Has the Congress in Karnataka started to behave like a regional party stirring sub-nationalism sentiments? Given a series of decisions taken in the last couple of months, the answer to the above question appears to be in the affirmative, say Opposition leaders and experts.
The Congress government recently sent a leader of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KRV) to prison for a fortnight, as his supporters allegedly vandalised shops and commercial establishments because they had not heeded to their demand to “immediately” replace the English name boards with Kannada. This, despite the fact that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has given time until February 28 to implement its order of having 60% signboards in Kannada.
What happened after that showed the determination of the government to take over the Kannada platform away from the KRV. Every time the KRV leader came out of prison after completing the judicial custody norms of a fortnight, he was arrested in some old case and sent back to prison for another fortnight. This happened thrice before the leader was finally received with garlands by his supporters on his release.
The government quietly took over as the champion of the Kannada cause by getting a legislative bill in the current session to make the 60% Kannada signboards a law and issuing strict instructions to the corporation authorities to spare none while implementing the once forgotten rule. It left shops and commercial establishments scurrying after corporation officials went around covering the boards with cloth, even though the deadline had not been crossed.
This week, the government informed the legislative council that a mandate will be issued to all multinational companies to display details of the number of Kannadigas employed by them. It also made singing of the ‘Nada Geethe’ or state anthem in all schools, including private ones, compulsory.
PORTRAYING THEMSELVES AS REGIONAL PARTY: BJP
The government’s actions have led critics to say that every effort was being made by to boost Kannadiga pride among people in the pre-election days. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former law minister Suresh Kumar pointed out that the Congress has been setting a narrative that the Central government has been imposing Hindi on people in Karnataka. “The Congress is trying to portray themselves as a regional party in the state,” he told News18.
“Have they forgotten that Hindi Day was started by their own party? When in the AICC, the Congress claims to be a national party, but when they come to Karnataka, they become a regional party which champions for Kannadigas and their rights,” said Kumar.
The BJP leader questioned the intentions of the Congress based on the decisions made in the past one week, including changing Kannada poet laureate Kuvempu’s original phrase painted on the walls of schools run by the social welfare department. When the issue was raised by the BJP, the government promptly said that the slogan of Kuvempu will be restored to the original on the schools as no formal order had been issued.
“It has belied the Congress’s intentions. They want to send a message that they are a regional party and protect regional aspirations,” Kumar added.
On a question of whether the Congress is trying to play the part of regional party Janata Dal Secular (JDS) after they joined hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kumar agreed that the Congress found a window of opportunity to pose itself as a regional party.
“They think it will give them dividends, but I don’t think it will help. The toolkit of the Congress will give it suitable directions, but it will not be able to get as much dividends as during the assembly elections,” he said.
CONSTANT FOCUS TO PRESERVE CULTURE, LANGUAGE & RIGHTS: CONG
Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge, however, disagreed with Kumar. He made the point that safeguarding Kannada as a classical language and instilling Kannadiga pride was not new. He underlined how when his party was in power earlier in 2018 as well, it had moved for a separate flag for Karnataka, better job opportunities for Kannadigas, and steps to safeguard Kannada as a language.
“Why should it be election driven? It is our constant focus to preserve our culture, language and rights of our people and we are proud of it. How can anybody call the Congress a regional party as we have been a national party with a rich political heritage of over 180 years?” said Kharge to News18.
He also added that the Congress respects Rashtrakavi Kuvempu, who asked people to be a “vishwamanava”. “We are attempting to preserve our heritage, culture and even when it comes to the issue of name boards, we say that it should be 60% in Kannada and 40% English, in line with our vision of Karnataka being a global destination. Haven’t you seen boards in Japan and China? They are completely in Chinese or Japanese,” he added.
DISJOINTED OR WELL-PLANNED? EXPERTSPEAK
Political commentator Dr Sandeep Shastri said that a lot of decisions taken by the Congress seemed to be a knee-jerk reaction to the developments with a focus to try and occupy the centrestage during election time.
“They need to plan more effectively and synchronise their actions which I don’t see happening. It’s working like a party that does not seem to be having all its guns blazing in the same direction. It seems to be a disjointed approach with each leader taking a decision which is not in consonance with what the party does or wants to do,” Dr Shastri said.
Narender Pani, Professor, School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies ( NIAS), however, holds a different view. “This looks like a part of a conscious strategy and not a sign of desperation. A political party must keep elections in mind. They function for elections, and for a party, elections are an enforcement of what they have won or failed to do. I don’t understand the term desperation. Take the BJP, for instance; why is it going for so many alliances? One would say it is because they fear losing, so they are going for certain alliances. Or one could say that they are ambitious and want to cross a certain number, so they are going for alliances. It is all a matter of interpretation. Every political party would want to perform well in this election and would want to take their party in that direction,” he said.
Prof Pani points out that “the basic idea that the Congress is different from other parties is that it allows regional interests to be part of the original conception. Once you are ready to decentralise power, you cannot expect a single cohesive move; there will be debates, and then consensus will emerge from it”.
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