The Karnataka coalition Government fell victim to preposterous make-believe construct of secularism. At the helm of the Karnataka turmoil was former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. When Kumaraswamy and those belonging to the JD(S) ditched the Congress to grab power by aligning with the BJP, they agreed to a power-sharing formula. Accordingly, both Kumaraswamy of JD(S) and Yedurappa of the BJP, would be Chief Ministers by turn. On October 2, 2007 Kumaraswamy, who first became the Chief Minister, was to handover the reins to Yedurappa but he did not do so on flimsy ground.

Even at the time of formation of BJP-JD(S) coalition, there was a suspicion in many minds that Deve Gowda would not let go of the reigns. On one hand his son getting an opportunity to become the Chief Minister was very dear to him, on the other hand the BJP coming to power after 20 months was not palatable to him. He was worried about his secular credentials. When he parted from Janta Dal (JD), he named his group as JD(Secular), reflecting thereby that the other JD was not secular, for they had aligned with the BJP. Can his secular credentials be tested?

The fact remains that he is a castiest leader of the Vokkaliga community. His party is a one-caste party, others may be there but that is incidental. It is an all India phenomenon, caste-based parties belonging to Mulayam Singh, Lalu, BSP and many others are champions of the caste. They construct lethal equations like MY (Muslims and Yadavs) in UP and Bihar and MJ (Muslims and Jatavs) in the case of BSP.

They are the models of self-proclaimed secularism. Casteism is condoned while considering their secular credentials. There is a long history behind it. When India became independent, the Muslims who remained in India had a sense of guilt and insecurity, for it was their brethren who had caused partition. During his election campaigns Nehru propagated secularism as a shield to the scared Muslims and side-by-side he blamed the Jan Sangh for being communal and anti-Muslim. Jan Sangh and BJP were never anti-Muslim but they were against some streams of Muslim society which favoured separatism and fundamentalism. The idea of secularism got derailed from the days when Nehru created a Muslim vote-bank and the Congress won elections upto 1972.

Meanwhile, Pakistan broke up and Bangladesh came into being. This turn took Muslims psychologically away from the Congress and resulted in the emergence of number of self-proclaimed secular parties who competed with each other on Muslim-appeasement policies. In India secularism meant flirting and romancing with the minority and hurting and insulting the majority. When Deve Gowda prevented the BJP from coming to power, there was a message for Muslims - look I did not allow a communal party to spread its tentacles in south India. He was hoping to reap political harvest of Muslim vote-bank in Karnataka for which he had paved the way by inviting election.

There was an additional reason for it as well. Just before that Municipal level elections were held and results thereof came just days before the date of transfer of power. The statistics of these election results emboldened Deve Gowda, his party has won in 1499 wards. JD(S) earlier tally was just 450. On the contrary Congress last tally was 2232 but this time it slipped to 1501 seats. This gave hope to Deve Gowda that if the BJP is not allowed to head the Government the Muslims would be happy and JD(S) fortunes would go up.

But he forgot three major shifts which could occur due to non-implementation of power-sharing arrangement. One, the entire Lingayat community which is as strong as Vokkaliga would rally behind Yedurappa, a Lingayat and many reasonable sections of the society from other castes may cast sympathy vote in favour of the BJP.

Secondly in the same Municipal elections the BJP could improve upon its last tally of 352 to 1170.

Third, due to non-adherence to coalition dharma, Deve Gowda's party would lack moral ground to face the public wrath. Even his party men are disillusioned. Many of them are desirous of aligning with the BJP.

India may be the largest democracy in the world but the trend of coalition dharma is getting ruptured increasingly causing untimely deaths of State Assemblies and frequent dozes of Presidential rule. Last year when it was the Congress' turn of having its Chief Minister, PDP'S Mufti Mohd Sayeed tried to continue as Chief Minister. Earlier in UP Mayawati, too, did not vacate the office of Chief Minister allowing smooth transfer of power. In our democracy the coalition era is tending into more and more uncertain political situations.

www.dailypioneer.com, October 14, 207