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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Crown Games

The Congress party has finally performed the political equivalent of a hostage exchange in Karnataka. After months of whispers, denials, tantrums and choreographed smiles, Siddaramaiah finally resigned as Chief Minister, making way for his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar under the fabled “rotational formula” crafted after the Congress’s emphatic 2023 victory. The transfer of power was projected by the party as orderly, democratic and consultative. In reality, it resembled a palace coup conducted with...

Crown Games

The Congress party has finally performed the political equivalent of a hostage exchange in Karnataka. After months of whispers, denials, tantrums and choreographed smiles, Siddaramaiah finally resigned as Chief Minister, making way for his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar under the fabled “rotational formula” crafted after the Congress’s emphatic 2023 victory. The transfer of power was projected by the party as orderly, democratic and consultative. In reality, it resembled a palace coup conducted with all the nervousness of a family business dividing inheritance rights. The Congress high command would like the country to believe that this is evidence of institutional maturity. But beneath the veneer of civility lies a party incapable of resolving succession battles without reducing governance to an endless audition for the throne. Karnataka’s government has spent nearly half its tenure not governing but gaming out who occupies the CM’s chair. The BJP could scarcely have scripted a more effective distraction for its opponents. Siddaramaiah exits not as a defeated man but as a sulking emperor refusing exile. The Congress leadership reportedly offered him a graceful migration to Delhi and the Rajya Sabha which je refused. At 77, Siddaramaiah understands that power in Indian politics does not lie in ceremonial rehabilitation but in remaining indispensable. He has therefore left office while ensuring that the shadow of his politics remains draped over his successor. That shadow is in form of the caste census, a veritable political minefield. By formally accepting Karnataka’s explosive socio-economic caste survey before stepping down, Siddaramaiah may have delivered one final masterstroke - or one final act of sabotage, depending on one’s perspective. For years, successive governments avoided touching the report, terrified of upsetting Karnataka’s delicate caste arithmetic. Siddaramaiah embraced it because it validates the very foundation of his AHINDA politics, which is the consolidation of minorities, backward classes and Dalits against the traditional dominance of Lingayats and Vokkaligas. It is now left to Shivakumar, the Congress’s most prominent Vokkaliga face, to handle this live grenade. If Shivakumar implements the report aggressively, he risks alienating influential caste blocs that form the backbone of Karnataka’s political establishment. If he delays or dilutes it, he risks enraging the AHINDA coalition that delivered Congress its landslide. Nor is Rahul Gandhi untouched by the fallout. For years, he has elevated caste census politics into a national moral crusade. Karnataka is now the laboratory where that slogan will face political reality. The Congress leadership believes Shivakumar gives the party its best chance for the 2028 Assembly polls. Perhaps so. He is organisationally astute, financially resourceful and undeniably energetic. But Karnataka’s next election will be about whether Congress can reconcile Siddaramaiah’s social justice politics with the anxieties of dominant caste groups now staring nervously at demographic arithmetic. Season One of Karnataka’s Congress drama has ended. Season Two begins with a wounded patriarch and a new CM inheriting a crown lined with thorns.

A New Shooting Prodigy

Esha Singh’s dominance in Munich announces the arrival of a new kind of Indian shooting champion.

Perhaps because of the nature of her sport, shooter Esha Singh announced her brilliance quietly, almost stealthily. Earlier this week, the 21-year-old Indian shooter stood amid one of the strongest pistol fields in Munich, Germany to snare a gold in the women’s 25-metre pistol event at the ISSF World Cup with a world-record score of 43.


Munich is regarded as one of the toughest arenas in international shooting where the margins are microscopic and the pressure is relentless. Yet Esha shot as though she was insulated from both.


She opened the final with three flawless series, hitting 15 targets out of 15 and immediately forcing the rest of the field into pursuit mode. By the time the competition reached its closing stages, the contest was about how far ahead the Indian prodigy would finish.


Such was Esha’s dominance that Olympic champion Yang Ji-in of South Korea faded to fifth while Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp, shooting before a home crowd and carrying the pedigree of a former world champion, finished five hits behind. The previous world record, held by Kim Ye-ji was left in the shade by Esha’s new record.


But records do not fully explain what made her performance remarkable. From the opening series, Esha shot with an almost eerie composure.


Even her rare mistakes felt temporary. When she missed her first shot in the fourth series, there was no visible panic or collapse in rhythm. She responded with the kind of emotional neutrality that elite athletes spend entire careers trying to cultivate. Under elimination pressure in the sixth and eighth rounds, she fired perfect scores again.


There was something revealing in what Esha said afterward. She admitted that she had not even realized she had broken the world record until after the event ended.


That focused attitude has defined much of her rise. Born in Hyderabad in 2005, Esha did not initially seem destined for shooting. As a child, she moved through sports casually after trying her had at badminton and tennis before a visit to the shooting range at Gachibowli Stadium altered the trajectory of her life. Her father, a former rally driver, recognized both her fascination and discipline quickly enough to build a paper shooting range at home so she could train obsessively.


India’s shooting ecosystem had seen prodigies before, but Esha’s emergence was startling even by those standards. At 13, she defeated established names such as Manu Bhaker and Heena Sidhu to become the youngest national champion in the 10 m air pistol event. The victory announced her talent, but perhaps more importantly, it hinted at something psychological. While young athletes are often intimidated by reputations long before they are defeated by skill, Esha appeared immune to this phenomenon.


At the 2022 Asian Games, she collected four medals, confirming her place within India’s increasingly formidable shooting pipeline. Later came a junior world title in the 25-metre pistol event and qualification for the Paris Olympics.


Yet it would be simplistic to view Esha merely as the latest product of India’s shooting revolution. India has already produced icons in the discipline in form of Manu Bhaker’s fearless confidence, Heena Sidhu’s precision, Rahi Sarnobat’s resilience transformed the country into a serious shooting nation. But Esha represents a slightly different evolution of the Indian shooter, one who is technically polished, emotionally self-contained and unusually indifferent to external noise.


That emotional self-containment was visible even in the way she described pressure after the Munich final.


Esha’s victory carried an additional layer of redemption. During the previous Munich World Cup cycle, she had failed to qualify for the finals despite posting a respectable score. This year, she arrived determined not merely to compete but to conquer a venue that had once rejected her.


The setting made the achievement larger. Munich occupies a special place in world shooting because of the density of elite competition it attracts. “Even getting into the top eight is very tight,” Esha observed. For many shooters, surviving qualification there already feels like an accomplishment.


But Esha triumphed effortlessly, and with a kind of understated Indianness.


Her gold medal in Munich has secured India’s first individual shooting medal of the ISSF World Cup season and earned her qualification for the season-ending World Cup Finals in Rome later this year. The ISSF already regards her as one of the world’s brightest young talents.


Esha speaks softly and carries little visible theatricality. But behind that calm exterior exists an athlete capable of dismantling Olympic champions under suffocating pressure.

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