A single individual leader may, sometimes, be very important for a political party as in the case of Congress and also for the country as in the case of France when Charles de Gaulle was literally begged to save the Republic as things were falling apart with successive governments unable to hold. But sadly BJP is not Congress, nor Rajnath Singh, L. K. Advani or Sushma Swaraj, a match to Sonia Gandhi. Sadly Vajpayee is past. Herein lies the catch for the BJP.

Take the case of Karnataka's ruling BJP's labour pains. If it were Congress, by now it would have delivered, as in Maharashtra recently. There was a problem in the coalition regarding the formation of Ministry. The Congress high command waited for 15 days for the coalition partners to parley and decide. However, when it became endemic, the decisive hand of Sonia Gandhi worked a miracle.

Unfortunately, such a miracle is not possible by the BJP high command which itself is in disarray. Its President Rajnath Singh simply sent back its Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa emasculated and he thinks he has solved the problem. No.

The confusion has been worse confounded by the decision of the BJP's high command to set up a Core Committee (now known as Crisis Co-ordination Committee — CCC) loaded with members ill-disposed towards Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and a 5-point Compromise Formula to be implicitly implemented by the Chief Minister. Now, finding Yeddyurappa buckling, the number of points increased to 7.

The 5 points are:
1. Transfer Chief Minister's Principal Secretary V. P. Baligar.
2. Drop Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Shobha Karandlaje from the Cabinet.
3. Induct Jagadish Shettar into the Cabinet.
4. Reinstate all the officers transferred from Bellary and other three districts (totally 61!).
5. Constitute a Core Committee [to supervise the Formula].

The other two additional points demanded by the dissidents are:
1. Remove the Rs.1000 levy on each lorry carrying ores.
2. Drop five Ministers and induct those suggested by Reddy brothers.

So far the first two points of the Compromise Formula have been implemented by the Chief Minister without demur, rather promptly. Now the third one about Jagadish Shettar will also be attended on 17th. Similarly, as per the fourth point steps are being taken to reinstate the officer.

As regards the fifth point in the Formula the Core Committee will be soon setup. The ground work is almost done and we know some of the names. Sure to be in it are: Sushma Swaraj, one of the Reddy brothers and Ananth Kumar, a member of the Reddy's extended family!

What next? Before one could come to that question, it is important to take a peek into the causes that provoked Reddy brothers to revolt and explode in the face of Yeddyurappa and the BJP high command.

Reddy brothers are basically businessmen and industrialists. Their prime motive in life, naturally, is profit not service. Even their entry into politics is more to safeguard their business interests rather than to serve the State and its people through political power. Which is why they joined the only national political party where there was room for newcomers. Specially in Bellary, where BJP had no representation at all. Kharge, Dharam Singh and Allam Veerabhadrappa of Congress had occupied that space like Thrivikrama. Otherwise, the Reddy brothers who were close friends of the former Andhra Pradesh Congress Chief Minister late Y. S. R. Reddy would have joined Congress.

As things would have it, the Karnataka BJP was only waiting for such an opportunity and with the blessings of Sushma Swaraj of BJP high command, the Reddy brothers were welcomed to the BJP - fold. And everything was hunky - dory till after the “Operation Kamala”. The tacit understanding between the State BJP government and the Reddy brothers naturally was — “Don't meddle with our business and we shall not meddle with your administration”.

Nobody knew what happened. Soon after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T. Rosaiah met Yeddyurappa in Bangalore, the latter began to act against Reddy brothers. The administration under Yeddyurappa wrote a letter to the Central Government recommending a probe into the activities of the mine owners (There are others too apart from Reddy brothers but they are small players). No doubt, Reddy brothers are the major players based in Bellary and the other mine owners numbering about 40-odd under Government lease are the erstwhile small-time royal families and individuals.

Reddy brothers being mining Emperors, others are allegedly asked to pay them tribute to cover various government departments like Mining, Forests, Revenue, Sales Tax etc., known to trouble and harass them for money. If this is true, then it is natural that Reddy brothers must have their favourite officers posted to these districts where Mines are located. Therefore, it is not surprising that among the 5-point Compromise Formula, one is reinstatement of all the officers transferred by Yeddyurappa. The question is: Can't we call into question the integrity and honesty of these officers? Let it be.

What further angered the Reddy brothers was the decision of Yeddyurappa not to renew mining leases and worse, the decision to levy a toll (of Rs.1000 per truck) on all trucks carrying iron ore from the mines.

Well, obviously these decisions were taken by Yeddyurappa without taking the Reddy brothers into confidence. Does this not amount to perfidy on the part of Yeddyurappa just as it was perfidy when H. D. Kumaraswamy refused to hand over power to Yeddyurappa as per agreement?

Only Yeddyurappa must answer this question. The Empire strikes back. Reddys wanted the Chief Minister not to act against their interests. But when they found Yeddyurappa not co - operating, they decided to either remove Yeddyurappa from the CM's post or tame him.

In retrospect, we find that Reddys, despite efforts, could not remove him, so decided to tame him with this 5 - point Compromise Formula which has literally made Reddy brothers the de facto Chief Ministers.

We have already seen this in the very first Cabinet meeting held as per the formula on 11.11.2009. Now imagine what will happen to Yeddyurappa after the Crisis Co - ordination Committee is formed and Shettar inducted into the Cabinet. Here is a possible scenario.

A new Chief Minister will be put in place (after four months as earlier mooted before the high command). And we will not see Shettar as the new CM for he is a Lingayat like Yeddyurappa. Hence, the Committee may make this an excuse to install Ananth Kumar as a compromise candidate for the CM's post. Just as how Ramakrishna Hegde, an MP (Rajya Sabha) living in Delhi, came to Bangalore to strike a compromise between the warring groups (of Janata - Ranga) led by Bangarappa, H. D. Deve Gowda and S. R. Bommai and manoeuvred to become the Chief Minister himself.

Truly it is said history repeats itself and this time too it will, unless Yeddyurappa musters enough courage to go before the BJP Legislature Party (as suggested by Siddharamaiah, rightly and wisely too) and accepts the result — if majority supports him, he must demand to be continued as CM and Reddys should be asked to fall in line. However, if the high command says NO or Reddy brothers withdraw support, Yeddyurappa must go to the Governor and recommend dissolution of Assembly at the risk of being thrown out of the party or he must persuade the high command to agree for the dissolution.

Dear Mr. B. S. Yeddyurappa, please remember the motto: Courage is Destiny.

Tailpiece:
I have a gut feeling that at the end the stalwart politician and RSS man of over 40 years of experience Yeddyurappa will triumph over Reddy brothers of just few years experience in politics, that too in BJP politics without any connection to RSS. Yeddyurappa right now may look humble and distraught. His appearance is indeed deceptive as it has always been. Though externally he may look a shaken person and his voice feeble, I see iron in the person. For all this, he may be simply Stooping to Conquer. Just two examples will suffice:

1. In the Cabinet meeting held on 11.11.2009, first one after the crisis, the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa shot down two of Tourism Minister Janardhan Reddy's demands.
The first demand was to appoint the Chairman to Vijayanagar Urban Development Authority (VUDA), Bellary. [Reddy wanted to appoint his close associate Dinesh Kumar Shinghvi as Chairman of VUDA] and the second demand was to invite tenders for improving infrastructure facility in Tadadi Port. [May be it is the port from where iron ores are exported].
2. When Yeddyurappa met Shettar at the latter's residence to invite him to join the cabinet, Shettar requested for inducting at least three of his supporters into the Cabinet along with him. Yeddyurappa pointed out that it was not part of the 5-point compromise formula and refused to grant his request.

Is it not proof that Yeddyurappa is capable of tethering the Reddy brothers and his supporters here in Karnataka with the same rope with which Reddy brothers, taking help from the high command, tied Yeddyurappa and parcelled him back to Karnataka?

It is reported in today's papers that within hours after Yeddyurappa refused Shettar's request two of the Reddy brothers flew into Bangalore by helicopter from Bellary and went to Yeddyurappa's Dollars Colony House demanding that Shettar's request be granted. But, Yeddyurappa had the guts to tell the Reddy brothers to get lost.

Yes, courage is indeed destiny.

By K. B. Ganapathy
Courtesy: Star of Mysore