Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (file photo)Even as Congress is aggressively championing the cause of debt distressed farmers in the country and alleges neglect by the Narendra Modi government, the spate of suicides by farmers in Karnataka's sugar belt has come as a shock to the party high command. The BJP which was at the receiving end of the aggressive campaign by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for justice to farmers has now started pointing its fingers at Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and asking why Rahul is not visiting a state ruled by his own party.
Even within the Congress, the suicide of over 40 farmers has led to internal rumblings in the state unit with former Chief Minister S M Krishna, who was sidelined after Siddaramaiah came to power, coming out of semi retirement. Krishna, after being the close confidant of Congress high command was dropped as external affairs minister in Manmohan Singh government and later was denied renomination to Rajya Sabha. Krishna felt the rise of Siddaramaiah, who spent much of his political career in Janata Parivaar, was the reason for his political fortunes declining. Krishna, who had just returned from his annual trip to London to see tennis matches at Wimbeldon, went to meet families of farmers who committed suicide in his home district of Mandya. Siddaramaiah who had been criticised for not visiting the farmers followed in Krishna's footsteps. But Krishna had already fired a barb by saying that none of his successors including Siddaramaiah had implemented the Veeresh Committee Report on preventing farmers suicides.
The Veeresh Committee had been set up by Krishna as Chief Minister in 2002, following three bad monsoons which led to state wide drought and there was lot of agrarian distress. His successors Dharam Singh of congress, H D kumaraswamy of Janata Dal(secular), B S Yedyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagdish Shettar(all three from BJP) and now Siddaramaih, said S M Krishna, had not given any importance to Veeresh report. Siddaramaiah returned the attack saying the farmers organisations themselves had rejected Veeresh Committee as impractical and vague.
But Krishna, who was credited with making Bengaluru a hi tech and smart city, has now emerged as a dissenting voice. PCC President G Parameshwar was Krishna's choice for Chief Ministership during the last assembly elections, but Parameshwar won the state for Congress in 2013 but lost his own assembly seat. Parameshwar accused Siddaramaiah of sabotage, but the high command which nominated Siddaramaiah has also continued Parameshwar as PCC President. Krishna's outbursts comes at the mid point of Siddaramaiah's tenure. It also reflects an old ideological debate in Karnataka politics which bears close proximity to caste and profession. Siddaramaiah has worked hard to consolidate Ahinda (Kannada acronym for the backward, dalit and minority groups )into solid political force. In rural areas, these castes do not own as much land as the upper caste Lingayat, Vokkaliga and Brahmins. He has been criticised as being not very pro farmer, a charge which had been made against Ramakrishna Hegde during the first Janata Government in 1980s. The attack at that time was led by H D Deve Gowda, who is a Vokkaliga. Interestingly Krishna is also a Vokkaliga, while Siddaramaiah belongs to the backward Kuruba caste.
As the discontent between the current and former chief ministers starts to simmer, the high command has chosen not to make any moves, hoping Siddaramaiah would sort out the issues, including payment of arrears to sugarcane growers which is pending for months. But the BJP is not giving these internal differences a miss. They are trying to capitalise on it on a national level.
Tailpiece: Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan who will both be busy with campaign for NDA in their home state of Bihar have instructed officials at Krishi Bhavan that co ordination meeting on food and agriculture policies would be done in Patna for the crucial campaigning period.
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