The politics of drought: DVS’ legacy for the taking

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Intolerance. Hallmark of the coward. Badge of the insecure? In refusing to accept even the mildest criticism – in this case, a cartoon that takes the mickey out of her treatment of opponents – puts West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the same league as the tinpot dictators who terrorized their people into submission in Africa, South America, and Asia.

Unquestionably Hitlerian. Almost Stalinesque. Or should we equate her with Pinochet, or the blood-thirsty Pol Pot. Or Africa’s Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, Congo’s Laurent Kabila, to name a few… It always begins with the silencing of criticism, then the beatings, followed by the disappearances. Long years in jail. Or a bullet to the head. Look at Stalin in Russia. Mao in China. Who is Didi really? No Congresswoman at all, just a closet Marxist-Maoist after all?

Well, she can certainly tick off the first two boxes. Who knows, the disappearances into Bengal’s Gulag may well be next.. And this is Bengal we are talking about. The state that’s known for its intellectual and cultural smarts, for men who strode the world like Colossus, for a Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, for a Satyajit Ray and an Amartya Sen. Icons all.

And Didi, whom unquestionably, was the woman, we silently weighed in for. A woman of the people. Clean. Uncorruptible. On the side of the angels. Her chappal wearing, cotton sari-clad –yes, not so frail – frame, ranged against the mighty Marxists who did not think twice before scything their opponents to shreds.

Now, with the jailing of a professor and the friend to whom the prof. forwarded the cartoon – when did THAT become a crime – Didi is fast morphing into the Big Sister that nobody imagined she would become.

To begin with, one could say ‘once an opposition leader, always an opposition leader’. Right? Wrong. The kinder explanation is that Mamatadi is simply unable to comprehend the exigencies of office, unable to make that leap from opposition to government and realize that what works when you’re in the opposition doesn’t necessarily work when you hold office. The harsher and more realistic view maybe that she is a destructive opposition leader who may never become what we had all hoped she would be – a constructive force for good. At best uni-dimensional, she is a one woman demolition squad, and that’s all she will ever be.

Who else would head-butt hapless librarians who dared (!!) to stock English language newspapers that carry critiques of her style of functioning. No, no. Far better for the masses, to read the news in Bengali, in newspapers that meekly toe the line, faithfully publishing the Mamata dictum, word for word, line for frigging line… And maybe, just maybe, if we’re really lucky, we’ll get a version of Chairman Mao’s Red Book. Chairwoman Mamata’s Green Book. How does that sound? Or Didi’s Doodles. So she can mass produce her own cartoons! Except, it may not be even half as funny…

But it’s not just Didi who is a source for worry in the greater India that is Bharat. The whispers about Mamatadi refusing to listen to sage voices in her cabinet are much the same that is said, sotto voce, of our elected chief ministers in states as diverse as Gujarat where the all powerful Narendra Modi, he of the celebrated puff piece in the New York Times, brooks no opposition; and then there’s Nitish Kumar in Bihar, a strongwoman in Tamil Nadu and the other contrarian leader of our times, the newly dislodged former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati.

What is this? The malaise of power? When you’re with them, not one word of criticism and you’ll be fine, part of the inner circle, privy to every going-on. If not, you are pushed to the periphery, blackballed, dumped.

Which is why, one must put out a word of caution to the genuinely bright and savvy chief minister of Karnataka. Sadananda Gowda has fought his corner like a ferocious tiger, despite being prodded and poked by the many who have rattled his newly gilded cage. Until a few months ago, the smile rarely slipped. And while that allegory, highly overused as it maybe, may have faded somewhat, clearly the months in the public glare are beginning to take their toll. The all encompassing beam isn’t quite there, his smile rarely reaches his eyes.

And while, it must be said, he hasn’t taken the Mamatadi route – whew! no beatings, no bans as yet – the anger and frustration are clearly bubbling to the surface.

There are things beyond your control when you run a state. And the trick is to roll with the punches, be Mohammed Ali as you duck and weave at the punches thrown at you in the fighting ring that is politics. Mamatadi has clearly not made the transition. Has Mr Gowda?

In painting the entire fourth estate as “terrorists”, one of many side swipes Mr Gowda has made in the last few weeks, the strain is clearly beginning to tell. It’s not easy to develop a second skin and not react to every jibe, to every provocation, and stop himself from hitting out at his predecessor Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa who sees him as Brutus to his Ceasar.

What he must do as the first order of business is to set up a full-fledged cell that can feed the electronic media’s voracious appetite to keep its channels going 24x7. Not easy to find a loyalist in these times.

And second, there must be something that he should put his name to. Mr Yeddyurappa can rattle off a number of schemes – for the girl child, for the farmer and so on that he will flag with impunity, if and when he goes back to face the people. There are schemes and then there are schemes. In the case of Mr Gowda, it’s staring him in the face. The drought, of course.

So far, every single politician from every single party has hot-footed it to Gulbarga, where the first farmer suicides are beginning to happen. It’s political catnip. Yet, without exception, we have been treated to unctuous speeches by leaders who helicopter in and out of the drought hit areas, distribute a few bags of grain, make potshots at each other, and then they’re gone.

Mr Yeddyurappa, until the party stepped in, could have made it his launching pad for his own resurrection. Mr Gowda, if he is as sharp as everyone says he is, could do the same.

Instead, his priorities misplaced, he is still looking at widening his circle of support by making a cabinet in his own image. With a year or less to go before elections, will BSY’s men – or for that matter any legislator – abandon a moneyed mentor for an untested name.

I would still put my money on doing something that one would be remembered for. The drought-hit people in the Lingayat held north are crying for help. They don’t care where it comes from. What is holding Mr Gowda back from a full-fledged scheme to help these people? Why hasn’t he appointed a special officer to take relief forward?

They say ‘success has many fathers but failure gets the mother-in-law’. ‘Or the orphan’. Mr Sadananda Gowda must decide who he wants to be. The father, mother-in-law or the orphan.