Sticks And Stones

THE gestures couldn't have been more symbolic. Midway through his three-day whistle-stop tour of Karnataka this fortnight, Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda was presented with a shining steel sword at a mammoth public meeting in Bangalore. A day later, as he concluded the tour in his home district Hassan, the 'son of the soil' was handed a silver plough. A far cry from the rotten eggs, stones and a bathroom slipper his bete noire , expelled Janata Dal leader Ramakrishna Hegde, received there a few days earlier at the end of his Karnataka tour to mobilise support for his "apolitical forum".

Having toured his stronghold districts in north Karnataka and receiving encouraging responses in the central parts of the state, Hegde embarked on the last leg of his tour in the southern Vokkaliga heartland of the state. And Gowda, despite emphatic assertions to the contrary, decided to counter these moves in a three-day tour, stopping in two districts in north Karnataka and two in the south. In fact, Gowda's was such a reflex move that the itineraries almost clashed. While Hegde's Rashtriya Navanirmana Vedike (National Reconstruction Forum) scheduled the last meeting of its two-month-long tour at Hassan, Gowda kicked off his shuttle flight through the state on the same day and concluded it at Hassan, two days after Hegde.

And the drama unfolded. As Hegde stopped at Ramanagaram, Gowda's assembly constituency in Bangalore rural district, rotten eggs were thrown at his car while cowdung was smeared on another car carrying a former minister. In neighbouring Chennapatna, Gowda supporters attempted to disrupt his address, waving black flags, booing and heckling Hegde.

"I'm not surprised at all," says Hegde, who got good public response, despite the curious crowds, even in the Vokkaliga belt. "This is their (Gowda's supporters) political culture." Hassan was a further revelation for Hegde in a state that's undergoing a clear polarisation of political forces following Gowda's successful playing of the social card. For nearly 15 minutes, Hegde was heckled by a motley group of Gowda supporters who threw stones and a stray slipper on the stage. A large posse of policemen looked on till their SP finally intervened.

An unperturbed Hegde came to the front of the stage and yelled on the public address system: "Hit me if you have more stones. I'm no coward and am willing to die here today. Do we need a Prime Minister who comes from such a political culture? Having attempted to finish me politically, he is now trying to eliminate me physically." Added Jeevaraj Alva, a former minister and Hegde's confidant, best known for his rabble-rousing abilities: "If this is what you can do to us here, we can do the same to your Prime Minister in Bangalore." 

Meanwhile, BJP supporters burnt two state transport buses and had to be tear gassed and caned a day before Gowda was scheduled to visit the northern Hubli city. The trouble followed the arrest and alleged beating up of some BJP workers, reportedly writing anti-Gowda slogans on the walls. Gowda nevertheless visited Hubli, a BJP stronghold, after a modest public reception in Gulbarga. Then, he took off for Bangalore for a public meeting at a venue, once Hegde's assembly constituency.

 "Hegde has accused me of attempting to finish him physically. Where is the need for me to do that?" asked Gowda after promising the mobilised crowd he was uttering Hegde's name for the last time ever. "Whatever he (Hegde) is going through is divine retribution for acts committed by him earlier," he proclaimed.

GOWDA countered Hegde's allegations regarding his surprise election by four chief ministers after the 13-party Uni-ted Front was cobbled together. "I never went to Delhi to become prime minister. In fact, I suggested the names of Bommai and Hegde for the job when the UF selected me for the position." Hegde's political culture too became target as Gowda returned fire: "He calls MLAs impotent for not opposing his expulsion from the party; the same MLAs with whose support he is today a Rajya Sabha member. He points at my lack of pro-ficiency in Hindi and English and says I'm a villager. What political culture is this?" 

The highlight of the tour came when Chief Minister J.H. Patel executed a neat shift of position vis-a-vis the Hegde-Gowda war. A known Hegde supporter till he assumed office, Patel went public against Hegde for the first time after the former chief minister was expelled. Patel ridiculed Hegde for criticising the Janata Dal government in the state and pointed at his increasing proximity to the BJP. "Having criticised the BJP all along, Hegde suddenly finds the fundamentalist party palatable as he says they've made a climbdown on some contentious issues. It seems he's set to join hands with Nathuram Godse's party," he said.

The way Hegde is generally orienting his manoeuvres has left political observers in Bangalore and even his core supporters confused. While touring the state under the banner of an apolitical forum, most of Hegde's effort was concentrated on venting his anger against Gowda and his own expulsion from the party—points on which he could expect to muster some support. But his plan to strike further afield—networking with regional parties across the country, thus widening his forum to make it national—is being received with scepticism from potential defectors regarding its viability.

This, when it is crunch time. Hegde has gone back on his word that he won't tinker with the Patel government—he has set a September 30 deadline for legislators to either stay with the Dal or join his forum before its conversion into a political party on October 2. Says Hegde: "Though I've found during my tour that party workers are with me, those holding offices are not taking a clear stand. They seem to be clinging to power with misplaced values. I need a clear indication from them. Hence the deadline."

 Clear indications do seem to be on their way. "I don't think any of us will quit the party to join Hegde at this point of time. He doesn't seem to know where he's going and it would be foolish to quit a stable position to join an uncertain outfit," a state minister and a known Hegde-loyalist told Outlook on condition of anonymity. Such Hegde-loyalists, as well as Gowda's supporters, are marking time till the byelections to the nine vacant assembly seats reflect the strengths and weaknesses of their leaders. Patel's open criticism of Hegde has only added to the confusion in the minds of Hegde's supporters.

Gowda's supporters, meanwhile, are privately pressurising Patel for action on the Justice Kuldip Singh report which indicted Hegde, among others, in a land sale scandal during his tenure as chief minister in 1983-87. The report, submitted in 1992 when S. Bangarappa was chief minister, has been gathering dust in the Vidhana Soudha and can be wielded as a potential weapon against Hegde. A confident Gowda stated at the end of his tour that he could take on a hundred Hegdes if he had the support of the people and divine blessings. Coupled with support from within the party and the country's administrative machinery at his disposal, he's certain to have the upper hand in his battle with Hegde.