The Congress’ padyatra in Bengaluru on Sunday. Photo source: @DKShivakumar |Twitter
By Shankar Raj*
The State Government today booked top State Congress leaders for violating weekend curfew
Bengaluru: The Congress in Karnataka scored a win when it exposed how weak the Bharatiya Janata Party’s political spine is when it comes to challenging the Grand Old Party. Despite brandishing a sword dripping with Covid lockdown threat at Congress state president DK Shivakumar’s nose, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was quick to sheath it on seeing over 20,000 Congress workers defying weekend curfew at the start of a 10-day padayatra demanding the implementation of a dam project that would ease the drinking water crisis in Bengaluru.
The BJP government had threatened to invoke the Epidemics Act and arrest those who defied the weekend lockdown. The government’s stand appeared so firm that even the organisers of the padayatra were prompted to change the strategy. Shivakumar had stated that only Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah and he would walk the first stretch of 15 km on the first day to avoid crowding. Even Ramanagar superintendent of police S Girish had said police would not allow the inaugural event.
Also read: Congress to defy weekend curfew in Karnataka
But on Sunday morning they were surprised to see over 20,000 workers as the padayatra commenced. The government and the police stood on the sidelines as meek spectators not wanting to give the Congress a political handle as the dam project involved supply of water and electricity.
In the coming day, the Congress plans to inject a booster dose of adrenaline into the veins of upbeat Congress workers to make the padayatra larger and more embarrassing for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
The controversial Mekedatu padayatra had seen a week-long political slugfest between the Congress and the BJP, but at the end, the latter had to buckle down as the Congress cleverly coloured the event as ‘apolitical’ around the slogan ‘Namma Neeru, Namma Hakku’ (our water, our right).
Despite its apolitical nature, the padayatra will cover 60 key assembly constituencies and culminate at a public rally in Bengaluru on January 19, 2022.
“The government wanted to scuttle the padayatra through the weekend curfew. They should realise they can never stop us. Likewise, the walk-for-water cannot be stopped,” Shivakumar said.
“It looked like the government did nothing to stop the event given the sensitivity of the issue, as it involved drinking water and electricity projects. We had dared them to arrest us, but they did not, for obvious reasons,” said Bengaluru Rural MP and Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh.
After a lot of dilly-dallying, the government Monday put up a weak response by booking DKS, Siddaramaiah and other top party leaders for violating weekend curfew. Others named as accused are Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Malikarjun Kharge, former Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara, Members of Parliament DK Suresh and BK Hariprasad, and senior MLA Eshwar Khandre, among others.
Bommai described the march as “a political gimmick”. “With assembly elections approaching, the Congress has woken up to launch a padayatra. We have seen what the party did after holding the padayatra to the Krishna basin in 2013. You can fool people once, but not all the time,” he said.
But there is hardly anyone to take Bommai seriously even as he faces criticism within the BJP for failing to puff up even the little political muscle that he has.
The elected representatives from Bengaluru reportedly prevailed upon the government that any tough action against the padayatra would result in huge loss of political dividends for the BJP as the main beneficiary of the Mekedatu project, once implemented, will be Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, experts say that by turning a blind eye to the health concerns, the government appears to have given an opportunity for the pandemic situation to worsen as the infection rate is peaking with daily cases crossing 12,000 Sunday. Bengaluru has a test positivity rate of 10.3% and people from the city had visited Mekedatu in hordes which may result in a spike of Ramanagar district TPR which is hovering around 1.8%.
*Shankar Raj is former Editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
