K.V Seetharamaiah
Power and position go after the leadership quality to individuals. Sometimes caste and community matter for parties to climb up the ladder of power. Karnataka Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara in Karnataka has been now lamenting for missing the opportunity to become Chief Minister. He was mum when the tussle for Chief Ministership was going on between Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar.
Parameshwara, a dalit leader, did not stake his claim for Chief Ministership. Now he has been crying over the spilt milk one month after the election result came out and after Siddaramaiah has settled as Chief Minister for the second time. Cry for ‘dalit chief minister’ in Karnataka Congress starts when there is no vacancy. He is giving call to dalits to stand united and assert themselves.
Congress came to power in 2013 under the presidency of Parameshwara. Even then it was the writ of Siddaramaiah, a migrant from JDS, that ran large over D.K. Shivakumar because of which he became the Chief Minister. There is no point for Prameshwara to go back to 2013 when he could not make use of the opportunity in 2023.
At least Parameshwarappa was an aspirant for Deputy Chief Ministership.
Even it was not materialized since D.K. Shivakumar, after failing to get the Chief Ministership, insisted that he should be the lone Deputy Chief Minister.
Even when D.K. Shivakumar was vocal that he was rather prepared to give up the Chief Ministership for Mallikarjun Kharge than conceding to Siddaramaiah, no dalit leader came in support of him.
If Kharge maintained low profile, what prevented Parameshwara to come out in the open and stake claim to make him the Chief Minister?
Parameshwara has been shedding tears at dalit leaders Basavalingappa, N. Rachaiah or Ranganath not getting the opportunity to become Chief Ministers in the past.
It is the leadership quality that always matters to head a government. In the undivided Uttar Pradesh, Kanshi Ram, a dalit leader, founded Bahujan Samajawadi Party. Mayawati who is also a dalit leader, established her supremacy in the party and served as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister 4 times. She could not be sidelined on the ground that she is dalit.
Lal Bahadur Shastri and Atal Behari Vajpayee served as Prime Ministers not because but despite they were Brahmins. Ramakrishna Hegde and R. Gundu Rao in Karnataka and J. Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu were chief ministers not because but despite they were Brahmins. Devegowda did not become Prime Minister because he came from a major community.
Abdul Ghafoor was Chief Minister of Bihar and Abdul Rahaman Antulay was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra not because but despite they were Muslims. It is a different matter that both Ghafoor and Antulay lost their power since they were neck-deep in corruption.
If the Jayaprakash Narayan-led movement against Ghafoor dislodged him as Chief Minister, an exhaustive article in the Indian Express authored by Arun Shourie highlighting the corruption in the government stripped Antulay of his Chief Ministership.
Sharad Pawar, Laloo Preasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee floated their own parties. All of them became the invincible leaders of their parties. These leaders have and had their say in their parties which nobody can or could challenge.
Despite losing the election, Mamata Banerjee became Chief Minister after winning a by election within 6 months. Because it was the leadership that mattered. If a Chief Ministerial candidate had lost the election in Congress or BJP, such candidate would have missed the opportunity to achieve his/her goal. What happened in TMC need not be repeated because it is Mamata Banerjee whose leadership cannot be challenged for the present. It was similar in the case of DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. M. Karunanidhi in DMK and Jayalalithaa in AIADMK could not be challenged.
If Dr. Parameshwar wants to realize the dream of a dalit adorning the post of Chief Minister in Karnataka, he has to take the risk of forming his own party, grow as an unchallenged leader like Devegowda, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Jayalalithaa, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, N.T. Rama Rao, M.G. Ramachandran, Chandrababu Naidu and K. Chandrashekhar Rao. Chandrashkehar Rao floated his own party and fought for the creation of Telangana state for many years.
Rao did not become Chief Minister overnight. Ambition is not enough. Ambition should be backed by guts and leadership quality. Caste is no barrier. Anybody can become anything. It is not impertinent to quote APJ Abudl Kalam who said “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough”.
