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ShareThe crisis in the ruling party in the state does not show any sign of diminishing, a full week after the Reddy brothers staged a mutiny of sorts. Their demand that the captain be replaced remains. That, despite herculean efforts of the party high command to rein them in and keep its faith in the leadership of BS Yeddyurappa.
A week is a long time in politics, a very very long time in which formulations can go upside down, but in this particular instance in Karnataka, there seems to be very little movement from the first stated position of the dissidents. Though the BJP high command, or the core committee or whatever in Delhi, has suggested that there should be no change of guard in the state, the Reddy brothers have so far stuck to the one-point agenda with which they set about: change the captain.
There are clear signs that the national leadership is working on a formula acceptable to the dissidents. That was expected and it includes the very obvious -- dropping Shobha Karandlaje from the ministry, changing some officers perceived to be inimical to the Reddy brothers, reshuffling portfolios of ministers, and so on. Whatever be the final shape of that, the signal that is coming out of Delhi is that the Reddy brothers need to be placated to salvage the situation so that the BJP is not seen to be a party that implodes because of the weight of internal contradictions.
As a solution offered by an interested but distant party, the formula being considered is fine, but that still does not address some basic questions. Why are the Reddy brothers, for instance, so very upset that they are quite willing to stake their political futures in their battle against the chief minister? Is it purely their business interests that they are trying to safeguard? If that was the case, they would be mollycoddling the chief minister instead of fighting him. Is it a case of the chief minister having done so much damage to them that they have no option but to fight back? It does not appear to be so since, apart from transferring some officers, and that too after the Reddy brothers hoisted the flag of rebellion, Yeddyurappa possibly has had little scope to damage them except some minor pinpricks.
The obvious question that begs an answer: Is there a lot more than mere mining interests that is compelling the Reddy brothers to engage in a high-stakes political game? There is no clear-cut answer in black and white for this. There are, however, some simple political lessons that the BJP, and for that matter other political parties, can draw from this experience.
The first is to never let any business interest, or group, have a great deal of say in the affairs of the party. Since India's Independence, business interests have had a fairly close relationship with political parties. Of the many lobbies, the liquor lobby has always had great influence on any establishment. In Karnataka, the Khodays, Basavaraj, Dasappa and Adi Keshavulu have had a degree of influence at varying points, particularly with the ruling party, but none of them were allowed to grow and become as powerful as the Reddy brothers. As a moneyed lobby, the mining industry became pretty important only in the last decade or so, and more particularly after iron ore prices shot through the roof, thanks largely to the huge off-take by China. The clout of the Reddy brothers grew along with the global market for iron ore.
In its anxiety to somehow make a break in the Deccan plateau, the BJP relied excessively on them. For instance, in Bellary district where the BJP had no roots at all, the Reddy brothers were able to nurture and grow the party to an extent that the BJP occupies the entire political space in the district now. Their tactics and strategies encouraged the state leadership of the party, Yeddyurappa in particular, to let them take command of the neighbouring districts. More importantly, the BJP seems to have relied on the mining lobby for its election funding.
All that paid off and it is no surprise that the Reddy brothers thought they had a greater stake in the party and the government than the traditional leadership in the party from the RSS stock was willing to acknowledge. Anyone who has funded, supported and brought electoral dividends for the BJP would be entitled to believe their contribution to its victory in the elections to the assembly and the Parliament is no less than, say, a VS Acharya's or a Shobha Karandlaje's. It naturally follows that they demand the weightage they think they deserve.
No matter how much ideological, caste and regional spin one puts on the crisis in the ruling party, at the end of the day, most such crises in political parties are simply a matter of ego clashes. The rest of the reasons are for public consumption.
