without a mess or a whimper. First of all, it offers no clue about an impending change; and when it does, it shocks its own cadres because the person rewarded would have been outside anybody’s reckoning. They have ensured that power and predictability are permanently divorced. This has built a mythology about their command and control. In such a political milieu, the Congress cannot be seen getting noisy and chaotic about its leadership games.