Let down by the party

Interview with D.V. Sadananda Gowda, who resigned as Chief Minister.

It is indeed rare that a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister is praised for his work by the opposition parties and even by a Governor who has consistently and often justifiably, too been a critic of that party. But this happened in the case of D.V. Sadananda Gowda, the genial, ever-smiling politician from Dakshina Kannada district, when his own Cabinet colleagues and even the partys central leadership desperately wanted to oust him.

Sadananda Gowda took on the mantle of chief ministership in August 2011 when B.S. Yeddyurappa was forced to step down. He resigned as Chief Minister on July 11 to pave the way for Jagadish Shettar. He is piqued that the central leadership failed to stand by him in his efforts to fight corruption and provide a clean administration. Money is everything in Karnataka politics today, he said and added that the BJP had unfortunately fallen into that trap.

Frontline met him at his official residence two days after he relinquished office. Excerpts from the interview:

In an earlier interaction you had expressed surprise over the fact that you had survived for 11 months as Chief Minister. Why?

When I took over as Chief Minister, my central leadership gave me three directions: provide a corruption-free government, maintain transparency in administration and have a people-friendly dispensation. And this is what I sincerely tried to do. But two to three months into my tenure, certain types of pressures were brought on me, especially by some senior Ministers and MLAs [Members of the Legislative Assembly]. Although I was fully devoted to my work and the administration went on smoothly, these pressures made governance very difficult. Some of my Cabinet colleagues also did not support me.

What sort of pressures?

These senior Ministers and MLAs who were acting on behalf of their leader wanted me to act and take decisions favourable to them. But these were beyond my scope and limits as Chief Minister favours that would go against what the central leadership had asked me to do and were also not in line with good administrative practices. I resisted. So the dissidence started.

These favours were illegal.True.Such as?

All types of work beyond what a Chief Minister ought to do. For example, I was forced to give a second report to the Central Empowerment Committee appointed by the Supreme Court which was looking into illegal iron ore mining in Karnataka. My reasoning was, why should I interfere in the report? But I was forced to. So I asked my officials to look into the illegal mining report and see if anybodys role had been left out. I also directed them not to be vindictive.

[Some BJP leaders, including B.S. Yeddyurappa, were indicted in the Karnataka Lokayuktas first report. But many of those who had been indicted also wanted the roles played by former Chief Ministers S.M. Krishna, Dharam Singh and H.D. Kumaraswamy to be probed and their names included in the report on illegal mining.]

Did your partys central leadership interfere in the matter?

They never interfered during the 11 months I was in power. They never asked me to do this or that.

But you were sacrificed despite trying to provide a government with a clean image. Dont you feel let down by your central leadership?

Yes. I asked my leadership to step in and sort out the partys problems in Karnataka.

But they did not give it the sort of priority that was necessary. Only the BJPs Karnataka in-charge, Dharmendra Pradhan and Sushil Modi, came to Bangalore to sort out the dissidence. Party president Nitin Gadkari and senior leaders such as Arun Jaitley ought to have played a bigger role.

Caste politics has taken centre stage in the party.

Yes. Caste politics has practically [permeated] all parts of the State and the administration. This has to be curbed. This will also harm the interests of the party. The party has to come out of this preoccupation with caste politics.

You had spoken in the past of the BJP looking after the interests of 18 per cent of the population (the Lingayats) but ignoring the claims of the other 82 per cent.

Yes. While we have looked after the interests of our majority vote bank, we have not given equal importance to other communities. Although I am a Vokkaliga, I never saw myself as that and I was pained when some Vokkaligas protested against my removal.

I cannot be a Chief Minister for the Vokkaligas alone. You have to be the leader for all the 6.5 crore people of Karnataka and all the 224 constituencies.

What is your future? Do you hope to become the BJPs State president?

My party has given me everything. I have been one of the biggest beneficiaries in the party from Karnataka. I am not seeking any post or expecting anything. I am now looking to see what I can do for the party.

State elections are just 10 months away. What are the BJPs prospects?

Despite the partys good programmes and progressive budgets, dissidence has created a mess. Many of the programmes have not reached the people they are meant for. But if we approach the electorate united and without any groupism, we can do very well and come back to power.

The oppositions weakness is the BJPs strength in Karnataka. Also, in a new directive from the central leadership and for the first time in our governments, all ministerial posts have been filled up.

Governor H.R. Bhardwaj did not want MLAs against whom cases have been filed either in the High Court or with the Lokayukta to be given ministerial berths. Jagadish Shettar has ignored this directive.

The new Chief Minister should have given his advice some thought. People are watching us. It will leave a doubt in their minds about our keenness to wipe out corruption.