Don't Write Him Off

Love him or hate him, but you can never ignore him. He may have ruled the country earlier, he may be the indisputable, and indispensable head of his party, but Har-De-Deve Gowda has not really been given his due in Karnataka. His stature is not like say, Balasaheb Thackeray in Mumbai (though the ageing Lion is in decline). It has been so right from the early seventies.

Forever in the shadow of his one time friend turned foe, Ramakrishna Hegde, Gowda never really enjoyed the indulgence of the media. Two decades after he entered politics, he became CM of Karnataka, and they said he was on probation. When he became PM it was dubbed a fluke. When he split from his parent Janata Dal to form the JD(Secular), they said he could not see beyond his personal ambitions. When he invoked his rural background, they poked fun at him and caricatured him as a connoiesseur of ragi mudde. When he suspended his son HD Kumaraswamy for ditching him for his bete noire, the BJP, they said it was inspired drama. They didn't even leave him to sleep in peace - in public or private.

Give the man his due. Over the past three and a half decades, Gowda has seen all, been there, done that, and is still kicking around for more gravy. He may not be media savvy like Hegde, he may lack the urbane charm of his bete noire, SM Krishna, he's not an orator like CM Ibrahim, he lacks the administrative skills of a Veerendra Patil, the wit of JH Patel and the charisma of a Bangarappa, but when it comes to playing the game of rajniti, he is shrewder than all these put together.

OK, everybody knows he's a loving father, but when you're in politics AND when you have the power to give your siblings a career boost, honestly, who wouldn't, and who hasn't? Scan the political stratosphere and you'll find countless examples of Papa, Mama & Co firms doing business in politics in each and every State, starting from 10, Janpath right down to the last constituency. To belabour the point, who doesn't? And we have seen that Indian voters are not really concerned about this, other things remaining the same. Shrewd that he is, Gowda knows this, and is therefore not touchy about promoting his sons.
Like it or lump it, Indian politics is about power and patronage, and pride and prejudice, not about propriety, principles and people. Not a pretty picture, but when was the Great Indian Political Drama a beauty pageant anyway?

When he had Dharam Singh wrapped around his little finger, Deve Gowda loomed larger than life and all parties were dancing to his tune - directly or otherwise. The ruling Congress was stymied by the coalition arrangement with his party, the BJP was busy trying to protect its turf from his predatory eyes, while Siddaramaiah landed in no man's land for daring to take on him. His pet son Kumaraswamy did the impossible - displease him and yet become the CM. In the latest round of elections, Gowda may have lost to the BJP, but his political currency continues to be undiminished. He is now hobnobbing with the Congress, and has even expressed his willingness for an electoral tie-up in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. This, barely after a few weeks of his party's humiliating defeat in the assembly elections! Not bad for someone who has been virtually written off by the media and his political enemies.

Politics is a Power Game where no player can be a winner or loser forever, and where one wrong move can turn a powerful player into a powerless spectator, and one right move turn it the other way round. Few know this better than Gowda. For all his politics and antics, it would be silly to write him off yet.