Factionalism to the fore

The resignation of V.S. Koujalgi as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president in the wake of a video expose once again brings to the fore the infighting in the party.

DISSIDENCE has been the bane of the Congress(I) in Karnataka, especially when in power. A number of Chief Ministers - from D. Devaraj Urs through R. Gundu Rao, Veerendra Patil and more recently S. Bangarappa and M. Veerappa Moily - have had problems keeping their flock together. The degree of discontent at any given time has generally been in direct proportion to the size of the party's majority in the State Assembly.

The present Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna himself was in the forefront of an agitation seeking the replacement of Veerappa Moily as Chief Minister. Krishna has so far not faced any such problem. He has been able to keep the party together, though by accommodating as many members as possible in a larger-than-ideal Cabinet. But the affair that forced Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President V.S. Koujalgi to resign on April 7 - after being accused of accepting a bribe and videographed Tehelka style during the alleged act - may have fractured this cohesion.

This is not the first time that the Congress(I) in Karnataka has been embarrassed by adverse evidence recorded on tape. In 1984, C. Byre Gowda, an independent legislator who supported the Janata Party government led by Ramakrishna Hegde, accused Moily, then in the Opposition, of seeking to bribe and induce him to defect to the Congress(I). Byre Gowda taped an alleged incident in Bangalore in which he claimed that Moily offered him Rs. 2 lakhs. The "Moily tapes" episode generated much heat both inside and outside the State legislature. Moily was eventually exonerated by the Justice N.D. Venkatesh Commission that went into the charges.

In 1984 the Congress(I) managed to deflect adverse publicity by choosing to let Moily fight his way out of the imbroglio on his own. However, the political climate of 2001 may not afford the party such comfort in l'affaire Koujalgi. Elections to over 130 local bodies are scheduled for May 3. The stakes are high for Krishna also because it was he who recommended Koujalgi for the post last July.

If one were to go by the outbursts of Koujalgi both when he submitted his resignation and at the April 16 function when he handed over charge to his successor, all is not well in the Congress(I) in the State. The former KPCC president made intemperate remarks about party colleagues whom he accused of masterminding the bribe-taking scandal. At the April 16 function, in front of a gathering that included Krishna, his Ministers, legislators, Members of Parliament and State Congress(I) leaders and workers, he lashed out at his detractors and called them pickpockets.

Said Koujalgi, a former Indian Navy lieutenant known for his gentle speech: "Be careful of pickpockets within the party. I fought the 1965 India-Pakistan war. I will give a good fight to these pickpockets and enemies." Much to the discomfiture of Krishna and his colleagues, he also said that those who had conspired against him were seated in front of him. And seated in the front row was Minister for Major Irrigation H.K. Patil, one of those whom Koujalgi accused of plotting against him.

Krishna who knows the destructive potential of disunity - the Congress(I) lost power in the State to the Janata Dal after a round of infighting in 1992-94 - was hardly amused. He disapproved of Koujalgi's diatribe and told him that his fight "should be against the political enemy, the BJP".

Koujalgi's outburst came hardly hours after Krishna told Frontline that the party had "conveyed to the high and low, mighty and weak that indiscipline shall not be tolerated" and that grievances should not be aired in the public or through the media but should be routed through the KPCC and its disciplinary committee. Krishna, who hoped that this would "bring the curtain down" on the Koujalgi affair, will now have to think again.

Justifying his outbursts, Koujalgi told Frontline that he had to explain to party workers the "mystery" behind his resignation. "The party has to catch the pickpockets. I have submitted my confidential report to the high command. It is for them to take action," he said. Koujalgi alleged that a group of partymen led by H.K. Patil and A.M. Hindasgeri, Minister for Labour and Wakfs, had refused to cooperate with him right from the time he took over the presidentship.

The BJP, discredited by the Tehelka expose, would be only too willing to use the Koujalgi tapes to hit back at the Congress(I). The two murky episodes have a few similarities, such as the fact that both the targets of the secret camera - BJP president Bangaru Lakshman and Koujalgi - resigned their posts only after initially declining to do so. But the crucial contradiction is that while the former agreed that he had taken the money, Koujalgi has not made any such admission.

The genesis of the corruption charge against Koujalgi, which has now been supported with video evidence, dates back to 1998 when Koujalgi, then a legislator, was accused of accepting some Rs. 20,000 from Anil Kadam, a contractor from Chikkodi, in connection with the grant of contracts by the Belgaum zilla panchayat. When the correspondents of a newspaper, who viewed the alleged recording, broke the story on April 7, they reported that Koujalgi was seen in the tapes accepting a bundle of notes - once at his residence at Hindwadi (Belgaum) and another time at a guest house in Bangalore. According to the newspaper, during the first meeting with Kadam, after taking the bundle of notes, Koujalgi calls the office concerned, gets through on the second attempt and tells the person at the other end to do the needful as he is sending his "shishya". Hazy images of Koujalgi purportedly showing him accepting the "notes" were also published in print.

The recording planned in 1998 by a political rival of Koujalgi from Belgaum, Satish Jarkiholi, who belongs to the Janata Dal (Secular) and is a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council. According to Jarkiholi, he wanted to "expose the corrupt practices of Koujalgi" who "had succeeded in registering 17 criminal cases" against Jarkiholi and his kith and kin. A case was registered in October 1998 with the Belgaum Lok Ayukta, which is yet to submit its report.

Defending his decision to make public the case after such a long time, Jarkiholi said that he was awaiting the verdict of the Lok Ayukta. Jarkiholi told Frontline that the main objective of releasing the tapes was to discredit and force Koujalgi to resign as PCC president. "The Congress people said I had no tape and that I was speaking of a tape only to blackmail them. The release of the tape was also to disprove them."

While Koujalgi agrees that a case was registered against him and video evidence was also submitted, he claims that the charges are "false and baseless" and that they are part of a "politically motivated campaign by political rivals". He maintained that while he had watched and was "in total agreement with what is shown in the tapes now in the custody of the Lok Ayukta", the tapes shown to journalists were "fabricated". Even the tapes with the Lok Ayukta did not provide any conclusive evidence of wrong-doing, he added. Commenting on the photographs that were published, allegedly showing him accepting currency notes, Koujalgi said that he met many people at his residence and that he "may have been taking some paper".

The charges against the former PCC president were raised earlier also by A.K. Kotrashetty, BJP Kisan Morcha vice-president and former MP. But the Congress(I) high command, which initially defended Koujalgi saying that the timing of the demand for his resignation smacked of political motives and that there was no need for him to resign since the Lok Ayukta probe was on, accepted his resignation without hesitation once he volunteered to submit it. Koujalgi, who made the mandatory visit to Delhi to brief the Congress(I) president, maintained that he was resigning even though he was innocent since his continuation in the party post would embarrass the leadership. Krishna said the Congress(I) had shown sensitivity and Koujalgi in his wisdom had resigned.

In his frosty resignation letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi, Koujalgi blamed H.K. Patil, A.M. Hindasgeri, and Satish Jarkiholi's brother Ramesh, a Congress(I) legislator from Gokak, as the persons "behind the false, fabricated and malicious episode". He further alleged that Patil had had two secret meetings in Mumbai and a few media representatives from Belgaum had been taken to one of them, where photographs and video cassettes were displayed by Patil himself. The pictures were then faxed to Koujalgi. He also accused the Jarkiholi brothers of helping Patil "fabricate" the tapes.

Koujalgi's comments have set the cat among the pigeons. Both Patil and Hindasgeri have denied that they had anything to do with the Koujalgi tapes. Said Patil:"There is no need to drag my name unnecessarily into the controversy. Somebody has taped the incident. How am I connected with it? Why should I stoop so low? This has been masterminded by people who are jealous of my growth in politics."

The question that is uppermost in the minds of both Congress(I) politicians and political pundits is why a case that was lying for nearly three years with the Lok Ayukta has been suddenly revived. It could have been brought up when Koujalgi was made PCC president last July. According to Koujalgi, it has been motivated by people who are jealous of his rise in the party hierarchy and his successful conduct of the All India Congress Committee plenary session in Bangalore in March. But is there something more to it? Is Koujalgi the target or is he just a pawn in a larger political game?

Koujalgi as PCC chief in the caste-dominated Karnataka politics was seen as an ideal choice - a Lingayat from the backward northern regions acting as a counter to the Vokkaliga Chief Minister. For all his political achievements - a record six consecutive victories in the Assembly elections from Arabhavi in Belgaum district, stints as Minister and Speaker of the Assembly - Koujalgi has not been known to be a leader of great promise who needed to be cut to size. Even his appointment as KPCC president came about only because Krishna desired it. In short, Koujalgi could not have become a rival or a parallel power centre and a leader that the Lingayats have yearned for since the political downfall of Veerendra Patil.

On the other hand H.K. Patil, a Reddy, has already established himself as a leader in northern Karnataka, though he has never tested his popularity with the masses (he won from the graduates constituency). In recent times he has emerged as the ideal ally that Krishna was looking for in northern Karnataka. Ironically, both Koujalgi and H.K. Patil are seen as being close to Krishna. So why are they at loggerheads with each other?

According to a report published in a vernacular magazine that is popular in northern Karnataka, it could well be the handiwork of a businessman-turned BJP MP, who would like to put the skids under the wheels of H.K. Patil's bandwagon and take over the mantle as the messiah of northern Karnataka. The quarrel between Koujalgi and H.K. Patil has already seen its first fallout when on April 8 Dharwad district hosted two rallies by rival Congress groups demanding that the BJP-led National Democratic Front government resign in view of the Tehelka expose.

Although the Congress(I) was quick to find a new PCC president in Allum Veerabhadrappa, the Minister for Horticulture and a Lingayat from northern Karnataka, political analysts aver that the damage has already been done. Can the Congress(I) stem the rot is a crucial question now.