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The Rediff Interview/Siddaramiah

'The people are far less tolerant of our infighting'

"V arade Gowda tells me that he has already had lunch cooked for me in his home," rumbled Siddaramiah in his deep baritone, pausing for his supporters to chuckle on cue, holding a cordless telephone away from his ear. It was a busy day of negotiation and mediation for the man who is Karnataka Dal chief as well as deputy chief minister and finance minister.

The on-and-off war between Chief Minister J H Patel and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda had flared up again, with disgruntled ministers offering their resignations after Patel's latest ministry expansion.

Siddaramiah, 50, who has recently been anointed Dal president, has been compelled to stop being a fence-sitter and work actively to prevent the Dal government from breaking up. That was why he was trying to meet Varade Gowda, a staunch supporter of Deve Gowda, who had just tendered his resignation as minister.

The Dal has already publicly announced that Siddaramiah will be its choice for chief ministership, should the party win at the assembly polls at the end of the year.

M D Riti met Siddaramiah, who also claims responsibility for raising Karnataka's financial position to a point where the state has been rated as financially sound by CRISIL, at his government-owned residence on Resthouse Crescent in Bangalore. Excerpts:

Do you think you will become the next chief minister of Karnataka?

I predict that our party will come back to power. Despite all these differences and problems, I'm confident that we will win again, because the people of Karnataka have seen the Congress in action for so many years and the disillusionment still exists. As for the Bharatiya Janata Party-Lok Shakti combine, I don't think it can reach more than the third place. Once the Dal is elected to power, it is for the MLAs to decide who should be the next chief minister. I cannot say for sure now that the party will put me in that chair.

Will your party align itself with any other party this time?

Definitely not. It is better to go it on our own.

Will your government last until elections at the end of the year? Or do you think elections will have to be held earlier, perhaps by late summer?

Of course we will last as long as possible, until the next assembly elections are declared.

The general perception is that Deve Gowda is bent on bringing down this government as quickly as possible.

That is simply not true. He just wanted to strengthen the government and the party, nothing more.

You have always been perceived as a shishya of Deve Gowda. On whose side are you now in all this in-fighting?

I am now the party president. My main goal is to bring all the leaders and workers together. I am trying to unite all the various groups. There are no major differences as such, just some ministers who are unhappy about J H Patel's ministry expansion.

How long will this recurring unhappiness continue?

It's practically over now. Everything has been sorted out and we are all one again.

One still hears many disgruntled Dal leaders saying that only renaming the party 'TMP' or Thandhe Makkala Party (Father & Sons' Party) will appease Deve Gowda and his sons.....

How can a political party belong to any individuals? For that matter, the Congress should then be known as the Nehru-Gandhi Party: after all, that family ruled the country for 34 years. It just so happens that two of Deve Gowda's sons are in politics, and belong to their father's party.

Leaders of major political parties in Karnataka usually belong to majority communities. How do you think you will fare, belonging as you do to a backward class?

No political party can hope to come to power in Karnataka depending solely on the support of the majority communities.

Deve Gowda himself believes that the Dal won in Karnataka last time because of the support of the majority communities and the minorities.

Deve Gowda never said any such thing, because such a statement certainly would not be correct. The votes of the Lingayats and Vokkaligas have traditionally been with the Dal. But we won only after we were able to get the BCs, scheduled castes and minorities on our side.

In 1978, although the Janata Party was very popular nationwide, it was basically a party of the majority communities in Karnataka, so we lost here. By 1983, when the other communities also supported us, we won.

The Lingayat and Vokkaliga mutts are believed to swing a lot of votes in Karnataka. Are they likely to support you when the Congress chief in Karnataka is a Vokkaliga?

I don't want to get into this particular subject. All I can say is that the voters of Karnataka are mature people who know how to react to such situations.

Karnataka has now become the last bastion of the Dal, and the very survival of the party seems to hinge on your performance or survival here. Do you think you will save or kill the Dal in Karnataka?

We are strong in Karnataka. We will definitely win again. The people know of our excellent performance over the past four years. We have achieved three times what our predecessors did: more money in the coffers, better programmes for the people, achievement of fiscal and development targets.

The common man certainly thinks that the only issue that has preoccupied the Dal in Karnataka is that of ensuring your own survival for four years...

That is a very untrue and unfair assessment!

The main election platform of the Dal last time was that all of you were united, and would never bicker amongst yourselves again. I am sure you would recall your election video which focused on Ramakrishna Hegde, Deve Gowda, S R Bommai and J H Patel walking together across Hegde's lawn.

The people still expect us to go before them unitedly. That is why I am trying to bring everyone together now. We would like to show the people that we have no infighting. Somehow, the people are far less tolerant of our infighting than of the same problem in other parties.

What is going to be your main election platform this time? Promises of unity or a table of achievements?

We will have our manifesto, of course, and our list of achievements. More than anything else, though, we have to go the people unitedly, and speak with one voice.

Hegde was always one of your star campaigners and support base providers. Are you confident of doing well without him this time?

Hegde is a tremendously popular man. But we have won many bye-elections without him, and I don't see why facing an assembly election will be any different.

Do you think the tumultuous welcome that S M Krishna was given when he came back from Delhi to take over as Congress chief is an early indicator of the existence of a Congress wave in Karnataka?

Everyone knows that those people were brought from the villages and collected in specific places to hail Krishna. This is typical of the Congress culture. Nobody would ever be fooled into thinking that was a genuine or spontaneous reaction of the people of Karnataka.

Your government has been known for the numerous foreign jaunts that its leaders including you have been on. How do you justify all these trips?

Every single one of them was necessary. They were all very educational. One must see developmental activities taking place abroad, as well as study developing countries.

How much of this learning experience have you been able to use practically?

You cannot quantify such experience or its usefulness. One may not be able to copy all the projects that one sees elsewhere; its not even necessary to do so. What is essential is that people in the government should know what is happening outside India. Our officers are being sent on training outside India all the time as well, it's not just the politicians. All this is very necessary, and a part of giving good government.

What kind of budget have you planned this time?

You will soon come to know.

Can we expect it to be full of typical Dal populist promises, as its an election-year budget?

Our budgets have never been populist. They are always progressive. We aim at the growth of the economy of the state. Our priorities in the past four years have been irrigation, primary education, primary health, power generation, social sector improvement, housing etc. These will continue to be our priorities.

How did you find the state exchequer when you took over? Veerappa Moily said he had filled the coffers during his time.

That is not true at all. We have improved the finances greatly over the past four years. However, Karnataka is now about to join other states by entering into minus BCR (balance of current revenue). This is unavoidable. We will have to meet most of our plan expenditure out of loans.

There was a time when Karnataka used to throw up several national leaders for the Dal. This no longer seems to happen.

What is your definition of a national leader? As soon as Sonia Gandhi entered the arena, she became a national leader. So did her husband Rajiv. But Deve Gowda, who was prime minister for 11 months, is not supposed to be a national leader! People who have never won a single election in their lives become national leaders, while genuine leaders who come up from the lowest level are still described as regional leaders. Those who lobby with the Delhi politicians and media become instant national leaders.

Do you think the national politics is still dominated by the north?

Not in this coalition era. Earlier, the Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar used to turn out about 140 MPs, so naturally, there were more Hindi-speaking political leaders in Delhi.

Are you really confident of winning Karnataka for the Dal at the end of the year, or are you willing to be more realistic and acknowledge the prospect of a hung assembly at best?

I am sure that we will win. If not in an absolute majority, we will still be the largest single party.

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