On Monday night, as parts of Bengaluru city burnt around him, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah summoned six of his close confidantes and a few cabinet colleagues to his official residence – incidentally, called Cauvery – for a closed-door meeting.
The Chief Minister rubbished the idea that the riots and arson protesting Supreme Court order to share the Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu was spontaneous. “He wanted to know who was behind the mobs,” a participant in the meeting and an MLA known as the CM’s shadow told CNN-News18. "The CM suspects vested interests within and without the ruling Congress party who are trying to throw him off the CM’s chair to have played a part in sudden violence," he said. The CM is learnt to have said the BJP national leadership could use the Central government to use this spike in violence to unseat – or at least destabilize – what is the lone Congress-led government in a big state.
There were quite a few takers for that line of argument in the meeting. A few of Siddaramaiah’s friends told him that a riot led by faceless garment workers against the new Provident Fund (PF) withdrawal rules earlier this year was also aimed at dislodging his government and that both local Congress and the opposition party workers were involved in it. They even argued that the same elements were once again out in public leading the violence.
Well, the fact remains that not many observers of Karnataka politics will dismiss the CM’s suspicions as political paranoia. Especially in the current charged atmosphere where the son-of-the-soil sentiment is ruling the roost. According to sources close to former CM and BJP state chief BS Yedyurappa, even the saffron brigade wants the emotions to cool down since the only beneficiary of the current turmoil would be JD (S) and the father-son duo of HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumara Swamy.
Within the Congress hierarchy, Siddaramaiah is a rank outsider. A vocal opponent of the party till 2005, he led the same Congress to a convincing victory in the 2013 assembly elections and became the CM. The high command move to anoint him as the CM had caused considerable heartburn among other stalwarts of the party. Read the mismatch of words between the CM and his Home Minister G Parameswara – also the state Congress chief – in responding to the Bengaluru situation against this context. Instead of defending Siddaramaiah, he had said “we did not expect this kind of violence. Such a thing should not have happened."
Except a dozen ministers who were earlier with his Janata pariwar, Siddaramaiah does not trust the others in Congress. There is a clear ‘Us & Them’ divide in the party. During every crisis that visited the Siddaramiah government, the Congress legacy brigade including ministers maintained radio silence and refused to defend the chief minister whom they still consider an "outsider". It is no secret that Veterans like CK Jaffer Sharief, Janardhana Poojary, SM Krishna and Mallikarjuna Kharge want to see Siddaramaiah’s back and mostly keep quiet during the crisis.
Interestingly, the water wars have also slowed down BJP's campaign against the CM. After the Cauvery riots broke out, the BJP leadership is worried that the present crisis might go against them benefiting JD (S). The Congress is demanding the intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in resolving the issue. Karnataka’s lead lawyer in the case Fali S Nariman sarcastically told the SC that Prime Minister did not have the time to reply to Siddaramaiah’s letter seeking his mediation in solving the dispute.
CNN-News18 contacted former CM and state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa, but he was not exactly forthcoming. The usually outspoken leader had this much to say: “The PM can’t intervene as the matter is being heard by the SC. How can Karnataka government demand that?”
Yeddyurappa who is hoping to reclaim the chief ministership in the 2018 assembly elections knows that an escalation in the riots will only benefit his and Siddaramaiah’s enemy the Deve Gowda family which runs the JDS as the Cauvery basin districts are Gowda stronghold.
The JDS which is hoping to play the role of a kingmaker after 2018 Assembly elections is the most aggressive on the ground in the Cauvery basin districts expecting a rich harvest of votes.
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