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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Fractured Crown

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s post after...

Fractured Crown

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s post after two-and-a-half years has hardened into a public confrontation between a chief minister determined to finish five years and a deputy increasingly unwilling to wait. The recent breakfast meeting between the two men at Siddaramaiah’s residence was presented as a truce where the ‘high command’ was invoked as the final arbiter. “There are no differences between us,” Siddaramaiah insisted, twice for emphasis. Few were convinced and soon, Shivakumar was again hinting darkly at change. For weeks, Shivakumar’s loyalists have been holding meetings, mobilising legislators and making pilgrimages to Delhi to get the Congress high command to honour its promise. They insist that the Congress leadership agreed to a rotational chief ministership in 2023 and that November 2025 was always meant to mark Shivakumar’s ascent. The high command, for its part, has perfected the art of strategic vagueness by neither confirming nor denying the pact. This suggests that the Congress does not merely hesitate to act against Siddaramaiah, but increasingly lacks the capacity to do so. From the outset of his second innings, Siddaramaiah has given no signal of easing aside. As he approaches January 2026, poised to overtake D. Devaraj Urs as Karnataka’s longest-serving chief minister, the symbolism is unmistakable. The mantle of social justice politics that Urs once embodied now firmly sits on Siddaramaiah’s shoulders. And it is this social coalition that shields him. His fortress is AHINDA - minorities, backward classes and Dalits. Leaked figures from the unreleased caste census suggest that these groups together approach or exceed two-thirds of the state’s population. Lingayats and Vokkaligas, once electorally dominant, are rendered numerical minorities in this arithmetic. Siddaramaiah governs not merely as a Congress leader, but as the putative custodian of Karnataka’s demographic majority. That claim is reinforced through policy. Minority scholarships have been revived, contractor quotas restored, residential schools expanded. More than Rs. 42,000 crore has been earmarked for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Kurubas, his own community, have been pitched for Scheduled Tribe status, with careful assurances that their elevation will not disadvantage others. DK Shivakumar brings organisational muscle, financial clout and control over the Vokkaliga heartland. In electoral campaigns, these are formidable assets. But in a confrontation with a leader who embodies a 60–70 percent social coalition, they are blunt instruments. The Congress high command understands this equation, even if it publicly pretends otherwise. It also remembers, uneasily, what Siddaramaiah did the last time his authority was constrained. In 2020, when the Congress–JD(S) coalition collapsed after 16 MLAs defected to Mumbai,13 of them hailed from Siddaramaiah’s camp. At the time, he held the post of coordination committee chairman. Instead, he emerged as the principal beneficiary of collapse, returning as Leader of the Opposition with a tighter grip on the party. If the Congress high command could not punish him then, it is doubtful it can coerce him now. Shivakumar’s predicament is thus more tragic than tactical. He is not battling a rival alone, but an entire political structure built to outlast him. The promised coronation looks increasingly like a mirage drifting just ahead of a man condemned to keep walking. For the Congress, the cost of this paralysis is already visible. A government elected on guarantees and governance is consumed by succession. The party’s authority is dissolving while its factions harden. The Congress returned to power in Karnataka after years in the wilderness, only to re-enact the same leadership dysfunction that has crippled it elsewhere. Regardless of whether Siddaramaiah survives this storm, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Congress cannot survive the slow corrosion of its command in one of the few states it holds today.

Guardian of Fundamental Rights

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Guardian of Fundamental Rights

Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who leaves office next month, leaves behind a mixed legacy: some critics on one side of the ideological spectrum argue that the CJI’s approach had veered into judicial activism. His admirers praise him for upholding fundamental rights of the individuals.


Born into a family deeply entrenched in the legal profession, CJI Chandrachud has a rich heritage that informs his judicial philosophy. His father, Y.V. Chandrachud, was the longest serving Chief Justice of India from 1974 to 1985. He instilled in him a profound respect for the law and the judiciary’s role in a democratic society. Chandrachud’s academic credentials are equally impressive; he graduated from Delhi University before pursuing further studies at Harvard Law School, where he earned a Master’s degree.


Since his appointment as the 50th Chief Justice of India in November 2022, Chandrachud, for some, was a transformative figure, navigating some of the nation’s most pressing legal challenges with a thoughtful and progressive approach. Known for his passion in championing civil liberties and human rights, his judgements in the realm of LGBTQ+ rights and his supportive stance following the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships under Section 377 were noteworthy.


Chandrachud, who has spoken of dissent as the “safety valve of democracy,” delivered some incisive judgments at the conclusion of his first year on the Supreme Court, namely by authoring the majority opinion in the landmark Puttaswamy case, where a nine-judge bench recognized the Right to Privacy and Dignity as essential components of the Right to Life. Since that pivotal ruling, the CJI has consistently invoked the right to privacy to broaden the landscape of citizens’ fundamental rights.


He then expanded the interpretation of privacy to encompass “sexual privacy,” affirming the rights of sexual minorities in a society that has long marginalised them. Likewise, in the landmark Hadiya case, he underscored the importance of an individual’s right to make personal choices about their future as integral to their right to privacy. This decision effectively reinstated a marriage that had been annulled under the controversial ‘Love Jihad’ law.


His concern for advancing women’s rights was evinced when he decriminalised adultery by affirming their sexual autonomy within marriage. In his Sabarimala ruling, he upheld the right of women of menstrual age to enter the temple, arguing that constitutional principles must override regressive customs and practices. Chandrachud has taken a strong stance against gender stereotypes, rejecting the notion that women are inherently weaker. Recently, he ruled that single women seeking abortions should have the same rights as married women.


He has been known for his reservations on the Aadhaar policy, which he argued reduced individuals to mere numbers. His was the sole dissenting voice in the Koregaon Bhima case when he defended the rights of five arrested activists while cautioning that dissent should not be suppressed based on mere conjecture.


By the dour and aloof standards of the CJI’s post, Chandrachud has been media friendly - he commented on the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. This has courted both praise and criticism. In stark contrast to his predecessors, Chandrachud has emerged as something of a media celebrity, consistently being in the spotlight, both statements made within the court and those delivered in public settings.


His rhetoric, both in and out of court, aligns with progressive constitutional values, which endeared him to progressives.


Yet, some of these very progressives were swift to heap censure on him when he made headlines for a highly publicised visit to temples in Gujarat in January this year.


Chandrachud faced even more ‘progressive’ flak when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to his on occasion of Ganesh Puja this September sparked a furore, with disgruntled lawyers and Opposition leaders casting aspersions over the impartiality of the judiciary.


As he prepares to leave office, the CJI’s legacy will be defined by his attempts to uphold constitutional values in a polarised climate.

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