The Son Of The Soil Rises

HAPPINESS is not based on possessions, power or prestige but on relationships withpeople you love and respect." Hanging on the wall of what was his residence inBangalore till last week was this plaque. Over the weekend, H.D. Deve Gowda gave up thegreatest possession he had sought— the chief ministership of Karnataka— for themost powerful and prestigious post in the world’s largest democracy. The 63-year-oldpolitician knows that happiness in the coming days will depend on his relationship withthe disparate group of people he needs to respect, if not love.

As he settles down in Delhi, there is little sign of the nervousness that he showedbefore the President’s invitation to form the Government. Neither is there any overtsign of jubilation. The focus is on forming the ministry and working on the numerousissues that he will need to tackle head-on. Gowda has been through all this before—just that the scenario is different and the size of operations bigger.

When he first became a minister in R.K. Hegde’s cabinet more than a decade ago, hewent home to weep before a portrait of his late father, whose ambition was to see his sonbecome a deputy commissioner. He cried the other night too, on prime time TV, because hismother, who has been semi-conscious for two years, would not be able to share her firstson’s moment of glory. But he knows he can’t get overly emotional about thechallenge before him: "I never aspired for this post. Such upheavals in life do notthrill or depress me. All this is divinely ordained." Having said that, he pores overan edit page article in The Economic Times that asks: "Is Deve Gowda aReformer ? "

He certainly considers himself one. The four votes he secured in his first foray intoelectoral politics— in the taluk cooperative bank elections in Holenarasipur town inthe southern Hassan district— failed to quell his zeal for reform in public life.Gowda has fought more fruitful electoral battles since but a public life spanning 35 yearshas instilled several traits in a man whose father sold two sheep to get his son’shoroscope written: simplicity (he has seen just two movies, one in Bangalore and one inDelhi), shrewdness, religiosity, extreme likes and dislikes for people, pride (as a manninamaga, son of the soil), disre gard for routine (he is always two hours late), a desireto please, and the need to be recognised for his efforts.

From his first speech in the Karnataka assembly, when as a 29-year-old he criticisedthe govern or ’s address for lack of concern for developmental issues, Gowda’spolitical career has been one long crusade for the farming community he represented. Heresigned from the Hegde cabinet in 1988 for the same reason. Be it irrigation, fertilisersor dams, Gowda always had a point to make which earned him the tag of being a casteistVokkaliga politician who could never think beyond water and land in south Karnataka.(Ironically, two of his closest aides have been Brahmins— the late Kannada Prabha journalistRama Prasad, who taught him everything except the need for Hindi in high office, andschool teacher Y.S.V. Dutta, who has been with him through thick and thin.) He struck thesame notes in a three-year stint in Parliament from 1991 although parliamentary reporterssay he was an LL B— a lord of the last benches who occasionally dozed off.

That, however, had to change after he became chief minister. With foreign investmenttopping the country ’s agenda, Gowda had little choice but move with the new economicpolicy. In his first two months, he cleared investment projects worth Rs 1,768 crore,visited Davos and Singapore to seek more investment,  and at the same time succeededin solving the Idgah Maidan flag-hoisting controversy that was developing intoKarnataka’s Ayodhya. More was to follow: power generation projects worth $8.5 billionwere approved; plans to decongest Bangalore were set in motion; for the first timepolitical reservation was introduced for backward classes; the Cauvery water sharingdispute was prevented from snowballing into a regional conflagration ; and the statebecame the first to formulate its own agricultural policy that envisaged an investment ofRs 5,000 crore in the sector over five years to achieve a 4.5 per cent growth rate.

Despite his political insecurities of being unseated by fellow partyman Hegde or beinghounded by an unfriendly press, Gowda scored in the state’s administration largelydue to his ability to carry all sections of the party and bureaucracy with him.Bangalore’s babudom regards his 18-month tenure very highly. He did not interfere intheir work and allowed bold initiatives by enterprising officers. These, plus his rapportwith Congress President P.V. Narasimha Rao, are qualities Gowda-watchers believe willstand him in good stead. Says he: "I am just a consensus candidate for the job. But Iconsider this an opportunity to repay people for their faith in me." With fewexpectations of him, Gowda has little to lose except his job.